Speaker 1: It was an early spring Saturday morning in Vicksburg, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: and I was living in the Pleasant Valley subdivision east
Speaker 1: of Highway sixty one south, roughly a mile from the
Speaker 1: Mississippi River. They have since built two schools west of
Speaker 1: the location of my first incident. This part of the
Speaker 1: state is mostly rolling hills hollows, and it's covered with
Speaker 1: many trees plus greenery as far as the eye can see.
Speaker 1: I was looking forward to taking each child out for
Speaker 1: a go kart ride that day because it was spring
Speaker 1: break for them. My two sons from my first marriage
Speaker 1: had come to live with us last summer, and I
Speaker 1: also have two step daughters that are also close to
Speaker 1: them in their ages, plus a newborn son. My plan
Speaker 1: was to start out with my oldest son, since he
Speaker 1: had missed out on a few years with me on
Speaker 1: this day, Instead of just going down to the end
Speaker 1: of the cul de sac like I would normally do
Speaker 1: with them to the edge of the woods, where I
Speaker 1: would spend a few donuts in the dirt and then
Speaker 1: let them drive back to the yard for the next driver,
Speaker 1: I decided to take my son out of the subdivision
Speaker 1: a few hundred yards back down the main Road. I
Speaker 1: had seen a gated path overgrown with weeds and shrubbery
Speaker 1: leading into the thick forest, and I figured this would
Speaker 1: be a nice place to check it out with him,
Speaker 1: allowing us an extended ride together, and from there we
Speaker 1: could drive all the way back. I headed out on
Speaker 1: to Dana Road, driving west along the gravel shoulder to
Speaker 1: go around this locked gate, giving us access to this
Speaker 1: closed road. I was swerving back and forth on the
Speaker 1: narrow path, all the while enjoying watching the excitement in
Speaker 1: my son's eyes as he was scanning the surrounding trees.
Speaker 1: We were heading deeper into the dense forest, and after
Speaker 1: several minutes, I could see a clearing up ahead which
Speaker 1: looked like wide enough for me to do a donut,
Speaker 1: and this was where I could let him drive. As
Speaker 1: I performed a three sixty, the go cart stalled out,
Speaker 1: as it would do sometimes when I would turn too fast,
Speaker 1: causing the motor to flood. Once the sound of the
Speaker 1: cart engine stopped, I noticed in airy, quiet stillness as
Speaker 1: the dust was settling in the slight breeze that was
Speaker 1: blowing into our faces. I didn't think much about quietness
Speaker 1: because we're all about a half mile southwest of my subdivision.
Speaker 1: I got off the cart, instructing my son to take
Speaker 1: the driver's seat while I prepared to start the engine
Speaker 1: back up and head home. The wind shifted and coming
Speaker 1: at us from the south. Oh my god, this wind
Speaker 1: is carrying an awful odor, funky wet dog smell that
Speaker 1: is mixed with a hog pen scent. I'm sorry these smells,
Speaker 1: just the description of these smells just gets me. The
Speaker 1: wind shifted, coming at us from the south. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: this wind is carrying an awful sour, funky wet dog
Speaker 1: smell that is mixed with a hog pens scent you
Speaker 1: will get on a humid summer day which will burn
Speaker 1: your nostrils. Do you smell that? I asked? I asked
Speaker 1: my son while turning to see if he was getting
Speaker 1: into the driver's seat, But he was not moved, and
Speaker 1: his eyes were transfixed on something in the general direction
Speaker 1: of where the smell was coming from. He was looking
Speaker 1: at the thick tree line where it was hard to
Speaker 1: make out anything. Now shouted to him, do you smell that? Mess?
Speaker 1: I glanced in the direction of his gaze, but I
Speaker 1: saw nothing, and he turned to me, and I can
Speaker 1: see his eyes were glossed over, and he has a
Speaker 1: look of fear, as if he has seen a ghost
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, I smell it, he said. Instantly, a
Speaker 1: chill overtook my body, making every single strand of hair
Speaker 1: stand on in I was feeling a real sense of dread.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know why. My heart started pounding uncontrollably fast,
Speaker 1: as if it was trying to escape the cavity walls
Speaker 1: of my chest. There was immediate fear upon us, both,
Speaker 1: with my concern being my son's safety. Yet my mind
Speaker 1: was racing, with many questions flashing through my head Within
Speaker 1: a millisecond. It was as if I was frozen in
Speaker 1: a state of temporary shock. Why the hell did I
Speaker 1: bring him all the way back here in these damn woods,
Speaker 1: is what I was asking myself. And what in the
Speaker 1: world is causing this rotten smell? Are we in some
Speaker 1: type of danger? Do we need to get out of
Speaker 1: here now? My next thought was the same as my last,
Speaker 1: and I quickly pulled the string on the go cart
Speaker 1: so hard that I was surprised it didn't snap, but
Speaker 1: the engine luckily fired back to life. I jumped in
Speaker 1: the driver's seat without putting on my seat belt and
Speaker 1: I jerked the steering wheel in the direction from which
Speaker 1: we had come. Before I knew it, I was throwing
Speaker 1: dirt grass behind the brigs and Stratton engine was blowing smoke,
Speaker 1: straining hard to move this cart. I never looked back.
