May 23, 2025 • 63 mins
Here are a few creatures not talked about in most circles. Beasts like the Agula'aq, a shape shifter that can go from being a killer whale, to running over the ice as a wolf. How about the Dingonuk, living around Lake Victoria, it likes to eat hippos. The Lambton Worm has been with use for hundreds of years, and they even made a movie about it. Find out what's out there...waiting for you.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/strange-things-with-chris-james--4931876/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/strange-things-with-chris-james--4931876/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Are you coming to the true?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well? Hung up?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Who is? Says she murdered? True Jos, things have happened
that mass joner, Mama Mahalan True.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Chris James. I
see another company with too many shops already is trying
to insert themselves into Laredo with another coffee shop. At
one time, Organic Man Coffee Trike was the one and only.
(00:59):
Those fishy people from Washington managed to open about three
hundred coffee shops all over Ledo. Some were right across
the streets from each other. It didn't take long to
close about two hundred and ninety four of them. As
folks worked at the Organic Man, they learned how to
(01:23):
make coffee well. Some of them decided to branch out
on their own. How difficult could it be to run
your own company? A lot of people don't realize there's
a lot more to it than just putting coffee in
a cup. We have about ten local coffee shops and
(01:44):
a few of these mega brands. You choose what you
want to do with your money. Support a local business,
or send your hard earned cash to some mega store
in some other state, or maybe some other country. As
far as I'm concerned, the Organic Man Coffee Trike is
(02:07):
where I do my coffee buying unless they're closed, in
which case I do have to go with one of
the other companies. The best coffee in the universe can
only be found at one place. Four or five is
zero one McPherson. If you can't get there from wherever
(02:29):
you're at, go to Organicmancoffeetrike Dot Shop. Coffee makes the
world go round. If not, we'd all fly off in
outer space. Before I get into the cryptid stories, here's
a little bit about me. I get a kick out
(02:52):
of some folks who believe their opinions are not only
extremely important, but they have some kind of duty to
spread it around like fertilizer. I get comments always on Facebook.
Correction YouTube, I always get those two mixed up. For
(03:13):
some reason. It's always on YouTube as saying I talk
about myself too much or I keep telling too many
personal stories. I was texting with Kyle Filson from The
Expanded Perspectives one night, and we're talking about how funny
(03:34):
it is that you put out a absolutely free podcast
and people will complain about it on YouTube. Too bad.
It's my show after all, my name is in the title.
So here is a little bit of advice for anybody
(03:56):
out there who's about to have a root canal. I
just had one. You want to keep your calendar open
all day before the big event. I was given an
appointment for four forty five pm. The night before, they
(04:17):
called saying there had been a cancelation. Could I move
it up to two thirty? Of course I could move.
I wasn't in any hurry to get into the chair.
I was in a hurry to be done with it.
The day of the appointment, I got another call asking
if I could come in at noon, the sooner the better.
(04:42):
At Fort Knox, when we went into the gas chamber,
I ran to get to the front of the line,
get in, die a little, and then get out. If
you've never been through the gas chamber, I give it
a one star, highly not recommended. I arrived at the
(05:05):
dentist's office early, and don't you know, I was ushered
write in major bit of advice here. As you walk in,
ask if you could go to the bathroom before they start,
even if you don't really have to go go anyway.
(05:26):
I was in that chair for two hours and forty
five minutes. I had drunk a pot of coffee before
I arrived, And think of that scene from The Right
Stuff Scott glenn is portraying Alan Shephard. He was supposed
to climb in and be shot into outer space within
(05:49):
a few minutes four hours later, once he'd ruined his
spacesuit and NASA fired him into space. For all of
five minutes, I was uncomfortable for the last hour or so.
Try to think happy thoughts. Don't focus on what's going
(06:13):
on inside your mouth. Think about, oh, I don't know,
kittens or puppies. Think about what you're doing tomorrow and
not right now. Absolutely, do not think about the movie
The Marathon Man. Is it safe? If the doctor had
(06:37):
said that when he walked in, I had jumped out
of the chair and ran. Be the best patient the
staff has ever seen. Smile if you can, try to
not cough or drown. Don't squirm. And if you feel
a sudden, sharp pain that goes all the way to
(06:59):
your poes, think of it as building character. That which
does not kill you will make you hurt all over.
Don't bite anyone if you have to bite somebody. Try
to go after a were wolf that made me. Wonder
(07:23):
if you bite a were wolf, will they turn into
a human? Something to think about. Lastly, thank everybody. Tell
them even though you hated being there, you were happy
with what they did. Just keep in mind modern medicine
(07:44):
has improved dramatically since the Dark Ages. You might have
to come back someday. You want the staff to like you.
I set out to find some lesser known cryptids, the
ones few folks have heard about. Not an easy task sometimes.
(08:06):
Most search engines today are pregnant with links that take
you to websites with zero relevance to what you're looking for.
For example, I was looking for information on a cryptid
known as the ahuluk. I hope that's how it's pronounced,
(08:28):
instead of monsters. I was offered hundreds of links to
some singer that I'm not a fan of. The search
folks must think I can't spell or I don't really
know what I'm looking for. Big companies give the search
folks money to be sure that their ads get first
(08:51):
mentioned as you search, even if they have zero to
do with what you're looking for. To alleviate the confusion,
I put encryptid in the search term. This allowed me
to pursue hundreds of sites on cryptids, but not the Aholuk.
(09:12):
I did stumble upon the Anguilla Polluta, the hairy eel,
which is a cryptozoological figure found in the Canary Islands.
This is a mysterious eel that inhabits a pool in
Punta de on Naga. Soon the locals began calling the
(09:34):
pool the Charco de la Angula. The locals were terrified
of this beast, and they sought out the church to
deal with it. A priest performed in exorcism on the pool,
and the monster hasn't been seen since. Still not what
(09:55):
I was looking for. As I searched, I did find
a site talking about the Allaha ala ala ak. Yeah,
it's one of those words, or maybe it's the rule
ok Aka the Alaskan bigfoot are ula akh Alaskan Bigfoot.
(10:18):
I've done several shows about Bigfoot, as well as just
about every podcast out there that deals with weird things.
It helps not at all that some of these creatures'
names are unpronounceable, like the u ula Akh. The person
who translated the name from whichever language or dialect had
(10:41):
to guess on how to do so, or they added
a bunch of dashes and hyphens or several punctuation marks
that most folks don't even use anymore. I did manage
to track down one story about the Ahulak. I call
(11:02):
this Witness Quinn. If you don't get that reference, you're
just too young. Quinn grew up in Kodiak, an island
off the coast of Alaska with a small town and
a couple of small villages scattered about the island. You
(11:23):
can't get there in a car unless you take the
ferry or you fly. No, there's not much to do
there other than fish, and for the young kids, the
place is pretty much dead. Quinn would hang out with
his friends from school and do the things that kids
(11:46):
do with little to do. Oh, they would hang out
and they would smoke cigarettes or maybe sometimes something a
little bit stronger. They would go for a hike, and
at the end of the hike they would hang out
and smoke some more cigarettes and maybe something a bit stronger. Again,
(12:09):
being kids, Quinn thought it would be a great idea
to scare the heck out of his friends. The Native
Alutik elders told stories of the Aholuk, which were similar
to skin walkers. These beings were once humans who were
(12:32):
cast out of the village, and they turned to black
magic in order to survive. Like the ye nal de Lusi,
you weren't supposed to talk about them. On very rare occasions,
the subject would come up, which made not talking about
them extremely hard. What caused all this death and destruction, Well,
(12:58):
it must have been something else. Everyone in both Navajo
and Alutic tribes knew what these beings were and what
they would do to you if you drew their attention
to yourself or your family. As Quinn and his friends
(13:21):
Tommy and Gaspar, I know. Gaspar is not an Alutic name.
I couldn't remember any other names I'd heard over the years.
We did have one or two Native Alaskans in the
border patrol. Now that was some time ago, okay. Quinn, Tommy,
(13:45):
and Gaspar were walking through a remote area. Quinn began
to tell about all the things that he'd heard about
the Ahuluk get his friend's minds focused on scare things.
They found a nice spot to hang out and smoke,
(14:08):
and they used up the last of their cigarettes. Quinn
went into great detail on the Ahuluk could impersonate people
that they knew and would do so in order to
cause all kinds of havoc and maybe try to kill them.
(14:29):
In other words, you didn't know who to trust. As
the sun was reaching the horizon, the three decided it
was time to turn back. Once they reached Tommy's car,
a gas Spar asked if they could stop at a
store so he could buy some cigarettes. In order to
(14:51):
make said purchase, a Gaspar needed to run into his
house and get his money. The three stopped at the
house and and the boy went Shortly he came back out,
and he said he only had three dollars and that
was far short from what he needed to get a
pack of smokes, and that they were going to part
(15:13):
company for the evening and he would pick up some
cigarettes later. Once back home, Quinn was in his bedroom
when he got a text message from Gaspar. He wanted
to know where the others had gotten. Gaspar said he
ran into his room, found his money, walked back out
(15:37):
to join the others, but they were gone. Quinn thought
Gaspar was trying to be funny, but then worry set in.
