The Dover Demon

At approximately 10:30 PM on April 21, 1977, 17-year-old Bill Bartlett was driving to his home on Walpole St. in Dover, Massachusetts, with two friends. They were in his Volkswagen traveling north on Farm St. when Bill noticed what appeared to be an animal climbing over the stone wall on the left hand side of the road. As he got closer, the car's high beams illuminated the creature. It was a strange being, like nothing he had seen before. Bartlett said, "It looked like a baby's body with long arms and legs. It had a big head about the same size as the body, it was sort of melon shaped. The color of it was... the color of people in the Sunday comics." He could see fingers on the creature’s hands. As he watched, it turned its head and looked at him with glowing orange eyes like glass marbles. It had no other facial features. Bartlett compared the texture of the thing's skin to that of a shark. His friends, engaged in conversation, did not see the thing as they drove past it going 40-45 miles per hour. Bartlett had the creature in view for about six seconds. Frightened, Bill stopped the car about ¾ mile down the road and told his friends what he had seen. They debated whether they should go back or not before returning 15 minutes later. Perhaps due to fear, they stayed in the car. They didn’t see any creature. Bartlett dropped his friends off at their homes, then went home and drew a picture of what he had seen.

About 2 hours later, around 12:30 AM, April 22, 1977, John Baxter, age 15, was returning home from his girlfriend’s home on Miller Hill Road in Dover. He had been walking for about half an hour and was less than a quarter-mile away from the intersection of Miller Hill Rd. and Farm St. when he saw a figure about 150 feet away walking towards him. Baxter noticed the figure’s enlarged head and thought it might be M.G. Bouchard, a boy he knew who lived on that road and had a deformed head as a result of a childhood illness. He continued walking down the road, getting closer to the approaching figure. Baxter said, "As I was getting closer I could see that it was very small... the only thought that came into my mind was this- it was this kid walking home from a party, or something, which he usually does at about 12:30, and I called out to him- this was at a distance, still of about fifty yards, and I just kept walking and there was no reply and whatever it was kept walking and as it got nearer and nearer I noticed- I could tell it wasn’t M.G. because it was much too small, and M.G. would have called out to me anyway, so I just kept getting closer and I was wondering, you know, 'who is that'... Finally, I was about 15 feet away from it when I stopped and it stopped [NOTE: this distance was later measured to be approximately 26 feet- CP]- well I stopped when it stopped- we just stood there- I was looking at it and I’m sure it was looking at me- I could barely see the shape of it... And I said one more time, 'Who is that?' And so I took another step towards it, the only thought I had was that it might be a very small person like a 4 or 5 year old, and as I took this step it just ran so fast into the woods on my left. It was just so fast, you know, one second it was there and another second it wasn't and I could hear it going through the woods, across a stream- a little brook. I didn’t hear the feet in the water so I didn’t know there was a brook there. And it continued up to the edge of a field which was about 25 or 30 feet through the edge of, like, trees... At the edge of the road there's an embankment that goes down- sort of like a small gully, 'cause then it rises up on the other side, and I did, you might say, pursue it. I went in the same way it went, down the hill, and I stopped- I almost went into the brook- and I stopped at the bottom of the bank, I could see it- it was about level with me in ratio with the height of it, you know, its head was about level with mine, because it was up a little higher than I was... It was standing on one rock that was about two or three feet from the tree, and it was leaning against the tree... and I could just barely discern the feet or whatever, you know, holding onto the rock sort of molding as I’ve said before to the shape of the rock..." He could clearly see the outline of the creature's body visible against the dark sky. It was then that he got his first good look at it. "All these thoughts going through my mind, you know, 'what is this? A monkey, maybe?'… As I was looking really close there I could see the eyes… it was looking at me… I just stared at it for another few minutes… and then I just got all these thoughts that maybe it was something really strange, 'cause, you know, nothing ever happened to me like this before, so I didn’t know what to think. So I finally got the thought that maybe it wasn’t as safe as it looked, 'cause the way it was staring at me it just seemed like it was- I don’t know, I got all these feelings that it was thinking to itself, or waiting to spring or whatever, you know, and so I backed up the bank kind of fast and my heart started beating really fast…" Baxter went to Farm Street and got a ride home. He drew a picture of the creature that night. It had glowing eyes and was identical in shape to the thing Bill Bartlett had seen.

