Werewolves where?

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Did you know that 200 yearsbefore the witch trials in
Salem, Massachusetts court's inEurope or convicting men and
some women of transforming intowerewolves and mutilating and
eating children?
Did you know that we havewerewolf sightings right here in
North America today.
And that there's a map onlinewhere you could track werewolf

(00:24):
sightings at this very moment.
Who else to talk aboutwerewolves?
I do.
Hi, and welcome to"All ThingsCryptid" I am your host, Amanda
Winter, and today we're going tobe talking about werewolves or
dog men as they're called in thecrypto world.
Let's dive in.

(00:48):
In history, the dog man of oldwas known in many cultures as
the Cynocephali.
Cynocephali is from the Greek,meaning"dog head".
Cultures from Egypt, Africa,India, China, Europe, and
England have legends of men withdog heads.
In North America, the nativeAmericans had their own versions

(01:10):
as well.
I'm going to talk about a few ofthose.
So if you're sensitive to mementioning the name of these,
you may want to fast forwardabout 20 seconds.
The Lamikkin is the term thatthey use to describe a"skin
walker".
Werewolves during the ancientAmerican folklores were believed
to be skin walkers.

(01:30):
Lamikkin were not limited to theWolf alone, however they could
transform into any animal theywant.
The legends of the Lamikkin arenormally heard in the Navajo
tribe, Mohawks, Aztecs and theHopi.
Then we have the werewolftrials.
They took place in parts ofEurope throughout the 15th, 16th

(01:50):
and 17th centuries.
Driven by superstition religiousand political clashes.
And the desire to findscapegoats for harsh conditions.
Many of the accused werebeggars, hermits and recent
immigrants to the area.
Many confessed to beingwerewolves and committing
heinous crimes, but only afterbeing severely tortured.

(02:12):
Historians suspect that somesuffered from delusions or
weren't intelligent enough toknow what they were admitting to
a few may have actually beenpedophiles or serial killers,
but the historical records arefragmented and exaggerated.
Centuries later, it's difficultto untangle folklore from real

(02:33):
evidence or what people believeto be real at the time.
So.
What is a werewolf?
A werewolf cryptid is usually ahumanoid creature with canine
features.
May cryptozoologist are hesitantto place the"werewolf" label on
any suspected animals due to thebeast ties with supernatural

(02:56):
forces.
Instead, most werewolf cryptidsare at first thought of as big
foot like creatures.
However, in the current world ofcryptids, that is changing and
many cryptozoologist now use theterm dog man to describe the
beast that is huge, wolferdog-like with the ability to

(03:18):
walk upright.
So let's talk about dog, man.
And I'm going to start with themost famous case called the
beast of Bray road fromWisconsin.
Wisconsin is a Midwestern statewith coastlines on two great
lakes.
It's state is famous for itscheese because it's the nation's

(03:41):
leading dairy producer and it'sfamous for its beer, but it's
also a state with a rich NativeAmerican history.
Wisconsin also has its fairshare of paranormal sightings,
UFO sightings, big footsightings, a water monster that
lives in lake Winnebago and dogman sightings.

(04:03):
Today, we're going to be talkingabout Elkhorn, Wisconsin, a
small town with a little over10,000 people.
In December, 1991, Linda Godfreywas a newspaper reporter for a
nearby county that saw thatthere were a number of people
from her hometown of Elkhornthat were seeing what they
described as a werewolf on BrayRoad.

(04:24):
Bray Road is a four mile stretchof road that dead ends into
interstate 11.
It is bordered by farmland and afew scattered trees, but not a
scary road.
Or a place that looks like itwould have any kind of creature
lurking on it.
Thinking it was ridiculous.
She mentioned this to theWalworth County animal control

(04:45):
officer named John Fredrickson.
He reached into his desk drawerand pulled out a manilla file
folder labeled" werewolf".
Linda was dustned.
It was at that moment that sherealized that this needed
investigating.

(05:05):
The folder was full of peoplewho were calling and saying that
they'd seen something or thatthey'd heard of a Wolf or a
German shepherd type dog thatstood and ran on its hind legs.
Linda started calling the folksfrom the folder and found that
they were from my widedemographic and seemed truthful

(05:26):
to her.
She wondered what they wereseeing.
They typically described thebeast as a humanoid dog with a
dog or Wolf type head five toeight foot tall, hairy, usually
gray or brown humanoid handswith claws, two legs that bent
backwards dog-like.
But still able to stand and runon them.

