Cryptid US

by Tyler Houck

  He said it was 7 to 8 feet tall, “was black in color, and may have been covered in hair.” The creature looked over at Holloman for a minute until a car approached. The car’s lights hit the creature, and caused its eyes to glow. “They were big and red.” Holloman said. As the car approached, the creature disappeared into the swamp.

  Holloman hopped onto his bike and pedaled home as fast as he could. He tried to figure out what he had seen, but couldn’t. He didn’t tell anyone about the encounter for two weeks, because, like many people who have seen cryptids, he didn’t want to be thought of as a fool or a crazy man.

  After Plyler and Holloman told the community about their sightings, another man, Frank Mitchell, said he had also seen the creature.

  In May, 1988, Mitchell was flying his plane, and saw something very out of the ordinary when he was going down the runway. “I was going down the runway, and that’s when this ‘thing’ walked in front of me. It didn’t run, it kinda had a lope in its walk. It looked at the plane as it walked across the runway.”

  Mitchell tried to get a better view of the creature as the plane took off. “I couldn’t tell if it was scaly or hairy, but it was grayish brown and had a face like a monkey’s.” He made a quick turn when he got in the air, but by the time he got back around to the spot, the Lizard Man was gone.

  Mitchell did not tell anyone about his encounter at the time, but told police when he saw other reports in the newspaper.

  The most famous Lizard Man encounter occurred on June 29, 1988. Christopher Davis and his father went in to the sheriff’s office to talk to sheriff Liston Truesdale about Chris’ encounter with the monster on the 29th. Chris was working the night shift at a McDonalds and was heading home around 2:30 a.m. He was driving along Browntown Road, which goes through Scape Ore Swamp, when one of the tires on his ‘76 Celica popped. Chris stopped and got out of the car to grab the spare from the trunk.

  The moon was bright that night, so Chris could see just fine. He got out the spare tire and replaced the flat one. As he was putting his tools back in the trunk, he noticed something about 30 yards away from him. That something was moving towards him, swinging its arms. He said it was a “large, humanoid creature with glowing red eyes,” and was “green, ‘wetlike’, about 7 feet tall, and had three fingers.”

  Chris began to panic as the thing kept coming towards him, and jumped back into the car. He took off, and the thing ran after him… and jumped onto his car! Chris could see its fingers, which ended in black claws, sticking down from the windshield. The creature let out a grunt and Chris hit the gas. He swerved the car, and the creature fell off.

  That was not the end, however, because the Lizard Man continued to chase him! Chris was going 35 miles an hour by the time the thing caught up to him again, and tried to get onto the car for a second time. “I looked in the rear view mirror and saw it, and that’s when I heard it hit the roof.” Chris said. He swerved madly and thought the creature fell off. It had, but he did not stay around to check, and sped out of the swamp.

  When he got home, Chris jumped out of the car, ran into the house, and started crying. When he father asked him what had happened, he said he had seen something 7 feet tall, with red eyes and three fingered hands. His father went outside and saw scratch marks on the roof of the car, and one of the mirrors was bent. Chris told sheriff Truesdale that he had heard stories of some weird creature for two years, but never thought too much about it. After hearing the story, sheriff Truesdale asked Chris to make a sketch of what he had seen. Chris drew a quick picture on a piece of notebook paper, and it did indeed show a humanoid figure with three fingers on each hand.

  RIGHT: Chris Davis’ drawing

  LEFT: Newspaper article and

  picture of Chris Davis

  Truesdale began to try to figure out what Chris Davis had seen, and eventually investigated many of the Lizard Man sightings. If it was dangerous, he wanted to know.

  On July 14, 1988, the Bishopville sheriff office got a call from a couple reporting car damage. The couple said their car had been “mauled” by something the night before. It could have been a Lizard Man, but hair and footprints were found on the vehicle. Two deputies went to their home to investigate. The deputies arrived at the Waye’s home on the outskirts of Browntown (which is not far from Bishopville, George Holloman saw the Lizard Man in that area in 1987) and Tom and Mary Waye showed them their beat-up car.