The next night, at about midnight on April 22-23, Will Taintor, 18, was driving his girlfriend, fifteen-year-old Abby Brabham, to her home in Sherborn. They were going west on Springdale Ave. in Dover when Abby saw something crouched on the left hand side of the road at the edge of a bridge. She said, "As I looked at it it kind of looked a minute like an ape. And then I looked at the head and the head was very big and it was a very weird head… It had bright green eyes and the eyes just glowed like, they were just looking exactly at me." It appeared that the monster’s eyes were reflecting the car’s headlights. It had a tan, hairless body. The head was watermelon-shaped and looked featureless except for the round, green eyes. All Taintor saw was a brief glimpse of a tan figure crouched in the road. No movement was seen. The witnesses compared the creature's size to that of a goat. After they had driven past the thing, Taintor said, "Did you just see something?" and Abby said "Yeah. Lock the doors, let’s get out of here, hurry up." That was the last time the "Demon of Dover" (as it came to be known) was seen- at least for a while.


Part 2: The Aftermath

There is some confusion about when the witnesses first heard each other's separate accounts. In an interview on May 21, 1977, Will Taintor told investigators that he and Bill Bartlett were going camping on Friday, April 22 (the day of Taintor and Brabham’s sighting) when they picked up John Baxter hitchhiking. Taintor said, "We were all just talking and Bill happened to mention, 'Oh, did you hear what I saw?' And John goes, 'Well, what, because I saw something last night.'" And they both talked about what they had seen. Taintor said that he believed Bill because "I know he wouldn’t lie to me and it didn’t seem like a joke. He seemed really serious about it."

John Baxter gave a different story to investigators in his interview, also May 21. Baxter said that he hadn’t heard about any other sightings until the following Tuesday. He stated, "I was not aware of Bill’s drawing until... after when I told some people, I was talking to them, I think it was in school when we compared them... 'cause I was telling the story to a couple of kids and someone came up and looked at my picture which I was holding out and they said, 'That looks like the one Bartlett saw. He said he saw something like that', and I said naw, it couldn’t be."

Bill Bartlett was interviewed on June 11, 1977. Strangely, he presented a third, completely different version of events! Bartlett had a hard time remembering when he had first seen Baxter’s drawing. He said that he had seen John Baxter on Friday, possibly at the center of town, and Baxter had shown him his drawing. Then, Saturday night, there was a party, and Bartlett had his drawing with him, but he couldn’t remember if Baxter had been there or if they compared drawings. So the witness interviews leave some confusion as to when the witnesses first compared stories. [Note: Nyman's report does not address this apparent contradiction, but he includes Taintor's story about the meeting in the car on a timeline of the sightings, so it is apparent that he believes that story. To try to clear this up, I contacted Loren Coleman, one of the other three investigators. He told me that he believed that the witnesses had not compared stories until the following week in school. CP]

When Bartlett realized that other people had seen the thing, he had a friend make a stack of photocopies of his drawing. One of those copies wound up at the Dover Country Store, where Loren Coleman saw it, then spoke to the witnesses. Apparently this local publicity prompted police to speak to the four witnesses, because a May 15, 1977 article in the South Middlesex Sunday News about the sighting had glowing character evaluations of all the witnesses by an unnamed police officer. Other newspaper articles followed, and the Dover Demon received loads of publicity far and wide. The Boston Herald-American of May 16 ran an Associated Press story that mentioned that police had searched the area of the sightings but found nothing. The same day, the Boston Globe’s article mentioned that a watercolor painting of the monster was actually displayed in the police station! However, the May 16 South Middlesex Daily News quoted a police spokesperson as saying the reports were "pretty much of a joke," and the May 19 Dover-Sherborn Suburban Press quoted Officer Jim Brown as saying, "we have no reports at all and all we know is what we’ve read in the papers." Nyman did report that Police Chief Carl Sheridan was a long time friend of the Bartlett family, and he gave Bartlett a high recommendation.

