Cryptid.Goatman

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00:00:00It was a quiet night for two lovers looking to get away.

00:00:26A full moon had risen, giving light to their hideaway on a deserted back road.

00:00:33They were all alone, just like they wanted it.

00:00:37But before these enamored youngsters got too ahead of themselves, something interrupted their night.

00:00:42Despite her wishes, he gets out to see what could have made the sound, leaving her alone in the car.

00:00:59As the minutes tick slowly by, she begins to wonder what could be keeping him for so long.

00:01:04As she turned around to see what had happened, she could hear the steps of whatever it was approaching.

00:01:23As it stepped into the light, she couldn't believe the horror she saw there.

00:01:27But then, looking down, she saw the worst thing of all.

00:01:34For as long as there have been humans, there have been stories.

00:01:56Stories meant to make sense of the chaos of the world and give meaning to some of its worst elements.

00:02:08Gods and heroes arise from these tales, giving character to the weather, the trees, and even our deepest desires.

00:02:18Few of these stories persist to this day, science having replaced the old gods.

00:02:29Yet even still, anomalies bleed through the fabric of our modern narratives.

00:02:36Bigfoot, Dogman, the Chupacabra, these creatures that haunt our nightmares come and go as they please,

00:02:44seemingly with no explanation as either flesh and blood, or something else.

00:02:56There are few stories that capture the imagination, like that of the Goatman.

00:03:02With the upper body of a man and the head of a goat,

00:03:06the creature stalks the halls of American folklore, lurking on dark back roads,

00:03:11waiting to attack hapless victims who venture down lovers' lanes.

00:03:18So prolific are his deeds,

00:03:21that the Goatman has been seen in virtually every state,

00:03:25waiting for his chance to strike from his hiding place,

00:03:28leaving a bloody mess in his wake.

00:03:32The half-man, half-goat beast has many alleged origin stories,

00:03:40but none more encompassing than that of the Goatman of Prince George's County, Maryland.

00:03:46The Maryland Goatman is a figure that was first discovered, quote-unquote, in the 1970s,

00:03:55I want to say 1971, when a reporter ran across a paper that had been filed with the Maryland Folklore Archive

00:04:04that talked about a Goatman figure that occupied an area around Prince's County, Maryland.

00:04:12You know, the different iterations of the Goatman itself, its origins and so forth,

00:04:22were pretty varied, but essentially you had a Goatman in that area

00:04:26that had been blamed for the death and dismemberment of dogs,

00:04:31would often terrorize couples that had been parked in a lover's lane type area,

00:04:37and over time, different origin stories were proposed for this creature.

00:04:45The most popular revolves around a place known as the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center,

00:04:50which is a facility about 10 miles from Fletchertown Road,

00:04:53where allegedly they do different types of experimentation and development

00:04:58of new types of livestock breeds, different types of cows and pigs and so forth.

00:05:03And so there's a story that there was a mad scientist there

00:05:05who was either experimenting with combining human and goat DNA,

00:05:10or there was some type of horrible accident

00:05:13to which this scientist actually evolved into one of these goat-like creatures.

00:05:19The Maryland Goatman is an interesting case

00:05:23because it's one of those Goatman urban legend stories

00:05:27that has a variety of explanations for it.

00:05:30You know, most of these Goatman stories have some kind of myth

00:05:33that seems to be at the root of them,

00:05:36trying to explain where they came from and how they got started.

00:05:38And the Maryland Goatman is one that has different explanations

00:05:41depending on who you ask and what the version of the story is.

00:05:45And that, to me, is what sticks out about this case the most

00:05:47because you have the version where it was a circus sideshow attraction

00:05:51that escaped from its confinement.

00:05:53In some versions, after lightning struck its cage,

00:05:55there's the theory that it could be the result of a goat farmer

00:05:59crossbreeding with one of his own goats.

00:06:04The really interesting version to me is that

00:06:07a Dr. Stephen Fletcher was experimenting with the DNA

00:06:11of an assistant along with goats,

00:06:15and there was a terrible accident that caused him to be transformed

00:06:20into this human-goat hybrid creature

00:06:24that has since terrorized the locals

00:06:27around Feltzville and Bowie, Maryland.

00:06:31The interesting thing about this one is that the USDA

00:06:34actually had to make a public statement saying

00:06:36this is factually not true

00:06:38because the rumors had spread so far

00:06:40and the story had picked up so much traction.

00:06:42Though clouded in various science fiction origin stories,

00:06:52to residents of Bowie,

00:06:54the Maryland Goatman was very real.

00:06:57Just one week following the initial article

00:07:00breaking the story of the Goatman,

00:07:02three teens heard strange noises

00:07:04coming from the woods near their homes.

00:07:07One even reported seeing the animal,

00:07:09describing it as six feet tall,

00:07:12covered in hair,

00:07:14and standing on two legs.

00:07:16It made a high-pitched sound.

00:07:19The following morning,

00:07:21they discovered their puppy was missing.

00:07:24After searching,

00:07:25they found her body near some railroad tracks

00:07:28with the head laying a few yards away.

00:07:34The story spread like wildfire,

00:07:36and soon teens all over Prince George's County

00:07:40were traveling to Fletchertown Road

00:07:42in an attempt to have an encounter

00:07:44with the Goatman of Bowie.

00:07:47So great was the pandemonium throughout the county.

00:07:51The story began to grow outside the state,

00:07:54and soon everyone knew of the Maryland Goatman.

00:07:58As the story spread,

00:08:00people attributed more and more incidents

00:08:02to the goat-like entity.

00:08:04There's a young couple in Maryland

00:08:06who were recently married,

00:08:08and they were driving home late one night,

00:08:10and they had a flat tire.

00:08:13So the husband steps out,

00:08:16tells the wife,

00:08:17please wait here,

00:08:18I'm just going to go get a tire,

00:08:19get help,

00:08:19I'll be right back.

00:08:21Hours go by,

00:08:23and nothing.

00:08:25Next thing you know,

00:08:26she leans out of the window

00:08:28and sees a seven-foot-tall goat man

00:08:30standing on the car,

00:08:31bent over,

00:08:32and staring down into the window.

00:08:35She rolls up the window,

00:08:36terrified,

00:08:36starts screaming,

00:08:37and just eventually,

00:08:39the goat man walks away.

00:08:41She passes out,

00:08:42out of exhaustion and fear.

00:08:45Wakes up the next morning,

00:08:46still no husband,

00:08:47but it's daylight out,

00:08:48so she decides that she's going to go for a walk

00:08:50and see if she can track down her husband.

00:08:53She got about 40 feet away from the car

00:08:55and found the remains of her husband.

00:08:58Head had been completely ripped off.

00:09:01Most of the limbs were severely mingled.

00:09:05I've tried really, really hard

00:09:06to dig up irrefutable proof on this,

00:09:10yet to be able to find any actual police reports on this.

00:09:14And this is a troublesome part

00:09:15when it comes to goat man,

00:09:16is there's a lot of stories,

00:09:19but they're usually told from person to person.

00:09:23There's not really a whole lot of actual documentation on it.

00:09:26The presence of goat man's stories,

00:09:29like the one previously shared,

00:09:32do not exist in a vacuum.

00:09:35Commonly referred to as lover's lane stories,

00:09:38these tales take place in areas

00:09:41where people go to be intimate with each other

00:09:44in a semi-public setting,

00:09:46and there is certainly no shortage of them.

00:09:49I think it's usually some remote parking spot

00:09:52on the outskirts of town,

00:09:55down by the railroad tracks under the bridge,

00:09:57someplace where they can have

00:09:58a limited amount of privacy.

00:10:00Also, where, of course,

00:10:01people go to drink and tell stories.

00:10:03The most famous legends

00:10:08of the size of the goat man legend

00:10:09is the dead boyfriend legend,

00:10:12where, of course,

00:10:13the teenage couple are, you know,

00:10:17getting intimate in a car.

00:10:19There's a noise.

00:10:19The boyfriend goes out to investigate,

00:10:22and he doesn't come back.

00:10:24The girlfriend goes to check what happened,

00:10:26and he's usually hung from a tree limb above the car.

00:10:30And then, of course,

00:10:30there's the hook man legend

00:10:32as the other famous Lover's Lane legend.

00:10:35A couple parked out on a Lover's Lane.

00:10:37The radio is still on,

00:10:39and there's a special bulletin

00:10:42that's made about an escaped convict

00:10:44who is menacing the neighborhood

00:10:46in which this couple finds themselves.

00:10:48And about the same time,

00:10:51there's a loud scratching

00:10:52that's heard on the side of the vehicle.

00:10:56Typically, if the guy's driving,

00:10:59then the gal is in the other seat,

00:11:01and it's on her side of the car.

00:11:03And some detail that comes through on the radio

00:11:05is that the escaped convict in question

00:11:07has one hook for a hand.

00:11:10And this is all too much for both of them.

00:11:12They freak out and drive away

00:11:14at a fast rate of speed.

00:11:16Getting back to her home

00:11:18where she's safely deposited

00:11:21back in the friendly confines,

00:11:23but assuming that he's at least somewhat of a gentleman,

00:11:26he comes around to the other side of the car

00:11:28to open it for her.

00:11:29And there, hanging on the handle of the car door

00:11:32is a disembodied hook.

00:11:34So making it that the sound that they heard

00:11:39was evidently this escaped convict

00:11:41scratching at the car trying to get in.

00:11:44I think we have to consider the possibility

00:11:46that we sometimes have kind of a confluence

00:11:49of different types of urban legends

00:11:51or campfire tales that come together,

00:11:53particularly in rural areas,

00:11:56and particularly in these remote lovers lane areas

00:11:58where teenagers go and park at night,

00:12:00where they like to kind of spook each other

00:12:02and tell stories.

00:12:03So at some point, you know,

00:12:05the goat man and the serial killer, the hook,

00:12:08you know, those ideas kind of converged.

00:12:12Folklorists actually call him a lover's lane monster

00:12:15because his legends exist almost exclusively

00:12:18in places like this where teenagers

00:12:20or someone of the like gather.

00:12:25There's a lot of sightings that happen

00:12:27in locations that aren't like this

00:12:29where there's no goat man legend,

00:12:31but people say they see creatures like it.

00:12:34So I think a lot of the locations

00:12:36where he's near railroad tracks or bridges

00:12:39could just be the more sensational

00:12:42folklorish type stories.

00:12:45The fact that goat man's associated

00:12:46with lovers lane areas, I think,

00:12:49speaks to his sort of folkloric role

00:12:53as a kind of agent of judgment.

00:12:55And you see this playing out in a variety of ways,

00:13:00like in the case of the poplick monster

00:13:02and the trestle.

00:13:04He's an agent of judgment in the sense

00:13:06that he's punishing you for bad decision making, right?

00:13:10It's a bad idea to climb out

00:13:13on this active train trestle

00:13:14when you could get run down by a freight train

00:13:18that you can't possibly escape.

00:13:19Well, in the case of a lover's lane,

00:13:32it's not quite the same thing,

00:13:34but you are very much capable

00:13:36of poor decision making out there

00:13:39in lover's lane.

