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Weird Planet – Tour it with Redfern

November 1, 2012 by lindagodfrey

ImageReview: The World’s Weirdest Places by Nick Redfern, New Page Books 2012

As the author and co-author of two books in the Barnes & Noble Weird US series (WI and MI), I’m more than a little interested in bizarre places. Nick Redfern’s latest book, The World’s Weirdest Places, both piqued and satisfied that interest with his global tour of the most ghoulish, ghastly, and enigmatic locations to be found on planet Earth.

I expected no less. Redfern is always a font of Fortean-inspired nonfiction. He maintains that reputation here with chapters that sweep readers to the four corners of the earth, from the mysterious ancient city of Bhangarh, India, to the mystical vortexes of Sedona, Arizona.

The weird side of India’s gargantuan culture deserves a lot more press than it usually receives from the Western world. Although I’m a fan of archaeological digs in far-flung areas, I had never heard of Bhangarh , a once-bustling place that became a ghost town when its entire population suddenly up and blew town in the late 1700s. Redfern offers both the official explanation that the people disappeared due to unexpected famine and the more locally popular idea that a terrifying curse scared everyone away.  According to Redfern, Bhangarh’s ruins retain an aura of evil to this day, possibly due to a legacy of black magic. The details Redfern reveals about that alleged magic are eye-popping.

Closer to home, I’ve personally visited Sedona, Arizona. My husband and I hiked to several of the vortex locations and spent a little time sitting on them, in fact. We didn’t experience anything weird, but others have reported a variety of odd phenomena. The rocky cliffs are supposed to be inhabited by entities called the Rock People who are apt to wreak havoc on unwary tourists. The site is also a mecca for UFOs, says Redfern. He provides several intriguing examples.

Redfern’s tour of world-wide weirdness also includes Sydney, Australia, Loch Ness, Russia’s Kremlin, the Philippines, Vietnam, and many more places sure to be added to the adventurous traveler’s bucket list. The book confirms what I’ve always suspected – – wherever there are people, there will be unexplainable experiences.

Redfern concludes with his observation that “window areas,” or places that exhibit multitudes of strange phenomena, are distributed throughout the world. He and other researchers speculate that such places may intersect with other dimensions or some sort of spirit world, and that occasionally those intersections open – – to let things in or out.

The book could be thought of as such a window in itself. It opened new possibilities in my own quest to explore baffling locales, eccentric people and strange creatures and phenomena. It’s sure to become another staple on every Redfern fan’s bookshelf, and is also a great entry point for readers uninitiated to the ever-expanding world of Redferneana.  As Redfern says, the weirdness is unrelenting and it’s everywhere. I say, best learn about it from someone who knows his way around the unfathomable parts of the universe.

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Some new howls for Halloween

October 31, 2012 by lindagodfrey

Image

(original art copyright Linda Godfrey 2012)

Reports of unknown canids don’t stop just because I’m busy making seasonal appearances. So when my publisher,  Tarcher/Penguin, asked me to write a Halloweenish guest blog, I saw a chance to reveal a few of my recent faves:

Werewolves, as I like to say, are not just for Halloween anymore. But comes October’s end, our thoughts turn naturally toward monsters and the macabre.

My own thoughts turn that way year ‘round; I’ve stalked, investigated and written about wolf-like, upright creatures for the past two decades. I believe that amid hundreds of reports of fanged, shaggy manimals must lie at least a fleshy gobbet of truth. And if all the incidents cited in Real Wolfmen; True Encounters in Modern America, aren’t enough to convince readers that something spooky this way trots, consider the many new reports that have poured in since the book’s September debut.

The horrific encounters come from ordinary citizens across the US and Canada. While a few eyewitnesses report creature behavior that smacks of the supernatural, most sightings describe what might be a natural canine that inexplicably walks or runs on its hind legs — and sports one nasty attitude.

I pawed through the most recently reported cases to choose six unforgettable meet-ups between real humans and real wolfmen. The reports below are abbreviated, but I still advise reading them in a brightly lit room with the front door securely shut. The creatures seem as curious about us as we are about them, and more than one witness has reported the harrowing sight of a furry face pressed against the windowpane.

Real wolfmen? Ask these people who’ve seen them:

Polk County, Florida: Highway horror describes what three family members felt in two separate encounters several years ago. First, a husband and wife spotted a seven-foot tall, wolf-like creature standing upright on the roadside as they passed it in their van. They didn’t slow down. A relative later saw a huge, muscular wolf-like creature that gave him an “evil feeling” just west of Orlando! (No, it wasn’t Mickey Mouse.)

Sparta, Tennessee:  A teenager and her older brother on a sunset drive to the grocery store in 2003 forgot about the groceries as an upright, shaggy-furred, wolf-like creature weighing several hundred pounds sprinted across Simpson Road about fifteen feet in front of their Honda Accord. “It was a strange experience I will never forget,” she wrote.

