Table of Contents
Introduction: Which Came First, the Legend or the Beast? 1
Chapter 1 Lake Snakes to Slenderman: Modern Legends 7
Legends: Snake of the Lake
Urban Legends: The Kandahar Giant to Crybaby Bridge
Folktales and Folklore: Lumber Camp Creatures to Folk Beliefs
Myths: Viking Sagas of Ragnarok
Creepypasta: Beyond Terror
Slenderman, Shadow Man, and Hat Man
Stick People
Killer Clowns
Black-Eyed Children
Fake News versus True Encounters
Chapter 2 A Meat Hook and a Dog Woman 25
Wernersville Dog Woman
People Kebabs or Jokers?
Dog Ladies: What's in a Name?
The Legend of Dog Lady Island
The Mobile Wolf Woman
The Texas Lobo Girl
Hair Today, Doggone Tomorrow
The Things of Sheep Hill and Big Valley
What of the Dog Woman?
Chapter 3 Those Dear, Deer People 45
The Oglala Deer Woman
White Buffalo Calf Woman
To the Moon, Deer Man, to the Moon!
"When That First 'Deer' Stood Up": Ohio Manwolves
Chapter 4 Witchy Wolves of Omer Plains 63
True Burn Notice
Ominous Plains of Omer
Omer Legends, the Beginning
The Curse of Scorbutus
The Lovers' Lane Massacre
1970s Teens and Wolves
Investigators Come to the Plains
Other Beasts by the Bay
The Oscoda Gunnery Range
Witchy Wolves or Skinwalkers
The Thing at the End of the Bed
Chapter 5 Haunts of the Werewolf 85
Where to Find a Werewolf
The Graveyard Shifty: New Hampshire
German Military Werewolves
My Grandma and the UFO Letter
Michigan Dogman and Massacre Burial Grounds
Creature One
Creature Two
Creature Three
Red Hill Werewolf of Hagerstown
Tennessee Two-fer
Chapter 6 Made in the Shade: Hybrids and Multiples 115
Ohio Clone Dogs
Team Teen-Grandpa
Doggish Duo
The Missing Handler
Maryland's Goat Man
Goat Man of Roswell, New Mexico
Goat Man of Valley of Fires
California Screaming: Watts Valley Wolf Ape
The Upright Wolf of Daly City, California
Chapter 7 Hidden Little People 137
The Elf of Victoria, Canada
The Olympic Wood Elf
Oshkosh Gnome King
Alien Grays and UFOs
Native American Little People
Chilean Cave Creature: Gollum Come to Life?
Miniscule Mummy
El Duende
Puckwudgies and Menehune
Cannibal Dwarves and Pygmy Prints
Shortsquatch
True Humans of Modest Stature
Legend of the Haunchies
Chapter 8 Phantom Quadrupeds and Other Nonconformist Canines 167
Indiana's Pendleton Spook Pooch
California Phantom Hound
Hawaiian Flying Dogman
Chapter 9 Dire Dogs 181
The Dire Dog of Rock County
Legend of the Head Chomper of Nahanni Valley
White Dire Dog
Knuckle-walking Dire Dog
Lake Mills Dire Dog
The Red-Eyed Monster of Rusk County, Wisconsin
Great Gray Dire Dog of Kenosha County, Wisconsin
Big Pooches on the Prairie
Dire Dog of Milwaukee
Florida's Two-Timer Dire Dog
More Florida Freakishness
Unknown in Utah
Uncanny in Kansas
Nebraska Nemesis
Ohio's Sacra Via Dire Dog
Monstrous in Missouri
Eerie by Lake Erie
New York Dire Dog of the Corn
Chapter 10 Black Mystery Cats and Inconvenient Mountain Lions 217
Cougars: The Impossible and the Legendary
Arizona Chindi and the Coronado Cat
Evil Spirit Cats
Wily Wampus
Paths of the Water Panther
Black Panthers: The Darker Side of Great Cats
When Is a Panther Not a Panther?
Newfoundland Black Panther
British Black Cats
Cougars of the Midwestern US Hills
Chapter 11 Great Ghost Cat Nexus: Wisconsin's Baraboo River Watershed 237
Big Cats of the Wisconsin Hills
Flying Fence Posts of Hillsboro
A Vertical Cigar
The Hillsboro Air Disasters
The Strange Range
Home on the Range
Black Panther Goes Fishing
The Mystery Skull
The Hillsboro Hairless Thing
Mystery Cat Conclusions
Chapter 12 I Saw Bigfoot! 259
Which Came First?
Unseen but Not Unnoticed
Shake, Shake, Shake!
More Than a Feeling
Iowa Sprinter
The Big Branch
Hair Men of the Ancients
Appendix: Unknown, cougar-like cat sightings from the 1930s to the present, in the immediate area around Hillsboro, Wisconsin 285
Acknowledgments 301
Endnotes 303
Index 312
About the Author 322