00:13:40Maybe a couple drinks in

00:13:42and you're out there with your loved one

00:13:46and, you know, one thing leads to another.

00:13:48And here comes the goat man

00:13:50to kind of be that agent of judgment

00:13:52to say, hey, kids, you know, break it up

00:13:55unless you want some unintended consequences

00:13:58to deal with.

00:14:00Here, let me pound on your car hood

00:14:02to make sure that you get out of here in time.

00:14:04So I think he does play that function.

00:14:08If a person is entertaining goat man

00:14:10as sort of an actual flesh and blood cryptid,

00:14:13then there's also the added dimension

00:14:15that most lover's lanes are remote.

00:14:18You're going out there

00:14:19because you don't want to be bothered

00:14:20in the first place.

00:14:22So where are you going to seek out?

00:14:23Well, it's not going to be a populated area.

00:14:25It's going to be a lover's lane,

00:14:27a darkened area

00:14:28and a place near the woods

00:14:31that you hope is not detectable.

00:14:34And those are often those liminal areas

00:14:36that are also associated

00:14:38with all manner of cryptid sightings.

00:14:45The goat man is not always relegated

00:14:48to the lover's lane, however.

00:14:51Traveling from the East Coast,

00:14:52another goat man legend emerges,

00:14:55this time in the sun-baked hills of California.

00:14:58So the billiwack ranch is a former dairy farm

00:15:07that's located in Santa Paula, California.

00:15:10It is home to supposedly the billiwack monster,

00:15:14a humanoid-looking creature

00:15:16that has goat man-like features,

00:15:19giant horns,

00:15:20and is reported to even carry around a club.

00:15:22It's violent in nature,

00:15:24tends to attack people that come across it,

00:15:27and the cryptid story of this

00:15:30is a little bit more mysterious

00:15:31than what you typically get

00:15:32in most original cryptid stories.

00:15:35It has numerous parallels

00:15:37to the goat man of Maryland.

00:15:41And what I mean is that

00:15:43Ventura, California

00:15:45is the basic area involving billiwack.

00:15:49There's a billiwack farms

00:15:50that became established at that time

00:15:53that it wasn't immediately evident,

00:15:55but as time elapsed

00:15:57and people sort of dug into the history

00:15:59of this location, that facility,

00:16:01there appeared to have been possible CIA ties

00:16:05to at least the person

00:16:07who was instrumental in founding the farm site.

00:16:11So August Rubel is an interesting guy.

00:16:13He's a pretty smart guy.

00:16:15One of the things that comes up about him pretty often

00:16:17is that he's from Europe.

00:16:19He's Swiss.

00:16:20You know, so this is a guy

00:16:22that majored in chemical engineering.

00:16:24This is something that's going to come up

00:16:25in the billiwack monster story,

00:16:27but he also has apparent ties to the OSS,

00:16:31which is a precursor to the CIA.

00:16:34It stands for the Office of Strategic Services.

00:16:36So this is an interesting guy.

00:16:38He has government ties,

00:16:40chemical engineering ties,

00:16:41and now he's associated with

00:16:43what is supposedly a humanoid monster

00:16:46that roamed around his ranch.

00:16:51Now the original story involves August Rubel

00:16:54and with his chemical engineering background

00:16:57was trying to manufacture a super soldier

00:16:59using goat DNA

00:17:01and building an undestructible force

00:17:04that can be utilized in World War II.

00:17:08That's story A.

00:17:10Story B is that Rubel

00:17:12was more of almost like a James Bond type of character

00:17:15where he went off during World War II

00:17:18and rounded up Nazi scientists

00:17:20that Hitler was utilizing

00:17:21to build his own version of a super soldier.

00:17:25And he rounded those guys up,

00:17:27brought them back to Santa Paula

00:17:28to the billiwack ranch

00:17:30and utilized their knowledge

00:17:32to build the billiwack monster.

00:17:35And at some point the monster escaped,

00:17:40killing many of the scientists

00:17:42and now runs free in the Aliso Canyon

00:17:46near the billiwack ranch.

00:17:53And so what you had were a couple scattered tales

00:17:56of a goat man type figure being seen

00:17:59in one case by hikers

00:18:01who felt that they were being trailed

00:18:02by a half-man, half-goat figure.

00:18:06And so that traces back to this idea

00:18:09of a kind of a pseudo-scientific origin

00:18:13for the goat man

00:18:14that is in that regard

00:18:15that I see the parallels

00:18:17between Ventura, California, and Maryland

00:18:20as far as origins go.

00:18:22It's one of the oldest ones

00:18:26that I've seen reported in newspapers.

00:18:27I think it goes back to the 50s.

00:18:30A lot of the goat man stories

00:18:31cropped up in the 70s,

00:18:33at least in papers.

00:18:34They may have been talked about by locals

00:18:36many, many, many decades before that.

00:18:39The oldest sighting I could find

00:18:40dates back to 1912.

00:18:42Seen by a herd of cowboys

00:18:45wandering the Aliso Canyon area,

00:18:48there wasn't much more to it.

00:18:49But finding the actual cited sources

00:18:52to that story

00:18:54were a little tough to find.

00:18:55I couldn't really do it.

00:18:56It was a lot of just sort of

00:18:57copy and paste, copy and paste,

00:18:59which is pretty common in this era

00:19:01with the internet.

00:19:03So that would actually predate

00:19:05August Rubell even purchasing

00:19:07the Billiwack Ranch,

00:19:09setting up his dairy farm infrastructure.

00:19:12And that would actually more suggest

00:19:14to the Billiwack Monster

00:19:15predating any of these

00:19:17World War II ties.

00:19:19Both the story of the goat man of Bowie

00:19:25and the beast of Billiwack

00:19:27feature genetic experimentation

00:19:29as explanations for their origins.

00:19:33But few people would give

00:19:34that theory any merit.

00:19:36As far as these stories

00:19:38about genetic experimentation

00:19:40at an agricultural center

00:19:41and, you know,

00:19:43half man, half goat being created,

00:19:44my first question

00:19:46as a critical thinker

00:19:47would be, why?

00:19:48You know, what would be

00:19:49the advantage of creating

00:19:51a half man, half goat?

00:19:52And I think it almost,

00:19:53it seems to draw off

00:19:55of a very famous story

00:19:57called The Island of Dr. Moreau

00:19:58by H.G. Wells,

00:20:00the great sci-fi writer.

00:20:01And in that particular story,

00:20:03there's a mad scientist

00:20:04on an island,

00:20:04and he's experimenting

00:20:05with splicing human genes

00:20:07with animal genes.

00:20:08And, in fact,

00:20:09one of the creatures

00:20:10was a half man, half goat.

00:20:12So I think that idea,

00:20:13that seed was kind of planted

00:20:15deep in our unconscious minds.

00:20:17And, you know,

00:20:17that may have had

00:20:18an influence as well.

00:20:22Genetic experimentation

00:20:23is something I don't

00:20:24know enough about

00:20:25to say that, yeah,

00:20:27that makes sense to me.

00:20:28I do know,

00:20:29just very loosely

00:20:30and anecdotally,

00:20:31that scientists

00:20:32have attempted to cross

00:20:33human and primate DNA,

00:20:35and that they were not

00:20:36successful in doing so.

00:20:37So if they were somehow

00:20:39able to cross goat

00:20:40and human DNA,

00:20:42that would speak to a level

00:20:43of technological sophistication

00:20:45that is beyond me,

00:20:48certainly,

00:20:48and I think is beyond

00:20:49our present scientific capability.

00:20:53So I think that concept

00:20:54of combining humans

00:20:56with other animals

00:20:57through scientific experimentation

00:20:58is very interesting to people.

00:21:00It's got kind of this

00:21:00cool sci-fi quality.

00:21:03But in terms of how genetics

00:21:04actually works

00:21:05and ultimately motivates

00:21:07and why someone

00:21:09would do something like that,

00:21:11I think it's a big problem.

00:21:14Although no power-crazed scientist

00:21:16may have created

00:21:17a human goat chimera,

00:21:20there are other versions

00:21:21of the goat man

00:21:22that may offer

00:21:23different explanations

00:21:24for the mysterious

00:21:25creature's origins.

00:21:27Good evening, Fort Worth.

00:21:29We interrupt our regular programming

00:21:31to bring you an extraordinary report

00:21:33from Lake Worth.

00:21:34In an unprecedented event last night

00:21:36on July 10, 1969,

00:21:39several residents claim

00:21:40to have witnessed a creature

00:21:41dubbed the Lake Worth monster.

00:21:43Reports describe the beast

00:21:45as a half-man, half-goat hybrid,

00:21:47standing over seven feet tall

00:21:49with fur, scales, and large horns.

00:21:52Witnesses, including teenagers

00:21:53who were at the lake,

00:21:54say the monster

00:21:55leaped onto a car,

00:21:56denning its roof

00:21:57before vanishing

00:21:58into the dark.

00:22:01The original encounter

00:22:03with the Lake Worth goat man

00:22:05occurred in July of 1969

00:22:07when two couples

00:22:08were parked

00:22:08at the Greer Island

00:22:10Nature Center one night,

00:22:11and they claimed

00:22:11that this creature

00:22:12actually jumped out of a tree

00:22:13onto the roof of their car,

00:22:15attempted to abduct

00:22:16one of the women,

00:22:17and ended up scratching their car.

00:22:19And they were so terrified

00:22:20that they immediately

00:22:21drove to the sheriff's office

00:22:22and reported their encounter.

00:22:24The next night,

00:22:25there were 40 people

00:22:27out searching for the monster.

00:22:29And allegedly,

00:22:31in front of about 30

00:22:32or 40 eyewitnesses,

00:22:33this creature appeared

00:22:34on a bluff,

00:22:35picked up a spare tire,

00:22:36and hurled it at the crowd,

00:22:37and it bounced about 500 feet.

00:22:40Now, what's interesting

00:22:41is that the creature

00:22:42was described

00:22:42as being a white color.

00:22:44But the initial description,

00:22:46the two couples said

00:22:47that it was a scaly goat man,

00:22:49whatever that means.

00:22:50And so, ultimately,

00:22:51it became known

00:22:52as the goat man.

00:22:53But then later on,

00:22:54people said it had more

00:22:55of like a gorilla-like look to it.

00:22:57Strange thing

00:22:58about the tire-throwing incident

00:22:59with regard to the Lake Worth monster

00:23:01is the fact

00:23:02that it evidently happened

00:23:04with so many eyewitnesses involved.

00:23:07Between 40 and 50 people,

00:23:09evidently,

00:23:10were at the rim of this pit.

00:23:12But all the stories

00:23:14in the paper

00:23:15and in Clark's book

00:23:16report that the creature

00:23:17threw this tire

00:23:19500 feet

00:23:21at a rate of speed

00:23:23that caused everyone

00:23:25to immediately scatter

00:23:26and leave the vicinity

00:23:27because they would have been killed

00:23:29had it hit them.

00:23:32With such a dramatic entrance

00:23:34for the Lake Worth goat man

00:23:36and with so many witnesses,

00:23:38law enforcement felt pressure

00:23:40to provide answers.