There has been some confusion about whether the witnesses were friends or even knew each other. Nyman’s report makes it clear that Bill Bartlett and John Baxter knew each other only slightly before the sightings. Bill and Will Taintor, on the other hand, were close friends.

Nyman spoke with the witness’ parents and also talked to some students from their high school. Both the parents and students told Nyman that initially they thought it was a joke or hoax, then came around to belief. Some of Bill Bartlett's teachers were also interviewed. A science teacher gave him high recommendations and was convinced of his truthfulness. Two other teachers, however, said that Bill was essentially a bad kid, and one of them said that Bill was just the type of person likely to perpetrate a hoax. He said that Bill and John Baxter frequently hung out in the school’s smoking lounge. This seems dubious, however, as Bartlett had strong negative opinions about smoking. Also, there was a two-year age difference between Bill and John, making mutual activities unlikely. Neither Bill Bartlett, nor John Baxter, nor Will Taintor, were good students, which may account for the negative teacher opinion.

Dover Demon

Dover Demon's Sketch

Dover Demon

http://www.massmonstermash.org/demon.html

The Curse of The Crying Boy Solved?

Crying Boy Painting (Image credit: Fortean Times)

In a chilling story that gripped the nation in 1985, the Yorkshire home of Ron and May Hall was gutted by fire - but their painting of a crying boy remained unscathed.

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, George Michael was a bouffant-haired pop god, David Cameron had just started at university - and Britain was in the grip of the Curse Of The Crying Boy. From all over the country came reports of house fires in which a picture of a tearful child was unscathed.

I remembered reading the story at the time and wanted to investigate whether anyone had ever solved the mystery.

I tracked one of the pictures down. Recession has clearly struck the art world because it was only a tenner.

I then talked to Kelvin MacKenzie - Editor of The Sun in 1985 who urged readers to send in their paintings before organising a bonfire - about what made the story so interesting.

The crucial factor, it seemed, was that it was a Yorkshire fireman, not a regular member of the public, who had noticed the unburnt painting and claimed that this was not the first time they had seen it survive a fire.

By this time I had realised that it wasn't just that the Crying Boy was involved in the fires - there were also rumours that it had STARTED them. How could that happen?

I talked to art expert Tim Marlow. He's not a big fan of the Crying Boy but did recognise the name of the artist, Bragolin, who died in 1981 and created a series of Crying Boy paintings for tourists in post-war Venice.

It didn't fit with the extraordinary tale that has appeared on the internet since the original story 25 years ago.

This version claims that the boy in the painting was an orphan whose parents had died in a fire. He was taken in by the painter despite warnings that he was a firestarter - a child who can burn things without touching them.

The artist's studio caught fire and he was ruined. The boy ran away - and ten years later a car crashed in flames on the outskirts of Barcelona.

The driver died in the crash, the online story goes, but a driving licence found inside showed it was the orphan boy.

This story is, of course, too good to be true. And even if the child himself could start fires, that's not the same as a painting of him starting fires, let alone 50,000 copies.

It didn't, to be honest, seem very likely. But was it true that the picture didn't burn? I went to the Building Research Establishment - a laboratory near Watford where they set things on fire for research purposes.

The result was a little surprising. A flame put immediately in front of the painting did set fire to a corner of the frame but only burnt around the outer edge of the child's profile before petering out.

But it turns out there is a reason why paintings often survive fires relatively undamaged: It is to do with the string on the back burning through first.

The painting falls face-down, giving it protection from smoke and heat.

It's easy to see how the Crying Boy became such a phenomenon. It has all the ingredients of a great spooky story.

An eerie child, a rash of fires, a mysterious artist, a "supernatural" ability to survive flames... and a newspaper with an eye for a good story.

Many people were spooked and wanted to be rid of them but Kelvin MacKenzie thinks there is another reason why the paintings flooded in.

He reckons many came from couples where one person had never liked the picture anyway - and saw a good opportunity to get rid of it.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3172354/The-Curse-of-the-Crying-Boy-is-solved-by-Steve-Punt.html

MONSTERS GALORE

When we think of monsters we automatically think of Dragons, of maybe King Kong, or perhaps the Loch Ness Monster. Through myth, media or mystery, such monsters almost become part of our psyche.

