Brentford Griffin

 Brentford Griffin

By Cole Herrold

In the annals of Cryptozoology and Fortean studies in general, there are creatures that appear to of been ripped straight from the pages of classical mythology. There are countless cases, many of which I had covered in the past, from Blackwood, New Jersey’s Pigtaur and Centaur, to the Tangipahoa River Cyclops and, of course, the countless reports of more human-looking Goatmen, which are mirror images of their faun, satyr, and Pan mythic counterparts that seem to indicate if these reports are accurate that there may be more to our myths than just tales to explain natural phenomenon or simply to entertain a group when things like film or Dungeons and Dragons were not around. It is interesting to note that a lot of these beings are reported not in the country from which their tales originated but instead in areas with little to no real direct connection with these legends. Of all of these entities from the Mythic Menagerie, there is one in particular that had for a time captured the attention of a nation and remains one of the most interesting cases in Fortean history simply from the fact that this heraldic beast is one of according to legends the noblest albeit aggressive flying freaks ever written about since the early epic poems and playwright days.

In the middle of 1984, 28-year-old telephone technician Kevin Chippendale had left his home on Brooke Road South and was strolling along Braemar Road. Upon this walk, Chippendale, out of boredom or complete adoration of the current state of weather, proceeded to look up into the sky but upon doing so, he was greeted not just with the marshmallow mists commonly referred to as clouds but also a strange dark form that was beating its way through the azure sky. He could tell that whatever this dark form was, it seemed to be some sort of animal flying some hundreds of feet up in the air and was coming from an area known as the gasworks and was just about to pass a group of tall apartments which coincidentally was known as the Green Dragon Towers. Chippendale, as he strained to make out just what the creature exactly was, could soon tell that this being was far from the traditional fauna said to inhabit, at least to his knowledge, the United Kingdom. The creature was about the size of a large dog, yet an exact height and length were difficult to the distance the creature was seen, and he said there was a likelihood the creature was larger. He noticed that this creature could not have simply been a bird because while he noted large feathery wings flapping in the wind, the overall morphology was off as they appeared to come from the shoulder area and that the way the creature flew was almost as if it was in slow motion. Chippendale could soon see why there was a noticeable displacement of the wings, for dangling below the body of the creature were four legs that appeared to end in features similar to paws. As Chippendale followed up the creature's neck, he noted that the creature had a strange head similar to a birds in most respect, except that there was no noticeable beak but instead a kind of muzzle that had some sort of strange nose at the end. The creature's skin also was not what he expected either as he watched, for there were no feathers on the body itself but what appeared to be a smooth texture to it that made the creature look aerodynamic in flight. Kevin could not make out any further details from this creature but did feel that he had seen the creature’s eyes as well as a kind of tail.

Chippendale was completely flabbergasted at just this strange flying anomaly and had no clear indication as to just what it was that he saw, but he remained quiet about his sighting for fear of being labeled “unbalanced” and moved on with his life until several months later in February of 1985 he was out walking, and upon looking up again into the sky near the Green Dragon Towers he saw the same creature flying again. This time Chippendale, however, had an inkling as to just what the creature could be. During both of these walks, Chippendale passed a pub known as the Griffin Brewery and, upon thinking about the design of the creature on the sign, felt that this creature was fairly close, if not identical, to a Griffin. He would say the following "The first time was last summer when I saw something flying low across the ground in the gaswork. At first, I thought it might be a plane, but it was too low and made no noise. I was intrigued to know what it was and, as I walked past the Griffin pub, realized it looked like the animal on the sign. I saw it again a couple weeks later in exactly the same place". Chippendale realizing he was not crazy due to his second sighting, felt comfortable enough to open up about his encounters but even then, only to his close family and friends, yet as time went on, he would be put into the center of the storm of reports that would flood and engage the area throughout this time period.

Word soon spread about Chippendale’s sighting even with the discreteness of who he told, and it was then that a short time later, one of Chippendale's coworkers, a woman by the name of Angela Keyhoe, would go to him and also claim that she too had seen the strange creature. Angela claimed that she had seen a large, winged animal perched on top of the gasworks, a colossal utility tank that has served as a Brentwood landmark. She had seen the creature while seated on the top floor of a No. 65 double-decker bus, and apparently, she was not alone as others seated allegedly also had seen the flying freak of nature. Angela could not withhold her excitement after her encounter and as she began to tell several local arts center workers about what she and those on the bus had witnessed.

Also, during this time, a psychologist by the name of John Olssen came forward and said that he too encountered a strange flying creature. He encountered what he described as a colossal bird-like creature while out jogging along the Thames River in the early morning hours. It was from this that many felt that the creature was living on one of the many islands that darted the river, Thames. And John Baroldi of the Waterman's Art Center would come forward with several firsthand accounts from people who told him that they too had seen the creature. One of these sightings involved a woman who came from a nearby park along the street of the Art Center who he noticed was in a terrified state. When he asked her what was troubling her, she said that she had seen a large dark-colored bird in the park that scared her so bad she couldn't stop shaking during the sighting.