00:23:41When law enforcement's brought

00:23:47into the picture,

00:23:48which is relatively right away,

00:23:50I mean,

00:23:51the first stories

00:23:52that were filed

00:23:53that appeared

00:23:54in the local newspaper

00:23:55were within a couple days

00:23:57of each other.

00:24:05The law enforcement

00:24:06took the stance

00:24:08that it was

00:24:08that it was an escaped bobcat,

00:24:11that a bobcat

00:24:11had been released

00:24:12into the wild

00:24:13by their owner

00:24:14and had taken up residence

00:24:16in the Greer Island area

00:24:17and was in the habit

00:24:20of going up into trees

00:24:22and dropping down

00:24:23onto unassuming people,

00:24:25especially seemed

00:24:26to like landing on cars

00:24:27for whatever reason

00:24:28and then scratching them up.

00:24:30That was their explanation

00:24:31to many of these sightings.

00:24:33The newspapers

00:24:36didn't seem interested

00:24:37in following up

00:24:39on the story

00:24:39beyond the incredible

00:24:41tire-throwing incident

00:24:42and many people

00:24:43were content

00:24:44to explain it all away

00:24:45as the work of pranksters.

00:24:48And that would have been

00:24:49the end

00:24:49of the Lake Worth monster saga

00:24:51if it weren't

00:24:53for Sally Ann Clark.

00:24:55After reading

00:24:56about the incidents

00:24:57in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram,

00:24:59Clark made her way

00:25:00to Greer Island

00:25:01to investigate

00:25:02for herself.

00:25:04Armed with a camera

00:25:05and a cassette tape recorder,

00:25:07Clark proceeded

00:25:08to interview dozens

00:25:09of witnesses

00:25:10who claimed

00:25:10to have encountered

00:25:11the beast.

00:25:13She then compiled

00:25:14the information

00:25:15along with her own observations

00:25:17into a self-published book

00:25:19titled

00:25:20The Lake Worth Monster

00:25:21of Greer Island,

00:25:22Fort Worth, Texas,

00:25:24which was released

00:25:25in September 1969.

00:25:30All I can tell you

00:25:31about Sally Ann Clark

00:25:32is what she reveals

00:25:33in her book.

00:25:35And so she is

00:25:37a self-described

00:25:38private investigator

00:25:39and freelance writer.

00:25:42And what else she was doing

00:25:43beyond that,

00:25:44I have no idea.

00:25:46But that is the angle

00:25:48that she takes

00:25:48in her book.

00:25:49And it's a very

00:25:50interesting read.

00:25:51she goes around

00:25:53in the book

00:25:54describing

00:25:55her sort of

00:25:57random driving

00:25:58from one location

00:25:59to another,

00:26:00especially in the vicinity

00:26:01of Greer Island,

00:26:03collecting reports

00:26:04from individuals,

00:26:05some of which are

00:26:06extremely dramatic stories.

00:26:08In one case,

00:26:08she,

00:26:09in the flow of the book,

00:26:10talks about meeting

00:26:11this young

00:26:12eight,

00:26:13nine-year-old boy

00:26:14on Greer Island,

00:26:16getting a report

00:26:16from him

00:26:17that the

00:26:18Lake Worth monster

00:26:19had killed

00:26:20his cousin.

00:26:22In detail,

00:26:23she goes into

00:26:23this story

00:26:24about the

00:26:25Lake Worth monster

00:26:26swinging through

00:26:27the trees

00:26:28with his cousin

00:26:29in his arms

00:26:30and then

00:26:30throwing them,

00:26:32throwing his cousin

00:26:32at a car,

00:26:33effectively killing him.

00:26:34and that same boy

00:26:37that she had talked

00:26:38to falls asleep

00:26:39on a rock.

00:26:40She wonders,

00:26:40what do I do

00:26:41with this kid

00:26:42because it's not

00:26:42her child?

00:26:44And that as she's

00:26:45wondering what to do,

00:26:46she hears the sounds

00:26:46of the Lake Worth monster

00:26:48approaching her.

00:26:49She climbs up

00:26:50in a tree

00:26:50and watches

00:26:51as the Lake Worth monster

00:26:54approaches this boy

00:26:55who's still asleep

00:26:56and it scratches

00:26:57the child's cheek

00:26:58and then wakes up,

00:27:01sees the monster

00:27:02and calls out

00:27:04to Sally Ann

00:27:05who's up in the tree,

00:27:07lady, lady,

00:27:08I'm seeing the monster

00:27:09that I told you about.

00:27:11And then after

00:27:12that whole incident

00:27:13wraps up,

00:27:14she goes to the diner

00:27:15and has a piece of pie.

00:27:17It's very bizarre

00:27:18and to this day

00:27:20I don't really know

00:27:21how to take

00:27:22that bit of writing

00:27:23because she presents

00:27:25it as factual,

00:27:27take it or leave it,

00:27:28and it's sort of

00:27:29gonzo journalism

00:27:31before that,

00:27:32that phrase

00:27:33was even coined,

00:27:34I think.

00:27:35After Sally Ann Clark's

00:27:37venture into the case,

00:27:38another notable researcher

00:27:40dug into the monster

00:27:41of Lake Worth's story,

00:27:43Ken Gerhardt.

00:27:44I first investigated

00:27:45the Lake Worth goat man

00:27:46about 20 years ago,

00:27:482004,

00:27:49along with another researcher

00:27:50named Nick Redfern.

00:27:52We went to the Greer Island

00:27:53Nature Center,

00:27:54we found the bluff,

00:27:56the area where it supposedly

00:27:57threw a tire

00:27:58at this crowd of people,

00:27:59and then we went on

00:28:00onto Greer Island itself,

00:28:01which was said to be

00:28:02the haunt of this goat man

00:28:04creature.

00:28:05And we did find

00:28:06a weird teepee-like structure,

00:28:09we found a large impression

00:28:10on the ground nearby

00:28:11where something had been

00:28:12laying down,

00:28:12and we also found

00:28:13the remains of a fish

00:28:14that had been half eaten.

00:28:16So since that time,

00:28:17I've been to that particular

00:28:18location a few different times,

00:28:20looked around,

00:28:21I haven't found

00:28:22any significant evidence,

00:28:23and in fact,

00:28:25I spoke to some

00:28:26of the park rangers there

00:28:27and asked them

00:28:28about the monster legend,

00:28:29and they kind of

00:28:30tried to brush it off

00:28:31and say that it was

00:28:31probably a hoax,

00:28:33maybe someone dressed up

00:28:34in a costume and so forth,

00:28:35but, you know,

00:28:36it's worth noting

00:28:36that there were a lot

00:28:37of people that claimed

00:28:38to have seen this creature.

00:28:39But the Lake Worth monster

00:28:41is very,

00:28:42is described always

00:28:43in very aggressive terms.

00:28:45Beating people

00:28:46against the side

00:28:46of their cars,

00:28:48a one ex-military person

00:28:50that Clark allegedly spoke to

00:28:53who made a big deal

00:28:54out of the fact

00:28:55that he had purchased

00:28:57this convertible,

00:28:58he was very proud of it,

00:29:00he mentions it

00:29:00a number of times,

00:29:01was driving around

00:29:02out on Greer Island

00:29:03before all these

00:29:04other reports hit,

00:29:05and he saw the monster

00:29:07bludgeoning this guy

00:29:09against the side

00:29:10of his car,

00:29:11almost apparently to death.

00:29:13And he said,

00:29:14I had far too much

00:29:16to drink at the time,

00:29:17but I sobered up

00:29:17on my way back to town

00:29:19because I was going 180,

00:29:20putting this car to it,

00:29:22you know,

00:29:22taking it to its limits.

00:29:39I myself have done

00:29:43extensive research

00:29:44into the story

00:29:45of the Lake Worth monster,

00:29:46even finding witnesses

00:29:48who are only just now

00:29:49talking about their experiences.

00:29:52My own book,

00:29:53The Lake Worth Monster,

00:29:55The True Story

00:29:56of the Greer Island Goatman,

00:29:58delves both into

00:29:59the history of the case

00:30:00and the legacy

00:30:01it has built

00:30:02around my hometown

00:30:03of Fort Worth.

00:30:04But the answers

00:30:06as to what the creature

00:30:07is or was

00:30:09remains a mystery.

00:30:12One theory, however,

00:30:14presents itself

00:30:14most prominently

00:30:15in another encounter

00:30:17with the monster.

00:30:18The last alleged sighting

00:30:20occurred in November

00:30:21of 1969

00:30:22when a guy named

00:30:23Charles Buchanan

00:30:24was parked

00:30:25alongside Lake Worth

00:30:26and he claimed

00:30:27the creature climbed up

00:30:28in the bed

00:30:28of his pickup truck

00:30:29and stole a bag

00:30:30of fried chicken

00:30:31and then jumped

00:30:32in the lake

00:30:32and swam away.

00:30:34Before Buchanan

00:30:35left the scene,

00:30:36he spotted something

00:30:37on the ground.

00:30:39A footprint

00:30:40that resembled

00:30:41that of a human

00:30:41yet it was

00:30:4318 inches long.

00:30:46Cryptid enthusiasts

00:30:47would be quick

00:30:48to point out

00:30:49that a giant

00:30:50human-shaped footprint

00:30:51might belong

00:30:52to something like

00:30:53a Sasquatch

00:30:54rather than

00:30:55a goat-like creature

00:30:56and indeed

00:30:57there seems to be

00:30:59a lot of Sasquatch

00:31:00activity in the

00:31:01areas surrounding

00:31:02Lake Worth.

00:31:05In the 1960s,

00:31:07newspapers reported

00:31:08run-ins with

00:31:09ape-like creatures

00:31:10in the areas

00:31:11surrounding Fort Worth.

00:31:13Encounters with

00:31:14so-called

00:31:15wild men,

00:31:16large,

00:31:17man-like figures

00:31:18covered in hair,

00:31:19were confrontational

00:31:21in nature

00:31:21with the wild man

00:31:23growling,

00:31:24yelling,

00:31:24or throwing rocks

00:31:25at the eyewitnesses.

00:31:26While Sasquatch

00:31:29aren't typically

00:31:30described as being

00:31:31covered in dark hair,

00:31:33some reports,

00:31:34especially those

00:31:36in the northern

00:31:36United States,

00:31:38describe Sasquatch

00:31:39with white hair,

00:31:41matching the

00:31:41description of the

00:31:42Lake Worth monster

00:31:43more closely.

00:31:44But the Lake Worth monster

00:31:48is not the only

00:31:49goat-man story

00:31:50to be closely

00:31:51associated with

00:31:52Sasquatch reports.

00:31:54In 1957,

00:31:56a week-long panic

00:31:57gripped the town

00:31:58of Upper Marlboro,

00:31:59Maryland,

00:32:00when over 200 people

00:32:02claimed to have

00:32:02encountered

00:32:03a large,

00:32:04bipedal ape

00:32:05that was quickly

00:32:06dubbed

00:32:07the Abominable Phantom.

00:32:09Local authorities

00:32:10searched the woods

00:32:11of Prince George's County

00:32:12but found no sign

00:32:14of the alleged creature.