However, there is another category of monster – creatures, or even strange people, who seem to invade the world briefly, and then disappear, becoming nothing but a puzzle at the extremities of paranormal literature.

Let’s have a few examples.

DEMON AND GASSER

One night in April 1977 a teenager was driving near Dover, Massachusetts, when he saw an entity with large head, protruding eyes, long, thin limbs and peach-coloured skin. Two hours later, another teenager saw the same entity.

The following night, what became known as the Dover Demon was seen by another teenager for one last time. Researchers subsequently matched the entity to the pygmy Mannegishi, a mythological creature believed in by the nearby Cree Native Americans.

Several decades earlier, in September 1944, the residents of Mattoon, Illinois, were terrorised for nearly a fortnight by a Mad Gasser, a tall, dark-clad man with a tight-fitting hat. First seen as a shadowy figure outside houses, the gasser eventually squirted something into people’s bedrooms, resulting in temporary paralysis.

MOTHMAN

The Mothman terrorised Point Pleasant in West Virginia for several years in the 1960s. A grey, tall creature with wings, no head, human legs and red eyes in its chest, it was seen on over a hundred occasions.

Some researchers associated it with ‘Big-hoot’, a Native American legendary monster, whilst journalist John Keel, who investigated it in the 1970s, associated it with the UFO phenomenon. So engrossed in the case was Keel that he began hearing voices, and all kinds of phenomena exploded around him.

SPRING HEELED JACK

Perhaps the most famous such entity was Spring Heeled Jack, who terrorized Britain from 1837 to 1904.
Described as a cloaked figure with red eyes, pointed ears and talons, he could breathe fire and jump over houses. Usually attacking young women, clawing at them and breathing fire into their faces, it is interesting that such savage attacks didn’t leave permanent injuries.

MY METHODOLOGY

The nature of the above manifestations can be adequately explained by a concoction of hallucination and hysteria. Even the paralysis involved with the Mad Gasser can be put down to sleep paralysis, a phenomenon where the body reacts to the mind at the borders of sleep.

Of course, you may disagree with that brief analysis, but the point I want to explore in this essay is not so much the ‘mechanics’ of the incidents, but what causes them in the first place.

To do so, please accept, for the moment, my above explanation. Also, I want you to imagine that the ‘entities’ experienced came from a common thread of experience, made different only by the culture involved in the experience.

WHAT IS CULTURE?

When we do this, a possible explanation can be found, which also ties in with the more obvious ‘entity’ manifestations such as aliens, vampires and a host more. And it all revolves around what we class as ‘culture’.
In one sense, culture is the collective input of artists, musicians and storytellers, enriching a society and giving it meaning. However, could it also be that culture is a social force in its own right, not only giving meaning, but representation of experience?

In this sense, we can see culture as a kind of ‘over mind’, directing, from above the individual, his thoughts, beliefs and experiences. Hence, life becomes a tug-of-war of ideals born from the individual AND culture.

AN INVASIVE MEDIA

Into this dual form of experience and meaning we can place ‘media’. In effect, media is that form of cultural transmission throughout a culture of current news, ideals and symbols to guide, entertain and inform.
Much of this media outpouring is of no consequence, and is forgotten, but occasionally a ‘story’ arises that continues to fascinate, and can even become part of the overall culture in itself.

Of course, ‘media’, in this sense, is more than newpapers, television, etc. It is also the transmission of gossip, beliefs and stories, which may, or may not be true, but nonetheless can take on a life of their own.

ANGELS OF MONS

Just how fundamental can be this expression of media within culture?
The famed Angels of Mons can offer insight. Appearing when the British Expeditionary Force fought to bring the German onslaught to a halt during World War One, a typical case was that of a Lt Col who reported a retreat during the night, escorted by a column of ghostly cavalry.

Most researchers answer the mystery by way of a short story, The Bowmen, by Arthur Machen. Appearing in the Evening Standard on 29 September 1914, it tells a tale of the British being helped by the appearance of Agincourt archers.

