Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty four, my grandfather and my uncle went
Speaker 1: on a camping trip in the Appalachian Mountains, which they
Speaker 1: had done countless times before. They hiked for about half
Speaker 1: a day until they reached the place we called the
Speaker 1: Devil's bowlt In the Devil's Bowl, regardless of the time
Speaker 1: or day or night, it is darker than any part
Speaker 1: of the forest, no matter what season you passed through.
Speaker 1: There is no wildlife and no sound. It's a dead
Speaker 1: section of the woods, and when possible, they tried to
Speaker 1: avoid it, but they were losing daylight quickly. To make
Speaker 1: it to their destination before nightfall, they took a shortcut
Speaker 1: through the Devil's Bowl, a decision they would regret. They
Speaker 1: began to hear noises almost immediately, a branch breaking here,
Speaker 1: or rustling in the leaves there, and a clacking of rocks.
Speaker 1: By the time they reached the Devil's Bowl, surrounded by
Speaker 1: the dark forest that enveloped them like a blanket, they
Speaker 1: heard something pacing them step first step. My grandfather thought
Speaker 1: it was an old holler boy pretending to be a woodburgger,
Speaker 1: trying to divert them away from their moonshine or marijuana grow,
Speaker 1: and he didn't pay it much mine. But the further
Speaker 1: they got, the louder and closer the noises became. First,
Speaker 1: little pebbles started bouncing off their rocksacks, and then the
Speaker 1: pebbles turned into larger rocks, big enough to hurt if
Speaker 1: they got you in the right spot. At that point,
Speaker 1: they could see the outlines of something moving all around them.
Speaker 1: My grandfather pulled his pistol and chambered around, counting at
Speaker 1: least five of what he thought were people. As he
Speaker 1: watched them circling, he saw a big rock flying through
Speaker 1: the air, heading for my uncle's head. He pushed him
Speaker 1: out of the way and raised his pistol and he shouted,
Speaker 1: we're just passing through. We don't mean any harm. Before
Speaker 1: he even finished his sentence, a growl echoed through the
Speaker 1: ball so loud it forced the air out of their lungs.
Speaker 1: These were no moonshiners, he realized. He looked at my uncle,
Speaker 1: who was pale as a sheet, and his eyes fixed
Speaker 1: over my grandfather's shoulder. He spun around, ready to take
Speaker 1: on whatever troublemaker was out there, but he was not
Speaker 1: prepared for what he saw ten yards away was a
Speaker 1: creature eight feet tall, built like a linebacker in a
Speaker 1: gilly suit, only three times bigger. He had knotted black
Speaker 1: hair dangling off his body in dark, piercing eyes that
Speaker 1: shone in the dim light and ripped through my grandfather's soul.
Speaker 1: His hands were all the way down about its knees,
Speaker 1: and he was swaying side to side, and his teeth
Speaker 1: were out like an angry dog. My grandfather yelled out again,
Speaker 1: we don't mean you any harm. Were just passing through.
Speaker 1: He and my uncle locked arms and they tried to leave.
Speaker 1: My grandfather trained his pistol on the beast in front
Speaker 1: of them. He began walking. The beast roared again, a
Speaker 1: deafening cross between a wampus cat and a grizzly bear.
Speaker 1: In Mama's howls when she was pissed off. My grandfather
Speaker 1: thought on his feet and he roared back. Now this
Speaker 1: was a big mistake. It only infuriated the creature, which
Speaker 1: began moving toward them. As my grandfather and uncle crested
Speaker 1: the rim of the bowl and reached the top, they
Speaker 1: realized they had walked into this creature's front yard. There
Speaker 1: was an igloo like structure made of tree limbs and
Speaker 1: logs and sticks and leaves, and several sets of eyes
Speaker 1: were peering out. The creature started charging them, but my
Speaker 1: grandfather didn't want to shoot because it looked too much
Speaker 1: like a man. Instead, he shot above its head, but
Speaker 1: it only raided the beast even more. It ran straight
Speaker 1: into them, sending them both flying, and when they landed,
Speaker 1: my grandfather jumped to his feet and ran over to
Speaker 1: cover my uncle, who was reaching for his pistol. He
Speaker 1: yelled at him not to shoot, but his words fell
Speaker 1: on deaf ears. My uncle rattled off six shots, the
Speaker 1: rounds tearing through the center of the beast, all six
Speaker 1: shots finding their mark. The click of the pistols hammer
Speaker 1: slapping the backs of the spent rounds as my uncle
Speaker 1: frantically squeezed the trigger over and over. The creature collapsed
Speaker 1: and all hell broke loose. There were creatures coming from
Speaker 1: every direction, running full force at them. The earth sh
Speaker 1: the roars and screams and bellows cracked through the forest,
Speaker 1: setting off alarm bells to any other creature in the valley.
Speaker 1: My grandfather fired a shot in the air over another
Speaker 1: beast's head that was down on all fours, running straight
Speaker 1: forward them. The animal veered off to the right down
Speaker 1: over the hill. My grandfather spun around and saw another
Speaker 1: one charging It knocked him off his feet before he
Speaker 1: could react, and broke his ribs as it collided with him.