  The chrome molding on the car had been ripped off the fenders. The sidewalls of the car were covered in scratches and dents. The hood ornament had been broken off, the antennae had been bent, and wires from the motor had been ripped out. The deputies inspected the damage, and said it looked like something had actually chewed on the molding.

  The Wayes also showed the deputies clumps of reddish hair and muddy footprints on and around the car. The deputies decided to call sheriff Liston Truesdale (mentioned above) to the scene. “That’s what started this whole thing for me.” Truesdale said.

  Truesdale also called in a biologist from South Carolina’s Wildlife and Marine Resources Department to examine the hairs. The biologist thought the hairs could be from a Red Fox, but did not explain how a fox could have caused all the damage on the car. The biologist (along with Truesdale) also examined the footprints and concluded that they, too, were from a fox. They discovered some larger tracks about 25 yards from the car, and determined that they were from a large quadruped or biped, possibly a bear (or a Lizard Man!) Black Bears have been seen in Scape Ore Swamp, so one of those creatures could have caused the car damage.

  Truesdale and the biologist knew the larger tracks were not from a fox, but not everyone agreed on what they were from. James Knight, another local man, also looked at the tracks and said they were unusual because they lined up “in a straight procession typical of human steps.”

  So, what happened to the car? A fox could have been in the area, but could a fox have ripped off chrome molding and broken the ornament? A bear could have, but they found no bear tracks close to the vehicle, if the tracks they found further away were really from the Lizard Man.

  While Truesdale was investigating, he learned that several other people in the Browntown area had reportedly seen a green (or possibly brown) creature, seven feet tall, with red eyes (which sounds just like other descriptions of the Lizard Man.)

  After those first encounters, the news of a “Lizard Man” in Bishopville spread. Tons of people started coming to Browntown and Bishopville, jamming the roads in Scape Ore Swamp, hoping to get a glimpse of the monster. To make things even more crazy, the WCOS-FM radio station from Columbia offered a one million dollar reward for anyone who could bring in the “lizard thing” alive.

  That news brought even more people to the roads in Scape Ore Swamp, and it also brought hunters. Many people with rifles and other weapons flocked into the swamp, hoping to catch the creature and claim the million $ reward. One 20 year old, Tony White, who had brought rifles with three friends, was asked if he would spare the creature’s life if they managed to catch it, and collect the reward. His replied saying he would, and “I won’t have to work a day in my life!”

  Sightings of the Lizard Man did not stop after hunters and news reporters arrived. On July 24, 1988, two teenagers, Rodney Nolf and Shane Stokes, arrived at the sheriff’s office to say that they had seen the creature while driving with their girlfriends. They were driving along Highway 15 when the “large, muscular animal” dashed across the road in front of them. The creature was moving on two legs, and they watched it for a few seconds before it jumped a fence and ran into the woods.

  A few hours later, the sheriff’s office received a call from a Browntown resident who said they had heard strange howls in the woods. Mike Hodge went out to the area to investigate, along with Wayne Atkinson. They slowly drove along the back roads, searching the area with a spotlight. As they were driving down Bramlette Road, they found several 40-gallon fuel drums that had been crushed and scattered along the road. The offi
cers got out of the car and found several broken tree branches that were 9 feet in the air. They also got the feeling that someone (or maybe something) was watching them.

  There were heavy woods on each side of the road, so a Lizard Man could have only have been a few feet away and still be hidden from sight. The officers figured that the fuel drums had been left by someone or had fallen out of a truck, so they got back in the car and kept driving. After they had gotten further down the road, they made a U-turn and returned to where they found the fuel drums. What they found amazed them; there was a row of footprints crossing the road that had not been there before.

  The officers stopped and got out to look at the tracks. They could see a heel, front pad, and three toes. The prints were about 1½ inches into the ground, were 14 inches long, and were 7 inches across at the widest part. The stride was over three feet. The officers did not think the tracks were fake.

  TOP OF NEXT PAGE: Cast of a Lizard Man track

  One of the officers tried to make a footprint in the road, but could not. It was starting to get dark, but the officers decided to follow the tracks anyway. They scanned the area with their flashlights and followed the tracks for about 300 yards before they

  disappeared into the brush. They decided to turn back at this point, because they figured the thing that made the tracks was still in the area.