The angels thus become simple battlefield hallucinations common during such campaigns, made more stark by a story upon which to focus. However, as the campaign progressed, stories began to emerge of an even more fundamental nature, removing them from simple hallucinations.

However, as to their validity, we must introduce characters such as Phyllis Campbell, a patriotic nurse at a Mons dressing station. Hearing stories of angels from injured soldiers, she was one of many who went on to embellish the stories in an attempt to prove God was on the side of the British.

GETTING UNDER THE SKIN

We can see, in the above, how a ‘culture’ can be interpreted by ‘media’, leading to the manifestation of phenomena. Normal psychological ideosyncracies are enforced, giving character to what is seen in terms of cultural hopes, fears and desires.

This can work in society as a whole. For instance, if we take the Mad Gasser, fears were high throughout America at the time of attacks from Nazi Germany, including gas attacks. It was inevitable that, somewhere, sometime, such a phenomenon as the Mad Gasser would appear. But why Mattoon?

The city has associations with war in its culture due to the future President Grant taking his first post there during the Civil War. A high spiritual element exists in their culture by being beside an Amish community. Still in their consciousness was a fear of disaster following some 100 deaths during a tornado there in 1917. And the town was, at that time, undergoing an oil boom, complete with fears of gas leaks from the field.

EXPECTATION

We can see, in Mattoon, influences that make it a perfect location for the hallucinated expression of a fear within the society of the United States at that time. Basically, it had to happen somewhere, and Mattoon fitted the cultural bill.

A similar scenario exists with Spring Heeled Jack. He attacked young women at just the time when society decreed, through an increasingly militant feminism, that they didn’t automatically have to be chaperoned at night. Indeed, attacks in London increased when the Mayor spoke in public of the dangers of such attacks.

As for the Dover Demon and Mothman, they appeared at just the time that America had a growing New Age movement which pricked the conscience of America as to its treatment of Native Americans. Indeed, their mythological ‘beings’ were popping up all over the place, the most famous being Sasquatch, or Bigfoot.

A POPULARITY CONTEST

It is here that we can see the importance of studying these ‘monsters’ at the edge of paranormal literature. Caused by cultural expression leading to phenomena, Sasquatch shows their future progression if they capture culture’s imagination in a big way. They become, in effect, national, or even global, phenomena, and continue to be sighted.

With this information, their importance is equally enlarged. Consider the idea that the UFO phenomenon could be a cultural expression arising at the time that we dreamt of going into space.

The present UFO flap began in 1947, and the sighting by Kenneth Arnold that produced global headlines. And within ten days, a flying saucer ‘crashed’ near Roswell, New Mexico.

How relevant is the fact that the area contained the only atomic bomb squadron in the world? Where else could it have manifested other than by the leading edge scientific and military unit on the globe?

A CULTURAL DIRECTOR

Paranormal phenomena and cultural expression go hand in hand, with culture the director of what will be manifested, as well as when and where. It is as if an ‘over mind’ above us decides what we will experience.
Even Spiritualism can fall into line with this idea. After all, it is no coincidence that the seminal incident of Spiritualism concerned the two Fox sisters communicating with a ‘dead pedlar’ in New York State in 1848.

Spiritualism gave a new ‘occupation’ to the housewife, with mediums being predominantly women and gaining financial and cultural independence from the practice. How strange that the central moment of the rise of feminism was born from the first feminist conference – in New York State in 1848.

http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/monsters-galore/

Cottingley Fairies for Sale

Fancy owning a piece of Fortean history? Well I can’t quite offer it I’m afraid but I can literally offer the next best thing!

Cottingley is forever in our minds courtesy of Arthur Conan Doyle and the fairy photographs of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths from 1917 and 1920. There are so many Fortean aspects and indeed cliches in this case that I shall not rehash them here. Cottingley is currently experiencing a bit of a building boom and new streets are being added, streets with names such as Oberon Way, Lysander Way and Goodfellow Close. There is already a Fairy Dell there. But Main Street survives. This is the street where the girls were staying at the time, specifcially in number 31.