New York state, central: A veteran police officer recalls a childhood encounter with a dark-furred, wolf-headed creature that he and some friends saw “sitting” on a log in some woods at dusk. They thought it might be a human in a dark cape – until it turned to glare at them and they saw its pointed ears, snout and fangs! The officer has since investigated huge, bipedal wolf prints in the same area.

Southern Indiana: A man and woman had just crossed the Ohio River driving north from Owensboro, Kentucky, in 2010 when they had to swerve to avoid hitting an upright, “emaciated and very riled wolf-like creature.” Before speeding away, the driver locked eyes with it and said he felt that the beast was both intelligent and dangerous. It snarled at them as they passed. “I was really fearful, so we left,” he wrote.

McHenry, Illinois: A woman driving home from her mother-in-law’s funeral one April night in 2002 was approaching a roadside cemetery on State Hwy. 31 when she noticed glowing eyes to her left. Next, a dark shape rose onto its hind legs and ran in front of her car, forcing her to brake. It paused to turn and snarl at her before running off into the cemetery. The beast stood taller than her six-foot high truck, she said, and it looked like a “walking wolf.” She called the experience “surreal.” Her husband slept through the whole thing.

Kilgore, Texas: Driving home at 5 am in light rain on a rural road near Kilgore, a thirty-five year old oil dispatcher slowed for a curve when some type of upright animal appeared in his high beams. It had a large, wolf-like head and carried a yearling deer! It growled aggressively at the man, who estimated its height at over six feet. “The thing scared the crap out of me,” he said. “I know what I saw and would put my hand on the Bible to it and take a lie detector test.”

There are more — the pony poacher of Alberta, Canada, the Ohio shadow wolf and the Hawaiian helper dogmen – to name a few. If these witnesses are to be believed, it’s an alternative zoo out there: a zoo that roams uncaged. Happy Halloween!

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Halloween Notes

October 30, 2012 by lindagodfrey

I’m braving the Sandy tailwinds to be in Wautoma WI tonight.  Any Central WI Tweeps? Learn about Wolfmen with me tonight 6 pm Wautoma Public Library FREE http://www.wautomalibrary.org/

And here’s my interview with nbcnews.com  http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/27/14724203-why-werewolves-give-us-the-willies

And watch here for my Halloween blog of new sightings tomorrow.

Stay storm safe!

 

 

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Recent podcast – Paracast peeps talk Real Wolfmen

October 21, 2012 by lindagodfrey

Here’s the podcast of my fun show with the Paracast crew  http://www.theparacast.com/podcast/now-playing-october-21-2012-linda-godfrey/

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My New Man Bat Illo for Gerhard Book

September 10, 2012 by lindagodfrey

Ken Gerhard has a new, as yet unnamed book coming next year on the subject of Mothman, Man Bat and other flying fearsomes. He asked me to create a new illustration for it and said I could post as a sneak preview. For more on the book you must ask Ken. All I know is I want a copy!

Illustration of Man Bat copyright Linda S Godfrey

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NOT THE FIRST GHILLIE SUIT HOAX

August 29, 2012 by lindagodfrey

The recent tragic death of a Montana man killed on a highway as he tried to imitate a Bigfoot reminded me of another hoax effort: the so-called Gable films of Michigan, part one and part two. The costume of choice in both states was a ghillie suit, a stringy, head-to-toe covering  hunters often wear for camouflage in the woods.

The Gable films were made by amateur video buff Mike Agrusa as a sort of homage to the cryptid known as the Michigan Dogman. Agrusa added wire coat hanger “ears” as you can see in his intentionally grainy still at left, and was at least smart enough not to step onto a busy highway as he was filmed.

He confessed his part in the ruse on national television in the season four finale of

Mike Agrusa in Ghillie Suit copyright Linda Godfrey

Mike Agrusa in Ghillie Suit copyright Linda Godfrey

Mike Agrusa in Ghillie Suit copyright Linda Godfrey

History Channel’s Monsterquest . I was part of that show’s interview team and witnessed a re-creation of Agrusa’s performance. The ghillie suit was not convincing in person, and was effective in the video mostly due to the poor quality of the vintage  film Agrusa used in order to make everything in the 2007 vid look as if it dated from the 1970s.

The Montana man was not so crafty – – or lucky, may he rest in peace.

I have written many times about  hoaxing’s impact on the field of cryptozoology. Although I don’t believe that impact is ever as big as hoaxers would like it to be, staged “encounters” can waste the precious time and resources of investigators, endanger public safety by startling motorists, and as we have seen, may prove very risky for the hoaxer.

One near-death incident I like to cite is that of the Choccolocco Monster, the creation of several teenagers in Alabama in the spring of 1969. Two of the boys provided transportation  to and from various highway sites while the third, Neal Williamson, jumped out at cars after donning a cow skull and some type of long garment.

