Speaker 1: The stories you will hear are from real people with
Speaker 1: real experiences with the unknown. Welcome to the Dixie Cryptid
Speaker 1: What If It's True? Podcast? All right, here we go.
Speaker 2: Some time back, two friends and I spent the weekend
Speaker 2: with another friend who managed a pub in the Midlands
Speaker 2: in the United Kingdom that's about a two and a
Speaker 2: half hour drive from where I live in Liverpool. We
Speaker 2: arrived just before closing and we went inside. I looked
Speaker 2: around and saw the walls were decorated with various items
Speaker 2: that included some of those old brass bugles and cart
Speaker 2: horse tack. There were a couple of bar maids working.
Speaker 2: One was bringing drinks to the table and the other
Speaker 2: was clearing tables. Sean, our friend who managed the pub,
Speaker 2: led us over to the bar and we were standing
Speaker 2: there talking when the bar maid who was cleaning the
Speaker 2: tables came over to us and announced that she found
Speaker 2: the mouthpiece. That statement didn't make sense to us, so
Speaker 2: Sean explained that the building was home to two ghosts.
Speaker 2: One was forever stealing the mouthpiece from one of the
Speaker 2: brass bugles, and the other would slam doors shut throughout
Speaker 2: the night. It was a good tale, but I don't
Speaker 2: know that we fully believed him yet. Last orders was
Speaker 2: announced and the pub soon emptied, leaving my friends and
Speaker 2: me waiting at the bar for Sean to complete his
Speaker 2: closing duties. When we refilled our glasses and headed up
Speaker 2: to the top floor where Seawn's living quarters were. As
Speaker 2: we were about to ascend the last flight, Sean tapped
Speaker 2: me on the shoulder and knotted down the corridor. There
Speaker 2: were three doors along this quarter that were all shut,
Speaker 2: but at the end was one door that wasn't shut
Speaker 2: and it was half open. I followed Sean gazed to
Speaker 2: that door, and I watched in fascination as it slowly
Speaker 2: and smoothly, without so much as a jerk, closed with
Speaker 2: a gentle click as it latched. This gave me goose bumps,
Speaker 2: and Sean just smiled and led the way up the
Speaker 2: final flight to his flat. We were having a good
Speaker 2: visit with Sean and his girlfriend, but it wasn't long
Speaker 2: until it was time to go back downstairs and refill
Speaker 2: our glasses. No one was moving, so I volunteered. It
Speaker 2: took me a while to find my way in the dark,
Speaker 2: and I managed to get through the kitchen and refill
Speaker 2: four pint glasses plus an orange juice for Sean's girlfriend.
Speaker 2: I don't mind telling you that my faults were on
Speaker 2: that mouthpiece in the slowly closing door. I knew i'd
Speaker 2: have to find my way back upstairs, and that didn't
Speaker 2: help much either. As I got to the landing before
Speaker 2: the last flight, I couldn't resist stopping and looking down
Speaker 2: that corridor where I'd seen the gently closing door. I
Speaker 2: was concentrating on the door i'd seen close earlier, when
Speaker 2: suddenly something began banging. The other three doors slammed shut hard.
Speaker 2: I was jolted into action. You can call me a
Speaker 2: whimp if you like, but I ran up those stairs
Speaker 2: as fast as my feet would take me. I couldn't
Speaker 2: reach Sean's door fast enough, and I admit that I
Speaker 2: never lost sight of my priorities, though I never spilled
Speaker 2: a drop of beer. It was nineteen sixty three. It
Speaker 2: was summertime in New York, and I was nine years old.
Speaker 2: My older brother was thirteen, and at that time we
Speaker 2: lived in a county bordering Pennsylvania. It was the only
Speaker 2: county in the state without an incorporated city, and to
Speaker 2: this day it is very remote. It's as far back
Speaker 2: in the sticks as anyone can get, and if you
Speaker 2: were to go any further, you would be on your
Speaker 2: way out. We lived up a dirt road that was
Speaker 2: miles from any town with a population of even five hundred.
Speaker 2: The area consisted of only fields and forests. Of course,
Speaker 2: there were a lot of wildlife, and we were familiar
Speaker 2: with every species there, or so we thought. One night,
Speaker 2: my brother and I were on the front lawn. There
Speaker 2: was no moonlight, which gives you a very ominous feeling,
Speaker 2: especially when you're a kid in such a rural area.
Speaker 2: The dead silence added to the strange feelings we were having. Suddenly,
Speaker 2: the silence was broken when out of the darkness came
Speaker 2: a blood curdling scream. Did you hear that? I said,
Speaker 2: and I think we both spoke at the same time.