00:32:16All of this

00:32:17occurring a little

00:32:18less than a decade

00:32:19and a half

00:32:20before the goat-man

00:32:21of Bowie

00:32:21made his debut.

00:32:24So you can imagine

00:32:25a lot of this stuff

00:32:26is about perspective

00:32:27and interpretation.

00:32:29If somebody's out

00:32:29in the woods

00:32:30where they heard

00:32:30there was a goat-man

00:32:31and they see a big,

00:32:33hairy, man-like creature

00:32:34running through the woods,

00:32:36well,

00:32:36then that's a goat-man.

00:32:37You know,

00:32:38people aren't thinking

00:32:38Bigfoot at that point.

00:32:40They've already had

00:32:41kind of their perspective

00:32:42colored to some extent.

00:32:46If we're open

00:32:47to the idea

00:32:48of Sasquatch's existence,

00:32:49which I know

00:32:49many people are,

00:32:51then the idea

00:32:53that Sasquatch

00:32:54could be seen

00:32:54and then mistaken

00:32:55for something else

00:32:56could explain

00:32:58any number

00:32:58of supernatural

00:32:59or cryptozoological encounters

00:33:01because many

00:33:01of these sightings

00:33:02take place

00:33:02from a distance.

00:33:03They're very fleeting.

00:33:04You know,

00:33:05they're often

00:33:05taking place at night.

00:33:06They're in very

00:33:07frantic situations.

00:33:08So if Sasquatch

00:33:10is out there,

00:33:10which I tend

00:33:11to think

00:33:11there's a pretty

00:33:12good chance

00:33:12that it is,

00:33:13I think that's

00:33:14certainly a possibility.

00:33:15What's striking

00:33:16about these descriptions,

00:33:17though,

00:33:17when we're talking

00:33:18about the goat-man motif

00:33:19is this recurring

00:33:20idea of it having horns.

00:33:22And Sasquatch,

00:33:24if we're going

00:33:24on the assumption

00:33:25that it's a primate,

00:33:26primates generally

00:33:27don't have horns.

00:33:28So that's kind of

00:33:29where we run

00:33:29into some difficulty.

00:33:31As a cryptozoologist,

00:33:32first I have to

00:33:33consider the fact

00:33:34that something

00:33:35like a half-man,

00:33:36half-goat,

00:33:37an anthropomorphic creature

00:33:39is a zoological

00:33:40impossibility.

00:33:43The two lineages

00:33:44that led to us,

00:33:45Homo sapiens

00:33:46and Arteodactyls

00:33:49or hoofed animals

00:33:49like goats,

00:33:50the last common ancestor

00:33:52we shared

00:33:53was about 65 million

00:33:54years ago

00:33:55or something.

00:33:56So we're talking

00:33:57about two distinct

00:33:58lineages that went

00:33:58in opposite directions

00:34:00that evolved over

00:34:01a long period of time

00:34:02and therefore

00:34:03could not converge again.

00:34:05So it's a biological

00:34:06impossibility

00:34:07which almost implies

00:34:08either more

00:34:09of a supernatural origin

00:34:10or there are some people

00:34:12that talk about

00:34:13diabolical genetic experiments

00:34:15where nefarious

00:34:17government agencies

00:34:18or laboratories

00:34:19are trying to splice

00:34:21human and goat DNA.

00:34:22Now, admittedly,

00:34:23that type of knowledge

00:34:25is kind of beyond

00:34:26my understanding

00:34:27so I don't know

00:34:28if that can actually

00:34:28be achieved or not

00:34:29but it's worth noting

00:34:31that throughout history

00:34:33there have been weird

00:34:34genetic anomalies

00:34:35in humans.

00:34:36For example,

00:34:37there have been humans

00:34:37born with tails.

00:34:39It's very, very rare

00:34:40but it does happen

00:34:41and it's called

00:34:42an atavism.

00:34:43An atavism is when

00:34:44a human displays

00:34:45an ancient physical trait

00:34:47that's locked

00:34:48into our deep

00:34:49in our genetic code

00:34:50from a long, long time ago

00:34:52and there are also humans

00:34:54that have horns

00:34:55believe it or not.

00:34:56They're called cutaneous horns

00:34:57and it's actually

00:34:59a strange type of tumor

00:35:00that grows on people

00:35:01and oftentimes

00:35:02on their foreheads

00:35:03strangely enough

00:35:04and it looks just

00:35:05like a horn.

00:35:06There's a woman in China

00:35:07known as the unicorn woman

00:35:08that has one of these

00:35:09horn-like structures

00:35:10so you can imagine

00:35:12throughout history

00:35:13if there were humans

00:35:14with horns

00:35:15or humans with tails

00:35:16as rare as that was

00:35:17how that might apply

00:35:19or spawn some of these

00:35:20goat man legends.

00:35:24While misinterpreted

00:35:25Sasquatch sightings

00:35:27may explain away

00:35:28some of the goat man's sightings

00:35:29it does not explain

00:35:31the description of horns

00:35:33which are so characteristic

00:35:35of these creatures.

00:35:37A biological answer

00:35:38doesn't seem likely either

00:35:40leaving few rational possibilities

00:35:43to explain the creature's origins.

00:35:46One of these possibilities

00:35:48leads to a much darker side

00:35:50of the phenomenon

00:35:51one that also shines a light

00:35:53on the darkest parts

00:35:55of humanity

00:35:56and it lies only

00:35:5730 miles away

00:35:59from Lake Worth.

00:36:01The goat man

00:36:02of the old Alton Bridge

00:36:04is one that I find

00:36:05fascinating

00:36:07because of its roots

00:36:08in local folklore

00:36:11having to do with

00:36:12a bridge that connected

00:36:14a couple communities

00:36:15essentially in

00:36:16north-central Texas.

00:36:17The story is that

00:36:19there was an

00:36:19African-American goat farmer

00:36:21in the area

00:36:21who was very successful

00:36:23he was doing very well

00:36:24making a big name

00:36:25for himself

00:36:25his name was

00:36:27purported to be

00:36:28Oscar Washburn

00:36:29is how the story goes.

00:36:31Had become fairly successful

00:36:33in being a goat herd

00:36:35and selling goat products

00:36:37in the area

00:36:38and in fact advertising

00:36:40his wares

00:36:41by hanging a sign

00:36:43on the Alton Bridge

00:36:45that said this way

00:36:46to the goat man

00:36:47and it was his form

00:36:48of advertising.

00:36:50Evidently the local KKK

00:36:52didn't like that too much

00:36:54and hated the idea

00:36:56of a successful black man

00:36:58peddling his wares

00:36:59so they held a

00:37:01clandestine town council meeting

00:37:03where they outlawed

00:37:04the type of advertising

00:37:06that he had placed

00:37:07on the bridge

00:37:08and then went out

00:37:10to accost him

00:37:12and accuse him

00:37:13and try to throw him

00:37:15in jail for this crime

00:37:17that he was now committing.

00:37:18They formed a noose

00:37:20and they were going

00:37:21to lynch him

00:37:21off of the side

00:37:22of the bridge

00:37:23and when they did that

00:37:24and here's where

00:37:25many variations occur

00:37:27either that

00:37:28they went through

00:37:31with the lynching

00:37:32only to find

00:37:33that his body

00:37:34was missing

00:37:34or that his head

00:37:36had become separated

00:37:37from the body

00:37:38and depending on

00:37:39what version you hear

00:37:41but they then go back

00:37:43from that

00:37:43apparently unsuccessful

00:37:46attempt to kill him

00:37:47or it was successful

00:37:48and they buried the body

00:37:50and told everyone

00:37:51they couldn't find the body

00:37:52but evidently

00:37:53they murdered

00:37:54the entire

00:37:55Washburn family

00:37:56after that.

