BWBS Ep:139 The Scape Ore Swamp Monster

In this episode, we head down to the humid backroads of Bishopville, South Carolina — a small town that, in the summer of 1988, became the epicenter of one of America’s strangest and most terrifying cryptid encounters.It all began just after midnight on June 29, 1988. Seventeen-year-old Christopher Davis was driving home from work when a flat tire on a lonely stretch of road near Scape Ore Swamp changed his life forever.

What he saw that night — a seven-foot-tall, red-eyed creature covered in scales — would ignite a media firestorm, terrify an entire community, and give birth to a legend that still haunts the South to this day.In this episode, we walk through the chilling events that followed Davis’s encounter — from cars found mauled and bitten through their metal panels to dozens of frightened residents reporting the same thing: something alive in the swamp that shouldn’t exist. You’ll hear about the Ford owned by Tom and Mary Waye, covered in claw marks and bite impressions that defied explanation, and how Sheriff Liston Truesdale’s investigation — including plaster casts of massive three-toed footprints — gave the mystery credibility it had never had before.

We also dig into what came after. From the eerie silence that fell over Lee County in the years that followed, to the shocking 2008 attack on Bob and Dixie Rawson’s van that reignited local fears. Then, we fast-forward to 2015, when a supposed church sighting made international headlines — and the 2017 solar eclipse, when the Lizard Man “returned” to social media with his own tongue-in-cheek Twitter account.But this episode isn’t just about the headlines. We share never-before-heard witness accounts — from a nurse who stayed silent for thirty years, to a group of Marines whose encounter during night training was quietly buried by their commanding officers.

We even touch on the tragic fate of Christopher Davis himself, whose 2009 murder left unanswered questions and an unsettling sense that the full truth of that night died with him.We’ll explore the theories too — from cryptozoologists who link the Lizard Man to prehistoric reptiles like Carnufex carolinensis, to skeptics who blame misidentifications, hoaxes, or even environmental contamination. You’ll hear from researchers, scientists, and folklorists who all offer their take on what really happened — and why this legend still holds power decades later.We also look at how the Lizard Man changed Bishopville forever.

Once a quiet rural community, the town now proudly embraces its monster — from annual festivals and roadside attractions to a permanent exhibit in the South Carolina Cotton Museum. What started as fear became folklore, and eventually, a piece of Southern culture.T oday, the investigation continues with modern tools — from thermal drones to environmental DNA testing — as researchers try to solve a mystery that refuses to die. And with new sightings still being reported as recently as 2023, some wonder if the creature that terrorized Bishopville all those years ago never really left.

This episode takes you into the heart of South Carolina’s most enduring monster mystery — one that’s part folklore, part fear, and part very real experience for those who lived through it.So, if you ever find yourself driving near Scape Ore Swamp after dark… remember Christopher Davis. Remember the red eyes in the darkness. And maybe, just maybe, change that tire in the daylight. Because once you hear this episode, you’ll never look at a swamp the same way again.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace.
Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world
refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they
know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we
share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness Bigfoot,

(00:23):
dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make
it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because
once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the
woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and
remember some things in the woods don't want to be found.
Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads,

(00:46):
and let's head off into the woods if you dare.
The headlights cut through the humid darkness like twin knives
through black velvet, illuminating nothing but the endless stretch of

(01:09):
cracked asphalt ahead. The air conditioning in the old Toyota
Silica wheezed its dying breath against the oppressive July heat
of South Carolina, that thick, suffocating heat that turns the
air into soup and makes your clothes stick to your
skin like wet paper. It was two am on June
twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, and seventeen year old Christopher

(01:31):
Davis was exhausted. The McDonald's uniform he wore reeked of
Greece and French Fries, and all he wanted was to
get home, shower and collapse into bed. He'd driven this
root countless times before, down Browntown Road, past the edge
of scape or swamp, where the cypress trees stood like
ancient sentinels, their knobby knees emerging from pools of black

(01:52):
water that local said was bottomless in places. Then came
the sound that every driver dreads in the middle of nowhere,
explosive pop of a blown tire, followed by the sickening thump, thump,
thump of rubber slapping against asphalt. Davis cursed under his
breath as he pulled over the car, listening to one
side like a wounded animal. He sat there for a moment,

(02:14):
engine idling, staring out at the wall of darkness beyond
his head lights. The swamp pressed in from both sides
of the road here, and in the sudden quiet after
he killed the engine, he could hear it breathing. The
chorus of frogs the splash of something moving through water,
the rustle of Spanish moss and trees that had it
been logged since before the Civil War. He grabbed the

(02:37):
jack and spear from the trunk, trying to work quickly
despite the humidity that made every movement feel like swimming
through molasses. As he tightened the last lug nut, that's
when he heard it, a sound that didn't belong, not
the normal symphony of the swamp, but something else. Footsteps,
heavy footsteps running getting closer. Christopher Dayavis looked up from

(03:00):
his work and saw something that would change not only
his life, but transform a small South Carolina town into
ground zero for one of America's most terrifying cryptid encounters.
What emerged from those shadows that night would spawn a
legend that refuses to die, a creature that seems to
return again and again from the depths of scape or
swamp to remind us that some mysteries are better left unsolved.

(03:24):
This is the true story of the lizard Man of
Scape or Swamp. Every documented encounter, every terrified witness, every
piece of evidence. This is what really happened in Lee County,
South Carolina, during that sweltering summer of nineteen eighty eight
and beyond, when something impossible crawled out of the swamp
and into our nightmares. The thing that came out of

(03:46):
the darkness moved wrong. That was Christopher Davis's first coherent
thought as his brain struggled to process what his eyes
were seeing. It wasn't the loping gait of a bear
or the cautious approach of a curious deer. This thing
moved upright, purposefully, with an intelligence that made Davis's blood
turn to ice water in his veins. In the multiple

(04:08):
interviews he would give over the coming weeks, to police,
to reporters, to anyone who would listen, Davis would describe
the creature with remarkable consistency, seven feet tall, covered in green,
scaly skin that looked wet in the dim light, with
glowing red eyes that seemed to burn with an otherworldly fire,

(04:28):
three fingers on each hand ending in long black claws,
a face that was reptilian yet somehow disturbingly human like.
I looked back and saw something running across the field
towards me, Davis would later tell the Item newspaper. It
was about twenty five yards away, and I saw red
eyes glowing pure instinct took over. Davis abandoned the tools

(04:52):
scattered on the asphalt and ran for his car, fumbling
with the door handle as the sound of those heavy
footsteps grew closer. He managed to get inside and slammed
the door just as the creature reached the vehicle. Through
the window, Davis could see it from the neck down.
The three massive fingers, the long black nails, the rough
green skin that looked like it belonged on something that

(05:13):
should have gone extinct millions of years ago. The teenager
frantically turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring
to life, but as he threw the car into gear,
the unthinkable happened. The creature leaped onto the roof of
the celica, with a thunderous impact that dented the metal.
Davis could hear it up there, clawing at the roof
as he swerved wildly from side to side, trying to

(05:36):
throw it off. He pressed the accelerator to the floor,
the speedometer climbing past thirty five, then forty miles per hour,
and still the thing clung on. Finally, after what felt
like hours but was probably less than a minute, Davis
slammed on the brakes The sudden deceleration sent the creature
tumbling off the roof and onto the road behind him.