What if What if all that talk about the Ahuluck
had gotten his unwonted attention to the creature. The text
(15:59):
messages went back and forth, and thoughts of some shapeshifter
that had impersonated Gaspar grew. The long and the short
of it is, had Gaspar been pranking Quinn and Tommy?
Why did he put himself out of cigarettes just to
have fun with his friends? You know how teenagers are.
(16:23):
When they want something, they absolutely need it. The longer
Quinn thought about it, the more he became convinced that
he and Tommy had seen an aholik Aklut is a
creature from Inuit mythology, particularly among the indigenous people of
(16:47):
the Arctic region. It is often described as a mythical
sea creature or a shape shifting creature, with the ability
to transform between an orca, a killer whale, and a wolf.
The akhulut is said to possess the strength and speed
(17:09):
of both a killer whale and a wolf, making it
a formidable and dangerous creature in Inuit folklore. It is
known for hunting seals and other marine animals while in
the water, as well as land based prey when it's
in its wolf form. This shape shifting ability and its
(17:33):
status as a powerful and mysterious being make the akhulut
a prominent figure in Inuit mythology and the stories. The
origin of the hulut creature can be traced back to
the mythology and the oral traditions of the indigenous folks
(17:54):
in Antarctic Arctic Circle Antarctics the other side of the
planet the Arctic, particularly the Inuit, the Inupiat, the Upic cultures.
These creatures have inhabited the Arctic Range Arctic region of
North America for thousands of years, and their stories have
(18:18):
been passed down through generations. In Inuit mythology, the akhulut
is one of the many supernatural beings that are believed
to inhabit the natural world. The description of the akhulut
(18:39):
can vary somewhat in different versions of Inuit storytelling. It
generally combines features of both a killer whale and a
wolf due to its shape shifting nature. The upper part
of its body resembles a killer whale with a sleek,
streamlined appearance. It typically has dark coloration a back and sides,
(19:05):
but it's often deep blue from below. The lower part
of the body, including its belly, can be white or
light colored. The akkulut head is that of an orca
with a prominent dorsal fin on its back. I think
of a giant wolf with a dorsal fin. It possesses
(19:28):
the powerful tail flukes of a killer whale, which it
uses for swimming and hunting in the water. In its
wolf form, the akkulut takes on the appearance of a large,
fearsome wolf. It also will have dark coloration that resembles
the coloration of a orca. The Akkoulut's eyes are often
(19:54):
described as glowing with an eerie or a supernatural light.
Its size can vary from typically a lot bigger than
a normal wolf, all the way up to size of
a small killer whale. The ability to transform between these
two forms is the key characteristic of the akulat. If
(20:19):
I'd ever had a desire to visit the Arctic, this
creature has thoroughly squashed it. I forgot to turn my
phone off. That guy is gonna probably call again asking
to speak to James Howard. He calls every week. I
keep telling him there's nobody here named James Howard, and
(20:41):
he's been calling for the last year. As I continued
searching for little known cryptids, I did find some cool
stories that I decided to use. So the show wouldn't
be just about me trying to find cool stories. American
(21:02):
hunter Edgar Beecher Bronson was in the bush the brush
in East Africa's British colonies when he interviewed Alfred Jordan.
Bronson also interviewed many of Jordan's staff. They all agreed
on the stories that Jordan was telling. When questioning the
(21:23):
locals who lived along the banks of the lake, they
told him this beast fish was called a dingoneck. This
is from the turn of the century, not the last one,
but the one before that nineteen hundreds. Alfred Jordan was
(21:44):
an African hunter from back in the early nineteen hundreds.
He did have some questionable encounters, but mostly because the
boys in the White lab coats, who did all their
research from the unexplored wilds of the Left Laboratories, said so.
One creature Jordan reported on was called the beast fish,
(22:08):
which he was terrified of. It was at least fourteen
to eighteen feet long. It had an enormous head shaped
like a leopard or maybe a dog, as some said
it had the head of an otter. This monster's favorite
food was hippos. It used its strong, wide tail to
(22:32):
steer through the currents of the East African Rivers. Some
reported it had a long or It had long white
tusks like an walrus or an elephant, and it had
an armadillo's impenetrable scales. Its feet were those of a
large hippo. But it had hands like a t rex.
(22:57):
I don't know if they were the litted, bitty t
rex hands or the big ones, but it had hands
like a t rex. Jordan was not the only white
traveler to report an encounter with a neck. In nineteen hundred,
Clement Hill, the British superintendent of African Protectorates, had been
(23:19):
aboard a steam powered launch in the northeastern waters of
Lake Victoria when something with a head and neck emerged
from the depths and tried to seize a sailor from
the bow of the ship. Everyone was certain this was
not a crocodile. Other people visiting the lake said they
(23:42):
spotted the beast fish floating on a log or sunning
on the banks of one of the rivers flowing into
Lake Victoria. Vic Hermanson and I read a lot of
the same books. One in particular was The Island of
Mourning about Lake Victoria and all the crocodiles that live
(24:05):
in it. I believe I loaned my copy to my mother,
and when she died, one of her friends took it.
I did say, I just wanted her photographs, and maybe
I should have thought of some of the other things
that she had, like that giant trilobite fossil that now
somebody else has. You don't think about things like that
(24:29):
when you're cleaning up after a death. Dingo necks are
said to live in the tributaries of Lake Victoria, such
as the Victoria Nile and the River Jinga in Uganda.
The second most dangerous animal in Africa is the crocodile.
(24:51):
The one that kills the most humans is the hippopotamus,
you know, the one I want for Christmas. Necks eat
hippos for breakfast. The only reason they don't eat many
humans is well, we don't really know. Maybe we taste funny.
(25:13):
There were a few reports of unlucky fishermen winding up
passing through the creature's digestive tract, but very few witnesses
were able to give any details. Most of what is
known in the English speaking world today of the indigenous
people's beliefs about the din nung din on Neck. It
(25:35):
comes from the records of these same white explorers and
colonial administrators. In those second and third hand accounts, the
creatures sometimes and perhaps incorrectly, also is referred to by
non indigenous writers interchangeably as all umman umani or luke
(26:01):
still looks frightful, but its presence often pretends good fortune
and a good harvest. A thriving herd is also to
be had. If you spot that creature ding ding gon Neck,
(26:23):
it's one of those words, it's it's African. If, on
the other hand, you do not see one of these
beast fish, you're bound to have ill fortunes and bad
weather is coming. The indigenous communities feared the white explorers
(26:43):
and hunters more than the d d ding on x.
Those who knew the beast fish believed explorers had killed
the creature with the purpose of making them victims of
a dreaded plague. This happened about the time that Jordan
(27:05):
had shot at dnan Neck in around nineteen oh eight.
Just after that happened, a deadly sickness swept through the
community on Lake Victoria's northern shore. In two thousand and three,
at least three people were killed by an unidentified animal
(27:27):
in a remote area of Malawi. Sixteen others were badly injured.
Officials said the animal was a rabid hyena. However, eyewitness
accounts and expert analysis have come out that makes this unexplained.
That makes this explanation untenable. Attacks on villagers and Dawa
(27:53):
District are thought to have begun early March two thousand
and three. Is about sixty miles from the capital city
of Lilongui, but as soon as you exit the city
you're pretty much in the wilderness. Many areas are sparsely
populated and quite mountainous. Officials from Parks and Wildlife Department
(28:19):
received word of the attacks from villagers fleeing their homes
seeking refuge at the community hall at district headquarters. More
than four thousand people fled from four mountainous villages. They
were telling stories of a large, aggressive animal that was
(28:40):
actively hunting people in the region. Two elderly women and
a toddler had been killed by this creature. In each case,
their skulls were crushed and their intestines and genitalia were consumed.
Sounds like our cattle mutilations. Many of the sixteen people
(29:03):
that did survive. The attacks had extremely severe injuries, including
missing legs and hands. At least one woman's face was
partially removed, and two other victims were blinded. This was
the second time in less than a year than an aggressive,
(29:25):
unidentified animal had terrorized the area. Earlier attacks in August
resulted in five deaths and twenty severe injuries. That creature
was eventually killed by a joint patrol of game rangers.
Paramilitary police officials identified the attacker as a hyena. The
(29:49):
folks who had seen the attacks said nay nay, the
creature they saw didn't have that signature sloping posture seen
in Hyaen. Its back legs were more like those of
a huge dog, and it had no spots. Witnesses referred
to the attacker as the Malawi terror beast. Some villagers
(30:16):
believe that the nature of the attacks, often badly maiming
victims but leaving them still alive, did not resemble those
of any predator. Instead, they felt the attacking the attacks
demonstrated a level of deliberate malice. After an investigation into
(30:37):
the two thousand and three attacks, park officials concluded that
they were likely again the work of a hyena. However,
in this case, the animal was never captured or killed,
and animal experts have questioned the likelihood of a lone
hyena aggressively attacking entire villages of One witness said he
(31:03):
thought the creature was supernatural in nature. The same animal
that had killed the year earlier resurrected to come back
and exact its revenge. A week after fleeing their homes.