00:37:57and as a result

00:38:04of this horrific event

00:38:06this half-man

00:38:07half-goat entity

00:38:08is now purported

00:38:09to haunt

00:38:10the old Alton Bridge

00:38:11and people go out there

00:38:12and they do ghost investigations

00:38:14they go out there at night

00:38:15they take EM readings

00:38:16and things

00:38:17sometimes they get results

00:38:18sometimes they don't

00:38:19but this is one of those stories

00:38:20that's associated more

00:38:22with the darker side

00:38:23of this legend

00:38:24it's not so much

00:38:25just a monster sighting

00:38:26it talks about

00:38:28some of the worst parts

00:38:29of humanity

00:38:30and looks at some

00:38:30of the darkest places

00:38:31in our history

00:38:32as the backdrop

00:38:33for this story

00:38:34so unlike some of these

00:38:35other goat man legends

00:38:36where oh it was a

00:38:37government experiment

00:38:38or a man crossbred

00:38:40with goats

00:38:41you know it's

00:38:42grounded a lot more

00:38:43in reality

00:38:45in a very dark way

00:38:46there's some real weight

00:38:47to the story

00:38:48because if that

00:38:49actually did happen

00:38:50to Oscar Washburn

00:38:52then there is

00:38:53some sort of justice

00:38:55you know that seems

00:38:56to be much needed

00:38:58and to me

00:39:00this is one of the

00:39:01telltale signs

00:39:02of the goat man

00:39:03in many of these cases

00:39:05where he appears

00:39:06as a kind of

00:39:07avenger

00:39:09or an agent

00:39:10of judgment

00:39:11the apparent difference

00:39:12between the goat man

00:39:14of Old Alton Bridge

00:39:15and other goat man cases

00:39:17previously discussed

00:39:18is its brutal origin story

00:39:21no longer is the goat man

00:39:23a result of an experiment

00:39:25gone wrong

00:39:26or a misidentified Sasquatch

00:39:28it has now been transformed

00:39:31into a spirit of vengeance

00:39:32to right the wrongs

00:39:34that the living have suffered

00:39:36at this bridge

00:39:37the old Alton Bridge

00:39:47is one of the things

00:39:48that makes

00:39:49the Lake Worth monster

00:39:50so interesting

00:39:51because you have

00:39:52two goat man stories

00:39:53or legends

00:39:54or sightings

00:39:55that are really

00:39:56only about 35 miles apart

00:39:57in a straight line

00:39:58the Alton Bridge

00:39:59is a little bit south

00:40:00of the Dallas-Fort Worth area

00:40:02and it's this old

00:40:03iron trellis bridge

00:40:04that was constructed

00:40:05in 1884

00:40:06and for a long time

00:40:07it was a main thoroughfare

00:40:08it was used by

00:40:09you know

00:40:10people on foot

00:40:11horses, cars

00:40:12until it was finally

00:40:12shut down

00:40:13and they installed

00:40:14a new bridge

00:40:14and moved the road

00:40:15over a little bit

00:40:16the bridge is still there

00:40:18you can visit it

00:40:19you can walk on it

00:40:20it's a popular tourist draw

00:40:21and there's already

00:40:23a lot of paranormal folklore

00:40:25associated with

00:40:26these old iron bridges

00:40:27you know

00:40:28iron itself

00:40:28has a lot of lore

00:40:30and stories

00:40:31and mythology

00:40:32attached to it

00:40:33bridges are considered

00:40:34places of cross

00:40:35crossing over

00:40:35liminal areas

00:40:37water is considered

00:40:38to be a very

00:40:39spiritual supernatural thing

00:40:41in a lot of belief systems

00:40:42so these old iron bridges

00:40:44for a lot of people

00:40:44kind of represent

00:40:45intersections of high strangeness

00:40:47and when people

00:40:48investigate these places

00:40:49or they just visit them

00:40:50they very frequently

00:40:51come away talking

00:40:52about ghosts

00:40:53hearing voices

00:40:54there's this idea

00:40:55in the world

00:40:57of high strangeness

00:40:58in the paranormal

00:40:58of strange things

00:41:00existing in liminal spaces

00:41:02liminal in this sense

00:41:03refers to like

00:41:04a threshold

00:41:05a place that really

00:41:07nothing has any sort

00:41:08of dominion over

00:41:09so in this sense

00:41:10things can kind of

00:41:11exist there

00:41:12it's not really a place

00:41:13that has a beginning

00:41:15or an ending

00:41:16it's just a place

00:41:17that's going somewhere

00:41:18it sort of exists

00:41:19in this transient state

00:41:21so the idea

00:41:22of a paranormal entity

00:41:23sort of finding a home

00:41:24there

00:41:25kind of lends some credence

00:41:27now you get other ideas

00:41:30of like Hecate

00:41:31the goddess

00:41:32she's the ruler

00:41:33of the crossroads

00:41:34you have a lot of stories

00:41:35of crossroads

00:41:36being associated

00:41:37with the paranormal

00:41:38kind of lends

00:41:39into the idea

00:41:40of bridges

00:41:41and train tracks too

00:41:42deals going down there

00:41:44entities existing

00:41:45so I think that

00:41:46could kind of

00:41:47play into the idea

00:41:49of why things exist

00:41:50near these transient

00:41:52liminal places

00:41:53crybaby bridges

00:41:54is a term

00:41:55I'm hearing more lately

00:41:56but people will report

00:41:57hearing babies crying

00:41:58which is something

00:41:59we know John Keel

00:42:00was talking about

00:42:01you know

00:42:01back in the 60s

00:42:02and the 70s

00:42:02that's something

00:42:03that's been in our minds

00:42:04for a while

00:42:04but a lot of this stuff

00:42:06seems to intersect

00:42:06with these iron bridges

00:42:07crybaby bridges

00:42:09or crybaby lands

00:42:11for that matter

00:42:11seem to be a phenomenon

00:42:12that you can find

00:42:13in almost every state

00:42:14every state's got one

00:42:16so the basic premise

00:42:17of the crybaby bridge

00:42:19is more often than not

00:42:21the bridge becomes haunted

00:42:22because of a terrible

00:42:23accident that happened there

00:42:24people end up dying

00:42:25and then years later

00:42:26activity will start

00:42:27to be reported on there

00:42:28now in particular

00:42:30when it comes to crybabies

00:42:31this often means that

00:42:32there was a death of a child

00:42:34or several children

00:42:35there's an interesting one

00:42:37in North Carolina

00:42:38that originally was considered

00:42:40to be kind of

00:42:41a lover's lane bridge

00:42:42but has since become

00:42:43a crybaby bridge

00:42:45apparently what happened here

00:42:48is there was a school bus

00:42:51that ended up veering off

00:42:52of this bridge

00:42:53and all of the children

00:42:54and the driver died

00:42:55fast forward several

00:42:56decades later

00:42:57this bridge has now

00:42:58been remade

00:42:59and another road

00:43:00has been put on side of it

00:43:01so the bridge is just

00:43:01kind of abandoned

00:43:02and this becomes a very

00:43:03popular spot for teenagers

00:43:05to go run off and make out

00:43:06in the middle of the evening

00:43:07and it wasn't too far

00:43:09after this little bridge

00:43:11became a private hiding spot

00:43:12for teenagers

00:43:13that most kids

00:43:15who went out there

00:43:16started to report

00:43:16hearing children crying

00:43:18and handprints

00:43:19appearing on the windows

00:43:20there's always been

00:43:30a link with supernatural

00:43:31creatures and bridges

00:43:33of various

00:43:34from various cultures

00:43:36you know trolls

00:43:37are supposed to live

00:43:38under bridges

00:43:38you know spirits

00:43:40can't cross water

00:43:41things like that

00:43:42if he is a supernatural

00:43:44creature

00:43:45allegedly running water

00:43:46can provide energy

00:43:49for things to manifest

00:43:50so it might be easier

00:43:52for something like

00:43:52Goatman

00:43:53if he is

00:43:53something

00:43:55akin to a spirit

00:43:57that needs energy

00:43:57to appear

00:43:58a bridge would be

00:43:59a good location

00:44:00for him to do that

00:44:01and there's often

00:44:03supernatural

00:44:04and paranormal aspects

00:44:07and stories

00:44:08of many bridges around

00:44:09such as Emily's bridge

00:44:11in Stowe, Vermont

00:44:12where there was

00:44:13a tragic story

00:44:14of a bride-to-be

00:44:15who ended her life

00:44:17around this bridge

00:44:18as she was stood up

00:44:19at the altar

00:44:20and there are many stories

00:44:21like that elsewhere as well

00:44:23there's all sorts

00:44:25of haunted bridges

00:44:26all over the world

00:44:27we have a couple

00:44:28in Texas

00:44:29we have another

00:44:30human-animal hybrid

00:44:31the Donkey Lady Bridge

00:44:33in San Antonio

00:44:34down on Old Apple White Road

00:44:35and that's a very similar story

00:44:37to some of these

00:44:37Goatman legends

00:44:38where someone was killed

00:44:40and somehow they were

00:44:41fused with this animal

00:44:42and now they haunt this area

00:44:44and it's a tradition

00:44:45or was for a long time

00:44:46in San Antonio

00:44:47for people to drive

00:44:48out there at night

00:44:49and park their car

00:44:49go poke around in the woods

00:44:51and there are a lot of stories

00:44:52if you look around online

00:44:53of people hearing something

00:44:54or seeing something

00:44:55in the woods

00:44:56so it's a recurring motif

00:44:58that we see in our culture

00:45:00something that pops up

00:45:01all over the place

00:45:01I honestly not sure

00:45:04if there's really

00:45:05a paranormal

00:45:06connotation

00:45:07to these Goatmen

00:45:08being seen

00:45:09in specific areas

00:45:10around bridges

00:45:10and railroad tracks

00:45:12I tend to think

00:45:13it's more of a

00:45:15cultural phenomenon

00:45:16in terms of

00:45:17you know

00:45:17the old legends

00:45:18of European trolls

00:45:19living under bridges

00:45:20and some of those stories

00:45:22as far as railroad tracks go

00:45:24I think

00:45:25it's interesting

00:45:26to point out that

00:45:27you know

00:45:27I grew up next

00:45:28to some railroad tracks

00:45:29kind of in a rural area

00:45:31and there's almost

00:45:32something spooky

00:45:33particularly as a young person

00:45:35you know

00:45:35when you go out

00:45:36to these areas

00:45:37these lovers lane areas

00:45:38if you will

00:45:39where these Goatmen

00:45:40have been described

00:45:40you know

00:45:42there's something

00:45:42kind of spooky

00:45:43about railroad tracks

00:45:44particularly

00:45:45when you're walking

00:45:46along a long line

00:45:47of railroad tracks

00:45:48next to a forested area

00:45:49I don't know

00:45:51it's quite an interesting question

00:45:53you know

00:45:53one could derive

00:45:54the idea

00:45:55that there's some type

00:45:56of energetic force

00:45:58or something

00:45:58that conjures up

00:46:00these Goatman images

00:46:01when you're in these

00:46:01specific types

00:46:02of locations

00:46:03the stories of Goatman

00:46:08seem more paranormal

00:46:09in nature

00:46:10but why?