During this time, the press had picked up the stories, and for several months recounting of the sightings would be told along with several artistic renditions throughout the millennia of just what the creature was supposed to look like. During this time, the interest of the Griffin even led to a Griffin Spotting Club that searched the area of the sightings for any evidence of the creature as well as attempted to catalog any further sightings of the creature. During that time, only one sighting came forward, and there was barely any detail or information on that encounter.

Robert Rankin, the towns poet in residence at the Waterman’s Art Center and writer, took great interest in the Griffin, writing about it in the May 1985 edition of the Magonia Newsletter. He also started to organize a UFO symposium upon which he discussed the Griffin and stated that reports of the creature could be traced back to at least pre World War II. Yet he did say all of the sources that mention the creature was ambiguous at best.

After 1985 sightings of the Griffin completely disappeared, and it remained a strange little chapter in the colossal book of Fortean subjects. Until in 1995 when Robert Rankin came forward attempting to claim that the Brentford Griffin was a hoax perpetrated by himself and several other friends of his and members of the Waterman's Art Center. For many, this killed the idea of a Griffin in Brentford, and so history became legend, legend became myth, and the creature stayed in the shadows of lore for a time. The creature, in fact, was practically forgotten about until a man by the name of Martin Collins wrote a letter which later appeared in an issue of  Fortean Times (specifically issue 110 from May 1998) He wrote: “I first encountered the story of the Brentford Griffins while I was at St John’s School in the 1950s (note: some thirty years before the first sightings!). St John’s in those days sat in the shadow of Brentford’s football ground, Griffin Park. Inquiring why there were so many griffin references in Brentford, I was told that it was due to the family of griffins that lived on Brentford Eyot, an island in the Thames.

The story of how they got there was that the first Griffin was brought to Brentford by King Charles II as a gift for his mistress, Nell Gwynn, who had a house in the Butts at Brentford. One day the Griffin was playing on the banks of the River Brent, which flows past the Butts, and fell in. The hapless creature was washed down the Brent into the Thames, finally being washed up on Brentford Eyot. As it was assumed to have been killed, it was left alone and was able to live on the Eyot for many years – griffins having a lifespan of centuries.

Then Sir Joseph Banks brought back a griffin from a Pacific island where he had been with Captain Cook. This Griffin was originally housed in the Pagoda in Kew Gardens, which is on the opposite bank of the Thames from Brentford Eyot, where it found a mate awaiting it.

There was soon a whole colony of griffins, and they spread out from the Eyot all over the town of Brentford, where they can still be seen to this day if you look closely enough.

This story has stayed with me…it is a nice bit of Brentford mythology.”

With this letter, the story of the Griffin was much like another mythical bird, the Phoenix reborn from the ashes of the alleged hoax, and many speculate now that there might have been some truth to the legend and hoax after all. Even Rankin though his testimony needs to be taken with a grain of salt, to say the least, wrote about other Griffins or Griffin like creatures in the area that appeared in his Magonia article:

This is the Magonia Article in its Entirety

 “Throughout history, the gryphon has been a symbol evocative of power and majesty. As an emblem, it is employed by nearly 200 companies in the UK alone, from the Midland Bank to Fuller's Brewery. Jung once stated that "it is a subconscious symbol of such encompassment that it is unlikely to be the product of mere myth; we are dealing with something born from folk memory." Although a seemingly impossible hybrid of eagle and lion, there now appears little doubt that the gryphon is a Jiving reality. Up until a few months ago, zoologists would have ridiculed the possibility of such a chimera, but the recent spate of sightings coupled with the gryphon skeleton currently on exhibit seems to have added the flesh of reality to the bones of myth. "I went along suspecting hoax," stated Attenborough, "but came away convinced. This discovery has set the zoological world upon its heels."