Many of the villagers did return under armed guard. Despite
(31:24):
an intensive hunt by park rangers supported by the police
and soldiers, the animal responsible for the attacks was never found.
As I looked at dozens of sites, I came across
something that I just had to dig into, the deep
(31:46):
sea abominable snowman. I checked out several websites, but everybody
was referencing the same sighting Bruce Moneer as he would
diving off of Great Isaac in the Bahamas. I'm going
to say that again, the deep sea abominable snowman underwater.
(32:13):
I think it was last week or two weeks ago.
I may have said something about how come you never
hear about an underwater sasquatch? And then I found this.
In the nineteen eighties, Bruce was being towed behind a boat.
As he looked for possible wrecks that they could salvage,
he spotted a huge what he described as a turtle.
(32:36):
As he looked closer, the creature turned its head and
looked back at him. It had a face like a
gorilla ornate. The neck who was four times as long
as it should have been. The eyes looked human, only
they were enormous for the size of the head. Bruce
(32:58):
got a very good look at this creature. As it
looked back at him, it suddenly shot away and began
as if being propelled through the water using some kind
of a hidden machine. Deep sea bigfoot, Let me see
(33:20):
that the deep sea abominable snowman. That's it. Seventeen eighty five,
William Hutchinson wrote about a creature hunting the English countryside.
It was given the name the Lampton Worm. He based
his stories on folklore handed down over the centuries. The
(33:44):
exact location of this giant worm was never mentioned, but
the best guess is it's a glacial moraine left over
from the last Ice Age in Fatfield, Washington, about halfway
between the British cities of Newcastle and Sunderland. This feature
(34:08):
has been known as long as anyone can remember, as
being named worm Hill, and it was here that people
believed the Lampton worm once lived. The creature was seen
as a menace, destroying the nearby fields and the crops
(34:29):
of the Lampton estate. It was down to the Lampton
family to deal with this monster. It was on their grounds.
The locals all said that Sir John Lampton was the
man responsible for the Lampton worm. The story goes one day,
(34:50):
young John Lampton was fishing by the river weir that
flowed near his soon to be inherited a state. He
caught a very strange creature with the head of a
dragon in the body of an eel. Not knowing what
it really was, he discarded the eel like creature in
(35:13):
a nearby well, later known as the worm Well. Young
Lampton left his home for many years, becoming a crusader
a night of Rhodes, the worm John had discarded was
not dead, and it began to grow inside the well.
(35:36):
For all the years that Lampton was not at home,
the worm grew so big it reached an enormous size,
and it outgrew the well. Once it was able, the
worm crawled out of the well, kind of like how
Samara popped up, only without the creepy walk or the
(35:57):
white gown. The creature began to hang out at the
nearby river, were hiding underwater near a particular rock. The
worm was mostly a curiosity, only eating fish. As it grew,
so did its appetite. The worm started to attack and
(36:19):
eat cattle and sheep, and in an occasional child who
got too close to the river. The worm soon became
extremely dangerous, and the village people and the state inhabitants
grew worried about this venomous and enormous serpent like creature.
When John Lampton returned from the Crusades, he was a
(36:44):
changed man. He had transformed into a brave, daunting knight,
strong and noble, that's how they described him. He knew
that the worm was the same worm that he had
caught years ago, and it was his duty to put
an end to this now dangerous creature so that the
(37:06):
nearby people could live peacefully. He tried to kill the
worm many times, but he failed. The worm, by this
point was too powerful, and no matter how gravely he
injured it, the worm would always escape and soon recover.
In a last bid to kill the worm, Lampton consulted
(37:28):
a witch that lived near his estate. She advised him
on how to kill the worm and how to get
rid of it forever. Lampton was warned that if he
beheaded the worm, it would not die, but the two
severed halves would rejoin and it would live again. Lampton
(37:53):
was told that he needed to wear armor fitted with
razor blades when he went to do battle. As soon
as he was close to the worm, it attacked. It
came up out of the water, and wrapped itself around
his body. This was a bad idea, since the entire
(38:14):
suit of armor was covered in sharp, pointy things. With
each movement, the worm did more damage to itself than
the Knight ever could. Lampton was able to chop what
was left to pieces, which were carried away by the
current of the river. When the Lampton Worm was dead,
(38:37):
everyone hailed John Lampton as a hero of the hour
and now for the rest of the story. In order
for the witch's magic to work, Lampton was told that
he must kill the first person he met immediately after
(39:00):
vanquishing his prey. The first person to greet him was
his father, and Lampton just could not kill him. The
witch had warned Lampton that if he failed to kill
the first person he saw, his family would be placed
under a curse and the next heirs of the family
(39:22):
would not be able to die peacefully in their beds.
This meant that they would die in either battle or
because of foul play, and not from natural causes and
old age. Well, the curse apparently came true, and of
the next nine generations of lamped In heirs, none of
(39:46):
them had a peaceful death. If you saw the movie
The Lair of the White Worm nineteen eighty eight, this
was kind of based on the original story Brohm Stoker. Yes,
that guy wrote a book based on the legend back
(40:07):
in nineteen eleven. In the movie, you may have recognized
Peter Capaldi as in the Twelfth Doctor from Doctor Who.
A Peter is six days younger than me, but he
makes a heck of a lot more money. In the fifties,
(40:30):
a young woman and her two siblings were driving through
the countryside. Her sister was in the passenger seat and
her brother was in the back. Their exact location was
not told, but they were on a two lane country
road with ditches on both sides and it was lined
with trees. It was late in the day but not
(40:54):
yet dark. The driver began to smell something akin to
really the old garbage or some recently dead big animal.
Rounding a curve up ahead, she saw what looked like
a bear, hunched over in the ditch. It looked like
it was eating something, either road killed or something it
(41:18):
had recently killed. She pointed out this bear to her
two companions, and they all watched as the car got closer.
It soon became apparent that this bear was taller than
the car. Even though it was hunched over and in
a ditch, This must have been one huge bear. When
(41:46):
the creature heard the approaching car, it stood up. Now
it was towering over the vehicle. They were close enough
to make out a lot of details. It was covered
in dark, shaggy fur. The only visible skin was the
lips around the eyes and the ears. The head was
(42:08):
sitting square on the shoulders. This thing had no neck.
It turned its entire body to watch the car as
it went by. Her brother in the back seat kept
his eyes on the creature, telling his sisters that is
not a bear. If it wasn't a bear, what was it.
(42:33):
Bigfoot is described as having its head close to its shoulders.
But it still has a bit of a neck. It's
not a dog man, because they do have necks. This
thing was some unknown and never before seen or since,
a kind of cryptid. The young couple were out gazed
(42:57):
stargazing in the park. No names were given, so I'm
gonna call them Dick and yes, Jane. I hated those
books back when I had to read them. It was
torture through your eyeballs. I am one hundred percent certain
that Joseph Mengela had something to do with writing those books. Run, Dick,
(43:23):
Run Who who decided that that was a good idea?
I don't know. Oh. Yes, Dick and Jane were in
the park staring up at the sky. As they sat there,
Dick thought he heard somebody trying to sneak up on them.
The park was in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood, and so
(43:45):
he got his guard up. Dick stood up and he
moved towards the sound, not getting too close, just enough
to see who or what it was stealthily trying to
creep up on them. In the darkness. He saw what
(44:06):
looked like a person covered from head to foot in
white cloth of some kind, hunched over as if using
their hands and feet to move along the ground. It
was moving parallel to them, but it was traveling from
the thick brush out into the open Dick watched this
(44:28):
thing and then he asked to Jane if she could
see it as well. She said yes. This was just
too weird. So the couple hoofed it back to the
car and Dick got the engine running. Wondering what the
thing was, he flipped on the high beams, but the
creature was no longer there. He asked Jane to describe
(44:52):
what she had seen, and her sighting was exactly like his.
They decided to get out of there, but neither wanted
to go back home, so instead they drove to an
open field nearby, not too close but a few miles.
Once there, they got on there with their stargazing. Within minutes,
(45:17):
a black helicopter came flying towards them. It passed right overhead,
close enough that they could feel the prop wash. This
aircraft made no sound, plus it wasn't showing any lights.
The helicopter was flying in the direction of the park
(45:37):
that they had just left. They both thought whatever that
white thing had been, the helicopter was going to check
it out. Or maybe try to catch it. Perhaps it
had escaped from the boys in the black helicopters. In
(45:58):
northern New Jersey, a young man I'll call him John,
was walking home at about three am. Up ahead, he
saw movement, maybe somebody was out walking early in the morning.
As he got closer, he could see this was sort
of a human shape, but it stood about nine feet tall.
(46:23):
This creature was covered in a white cloth. Sound familiar.
John thought, just maybe he was seeing the Jersey Devil,
except the devil is never described as having on white clothing. Fortunately,
John's path of travel wasn't taking him any closer to
(46:43):
this thing, so he sped up and moved by as
quickly as he could. Once back home, he began searching
for any kind of a similar encounters. The closest he
could come was the Fresno Crawlers. Do I have to
describe the Crawlers? Okay, just the basics. Two thousand and
(47:06):
seven in Fresno, California, Jose's dog kept barking at unknown trespassers.