Number 31 was sold in July of 2000, for £57 000. But it now appears that next door is up for sale.
A mere snip at £154 995

The estate agent description inlcudes mention of the fairies:

“Access to the garden from the rear of the property which has a history as the garden featured in the Cottingley Fairies Story.

In July 1917, two young girls claimed to have taken photographs of real
life fairies at the bottom of their garden. When the genius behind the
Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, presented the pictures
to the public as evidence of the existence of fairies, the tale of the
two little girls in Cottingley was immortalised. Like a pebble dropped
into the middle of a pond, the Cottingley tale travelled across the
globe and debated by millions. Every few years, the story is
resurrected and once again enchants a generation.

Despite the confession in her twilight years, Frances Griffiths added
another twist to the story when she insisted that although the photos
were faked, she really did see fairies and played with them at the Beck.
Indeed, even today, many people believe in fairies and refute the
evidence held against the photos which were later admitted to have been
fabricated by the girls themselves.”

Main Street, Cottingley
From comparing photographs and maps I believe that the white building to the extreme right of the picture is number 31 itself.

So – if you want to check out the reality of the Cottingley fairies buy it up now and wander down to the bottom of your garden. Oh and don’t forget to invite me along for the upcoming 91st anniversary party!

http://blogs.forteana.org/node/54

Monsters From Scottish Folklore Brought Back To Life

FROM ghosts and goblins to sea monsters and cannibals, Scottish history is littered with tales of the weird and wonderful.

While some Scottish legends have become much-loved parts of our culture, other stories have disappeared into obscurity over the centuries.

Now Glasgow University is set to revive Scotland’s folklore thanks to a new postgraduate course examining mythical creatures, superstitions, beliefs and the storytelling that kept them alive.

Here’s a look at just some of the myths and legends that got handed down through the generations.

MONSTER OF GLAMIS

Legend has it that the Monster of Glamis was a deformed member of the Bowes-Lyon family, who was kept in a secret chamber in Glamis Castle.

The “monster” was alleged to be Thomas Bowes-Lyon, the eldest child of the Queen Mother’s great great grandparents, who was born in 1821.

Official records suggest the child died in infancy but, over the years, rumours spread of his survival.
According to the story, Thomas had an enormous chest with his head running straight into his body and had tiny arms and legs.

BLUE MEN OF MINCH

These mysterious sea creatures lived in the stretch of water between the Isle of Lewis and the mainland.
They looked like humans but had blue skin and would swim alongside fishing boats, making their way through that stretch of water trying to lure sailors into the sea.

Legend had it they would also conjure up storms to wreck ships and that they lived in underwater caves, where they were ruled over by a chief. It was said fisherman could escape them if they were good at rhyming.

BRIGADOON

Although the idea of the village that only appears once every 100 years is now considered a Scottish myth, it actually has its roots in the mythical cursed German village of Germelshausen.

It was this story that inspired composers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe but, in 1947, a musical set in Germany was a no-no, so they relocated the musical in Scotland.

So the story of the Scots village where the passing of a century seems no longer than one night became part of our national folklore, with tourists still asking guides where they can find it.

KELPIE

Given how regularly the seas around Scotland used to claim the lives of fishermen, it’s no surprise people who lived on the coast had a fear of the water.

And that’s why so many of Scotland’s mythical creatures lived there, including the kelpie.

Haunting lochs and rivers, they would appear to tired travellers as a lost pony with a wet mane.
If you climbed on to the creature, it would charge straight into the deepest part of the water, drowning you in the process.

LEGEND OF SAWNEY BEAN

Scotland’s most famous cannibal has become a mythical figure in folklore and arguments still rage about how much of the story is based on fact.

The story goes that in the 16th century, Bean made his home in a coastal cave near Galloway, where he spawned a brood of more than 40 children and grandchildren.

Together, the clan would ambush, murder and eat people as they passed by, escaping capture for more than 20 years until they were eventually found and executed.

SELKIE

The Scottish version of mermaids were half-human, half-seal creatures who could take their seal skins on and off.

It’s believed they originated in Orkney but Ireland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland all have their own versions.
They often featured in tales telling of how they would lose their skin and marry fishermen, bearing them children before finding their skin again and disappearing back into the sea.