  At this point, the news had become very interested in the Lizard Man story. The NBC Nightly News, PM Magazine, Unsolved Mysteries, the Today show, Fox, and CNN all wanted to hear about the Lizard Man. Many journalists for various magazines and newspapers also came to Bishopville for the same reason.

  On August 5, 1988, Kenneth Orr, who lived in Florence (close to Bishopville) was driving on Highway 15 at 6 a.m. when he saw a creature that was “5 feet 9 inches tall, green, and it had a lizard like tail.” Orr grabbed his .357 Magnum revolver and told the creature to “halt.” He fired a warning shot, and then fired straight at the creature. Orr said that one shot hit the creature in the neck, and it fell against the car. It regained its strength, however, and ran off into the swamp.

  Orr collected blood and scales from the area and gave them to sheriff Truesdale. Truesdale did not believe Orr’s story, not for a minute. He could tell the scales Orr had given him were from a fish, and the drawing Orr gave him looked like similar to a cartoon Lizard Man on T-Shirts that were being sold.

  While Orr was in the sheriff’s office telling Truesdale his story, one of the sheriff’s Deputies went out to inspect his vehicle (which happened to be a camouflaged Toyota, and, to top it off, was outfitted with fake machine guns.) They found the gun Orr said he had shot the Lizard Man with, and found out that he had no permits for it! He could only carry the gun if he had it in a glove box or trunk, and he had it sitting in the passenger seat. Truesdale let Orr leave (he said he had a doctors appointment at the Shaw Air Force Base), but he returned on August 12 and admitted that his report was a hoax. “He wanted to keep the Lizard Man mystery alive.” Truesdale said.

  The next sighting of what could have been the “Lizard Man” everyone was talking about in Bishopville occurred on August 26, 1988. A high ranking official of the Army Corps of Engineers named “Mason Phillips”(not his real name) was driving along McDuffy Road with his wife when he saw a brown colored creature walking on two legs near Ashwood Lake. He said it moved very quickly and was “eight feet tall, with a tail that didn’t quite touch the ground.” His wife was sleeping at the time, but he woke her and she saw the creature as it disappeared into the trees. Truesdale sent officers to the area to search for tracks and other evidence, but they were able to find none because of a heavy rain that Sunday.

  The creature seen in Scape Ore Swamp seems to have taken a two year break, and was seen again in 1990. On July 30 of that year, Bertha Blythers and her five children had just left Bishopville and were heading to their home in Camden. They were nearing Hickory Hill Road at about 10:30 p.m., and Bertha’s daughter, Tamacia, saw the creature lunge towards the car, almost appearing out of nowhere. “I was just driving,” Bertha said “And I saw this big brown thing jump at the window. I sped up and went to the other side of the road to keep him from dragging my daughter out of the car.”

  Johnny, one of Bertha’s sons, saw the creature behind the car once they had passed it. It was walking across the road like a human would, but was hunched over, and was much larger than any human. Bertha later told the sheriff’s department that the creature was “tall, wide, and had two arms like a human, and was covered in hair.” Johnny described the creature as “Six feet tall, or more, covered in brown hair, and had two big eyes.”

  What the Blythers saw that day does not sound like a Lizard Man (if it was, it would have had to have been a Lizard Man that hadn’t shaved in a while), but it does sound like a Bigfoot (see chapter 1). It was most likely a real creature, and not a hoaxer, unless the hoaxer wanted to risk his or her life by jumping out in front of a car going 25 miles per hour.

  In September 1990, a vice president of a bank in Florence said he saw a creature that fit the Lizard Man’s description while hunting in Scape Ore Swamp.

  In the fall of 1991, Brian and Michelle Elmore nearly hit a large animal that reminded them of a gorilla while driving to Browntown. The witnesses were very frightened by the encounter and didn’t tell anyone until 1992 for fear of ridicule. Brain described the creature like a gorilla, “but a lot bigger.”

  Michelle described the creature as a brownish-black color, about 7 feet tall (possibly more), said it had long arms, and said it ran like a gorilla. She said it was a Sasquatch.