Speaker 2: Of course we knew the other it heard it, because
Speaker 2: you would have to be deaf not to We were
Speaker 2: wide eyed with fright, and that scream was ear piercing,
Speaker 2: and it was not a short scream. It was terrifying
Speaker 2: and like nothing I could ever imagine. I struggled to
Speaker 2: find an explanation. Because I was the one who usually
Speaker 2: had the answers to things. My brother had always been
Speaker 2: a bit slower to figure things out. Therefore, I knew
Speaker 2: he would be depending on me for an explanation. I
Speaker 2: took a few minutes to think about it, and I said,
Speaker 2: maybe it's George up on the letter S Road beating
Speaker 2: his wife. That was the best I could come up with,
Speaker 2: but it didn't convince my brother. Then we heard the
Speaker 2: scream again, and my brother said, now that scream came
Speaker 2: from the woods across the lake on this side of
Speaker 2: the stone wall. George lives way past that. I just
Speaker 2: have to stop here, and I've got a question. So
Speaker 2: George beat his wife, and you guys could hear him
Speaker 2: her screaming all that way? Did anybody ever think to
Speaker 2: go over and beat the shit out of George? Just wondering,
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on with the story. The scream
Speaker 2: came the third time and we were utterly completely terrified.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a cougar. I said. That explanation didn't convince
Speaker 2: him either. He pointed out that there weren't any cougars
Speaker 2: in the area. What is it? Then? I asked, if
Speaker 2: you didn't like any of my suggestions, what is yours? Well,
Speaker 2: he was of no help because he said he didn't know,
Speaker 2: and then the screams stopped, and neither of us were
Speaker 2: going to enter that dark, creepy woods to find out
Speaker 2: the source. Therefore, I told myself that it must have
Speaker 2: been a cougar. Perhaps they were coming back into the
Speaker 2: area and we weren't aware of it. That answer would
Speaker 2: have to suffice for now because there was no other explanation,
Speaker 2: and for many years I held on to that belief.
Speaker 2: We never spoke of it after that, or mentioned it
Speaker 2: to our parents. I think we were too afraid to
Speaker 2: even give it any more thought. In our minds, it
Speaker 2: was best if we just left the miter alone. It
Speaker 2: is unimaginable how terrified someone can become when this happened.
Speaker 2: I hadn't forgot it, and I still wanted an answer. Finally,
Speaker 2: with the help of the Internet, I started to do
Speaker 2: some research, and now I'm entirely convinced that it was
Speaker 2: neither a woman screaming or a cougar. Thank god, George
Speaker 2: wasn't beating his wife again. That's all I've got. That's
Speaker 2: the thing that makes me the happiest about this story.
Speaker 2: Based on the descriptions and recordings that I had heard online,
Speaker 2: I'm now sure that it was a side squatch. Neither
Speaker 2: my brother nor I have heard anything even remotely like
Speaker 2: we had heard on that night many years before. I'm
Speaker 2: thankful that neither of us chose to investigate the source
Speaker 2: of those terrifying screams. The outcome probably would have been
Speaker 2: a good one. Now the writer has another story here,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to share that with you. The following
Speaker 2: event is something I will never forget. I remember the
Speaker 2: date because it was the day before my grandfather's birthday party.
Speaker 2: It was in mid February two thousand and seven. I
Speaker 2: left the golf course at five pm. The western horizon
Speaker 2: was bright yellow by the soon to be setting the sun.
Speaker 2: I looked to my left and observed a shape silhouette
Speaker 2: against the sky that was approaching from the southwest. If
Speaker 2: it was a bird, it certainly was a weird shaped
Speaker 2: one with a strange appearance. I headed toward the north
Speaker 2: main highway and continued to watch it as well as
Speaker 2: I could while driving course. As I continued, the shape
Speaker 2: grew larger. I turned left on the main road, realizing
Speaker 2: this was not a bird. My mind was overworking as
Speaker 2: I tried to figure out what this could be since
Speaker 2: this thing was heading in my direction. I pulled off
Speaker 2: the main highway. It turned slightly toward me, and my
Speaker 2: mouth flew open in astonishment. If someone were to post
Speaker 2: a photo of my expression at that time, I'm sure
Speaker 2: it would go viral immediately. How about posting a photo
Speaker 2: of this bird That might go viral real quick. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I keep getting sidetracked in this story, so excuse me.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, it was a vehicle that never should
Speaker 2: have been able to get off the ground, let alone fly.
Speaker 2: I was only able to see it for a few seconds,
Speaker 2: but it is ingrained in my memory, and this is
Speaker 2: how I would describe it. It had the shape of
Speaker 2: a windowless shuttle craft from the starship Enterprise. It had
Speaker 2: two huge globes, one on each side, attached to the
Speaker 2: exterior of the craft, midway between the front and back.