RED CAP

Found among the ruined castles scattered across the Scottish borders, red caps were murderous goblin-like creatures who killed travellers straying into their path.

They would then dye their hats with their victim’s blood and they had to keep killing as, if the blood dried, they would die. Despite wearing spike-clad iron boots, the buck-toothed demons were said to be too fast to outrun and so the only way to escape one was to quote a passage from the Bible.

WULVER

Described as a man covered with short brown hair but with a wolf’s head, the wulver is part of Shetland folklore.

While other mythical werewolves were aggressive, the wulver stayed out of the way, spending its time fishing on a rock still known as The Wulver’s Stane.

The wulver would leave fish on the windowsills of poor families. It’s been 100 years since the last sighting.
BANSHEE

THE word “banshee” comes from the Gaelic “bean shidh” which means “woman of peace”. While different cultures had their own versions, banshees were believed to be women found near streams, washing blood from the clothes of those about to die. In some tales they are described as having just one nostril, one long tooth, webbed feet and long hanging breasts. Some people believed banshees were the spirits of women who had died during child birth.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/03/07/monsters-from-scottish-folklore-brought-back-to-life-86908-20342940/

Monsters of the deep still undiscovered

GIVEN their size, you might assume they had all been found by now. But scientists believe the world’s oceans are still hiding giant underwater creatures which have yet to be discovered.

Marine ecologists have predicted there could be as many as 18 unknown species, with body lengths greater than 1.8 metres, still swimming in the great expanses of unexplored sea.

Using statistical modelling, they measured the rate at which new large sea creatures have been discovered since 1830 and found that the rate of discovery is still going strong, with new species being found every year.
Most recently scientists found a new species of jellyfish that is more than 3.5 metres long off the south coast of New Zealand, along with star fish up to a metre wide.

The first full-sized carcass of a colossal squid, a deep-sea monster four metres long, was revealed for the first time earlier this year.

Dr Charles Paxton, a fisheries statistician at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, said: “There are plenty of places these creatures could be hiding.

“They may spend their lives in the middle layers of the oceans and never surface or be in the deep sea canyons yet to be visited, and new discoveries are being made all the time under the Arctic ice cap.”

But for anyone hoping the results could mean that the Loch Ness Monster could still be found lurking in the depths of the famous Scottish loch, Dr Paxton has disappointing news.

He has carried out similar analysis for freshwater species and concluded that mankind has discovered all the large freshwater creatures there are to be found.

“There are small creatures being discovered all the time, but to find species that are more than two metres in length is very rare,” he said. “Normally you would expect the rate of discovery of species in a habitat to level off when there are no more to be found, but with large sea creatures, the rates are still to level out, which suggests we have not found them all yet.

“Sadly for Nessie hunters, I don’t think there is anything hiding in the lochs and lakes of the world any more.”
He said that often legends about mythical sea creatures could be explained by real life monsters of the deep.

“A lot of the mythical sea creatures such as the Kraken and sea serpents can be explained by sightings of sea creatures and mammals that are already known.”

Although humans have been travelling on the oceans for thousands of years, scientists’ knowledge of life beneath the waves is still extremely limited. Most species are only discovered when they are washed ashore or dredged up by fishing boats.

Deep sea exploration and underwater camera technology is now allowing scientists to explore areas that have previously been unattainable. One of the least understood parts of the ocean is actually the midlayers, known as the twilight zone, between 100 and 1000 metres down.

Dr Richard Lampitt, an ecosystems expert from the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University, said: “It is extremely likely that there will be species of significant size still to be discovered in the deep ocean.

“The twilight zone, where natural sunlight is extinguished, has not really been sampled properly so there will be large creatures to be found there too.”

A spokesman for the Marine Conservation Society added: “The mid-layers of the oceans are so unexplored and the sea floor is so massive that there are almost certainly some giants there that are still to be found.

“It makes a very strong case for protecting the oceans, particularly the high seas where not every country has signed up to international treaties.”

Telegraph, London
Fishy tales
KRAKEN

From Norwegian folklore, a creature with tentacles that could embrace a ship and crush the hull. Scientists believe sightings could have been giant and colossal squids.