(05:47):
On Halloween night, 1991, asenior in high school.
Doris Gibson was driving downBray Road, when she felt a thud
on her car.
Fearing that she hadaccidentally hit someone's
animal.
She stopped to check.
When she got out of the vehicle,she saw the werewolf type
creature on the side of the roadand it started running toward

(06:10):
her.
While trying to drive away thecreature left scratches down the
back of her car.
And Linda's published articleDoris wrote," it was October of
this year on Halloween.
I was going down Bray Road andit was kind of smoggy out.
And my front tire got lifted offthe ground.
I'd hit something.
So I kept going about 50 or 60feet right before Sitler road.

(06:33):
And then I got out of the car.
I'm looking around the side tosee what it was, cause I'm
thinking I hit a small animal.
I hit a bird that same night.
So I'm thinking great.
I just killed another animal.
There was nothing on the road,no blood or anything.
I didn't see anybody.
And I felt like if I had hit it,it should have stayed there.

(06:56):
I walked to the end of the carand here comes, this thing is
just running up at me.
You can see the chest of thisthing because it was big and it
was hairy.
It was fast that's for sure,because I see this thing I get
in the car and by the time I getinside the car, the thing had
grabbed a hold of the car.
I just put my foot on the gaspedal and I started going, maybe

(07:19):
after I got going, I lookedback, but at the time I was more
interested in leaving.
The way it was running, youcould suggest that it was on two
legs because you could see thechest so well, and it was
pulsating as it was comingtoward me.
It was hitting the ground hard.
I've never seen a human run asfast as that, and my uncle is a
track star.

(07:40):
If it got me, I probably wouldhave been dinner that night.
It was bigger than any dog I'dseen around here.
We had a couple of rottweilers.
And we had one that was real bigand this thing was bigger than
he was.
And he had more hair.
It was brown and you could seethe hair dark colored.
It wasn't black though, longstraight hairs.

(08:03):
Coyotes don't get that big, I'veseen a coyote.
They were suggesting it was abear at my house, but I told
them it wasn't that big.
But it was bigger than anyanimal I'd seen around here.
When the nails hit my car, itwas like, mmmmph, she clapped
her hands together forcefully).
It hit the top of the trunk andit slid off the fog, made the

(08:25):
car wet.
But when it was going down, itscratched the car.
This did not look like a Germanshepherd.
I swear to that.
I went back to pick up mymother's boyfriend's daughter.
And on the way back, she saw itkneeling down eating or
something she's 11.
And I picked her up from trickor treating.
So it was around 9:00 PM.

(08:45):
She said," look at that thing".
I said,"yeah, look at it" and Ipressed on the gas.
The mind tends to play tricks onpeople after you've been scared
and I admit I was afraid I'm notgoing to say it was a werewolf.
I'd say it was a freak ofnature.
One of God's mistakes.
It's weird because you don'tthink something like that exist,

(09:08):
but if you see a creature likethat, It tends to leave the mind
wondering".
In the summer of 1992, TomBrichta and Chris Maxwell were
driving late one foggy night onBray Road, when they saw the
creature crouch by the side ofthe road, eating roadkill.
The beast lunged at the car asthey drove past scratching the

(09:30):
pinstripe off the side of thecar with its claws.
Another story was that of amother and her two children
walking down Bray Road, when adeer ran out in front of them
and chasing the deer was acreature that looked like a
werewolf.
In the fall of 1989, LorraineEndrizzi was a young single
mother driving down Bray Road onher way, home from a job as a

(09:53):
bar manager.
When she saw a hunched figure inthe road, eating roadkill.
She flipped on her high beams tosee it clearer and realize that
whatever it was knelt like a manand held the carcass in its
hands like it had human- likeelbows.
In Linda's article.