Speaker 2: The globes were copper colored, with what looked like black
Speaker 2: old ring gaskets around the center of each globe. There
Speaker 2: was no sound coming from this strange craft, nor was
Speaker 2: there any wind gust as one might expect. As it
Speaker 2: passed overhead, it went slightly to the north and sped
Speaker 2: off at tree top level in the direction of Mount Shasta.
Speaker 2: To my surprise, the traffic was passing by as it
Speaker 2: would any other time. Was I the only one that
Speaker 2: could see this? While I was wondering what was going on?
Speaker 2: I got back into my car with my mind spinning,
Speaker 2: and I started home. What had just happened? Why didn't
Speaker 2: anyone else react? The questions wouldn't stop entering my brain.
Speaker 2: I couldn't have been the only one that saw this
Speaker 2: craft since it came right over the main part of town.
Speaker 2: I returned home and tried to clear my mind or
Speaker 2: at least make some sense of this experience, and I
Speaker 2: decided to report it to the local police and the
Speaker 2: local newspaper. To my amazement, not a single person had
Speaker 2: reported seeing anything out of the ordinary. Since no one
Speaker 2: had seen anything, I decided to keep it to myself,
Speaker 2: even though I had a strong feeling of wanting to
Speaker 2: share this with everyone. I did tell a few people
Speaker 2: that I knew I could trust, but even to this day,
Speaker 2: they give me a lot of ribbing and make a
Speaker 2: lot of jokes about it. Now, finally I found a
Speaker 2: place where I can share this event with everyone without
Speaker 2: being ridiculed. I'm thankful for this opportunity, and I feel
Speaker 2: a bit of relief being able to do so. So
Speaker 2: now maybe I'm not crazy. Well, to the writer, maybe
Speaker 2: you're not crazy. And I'm so glad that George wasn't
Speaker 2: killing his wife or beating her again. I don't know
Speaker 2: why that's sticking in my mind in this story, but
Speaker 2: it was. It was just I don't know, it was
Speaker 2: a kind of an odd thing to assume. Oh, that's
Speaker 2: probably George beating his wife. Nothing to see here, Everybody
Speaker 2: move along. Anyway. A lot of stuff happened in this story,
Speaker 2: and for some reason, that's the only thing that sticks
Speaker 2: in my mind. So I don't know, it's probably just me.
Speaker 2: I just thought it was kind of weird. Let's move
Speaker 2: on to something else. The year of my encounter was
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. I had graduated high school the year before
Speaker 2: and had been attending the University of Idaho, and in
Speaker 2: the spring, I was feeling burned out and decided to
Speaker 2: take a long weekend back home to Priest Lake, Idaho.
Speaker 2: While I was home, I just felt the need to
Speaker 2: get out in the woods, which have always been my
Speaker 2: place of peace and rest. It was a season for
Speaker 2: picking morals, so I grabbed a basket and fired up
Speaker 2: my dirt bike and headed for my family's home, which
Speaker 2: was already a twenty minute drive from the nearest small town,
Speaker 2: and I went deep into the woods. I went to
Speaker 2: a secret spot where I had always had good luck
Speaker 2: picking morals, and while they weren't as plentiful as normal,
Speaker 2: there were enough to keep me in the area. I
Speaker 2: had been picking morals and wandering around for an hour
Speaker 2: and decided to sit down and rest and eat a
Speaker 2: quick snack down by the small creek that flowed through
Speaker 2: the area. I'd been sitting for maybe ten minutes when
Speaker 2: I saw a deer come walking along the creek bed.
Speaker 2: It was upwind with me and had taken no notice,
Speaker 2: so I just sat still and watched it for a
Speaker 2: few minutes until the wind shifted at ninety degrees, I
Speaker 2: caught a foul odor, not a skunk like odor, but
Speaker 2: more like a mixture of carrying garbage and feces. At
Speaker 2: that exact moment, the deer lifted its head and sniffed
Speaker 2: the air and bolted right up the bank of the
Speaker 2: creek toward me. It came close to me, maybe thirty
Speaker 2: or forty feet away, and it didn't notice me at all.
Speaker 2: A moment later, just across the creek, I heard a
Speaker 2: loud huff and a thud, and I looked over to
Speaker 2: the creek to see what I would have described as
Speaker 2: a bigfoot, but you will soon understand why I don't.
Speaker 2: It was a shaggy ape like creature, something between a
Speaker 2: gorilla and an orangutang, but it was more upright. It
Speaker 2: had matte black fur that almost seemed to absorb the light.
Speaker 2: It had a partially bare face with dark skin, had
Speaker 2: yellow teeth with huge canines. This creature was probably seven
Speaker 2: feet tall, and I would guess three hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 2: It wasn't skinny, but it also was not overly bulky.