Jose put a camera in his front yard and he
caught a weird looking thing walking across his yard. The
crawler was about four feet tall and it looked like
a pair of legs with nobody above. What John had
(47:29):
seen was more than twice as tall. Fresnoe crawlers have
been seen in other locations now all over Ohio, Yosemite
Park and a few other places. I hate it when
I read a really good story but there's no date,
(47:50):
no location. It makes an unbelievable story harder to believe.
A woman and her husband door dry home after visiting
with some friends. They were on the outskirts of town,
but they didn't say what town. There were a few
houses around. A human looking figure darted out from from
(48:15):
some darted out from some trees, right in front of
the car. Her husband had a slam on the brakes
and the vehicle skidded a few feet. They both saw
the same image. It looked like a huge man. He
was down on all fours as he sped across the street.
(48:38):
It only took seconds for this weird guy to go
from one side of the road to the other, vanishing
into the brush once more. Once more, no date or location,
but still an interesting story. Dave was walking his dog
(48:59):
through his namemborhood when something got the dog's attention. The
dog began to alert and make soft woofing and slight
growling sounds. Dave looked to see what was getting his
dog's attention. Up in the sky, about ten or twelve
feet up was a whitish boomerang looking creature. It was
(49:24):
not very clear and almost looked as if it wasn't solid.
This thing was flying around a house and went by
the house by the front and disappeared behind, only to
pop back into sight coming around the far side. This
went on for several minutes. The creature circled the house
(49:47):
maybe half a dozen or more times. It looked almost
like a small manta ray, but the wings never flapped.
It glided around the night, staying close to that one.
Had the dog not seen this creature and the movement,
Dave would thought he was just imagining things. Dogs I
(50:11):
don't think have a very good imagination, at least they
never tell me they do. People did try to convince
Dave that he had seen an owl or a bat. Now,
this thing didn't have any feathers, and it didn't look black.
It was white. You don't have a whole lot of
white bat. There are some, but they're little bitty guys.
(50:32):
You don't have big white bats. Flying around The edges
of this creature looked as if the thing was kind
of dissolving into the night, almost like a held together
mist that flew around a house for unknown reasons. Fritz
(50:54):
was living in Frankfurt, Germany, as a small child. On
several nights he saw a huge black shape goes streaking
through the sky. It was bigger than a car, almost
human shaped. There was no sound, and the only way
to know it was there is if you saw it.
(51:15):
Had Fritz been the only witness, it could have been
written off as his imagination, But others saw this huge
thing as well. Both his parents as well as the
neighbors all saw this black monster flying overhead. Fritz thinks
what he was seeing was some kind of a giant
(51:37):
bat that was bigger than a car. That's a lot
of bat. It was batman. No. The Tanzanian island of
Pemba in the Indian Ocean is haunted by the Night Demon,
a terrifying creature known as a Papa Bawa. This bat
(52:01):
like creature has the ability to transform, sometimes appearing as
a human like figure. Its preferred time to strike is
during the night, although there have been a few reports
of daytime sightings. The Papa Bawa is known for its
indiscriminate attacks, targeting anybody in its path. Disturbingly, one common
(52:28):
narrative involves this spirit a sexually assaulting men. The origins
of the Papa Bawa legend can be traced back to
a few decades ago, during a period of civil unrest
following the assassination of the country's president. According to local belief,
(52:51):
victims of the Papa Bawa attacks must share their experiences
with others on Pemba. Failure to do so may result
in continued visits from this malevolent entity. Reports of the
Papa Bawa attacks have instilled fear in the local population.
(53:14):
Some men started staying awake or sleeping in groups outside
of their homes, while others resorted to smearing themselves with
pig oil, believing that this could repel the creature's attacks.
Umjaka Hamad, a peasant farmer, recounts his encounter with the
(53:36):
Papa Bawa in nineteen ninety seven. Though he couldn't see
the creature himself, others in his house witnessed its attack.
His family were awoken by the sound of the creature's arrival.
Once everybody in the house was awake. They all watched
(53:58):
in horror as if it did its nastiness to him.
Joka the thing landed on his chest, causing a lot
of pain and difficulty breathing. It did its nasty deed
and left whom Jaka thinks his lack of belief may
(54:20):
have made him a target, suggesting that anyone doubts its
existence could potentially become a victim. A shape shifter, the
Papa Boua can change its appearance during the day, it
masquerades as a regular person. Under the cover of darkness,
(54:40):
it shifts into a predatory shape kind of a batman
looking thing. The Papa Bow is a hunched figure shaped
roughly like a human. Its skin is gray and it
gives off the smell of sulfur. It has long, pointed ears,
a wide mouth with lots of fangs, large single eye
(55:05):
in the center of its forehead that glows in the dark.
The creature has a pair of huge bat wings, which
can wrap around itself like a cape. Some witnesses have
described other variations of the monster's appearance. For example, it
may have a long tail or feet like a bird.
(55:33):
It has also been known to turn into animals or
it can turn into a puff of smoke when it
has to make a quick getaway. Some people believe the
Popa Vow is a fame seeking creature. It targets victims
who don't believe in evil spirits so that it can
(55:54):
violently set the record straight. These same people say it
is known for warning its victims they must spread the
story of their attack. If they don't tell everyone, the
creature will return and make them suffer some more. Vick Dave,
(56:19):
maybe you should look into the Papa Bawa. The Papa
Bowa has magical powers, and it uses them to hunt
and torture humans. Its single eye can paralyze anyone who
gazes into it. Some people look the creature in the eye,
they will fall into a trance and thus allow this
(56:42):
thing to have its way with them. The Papa Bawa
is a relatively new creature. Tanzania, the monster's home, has
a rich tradition of folklore and witchcraft. Many locals continue
to believe in evil spirits called shitani. The new kid
(57:07):
on the block seems to be trying to wedge itself
into the fears of the locals. The first written record
of a Papa Bawa did not appear until nineteen sixty five,
and it grew into infamy in nineteen seventy two. The
(57:28):
Goro is a creature of American folklore, particularly associated with
the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri. Often described as
a fearsome reptilian beast, the goro is said to be
twenty feet long, with sharp tusks of pointy ridges along
(57:50):
its back, and a propensity for mischief and destruction. A
mischief maker. The name go Ro derived from the sounds
that it makes, and its legend has been passed down
through oral tradition and local tales. The go Ro is
(58:10):
often portrayed as a monstrous predator, though its role in
folklore ranges from a terrifying menace to an entertaining local myth.
Tales of the go Ro often emphasize its exaggerated size
and dangerous nature. The first widely reported story about the
(58:31):
gow Row go Row was in eighteen nineties, describing it
as a swamp or a cave dwelling creature that terrorized
livestock and occasionally hate someone. One of the most famous
goro legends comes from Circey County, Arkansas, where it was
(58:53):
described in a cave alongside the skeletal remains of its victims.
Reported sightings have been sporadic and anecdotal. Many accounts involve
people encountering a massive creature in remote, forested, or swampy areas,
often accompanied by that strange sound that it makes. Ivan T.
(59:18):
Sanderson author and cryptozoologist known for his research into anomalous
animals and cryptids. He contributed significantly to the study of
cryptozoology through his books, articles, and public experience appearances exploring
creatures like Bigfoot, the Lockness Monster. Sanderson interest in cryptids
(59:44):
stemmed from his fascination with the natural world as well
as mysteries. A. Sanderson discussed the Goro in his nineteen
sixty one book Abominable Snowman Legend Come to Life. While
the book primarily focused on hominid cryptids, A. Sanderson included
(01:00:06):
a section on other creatures from American folklore. He described
the goro as one of the strangest reptiles said to
inhabit remote areas, particularly in the ozarks around Arkansas. He
highlighted the goro as a local legend, detailing its size,
(01:00:30):
reptilian features, and predatory behavior. While Sanderson acknowledged that many cryptids,
including the go Ro, were likely born from folklore in misidentification.
He also expressed openness to the possibility that some legends
might have roots and encounters with real but very rare creatures.
(01:00:57):
Cryptosologists who studied creatures of folklore and legend suggests the
go Row could be misidentification of a known species or
fabrication born from tall tales. A Skeptics, of course, argue
that the lack of physical evidence, such as remains or
(01:01:17):
clear photographs a cast doubt on its existence. You know,
show me the body. Could these creatures be real? I'm
not going to pretend I have any of the answers.
I don't know, and I've never seen any of these.
It doesn't mean the witnesses are mistaken or lying. You
(01:01:41):
see something and you can't identify it from any animal
that you know of. People aren't as stupid as the
boys in the White lab coats would like us to believe.
Who's the crazy one here? People willing to say that
they saw some un known creature, or people who pretend
(01:02:03):
there are no unknowns in our world see vs. Possum parabellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war. I hope you
enjoyed tonight's show. If you did, spread it around let
others know what they're missing. If you didn't like tonight's show,
(01:02:27):
why are you still listening until next Saturday? This is
Chris James for Strange Things? Are you?