Reports of gryphons crop up with startling regularity throughout the pages of history. Dr. Johnson records one he saw at Brentford's Bull Fayre: " ••• it was somewhat smaller than I had expected, but the proprietor assured me that it was 'yet young'... it had the body of a lion cub and the neck, head, and forelegs of an eagle ... curiously formed wings issued from its shoulders." Johnson was in no doubt that the beast lived "and was not the product of the gypsies' craft ."No further mention of is made of the gryphon in his writings, and one is left to wonder what became of it. Possibly it was the same live specimen my father saw at Olympia before the war. He was informed that it was several hundred years old and was shown old showman's posters as proof. From the substantial body of information, I have on my own files alone, I am inclined to place the Brentford Gryphon alongside the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster 'as yet unsolved'. The local sightings have been too widely reported to require further mention here, and I have no cause to doubt the testimony of the witnesses I have interviewed. Having been scrupulous in discounting sightings which might be misinterpretations of natural phenomena, we are still left with statements such as "unlike any living creature I have seen •.. ", "rising from the Thames on outspread wings. •• ", " the front half looked like an eagle, I saw a long tail and claws like a cat." London Weekend Television's 'spoof send-up' on 15th March fell flat on its face, with Cockney 'personality' Danny Baker openly admitting before an audience of several million that the witnesses he had interviewed were genuine. Such unprecedented honesty on his part seemed more than at odds with LWT's obvious intention to send the whole thing up. Since the television coverage, Brentford has found itself playing reluctant host to all manner of fringe elements. Andy Collins of 'Green S tone' notoriety arrived hotfoot, with ghetto-blaster, Instamatic, and the usual bevy of nubile lady acolytes. Viewpoint Aquarius stated that it was a 'genetic mutation' escaped from a government establishment, and the Chiswick Wildlife Trust offered the considered opinion that it was noth1ng more than a four-legged vulture blown off course! In fact, Speculation on all sides led to such an astonishing plethora of 'logical explanations' (the logic of which defies all explanation) that one is left to consider the indisputable fact that it is a gryphin pure and simple - a species of animal as yet unstudied and therefore considered non-existent. One can certainly discount John Rimmer's recent ' authoritative article,' which suggests that it is Brentford's old friend, the giant feral Tom, making yet another of its unwelcome nocturnal appearances. Mr. Rimmer would do well to explain how the famous 5-foot pussy manages to grow upwards of 8-foot, sprout wings and fly across the Thames. I note with growing alarm the plan of some local stalwarts to instigate a gryphon hunt one night in the near future. I hear talk of a flotilla of small boats, tracker dogs, powerful searchlights, steel nets, and tranquilizing darts. The plucky Brentonians would do well to exercise extreme caution, as the beast is notorious for its ferocity and love of human flesh. It is my feeling that the matter should be placed in the hands of the experts. But I am sure also that it will require private backing, as the local council has shown its customary reticence in raising the necessary funds, even for so worthy a cause. Whatever the eventual outcome, I cannot contain the thrill that rises at the prospect of a successful capture. Such would be a rare achievement indeed. I look forward with great interest to future developments. Magonia welcomes any correspondence on this interesting subject and is eager to contact anyone who has had a personal experience with a gryphon or any other form of creature previously believed to be mythical”.

Skeptically speaking, there are many ways to interpret this case. Robert Rankin, one of perhaps three main players in the saga of the Brentford Griffin and the one who wrote the most about the case, was a comedic fantasy writer best known for eleven books known as the Brentford Trilogy, which deal with all sorts of paranormal and supernatural events that affected Brentford. It is known that Robert Rankin, who focused heavily on publicizing the Griffin, came forward in 1995 and said that most if not all of the reports of the Griffin were perpetrated by him as a kind of joke. So taking just that report at face value, most if not all the information on the Griffin straight out, is a hoax. The reason for this hoax was said to be that Robert Rankin and several other locals had planned to hold a Festival in the Waterman's Art center on July 13, 1985. Yet this date would coincide with Live AID, which was taking place at Wembley Stadium, and to raise awareness of their event, they concocted the story about the Griffin being seen around the arts center with all of the witnesses being involved in Rankin's joke and Rankin then proceeded to write a historical background of the creature. Now, this would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for the Griffin, except that in 1985 during these sightings, Andrew Collins investigated and interviewed as many eyewitnesses as he could and felt that they were indeed truthful. He ended up publishing his findings in a 42-page pamphlet entitled The Brentford Griffin: The Truth Behind the Tales. So, it’s possible that at least the initial encounter with the Griffin was based on an actual sighting.

Another possibility is that at least with Chippendale's sightings, if they are not a part of Rankin's acclaimed joke that perhaps he predisposed the image of the Griffin on a natural bird or plane or kite having passed by the Griffin Brewery, which also is near the Griffin Stadium where Brentford's football team play and also that two Griffin's are on Brentford's coat of arms so perhaps he had Griffins on the brain and affitted the description to something mundane. Or even possibly hallucinated the creature due to all the surrounding Griffin influence but this seems less likely compared to being either interconnected with a hoax or having seen a real creature since a lot of Chippendale’s description while Griffin like is not 100% how a griffin is supposed to look and if one were to generate a hoax why wouldn't they go full out and describe the creature as the classical depiction? This, too, would, of course, add to the joke hypothesis even more if one was to say they saw a classic regal griffin and not the more flying canine or lion-type creature. Yet, of course, this still does not rule out Chippendale being interconnected with a hoax.

Now assuming that, at the very least, Chippendale's sighting is authentic, what are we to make of it? Well, the most obvious answer would be that this would have to be some sort of cryptid. There's nothing really to indicate any other major categories, such as there's no UFO sighted in connection with the creature as it quite is its own Unidentified Flying Object, so it's safe to take an extraterrestrial angle off the table. Griffins, from a folkloric or mythological view, first appeared primarily in the literature of the Greeks but first appeared in Aristeas’s lost epic poem the Arimaspea in 675 BC and then showed up repeatedly in the works of Greek playwright Aeschylus in his tragedies like Prometheus Bound. Griffins also showed up in Scythian artwork and gold dating from 3000-100BC, implying that these creatures, if real, were well known or prominent in Mediterranean and Asian culture for countless years. Griffin-like creatures are not entirely unknown in the world of cryptozoology; one of the most famous examples would be the 1925 flap of sightings of a creature that has come to be known as the Vermont Awful. This creature terrorized the towns of Berkshire and Richford as it tromped on rooftops, stole milk cans, and stared at residents through their windows. The creature even reached the ears of cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft who was so interested in the creature that he went to the area and interviewed the residents who had seen the creature.