This is what Lorraine said (10:12):
I was driving home one night on
Bray Road, and I saw this thingon the side of the road.
As I came up to it.
In my car it's backwards to me.
I saw it had ears and a wholebit.
It was kneeling.
It's elbows were up and it'sclaws were facing out, so I knew

(10:33):
it had claws.
I remember the long claws.
And it was eating roadkill orsomething.
And as I drove by, I saw allthis, it looked right at me and
it didn't run.
It didn't get spooked oranything.
And it had like glowing eyeswhich probably were a reflection
of my headlights.
It was right on Bray Road rightbefore the Bray farm on the

(10:55):
curve.
I saw it.
He was brownish gray.
He had big teeth and fangs andhe looked right at me.
He turned his head to look atme.
It was about the size of anaverage man, five foot seven,
about 150 pounds.
It was holding the thing and itwas eating palms up.

(11:17):
With the real long claws andpointed ears.
He had a big long nose and along chin like this on the
picture, and she pointed to thedrawing of a werewolf from a
library book.
After Linda Godfrey publishedher article"Tracking down'the
Beast of Bray Road"' in the WEEKnewspaper in Walworth County on

(11:39):
December 29th, 1991.
People started calling andwriting her, telling her their
stories and she soon found outthat people had been seeing the
beast nearby for decades.
One of the earliest was fromJefferson county, a reporter for
a newspaper there called Lindaand told her that her dad had
seen the creature in 1936.

(12:01):
30 something.
Mark Shackleman was thenightwatchman the the St Coletta
School For Exceptional Childrenoutside Jefferson.
The school had extensive groundsthat included wide open fields
that held several preservedNative American burial grounds.
Crossing the fields one nightwhen doing his rounds,
Shackleman saw a shadow digginginto one of the mounds, much

(12:24):
like a canine would.
The beast then stood to aboutsix feet tall and looked at him,
it's large body covered in darkfur and smelled of rotting meat.
Shackleman took a step backstartled and the beast abruptly
turned and ran into the woods,Shackleman reported seeing it

(12:45):
again the next night, but neveragain.
In November 9th, 2006, SteveKrueger was working as a
contractor for the WinsconsinDNR, and it was his job to pick
up deer carcasses with his truckacross six counties.
A, DNR officer is a conservationofficer, her works for the
department of natural resources,but other names include fish and

(13:07):
game warden, wildlifeconservation officer, district,
wildlife manager, and fisheriesenforcement.
This DNR officer had removed thecarcass of an 85 pound DOE from
a road in Holy Hill, Wisconsin.
As Kruger set in the cab of histruck, filling out the required
paperwork for the removal.
He felt his truck shake.

(13:29):
Thinking it was simply the windhe ignored it.
A second harder shake caught hisattention, and he looked out the
back window of his truck to seea shadowy figure, standing at
the tailgate of his truck.
Kruger shined his flashlightthrough the back window to get a
better look and saw a six foottall animal with a Wolf like

(13:52):
face reaching into the bed forthe deer carcass he had just
removed from the road.
Startled, Kruger threw the truckin drive and sped away, allowing
the beast to drag the dough offthe back of his truck.
Present day Lee Hampel a retiredmath and physics teacher from
Illinois, owns a 35 acrehayfield near Elkhorn.

(14:15):
Over the years he has conductedresearch on his property and
among the cryptid he's seen onhis land are a dog man, which he
estimates to be over six foottall, which he thinks is the
beast of Bray Road and a hyenalike being with an awkward walk.
In addition to directlyobserving these creatures,
Hampel is identified numeroustracks belonging to them and

(14:38):
patches has been found ofremains of deer partially eaten
by them.
Hampel also claims to havecaptured on camera's UFO's
unexplained, orbs, and figures,and a thick mist that often
obscures visibility.
Winsconsin isn't the only statewith a notorious sighting.

(14:59):
Michigan has it share ofsightings as well.
And some of the research I'vedone, it's stated that the dog
man's sightings actually startedin Michigan and then later
spread to Winsconsin.
Michigan is cited as the statewith the most reported dog, man
sightings.
The legend of the Michigan dogman originated in 1887 and it is

(15:22):
become part of Michigan'sfolklore and popular culture.
In 1887 in Wexford county, twolumber Jackson, counter
creature.
They described as having thehead of a dog and the body of a
man.
Thus the Michigan dog, manlegend was born.
Another interesting story.
I came across while doingresearch was from 1961 in Big

(15:44):
Rapids, Michigan.
It was a story that a son wasretelling about his father.
It was around three in themorning, in the Michigan town of
Big Rapids, where this gentlemanwas up late at night at his
home.He lived right across fromthe manufacturing plant that he
worked at as the nightwatchman.