00:46:13I think it's kind of

00:46:13hard to pinpoint

00:46:15a Goatman entity

00:46:16existing as a

00:46:18biological creature

00:46:19there's nothing

00:46:19in the fossil record

00:46:20that suggests

00:46:22a Goatman could exist

00:46:23unlike a Bigfoot

00:46:24you have Gigantopithecus

00:46:26things like that

00:46:27that we have evidence

00:46:28of something like this

00:46:29can actually

00:46:30biologically walk around

00:46:31and exist

00:46:32Goatman on the other hand

00:46:33not so much

00:46:34however

00:46:35if you tie in the idea

00:46:36of the supernatural

00:46:37paranormal

00:46:38and these things

00:46:40existing without

00:46:41any rhyme or reason

00:46:42but through

00:46:43sort of fantastical means

00:46:44I think something

00:46:46like that can exist

00:46:47maybe it's phasing

00:46:48in and out of reality

00:46:49or is some sort

00:46:50of ancient deity

00:46:52that kind of

00:46:53pops into existence

00:46:54I think that may be

00:46:57more of what's

00:46:58going on here

00:46:58I don't think

00:47:01a half man

00:47:02half goat

00:47:03makes any sense

00:47:04in the biological

00:47:05kingdom

00:47:05based on my

00:47:06limited zoological

00:47:08knowledge

00:47:08and unlike a lot

00:47:09of other

00:47:10human animal

00:47:11chimeric beings

00:47:13that we see

00:47:13in folklore

00:47:14and mythology

00:47:14and even in the

00:47:16modern cryptozoological

00:47:17lexicon

00:47:17Goatman is generally

00:47:19described as distinctly

00:47:20being half human

00:47:22half goat

00:47:23as having this

00:47:24goat head

00:47:25on a very distinctly

00:47:26human body

00:47:27that doesn't really

00:47:29make sense

00:47:29so if it's not

00:47:30a hoax

00:47:31a hallucination

00:47:32just an urban legend

00:47:33if it's something

00:47:34that actually exists

00:47:35in the form

00:47:36that we're perceiving it

00:47:37you could make the argument

00:47:39that it would have

00:47:40to be something

00:47:41supernatural

00:47:41something from

00:47:42outside the veil

00:47:43if you like

00:47:44returning to the

00:47:47beast of billiwack

00:47:48we see that the

00:47:50paranormal aspect

00:47:51of the goat man

00:47:52legend is not far

00:47:53from the more

00:47:54commonly touted

00:47:55origin stories

00:47:56liso canyon

00:47:58is also home

00:47:59to what some

00:48:00spanish speakers

00:48:01call the chivo man

00:48:02a goat man

00:48:04like entity

00:48:04with supernatural roots

00:48:06so the chivo man

00:48:08and the billiwack

00:48:09monster

00:48:09they're essentially

00:48:11one and the same

00:48:12the only difference

00:48:13there is the chivo man

00:48:14kind of has more

00:48:15roots in Mexico

00:48:17and Central America

00:48:19as the Y chivo creature

00:48:22which is essentially

00:48:23a goat man

00:48:24like creature

00:48:25that is human

00:48:26it's a

00:48:27it's a brujo

00:48:28a witch

00:48:29that

00:48:29a male witch

00:48:30that utilizes

00:48:32witchcraft

00:48:33to turn himself

00:48:34into

00:48:35a goat man

00:48:36like creature

00:48:37or other sort of

00:48:38humanoid looking

00:48:39entities

00:48:40and one of the

00:48:41interesting things

00:48:42about that

00:48:43if you were to

00:48:45tie in witchcraft

00:48:47into

00:48:48the idea

00:48:49of the billiwack monster

00:48:51the billiwack monster

00:48:52is located in

00:48:54the billiwack ranch

00:48:56but that was originally

00:48:57in

00:48:58the aliso canyon area

00:49:01that's

00:49:01what the entire area

00:49:03surrounding billiwack ranch

00:49:04is

00:49:05now aliso

00:49:06means

00:49:07alder

00:49:08in english

00:49:09so alder tree

00:49:11if you look into

00:49:12elemental magic

00:49:14the alder tree

00:49:15is

00:49:16associated with

00:49:18being a

00:49:19gateway

00:49:19for the

00:49:21fairy folk

00:49:21the fey people

00:49:22it's supposedly

00:49:24it's utilized

00:49:24as a portal

00:49:25to go from

00:49:26one realm

00:49:27to the next

00:49:28so if you were to

00:49:29add in the idea

00:49:31of

00:49:31witchcraft

00:49:32into the idea

00:49:33of

00:49:34this

00:49:34billiwack monster

00:49:36creature

00:49:36now you can see

00:49:38why a creature

00:49:39can sort of

00:49:40pop in

00:49:41and phase in

00:49:41and out

00:49:42of existence

00:49:43and not really

00:49:44have any sort of

00:49:45biological

00:49:46precedent

00:49:48for existing

00:49:49and

00:49:49the aliso canyon

00:49:51area acting

00:49:51somewhat as a

00:49:52window area

00:49:53a hot spot

00:49:54for anomalous

00:49:55activity to exist

00:49:56when considering

00:50:04the possibility

00:50:05of the goat man

00:50:06being something

00:50:07otherworldly

00:50:08the floodgates

00:50:10are open

00:50:10to a plethora

00:50:11of explanations

00:50:12Nathan Couch

00:50:15author of the book

00:50:16goat man

00:50:17flesh or folklore

00:50:18offers one of the

00:50:19most interesting

00:50:20and unique

00:50:21takes on

00:50:22what the goat man

00:50:23may be

00:50:23we discussed

00:50:27like could he be

00:50:28a zoological

00:50:29creature

00:50:29I think it's

00:50:30an impossibility

00:50:31and the fact

00:50:32and of course

00:50:33I said earlier

00:50:34that he has

00:50:34a lot of

00:50:35supernatural

00:50:35traits

00:50:36and skills

00:50:37in these stories

00:50:38and in these

00:50:38sightings

00:50:39I think if he

00:50:41does exist

00:50:42he'd have to be

00:50:43something

00:50:44supernatural

00:50:45something that

00:50:46hasn't been

00:50:47explained by

00:50:47science yet

00:50:48I think he'd

00:50:48have to be

00:50:49like a nature

00:50:50spirit of some

00:50:51type

00:50:51I don't really

00:50:53necessarily

00:50:54mean a spirit

00:50:55isn't like

00:50:55a ghost

00:50:56or human spirit

00:50:57but you know

00:50:58pagan religions

00:50:59worship nature

00:50:59spirits like

00:51:00the fae

00:51:02fairies

00:51:02are nature

00:51:03spirits

00:51:04all these

00:51:05things like

00:51:05gnomes

00:51:06trolls

00:51:06things of that

00:51:08nature

00:51:08they're all

00:51:09these supernatural

00:51:09creatures that

00:51:10exist in nature

00:51:11that aren't

00:51:12human

00:51:12they have some

00:51:13sort of

00:51:14supernatural

00:51:15or divine

00:51:15quality to them

00:51:16goat man

00:51:17looks a lot

00:51:18like the god

00:51:19pan

00:51:19from Greek

00:51:21mythology

00:51:21he's a half

00:51:22man half

00:51:23half built

00:51:23creature

00:51:24pan was

00:51:25the god

00:51:25of the wild

00:51:26he was very

00:51:27connected to

00:51:28nature

00:51:28very symbolic

00:51:29of humankind's

00:51:30relationship with

00:51:31nature

00:51:31in the Greek

00:51:32pantheon

00:51:33and the term

00:51:34panic

00:51:34as in like

00:51:35extreme fear

00:51:36that we use

00:51:36today

00:51:37comes from

00:51:38pan's name

00:51:39that's the root

00:51:39term for that

00:51:40because pan

00:51:41when you're walking

00:51:42in the wilderness

00:51:42and you hear

00:51:43animals howling

00:51:44and the wind

00:51:45and the sounds

00:51:45of the wild

00:51:46that's said to be

00:51:47pan

00:51:47you know

00:51:48shouting at you

00:51:49or calling out

00:51:50into the night

00:51:50as you pass

00:51:51through his

00:51:51territory

00:51:51so when you

00:51:53look at the

00:51:54modern day

00:51:54and you have

00:51:55some of these

00:51:55more modern

00:51:56goat man

00:51:57encounters

00:51:58a lot of times

00:51:59they're accompanied

00:51:59by people saying

00:52:00I heard a wailing

00:52:01sound

00:52:01I heard this

00:52:02horrible scream

00:52:03this inhuman cry

00:52:04coming from the night

00:52:05so at the very least

00:52:06there's a tangential

00:52:07correlation

00:52:08not only in the

00:52:09physical resemblance

00:52:09between pan

00:52:10and the modern

00:52:12goat man

00:52:12if you want to

00:52:13call it that

00:52:13but also the way

00:52:14in which these

00:52:15things behave

00:52:15and the way in which

00:52:16they seem to

00:52:17approach people

00:52:17when they're in

00:52:18these wild

00:52:19and wooded

00:52:19places

00:52:19and there is

00:52:21an exact

00:52:21sighting in

00:52:22Dallas

00:52:23near White Rock

00:52:24Lake

00:52:24that I believe

00:52:25Nick Redford

00:52:26uncovered

00:52:26where a woman

00:52:28who's jogging

00:52:29around the lake

00:52:29felt like she

00:52:30was being watched

00:52:31she turned

00:52:32she saw this

00:52:32goat-like

00:52:33creature looking

00:52:34at her

00:52:35smirking

00:52:35it walked

00:52:36towards her

00:52:36a little bit

00:52:37and then

00:52:38there was a

00:52:39smell of

00:52:39sulfur

00:52:40he just

00:52:41disappeared

00:52:42in a flash

00:52:42after laughing

00:52:43at her

00:52:43and she said

00:52:44she felt like

00:52:45she was having

00:52:45a panic attack

00:52:46something that

00:52:47she had never

00:52:48felt before

00:52:49the parallels

00:52:51between the goat

00:52:52man and the

00:52:53satyrs of the

00:52:54ancient world

00:52:54are obvious

00:52:55on the surface

00:52:56half man

00:52:58half goat

00:52:59figures that

00:52:59live in the wild

00:53:00sometimes filling

00:53:02travelers with

00:53:03panic

00:53:03if they are

00:53:04unlucky enough

00:53:05to come upon

00:53:06one at night

00:53:07yet perhaps

00:53:10the connection

00:53:11is more than

00:53:12skin deep

00:53:12the correlation

00:53:14between goat

00:53:15man and

00:53:16satyrs or

00:53:17fawns really

00:53:18seems very

00:53:19very natural

00:53:20when you stop

00:53:21to think about

00:53:21the functions

00:53:22of those figures

00:53:24in mythology

00:53:25you know they

00:53:25were associated

00:53:27with virility

00:53:28fertility

00:53:29they were also

00:53:31associated with

00:53:32debauchery and

00:53:33wild parties

00:53:34and so it just

00:53:35seems like

00:53:36in the case of

00:53:36the lover's lane

00:53:37stories they're

00:53:38modern retellings

00:53:40of these sort

00:53:42of satinalias

00:53:44I mean that's

00:53:44where the phrase

00:53:46comes from in

00:53:47the first place

00:53:47is the satyr

00:53:48and the overlap

00:53:50between that

00:53:51and this pagan

00:53:52holiday festivities

00:53:53pan as well

00:53:56as far as a

00:53:57lowercase god

00:53:59is concerned

00:54:00was very much

00:54:01involved with

00:54:02these sort of

00:54:03tales and so

00:54:05there does seem

00:54:05to be again

00:54:06although in the

00:54:07modern tellings

00:54:08it's not so much

00:54:10encouraging the

00:54:11behavior as it

00:54:12is discouraging

00:54:13or talking about

00:54:14consequences

00:54:15exacting some

00:54:19sort of judgment

00:54:20in the case of

00:54:22Alton Bridge

00:54:23you know it's

00:54:23a folkloric

00:54:25agent of judgment

00:54:26in sort of

00:54:27a frontier justice

00:54:30some consequence

00:54:31must be levied

00:54:32upon those

00:54:33who are doing

00:54:34wrong

00:54:34so I do see

00:54:35that there is

00:54:36a way

00:54:37that those

00:54:37paradigms

00:54:38even though

00:54:39they morph

00:54:40slightly

00:54:41in function

00:54:42that seems

00:54:43to be a

00:54:44pattern

00:54:45that occupies

00:54:47the psyche

00:54:47of humankind

00:54:49for whatever

00:54:49reason

00:54:50there does

00:54:51seem to be

00:54:51a connection

00:54:53or correlation

00:54:53between

00:54:54some of this

00:54:55activity

00:54:55and the

00:54:56sexual energy

00:54:57of human beings

00:54:58and a prime

00:54:58example of that

00:54:59is you start

00:54:59talking about

00:55:00poltergeists

00:55:00these are often

00:55:01connected to

00:55:02young women

00:55:03who are just