A similar creature was reported sometime later, but this time it was lumped into a different cryptozoological identity, and that was the Jersey Devil. In the late 1920s, there was a report of another quadrupedal flying creature that the press were quick to call a "flying lion" that was seen in West Orange, NJ. This encounter led to the creature being chased by several would-be monster hunters who allegedly not only chased the creature away but also found and captured one of the creature's offspring. Yet further information on this case is scant, to say the least. It is interesting, however, to point out that a flying lion is very similar to what was reported in Brentford, as well as in the Griffin lore, the Griffin is half eagle and half lion, so this report might very well be another example of a Griffin sighting. And as a sidebar, note the fifth example, at least to my current knowledge, of a creature from Greek Myth being reported in New Jersey.

Another creature slightly similar to what was reported in Brentford is the Beast of Barrisdale. This tri-legged flying Waterhorse tormented the area of Loch Hourn on the land while a colossal black serpent frolicked in the lake. The Beast of Barrisdale was described as about the size of a horse or ox and with a myriad of similar features to what we see on the Brentford Griffin, such as large wings attached to the shoulders, smooth skin, a long muzzle like feature, pawed hands and a long tail so perhaps they may be the same species or a related one. For more information on the Beast of Barrisdale, definitely check my February 2, 2021 article on the creature.

Now, of course, while all of these creature reports seem to indicate a biological flesh and blood animal, and while there always is the chance something evolved to be like what these creatures seem to be, the problem with this is that we have nothing in the fossil record or known zoological record that matches. Wings are essentially modified arms and hands to allow the capacity of flight with creatures like the Beast of Barrisdale, the Awful, and the Brentford Griffin; this is not what we're seeing, as this would imply that all of these creatures would have evolved with 6 limbs four which evolved like legs and two that were modified as wings. This is something unheard of in vertebrates as it goes against everything we know about how evolution works. The only way something like this could exist is if these creatures were not mammals, birds, or reptiles but instead colossal insects, which totally goes against their descriptions. So, needless to say, there are some problems with the earthbound cryptid theory.

Now the next possibility for the existence of the Brentford Griffin would be if this is an interdimensional entity. This theory is sort of an extension to the cryptid theory, but instead of them coming from our world, these creatures somehow, through some fluke of the universe or dimensions or whatever, somehow end up entering and being seen in our world. This theory could explain just how a creature like this could exist as with multiple dimensions, there are an infinite amount of possible evolutionary lines and "worlds" where a creature like this could exist.

The next possibility seems kind of slim, but it's one that I speculate all the time about with such strange cases, and that is the Fae option. Faeries are a mixed bag of phenomena and involve creatures of an animal nature like the Cu-Sith or Cat Sith as well as the Kelpie and Each Usiage and even the Dobhar-Chu. Now some folklorists and faerieologists will include the Griffin as well as Dragons and Unicorns into the classification of Fae due to the alleged mystical and magical abilities they are said to have and the fact that they occasionally are seen with, in service of, or in some connection to more traditional Fae like Elves or Dwarves. Now with a creature like a Griffin, if this is an example of a faerie beast, they would have some of the same abilities seen with others, like the ability to vanish. Now there's nothing exactly to indicate that with this case, nor is there any direct faerie connection, such as in the case of the Bridgemont Gnome Race where the faerie horses are seen with gnomes.

Now there’s one possibility that seems so off the track for a phenomenon like this but does occasionally become interconnected, and that is the demonic. Irish paranormal investigator Elliot O'Donnell in his book "Dangerous Ghosts," wrote about a curious encounter with a pair of homicidal supernatural griffins from around the 1660s; he wrote the following regarding the incident where a Mr. John Luck encountered the entities:

“(Mr John Luck) a farmer from Raveley, set out on horseback one morning to the annual fair at Whittlesea. On the way he met a friend, with whom he had a drink at a wayside inn. After drinking somewhat heavily Mr. Luck became very merry and perceiving that his friend was getting restless and desirous of continuing on his way to the fair, he said, "let the devil take him who goeth out of this house today ."The more he drank the merrier he grew. Forgetful of his rash saying, he called for his horse and set out for the fair. The fresh air seemed to have a sobering effect, for he had not travelled very far before he remembered what he had said. He was naturally superstitious and became so perturbed that he lost his bearings. He was endeavoring to find the way home- it was getting dusk and far too late to go to the fair- when he espied ‘two grim creatures before him in the likeness of griffins’. They handled him roughly, took him into the air, stripped him, and then dropped him, a sad spectacle, all gory, in a farmyard just outside the town of Doddington. There he found himself lying on the harrows. He was picked up and carried to a house which belonged to a neighboring gentleman. When he had recovered sufficiently to talk he related what had happened to him. Before long, he 'grew into a frenzy', so desperate that the inmates of the house were afraid to stay in the room with him. Convinced that Luck was under evil influences, they sent for a clergyman of the town. No sooner had the clergyman entered the house than Luck, howling like a demon, rushed at him and would have torn him to pieces had not the servants of the house come to his rescue. They succeeded with great difficulty in overcoming Luck and tying him to the bed. No one was allowed to enter his room, the door of which was locked".