(05:58):
Without looking back. Davis's floor again, racing home with his
heart pounding so hard he thought it might explode. When
he finally pulled into his family's driveway, his hands were
shaking so badly he could barely turn off the ignition.
The side view mirror of his car was mangled beyond recognition,
hanging by a thread. Deep scratches scored the roof of

(06:19):
the vehicle, as if something with incredible strength had tried
to claw its way through the metal. His father, Tommy Davis,
would later say that his son was in complete hysterics
when he came through the door. The boy was crying, shaking,
barely able to speak coherently. It took hours to calm
him down enough to get the full story, and even

(06:40):
then Tommy Davis wasn't sure what to believe. His son
had never been one for tall tales or practical jokes,
but this story, this was something else Entirely. For two weeks,
the Davis family kept quiet about the incident. Christopher refused
to drive that route again, taking longer ways home from work.

(07:00):
He jumped at shadows and couldn't sleep without checking and
rechecking the locks on all the doors and windows. His
parents watched him deteriorate. This once confident teenager, reduced to
a nervous wreck by something he claimed to have seen
on a dark road. It might have remained just a
family secret, a strange story whispered about but never truly believed,

(07:21):
if not for what happened to Tom and Mary Way
on July fourteenth, nineteen eighty eight. The Ways lived in
a modest home near the Browntown area of Bishopville, not
far from where Christopher Davis had his encounter. They were
a quiet couple, church going folks who kept to themselves
and had never caused any trouble in the community, which

(07:42):
is why Sheriff Listen Trusdale took notice when they called
the Lee County Sheriff's office that morning, their voices shaking
with fear and confusion. Trusdale himself responded to the call,
along with Deputy Chester Lightye, who regularly patrolled the area
around Scape or Swamp. What they found when they arrived
at the Way residents defied explanation. The couple's nineteen eighty

(08:04):
five Ford Ltd. Looked like it had been attacked by
something with immense strength and a particular appetite for destruction.
The chrome molding had been ripped clean off the fenders,
leaving jagged edges where it had been torn away. The
sidewalls were scratched and dented, as if massive claws had
raked across them. The hood ornament was broken, the antenna

(08:25):
bent at an impossible angle, and most disturbing of all,
some of the wires from the motor had been pulled out.
But it was the bite marks that made everyone stop
and stare clear dental impressions in the metal, as if
something had actually tried to eat the car. The marks
penetrated deep into the metal in some places, suggesting jaws

(08:46):
of incredible power, comparable to those of an alligator. But
the pattern was all wrong for any known animal. It
looked like something literally tried to chew parts of the
molding off. Sheriff Trusdale would later tell reporters the Ways
swore they had heard nothing during the night, They had
gone to bed as usual, and it was only when
Tom went out to get the morning paper that they

(09:08):
discovered the damage. But the physical evidence told a violent story.
Clumps of reddish hair caught in the torn metal, muddy
footprints all around the vehicle that didn't match any animal
the deputies knew. Most disturbing were the footprints themselves. Three
toed impressions, some measuring fourteen inches in length and seven
inches wide, led from the damaged car toward the swamp.

(09:32):
Trusdale had been in law enforcement for decades had seen
all manner of wildlife tracks in his time, but these
were like nothing in his experience. We learned that people
in the Brown Town community had been seeing a strange
creature about seven feet tall with red eyes. Trusdale would
later reveal some of them described it as green, but

(09:52):
some of them as brown. They thought it might be
responsible for what happened to the car. It was while
investigating the way In incident that Christopher Davis's father finally
convinced his son to come forward with his story. The
boy's damaged car suddenly didn't seem like the product of
a teenage imagination or a cover story for reckless driving.

(10:13):
Something was happening in Lee County, something that defied rational explanation.
When Christopher Davis finally walked into the Lee County Sheriff's office,
on July sixteenth, nineteen eighty eight, and told his story
to Sheriff Trusdale. He couldn't have known he was about
to unleash a media frenzy that would put Bishopville on
the map for all the wrong reasons. Trusdale, to his credit,

(10:35):
took the teenager seriously. There was something about Davis's demeanor,
the consistency of his story, and the physical evidence on
his car that made the sheriff think twice about dismissing
it as a hoax. He had the boy take a
polygraph test administered by Southern Marketing Incorporated. Davis passed, But
it was what happened next that transformed a local curiosity

(10:56):
into a national phenomenon. Jan Easterland, a reporter with the
state newspaper, happened to be riding along with Sheriff Trusdale
when the call came in about the way vehicle. She
sensed a story something more than just vandalism or a
bear attack. When Davis came forward and she heard his tale,
she knew she had struck gold. Her article, barely two

(11:18):
hundred words long, hit the newspapers and set off a
chain reaction that no one could have predicted. Within days,
The story had been picked up by papers across the country.
The Washington Post ran a headline, lizard man claims a casualty.
The Sunday Times out of London declared sightings of a
monster lizard from the swamp has struck terror into a

(11:39):
small community in South Carolina. The CBS Evening News featured
the story. Good Morning America sent a crew to do
a live broadcast from the edge of scape or swamp.
The Sheriff's office was flooded with more than two hundred
calls a day from as far away as New Zealand, Germany, Japan,
and Australia. Reporters descended on Bishopville like locusts, all wanting

(12:04):
to interview Davis, to see the damaged cars, to stand
at the edge of the swamp and peer into its
mysterious depths. WCS, a Columbia radio station, offered a one
million dollar reward for anyone who could capture the Lizardman alive.
The announcement brought hunters, cryptozoologists, and curious tourists flooding into

(12:25):
the small town. Local businesses, sensing an opportunity, began selling
Lizardman t shirts, bumper stickers, and postcards. The Cottonland Restaurant
set up a makeshift Lizardman information center where Christopher Davis
would sign autographs and answer questions from tourists. But with
the media attention came more sightings, and these weren't from

(12:46):
attention seekers or pranksters, at least not all of them.
As July turned to August, in that sweltering summer of
nineteen eighty eight, Skateboard Swamp seemed to come alive with
reports of the creature. It was as if the initials
had awakened something, or perhaps emboldened witnesses who had previously
kept quiet about their own encounters. Two men whose names

(13:09):
were never released to the public came forward with a
story that predated the Davis encounter by two weeks. They
claimed they had been drawing water from an artesian spring
near the swamp, a popular spot where locals had been
getting fresh water for generations, when they encountered the creature.
According to their report to Deputy Chester Lighty, they had
just filled their jugs when they heard something large moving

(13:31):
through the undergrowth. What emerged was a massive, upright figure
covered in scales with the same red eyes Davis had described,
but unlike Davis's encounter. This creature seemed more curious than
aggressive at first, watching them from a distance of about
thirty feet. Then, without warning, it charged. The men dropped

(13:53):
their water jugs and ran for their truck, the sound
of the creature's pursuit crashing through the underbrush behind them.
Managed to reach their vehicle and speed away, but both
swore the creature had gotten close enough that they could
smell it, a putrid swampy odor mixed with something else,
something reptilian and wrong. On July twenty fourth, four teenagers

(14:14):
on a double date reported an encounter that added new
details to the growing legend. They were driving down a
rural road about two miles from Scape or Swamp, when
something massive ran across the road in front of them.
The driver slammed on the brakes, missing the creature by
mere feet. It was at least seven feet tall. One
of the teenagers told police. It ran on two legs,

(14:36):
like a person, but it was covered in what looked
like scales, and it had a tail, a long tail
that dragged behind it as it ran. The teens were
so shaken by the encounter that their parents drove them
to the sheriff's office that very night. To file a report.
All four passed polygraph tests. Then came the report from
George Pliler, a local farmer who raised hogs and goats

(15:00):
near the swamp. Stay tuned for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories.
We'll be back after these messages. Plyler claimed that something
had been harassing his livestock for weeks, but he hadn't
connected it to the lizard man stories until his own encounter.
I went out to check on the animals one evening.
Plyler told investigators several of my goats had been killed,

(15:22):
torn apart in a way I'd never seen before. As
I was examining one of the carcasses, I heard this
sound like a hiss, but deeper, more guttural. I looked
up and saw it standing at the edge of my property,
just watching me, seven maybe eight feet tall, covered in
green scales, with eyes that glowed red in the fading light.