Once word got out that a ” monster” was on the loose in Calhoun County, creature hunters began to cruise the country lanes with rifle-toting passengers literally riding shotgun. After Williamson had been fired  upon once or twice he hung up his cow skull for good and waited 32 years to confess it to a local newspaper.

As for the Montana incident, I think the most important statement in the CNN  link above is: “But authorities received no calls from drivers thinking they had seen Bigfoot, the station reported.”

The Montana hoaxer gave his life in vain.

Several people have tried to hoax sightings of the Beast of Bray Road over the years, but none that I know of correspond to a credible sighting report. And even if an observer is occasionally fooled, this does nothing to prove that other sightings are invalid.

Let’s hope that this tragedy at least serves one purpose — giving other would-be pranksters great pause.

 

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New Reports of Old Upright Canine Sightings

August 25, 2012 by lindagodfrey

Manwolf sightings continue to roll in.  The two I’m sharing here are older but only a few months ago — while looking for something else — I found six-inch-plus canid tracks in a muddy field near Whitewater. The prints veered into the field from brush at the road shoulder, followed some deer tracks until it caught up and then the deer tracks ran off to a woods and the canine tracks were lost to drier soil.

Track next to hand of Sandra Schwab

Dogman went hungry but is still around! Here is one from the area of the famous 2006 Holy Hill incident where a burly manwolf stole a small deer carcass from a DNR contractor’s truck bed. There have been numerous other sightings in the vicinity (NW of Milwaukee WI):

My illustration of dogman face, copyrighted 2012 all rights reserved

In 1983 me and 3 other friends were out driving around the Hubertus/Holy Hill Area. I was 18 at the time and The time was late evening around 11:30pm or so, as I drove through the winding wooded road, up ahead in my headlight beam we all saw a wolf walk across the road on 2 legs, after it cleared the road it got down on all fours and ran off into the woods briefly looking back at us. We never reported this because who would believe 4 teenagers joy riding at night, but I did tell my family and a few close friends. I’m still in contact with 2 of people who saw this with me. Now at age 47, I thought I would share my story with you since you have been recording sightings. The main thing that was ingrained was that it walked on 2 legs across the road. I remember saying wolves don’t do that, do they? The girls were scared and told me to start driving to get out of the area. It was summer time or we wouldn’t have been out that late, and the trees had heavy foliage.

Here’s a more recent one from Minnesota:
I used to work in Princeton, Minnesota, from 2005 to 2006.  I lived in St. Cloud, Minnesota and commuted the forty minutes to work, taking state highway 95 between St. Cloud and Princeton.  In March of 2006 I hit a deer at night on the way home from work, so I was always more cautious and attentive when drive after that.  The place where I struck the deer was the northern edge of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge which butts up to the highway.  Consequently I would slow down to about forty-five miles per hour when I would approach the refuge and drive holding down the high-beams switch; this allows me to drive with both high and low-beams at the same time.  
 
In mid-April, about six weeks after I struck the deer, I was passing the refuge, driving slowly, looking for deer.  I saw the reflection of eyes, like a deer or raccoon, near the south bank of the highway.  I slowed down further and the animal bolted out twenty feet in front of my car.  It crossed the road from south to north.  I wish I could tell you that it was another deer, but I’m convinced that it wasn’t.
 
Whatever it was, it moved on TWO legs, not four.  I only saw it for a few seconds and my adrenaline was pumping, thinking I was going to hit another animal, but I can see the flashes of what I saw in front of me in my mind’s eye as clear as yesterday.
 
It’s forward limbs did NOT touch the ground.  This was bipedal, maybe six or seven feet tall.  It was brown or maybe dark grey.  The eyes were reflective, like a deer’s.  It’s limbs were long and robust like a man’s, not spindly, like a deer’s.  I think that it was covered with hair or fur, accounting for the color.  And the shape of it’s face was not flat like a man’s, but prognathic to the point having a snout, like a dog’s.  It ran north across the highway and I accelerated west toward St. Cloud.
 
Damnedest think I ever saw.  I have a degree in anthropology with a minor in biology, and a degree to teach social studies.  I’m a teetotaler and have no serious religious convictions.  The point is that I’m not prone to flights of fancy or wild imagination.  I didn’t see a deer or a black bear.  And if it was a man in a suit he ran the risk of becoming road kill.  
 
This looked alot like what folks have been describing as the “Michigan Dogman” or the so-called “Beast of Bray Road.”   I get the sense that it did have triangular ears.  I can’t be totally sure on that, though.  I didn’t see it’s feet; however the walk seemed like there was a “spring” in it’s step.  That makes me think that it wasn’t walking flat-footed, but on the balls of its feet.
And most recent of all, although you may have seen his dogman descriptiob on my Linda S. Godfrey Facebook page,  dogman witness Robert Welch tells about other experiences on a bridge near Fulton WI,  from this summer – 

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