The following day Luck was found dead. His body was contorted, and his neck was snapped; he was covered in black and blue marks, and his tongue was dangling from out his gapping maw. A scene not unsimilar to what those seeing Anneliese Michels had seen. Now, this is the only official instance I found of a demonic griffin, but the idea of a mythological creature as a demon is something that has been referenced time and time again by some religious Forteans. So, needless to say, it is a hypothesis we need to include.

With creatures like this, we are left wondering just how could something like this exist in our world. It would be easy to accept the whole series of encounters as hoaxes, but there's so much gray in this encounter that I'm open to saying that there probably was something there, at least in regard to the Kevin Chippendale sightings. Just what this being could be, I have no conclusive idea, but I would lean more towards the cryptid hypothesis seeing as similar creatures have been reported elsewhere, but even then, there's nothing to confirm that hypothesis either. Perhaps the interdimensional route is the more appropriate. I've mentioned that there have been several creatures seemingly ripped from the pages of myth; perhaps there is a dimension where all of these entities originate from, and it is a world where mythology as we know it is reality, yet as with everything this is just speculation. In conclusion, I feel that the story of the Brentford Griffin will continue to be told as long as people still hold mysteries in their hearts and as long as there are researchers to write and keep the story alive, but the answer to this mystery will never truly be discovered.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal/ Bird/ Possible Hoax

Location: Brentford, England

Sighted: Mid 1984-1985

Works Cited:

Encounters With Flying Humanoids By Ken Gerhard

London Urban Legends By Scott Wood

Mysterious Creatures Volume One by George M. Eberhart

Paranormal London By Neil Arnold

Shadows in the Sky: The Haunted Airways of Britain By Neil Arnold

Fortean Times Issue 110, May 1998

Magonia 19, May 1985

Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) March 15, 1985

Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) August 16, 1985

Ealing Gazette (Ealing, London, England) March 22, 1985

“The Brentford Griffin” Beasts of London.April 6, 2007.http://beastsoflondon.blogspot.com/2007/04/brentford-griffin.html. Accessed May 25, 2022.

“The Brentford Griffin and Other Mysteries”. St. Margarets.7 May 2009. https://stmargarets.london/archives/2009/05/the_brentford_griffin_and_other_mysteries.html. Accessed May 25, 2022.

 

 

Ghost Gorilla of the Moon

 Ghost Gorilla of the Moon

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to the paranormal, there are countless facets that tend to flow interchangeably. We see this time and time again when a phenomenon that should be wholly separate and most times is, has come together; the infamous Bigfoot-UFO sightings are one such case variety. The same can be said for this case; it is a mixture of astral projection, spirits of the deceased, and it was recorded via automatic writing. This hodgepodge of various phenomena may not seem as unique now, especially since these three topics had interconnected on the silver screen with the Insidious franchise, but the account in question was written long before James Wan rewrote the haunted house film structure as the account appeared in written form in 1913 just three years shy of 100 years before the film's debut. While the almost one-hundred-year gap from film to this account is indeed impressive, there is another element that makes it unique and its that the disembodied entity that would become the unlikely antihero in the case was reported not to haunt some ancient, dilapidated house or crumbling castle ruins as ghosts are known to do but in a place that seems impossible for even such an encounter to happen.

The account was recounted by the infamous Irish paranormal investigator and spiritualist Elliott O'Donnell. It was given to him by his friend and fellow spiritualist, a man named Mr Supton, who received the account one night while using a planchette. Now for those familiar with the term planchette, they no doubt will think of the small, holed piece that is used with Ouija boards. This is not the tool he utilized. A planchette is, as described by Encyclopedia.com, "a simple instrument designed for the purpose of communication with spirits. It consists of a thin heart-shaped piece of wood mounted on two small wheels that carries a pencil, point downward, for the third support. The hand is placed on the wood and the pencil writes automatically, or presumably by spirit control operating through the psychic force of the medium”. This apparatus which is very different from the modern interpretation of what is commonly referred to as a planchette for the Ouija board but serves a similar purpose in communication with the spirit world.

One night while operating his planchette Supton began receiving several sprawling messages as the pencil began to operate each writing paragraph after paragraph of the last memories the spirit had and how it became disembodied. Supton was amazed at the fluidity of the spirits communication and waited till the end of the spirits writing to read the full account. What he read would shock him even further and make him question more about what happens after we die and what happens in the unseen world that is around us.