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Are you coming to the tree? Who must say some murdered? True?
There no stranger would it be if we meant at
the night in the Hanging train
Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
H
Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Are you coming to the true?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well? Hung up?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Who is? Says she murdered? True Jos, things have happened
that mass joner, Mama Mahalan True.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Chris James. I
see another company with too many shops already is trying
to insert themselves into Laredo with another coffee shop. At
one time, Organic Man Coffee Trike was the one and only.
(00:59):
Those fishy people from Washington managed to open about three
hundred coffee shops all over Ledo. Some were right across
the streets from each other. It didn't take long to
close about two hundred and ninety four of them. As
folks worked at the Organic Man, they learned how to
(01:23):
make coffee well. Some of them decided to branch out
on their own. How difficult could it be to run
your own company? A lot of people don't realize there's
a lot more to it than just putting coffee in
a cup. We have about ten local coffee shops and
(01:44):
a few of these mega brands. You choose what you
want to do with your money. Support a local business,
or send your hard earned cash to some mega store
in some other state, or maybe some other country. As
far as I'm concerned, the Organic Man Coffee Trike is
(02:07):
where I do my coffee buying unless they're closed, in
which case I do have to go with one of
the other companies. The best coffee in the universe can
only be found at one place. Four or five is
zero one McPherson. If you can't get there from wherever
(02:29):
you're at, go to Organicmancoffeetrike Dot Shop. Coffee makes the
world go round. If not, we'd all fly off in
outer space. Before I get into the cryptid stories, here's
a little bit about me. I get a kick out
(02:52):
of some folks who believe their opinions are not only
extremely important, but they have some kind of duty to
spread it around like fertilizer. I get comments always on Facebook.
Correction YouTube, I always get those two mixed up. For
(03:13):
some reason. It's always on YouTube as saying I talk
about myself too much or I keep telling too many
personal stories. I was texting with Kyle Filson from The
Expanded Perspectives one night, and we're talking about how funny
(03:34):
it is that you put out a absolutely free podcast
and people will complain about it on YouTube. Too bad.
It's my show after all, my name is in the title.
So here is a little bit of advice for anybody
(03:56):
out there who's about to have a root canal. I
just had one. You want to keep your calendar open
all day before the big event. I was given an
appointment for four forty five pm. The night before, they
(04:17):
called saying there had been a cancelation. Could I move
it up to two thirty? Of course I could move.
I wasn't in any hurry to get into the chair.
I was in a hurry to be done with it.
The day of the appointment, I got another call asking
if I could come in at noon, the sooner the better.
(04:42):
At Fort Knox, when we went into the gas chamber,
I ran to get to the front of the line,
get in, die a little, and then get out. If
you've never been through the gas chamber, I give it
a one star, highly not recommended. I arrived at the
(05:05):
dentist's office early, and don't you know, I was ushered
write in major bit of advice here. As you walk in,
ask if you could go to the bathroom before they start,
even if you don't really have to go go anyway.
(05:26):
I was in that chair for two hours and forty
five minutes. I had drunk a pot of coffee before
I arrived, And think of that scene from The Right
Stuff Scott glenn is portraying Alan Shephard. He was supposed
to climb in and be shot into outer space within
(05:49):
a few minutes four hours later, once he'd ruined his
spacesuit and NASA fired him into space. For all of
five minutes, I was uncomfortable for the last hour or so.
Try to think happy thoughts. Don't focus on what's going
(06:13):
on inside your mouth. Think about, oh, I don't know,
kittens or puppies. Think about what you're doing tomorrow and
not right now. Absolutely, do not think about the movie
The Marathon Man. Is it safe? If the doctor had
(06:37):
said that when he walked in, I had jumped out
of the chair and ran. Be the best patient the
staff has ever seen. Smile if you can, try to
not cough or drown. Don't squirm. And if you feel
a sudden, sharp pain that goes all the way to
(06:59):
your poes, think of it as building character. That which
does not kill you will make you hurt all over.
Don't bite anyone if you have to bite somebody. Try
to go after a were wolf that made me. Wonder
(07:23):
if you bite a were wolf, will they turn into
a human? Something to think about. Lastly, thank everybody. Tell
them even though you hated being there, you were happy
with what they did. Just keep in mind modern medicine
(07:44):
has improved dramatically since the Dark Ages. You might have
to come back someday. You want the staff to like you.
I set out to find some lesser known cryptids, the
ones few folks have heard about. Not an easy task sometimes.
(08:06):
Most search engines today are pregnant with links that take
you to websites with zero relevance to what you're looking for.
For example, I was looking for information on a cryptid
known as the ahuluk. I hope that's how it's pronounced,
(08:28):
instead of monsters. I was offered hundreds of links to
some singer that I'm not a fan of. The search
folks must think I can't spell or I don't really
know what I'm looking for. Big companies give the search
folks money to be sure that their ads get first
(08:51):
mentioned as you search, even if they have zero to
do with what you're looking for. To alleviate the confusion,
I put encryptid in the search term. This allowed me
to pursue hundreds of sites on cryptids, but not the Aholuk.
(09:12):
I did stumble upon the Anguilla Polluta, the hairy eel,
which is a cryptozoological figure found in the Canary Islands.
This is a mysterious eel that inhabits a pool in
Punta de on Naga. Soon the locals began calling the
(09:34):
pool the Charco de la Angula. The locals were terrified
of this beast, and they sought out the church to
deal with it. A priest performed in exorcism on the pool,
and the monster hasn't been seen since. Still not what
(09:55):
I was looking for. As I searched, I did find
a site talking about the Allaha ala ala ak. Yeah,
it's one of those words, or maybe it's the rule
ok Aka the Alaskan bigfoot are ula akh Alaskan Bigfoot.
(10:18):
I've done several shows about Bigfoot, as well as just
about every podcast out there that deals with weird things.
It helps not at all that some of these creatures'
names are unpronounceable, like the u ula Akh. The person
who translated the name from whichever language or dialect had
(10:41):
to guess on how to do so, or they added
a bunch of dashes and hyphens or several punctuation marks
that most folks don't even use anymore. I did manage
to track down one story about the Ahulak. I call
(11:02):
this Witness Quinn. If you don't get that reference, you're
just too young. Quinn grew up in Kodiak, an island
off the coast of Alaska with a small town and
a couple of small villages scattered about the island. You
(11:23):
can't get there in a car unless you take the
ferry or you fly. No, there's not much to do
there other than fish, and for the young kids, the
place is pretty much dead. Quinn would hang out with
his friends from school and do the things that kids
(11:46):
do with little to do. Oh, they would hang out
and they would smoke cigarettes or maybe sometimes something a
little bit stronger. They would go for a hike, and
at the end of the hike they would hang out
and smoke some more cigarettes and maybe something a bit stronger. Again,
(12:09):
being kids, Quinn thought it would be a great idea
to scare the heck out of his friends. The Native
Alutik elders told stories of the Aholuk, which were similar
to skin walkers. These beings were once humans who were
(12:32):
cast out of the village, and they turned to black
magic in order to survive. Like the ye nal de Lusi,
you weren't supposed to talk about them. On very rare occasions,
the subject would come up, which made not talking about
them extremely hard. What caused all this death and destruction, Well,
(12:58):
it must have been something else. Everyone in both Navajo
and Alutic tribes knew what these beings were and what
they would do to you if you drew their attention
to yourself or your family. As Quinn and his friends
(13:21):
Tommy and Gaspar, I know. Gaspar is not an Alutic name.
I couldn't remember any other names I'd heard over the years.
We did have one or two Native Alaskans in the
border patrol. Now that was some time ago, okay. Quinn, Tommy,
(13:45):
and Gaspar were walking through a remote area. Quinn began
to tell about all the things that he'd heard about
the Ahuluk get his friend's minds focused on scare things.
They found a nice spot to hang out and smoke,
(14:08):
and they used up the last of their cigarettes. Quinn
went into great detail on the Ahuluk could impersonate people
that they knew and would do so in order to
cause all kinds of havoc and maybe try to kill them.
(14:29):
In other words, you didn't know who to trust. As
the sun was reaching the horizon, the three decided it
was time to turn back. Once they reached Tommy's car,
a gas Spar asked if they could stop at a
store so he could buy some cigarettes. In order to
(14:51):
make said purchase, a Gaspar needed to run into his
house and get his money. The three stopped at the
house and and the boy went Shortly he came back out,
and he said he only had three dollars and that
was far short from what he needed to get a
pack of smokes, and that they were going to part
(15:13):
company for the evening and he would pick up some
cigarettes later. Once back home, Quinn was in his bedroom
when he got a text message from Gaspar. He wanted
to know where the others had gotten. Gaspar said he
ran into his room, found his money, walked back out
(15:37):
to join the others, but they were gone. Quinn thought
Gaspar was trying to be funny, but then worry set in.
What if What if all that talk about the Ahuluck
had gotten his unwonted attention to the creature. The text
(15:59):
messages went back and forth, and thoughts of some shapeshifter
that had impersonated Gaspar grew. The long and the short
of it is, had Gaspar been pranking Quinn and Tommy?