(15:45):
We stared at each other for maybe ten seconds. Then
it turned and walked, not ran, back into the swamp.
Perhaps one of the most credible witnesses to come forward
was Frank Mitchell, a local pilot who operated a small
private airstrip near Scape Or Swamp. Mitchell was a decorated
Vietnam veteran, a man known in the community for his

(16:07):
level headedness and reliability. On August second, nineteen eighty eight,
Mitchell was preparing for an evening flight, going through his
pre flight checklist on the grassy runway he'd carved out
of his property. The sun was setting, painting the sky
in shades of orange and purple, when he noticed movement
at the far end of the runway. At first I

(16:27):
thought it was a person, Mitchell told Sheriff Trusdale. Maybe
someone had wandered onto my property by mistake. But as
it got closer, I realized this was no person. Mitchell
described a creature that matched the other accounts in most details,
the height, the scaly skin, the red eyes. But he
added one disturbing detail that others had missed or forgotten

(16:49):
to mention, the way it walked. It had what I
can only describe as a loaf in its walk, Mitchell said,
like it was slightly hunched, but not from age or
in More like, its body wasn't quite designed for upright walking,
but it was doing it anyway. It moved with purpose intelligence.
This wasn't some animal wandering around. It knew exactly where

(17:13):
it was going. The creature crossed the entire length of
the runway, seemingly unbothered by Mitchell's presence or the small
Cessna park nearby. Mitchell, a man who had faced enemy
fire in Southeast Asia, admitted he was too frightened to move.
He watched as the creature disappeared into the tree line
on the opposite side of the runway, then immediately canceled

(17:35):
his flight and went inside to call the sheriff. Not
all the reports that summer were genuine, a fact that
became painfully clear on August fifth, nineteen eighty eight, when
Kenneth Or stepped forward with a sensational claim. Or, a
twenty six year old airman stationed at Shaw Air Force
Base in Sumter, called the Sheriff's office with a dramatic story.

(17:56):
He claimed he had encountered the lizard man on Highway
fifteen while driving to the base around six am. According
to Orr, he had stopped his car and confronted the creature,
firing a warning shot with his three point fifty seven
magnum revolver before shooting and wounding it in the neck.
As proof, Or presented several scales and a small quantity
of blood that he said came from the wounded creature.

(18:19):
The media went wild. The state newspaper ran a front
page headline, Florence Man says he wounded lizard man. But
Sheriff Trusdale, who had been taking the sighting seriously up
to this point, immediately smelled something fishy. Literally, the scales
Or presented were obviously from a fish, still smelling of
the lake. The blood could have come from any animal.

(18:42):
An Or's sketch of the creature looked suspiciously identical to
the Lizardman drawings being sold on t shirts all over town.
Two days later, under questioning from Trusdale, Or cracked, he
admitted the entire story was a hoax. An assigned statement
to the Sheriff's office, Or wrote, I made the report
just to keep the legend of the lizard Man alive.

(19:04):
Or was charged with filing a false police report and
unlawfully carrying a pistol. Truesdale made sure to throw the
book at him as a warning to other potential hoaxers,
but the damage was done. The admitted hoax gave skeptics
ammunition to dismiss all the sightings, even though Davis, the ways,
and the other witnesses maintained their stories were true. One

(19:25):
of the most detailed and disturbing encounters came from Dixie Rawson,
a middle aged woman known in the community for her
no nonsense attitude and reliability. Rawson lived with her husband
in a rural area about three miles from scape or Swamp,
where they kept a small farm with chickens, cats, and
a few head of cattle. On the night of August eleventh,

(19:46):
nineteen eighty eight, Dixie was awakened by a terrible commotion outside.
The cats were screaming, not me owing or yowling, but
screaming in a way she'd never heard before. The chickens
in their coop were going absolutely mad, and she could
hear something large moving around outside. She woke her husband,
but by the time they got dressed and made it

(20:06):
outside with a flashlight and shotgun, whatever had been there
was gone. In the beam of their flashlight, they found carnage.
Several chickens had been killed, but not eaten, just torn
apart and left scattered around the yard. Three of their
cats were missing, and they found tufts of fur caught
on the fence posts, as if the animals had been

(20:27):
grabbed while trying to escape, but it was the damage
to their car that made them call the sheriff. Their sedan,
parked in the driveway looked like it had been attacked
by something with incredible strength and sharp claws. The paint
was scraped off in long gouges, the side mirror was
torn off, and there were what appeared to be bite
marks on the hood, deep indentations that had actually punctured

(20:50):
the metal in places. Whatever did this wasn't after food,
Dixie told investigators. It was angry. It was like it
was trying to destroy everything it could. Each the Rawsons
found tracks around their property, the same three toed prints
that had been found at other sites, leading from their
yard toward the swamp. They also found something else, a

(21:12):
horrible smell that lingered for days, a combination of rotting
vegetation and reptilian musk that made them gag whenever they
went outside. By mid August nineteen eighty eight, Sheriff Listing
Trusdale found himself at the center of a bizarre investigation
that had transformed from a routine vandalism case into an
international media sensation. The sheriff, a practical law man with

(21:35):
decades of experience, approached the situation with a mixture of
professional skepticism and genuine concern for his community. I can't
prove it's real, and I can't prove it's not real,
Trusdale would famously say when pressed by reporters. But behind
closed doors, he took the matter seriously enough to dedicate
significant resources to the investigation. Deputies were assigned to patrol

(21:58):
the areas around Scape or Swing at night. Plaster casts
were made of the mysterious three toed footprints found at
various sites. These casts, some measuring up to fourteen inches
in length, were initially going to be sent to the
FBI for analysis, but Trusdale was dissuaded by biologists who
told him the prints were unclassifiable. They didn't match any

(22:20):
known animal, but that didn't necessarily mean they were from
an unknown creature. The South Carolina Marine Resources Department got involved,
sending biologist Johnny Evans to examine the evidence. Evans's conclusion
was frustratingly inconclusive. The tracks neither matched nor could be
mistaken for the footprints of any recorded animal, but that

(22:42):
doesn't mean they're from a seven foot lizard man. They
could be hoaxed, They could be misidentified, or they could
be from multiple animals stepping in the same spots. Trusdale
also had to deal with the human element of the crisis.
The influx of hunters and tourists was causing problems several inch.
Cidence of mistaken identity nearly led to tragedy. One hunter

(23:03):
shot at what he thought was the lizard Man, only
to discover he'd nearly killed another hunter in camouflage gear.
Property owners near the swamp reported trespassers at all hours
of the night, armed hunters trampling through their land, and
reporters knocking on doors seeking interviews about any strange sounds
or sightings. I had to threaten several people with trespassing charges.