The spirit's tale began with one of the most relatable moments in a person's life. The spirit whose name was revealed to be a man named Hugesson began his tale at the day of his dishevelment. Hugesson recounted that he was sitting in his favorite chair in the warmth of a roaring fire in his one-room apartment. He was stressing out, for as a struggling writer, he had been running low on funds and had not made any money in the past twelve months. The apartment was bare, and Hugesson took the sight in with much sorrow as this certainly was not how he wanted to be. He was seeking freedom, freedom from all his troubles and freedom from this structured plane of existence. He stared out of his window at the moon and had wished it would give him either the freedom he so longed or some form of inspiration for his writing, yet it did nothing of the sort; instead, the soft glow simply illuminated the room even more showing the emptiness and shabbiness of his home. He stared out the window and thought even more of escape, thinking of how wonderful it would be to go to the moon or some other celestial body. It was in this moment he had remembered a conversation he had with a member of the New Occult Society about how if one concentrates enough, one could remove the soul to wander aimlessly and in doing so travel to anywhere, he so chooses. Hugesson had tried this several times but never managed to succeed, but there was something about the moon and this night that he felt as though he had to try even if it was just for a short while he had to see if it was possible.

He stared in his chair at the luminous body in space, focusing on the mountainous craters that were just mere specks on the surface. He watched in awe as the craters seemed to grow larger and larger and noticed that finally, he had managed to leave his body and travel out to some ethereal plane of existence. His spectral form was floating and gliding through the air and out into space; he looked at the passing clouds as they slowly changed to the inky blackness of space and the burning light of stars. The moon grew larger and larger as he approached, and soon he had entered its orbit and proceeded to boldly go where no man had gone before.

As Hugesson landed on the rocky surface, his awe, however, was replaced by sheer terror. The moon had nothing similar to earth, no wind, no green, or water; it was a desert world of darkness and death as clearly, no life could ever have been there, and shadows crept over every surface, making it difficult even for his spectral form to see. Hugesson, in his horror, soon began flailing around, waving his arms and flapping them like a madman as he wished to return to the normality of his body and the earth it walked upon. Yet no motion or prayer or thought he uttered redirected his course back from where he came, and so he remained on the rocky terrain of the moon.

As he stood and stared around at the featureless world, his fear grew only more as he wondered how and if he would ever return home. As he began to walk on the surface, he soon felt a strange sensation creep across the bottom of his legs, and he seemed to notice a strange shuffling on the surface of the moon. He looked down, adjusting his eyes to try to make out what this sensation was since there appeared to be no wind to move the dirt and rock of the moon. As he looked, he noticed that there on his legs were strange creatures slowly scuttling up his legs. In a scene reminiscent of Creepshow, he realized these forms were herds of insects of indiscernible varieties crawling up and down his body and littering the surface of the moon.

Some of these scuttling things seemed like hybrids of scorpions and beetles, whereas others seemed to be long centipedes, as well as other bizarre bugs and creepy critters that seemed to claw and pinch and bite Hugesson as they crawled on him. Hugesson tried to get the swarm of critters off him with only slight success; they seemed to be everywhere scuttling and littering the face of the moon. The insects, however, even though they attempted to bite and pinch and claw him, never seemed to physically make contact with his form, and the insects seemingly unsatisfied with this eventually managed to unleash a choir of hisses before traveling to a strange circular pit or crater not too far away.

During this entomological incursion, Hugesson noticed a large dark form in the distance. It seemed to be coming closer towards him, and Hugesson waited in hopes that perhaps this shadow was some other weary traveler who had managed to astral project out of his body and travel to this barren bug-infested wasteland. Hugesson, however, soon realized that as this form grew closer, it was not the movements of a human but some creature walking on four legs. Fearing the worse, he wanted to run, but for some reason, he could not, and so all he could do was wait in horror as the form came closer and closer to him.

Hugesson's eyes widened, for as the figure came closer, a feeling of dread ushered over his body, for he knew who and what was coming near him; it was quite literally a ghost from his past. Hugesson, before being a writer, had worked at the Berne Zoological Gardens. While there, one of the most troubling animals in his care was a young gorilla named Neppon. Neppon to him was an absolute nightmare to work with, and so he proceeded to hate the animal. This hatred ultimately led him to essentially torture the poor animal. He, in his time there at the zoo, pinched and poked Neppon, pulled his hair, wore all sorts of terrifying masks to frighten the gorilla and made horrendous noises at it, but the finale of his torture was ultimately the poisoning of the poor animal. Yet there in the darkness, its eyes gleaming with satisfaction, was Neppon.

The ghost gorilla grinned and seemed to recognize Hugesson. It began doing all sorts of acrobatic antics while his murderer stood in front shaking in fear as he now felt that he was the quarry in this twist of fate. However, his frozen state would not last for long, for soon as he soon managed to regain control of his faculties, he proceeded in turning and apparently, with a regained superhuman strength and abilities, he managed to jump over huge boulders and do record-breaking sprinting across the moons cold surface. Neppon, however, seemed to be unsurprised by this and continued to chase the man until he reached an exceptionally high pillar of rock. Hugesson started to crawl and climb up the rocks as Neppon stared up at him, its lips unfurling into a sinister smile.