Why did he put himself out of cigarettes just to
have fun with his friends? You know how teenagers are.
(16:23):
When they want something, they absolutely need it. The longer
Quinn thought about it, the more he became convinced that
he and Tommy had seen an aholik Aklut is a
creature from Inuit mythology, particularly among the indigenous people of
(16:47):
the Arctic region. It is often described as a mythical
sea creature or a shape shifting creature, with the ability
to transform between an orca, a killer whale, and a wolf.
The akhulut is said to possess the strength and speed
(17:09):
of both a killer whale and a wolf, making it
a formidable and dangerous creature in Inuit folklore. It is
known for hunting seals and other marine animals while in
the water, as well as land based prey when it's
in its wolf form. This shape shifting ability and its
(17:33):
status as a powerful and mysterious being make the akhulut
a prominent figure in Inuit mythology and the stories. The
origin of the hulut creature can be traced back to
the mythology and the oral traditions of the indigenous folks
(17:54):
in Antarctic Arctic Circle Antarctics the other side of the
planet the Arctic, particularly the Inuit, the Inupiat, the Upic cultures.
These creatures have inhabited the Arctic Range Arctic region of
North America for thousands of years, and their stories have
(18:18):
been passed down through generations. In Inuit mythology, the akhulut
is one of the many supernatural beings that are believed
to inhabit the natural world. The description of the akhulut
(18:39):
can vary somewhat in different versions of Inuit storytelling. It
generally combines features of both a killer whale and a
wolf due to its shape shifting nature. The upper part
of its body resembles a killer whale with a sleek,
streamlined appearance. It typically has dark coloration a back and sides,
(19:05):
but it's often deep blue from below. The lower part
of the body, including its belly, can be white or
light colored. The akkulut head is that of an orca
with a prominent dorsal fin on its back. I think
of a giant wolf with a dorsal fin. It possesses
(19:28):
the powerful tail flukes of a killer whale, which it
uses for swimming and hunting in the water. In its
wolf form, the akkulut takes on the appearance of a large,
fearsome wolf. It also will have dark coloration that resembles
the coloration of a orca. The Akkoulut's eyes are often
(19:54):
described as glowing with an eerie or a supernatural light.
Its size can vary from typically a lot bigger than
a normal wolf, all the way up to size of
a small killer whale. The ability to transform between these
two forms is the key characteristic of the akulat. If
(20:19):
I'd ever had a desire to visit the Arctic, this
creature has thoroughly squashed it. I forgot to turn my
phone off. That guy is gonna probably call again asking
to speak to James Howard. He calls every week. I
keep telling him there's nobody here named James Howard, and
(20:41):
he's been calling for the last year. As I continued
searching for little known cryptids, I did find some cool
stories that I decided to use. So the show wouldn't
be just about me trying to find cool stories. American
(21:02):
hunter Edgar Beecher Bronson was in the bush the brush
in East Africa's British colonies when he interviewed Alfred Jordan.
Bronson also interviewed many of Jordan's staff. They all agreed
on the stories that Jordan was telling. When questioning the
(21:23):
locals who lived along the banks of the lake, they
told him this beast fish was called a dingoneck. This
is from the turn of the century, not the last one,
but the one before that nineteen hundreds. Alfred Jordan was
(21:44):
an African hunter from back in the early nineteen hundreds.
He did have some questionable encounters, but mostly because the
boys in the White lab coats, who did all their
research from the unexplored wilds of the Left Laboratories, said so.
One creature Jordan reported on was called the beast fish,
(22:08):
which he was terrified of. It was at least fourteen
to eighteen feet long. It had an enormous head shaped
like a leopard or maybe a dog, as some said
it had the head of an otter. This monster's favorite
food was hippos. It used its strong, wide tail to
(22:32):
steer through the currents of the East African Rivers. Some
reported it had a long or It had long white
tusks like an walrus or an elephant, and it had
an armadillo's impenetrable scales. Its feet were those of a
large hippo. But it had hands like a t rex.
(22:57):
I don't know if they were the litted, bitty t
rex hands or the big ones, but it had hands
like a t rex. Jordan was not the only white
traveler to report an encounter with a neck. In nineteen hundred,
Clement Hill, the British superintendent of African Protectorates, had been
(23:19):
aboard a steam powered launch in the northeastern waters of
Lake Victoria when something with a head and neck emerged
from the depths and tried to seize a sailor from
the bow of the ship. Everyone was certain this was
not a crocodile. Other people visiting the lake said they
(23:42):
spotted the beast fish floating on a log or sunning
on the banks of one of the rivers flowing into
Lake Victoria. Vic Hermanson and I read a lot of
the same books. One in particular was The Island of
Mourning about Lake Victoria and all the crocodiles that live
(24:05):
in it. I believe I loaned my copy to my mother,
and when she died, one of her friends took it.
I did say, I just wanted her photographs, and maybe
I should have thought of some of the other things
that she had, like that giant trilobite fossil that now
somebody else has. You don't think about things like that
(24:29):
when you're cleaning up after a death. Dingo necks are
said to live in the tributaries of Lake Victoria, such
as the Victoria Nile and the River Jinga in Uganda.
The second most dangerous animal in Africa is the crocodile.
(24:51):
The one that kills the most humans is the hippopotamus,
you know, the one I want for Christmas. Necks eat
hippos for breakfast. The only reason they don't eat many
humans is well, we don't really know. Maybe we taste funny.
(25:13):
There were a few reports of unlucky fishermen winding up
passing through the creature's digestive tract, but very few witnesses
were able to give any details. Most of what is
known in the English speaking world today of the indigenous
people's beliefs about the din nung din on Neck. It
(25:35):
comes from the records of these same white explorers and
colonial administrators. In those second and third hand accounts, the
creatures sometimes and perhaps incorrectly, also is referred to by
non indigenous writers interchangeably as all umman umani or luke
(26:01):
still looks frightful, but its presence often pretends good fortune
and a good harvest. A thriving herd is also to
be had. If you spot that creature ding ding gon Neck,
(26:23):
it's one of those words, it's it's African. If, on
the other hand, you do not see one of these
beast fish, you're bound to have ill fortunes and bad
weather is coming. The indigenous communities feared the white explorers
(26:43):
and hunters more than the d d ding on x.
Those who knew the beast fish believed explorers had killed
the creature with the purpose of making them victims of
a dreaded plague. This happened about the time that Jordan
(27:05):
had shot at dnan Neck in around nineteen oh eight.
Just after that happened, a deadly sickness swept through the
community on Lake Victoria's northern shore. In two thousand and three,
at least three people were killed by an unidentified animal
(27:27):
in a remote area of Malawi. Sixteen others were badly injured.
Officials said the animal was a rabid hyena. However, eyewitness
accounts and expert analysis have come out that makes this unexplained.
That makes this explanation untenable. Attacks on villagers and Dawa
(27:53):
District are thought to have begun early March two thousand
and three. Is about sixty miles from the capital city
of Lilongui, but as soon as you exit the city
you're pretty much in the wilderness. Many areas are sparsely
populated and quite mountainous. Officials from Parks and Wildlife Department
(28:19):
received word of the attacks from villagers fleeing their homes
seeking refuge at the community hall at district headquarters. More
than four thousand people fled from four mountainous villages. They
were telling stories of a large, aggressive animal that was
(28:40):
actively hunting people in the region. Two elderly women and
a toddler had been killed by this creature. In each case,
their skulls were crushed and their intestines and genitalia were consumed.
Sounds like our cattle mutilations. Many of the sixteen people
(29:03):
that did survive. The attacks had extremely severe injuries, including
missing legs and hands. At least one woman's face was
partially removed, and two other victims were blinded. This was
the second time in less than a year than an aggressive,
(29:25):
unidentified animal had terrorized the area. Earlier attacks in August
resulted in five deaths and twenty severe injuries. That creature
was eventually killed by a joint patrol of game rangers.
Paramilitary police officials identified the attacker as a hyena. The
(29:49):
folks who had seen the attacks said nay nay, the
creature they saw didn't have that signature sloping posture seen
in Hyaen. Its back legs were more like those of
a huge dog, and it had no spots. Witnesses referred
to the attacker as the Malawi terror beast. Some villagers
(30:16):
believe that the nature of the attacks, often badly maiming
victims but leaving them still alive, did not resemble those
of any predator. Instead, they felt the attacking the attacks
demonstrated a level of deliberate malice. After an investigation into
(30:37):
the two thousand and three attacks, park officials concluded that
they were likely again the work of a hyena. However,
in this case, the animal was never captured or killed,
and animal experts have questioned the likelihood of a lone
hyena aggressively attacking entire villages of One witness said he
(31:03):
thought the creature was supernatural in nature. The same animal
that had killed the year earlier resurrected to come back
and exact its revenge. A week after fleeing their homes.
Many of the villagers did return under armed guard. Despite
(31:24):
an intensive hunt by park rangers supported by the police
and soldiers, the animal responsible for the attacks was never found.