(23:25):
Truesdale later recalled the whole county had gone Lizardman crazy
and maintaining order was becoming as big a challenge as
investigating the actual sightings. The sheriff instituted a policy anyone
filing a false report about the lizard Man would be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He also
worked with local and state police to establish checkpoints near

(23:47):
the swamp to prevent armed vigilantes from accidentally shooting each
other or innocent wildlife. But perhaps the most challenging aspect
of Truesdale's investigation was his own growing uncertainty. The sheriff
was a rational man, a believer in evidence, in facts,
Yet the witnesses kept coming forward, credible people, individuals he'd

(24:09):
known for years, folks who had nothing to gain and
potentially much to lose by reporting such an outlandish encounter.
The thing that got me, Trusdale would say years later,
was the consistency of the stories. These people weren't copying
each other. Many of them came forward before the details
were widely published, yet they all described essentially the same creature,

(24:32):
seven feet tall, bipedal, scaled with red eyes and three
fingered hands. Either we had a coordinated hoax unlike anything
I'd ever seen, or something really was out there in
that swamp. As August wore on, the town of Bishopville
found itself divided into three camps, the believers, the skeptics,

(24:52):
and those who just wanted their quiet town back. The
believers included not just the witnesses, but many longtime residents
who remembered stories their grandparents had told about strange things
escape or swamp. Some elderly African American residents spoke of
tales passed down from slavery times, warnings about creatures that
lived in the swamp that would snatch anyone foolish enough

(25:14):
to venture too deep into its waters. Whether these were
stories invented by slave owners to keep enslave people from
escaping through the swamp or genuine folklore based on actual encounters,
no one could say for certain. The skeptics, led by
several local businessmen and town council members, worried about Bishopville
becoming a laughingstock. They pointed to the kenneth Or hoax

(25:38):
as evidence that the whole thing was mass hysteria, a
combination of misidentified wildlife, over active imaginations, and attention seekers.
But it was the third group that perhaps suffered the most,
ordinary residents who found their daily lives disrupted by the
circus that had come to town. Children were afraid to
play outside after dark. Parents drove their kids to and

(26:01):
from bus stops rather than let them walk. The constant
presence of media and tourists made simple tasks like grocery
shopping or attending church into potential interview ambushes. The economic
impact was mixed. While some businesses thrived on lizardman merchandise
sales and the influx of tourists, others suffered as locals

(26:22):
avoided going out, especially after dark. The controversy even affected
property values near the swamp, with some houses becoming impossible
to sell while others were snapped up by paranormal enthusiasts.
As the lizard man phenomenon grew, it attracted attention from
various scientific and pseudoscientific communities. Cryptozoologists researchers who study hidden

(26:46):
or unknown animals descended on Bishopville and droves. Lyle Blackburn,
who would later write the definitive book on the Lizardman,
arrived in August nineteen eighty eight to conduct field research.
He interviewed dozens of whichnesses, examined the physical evidence, and
spent nights camping near scape or swamp, hoping for his
own encounter. What struck me about the Bishopville case, Blackburn noted,

(27:10):
was the quality of the witnesses. These weren't kids looking
for attention or conspiracy theorists seeing monsters everywhere. Many were
respected members of the community who were genuinely traumatized by
what they'd experienced. Meanwhile, mainstream scientists offered various explanations. Some
suggested the witnesses had encountered a bear standing on its

(27:31):
hind legs. Black bears, while rare, were not unknown in
South Carolina swamps. Others proposed that an escaped exotic pet,
perhaps a large monitor lizard, could account for some sightings.
Doctor John Miller, a biologist from the University of South Carolina,
offered perhaps the most intriguing theory. The descriptions of the

(27:52):
lizard man are remarkably consistent with how a large alligator
would appear if glimpsed briefly in low light conditions. While
it was an unusual posture, perhaps climbing an embankment or
standing on its hind legs to reach prey, Alligators can
stand nearly vertical for short periods, and their eyes do
reflect red in certain lighting, but none of these explanations

(28:14):
could account for all the evidence. The three toed footprints
didn't match bear or alligator tracks, the damage to vehicles
seemed too extensive and deliberate for any known animal, and
the consistency of the bipedal descriptions across multiple witnesses was
hard to reconcile with misidentified wildlife. By the end of
August nineteen eighty eight, sightings of the lizard man had

(28:37):
begun to decline. The last credible report of that summer
came on August twenty eighth, when a family driving near
Scape or Swamp claimed to have seen the creature crossing
the road in their headlights. After that silence, some attributed
the sudden cessation of sightings to the increased human activity
around the swamp, with hunters, tourists, and reporters crawling all

(28:58):
over the area. Perhaps the creature had retreated deeper into
the wilderness or moved to another location. Others suggested that
the whole thing had been mass hysteria that simply ran
its course. Sheriff Trusdale continued to investigate reports through the
fall of nineteen eighty eight, but they became increasingly dubious.
The media attention gradually shifted elsewhere. The tourists went home,

(29:22):
and Bishopville began to return to normal, or as normal
as a town could be. After becoming famous for a monster.
Christopher Davis, the teenager whose encounter had started it all,
found fame to be a double edged sword. For weeks,
he was a celebrity, signing autographs and appearing on television shows.
But as the initial excitement wore off, he faced skepticism, ridicule,

(29:46):
and even threats from those who believed he had perpetrated
a hoax. I wish I'd never seen it, Davis told
a reporter in late nineteen eighty eight. I wish I'd
just driven home on three tires that night. My life
will never be the same. Stay tuned for more back
Woods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. Tragically,

(30:06):
Davis's life would be cut short in two thousand and nine,
at the age of thirty seven. He was shot and
killed in his home. Two men lock him, Diver Butler
and anegory Santrell Slater, were charged with his murder in
what appeared to be a drug related crime. Davis had
struggled with various personal issues in the years following his encounter,

(30:27):
and some who knew him wondered if the pressure and
ridicule he faced after the Lizardman siding had contributed to
his downward spiral. For nearly two years, Scape or Swamp
was quiet. The Lizardman became a local legend, a story
told to scare children and entertain tourists. But few expected
to ever hear of new sightings. Then on July thirtieth,

(30:49):
nineteen ninety, Bertha Blythers changed that. Blythers, a forty two
year old mother of five, was driving home from a
late dinner at a restaurant with her children when and
their evening took a terrifying turn. They were on a
rural road about two miles from Scape or Swamp, when
something large suddenly appeared in their headlights. It came out

(31:10):
of nowhere, Blithers told police. One second the road was clear,
the next, this thing was lunging at our car. The creature,
which Blathers described as tall, wide and bipedal, slammed into
the passenger side of their vehicle with enough force to
rock the car. Her children screamed as the creature's face
appeared at the window, a face Blithers would never forget.

