{"id":6541,"date":"2010-12-09T05:22:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T23:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptopia.us\/site\/?p=6541"},"modified":"2012-11-25T07:51:13","modified_gmt":"2012-11-25T01:51:13","slug":"murphysboro-mud-monster-illinois-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptopia.us\/site\/2010\/12\/murphysboro-mud-monster-illinois-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"MURPHYSBORO MUD MONSTER: (ILLINOIS, USA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Near midnight in 1973, a young couple was parked by a desolate riverside for a romantic interlude when they came face to face with a huge, wet, hairy, mud-slathered monstrosity with a penchant for disturbing teenage lovers.<\/p>\n

During two harrowing weeks in the summer of 1973, the rural town of Murphysboro, Illinois\u00a0 became the epicenter of a terrifying series of encounters with a huge, albino beast, which would come to be known as the \u201cMurphysboro Mud Monster\u201d or the \u201cBig Muddy Monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This bizarre brute tormented the citizens of this small community — which is tucked away in southwestern region of the state — for approximately fourteen days before its reign of terror abruptly ended, resulting in one of the strangest and, in some ways, most frightening cases in the history of HAIRY HOMINID<\/a> research.<\/p>\n

While there are some who suggest that the first account of this creature came from an unnamed man who claimed to have seen the thing while gardening outside of his isolated Westwood Hills area home before it was developed into a neighborhood in the 1950s, most agree that the first official encounter with this decidedly unhygienic beast occurred at approximately midnight on the on June 25th, 1973.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first known eyewitnesses were a youthful couple — Randy Needham and Judy Johnson — who were parked at the foot of 23rd<\/sup> Street, in Riverside Park, near the town\u2019s old boat ramp overlooking the Big Muddy River.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s father had expressly forbidden his daughter from dating Needham, which is why the pair chose such an isolated location for their illicit rendezvous. It would be a decision which they would soon come to regret.<\/p>\n

According to their account, Johnson claimed that they were listening to the radio, engaged in a debate about when they should leave and, presumably, doing what couples are want to do, when they heard a piercing roar — which Needham compared to an \u201ceagle shrieking into a microphone\u201d — that seemed to emanate from the thick underbrush not far from his car. Needham quickly snapped off the radio and scanned the area, listening intently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Suddenly, another horrific shriek echoed through the night accompanied by a rattling of the brushwood in front of them. Needham flicked on his headlights and Johnson gasped as they both saw a huge, foul scented creature lumbering toward them — a creature whose very existence would tax the limits of their imaginations.<\/p>\n

Needham wasted no time in starting his car and accelerating away from the scene with his frightened girlfriend. As the pair entered more civilized territory they drove in stunned silence for a few moments before discussing whether or not they should report their encounter to the police.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Johnson knew full well that once they made an official report it would reveal their secret romance, but she decided that the trouble she was bound to get into when her father found out about Needham was nothing compared to what the monster they just saw might be capable of. It was then that the selfless duo made a beeline for the Murphysboro Police Station.<\/p>\n

The couple arrived at the station and made out what is known as an \u201cunknown creature\u201d report, describing a beast that looked like an \u201cover-sized gorilla,\u201d which they estimated to be almost 8-feet tall, with matted, mud streaked, white hair. Former patrolman, now retired Murphysboro police Chief, Ron Manwaring, was still able to recite the facts of this strange incident from memory almost three decades later:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThe first report came in just before midnight on June 25. A couple had been \u2018parked\u2019 near the boat dock on the southwestern edge of Riverside Park, next to the woods.”<\/p>\n

“The two, who were not married, said they were in the car when they heard a loud screaming sound in the wooded area and observed a large creature approximately 7- feet tall. The creature appeared to have light-colored hair matted with mud. The creature appeared to be walking on two legs and was proceeding toward his car.”<\/p>\n

Manwaring felt that the couple\u2019s account was lent credibility due to the fact they risked exposing their alleged indiscretions — which would no doubt bring them public ridicule and, even more alarmingly, Johnson\u2019s father\u2019s wrath — because they were so frightened by what they had seen by the river: “There was no advantage for them to come up and report this.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While the officers who took down Needham and Johnson\u2019s statement were understandably skeptical of the event, they dutifully sent out two patrolmen — Meryl Lindsay and Jimmie Nash — to investigate their report. Within minutes of the sighting the officers\u00a0 arrived at the boat ramp in the Riverside Park area to inspect the scene.<\/p>\n