As I looked at dozens of sites, I came across
something that I just had to dig into, the deep
(31:46):
sea abominable snowman. I checked out several websites, but everybody
was referencing the same sighting Bruce Moneer as he would
diving off of Great Isaac in the Bahamas. I'm going
to say that again, the deep sea abominable snowman underwater.
(32:13):
I think it was last week or two weeks ago.
I may have said something about how come you never
hear about an underwater sasquatch? And then I found this.
In the nineteen eighties, Bruce was being towed behind a boat.
As he looked for possible wrecks that they could salvage,
he spotted a huge what he described as a turtle.
(32:36):
As he looked closer, the creature turned its head and
looked back at him. It had a face like a
gorilla ornate. The neck who was four times as long
as it should have been. The eyes looked human, only
they were enormous for the size of the head. Bruce
(32:58):
got a very good look at this creature. As it
looked back at him, it suddenly shot away and began
as if being propelled through the water using some kind
of a hidden machine. Deep sea bigfoot, Let me see
(33:20):
that the deep sea abominable snowman. That's it. Seventeen eighty five,
William Hutchinson wrote about a creature hunting the English countryside.
It was given the name the Lampton Worm. He based
his stories on folklore handed down over the centuries. The
(33:44):
exact location of this giant worm was never mentioned, but
the best guess is it's a glacial moraine left over
from the last Ice Age in Fatfield, Washington, about halfway
between the British cities of Newcastle and Sunderland. This feature
(34:08):
has been known as long as anyone can remember, as
being named worm Hill, and it was here that people
believed the Lampton worm once lived. The creature was seen
as a menace, destroying the nearby fields and the crops
(34:29):
of the Lampton estate. It was down to the Lampton
family to deal with this monster. It was on their grounds.
The locals all said that Sir John Lampton was the
man responsible for the Lampton worm. The story goes one day,
(34:50):
young John Lampton was fishing by the river weir that
flowed near his soon to be inherited a state. He
caught a very strange creature with the head of a
dragon in the body of an eel. Not knowing what
it really was, he discarded the eel like creature in
(35:13):
a nearby well, later known as the worm Well. Young
Lampton left his home for many years, becoming a crusader
a night of Rhodes, the worm John had discarded was
not dead, and it began to grow inside the well.
(35:36):
For all the years that Lampton was not at home,
the worm grew so big it reached an enormous size,
and it outgrew the well. Once it was able, the
worm crawled out of the well, kind of like how
Samara popped up, only without the creepy walk or the
(35:57):
white gown. The creature began to hang out at the
nearby river, were hiding underwater near a particular rock. The
worm was mostly a curiosity, only eating fish. As it grew,
so did its appetite. The worm started to attack and
(36:19):
eat cattle and sheep, and in an occasional child who
got too close to the river. The worm soon became
extremely dangerous, and the village people and the state inhabitants
grew worried about this venomous and enormous serpent like creature.
When John Lampton returned from the Crusades, he was a
(36:44):
changed man. He had transformed into a brave, daunting knight,
strong and noble, that's how they described him. He knew
that the worm was the same worm that he had
caught years ago, and it was his duty to put
an end to this now dangerous creature so that the
(37:06):
nearby people could live peacefully. He tried to kill the
worm many times, but he failed. The worm, by this
point was too powerful, and no matter how gravely he
injured it, the worm would always escape and soon recover.
In a last bid to kill the worm, Lampton consulted
(37:28):
a witch that lived near his estate. She advised him
on how to kill the worm and how to get
rid of it forever. Lampton was warned that if he
beheaded the worm, it would not die, but the two
severed halves would rejoin and it would live again. Lampton
(37:53):
was told that he needed to wear armor fitted with
razor blades when he went to do battle. As soon
as he was close to the worm, it attacked. It
came up out of the water, and wrapped itself around
his body. This was a bad idea, since the entire
(38:14):
suit of armor was covered in sharp, pointy things. With
each movement, the worm did more damage to itself than
the Knight ever could. Lampton was able to chop what
was left to pieces, which were carried away by the
current of the river. When the Lampton Worm was dead,
(38:37):
everyone hailed John Lampton as a hero of the hour
and now for the rest of the story. In order
for the witch's magic to work, Lampton was told that
he must kill the first person he met immediately after
(39:00):
vanquishing his prey. The first person to greet him was
his father, and Lampton just could not kill him. The
witch had warned Lampton that if he failed to kill
the first person he saw, his family would be placed
under a curse and the next heirs of the family
(39:22):
would not be able to die peacefully in their beds.
This meant that they would die in either battle or
because of foul play, and not from natural causes and
old age. Well, the curse apparently came true, and of
the next nine generations of lamped In heirs, none of
(39:46):
them had a peaceful death. If you saw the movie
The Lair of the White Worm nineteen eighty eight, this
was kind of based on the original story Brohm Stoker. Yes,
that guy wrote a book based on the legend back
(40:07):
in nineteen eleven. In the movie, you may have recognized
Peter Capaldi as in the Twelfth Doctor from Doctor Who.
A Peter is six days younger than me, but he
makes a heck of a lot more money. In the fifties,
(40:30):
a young woman and her two siblings were driving through
the countryside. Her sister was in the passenger seat and
her brother was in the back. Their exact location was
not told, but they were on a two lane country
road with ditches on both sides and it was lined
with trees. It was late in the day but not
(40:54):
yet dark. The driver began to smell something akin to
really the old garbage or some recently dead big animal.
Rounding a curve up ahead, she saw what looked like
a bear, hunched over in the ditch. It looked like
it was eating something, either road killed or something it
(41:18):
had recently killed. She pointed out this bear to her
two companions, and they all watched as the car got closer.
It soon became apparent that this bear was taller than
the car. Even though it was hunched over and in
a ditch, This must have been one huge bear. When
(41:46):
the creature heard the approaching car, it stood up. Now
it was towering over the vehicle. They were close enough
to make out a lot of details. It was covered
in dark, shaggy fur. The only visible skin was the
lips around the eyes and the ears. The head was
(42:08):
sitting square on the shoulders. This thing had no neck.
It turned its entire body to watch the car as
it went by. Her brother in the back seat kept
his eyes on the creature, telling his sisters that is
not a bear. If it wasn't a bear, what was it.
(42:33):
Bigfoot is described as having its head close to its shoulders.
But it still has a bit of a neck. It's
not a dog man, because they do have necks. This
thing was some unknown and never before seen or since,
a kind of cryptid. The young couple were out gazed
(42:57):
stargazing in the park. No names were given, so I'm
gonna call them Dick and yes, Jane. I hated those
books back when I had to read them. It was
torture through your eyeballs. I am one hundred percent certain
that Joseph Mengela had something to do with writing those books. Run, Dick,
(43:23):
Run Who who decided that that was a good idea?
I don't know. Oh. Yes, Dick and Jane were in
the park staring up at the sky. As they sat there,
Dick thought he heard somebody trying to sneak up on them.
The park was in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood, and so
(43:45):
he got his guard up. Dick stood up and he
moved towards the sound, not getting too close, just enough
to see who or what it was stealthily trying to
creep up on them. In the darkness. He saw what
(44:06):
looked like a person covered from head to foot in
white cloth of some kind, hunched over as if using
their hands and feet to move along the ground. It
was moving parallel to them, but it was traveling from
the thick brush out into the open Dick watched this
(44:28):
thing and then he asked to Jane if she could
see it as well. She said yes. This was just
too weird. So the couple hoofed it back to the
car and Dick got the engine running. Wondering what the
thing was, he flipped on the high beams, but the
creature was no longer there. He asked Jane to describe
(44:52):
what she had seen, and her sighting was exactly like his.
They decided to get out of there, but neither wanted
to go back home, so instead they drove to an
open field nearby, not too close but a few miles.
Once there, they got on there with their stargazing. Within minutes,
(45:17):
a black helicopter came flying towards them. It passed right overhead,
close enough that they could feel the prop wash. This
aircraft made no sound, plus it wasn't showing any lights.
The helicopter was flying in the direction of the park
(45:37):
that they had just left. They both thought whatever that
white thing had been, the helicopter was going to check
it out. Or maybe try to catch it. Perhaps it
had escaped from the boys in the black helicopters. In
(45:58):
northern New Jersey, a young man I'll call him John,
was walking home at about three am. Up ahead, he
saw movement, maybe somebody was out walking early in the morning.
As he got closer, he could see this was sort
of a human shape, but it stood about nine feet tall.
(46:23):
This creature was covered in a white cloth. Sound familiar.
John thought, just maybe he was seeing the Jersey Devil,
except the devil is never described as having on white clothing. Fortunately,
John's path of travel wasn't taking him any closer to
(46:43):
this thing, so he sped up and moved by as
quickly as he could. Once back home, he began searching
for any kind of a similar encounters. The closest he
could come was the Fresno Crawlers. Do I have to
describe the Crawlers? Okay, just the basics. Two thousand and
(47:06):
seven in Fresno, California, Jose's dog kept barking at unknown trespassers.