Speaker 1: I was desperately hoping to see that yellow locked gate
Speaker 1: come back into my view so we could go back
Speaker 1: around it. I turned on to Pleasant Valley Drive and
Speaker 1: I pulled to the shoulder. I was still shaking, but
Speaker 1: my adrenaline was starting to subside, allowing me to feel
Speaker 1: a little safer by being back on the street near
Speaker 1: the houses of my neighborhood. I took this time to
Speaker 1: ask my son if he had seen anything, and his
Speaker 1: reply was, Dad, there were big, dark, scary looking eyes
Speaker 1: staring right at us from in the tree branches, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't see anything else but the eyes. I thought
Speaker 1: something had moved when I first started smelling that, so
Speaker 1: I was trying to see what it was. But I
Speaker 1: only saw those eyes, and they just disappeared while I
Speaker 1: was looking at them. That's what scared me. My son
Speaker 1: assured me that the eyes just vanished into the shadows
Speaker 1: of the branches. I made sure he was calm, and
Speaker 1: then had him promised me that he would not tell
Speaker 1: my wife, nor his brother or sisters, because I knew
Speaker 1: I would not hear the end of it. I can't
Speaker 1: honestly say what was in the trees because I didn't
Speaker 1: really see anything. I did get a sense of imminent danger, though,
Speaker 1: But my son, on the other hand, saw a set
Speaker 1: of eyes, and I had no reason not to believe him.
Speaker 1: The fear on his face was enough for me to
Speaker 1: know that we needed to get out of the woods.
Speaker 1: My second account was with an uncle, and it would
Speaker 1: happen late in the summer of the same year. We
Speaker 1: had decided to go pick berries. My uncle said they
Speaker 1: probably still grew wild everywhere out there near this Soul
Speaker 1: farm where we lived back in the sixties. I was
Speaker 1: all excited to hear this, knowing that it had been
Speaker 1: years since I set eyes on this place. The farm
Speaker 1: is in Yokina, Mississippi, and it's not far from the
Speaker 1: Big Black River, the exact location where Campbell Swamp Road
Speaker 1: runs into a dead end dirt road named Chirrard Drive.
Speaker 1: We made our way out to the property, arriving at
Speaker 1: nine am. It was deep in the backwoods of Warren County,
Speaker 1: where there are neither street lights nor electricity lines. We
Speaker 1: arrived and I had to stop at the locked gate
Speaker 1: to look down on the property from the road which
Speaker 1: dead ends at the bottom. The house was long gone,
Speaker 1: but I could clearly see the old chimney still standing
Speaker 1: in the middle of what is now a small lake
Speaker 1: formed by years of the Big Black River flooding. This
Speaker 1: road has a drainage ditch, and that led to our
Speaker 1: search in the area for muskydines. I could see from
Speaker 1: the car that this hollow was no more than fifty
Speaker 1: yards away, and I was noticing how the foliage was
Speaker 1: super thick, with these long vinees draped and tangled over
Speaker 1: the oaks, dogwoods, and magnolia trees. After the nostalgia of
Speaker 1: admiring the beauty of my childhood's stomping grounds, we stepped
Speaker 1: toward the shallow ditch. I heard rustling of leaves in
Speaker 1: the forest floor, crickets chirping, plus this faint sound of
Speaker 1: a woodpecker knocking off in the distance. Once in the ditch,
Speaker 1: we saw a large cave dug deep into the ground
Speaker 1: of the embankment, and it caused me to pause. My
Speaker 1: uncle was joking with me, telling me that it was
Speaker 1: a big black bear's den, and he said, I hope
Speaker 1: you brought a pistol with you, just in case we
Speaker 1: come across one out here, and he laughed at me.
Speaker 1: Of course, I wasn't finding this to be funny at all,
Speaker 1: but I did have a twenty five pistol in my pocket.
