Cryptozoologists practically admit that various ape-like creatures and lake monsters with swan necks survived in the wild. But next to such creatures that are already quite familiar to us according to reports from the media (along with aliens), supposedly of flesh and blood, there is an ominous menagerie of swamp slobs, crazy gasmen and tiny little people, so outlandish that it is difficult to believe in their physical reality.
There are cases so bizarre that they are usually ignored or rejected outright.
In the southern states of the United States, for example, there are rumors that strange, reptile-like bipeds are found in swamps and oxbows. During the summer of 1988, one such creature roamed freely in the Scape Or Marsh near Bishopville, South Carolina.
He was first met by a certain George Hulomon, who was pumping water from an artesian well in a swamp, when an unusual creature with big eyes jumped out of the thickets. Later, on July 15, Tom and Mary Wayie, who lived nearby on Branlett Road, discovered in the morning that their car was covered with sand, scratches and teeth marks.
Media reports of the Wayeve's discovery prompted another witness to report an even more dramatic encounter. When seventeen-year-old Christopher Davis of the small village of Browntown was driving alone at two in the morning on June 29 through Scape Or, his car got flat.
When the young man changed the wheel and was already robbing the tools, he suddenly saw a strange creature running towards him across an open place. It looked like a man, but it seemed too tall, and its eyes glowed red in the dark. Davis jumped into the cab of his car and tried to drive away. But the creature managed to run to the car and put its hands through the open window of the door.
Davis pulled into the road and squeezed the gas pedal to the floor.
“I saw his neck and below - three thumbs, long black nails and rough green skin. He was strong. I looked in the mirror and saw a running green spot. I saw his toes, and then he jumped onto the roof of my car. I heard a grunt. Then I saw his fingers through the windshield where they gripped the edge of the roof."
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According to one version, it was only when the car accelerated to 35 miles per hour that this creature fell from its roof.
Davis drove to his parents' house, stopped in the driveway and refused to get out of the car until his father opened the front door. Both the parents and the local sheriff noted that the young man was terribly scared. It was clear from Christopher's confused account that he was attacked by a hideous stinking creature at least seven feet tall, with lizard skin, long arms, and - as one newspaper article put it - "with teeth sticking out in all directions."
Writer John Keel has collected about a dozen such descriptions throughout the United States of those whom he called "disgusting swamp slobs." In a number of cases, it was about attacks on drivers and cars, which is completely out of the spirit of more solitary monkeys like Bigfoot.
For example, on November 1, 1958, as Charles Wetzel rode peacefully along the Santa Ana River in Riverside, California, the radio in the car suddenly crackled, and a six-foot-tall creature suddenly appeared in front of the car. It had glowing eyes, a beak-like mouth, but no nose or ears were visible. And it was all covered with scales like leaves.
Wetzel braked sharply, and the creature lunged for the car, letting out a high-pitched scream and marking claws on the windshield. Wetzel stepped on the gas again, saw the creature roll onto its back, and felt the car hit him.
Subsequent investigation revealed that although the car had clearly run over something that had wiped oil from its crankcase, no trace of skin or scales was found, nor were there reports of any strange corpse being found on the road along Santa Ana.
It is noteworthy that all the recorded reports about the "lizard man", except for two, came after the release in 1954 of the horror film "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", whose hero was a similar monster.
The "Mad Gasman" from Mattoon, Illinois, the night stalker hunter mentioned in the opening paragraph, is another creature from the realm of the mysterious.
In the early fall of 1944, the residents of Mattoon lived for several days in horror, believing with good reason in the physical reality of the Gasman. His victims survived and told their stories, emphasizing that they felt his sickeningly sweet paralyzing gas entering their bedrooms, felt how it burned their lips and throats, and on a couple of occasions even saw a black-clad "marauder" when he ran away.
However, the gas did not leave any traces, and it was impossible to catch the Gazovshchik. Time passed, and the police did not detain a single suspect, and the panic got out of control. Twenty-five cases were reported in two weeks. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, the ghostly "anesthesiologist" stopped his antics and disappeared.
Was there really a Mad Gasman operating in a provincial town in Illinois?
Even then, many suspected that this was not the case, and today Mattoon's case is often cited as an excellent example of "mass hysteria." The city newspaper described the Gazovshchik's attacks in a sensational manner and in its initial report wrote about the “first victims”, as if making it clear that their number would multiply.
A psychologist from the University of Illinois who visited the city drew attention to the fact that the witnesses were dominated by women from low-income families and that the Gazer had never visited the only two fashionable residential areas of Mattoon.
On the other hand, a recent study showed that Mattoon's Gasman was not alone. During the winter of 1933-1934, strikingly similar attacks occurred in Botetourt County, Virginia. And there, and there, sickening gases sprayed out, from which the throat was caught and the face swollen.
There was another curious coincidence: in Mattuna, an empty lipstick tube was found near the home of one of the victims, and in Boteturt, traces of high-heeled shoes were found at several crime scenes.
The Boteturt case was reported in the local press, but it was only briefly mentioned in national newspapers. It seems incredible that ten years later it caused a panic in Mattuna. Moreover, it seems strange that some journalist has come up with some kind of paralytic gas.
In the archives, you can still find reports of encounters with many creatures that were less ambiguous, but equally perplexing.
In May 1913, three young men working on a farm in Texas saw a man eighteen inches tall.
“On his head was something like a Mexican sombrero,” one of them recalled. - It was a small round hat that seemed to be attached to his head. He was not wearing any other clothes. Everything looked like a rubber suit, including the hat."
Before the guys could get a good look at the small creature, the dogs from the farm tore it to pieces. His internal organs and blood were human-like, but his skin was dark green in color.
Everittstown, New Jersey resident John Trasko went out to feed a dog on November 6, 1959, and encountered a man about three feet tall, dressed in green, who told him, “We are peaceful people and do not want any trouble. We only want your dog. " In response, Trasko drove the creature away with a shout: "Get out of here!"
Where do such bizarre creatures come from? Ufologists might consider them as passengers of a flying saucer, although reports about them usually do not mention flying machines, and occultists are inhabitants of a hollow earth.
Renowned fairytale connoisseur Janet Bord has tried to link such cases to old folk tales of little people whose love of green clothing symbolizes their commitment to the countryside. Skeptics point to the obvious absurdity of such meetings and argue that in many cases it is a matter of practical jokes, and in others it is a game of imagination.
Let's say that little green men are indeed UFO passengers - this does not bring us closer to understanding what UFOs are or where they come from, let alone why they are here. Why would they, after all, need someone's dog, and how, in a case that happened in the late 1950s, could there be such incongruous hints of an alien abduction mania that peaked only twenty years later.
Now let's say these creatures are truly fabulous. Are they taking on a modern look on their own? What explains the fact that they are wearing green rubber Mexican hats? Or does the way small people are perceived in some strange way depend on the person who sees them?
Let's also assume that all these stories are just pranks and hallucinations. If these were pranks, then why was the Texas farm case hushed up by the press for decades, and what was the point in a prank that did not earn its organizers a dime?
If it was about hallucinations, then how to explain the physical evidence - an attack by dogs and blood, or why several eyewitnesses became victims of hallucinations at once, or why was that creature small, green and rubbery?