OAR FISH

The longest bony fish known to science can grow to more than 10.9 metres long. Giant sea serpent sightings could have been oar fish.

MEGAMOUTH SHARK

A deep sea shark first discovered in 1976. It can measure up to 5.4 metres and weigh more than 1.2 tonnes.

COLOSSAL SQUID

The largest known squid species, thought to be capable of growing up to 14 metres long. It is believed to have the biggest eye in the animal kingdom and lives at depths of about 2000 metres.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/monsters-of-the-deep/2008/06/18/1213770733936.html

Bigfoot Hoaxers Still On the Lam

The hunt was on Wednesday for two North American forest-roaming bipeds, last seen in Northern California, present whereabouts unknown.

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the Georgia men who claimed to have found a Bigfoot body, were being sought by Tom Biscardi, whose money they absconded with once the frozen “corpse” was revealed to be a hoax.

“We have a contract with these people,” Biscardi, a former Las Vegas promoter now based in Menlo Park, Calif., told Fox News Wednesday morning. “We paid them the money the night before [the press conference.] … They didn’t figure I’d have a turbo heater on that thing to thaw it out before they left California.”

Biscardi wouldn’t confirm where the body was, but it apparently had been moved from Georgia to Indiana. An Indianapolis Fox affiliate was given a look at the “corpse” Monday by Biscardi’s investigator, Steve Kulls.
Asked to confirm rumors that he’d given Dyer and Whitton a $50,000 advance on future earnings from the bogus Bigfoot, Biscardi would say only that “it was a substantial amount of money” numbering in the thousands which came from unnamed “investors.”

Biscardi told Fox’s Megyn Kelly, who’d previously been invited to view the specimen herself, that the rubber Halloween suit had been stuffed full of, well, organic material.

“It was the most macabre thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” he said. “There’s body parts of other animals in there — bones, eyes, tongues, cheeks. It’s just incredible.”

Asked how he could have been fooled, Biscardi argued that it was hard to tell when the thing was encased in a block of ice.

Meanwhile, other Bigfoot hunters nationwide piled on Biscardi, noting that he was perfectly willing to charge for photos of the “corpse” on his Web site before Kulls determined it was fake early on Sunday morning.

“Warrants need to be issued immediately before Biscardi leaves the country,” read a manifesto posted on the Web site of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. “Santa Clara County, California, (where the press conference was held) clearly has jurisdiction to issue the warrants, and all the elements of fraud are present.”

But Nick Muyo, a spokesman with the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, said jurisdiction might be hard to establish.

“If Tom Biscardi files a police report in Menlo Park, it would originate with San Mateo County,” he said. “But it sounds like Santa Clara, as well as counties in Georgia and Indiana, could also get involved.”

It’s possible that fraud charges could be filed against Dyer and Whitton, as Biscardi seems to want, though it’s not clear whether it’d be a criminal or civil case.

“[Biscardi] freely gave them the money,” noted Jeffrey Turner, police chief of Clayton County, Ga., who fired Whitton as an officer Tuesday but couldn’t locate him to inform him of his termination. “It’d be a civil matter.”
Muyo said that once a police report was filed, then a criminal investigation could be launched.

Kulls, meanwhile, whom the BFRO labeled as “a long-time member of Biscardi’s own gang,” contacted Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo.com on Tuesday to dissociate himself from Biscardi.

“At this time I am breaking any association or cooperation with Tom Biscardi and his company,” Kulls’ statement read, though it also said, “People ask me if [Biscardi] was complicit in this hoax. I honestly believe he was not.”

It may be difficult for Biscardi to claim he was defrauded, as the “24-Hour Sighting Hotline” number posted on Dyer and Whitton’s Web site, BigfootTracker.com, asks for tips related to “leprechauns, unicorns, large cats, dinosaurs,” as well as “Jimmy Hoffa or Elvis.”

As for one scientist who Biscardi said on Friday would be examining the Bigfoot body? He told a news network he’d never been contacted.

Stanford University anthropologist Richard Klein said he was “sorry that my name and Stanford’s name have been brought into this.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407263,00.html