(31:32):
It had brown hair or fur covering parts of its body,
but I could see scales underneath, especially on its face
and neck. The eyes were red, just like everyone said.
But what I'll never forget was the intelligence in those eyes.
This wasn't some wild animal. It looked at us like
it was studying us, deciding what to do. The creature

(31:53):
then did something no previous witness had reported. It spoke,
or at least vocalized. Blithers described a series of clicks
and hisses that almost sounded like attempted speech, though no
words were distinguishable. After several terrifying seconds, the creature backed
away from the vehicle and disappeared into the woods. Blithers
drove straight to the police station, where officers found damage

(32:16):
to her car consistent with her story, dents in the
passenger door, and what appeared to be claw marks on
the window. After the Blithers encounter, the lizard Man seemed
to vanish again. Throughout the nineteen nineties and early two thousands,
there were occasional reports a glimpse of something in the
swamp here strange tracks there, but nothing as dramatic or

(32:38):
well documented as the nineteen eighty eight sightings. The town
of Bishopville gradually embraced its unique claim to fame. The
South Carolina Cotton Museum added a Lizardman exhibit, complete with
plaster casts of the footprints, newspaper clippings, and artistic renditions
of the creature. Local businesses continued to sell lizardman merchandise,

(32:59):
though more as novelty items than serious attempts to capitalize
on ongoing sightings. In two thousand and five, the South
Carolina Education Lottery used the lizard Man in promotional materials,
bringing renewed attention to the legend. The campaign sparked a
brief flurry of new sightings, though most were quickly dismissed
as people hoping to cash in on the renewed interest.

(33:22):
One incident in October two thousand and five stood out, however.
A woman in Newbury, South Carolina, about fifty miles from Bishopville,
reported seeing two creatures resembling the lizard Man outside her home.
The responding officer, Michael Kennedy, treated the report with professional
courtesy but private skepticism. According to his report, he told

(33:43):
the woman that the creatures just liked to check on
humans from time to time, a response that some saw
as dismissive but others interpreted as an acknowledgment that such
sightings were not uncommon in the area. For twenty years,
the Lizardman had been more legend than reality, a story
from the past that old timers told and tourists occasionally

(34:04):
asked about. Then, on a cold February morning in two
thousand and eight, Bob and Dixie Rawson woke up to
find that their quiet life had been shattered literally. The Rawsons,
who lived at nine to ninety Saint Charles Road and Bishopville,
were different from the nineteen eighty eight Dixie Rawson, a
common name in the area. This couple kept to themselves,

(34:26):
maintaining a small farm with numerous cats and a few
other animals. On the morning of February twenty ninth, two
thousand and eight, Bob went out to get the morning
paper and stopped dead in his tracks. Their two thousand
and two Dodge Grand caravan looked like it had been
through a war. The whole front half of our van
is chewed up, Dixie Rawson would tell reporters, her voice

(34:47):
shaking with disbelief. There are BikeE marks right through the
front grill. Both sides of the van above the wheel
wells were bitten, and the metal is bent like a
piece of paper. The damage was extend and bizarre. The
front fender had been literally chewed on, with clear teeth
marks penetrating the metal. The chrome trim had been ripped

(35:08):
off and partially eaten. Investigators found pieces of it scattered
around the yard with what appeared to be saliva coading them.
The sidewalls were scratched and dented, the hood ornament was broken,
and some wires had been pulled from the engine compartment.
But it wasn't just the van that had been attacked.
The Rawsins discovered that several of their cats were missing.

(35:29):
The boxes where the cats usually slept had been destroyed,
the towels inside shredded to pieces. Even their morning newspaper
had been torn apart and scattered across the yard. Sheriff E. J.
Melvin responded to the call personally, having heard the stories
from his predecessor Trusdale about the nineteen eighty eight incidents.
What he found defied conventional explanation. You think it's a joke,

(35:54):
but you look at the damage to the vehicle. It's
hard to say, Melvin told CNN. All the scratch more
people are saying, Sheriff, it's lizard man. Don't know. It's
hard to say. Blood samples were taken from the van
and sent to a laboratory for analysis. The initial speculation
was that perhaps a bear or coyote was responsible, though

(36:15):
the bite patterns didn't match either animal. When the results
came back, they showed the blood was from a domestic dog,
though this raised more questions than it answered what dog
could cause such extensive damage to a vehicle. The plot
thickened a week later when a dead cow and a
dead coyote were discovered in a field near the rows
and home. Both animals appeared to have been killed by

(36:38):
something larger and more powerful than typical predators in the area.
If the coyote did this damage, what killed the coyote
and the cow? Dixie rows And asked reporters. Was it
the lizard Man? I don't know. The South Carolina Department
of Natural Resources tried to provide rational explanations, suggesting that

(36:58):
the van damage might have been caused by a dog
trying to get at cats hiding underneath the vehicle, but
this explanation failed to account for the height of some
of the damage, the strength required to bend metal, or
the mysterious deaths of the cow and coyote. Bob Rawson
took to sleeping with a loaded glock pistol beside his bed.
I don't know if it's the lizard man or a

(37:20):
bear or what he said, but something out there is
dangerous and I'm not taking any chances. The two thousand
and eight incident marked a turning point in the lizard
Man legend. For the first time, the creature was being
discussed in the age of social media, online forms, and
digital photography. The story went viral. Before going viral, was

(37:41):
even a common term, spreading across early Facebook and Twitter,
reaching audiences the nineteen eighty eight sightings could never have touched.
Television shows began featuring the lizard Man. Destination Truth did
an episode on the creature in twenty ten. Factor Faked
Paranormiles investigated the legend in an episode titled Reptile Rampage.

(38:05):
Even ancient aliens mentioned the lizard Man in a twenty
fourteen episode, suggesting, as they do, that the creature might
have extraterrestrial origins. The renewed interest brought a new generation
of investigators to Bishopville. Unlike the cryptozoologists of nineteen eighty eight,
who relied on plaster casts and eyewitness testimony, these modern

(38:27):
monster hunters came equipped with night vision cameras, thermal imaging equipment,
and motion sensor technology. None of them found definitive proof
of the lizard Man, but several reported unusual findings. One
team recorded what they claimed were bipedal heat signatures on
thermal cameras near scape or swamp, though skeptics pointed out

(38:48):
these could have been humans or bears. Another group found
unusual three toed prints, though by now so many hoaxed
prints had been created that distinguishing real from fake was
nearly impossible. In August twenty seventeen, a total solar eclipse
passed directly over South Carolina, bringing thousands of tourists to
the state. The South Carolina Emergency Management Division, in a

(39:12):
moment of bureaucratic humor, tweeted a warning about possible lizardman
activity during the eclipse. Regarding possible paranormal activity potentially occurring
during the hashtag solar Eclipse twenty seventeen, they tweeted along
with a map showing historical lizard man citing locations in
relation to the path of totality. They warned residents of

(39:32):
Lee and Sumter Counties to remain vigilant. The tweet went viral,
introducing the Lizardman to millions who had never heard of
the creature. It also prompted someone or something to create
a Twitter account for the Lizardman himself. The AT Lizardman
sc account posted only a handful of tweets, but they

(39:52):
showed a creature with a sense of humor about his situation.
Born in swamp, relocated to Bishopville, South Carolin, shy and misunderstood,
love wrestling, NASCAR and flies. Currently single but looking hashtag
lizard man. Why do I hide? This is no farside comic.