Speaker 1: Now I was scanning the ground for bear prince more
Speaker 1: than I was looking for muskydines. My uncle was tickled pink,
Speaker 1: seeing me a little scared, ask him to quit laughing
Speaker 1: at me because he was laughing so loud it was
Speaker 1: getting me out of my comfort zone. But it would
Speaker 1: only be a few seconds later when he would become
Speaker 1: just as afraid as I was. I took a few
Speaker 1: more steps than there. It was some kind of huge
Speaker 1: animal track in the semi damp ground. Hey, check this
Speaker 1: track out, Look how big it is? And he stepped
Speaker 1: over to see with his own eyes, because he obviously
Speaker 1: was thinking I was pulling his leg. I put my
Speaker 1: size twelve shoe next to the track to do a comparison.
Speaker 1: What the hell, he said, This ain't no damn bear boy.
Speaker 1: Look how wide across the toe that is. I don't
Speaker 1: see any claw marks. Either, looks more like a barefoot
Speaker 1: man track. But that's impossible for a man's foot to
Speaker 1: be this big. Something ain't right here. This is no
Speaker 1: swamp cat either. This can't be real. Yeah, he was scared. Now.
Speaker 1: Not ten seconds after his loud reaction to seeing this
Speaker 1: weird track is when we both noticed the silence. There
Speaker 1: were no sounds at all, and then suddenly we heard it.
Speaker 1: I guess the best way to describe it was to
Speaker 1: say a powerful, long roar. The sound resonated through my
Speaker 1: whole body, echoing twice throughout the valley. The feeling I
Speaker 1: got was similar to standing close to a train as
Speaker 1: a horn blows. Whatever made that noise seem to be
Speaker 1: coming towards us. The vines in the trees were now
Speaker 1: beginning to swing, and we could tell something was coming
Speaker 1: at us walking upright because these sounds of heavy footfalls
Speaker 1: were hitting the ground, one powerful boom after another, and
Speaker 1: it was coming fast. I didn't have time to say
Speaker 1: let's go. My uncle had already took the first frantic
Speaker 1: step back to my car before I could even think
Speaker 1: about it. By the time he reached the car, I
Speaker 1: was there, unlocking the passenger side so he could get in.
Speaker 1: I started the car and put't gear and was trying
Speaker 1: to peel off, but the dirt had my car sliding
Speaker 1: side to side in slow motion. And at the same
Speaker 1: time I was looking over in the direction of a holler,
Speaker 1: and there she was. Yes, I could see one of
Speaker 1: her breasts. The beast was partially hidden behind a large tree,
Speaker 1: just standing there watching us, with her top lip rolled back,
Speaker 1: and she was making a terrifyingly menacing frown, showing her large,
Speaker 1: dirty horse teeth, which were flanked by long canines. I
Speaker 1: noticed her skin had a look of smoke gray in color,
Speaker 1: at least the part I could see through the long, black,
Speaker 1: stringy looking hair which was circled around her face. Large
Speaker 1: fingers were visible as she gripped the tree. My head
Speaker 1: was hurting because of seeing this mythical boogeyman that they
Speaker 1: had been telling me about years ago when I was
Speaker 1: a little boy. I had grown to believe that it
Speaker 1: was an old tailed just to make the kids scared
Speaker 1: at night. Man, was I ever wrong. My tires caught traction,
Speaker 1: although the car was already fishtailing before I realized. My
Speaker 1: uncle was telling me to slow down. He didn't know
Speaker 1: how I knew it was a female anyway, he said emphatically,
Speaker 1: how did you know that? He then let me a
Speaker 1: cigarette and told me to relax. I could tell him
Speaker 1: exactly what I saw. I started to settle down and
Speaker 1: was far enough from the area, and we began laughing
Speaker 1: about the experience. We both chained smoked all the way
Speaker 1: back to civilization, vowing to tell everyone what we went through.
Speaker 1: This would be a big mistake and a waste of
Speaker 1: our breaths. Our family members thought we had been getting stoned,
Speaker 1: and then made the whole story up. They laughed in
Speaker 1: our faces. It was okay, though, because I don't think
Speaker 1: I would have believed it either if I had not
Speaker 1: seen it for myself. People can think these creatures aren't
Speaker 1: real if they want to, but I know what I saw.
Speaker 1: I will never feel alone in the deep woods ever again.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, our Musky dyne hunt lasted no more
Speaker 1: than five minutes total, and I have never been back
Speaker 1: out that way again. To Yokina, Mississippi,