(16:04):
The plant set right nexttoHaymarsh State Game area, and
this is where the source claimsto have seen someone or
something, making noise by thechain link fence, bordering the
property.
Thinking it was an intruder, thenarrator goes from his work to
his house to grab a gun.
But when he returns outside, heinstead sees a six foot tall,

(16:27):
grayish, brownish, upright dog,like creature shambling about in
his driveway.
Thinking quick on his feet, thisguy rushes into his house to try
and grab his camera instead.
When he returns outside the dogman was already out of his
driveway and further into thedark street.
However, at one point, thecreature did move near a

(16:49):
streetlight.Where the anonymoussource was able to snap one or
maybe four or five allegedpictures of the Michigan dog
man, before it ran off into thenight.
In 2009 in Shelby, Michigan inthe middle of the frigid,
Michigan winter on a cold night,30 minutes to midnight retired

(17:11):
law enforcement officer LauraLove was riding shotgun with a
friend of hers.
For the sake of this story,we'll just call him.
C, because he wished to remainanonymous.
The two were heading north on us31.
Near theWest Weber Roadoverpass,when they had got a
look at something that lookedlike a werewolf on the cold,

(17:35):
moderately snowy road.
"We saw a large, tall, dark, andoddly shaped creature run from
the left side of the overpass"claimed Love.
"And it hit the rear quarterpanel of the small truck in
front of us causing the truck tofish tail.
The other truck didn't even stopto check for damage,it just sped

(17:56):
off".
However, Love and her companion,were able to get a really good
look at it.
She describes it as being almostseven and a half feet tall,dark
furred bipedal figure,withbackward looking knees and
nearly a lion mane’s worth offur sitting on its neck like a

(18:16):
fancy fur collar from thetwenties..
She also claimed that the dogman had a face like a Border
Collie.
The creature didn't stop to puton any further show for its
audience of two, it ran offdisappearing into a patch of
weeds and trees.
Love andC, drove home silentlystunned and didn't discuss their
encounter until they were in thesafety of Love's home.

(18:40):
Only then were the two able toadmit to each other that they
had both indeed seen TheMichigan dog, man.
There are so many interestingdog man stories that I could
make a whole podcast just onthem.
There are even dog man sightingsstill today throughout the
United States.
In the show notes, I've includedan interactive map where you can

(19:00):
track dog man sightings..
I thought I'd read a couple ofstories from the interactive map
for fun.
This one is from Hawthorne,Nevada.
I grew up in a town calledHawthorne, located in Nevada.
Hawthorne is located right nextto Walker lake.
The main highway leading fromHawthorne to Reno is highway 95,
which is view use Google earth.

(19:22):
You could see runs right betweenWalker, like and a mountain
range.
This creates a small area ofhighway that is affectionately
known to locals as" the cliffs".
When I was 14, my grandparents,mom and I were coming home late
from a long day of doctor'sappointments in Reno.

(19:42):
My grandfather was driving andwe hit"the cliffs" a little
after 11:30 PM.
I was in the passenger seat tohelp keep my grandfather awake.
But I still think it was just soI could sing folk songs with
him.
Anyway, about one third of theway around the cliffs heading
towards Hawthorne, there is asmall area where the road pulls

(20:02):
away from the mountain andcreates a small out Cove area.
As we started to come up on it,we saw a large animal crossing
the road, dragging anotheranimal in its mouth, and it
stopped in this OutCo.
Grandpa thought at first that Imight get my first look at a lot
of mountain lion.
So he slowed down.
When we got within a hundredfeet of it, he turned on the

(20:25):
bright lights, the car to oursurprise it was no mountain
line.
We only had a couple seconds tolook at it after grandpa turned
on the brights, because rightafter the light hit, whatever
the hell, that thing was, itturned to look at us one second.
And then in the next it leapedstraight up the side of the
mountain.
And out of sight.
Leaving the mangled body of aFox.