This crawling or climbing was fruitless, however, and in turn, Hugesson soon began to bleed from his fingers as the flesh had apparently been ripped to ribbons. The gorilla stood by, watching the man try to climb up the rock and seemed to sniff the air as it apparently could smell the blood that dripped from his fingers. As Hugesson still tried to climb the wall of rock, he soon had the realization that the figure behind him had begun to do something he never in all of his life would have expected that the creature behind him had started to talk.

Hugesson said that this creature communicated through the language of scents; this communication seemed to of been registered from his olfactory nerves and that it was the language of all animals. The blood splattered onto the crevices and cracks as he slowly turned his head as he continued to gain a grip on the surface of the rocks; as he was turned, he could make out what the creature was saying in a cruel and mocking tone.

"Reach a little higher, there are niches up there, and you must stretch your limbs. Do you remember how you used to make me stretch mine? You do! Well, you needn't shiver. Explain to me how is it that I find you here." The creature unleashed a burst of slight laughter in this questioning. Hugesson, in both horror and confusion, could only mutter, "I cannot comprehend". The gorilla came closer to the man and began to laugh in his face How so? You used to quibble me upon my dull wits; must I now return the compliment?" the creature laughed once more at the man before looking down at his hands and the dripping crimson which plopped onto the surface of the moon. "There’s blood on your hands. Blood! I will lick it up". The creature proceeded incoming even more closer, laughing all the while.

Hugesson started to disbelieve that what he was seeing was real and perhaps he was still at home in the comfort of his chair by the fire and that this was simply a nightmare. Yet as the creature grew closer, he couldn't help but cry out, "keep off! Keep off! My God will this dream never cease".  The creature seemed particularly amused at this and replied, "The dream, as you call it, has only just begun; the climax of your horrors has yet to come. If you cannot tell me the purport of your visit I will tell you mine. Can your lordship spare the time to listen?". Hugesson gave no reply as he simply began grabbing at the wall and uttered cries that simply sounded like a distressed animal. The gorilla grabbed its hairy arms and seemed to feel its muscles, all the while smiling at the man.

"Come you haven't yet guessed my riddle; you are dull tonight. That old wine of yours made you sleep too soundly. Don't let me disturb you. I will explain. This moon is now my home- I share it with the spirits of all the animals and insects that were once on your earth. And now that we are free from such as you- free to wander anywhere we like without fear of being shot or caught and caged, we are happy. And what makes us still happier is the knowledge that the majority of men and women will never have a joyous after-state like ours. They will be earth-bound in that miserable world of theirs, and compelled to keep to their old haunts, scaring to death with their ugly faces all who have the misfortune to see them. There is another fate in store for you, however. Do you know what it is?”

Hugesson remained silent, and this silence remained unbroken until he bumped a certain section of soil. The creature solemnly looked at Hugesson again and began again, "Do you know? Well, I will tell you. I'm going to kill you right away, so that your spirit- its all nonsense to talk about souls, such as you have no soul- will be earth-bound here- here forever- and will be a perpetual source of amusement to all of us animal ghosts”. The gorilla soon unleashed several grunts and howls and began to crouch down on all fours with the sole purpose of sprinting on the spectral man. All Hugesson could cry out was “For Heaven’s sake, for Heaven’s sake!” but this creature knew no mercy for him and intended in showing none.

The gorilla began to laugh once more and said, "What a joke- what a splendid joke. Your wit never seems to degenerate, Hugesson! I’m wondering if you will be as funny when you’re a ghost.  Get ready. I'm coming, coming". The stars seemed to burn brighter, and the sky began to turn into an infinitely deeper black. A blood-red mist rose before his eyes, and a loud singing rang in his ears. This was then followed by the cries of millions of souls screaming and crying. The faces of men and women whose faces seemed to be cast in evil appeared in the boulders and rose up from the crags and seemed to spit and tear at him. He saw what he would describe as creatures as all this was going on as such damning ugliness that all he could do was scream in absolute terror. There seemed to be no end to this until a mountain peak on the moon seemed to erupt, and all the spirits were swept away in the wind that came down from the mountain, and they came upon him, crushing him. He could feel their weight upon him to the point he could experience every moment of suffocation, and through the strained gasps of breath, he could feel his lungs being pulled from his body and his legs being wrenched from their sockets and rotated around his feet, swirling in the air by the various spectral hands of man and animal. This excruciating torment and pain went on for some time until, for the moment, he knew no more.

This was the end of the writing from the spirit of Hugesson and his horrendous ordeal on the moon and its spectral inhabitants. Supton was in awe at this ultimately bizarre tale and had more questions than answers. The first thing Supton felt he had to do, however, was to verify the spirit's identity, and so he began to do some digging; he did find that a man named Hugesson had, in fact, been only for a short time the head keeper at the zoological gardens and had been found dead in bed by his landlady with a look of agonizing pain and terror carved onto his frozen face. The death was after a medical doctor was brought in attributed to syncope, yet from the automatic writing, if it was from Hugesson seemed to show something more bizarre was the cause of his death.