  What the witnesses saw in the 1990s sounds more like a Bigfoot than a Lizard Man; perhaps Bigfoot decided to move into Scape Ore Swamp and kicked out the Lizard Man. The Lizard Man did return in the 21st century, however. In 2004, a news report came out saying that the Lizard Man had tried to drag a girl into a river (also seen The Green-Clawed Beast, p. 124.) There is no other information on this story, however, and many think it never actually happened.

  In 2005, a woman who lived about 80 miles from Scape Ore Swamp reported seeing two creatures that looked like the Lizard Man one evening. She called the police, but they found nothing when they arrived, nothing at all. They began to question her sanity, and just said “these things just like to check in on humans from time to time” to comfort the woman.

  The Lizard Man returned to Bishopville in 2008 to gnaw on Bob Rawson’s car. Bob walked out one morning to find his car scratched, bitten, and just beat up. The Rawsons called police, who thought the whole thing looked very similar to the car damage reported 20 years earlier. The Rawsons also noted that several cats that slept on their porch had disappeared.

  Was the Lizard Man back? Some people thought so, but some said it was just a normal predator who had damaged the car and eaten the cats. They said that the thing had come to eat a few kitties, who ran under the car for safety. The predator then scratched at the car to try to get its dinner.

  There have not been any Lizard Man reports after the car damage in 2008, but that does not mean it is gone (if it was even there in the first place.) Scape Ore Swamp would be a great place for an unknown creature to live undetected, and still holds onto the Lizard Man mystery.

  Mystery turned to money… Lizard Man T-Shirts and hats Frogmen in Loveland Other creatures similar to the Green-Clawed Beast and the Lizard Man have been seen in Ohio. The creatures have come to be known as the “Loveland Frogs” or “Loveland Frogmen”, and were described as short beings with frog faces.

  The first sighting of the Loveland Frogs occurred in 1955, when Robert Hunicutt saw three of the beings at 3:30 in the morning. He saw the creatures standing under the bridge that spans the Little Miami River, and described them as 3 feet tall, grey skinned, they had lopsided chests, wide, lipless mouths, and wrinkles on their heads instead of hair. One of the “frogs” held a rod shaped device above its head that shot sparks. Hunicutt watched the creatures for about three minutes and noted a “smell l
ike fresh cut alfalfa, with a trace of almonds.”

  About two months later, Emily Mangone and her husband, who lived in Loveland, woke to the sound of their dog barking and went outside to see what it was barking at. What they saw was a three-foot being that they said was covered in twigs and foliage. It left when they turned the yard lights on, but returned when the lights were shut off.

  One of the frogmen was seen again on March 3, 1972, when police officer Ray Shockey spotted the creature in the middle of the road. He thought the creature was a dog at first, but realized it was not when it stood up. He said it was 3 to 5 feet tall, had a frog face, and probably weighed about 75 pounds. He also added that it had leathery skin. When the creature saw Shockey, it jumped over a guardrail, ran down an embankment, and disappeared into the Little Miami River.

  Shockey reported the sighting and returned with another officer two hours later (which would have been at 3 A.M.) They found the area where something had slid down the embankment to the river.

  Another police officer, Mark Mathews, saw one of the creatures two weeks later. The creature he saw was also sitting in the road. When he got out of his car to investigate, the creature stood upright. It started moving slowly towards the guardrail, and stepped over it, keeping its eye on Mathews the whole time. Mathews fired at the creature, but missed.

  Years later, when Mathews was asked about his story, he said that what he had seen was not a four foot frogman, but just a lizard. He said he fired at the lizard in hopes of validating Shockey’s story. Was the creature really just a lizard, or did Mathews change his story to avoid ridicule? Shockey was ridiculed after he told his story, and, after a while, stopped talking about it. Perhaps Mathews did the same.

  Some sources say that a farmer riding a bicycle saw one of the frog creatures in 1972, but there is no other information with that report.

  Another farmer also saw the strange frog-men in 1972. While working in his field, the farmer spotted four of the creatures. He described them as having greenish-gray skin, large, circular eyes, and mouths lined with sharp teeth. The farmer watched the creatures until they walked towards the river and disappeared into the brush.