Jose put a camera in his front yard and he
caught a weird looking thing walking across his yard. The
crawler was about four feet tall and it looked like
a pair of legs with nobody above. What John had
(47:29):
seen was more than twice as tall. Fresnoe crawlers have
been seen in other locations now all over Ohio, Yosemite
Park and a few other places. I hate it when
I read a really good story but there's no date,
(47:50):
no location. It makes an unbelievable story harder to believe.
A woman and her husband door dry home after visiting
with some friends. They were on the outskirts of town,
but they didn't say what town. There were a few
houses around. A human looking figure darted out from from
(48:15):
some darted out from some trees, right in front of
the car. Her husband had a slam on the brakes
and the vehicle skidded a few feet. They both saw
the same image. It looked like a huge man. He
was down on all fours as he sped across the street.
(48:38):
It only took seconds for this weird guy to go
from one side of the road to the other, vanishing
into the brush once more. Once more, no date or location,
but still an interesting story. Dave was walking his dog
(48:59):
through his namemborhood when something got the dog's attention. The
dog began to alert and make soft woofing and slight
growling sounds. Dave looked to see what was getting his
dog's attention. Up in the sky, about ten or twelve
feet up was a whitish boomerang looking creature. It was
(49:24):
not very clear and almost looked as if it wasn't solid.
This thing was flying around a house and went by
the house by the front and disappeared behind, only to
pop back into sight coming around the far side. This
went on for several minutes. The creature circled the house
(49:47):
maybe half a dozen or more times. It looked almost
like a small manta ray, but the wings never flapped.
It glided around the night, staying close to that one.
Had the dog not seen this creature and the movement,
Dave would thought he was just imagining things. Dogs I
(50:11):
don't think have a very good imagination, at least they
never tell me they do. People did try to convince
Dave that he had seen an owl or a bat. Now,
this thing didn't have any feathers, and it didn't look black.
It was white. You don't have a whole lot of
white bat. There are some, but they're little bitty guys.
(50:32):
You don't have big white bats. Flying around The edges
of this creature looked as if the thing was kind
of dissolving into the night, almost like a held together
mist that flew around a house for unknown reasons. Fritz
(50:54):
was living in Frankfurt, Germany, as a small child. On
several nights he saw a huge black shape goes streaking
through the sky. It was bigger than a car, almost
human shaped. There was no sound, and the only way
to know it was there is if you saw it.
(51:15):
Had Fritz been the only witness, it could have been
written off as his imagination, But others saw this huge
thing as well. Both his parents as well as the
neighbors all saw this black monster flying overhead. Fritz thinks
what he was seeing was some kind of a giant
(51:37):
bat that was bigger than a car. That's a lot
of bat. It was batman. No. The Tanzanian island of
Pemba in the Indian Ocean is haunted by the Night Demon,
a terrifying creature known as a Papa Bawa. This bat
(52:01):
like creature has the ability to transform, sometimes appearing as
a human like figure. Its preferred time to strike is
during the night, although there have been a few reports
of daytime sightings. The Papa Bawa is known for its
indiscriminate attacks, targeting anybody in its path. Disturbingly, one common
(52:28):
narrative involves this spirit a sexually assaulting men. The origins
of the Papa Bawa legend can be traced back to
a few decades ago, during a period of civil unrest
following the assassination of the country's president. According to local belief,
(52:51):
victims of the Papa Bawa attacks must share their experiences
with others on Pemba. Failure to do so may result
in continued visits from this malevolent entity. Reports of the
Papa Bawa attacks have instilled fear in the local population.
(53:14):
Some men started staying awake or sleeping in groups outside
of their homes, while others resorted to smearing themselves with
pig oil, believing that this could repel the creature's attacks.
Umjaka Hamad, a peasant farmer, recounts his encounter with the
(53:36):
Papa Bawa in nineteen ninety seven. Though he couldn't see
the creature himself, others in his house witnessed its attack.
His family were awoken by the sound of the creature's arrival.
Once everybody in the house was awake. They all watched
(53:58):
in horror as if it did its nastiness to him.
Joka the thing landed on his chest, causing a lot
of pain and difficulty breathing. It did its nasty deed
and left whom Jaka thinks his lack of belief may
(54:20):
have made him a target, suggesting that anyone doubts its
existence could potentially become a victim. A shape shifter, the
Papa Boua can change its appearance during the day, it
masquerades as a regular person. Under the cover of darkness,
(54:40):
it shifts into a predatory shape kind of a batman
looking thing. The Papa Bow is a hunched figure shaped
roughly like a human. Its skin is gray and it
gives off the smell of sulfur. It has long, pointed ears,
a wide mouth with lots of fangs, large single eye
(55:05):
in the center of its forehead that glows in the dark.
The creature has a pair of huge bat wings, which
can wrap around itself like a cape. Some witnesses have
described other variations of the monster's appearance. For example, it
may have a long tail or feet like a bird.
(55:33):
It has also been known to turn into animals or
it can turn into a puff of smoke when it
has to make a quick getaway. Some people believe the
Popa Vow is a fame seeking creature. It targets victims
who don't believe in evil spirits so that it can
(55:54):
violently set the record straight. These same people say it
is known for warning its victims they must spread the
story of their attack. If they don't tell everyone, the
creature will return and make them suffer some more. Vick Dave,
(56:19):
maybe you should look into the Papa Bawa. The Papa
Bowa has magical powers, and it uses them to hunt
and torture humans. Its single eye can paralyze anyone who
gazes into it. Some people look the creature in the eye,
they will fall into a trance and thus allow this
(56:42):
thing to have its way with them. The Papa Bawa
is a relatively new creature. Tanzania, the monster's home, has
a rich tradition of folklore and witchcraft. Many locals continue
to believe in evil spirits called shitani. The new kid
(57:07):
on the block seems to be trying to wedge itself
into the fears of the locals. The first written record
of a Papa Bawa did not appear until nineteen sixty five,
and it grew into infamy in nineteen seventy two. The
(57:28):
Goro is a creature of American folklore, particularly associated with
the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri. Often described as
a fearsome reptilian beast, the goro is said to be
twenty feet long, with sharp tusks of pointy ridges along
(57:50):
its back, and a propensity for mischief and destruction. A
mischief maker. The name go Ro derived from the sounds
that it makes, and its legend has been passed down
through oral tradition and local tales. The go Ro is
(58:10):
often portrayed as a monstrous predator, though its role in
folklore ranges from a terrifying menace to an entertaining local myth.
Tales of the go Ro often emphasize its exaggerated size
and dangerous nature. The first widely reported story about the
(58:31):
gow Row go Row was in eighteen nineties, describing it
as a swamp or a cave dwelling creature that terrorized
livestock and occasionally hate someone. One of the most famous
goro legends comes from Circey County, Arkansas, where it was
(58:53):
described in a cave alongside the skeletal remains of its victims.
Reported sightings have been sporadic and anecdotal. Many accounts involve
people encountering a massive creature in remote, forested, or swampy areas,
often accompanied by that strange sound that it makes. Ivan T.
(59:18):
Sanderson author and cryptozoologist known for his research into anomalous
animals and cryptids. He contributed significantly to the study of
cryptozoology through his books, articles, and public experience appearances exploring
creatures like Bigfoot, the Lockness Monster. Sanderson interest in cryptids
(59:44):
stemmed from his fascination with the natural world as well
as mysteries. A. Sanderson discussed the Goro in his nineteen
sixty one book Abominable Snowman Legend Come to Life. While
the book primarily focused on hominid cryptids, A. Sanderson included
(01:00:06):
a section on other creatures from American folklore. He described
the goro as one of the strangest reptiles said to
inhabit remote areas, particularly in the ozarks around Arkansas. He
highlighted the goro as a local legend, detailing its size,
(01:00:30):
reptilian features, and predatory behavior. While Sanderson acknowledged that many cryptids,
including the go Ro, were likely born from folklore in misidentification.
He also expressed openness to the possibility that some legends
might have roots and encounters with real but very rare creatures.
(01:00:57):
Cryptosologists who studied creatures of folklore and legend suggests the
go Row could be misidentification of a known species or
fabrication born from tall tales. A Skeptics, of course, argue
that the lack of physical evidence, such as remains or
(01:01:17):
clear photographs a cast doubt on its existence. You know,
show me the body. Could these creatures be real? I'm
not going to pretend I have any of the answers.
I don't know, and I've never seen any of these.
It doesn't mean the witnesses are mistaken or lying. You
(01:01:41):
see something and you can't identify it from any animal
that you know of. People aren't as stupid as the
boys in the White lab coats would like us to believe.
Who's the crazy one here? People willing to say that
they saw some un known creature, or people who pretend
(01:02:03):
there are no unknowns in our world see vs. Possum parabellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war. I hope you
enjoyed tonight's show. If you did, spread it around let
others know what they're missing. If you didn't like tonight's show,
(01:02:27):
why are you still listening until next Saturday? This is
Chris James for Strange Things? Are you?
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Are you coming to the tree? Who must say some murdered? True?
There no stranger would it be if we meant at
the night in the Hanging train
Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
H
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com