(20:48):
Grandpa hit the gas and the oldBuick we were in jumped, waking
the women in the back seat.
I'd never seen my grandfathertruly scared before, but even he
was physically shakingafterward.
I remembered the sheer bulk ofthe thing and the fact that it
looked like a really largebodybuilder when it jumped in
the same fashion as a human withits arms, reaching up toward the

(21:11):
rocks almost over its head.
I had long thick fur, but youcan see the muscle definition.
I don't remember the facialfeatures, but I remember the
pure terror when the thingturned and looked at the car
with shining yellow eyes.
I even pissed myself.
I have come practicallyface-to-face with a polar bear

(21:32):
and I wasn't as scared as whenwe saw this thing.
Now I don't believe inwerewolves and I haven't seen
anything like it since, but Ihope I never do again.
Here's one more.
To enjoy.
And this is from Hampton County,Massachusetts.

(21:52):
Since it was summer break frommy school, I was lazily lounging
at home watching TV.
I got bored.
So I went outside to see if Icould do anything with my
chickens, like feed them wormsand snails.
Before I go into more detail, Ishould explain the area I live
in.
My home is on the outskirts ofthe city.

(22:13):
I live in.
I had about five or sevenchickens at the time and we
hadn't expanded the coop.
So it was a small penconnecting, two sides of the
coop.
Which is wooden in sturdy.
The only ways to get into thecoop is either through the trap
door attached to the big door.
And the three windows, onewindow is on one side of the

(22:36):
door and the second window is onthe other side.
The third window is a largewindow.
Keep in mind that they all havetraps connecting to them so they
can be closed.
We have seven acres of Woodlandthat we call"the back pasture".
And if you've ever been backthere, you can see that it's a
popular habitat for the localdeer.

(22:56):
There was also a wild boar thatwas roaming around at one time,
but I don't know how it gotthere.
We had been having trouble withpoacher for a while, considering
the population of deer in thewoods.
One poacher had set up a trailcam that was motion activated.
There was an old rusty deerstand that had been put on a
tree a long time ago.

(23:17):
And the tree had begun to growaround it.
Beyond our acres of woods.
There's a large corn field ownedby our neighbors.
And beyond that is a forest.
I don't know what the forest islike beyond the field, since
we've never been out there.
I went outside to do somethingwith my chickens.
And I'd brought along.
I bucketed corn for feeding thedeer after.
When I walked out of my home Isaw a doe was sitting in the

(23:39):
tall grass.
I thought it was sleeping sinceits head was down and it wasn't
moving.
I, being the curious little nutthat I was decided that I would
sneak up on the deer, get apicture of it to show my mother
when she got home from work.
I crept as silently as I couldacross the yard that has
separated me from the deer.
I should also mention that wehad a clearing with a burn pit

(24:02):
in it that was filled with Cedarbranches.
I was creeping across my yardtoward the deer when I had
cleared the burn pit and wasabout 10 yards from it, I
realized that the deer wasn'tasleep, but it was actually
dead.
It was the most disgusting sightI had ever seen.
Its intestines were completelygone.
The flesh on the body of the doewas shredded to pieces and blood

(24:26):
absolutely everywhere.
It looked as if it had beensitting there for a while and it
smelled like it too.
Most of the blood was dry.
The air reeked of the stench ofthe rotting flesh, urine, and
what seemed like a hint of wetdog.
Something that creeped me outabout the scene was that,
although it was a rottingcarcass, there was no insects at

(24:47):
all around it.
It was as if the usually livelyforests was deader than the
deer.
Not even the neighbors cattlesmade a sound.
It looked as if the poor deerhad simply been left after being
brutally attacked and halfeaten, which it most likely was.
I left the bucket at thebeginning of the trail, thinking

(25:07):
that I would come out later withmy mother and grain the deer
when she got home.
Then I started to walk back tomy house.
I had barely taken a few stepswhen I heard a low snarling
growl that sounded like a Wolf.
Although it seemed distorted asif it were being played on an
old radio.

(25:28):
Sorry.
That's the only way that I canthink of describing it.
Against my better judgment.
I turned my head around and Isaw what looked like the biggest
freaking Wolf I had ever seen.
It was on all fours it's for wasblack and matted in places.
It's face was what you'd expectthe Wolf to look like.