Officer Nash was the first to discover a plethora of \u201cpeculiar\u201d tracks — “approximately 10 to 12-inches long and approximately three inches wide” — deeply impressed in the mud by the riverbank.\u00a0 Nash claimed that as he bent over to inspect the prints from a closer vantage point he was shocked to hear a horrifyingly shrill screech nearby. Nash took off posthaste, accidentally dropping his revolver in his panic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The officer — who admitted that he initially thought the story to be little more than hogwash — described the hideous sound as: \u201cThe most incredible shriek I\u2019ve ever heard. It was in those bushes. It was no bobcat or screech owl. We hightailed it out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nash and Lindsay quickly went back to the station to report their findings and gather more men for a search party. The officers later estimated that whatever had made that sharp cry was no more than 300-feet away from them.<\/p>\n

Approximately two hours later — at 2:00 am. on the 26th<\/sup> of June — officers Nash and Lindsay returned to the scene accompanied by officer Bob Scott and Needham.The quartet swiftly discovered another spate of tracks near the river. As Lindsay ran back to the patrol car to retrieve a camera the rest of the group intrepidly followed the prints along the bank.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Without warning, the stillness of the black night was shattered by the same horrible scream that Needham and Nash had heard earlier. Fear rapidly usurped curiosity as the trio of men summarily abandoned their search and raced back to the patrol car for safety.<\/p>\n

After huddling in the car for what must have felt like an eternity — no doubt waiting for the beast to attack — the men managed to regain their courage and continued their pursuit of this enigmatic monster once more. This mini-posse worked until dawn trying to track down the \u201csplashing\u201d sounds — which they described as being like a large creature rushing through the knee-deep water in the distance — to no avail.<\/p>\n

As the sun rose, the officers felt that this so-called \u201cmonster\u201d would evaporate with the rest of the night-shadows, never to be seen again, but this presumably nocturnal fiend had a surprise in store for them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At approximately 10:30 pm. on the evening of June 26th, <\/sup>5 year-old Christian Baril was playing in his backyard — which was located relatively close to the Big Muddy River — attempting to catch fireflies in the glass jar his mother had given him.<\/p>\n

The child frolicked about delightedly when he spied a colossal, white shape looming up from behind the fence that separated his yard from the neighbor\u2019s property — the Ray family.<\/p>\n

The terrified Baril dropped his jar and raced inside, crying out: \u201cDaddy, Daddy! There\u2019s a big ghost in the backyard!\u201d\u00a0 The child\u2019s father was understandably dubious of his son’s story, that was, until, his neighbors corroborated the tale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This account of a terrifying backyard encounter is uncannily similar to one that befell another young Illinois boy named Greg Garrett just a few months earlier on April 25th<\/sup>, 1973.<\/p>\n

Garrett claimed to have been attacked while playing in his backyard by a truly bizarre, slimy, three-legged beast known as the ENFIELD HORROR<\/a>. Like Baril, Garrett immediately retreated to the relative safety of his parent\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

While Baril was sobbing in his father\u2019s arms, teenager Cheryl Ray — now Cheryl Rath, housewife and mother of two — was sitting on her darkened back porch next door with her young suitor, Randy Creath. The pair claimed that they were talking and looking at the stars when they heard a rustling in the bushes about 15-feet away from the porch.<\/p>\n

Assuming that is was neighborhood kids come to spy on them; an enraged Ray went inside to turn on the porch light, while Creath — the son of a state trooper, now a minister at the First Baptish Church in Sheffield, Iowa — leapt to his feet and opened the door, intending to investigate. This intention vanished the moment that the light came on revealing the same appalling apparition that had terrified Baril just minutes before — as well as Needham and Johnson the previous night. Ray recounted the scene:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cRandy and I were sitting in my parents\u2019 breezeway when we heard something in the woods. We both went down, but Randy was walking a little bit ahead. Then he said \u2018Come here,\u2019 and there it was. We stood there looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creath and Ray stood frozen with shock as this filthy, white monstrosity seemed to stare back at them. Creath — who drew a sketch of the creature, revealing a distinctly spade shaped, FLATWOODS MONSTER-like head — recalled the moment vividly:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I remember was the bulk of it, the shape, the human form, and the stench of the river slime it apparently had on it. It was about eight feet tall, and at least as stocky as NY football player. We were within 15-feet of it, close enough to see the body, the texture of the fur, long and hairy, like an English sheepdog.”<\/p>\n

Ray also described the beast, which she claimed bore inhuman features and stood more erect than an ape:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt was real tall, hairy. I think it was white, but it was dirty, matted. It had a real bad odor. It was really rank. I never smelled anything like it. It seemed like an eternity we stood there, and then it just turned around and walked off into the woods. We could hear it trampling through the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creath claimed that the \u201canimal\u201d stared at them for what felt like a long time, although he later estimated that the incident lasted only about 30 seconds. Both agreed that the creature had \u201cglowing red eyes,” which Creath accredited to the glow of a distant streetlight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This description of the eyes is significant if one is to assume that the Murphysboro Mud Monster is actually a prototypical BIGFOOT-like creature that just happens to be albino. While pink eyes are a common trait in animals lacking pigmentation, Ray — unlike Creath — would insist that this beast\u2019s eyes were actually \u201cglowing\u201d and were not reflecting light from some other source.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This description of glowing eyes is very similar to that of another ape-like monster — the aptly named ORANGE EYES<\/a> — which is said to skulk around lakes and cemeteries near Cleveland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