Speaker 2: I was absolutely stunned, and I was frozen where I
Speaker 2: sat just for a few moments after I saw it
Speaker 2: and it saw me, and the sheer rage and its
Speaker 2: eyes became terrifying. It took a few steps toward me
Speaker 2: and then stopped, and it let out a shrieking scream
Speaker 2: that was partially like the scream of a mountain lion
Speaker 2: and partially like the roar of an actual lion, and
Speaker 2: partially indescribable. I felt it in my chest and I
Speaker 2: slapped my hands over my ears, almost expecting to feel
Speaker 2: blood leaking out of them. This shriek went on for
Speaker 2: what seemed like a minute but was probably just a
Speaker 2: couple of seconds. At this point, the the creature was
Speaker 2: only sixty feet away from me, just across the creek
Speaker 2: and on the other bank, and I could see the
Speaker 2: spittle and drool flying off its teeth as it screamed.
Speaker 2: It took another step toward me, and it picked up
Speaker 2: a fist sized rock and was winding back its arm
Speaker 2: to send it flying toward me when I heard another
Speaker 2: sound from just up the creek. It was a loud whoop,
Speaker 2: and it rang out and the creature and I turned
Speaker 2: up streamed to see another creature standing in the water
Speaker 2: about one hundred feet away. Now this creature was massive.
Speaker 2: It was well over eight feet tall and I would
Speaker 2: guess between four hundred and fifty and five hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty pounds with dark red, black matted fur. It had
Speaker 2: a hairless face and a high forehead, and it was
Speaker 2: tapering to a slight cone at the top of its head.
Speaker 2: It had a broad chest and huge shoulders with extremely
Speaker 2: long arms. One of the first things I noticed was
Speaker 2: the broad, flat teeth and nails, while the other creature
Speaker 2: had sharp teeth and claws. The first creature at this
Speaker 2: point let out another shriek, and it threw the rock
Speaker 2: at the second creature, hitting it in the chest with
Speaker 2: a distinct warmth. The second creature let out a series
Speaker 2: of barking coughs. It was almost a laughing sound, and
Speaker 2: it took a few steps toward the first creature. The
Speaker 2: first creature suddenly looked panicked and spun around and ran
Speaker 2: into the brush and off into the woods, and the
Speaker 2: second creature led off after it, faster than I would
Speaker 2: have ever believed possible for such a big animal. Its
Speaker 2: fur was flapping in the wind behind it, and it
Speaker 2: gave it an almost blurry appearance as it leapt up
Speaker 2: the bank in a single stride and disappeared into the
Speaker 2: woods after the first creature. Seconds later, I heard another
Speaker 2: shriek from off in the woods in the direction that
Speaker 2: they had gone, and it was followed by a much
Speaker 2: higher pitch shriek of pain, and then a series of
Speaker 2: yelps and wines, and a moment of silence, and then
Speaker 2: a series of victorious whoops. By that time I had
Speaker 2: finally found my ability to move and I stood up
Speaker 2: and grabbed my basket of morals. I ran the quarter
Speaker 2: mile to my bike as fast as I possibly could,
Speaker 2: still hearing triumphant whoops from off in the woods, and
Speaker 2: the second I got there, I kicked the engine over
Speaker 2: and tore up the old logging road I had come
Speaker 2: in on. I never bothered with my helmet until I
Speaker 2: got whipped in the face by a branch of a bush.
Speaker 2: Then I walked into the house and I took off
Speaker 2: my helmet, and my dad immediately asked me what was wrong. Well,
Speaker 2: I thought he must have seen something in my eyes,
Speaker 2: but it turned out that the branch had left a
Speaker 2: bleeding whelp on my cheek and across my nose, and
Speaker 2: I hadn't even noticed the pain and in front of
Speaker 2: my mother and my younger so I told my dad
Speaker 2: that I had just slipped. But later that night, alone
Speaker 2: around a campfire in the backyard, I explained to him
Speaker 2: what had really happened. He told me that I should
Speaker 2: have left the morals as a thank you, and insisted
Speaker 2: that we go leave an offering. First thing in the morning.
Speaker 2: We raided the refrigerator, collecting a basket of fresh vegetables,
Speaker 2: a small piece of cheese and some peanut butter, which
Speaker 2: my dad scooped out and put in some paper cupcake wrappers,
Speaker 2: and as the sun was coming up, we left the
Speaker 2: food right where I had been sitting when I first
Speaker 2: saw the creatures, and as we pulled away in the
Speaker 2: truck a few minutes later, I heard one quiet whoop
Speaker 2: from down by the creek. I had been back to
Speaker 2: that spot several times since, but never without a side arm,
Speaker 2: and never without a small offering of thanks to the
Speaker 2: Bigfoot that saved my life from the impersonator.
Speaker 1: It can be a distant the arm