(25:48):
Although it was broad and themuzzle seemed a little short,
although the way it was curling,its lips made it look as if the
snout was plenty long and itseyes were yellow, not a bright
yellow, like the yellow of aflower or the sun, but a dim
amber red, yellow, if that makesany sense.
It's ears look like that of aDoberman pincher with the

(26:11):
cropped effect.
Its front legs were long and itlooked as if it were a
bodybuilder it's paws, if youeven call them paws looked like
huge hands with long claws atthe end of them.
It stood up.
And I heard the most sickeningpopping sound you could ever
imagine.
It sounded like the popping ofjoints, but it seemed amplified

(26:32):
as if it were being playedthrough a microphone and the
sound was coming out ofloudspeakers.
Its body looked like abodybuilder pumped up on
steroids.
It was so big.
It had no tail that I couldtell.
And it seemed to tower over me,although I was a good 10 meters
from it.
I was about five foot, fourinches at the time.
And I came nowhere close to itsheight.

(26:53):
It was so tall that the tip ofits ears could almost touch the
top of the young Cedar.
I'll let out a loud howl, whichsounded more like a roar and it
charged at me.
Doing the only thing I needed todo while hyped up on fear and
adrenaline, I began to run awayfrom it.
I remember clearing my yard andwhat seemed like hours, what was
most likely only a few secondsand running inside slamming and

(27:17):
locking all the doors andwindows.As I calmed down a bit I
had realized that if it hadreally wanted to kill me, it
could have.
That, what I had experienced wasnot an attack charge, but a
bluff.
I was lucky to get away with mylife.
Although this happened almosttwo years ago, it still
terrifies me to think about it.

(27:37):
The deer was gone the next day.
And every, since that evening, Ihave been weary around the woods
only going in them in broaddaylight, only when I absolutely
had to and never without aweapon.
Sadly, I cannot say that I'm oneof those people who have stopped
experiencing things after theencounter, although are only had
nightmares for a month afterthat day in June.

(28:00):
Nothing really started to happenagain until about two months ago
when I was staying up at night,playing on the laptop.
I'd started to hear thingsmoving around on the porch and
turn on the light to see theshape of something huge
disappearing behind the cornerof my house.
There was also one of the raretimes I went into the woods
after the first encounter, whenI was helping my mother clear

(28:21):
brush from the hunting clearing.
I was going to get the mower andwas walking the trail to do so.
When I heard bipedal footsteps,following me off to my side,
they stopped whenever I stoppedand I eventually ran out of the
woods and I haven't been backsince.
I asked my late grandmotherabout the creature I'd seen in

(28:42):
the woods.
And she informed me that therewas something called the wolf
head, manman that stalked theKansa tribe, preying on small
children that strayed too farfrom their tepees.
Later I was informed by myhistory teacher, that my house
had actually been built on atravel burial ground.

(29:02):
And I have since been wonderingif that had anything to do with
it.
I hadn't heard about the wolfhead man, before she told me
about it.
When I saw that there wasseveral eyewitness reports that
were proven to be truthful, itmade me feel a lot better about
coming out about with thisinformation.
I had attempted to tell peoplepreviously to this submission,

(29:23):
but everyone either said I wasstupid, crazy, or a plain liar.
One thing's for certain am notstupid, am not crazy.
And I am most definitely not aliar.
I know what I saw and what I sawwas dog man.
This was submitted on June 8th,2015 at about 3:45 PM.

(29:45):
I have really enjoyed readingthese stories on this
interactive map, and I hope youdo too.
I hope you continue to readthem.
What dog man signings are inyour state?
Wrapping up this episode, I'dlike to make a quick side note
that after Linda Godfrey starteddoing a research for and

(30:06):
published her article, she wouldthen go on to write"the beast of
Bray road tailing.
Wisconsin's werewolf".
And become the foremost experton the subject of dog men.
Linda then went on to writeseveral more books on where
wolfs, monsters and othercryptids.
Linda S Godfrey passed away onNovember 27th, 2022.

(30:28):
I'd like to dedicate thisepisode to her and her
extraordinary contributions tothe world of cryptids.
Thank you so much for listeningto all things.
Cryptid I hope you enjoyed theepisode.
Feel free to email me yourcryptid or ghost stories.
I'd like to eventually do a showwith just your stories.
You can send those emails [e-mail].

(30:55):
I hope you have a great rest ofyour week.
And remember to keep believingin the unknown.
Until next time.