On a lonely stretch of Mexican road a hunter had a run-in with a large, quasi-humanoid (and apparently semi-aquatic) creature, which nearly scared the life out of him.
On February 12, 1965, while slingshot hunting adjacent to the Santiago River, a 19 year-old by the name of Francisco Estrada Acosta had a face-to-face encounter with an entity that, quite frankly, should not exist… and which we, perhaps a bit irreverently, have dubbed “Flipper” — due to it’s unique appendages.
According to Luis Ramirez Reyes, author of “Contacto: México: Historia del Fenómeno OVNIA,” and Rubén Manrique, the ufologist who first broke the case, teenaged Acosta was hunting for small game in a mining area situated in the colony of Morales, which is located in the municipality of San Luis Potosi, when he was suddenly confronted by an apparition which seemed to be, quite literally, from OUT OF THIS WORLD.
According to Reyes, Acosta had followed the Santiago River down to the San Jose Dam at which point he began searching for slingshot-sized rocks.
It was then that he realized that someone was looming over him. Acosta glanced up and quickly realized that the being standing above him was anything but human. He described the beast thus:
“[It was] a tall figure with a large oval-shaped head, huge, reddish, phosphorescent eyes and a large toad-like mouth.”
The flabbergasted Acosta could only stare in what one must assume was abject terror as the bizarre being extended its “flipper-like hand” towards him; touching his hand. The youthful hunter would later recall the sensation of the thing’s flesh as being “cold and scaly,” not unlike that of a reptile.
Justifiably panic stricken, Acosta recoiled from the critter’s desiccated touch and began to sprint from the alarming aberration. As he dashed away , Acosta stole a glance back and saw to his chagrin that a pair of membranous, “wing-like protrusions” were extending from the beast’s back. To terrified to gawk, the youth never did see if this potential AVIAN ANOMALY was able to get airborne.
Was this gargoyle-like, bat-winged, reptile-skinned, ostensibly amphibious fiend native to these Mexican badlands? An extraterrestrial visitor? Or was it a seldom seen AQUATIC ENIGMA that emerged from the murky depths of the Santiago River like the “Creature from the Black Lagoon?”
Until this strange creature rears its head again, we’ll likely never know.
© Copyright Rob Morphy 2002 — 2016
Rob Morphy is an artist / journalist / filmmaker / designer / crypto chronicler / podcaster / cult movie lover and co-founder of American Monsters and Cryptopia.