(40:14):
I can't throw on a trench coat and go to
the Bishopville dairy queen unnoticed. Hashtag lizardman. It is hard
to prove being the real lizard Man. I have no
driver's license. I failed the eye test again. Hashtag Bishopville DMV.
Whether the account was run by a clever local or

(40:34):
the actual lizard Man attempting to integrate into modern society,
it added a new layer to the legend. Perhaps the
most controversial modern sighting occurred on August second, twenty fifteen,
when a woman identified only as Sarah Bera claimed to
have photographed the lizard Man outside of church in Bishopville. Bera,
a resident of Sumter, said she was leaving church with

(40:57):
a friend when she saw something extraordinary. We saw lizard
man come out of the woods and run along the
tree line, she wrote in an email to ABC News
for my hand to God, I am not making this
up so excited. The photograph she provided was immediately controversial.
It showed what appeared to be a tall, muscular, reptilian
humanoid figure among the trees. The creature in the photo

(41:20):
had the classic lizard man features, scales, a long tail,
bipedal stance, but something about it seemed off. The image
was too clear, too perfect, almost like a steal from
a B movie. Internet skeptics were quick to pounds. Many
claimed it was obviously a person in a costume, possibly
even a commercial lizard Man costume that had been sold online.

(41:44):
Others suggested it might be a sophisticated hoax using digital manipulation,
but the photograph had an unexpected effect. It prompted others
to come forward with their own evidence. An anonymous hunter
revealed that he had captured video footage of what he
believed was the lizard Man back in May twenty fifteen,
but had kept it secret for fear of ridicule. His

(42:05):
wife had begged him not to go public, worried that
everyone would think he was a loon. I saw your
lizard Man story and it's given me the courage to
send you a video I took in early May, he
wrote to the news station. Though my wife believes me
that it's real, She said she would be embarrassed that
everyone would think I was allone, so I kept it
a secret. The twenty second video was shaky and unclear,

(42:28):
showing a dark figure with what appeared to be a
long tail walking through the swamp about thirty to forty
yards from the camera. The video cuts off abruptly as
the figure appears to turn toward the cameraman. When it
noticed me, I high tailed it out. The hunter explained,
if you're wondering, I absolutely believe it's real. Shortly after

(42:49):
these revelations, another witness came forward. Jim Wilson claimed he
had seen the creature in May twenty fifteen while driving
on Highway thirty four near Camden. He described it as
a tall, dark figure that had a tail and appeared
to have scales. It was almost like an alligator with
a short nose and long legs. Wilson had managed to

(43:10):
take several photos as the creature crossed the scape or bridge,
though the images were blurry and inconclusive. The twenty fifteen
sidings prompted a new wave of scientific interest in the
lizard man phenomenon. Unlike the nineteen eighty eight investigations, which
relied primarily on eyewitness testimony and physical evidence like footprints,

(43:31):
modern investigators had access to sophisticated technology and decades of
cryptozoological research. Doctor Sarah Morrison, a behavioral ecologist from Clemson University,
proposed a comprehensive study of the scape or swamp ecosystem
to determine if it could support a large, unknown predator.
The swamp is certainly large enough and isolated enough to

(43:54):
hide a population of unknown creatures, Morrison noted, the question
is whether there's enough prey to sustain them, and whether
a breeding population could remain hidden for so long. Her
team's research revealed some intriguing findings. Scape or swamp, they discovered,
was part of a much larger network of interconnected wetlands
that stretched across multiple counties. Underground waterways and cave systems

(44:18):
that had never been fully mapped could theoretically provide hiding
places and travel routes for large creatures. They also documented
an unusually high number of missing pets and livestock in
the areas surrounding the swamp, far higher than incomparable rural
areas elsewhere in South Carolina. While this didn't prove the
existence of the lizard Man, it suggested that some predator

(44:41):
was active in the area. Meanwhile, forensic analysts examined the
various photographs and videos that had surfaced over the years.
Using modern enhancement techniques, they were able to extract more
detail from old images, though the results were frustratingly ambiguous.
Stay tuned for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories will be back

(45:01):
after these messages. The creature in the twenty fifteen church
photograph is almost certainly a hoax, concluded doctor Michael Roberts,
a digital forensics expert. The lighting is all wrong and
there are clear signs of digital manipulation. However, some of
the earlier evidence, particularly the nineteen eighty eight car damage,

(45:23):
remains genuinely puzzling. Among cryptozoologists, the lizard Man has become
one of the most debated creatures in their field. Unlike
Bigfoot or the loch Ness Monster, which have centuries of
folklore behind them, the lizard Man seemed to appear suddenly
in nineteen eighty eight, making it a uniquely modern mystery.

(45:44):
Lyle Blackburn, who spent years researching the phenomenon, proposed several
theories in his book lizard Man, The True Story of
the Bishopville Monster. The concentration of sightings in a specific
time period suggests three possibilities. First, that a single creat
or small group of creatures was active in the area
for a limited time before dying or moving on. Second,

(46:06):
that environmental factors in nineteen eighty eight and two thousand
and eight caused an unknown animal to behave in unusual
ways that led to misidentification. Third, that social factors created
a kind of mass hysteria that caused people to misinterpret
normal events. Blackburn ultimately concluded that while hoaxes and misidentification

(46:27):
certainly played a role, the core sightings, particularly those by
Christopher Davis, and the damage to vehicles remained unexplained by
conventional means. Other cryptozoologists have proposed more exotic theories. Some
suggest the lizard man could be a surviving population of
bipedal dinosaurs, pointing to the discovery of Carnufex carolinensis the

(46:50):
Carolina butcher, a prehistoric crocodile like creature that walked on
two legs and lived in the Carolinas two hundred thirty
million years ago. Impossible that a small population of reptilian
bipeds could have survived in isolated swamp environments, argued doctor
Carl Schuker, a prominent cryptozoologist. We're discovering new species all

(47:12):
the time, and the southeastern United States has vast areas
of unexplored wetlands. Skeptics have offered numerous explanations for the
lizard Man's sightings, ranging from misidentified wildlife to deliberate hoaxes
to mass hysteria. Benjamin Radford, a prominent skeptical investigator, spent
considerable time analyzing the Christopher Davis account and found what

(47:35):
he considered to be several inconsistencies. The timing doesn't add up.
If Davis saw the creature while closing his trunk and
it was close enough to see details like three fingers
and scales, how did he have time to get back
in the car, start it and drive away. And if
the creature was fast enough to catch a car going
forty miles per hour, why aren't there more sightings of

(47:56):
something that can move that quickly? Radford also questioned and
how Davis could see such detail at two a m
in an area with no street lights, especially features like
scales and the exact number of fingers. Skeptics have also
pointed out that the summer of nineteen eighty eight was
particularly hot and humid, even by South Carolina standards. Heat

(48:18):
induced hallucinations, they argue, combined with the power of suggestion
after the initial reports, could explain many of the sightings.
The vehicle damage, skeptics suggest could have been caused by
known animals behaving unusually due to rabies or other diseases.
Bears in particular, have been known to attack vehicles when
they smell food inside, and a bear standing on its

(48:40):
hind legs in low light could match many of the descriptions.
Folklorus and cultural anthropologists have offered another perspective on the
lizard man phenomenon, viewing it not as a zoological mystery,
but as a modern expression of ancient fears and cultural anxieties.
Doctor Patricia Williams of folklorest at the Union Diversity of

(49:00):
South Carolina noted that swamp monster legends are common throughout
the American South. Every culture has its boundary creatures, monsters
that live at the edges of civilization and represent our
fears of the wild, the unknown, the other, the lizard
Man fits perfectly into this tradition, emerging from the swamp,

(49:20):
a liminal space between land and water, civilization and wilderness.
Williams also pointed out that the lizardman sightings occurred during
periods of social and economic stress in Lee County. The
nineteen eighty eight sidings came during a recession that hit
rural South Carolina particularly hard. The two thousand and eight
resurgents coincided with the global financial crisis. Monsters often appear

(49:44):
when communities are under stress, Williams explained. They provide an
external threat that can unite a community, and they offer
an explanation from misfortunes that might otherwise seem random or unfair.
The racial dynamics of the sidings have also drawn it
to tension. Christopher Davis, the initial witness, was African American,
and his story was taken seriously by white law enforcement

(50:07):
in the Deep South, a notable fact given the racial
tensions of the era. The Lizardman transcended racial boundaries in
a way that few things in nineteen eighty eight South
Carolina could observed. Doctor James Patterson, a historian specializing in
Southern culture, Black and white residents were equally terrified, equally fascinated.