00:55:03now beginning

00:55:04to come of age

00:55:05and all of a sudden

00:55:06this activity

00:55:06starts

00:55:07I think it might

00:55:08have something

00:55:09to do with

00:55:09the fact that

00:55:10around those

00:55:11times in a

00:55:13person's life

00:55:13chemicals in your

00:55:14brain start to

00:55:15shift

00:55:15and therefore

00:55:15your perception

00:55:16is going to

00:55:17shift

00:55:17and when that

00:55:19starts to happen

00:55:20there's a good

00:55:20possibility that

00:55:21you might be

00:55:22able to open

00:55:22yourself up

00:55:23to other channels

00:55:23and see different

00:55:24layers of reality

00:55:25and that's where

00:55:25I think a lot

00:55:26of this stuff

00:55:26comes from

00:55:27is layers of

00:55:28reality that's

00:55:29stacked on top

00:55:29of us

00:55:30and at the same

00:55:31time I also

00:55:32think that has

00:55:32something to do

00:55:33with human

00:55:34consciousness

00:55:34and the way

00:55:35that we

00:55:36remember things

00:55:37as far as

00:55:38history goes

00:55:38because satyrs

00:55:39they were very

00:55:40popular and very

00:55:41believed in

00:55:42during Greek times

00:55:42now fast forward

00:55:44to a time

00:55:45when spirituality

00:55:45is not necessarily

00:55:47part of our

00:55:48main sphere

00:55:49of existence

00:55:50but now we have

00:55:52all of these people

00:55:53who are starting

00:55:53to take an interest

00:55:54in it

00:55:54so now we're

00:55:55starting to see

00:55:55sightings of things

00:55:56like goat men

00:55:57dog men

00:55:57stranger cryptids

00:55:59that don't necessarily

00:56:01have the popularity

00:56:03of say Bigfoot

00:56:04or Loch Ness Monster

00:56:05but enough sightings

00:56:06in recent times

00:56:07have certainly

00:56:08made it a little

00:56:09bit more interesting

00:56:10you know you go

00:56:13through this

00:56:13continuum

00:56:14of natural

00:56:15explanations

00:56:16supernatural

00:56:16explanations

00:56:17scientific

00:56:18and you'd think

00:56:19that it would

00:56:20stop at that

00:56:20but it's kind of

00:56:21going back

00:56:22in the direction

00:56:22of the supernatural

00:56:23and dark

00:56:25even satanic

00:56:26direction

00:56:27and I think

00:56:28that's where

00:56:28this idea

00:56:30that is whispered

00:56:31about

00:56:32or talked about

00:56:33in very cautious

00:56:35ways

00:56:35is that somehow

00:56:36this thing could

00:56:37have been conjured

00:56:38in much the same

00:56:39way as like dogmen

00:56:41are talked about

00:56:41today

00:56:42and highly suggested

00:56:44like in the case

00:56:45of the Beast of Bray

00:56:46Road for example

00:56:47that some sort

00:56:48of occult activity

00:56:49could have

00:56:50intentionally

00:56:51or inadvertently

00:56:52brought this thing

00:56:54to life

00:56:55and how that works

00:56:57how long

00:56:58that it stays

00:56:59in our dimension

00:57:00are questions

00:57:02I'd rather not

00:57:03know the answers to

00:57:04but seem to be

00:57:05put forward

00:57:06as a possible

00:57:07explanation

00:57:07these nature spirits

00:57:10are not the only

00:57:11thing the goat man

00:57:12resembles

00:57:12with a goat like

00:57:14head and a man

00:57:15like body

00:57:16the goat man

00:57:17might as well

00:57:18be the devil

00:57:19himself

00:57:19I think

00:57:21what sets the goat

00:57:22man legend

00:57:23apart from other

00:57:24cryptids

00:57:24is the fact

00:57:26that our

00:57:26essential image

00:57:28of a half man

00:57:29half goat

00:57:30conjures up

00:57:31you know

00:57:32Satan

00:57:32demons

00:57:34the embodiment

00:57:35of ultimate evil

00:57:36and so

00:57:38in that respect

00:57:39the goat man

00:57:39is almost scarier

00:57:40than something

00:57:41like a big foot

00:57:42or a dog man

00:57:43or even a chupacabra

00:57:45because it

00:57:46is demonic

00:57:48in nature

00:57:48it is

00:57:49it's got

00:57:50paganistic qualities

00:57:51so it harkens

00:57:52back to that

00:57:53ancient

00:57:53form of evil

00:57:54something that

00:57:56evolved

00:57:57centuries ago

00:57:58something that's

00:57:59still around

00:58:00psychologically

00:58:01I think people

00:58:02are very very scared

00:58:03of the notion

00:58:03of something

00:58:04that looks like

00:58:05a half man

00:58:05half goat

00:58:06because

00:58:06it's demonic

00:58:08the quintessential image

00:58:10of the satanic goat

00:58:11like entity

00:58:12known as

00:58:12Baphomet

00:58:13stems from early

00:58:15occultist writers

00:58:16like

00:58:16Alephus Levi

00:58:17later

00:58:19later it became

00:58:19entwined with

00:58:20inverted pentagrams

00:58:22the lemma

00:58:26freemasons

00:58:28Aleister Crowley

00:58:29and the teachings

00:58:30of Anton LaVey

00:58:32both of whom

00:58:33associated the Baphomet

00:58:34with the god

00:58:35Pan

00:58:36what's more

00:58:39what's more

00:58:39is the sigil

00:58:40of Baphomet

00:58:41is the official

00:58:42insignia

00:58:43of the church

00:58:43of Satan

00:58:44in many ways

00:58:47equating the goat

00:58:49man with the devil

00:58:50is a natural

00:58:51thought process

00:58:52but not necessarily

00:58:54the most explanatory

00:58:55classically

00:58:58the devil

00:58:59is often portrayed

00:59:00as something

00:59:00very similar

00:59:01to a satyr

00:59:01you have

00:59:02the cloven hooves

00:59:03the rather muscular

00:59:04torso

00:59:04and then you have

00:59:05the head of the goat

00:59:06where that imagery

00:59:08actually comes from

00:59:08I cannot be sure

00:59:10but it has now

00:59:10made its way

00:59:11into the

00:59:13psychological aspect

00:59:14of how we perceive

00:59:16good and evil

00:59:17there's a whole stream

00:59:18of thought

00:59:18that goes into

00:59:19consideration of goat man

00:59:22as far as like

00:59:23occult

00:59:24where we'll just

00:59:24you know

00:59:25go right to

00:59:26Baphomet

00:59:26and Satan

00:59:27says you know

00:59:28why this

00:59:29right

00:59:29and I think

00:59:30part of this

00:59:31is related to ideas

00:59:32that correlate

00:59:33to the ability

00:59:36that evil has

00:59:38or does not have

00:59:39to make

00:59:39and create

00:59:40and this has been

00:59:42explored in the

00:59:43writings of

00:59:43C.S. Lewis

00:59:44and J.R.R. Tolkien

00:59:46and others

00:59:46but that

00:59:48Satan does not

00:59:49have the power

00:59:49to create things

00:59:50from nothing

00:59:51he can only take

00:59:52what's there

00:59:53and corrupt it

00:59:54and so

00:59:55here's where

00:59:56it really gets

00:59:57interesting

00:59:57is that the idea

00:59:58in some cases

01:00:00like the

01:00:01public monster

01:00:01for example

01:00:02early reports

01:00:03seem to break

01:00:04in the direction

01:00:05of a sheep man

01:00:06but later ones

01:00:07go in the direction

01:00:08of goat man

01:00:09and a correlation

01:00:11and a correlation

01:00:11here could

01:00:13potentially be

01:00:14that

01:00:15in the case

01:00:16of sheep

01:00:17when you think

01:00:18of a sheep

01:00:19you don't think

01:00:20of something

01:00:20malevolent

01:00:21you think

01:00:22of something

01:00:22innocent

01:00:22you think

01:00:23of something

01:00:23pure

01:00:24and taking

01:00:25this to

01:00:26scripture

01:00:27such as

01:00:28the Holy Bible

01:00:30you have

01:00:31the Son of God

01:00:33who is described

01:00:34in terms of

01:00:35the Lamb of God

01:00:37so you've got

01:00:38this symbol

01:00:39of purity

01:00:40and goodness

01:00:42what's a way

01:00:43to corrupt that

01:00:44well

01:00:45potentially

01:00:46take it in

01:00:47the direction

01:00:48of a goat

01:00:49which is

01:00:50less likable

01:00:52as a figure

01:00:53certainly one

01:00:54that we

01:00:54associate with

01:00:56things like

01:00:57eating trash

01:00:58and living off

01:01:00of that

01:01:00while a ram

01:01:02a sheep's ram

01:01:03can develop horns

01:01:04we don't think

01:01:05of a lamb

01:01:05as having

01:01:06that ability

01:01:07but a full grown goat

01:01:08has the horns

01:01:09and therefore

01:01:10seems more

01:01:11intimidating

01:01:12and will in fact

01:01:13resort to violence

01:01:15when that's

01:01:16seen as needed

01:01:17so I think

01:01:18that there may be

01:01:19some territory

01:01:21to explore there

01:01:22that a goat

01:01:23is a violent

01:01:25or corrupt

01:01:26form of an

01:01:27innocent little

01:01:28lamb

01:01:29and maybe

01:01:31somewhere along

01:01:31the way

01:01:32our expectation

01:01:34or perception

01:01:34of what

01:01:35half human

01:01:37half

01:01:38sheep

01:01:39then goat

01:01:40becomes

01:01:41is colored

01:01:42by that

01:02:02of how

01:02:06to

01:02:09see

01:02:10himself

01:02:12or

01:02:13he

01:02:14catches

01:02:14the

01:02:14one

01:02:15Graham

01:02:16does

01:02:16kill

01:02:16the

01:02:17girl

01:02:18to

01:02:19an

01:02:19A

01:02:19with

01:02:20girl

01:02:20to

01:02:21the

01:02:24or

01:02:25of

01:02:25her

01:02:26girl

01:02:26and

01:02:26her

01:02:26to

01:02:27ill

01:02:28a

01:02:29or

01:02:30her

01:02:31her

01:02:31One of the most notable

01:03:01of all Goatman stories is that of the Popelick Monster of Kentucky.

01:03:07Some legends suggest that if one walks to the middle of the train trestle, the Goatman

01:03:12will appear on the other side.

01:03:15Others claim that the Goatman is the result of satanic rituals conducted in a nearby shack.

01:03:22Stories of the Popelick Monster are as varied as any that have already been discussed, but

01:03:28they also introduce new elements into the mythos of the Goatman.

01:03:34My name's David Domene.

01:03:35I'm a Louisville-based author and educator, a folklorist as well.

01:03:40And I've lived in Louisville since 1993.

01:03:44And one of the first urban legends I heard about was one that's said to be rooted here

01:03:49at the Popelick trestle.

01:03:51It's called the Goatman.

01:03:53Some call it the Monster of Popelick.

01:03:55This is an active trestle.

01:03:57We have early mentions of it in 1909 already.

01:04:00So we know this train track has run through here for at least 100 years.

01:04:07Interestingly enough, this is a case where initial very old reports seem to describe it

01:04:13as Sheepman instead of Goatman.

01:04:16And at some point, that tilts in the direction of the goat instead of the sheep.

01:04:21There's some rather sort of highly bizarre stories having to do with origins.

01:04:26Supposedly, there was this goat-like creature seen in the wilderness of Canada.

01:04:31And this circus owner named Silas Garner, who was somebody who I had not been able to prove

01:04:35ever existed, found out about the creature, hired someone to capture it, put it in a sideshow.

01:04:42And by capturing this creature, he cursed himself.

01:04:45And on a stormy night, as the train was traveling through Kentucky, the goat man's curse sort

01:04:51of caused the train to derail, and he escaped and now lives under the bridge at Popelick.

01:04:58Others say that there was a local farmer who was a little too friendly with his goats.

01:05:02He was breeding with them, and that's one of the more interesting takes.

01:05:07And other far more even sinister origin stories having to do with a farmer who made goat sacrifices,

01:05:15hoping to gain some sort of satanic dark power, and he ends up becoming the goat man.

01:05:22It's very much an urban legend, you know.

01:05:24It's said that there's a half-man, half-goat kind of creature who lives under the trestles,

01:05:30and he's a siren type of being.

01:05:32He likes to attract unsuspecting visitors up to the tracks.

01:05:38Sometimes he mimics voices.