With this case, it is extremely fantastical. It seems so easy to point to it being some piece of fiction that was made by some spiritualists trying to advocate their beliefs that it almost can't be true. However, there is a chance that what occurred actually did. I had written about Elliott O'Donnell before in a similar spectral simian case known as the Serial Killer Orangutan that he covered in the same book and had written about how he is a very complicated figure in paranormal circles. There have been people on both sides who have argued that he was a hoaxster writing about fictitious accounts, and then there are those who swear that every account is authentic. It is difficult to for sure know the truth, so with these accounts, it is best to take them with a grain of salt, especially with one as completely insane as this one. There are no other true accounts of ghosts on the moon, at least that I've found in my research, and the fact that travel to the moon is, as of right now, almost impossible proves that further research is basically impossible. Now it does seem very much improbable that the moon is haunted it as far as we know, has zero deaths, so that doesn't hold much water for a celestial haunted location, but if our spectral forms are more mobile than what we currently think they are who knows how haunted our universe maybe it could be that some individuals at the point of their death had decided to travel out and spend their eternity on Jupiter or Neptune or Mars in pure Dr. Manhattan fashion.

This perhaps is the most difficult case to verify or deny since it really comes down to whether it's authentic or not, and there's not much further research that can be done. My personal opinion is even though it seems extremely unlikely, there might be something to it. Maybe Hugesson stumbled into some purgatory of his own making or built this scenario in his mind, which ultimately led to him destroying himself. Yet this is all just speculation. I do not claim to know all the answers and offer this tale up to the readers to decide for themselves what they think. All I can say is that maybe it's best to not shoot for the moon in some cases.

Works Cited

Animal Ghosts, Or Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter by Elliott O’Donnell

“Planchette” Encyclopedia.com. May 21, 2018. https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/africa/gambian-political-geography/planchette. Accessed August 14, 2021. 

The Serial Killer Ghost Orangutan of La Rue Croissante

by Cole Herrold

When people are attempting to find places to stay, most of the issues people concern themselves with are the price of stay, cleanliness, the view and other features many would consider necessary for their decision to stay in such an accommodation. For those of a more Fortean mindset, there is another element that can confirm a booking into that locale, and that is the building's haunted history. A haunted location is often extremely sought after as a place to stay for those with the mindset of communicating with the spirit world. Hotels such as the Shanley Hotel in New York and the similarly named Stanley Hotel have people who come in droves to stay in the most haunted rooms, some of which are booked for months without an opening. These individuals hope to have an experience with the unknown and, in some cases, to prove to themselves and others that such phenomena do exist. However, while most believe spirits to be innocent lost souls who have not passed on to the next plane of existence, there are those who have such violence associated with them that even a spectral encounter is something not to wish to experience.

Elliot O'Donnell, in his book Animal Ghosts, Or Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter, describes several encounters with bizarre ghosts, but one of the most terrifying and violent hauntings would appear in this little-known tome. This violent encounter was given to Elliot O'Donnell by his spiritualist friend and colleague Martin Tristram. Martin Tristram, one dark night arrived at O'Donnell's house. It was late, and Martin did not seem like himself as though he was an entirely different person; the pair proceeded to sit down in his study, and Martin began to discuss the various updates in the occult circle. While sitting, Martin looked over at Elliot and said, "I need to tell you an encounter I had.”

The Ridge Road Monster

by Cole Herrold

There's been a phenomenon gaining recognition in the past few years of strange humanoid creatures that appear to be emaciated in form and extremely unnerving. Many Fortean researchers have been collecting and cataloging such accounts, but most researchers really don't have a category in which to put them in aside of organization in a physical sense. They are often viewed as something supernatural, beasts that have no connection to earthly evolution or normal biology. They are often viewed as supernatural entities because of this reason, even though there is in most cases nothing directly supernatural about them. The reason it appears that this is the case is that they are often described as very humanlike in form, which pushes these creatures into a realm most people have never even thought of and, in doing so, making them extremely terrifying.  There are tons of cases in which these creatures are seen wandering wooded sections of the world, mostly in the United States and Canada. One such regionalized case of such a creature is found in a desolate area known as Ridge Road in Pennsylvania.

It was in the 1960s when an area known as Ridge Road in Blair County was a hotbed of strange occurrences. These occurrences were the result of an enigmatic entity that stalked around several homes and woodlands on this stretch of road. The accounts filled the hearts of those who encountered them with terror for generations to come. The bulk of which was thrust upon the Steele family. John and Martha Steele, their son David and their four other children lived in the wooded section of Ridge Road on Blair County. For those who are not familiar with the area Blair County while home to such large cities as Altoona, is intensely encapsulated by woodland. Shadows seem to flicker in and out of the woodlands even during the day, giving the woods a sense of isolation every single time one enters into the tree-lined sections of forests. John was a hard worker in part because he and his family were subsistence farmers and hunters. They had a large garden that stretched across their land, and from it, the family's fruits and vegetables took life throughout the changing season and to add a little more flavor to their meals, John would take his rifle out into the thick green darkness and hunt the game of the land —filling his family with the tender flesh of turkey, pheasant, deer, and anything else he could bag.