(50:29):
In a strange way, the monster brought the community together.
Some researchers have proposed that the lizard man sightings might
be connected to environmental factors specific to scape Or Swamp
and the surrounding area. The region has a long history
of industrial pollution. Several chemical plants operated upstream from the
swamp throughout the twentieth century, and illegal dumping was common

(50:52):
in the isolated wetlands. Could chemical contamination have created mutations
in local wildlife, producing creatures that match the lizard man descriptions.
Doctor Robert Chen, an environmental toxicologist, studied water and soil
samples from scape Or Swamp in twenty sixteen. We found
elevated levels of several industrial chemicals, including compounds known to

(51:15):
cause developmental abnormalities in reptiles and amphibians. While I doubt
these could create a seven foot bipedal lizard, they could
certainly produce unusual looking animals that might be misidentified in
poor lighting conditions. Climate change has also been suggested as
a factor. The summers of nineteen eighty eight and two
thousand and eight were both unusually hot, possibly driving animals

(51:39):
to behave in atypical ways, or bringing southern species further
north than their usual range. American alligators have been expanding
their range northward, noted doctor Lisa Martinez, a herpetologist. Climate
change is also affecting animal behavior patterns. Creatures that were
once strictly nocturnal might be active at different times, leading

(52:00):
to unexpected encounters. Whatever the truth about the lizard Man,
his impact on Lee County's economy has been undeniable. The
creature has become a cottage industry, supporting local businesses and
drawing tourists from around the world. The South Carolina Cotton
Museum's lizard Man exhibit is one of its most popular attractions.

(52:22):
Museum director Jansen Cox reported that people come from as
far away as Japan and Australia specifically to see the
lizardman artifacts. You'd be surprised how many people plan their
vacations around cryptid sidings, Cox said. We get paranormal tour groups,
cryptozoology enthusiasts, and plenty of curious families who want to
see where it all happened. Local businesses have capitalized on

(52:45):
the legend. The Lizardman Triathlon, established in the nineteen nineties,
draws hundreds of participants each year. Restaurants offer lizard Man burghers,
swamp things, sandwiches, and scale tail ale. Gift shops sell
everything from t shirts to coffee mugs to Christmas ornaments
featuring the creature. In twenty eighteen, the town held its

(53:07):
first official Lizardman Festival and Comic con, drawing thousands of visitors.
The event featured panel discussions with cryptozoologists, tours of important
Lizardman sites, and a Mislizardman pageant where contestants wore elaborate
reptilian costumes. The Lizardman put Bishopville on the map, said
George Roberts, chairman of the Friends of the Lizardman Committee.

(53:30):
Before nineteen eighty eight, nobody outside of South Carolina had
heard of us. Now we're world famous. Whether you believe
in the creature or not, you have to appreciate what
it's done for our community. The Lizardman has transcended local
legend to become a pop culture icon. He has appeared
in numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction. Comic books have

(53:52):
featured him as everything from a villain to a misunderstood hero.
Video games have included him as an enemy or east.
Television shows Beyond the documentary, realm have referenced the creature.
The X Files had an episode clearly inspired by the
lizard Man, Supernatural featured a similar creature. Even South Park

(54:13):
did a parody episode about a swamp monster terrorizing a
small Southern town. The creature has become a symbol of
Southern Gothic horror, joining other regional monsters like the Jersey
Devil and the Mothman in the pantheon of American cryptids.
Horror authors have used the lizard Man as inspiration, and
several b movies have been made about reptilian swamp creatures

(54:36):
clearly based on the Bishopville beast. In twenty twenty three,
a major Hollywood studio announced plans for a big budget
Lizardman movie, Though production has been delayed, the announcement alone
brought renewed attention to Bishopville, with location scouts visiting the
area and locals hoping their town might become the next
horror movie tourism destination. As we approach the fortieth anniversary

(55:00):
of Christopher Davis's encounter, the lizard Man remains as mysterious
as ever, despite decades of investigation, hundreds of hours of
footage from trail cameras around scape Or Swamp and countless
nighttime expeditions by researchers. No one has produced definitive proof
of the creature's existence or definitively proven it doesn't exist.

(55:22):
The witnesses maintain their stories. Those still living from the
nineteen eighty eight sidings insist they saw something that defies
conventional explanation. Christopher Davis went to his grave maintaining that
his encounter was real. The ways never wavered in their
account Sheriff Trusdale, who passed away in twenty nineteen, said
in one of his last interviews, I still don't know

(55:44):
what those people saw, but I know they saw something.
New sightings continue to trickle in. In twenty twenty, during
the COVID nineteen pandemic, when scape Or Swamp was largely
deserted due to lockdowns, several people reported hearing unusual sounds
from the swamp, described as a combination of hissing and
clicking that didn't match any known animal. In twenty twenty two,

(56:07):
a group of kayakers claimed to have seen something large
and bipedal watching them from the swamp's edge, though they
were too frightened to stop for photographs. In twenty twenty three,
a trail camera captured an image of what appeared to
be a tall, dark figure, though the image was too
blurry for definitive analysis. Modern technology offers new possibilities for

(56:28):
solving the lizard man mystery. Environmental DNA sampling, which can
detect genetic material left by organisms in water or soil,
could potentially identify unknown species in scape or swamp. Doctor
Jennifer Walsh, who pioneered aDNA techniques for cryptozoological research, plans
to conduct a comprehensive survey of the swamp. If there's

(56:50):
an unknown large vertebrate living in scape or swamp, it
should be leaving genetic traces. We can compare any unusual
DNA we find against data of known species. This technique
has already identified several supposedly extinct species that we're still
living in remote areas. Drone technology also offers new opportunities.