Speaker 1: He hit the ground and then staggered over to my uncle,
Speaker 1: who was covered in blood and slash marks on his
Speaker 1: face and chest. They made it to their feet again
Speaker 1: as the beasts started to surround them. One of them
Speaker 1: charged my grandfather, sending him crashing to the ground. Another
Speaker 1: slammed into my uncle, sending him flying in the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: That's when he realized only then that there was no
Speaker 1: possible way to make it out without fighting back, and
Speaker 1: he got up and found my uncle, thinking he was dead,
Speaker 1: dodging rocks and branches flying through the air as he
Speaker 1: reached him. My uncle wasn't moving, he was bloody and battered,
Speaker 1: and then ignited something in my grandfather, who spun around
Speaker 1: and fired around right into the head of the creature
Speaker 1: closest to him. The howling and screaming intensified. My grandfather
Speaker 1: started dragging my uncle to the base of an old
Speaker 1: hickory tree, smacking him, trying to bring him around while
Speaker 1: digging through his pockets for his handkerchief. He tied it
Speaker 1: around the deep cut in my uncle's forearm, and then
Speaker 1: checked how much ammunition he had, knowing he would have
Speaker 1: to shoot his way out. Another one of the beasts
Speaker 1: charged him. My grandfather fired at it, making it fall
Speaker 1: and crumble into a ball at the base of a tree.
Speaker 1: Two more creatures charged from opposite directions, dropping down to
Speaker 1: all fours and springing from side to side. They were
Speaker 1: closing fast. My grandfather was all adrenaline at the moment.
Speaker 1: He squeezed the trigger, whipped around, and shot again, neutralizing
Speaker 1: both threats. The forest went quiet. If there were more beasts,
Speaker 1: they weren't making themselves known. He began to drag my
Speaker 1: uncle to his feet, his ribs searing with pain, and
Speaker 1: thinking to himself that he had killed the entire group
Speaker 1: and that he could be responsible for wiping out an
Speaker 1: entire species. They managed to make it back to the house,
Speaker 1: where my grandmother tended to their wounds. I could still
Speaker 1: remember the pain and sorrow in my grandfather's eyes as
Speaker 1: he recalled his encounter to me. He said he wanted
Speaker 1: to return to that area to apologize and see if
Speaker 1: the species had lived on, but he knew that was
Speaker 1: not an option. If any of them were still alive,
Speaker 1: they would have certainly killed him for what he did.
Speaker 1: My uncle never talked about it, had scars on his chest,
Speaker 1: and he rarely wore a short sleeved shirt. My father
Speaker 1: told me not to ask him about it and said
Speaker 1: it happened in the war. He passed away when I
Speaker 1: was twelve years old, after battling a lifelong alcohol and
Speaker 1: a drug addiction. I don't know whether he was trying
Speaker 1: to escape the events of the Devil's Bowl or for
Speaker 1: another reason. My grandfather died when I was eighteen. He
Speaker 1: was an honest man. He fought in the Korean War,
Speaker 1: and he worked in the coal mines for forty seven years.
Speaker 1: He never missed a day's work and was always busy
Speaker 1: fixing things up or finishing projects that couldn't wait for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: He was a true mountain of a man and one
Speaker 1: of the best men that I've ever known in my life.
Speaker 1: In October of twenty nineteen, I had just finished my
Speaker 1: shift at a local with over one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: milking cows. When I was done, I locked up the
Speaker 1: place and I headed for my car. I was annoyed,
Speaker 1: knowing I would have to lock the chickens away in
Speaker 1: their coops in the darkness. We kept them on the
Speaker 1: field across the road from our house, which was fine
Speaker 1: in spacious during the day, but at night it could
Speaker 1: be difficult because there were no lights. I climbed in
Speaker 1: my car and I rang my mother to let her
Speaker 1: know that I was on the way home. I set off,
Speaker 1: driving through the rural villages, all of their lights glowing
Speaker 1: from behind closed curtains. I turned onto a long, straight,
Speaker 1: but bumpy road and slammed on my brakes. A large
Speaker 1: black animal darted in front of my car, and it
Speaker 1: leapt across a small ditch, and it vanished into the night.
Speaker 1: It had a round head that had green eyes and
Speaker 1: a long, slender tail. I got out and used the
Speaker 1: flashlight on my phone to see over of the ditch,
Speaker 1: hoping to get a look at it, but the woods
Speaker 1: were dark and silent. The creature was long gone. My
Speaker 1: mind started racing, and I rushed back to my car
Speaker 1: and I locked the door and I sat there for
Speaker 1: a few minutes, trying to figure out what I had seen.
Speaker 1: I ruled out the badgers and the foxes and deer
Speaker 1: and wild boars and any other animal I could come
Speaker 1: up with, and I knew it was far too long
Speaker 1: and tall to be a dog. I started thinking of
Speaker 1: some British cryptids I had heard about, and I realized
Speaker 1: I had seen the beast of x Moore. I had
Speaker 1: heard stories of these large felines said to roam the
Speaker 1: country killing livestock. I remembered seeing some rather blurry photos,
Speaker 1: but I had never given them any serious thought until
Speaker 1: that moment. I rang my mother immediately and I told
Speaker 1: her what I saw. She was shocked, and she asked
Speaker 1: if I was okay. My dad wasn't quite convinced, nor
Speaker 1: was my little sister. When I got home, I locked
Speaker 1: the chickens up as fast as I could, worried the
Speaker 1: beast was out there watching me. The next morning, at work,
Speaker 1: I mentioned it to my boss and some of my
Speaker 1: fellow workers, who looked at me like I was losing it.
Speaker 1: I knew then how most bigfoot witnesses must feel. I
Speaker 1: kept the story to myself for a while after that,
Speaker 1: but I'm sharing it now because who cares what anybody thinks.
Speaker 1: You don't know me anyway. I know what I saw,
Speaker 1: and no one can tell me different. If I ever
Speaker 1: make it over to the United States and I see
Speaker 1: a bigfoot, I'll let only you know. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me on this podcast. Once again, I really appreciate
Speaker 1: everyone who's listening this far. I'll be putting out another
Speaker 1: podcast early next week, so until then, hope you guys
Speaker 1: have a good week, hope you've had a good Thanksgiving weekend,
Speaker 1: and we'll see on the next week. Thank you.