01:05:40Sometimes he acts like he's in distress.

01:05:42But for whatever reason, people are led up to the trestle.

01:05:46And many people don't realize this is still an active trestle several times a day.

01:05:51So there's an almost 800-foot span.

01:05:54And if you're caught up there where a train is coming through, there's really no place

01:05:58to go.

01:05:59All you can do is outrun the train, which most people can't.

01:06:02Or you have to jump over the side and dangle from one of the, you know, pieces of wood that

01:06:07juts out, which is kind of a hard task because it takes usually at least five minutes for a

01:06:12train to rumble overhead.

01:06:14That's when people often fall to their deaths or they're running and they stumble and they

01:06:19fall over the side because there's really no railing.

01:06:21It's just, uh, just tracks up in the sky.

01:06:25One thing separating the Popelig monster from other Goatman stories are the very real deaths

01:06:31connected to the legend.

01:06:34As of 2019, at least 12 people have been injured while seeking the Goatman upon the Popelig trestle.

01:06:42There are some people that have actually gone out there to look for the Goatman and their

01:06:46lives have been tragically ended.

01:06:49As in the case of a couple who went up there around 2015 or 2016.

01:06:56They were on the train trestle and a train started coming their way as there are 20 to 25 trains

01:07:04that actually go over this train trestle every day.

01:07:08The boyfriend managed to jump and hang onto a steel beam where the girlfriend met her tragic

01:07:15fate 90 feet below under the ground.

01:07:18J.C. Baum was a teenager, I believe in 1988, and he was struck by the train and killed and

01:07:29presumably, um, you know, fell to his death off of the, the trestle, you know, those stories

01:07:36and they're, they're matters of historic fact, people who have gone out on the tracks and have

01:07:43died because of it.

01:07:45So unlike a lot of these other stories where they kind of just add up to a bunch of fun

01:07:50sightings and a few, you know, spooky stories.

01:07:53This is one that actually has a tangible death toll attached to it.

01:07:58Some people have taken it to say that, oh, well that means the Goatman is responsible

01:08:01for these deaths or the Goatman hypnotizes people and brings them into the woods.

01:08:06I tend to think some places are just very dangerous and that's why people get hurt when

01:08:11they go out there and don't take the appropriate precautions when they go to places that they

01:08:14aren't supposed to go, but there's no separating this legend from this place and all of the tragic

01:08:20events that have gone on.

01:08:22The final key to the Goatman mystery is the influence of the media.

01:08:35In the age of information, where a sensational news can and does influence the decisions

01:08:41of individuals, the proliferation of certain stories are bound to ignite the imaginations

01:08:47of people.

01:08:49A single newspaper article was all that it took to lure teenagers out to Fletchertown Road

01:08:55in search of the Goatman of Bowie.

01:08:58Even years later, when the story of Ginger the Dog was revealed to have been a hoax, the

01:09:04legend had grown well beyond the newsprint and was now part of modern folklore.

01:09:10Hundreds of people flocked to Lake Worth when the sensational sightings were mentioned on

01:09:14local television news.

01:09:16Deaths on the Poplik trestle that were once seen as accidental were now shrouded in mystery

01:09:23due to the popularization of an urban legend through an independent film.

01:09:28In every major case of a Goatman, there lies a strong media backing to the legend.

01:09:34And with every legend tripper that seeks out the Goatman and has an experience either real

01:09:41or imagined, the mythos continues to grow.

01:09:46I think part of the reason why there are so many origin stories and such variants has in

01:09:53part to do with the explanatory power of things over time.

01:09:58What I mean by that is 150, 200 years ago, you would have had sort of agrarian, naturalistic

01:10:06explanations for things, mundane sort of reasons that a goat man might appear.

01:10:14You know, in other words, a fleshly union between farmer and animal, as sickening as that is to

01:10:21sort of consider, that is one stream of explanatory story that was given about that.

01:10:28And then you start to bring in sort of folk religion, witchcraft and so forth, and now the

01:10:36devil and dark forces become to swirl into the story where if some sort of pact or agreement

01:10:43was made, then that would result, you know, a necessary consequence of making a deal with

01:10:48the devil is you have to pay a price that you don't expect.

01:10:51And certainly being forced into the form of a goat man would qualify as one of those terrible

01:10:59prices to pay.

01:11:00And then with the rise of science as something that explains everything, you get into then

01:11:07stories having to do with breeding taking place normally in a secret facility where evidently

01:11:15DNA of some type could be spliced.

01:11:18And that sort of rules the creation, if you will, of a creature like goat man or sheep man,

01:11:25where you're moving away from a kind of spiritual religious overtone into the realm of a scientific,

01:11:33reasonable explanation.

01:11:36Goat man is generally always, at least in the stories I've looked at, somehow intimately

01:11:42tied to human nature.

01:11:45Again, if we look at Pan and those early stories, that talks about how humankind interacted with

01:11:50the wild, how we viewed wild places and what we learned to fear, you know, it symbolizes

01:11:55this mashup of humanity and something wild.

01:11:58And again, a lot of cryptids do that.

01:12:00But these modern goat man stories, the origin stories are always, you know, racism, genetic

01:12:06experiments gone wrong, humans and animals intermixing, just bad things.

01:12:12A lot of cryptid stories, we get monsters that kind of represent humanity.

01:12:16They're upright.

01:12:17Maybe they're hominids, Bigfoot stories.

01:12:19But goat man reports seem to, again, just talk about the worst parts of humankind.

01:12:24What's gone wrong, racial prejudice, greed, violence.

01:12:28There's never anything positive in there.

01:12:30There's never anything that we look at and go, that makes me feel a little bit better

01:12:33about the world.

01:12:34Unlike with, you know, say, again, Bigfoot encounters or some other potentially unclassified

01:12:40animals.

01:12:41The Loch Ness Monster.

01:12:42You know, people have these encounters and it changes their life for the better.

01:12:44I don't think we've heard a story like that about goat man.

01:12:48The locations where he's a known legend, like the trestle at Pope Lick.

01:12:54So you have those types of stories, which probably not even a morsel of truth in them, but you

01:13:01have sightings of creatures that very much could be in the realm of real experience.

01:13:09Like perhaps a lot of these sightings have nothing to do with the outlandish stories they've

01:13:14been given.

01:13:15People are experiencing them and then people are attaching plot lines from movies and comic

01:13:21books and, and campfire stories to these sightings.

01:13:26I think there's so many different versions of goat man, just because it again, sort of

01:13:30exists as this primordial fear that we have, this, this idea of fear of the woods, fear of

01:13:36the unknown, uh, and the idea of going back again to pan the, the trickster god of the woods.

01:13:43It was essentially a goat man entity that would lure you to your doom.

01:13:49Maybe that sort of memory, that genetic memory that we have of danger in the woods has been

01:13:56personified into the idea of this goat man like figure that now that can exist all across

01:14:02the world in every state, in every country, in every dark wooded area that we wander into.

01:14:09The idea of this goat man waiting there to get us can exist and live and thrive and is

01:14:15probably experienced by numerous amounts of people.

01:14:20When considering the archetype of a goat man, I think there are many different influences

01:14:25and we have to accept that many of our cryptids are actually examples of what I call composite

01:14:30identity, meaning there's different influences sort of coming together to form this one specific

01:14:36archetype. And so for example, the idea of a half man, half goat goes back a long time. In the fifth

01:14:44century BC, we find the first Greek interpretations of creatures known as satyrs, which are essentially

01:14:51forest beings that are often portrayed as having goat like features, big ears, horns. So that particular

01:14:58idea has been around a very, very long time. And then that evolved over time. And I think, you know,

01:15:04those ancient Greek mythologies and legends were adapted by the Romans and the satyrs became the

01:15:10fauns. And then as Christianity took over, a lot of these old pagan ideas of things like satyrs were

01:15:18kind of pushed to the side. And then eventually, early interpretations of Satan or the devil began to

01:15:25resemble a half man, half goat, almost as if Christianity was saying, okay, well, these old pagan ideas, you know,

01:15:32of goat men, you know, these are demons, these are the devil. And so, you know, the goat man is therefore

01:15:39become an evil entity, right? It's become kind of an embodiment of pure evil or demonic activity. And

01:15:48furthermore, I think we have to acknowledge that a lot of urban legends and campfire tales actually

01:15:54migrate and evolve. And as different communities and areas kind of adapt these monster stories, they kind of put their own

01:16:02brand on it. There are always some similar themes or motifs in terms of, you know, it's out in the

01:16:08woods in a remote area or near an old spooky stone bridge. So the basic themes kind of remain the same.

01:16:17I think a good parallel example are these legends of giant catfish living under dams. And I've been to many

01:16:26places in the United States, Arizona, Georgia, Texas, where I've heard this recurring story about below a

01:16:32dam, there are these car sized catfish that will swallow people and animals and things. And so, you

01:16:39know, you find these, these similar legends in different places, and it's almost as if they kind of

01:16:44migrated. Similarly, a lot of these goat man stories may have migrated from Europe, you know, with European

01:16:51immigrants that brought some of the old world stories and tall tales.

01:17:02And finally, you know, there's an aspect in terms of, you know, when you consider what occurs at Lovers Lane areas,

01:17:07okay, teenagers are lustful, they're looking to party, you know, so they're out there, they're drinking, they're doing things that their

01:17:16parents don't want them to do. And so it's almost like there's an unconscious connection here to ancient

01:17:23Greek mythology and the satyrs, who were the original party animals. They were out with Dionysus, they were

01:17:29drinking wine, they were debaucherous chasing women. And so I think by associating the goat man legends with

01:17:36these remote Lovers Lane areas, it's almost like we're hearkening back to the earlier age of paganism and the

01:17:43types of debauchery that occur in places where people are not supposed to go.

01:17:52What sets the goat man legendarium apart from other cryptid stories is that I think it's hard to even

01:17:59consider it a cryptid. If we're taking sort of an old school approach to cryptozoology and saying that

01:18:07a cryptid is simply an animal that's gone undiscovered and uncatalogued, but it's out there

01:18:14waiting to be found. Goat man doesn't appear to be that kind of entity whatsoever. It doesn't seem to

01:18:22occupy a physical space, spiritual space perhaps, or sort of a folkloric space. Yes,

01:18:28depending on what stories you're listening to, monsters associated with goat man legends have

01:18:35done things like kill people. But when you're asked to produce sort of even an obituary,

01:18:44you run into dead ends immediately. So I think the central issue is that goat man is like a cryptids

01:18:53wedded with urban legend, wedded with folklore and stories that humans have been telling ever since they

01:19:01could tell stories. The goat man, it seems, is greater than the sum of all of its pieces.

01:19:10It is more than folklore. It is more than a cryptid. It is something that has seemingly existed

01:19:19alongside humankind for thousands of years and yet never physically existed. Perhaps it's the

01:19:27inexplicable nature of the goat man that keeps us coming back to that bridge after dark. Or stepping

01:19:35into the woods in hopes of adding our own experience to the legend, perpetuating the mystery well into the

01:19:44future.

01:20:14So

01:20:22so

01:20:24so

01:20:26so

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