(57:12):
Heat sensing drones can survey large areas of swamp that
are inaccessible to humans, potentially spotting large creatures from above.
Advanced AI analysis of video footage can distinguish between different
types of movement patterns, potentially identifying non human bipedal locomotion.
Some researchers are even using acoustic analysis, setting up a

(57:35):
rays of sensitive microphones around the swamp to capture and
analyze unusual sounds. Doctor Mark Peterson, a bioacoustics expert, explained,
every species has unique vocalizations. If the lizard man exists
and makes sounds, those sounds should have a distinctive acoustic signature.
We're building a database of all known wildlife sounds in

(57:56):
the area. Anything that doesn't match could be arcryptid. While
the famous encounters have been well documented, dozens of other
sightings have received less attention. These accounts, collected from locals
over the years, paint a picture of ongoing activity around
scape or swamp. Linda Patterson, a nurse at the local hospital,

(58:16):
came forward in twenty nineteen with an encounter she had
kept secret since nineteen eighty eight. I was driving home
from a late shift about a week after the Christopher
Davis story broke. I saw something cross the road ahead
of me, tall, walking on two legs with a long
tail dragging behind it. I stopped my car and watched
it disappear into the swamp. I never reported it because

(58:39):
I didn't want to be lumped in with the crazies.
But I know what I saw, and it matched exactly
what that boy described. Robert Elmore, whose uncle Lucius was
rumored by some locals to have started the lizard man
legend as a prank to keep people away from his property,
offered a different perspective in twenty twenty. People say, my
uncle made it all up, dressed up in a costume

(59:01):
to scare folks. But I was with him plenty of
nights at that old butterbean shed of his, and I
can tell you he was just as scared as anyone.
He used to say there was something in that swamp,
something that had been there long before any of us.
Maybe he played up the stories a bit, but he
didn't create them. A group of marines from Camp Lejune,

(59:21):
who were training in the area in nineteen ninety five,
filed an unofficial report about an encounter. We were doing
night navigation exercises near the swamp when our point man
signaled for us to stop. About fifty meters ahead, something
bipedal was moving through the trees. It was too tall
to be human, moved nothing like a bear. We watched

(59:42):
it for maybe thirty seconds before it noticed us and
took off into the swamp. Command told us it was
probably a homeless person or a hunter, but we all
knew better that thing wasn't human. Stay tuned for more
Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. Perhaps
the most disturbing aspect of the lizardman phenomenon are the

(01:00:04):
encounters reported by children, accounts often dismissed by adults, but
remarkably consistent in their details. In nineteen ninety two, a
group of boy scouts camping near Scape or Swamp reported
a terrifying encounter. According to their scout master, Jim Richardson,
the boys were sitting around the campfire when they started
hearing these sounds from the swamp, clicking and hissing, but rhythmic,

(01:00:28):
almost like communication. Then they saw eyes reflecting the firelight
about seven feet off the ground. The creature watched us
for several minutes before retreating. The boys were so terrified
we packed up and left that night. In twenty ten,
eight year old Marcus Williams was playing in his backyard,
which bordered the swamp when he claims to have seen

(01:00:50):
the lizard man. It was standing by the big tree,
just watching me. It had red eyes and green skin
like a lizard. But it stood up like a per
When I screamed for my mom, it walked, not ran,
walked back into the swamp. Mom didn't believe me, but
I know what I saw. Child psychologist doctor Rebecca Torres,

(01:01:13):
who interviewed several children who claimed lizard man encounters, noted,
what striking is the consistency of these accounts across different
ages and backgrounds. These children aren't simply repeating stories they've heard.
They're describing specific details, behavioral patterns, and emotional responses that
suggest genuine traumatic encounters with something unusual. After decades of sightings, investigations,

(01:01:38):
and speculation, what can we definitively say about the lizard
man of scape or swamp? The evidence, while compelling, remained circumstantial.
Nobody has ever been found. No clear photograph or video
has been captured, despite the ubiquity of cameras in the
modern era. No DNA evidence has been recovered that points
to an unknown species, yet the witness accounts continue. The

(01:02:03):
physical damage to vehicles in nineteen eighty eight in two
thousand and eight remains unexplained by conventional means. The consistency
of descriptions across decades suggests something more than mass hallucination
or coordinated hoaxing. Doctor Lyle Blackburn, after years of research, concluded,
I believe something unusual was occurring in the Scape or

(01:02:23):
Swamp area, particularly in nineteen eighty eight. Whether it was
an unknown creature, a known creature behaving unusually, or something
else entirely, I cannot say, but I'm convinced the primary
witnesses were sincere and that they encountered something that profoundly
affected them. Sheriff Daniel Simon, the current Lee County Sheriff,

(01:02:44):
takes a pragmatic approach. We respond to any reports of
unusual activity around the swamp just as we would anywhere
else in the county. Whether it's the Lizard Man or
something else, our job is to keep people safe. The
legend has become part of our community's identity, and as
long as people aren't getting hurt or breaking the law

(01:03:04):
looking for it, I don't see the harm. The Lizard
Man of Scape or Swamp remains one of America's most
intriguing cryptozoological mysteries. Unlike ancient legends passed down through generations,
this is a modern phenomenon with living witnesses, physical evidence,
and ongoing sightings. It emerged in the age of mass

(01:03:25):
media and has evolved with technology, yet remains as elusive
as ever. Perhaps the true significance of the lizard Man
lies not in whether he exists, but in what he represents.
In an age where satellite imagery has mapped every corner
of the Earth, where trail cameras monitor wildlife twenty four
to seven, where DNA analysis can identify species from microscopic traces,

(01:03:49):
the possibility that a seven foot reptilian humanoid could exist
undetected in a South Carolina swamp represents something profound, the
hope that mystery still exists in our world. For the
people of Bishopville and Lee County, the lizard Man has
become more than just a monster story. He's part of
their identity, their history, their economy. He represents their moment

(01:04:13):
in the spotlight when their small southern town captured the
world's attention. Whether swimming through the dark waters of scape
or swamp, or existing only in the collective imagination, the
lizard Man has achieved a different kind of immortality. As
night falls over scape or swamp, as it has for
countless millennia, the ancient cypresses stand sentinel over waters that

(01:04:36):
hold their secrets close. The frogs sing their primordial songs.
The alligators glide silently through the darkness, and somewhere, perhaps
something walks upright through the shadows, watching the highways where
human speed passed in their metal shells, never knowing what
eyes might be observing them from the darkness. The mystery endures,

(01:04:59):
the legend lives, and in Bishopville, South Carolina, people still
lock their doors a little more carefully on hot summer nights,
still avoid the roads near scape or swamp after midnight.
Still wonder what Christopher Davis saw on that fateful night
in nineteen eighty eight. Some mysteries are meant to be solved. Others,
perhaps are meant to remind us that the world is

(01:05:21):
still capable of surprise, still able to confound our certainty,
still wild enough to harbor the impossible. The lizard man
of Scape or Swamp may never be captured, photographed clearly,
or scientifically cataloged, but in a way that's exactly as
it should be. Every community needs its monsters, every generation

(01:05:42):
needs its mysteries, and every dark swamp needs something to
make us think twice before venturing too deep into the unknown.
The search continues, the stories multiply, and somewhere in scape
or swamp, something waits, watches, and perhaps wonders about the
strength bipedal creatures that occasionally venture too close to its domain.

(01:06:05):
The legend of the lizard Man is far from over.
If history is any guide, he'll return when we least
expect it, leaving his mark on another vehicle, terrifying another witness,
and reminding us all that despite our modern certainties, some
things remain beyond our understanding. And perhaps that's the most
terrifying and thrilling thought of all. If you find yourself

(01:06:26):
driving through Lee County, South Carolina, on a hot summer night,
and your tire blows out in your scape or swamp,
remember Christopher Davis, Remember the ways, Remember all those who
have encountered something in those ancient waters that defies explanation.
Change your tire quickly. Don't investigate strange sounds. And if

(01:06:47):
you see red eyes glowing in the darkness, if you
hear heavy footsteps approaching through the humid night, don't try
to be a hero, don't stop for photographs, just run,
because whether the lizard Man is real or not, fear
certainly is, and in those dark moments, when the Swamp
presses close and the normal world seems very far away,

(01:07:08):
the distinction between reality and legend becomes meaningless. The Swamp
keeps its secrets. It always has, it always will, and
some secrets have scales, red eyes, and a taste for
chrome bumpers. The b