After this strange interaction, the couple claimed that the shaggy beast simply turned and pushed through the shrubbery, thrashing its way back to the nearby river.<\/p>\n

Creath and Ray testified that the creature they saw weighed at least 350-pounds, stood about 7-feet tall. They also stated that it had a \u201croundish\u201d head and long, gorilla-like arms. Officers Nash and Manwaring were swiftly dispatched to the scene, where they noticed a powerful odor that quickly dissipated. They also found a cluster of footprints where the creature had been lurking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Following the officer\u2019s discovery, then Chief, Toby Berger, immediately dispatched the rest of his men to the scene — all fourteen of them — then sent for an officer and trained dog handler with the nearby Carbondale Police Department, a man named Jerry Nellis.<\/p>\n

Nellis was the owner of a tough German Shepard named “Reb,” who had assisted the Murphysboro police in the past as a search and rescue, attack dog and, most pertinently, as a man — or, in this case, monster — tracker.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The officers — armed with rifles, revolvers and flashlights \u2013 discovered a trail of unidentified \u201cblack slime\u201d that seemed to lead directly from the Ray\u2019s back porch to the river. Officer Manwaring confirmed the existence of this still unknown material:<\/p>\n

“I saw this substance and smelled the smell myself.”<\/p>\n

Almost instantly, Reb picked up the scent of his prey and took off. The men then followed the dog down the recently forged path of broken tree limbs and trampled underbrush toward their bizarre quarry.<\/p>\n

The dog managed to track the monster through the dense forest and down a steep embankment toward a small pond, but the brush became too thick for it to continue. The officers began searching the area with flashlights for clues as to where this creature might have escaped, but in no time Reb picked up the scent again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The determined dog darted toward an abandoned barn on the Bullar property — which was located just east of the Ray\u2019s house and a little north of the river — but once he got to the decaying door the usually courageous canine began trembling and yelping with fear.<\/p>\n

This mystified both Nellis and the officers who had noted over the years that Reb was the most relentless tracking dog in the county. Nellis attempted to grab the dog by the scruff of his neck and thrust him through the open door of the barn, but Reb just dropped to his belly and scampered backwards, whimpering.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The usually bold Reb\u2019s terrified reaction to whatever lurked within the barn was enough to convince Chief Berger to call in the \u201ctroops.\u201d<\/p>\n

He radioed for help from neighboring police departments and within hours a dozen patrol cars had responded to his call.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately — or perhaps very fortunately for those involved — in the time that had elapsed between Reb\u2019s fearful display the arrival of backup, whatever it was that had hidden in the barn managed to slip out through the back. Not long after, the search was called off for the night and the disappointed officers returned to their home bases.<\/p>\n

But this would not mark the end of the Murphysboro Mud Monster saga as sightings of this mysterious man-beast were reported two more times during the next week and a half. Berger claims that during this period he was worried less about the monster and more about one of the 10,000 Murphysboro residents shooting another in one of the many armed posses that seemed to spring up like wildfire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The next reported encounter with the beast occurred approximately 10 days later after a traveling carnival set up camp in Riverside Park. The carnival workers — apparently unaware of what was lurking nearby — chose a pleasant glade near the river between the boat ramp and the sewage treatment plant located below the Ray house.<\/p>\n

At 2:00 am. on July 7th,<\/sup> long after the carnival had closed up for the night, three carnies — Otis Norris, Ray Adkerson and Wesley Lavender — where sitting behind one of the carnival trucks discussing the day\u2019s receipts when they heard a series of whinnies coming from the Shetland ponies that were tied to the bramble on the other side of the truck.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The men quickly got up to see what the commotion was all about and were shocked to find the usually docile ponies — which had been trained to give children rides in endless circles like a merry-go-round — where in a tizzy with their eyes rolling in terror, furiously tugging at their ropes in a desperate bid to free themselves from their constraints. It wasn\u2019t long before the carnies would see what the frenzy was all about.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The men maintained that they spied an 8-foot, 400 lbs. creature — which, much like Missouri\u2019s MOMO seemed to have no distinguishable facial characteristics beneath its fur — that seemed to be \u201ccalmly\u201d watching the ponies. The men decided not to wait around to see what happened next and immediately ran for help, claiming that the monster also ran in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

About an hour later, one of the carnival workers called in to help deal with this beast, Charles Kimbal, claimed that he saw the creature once again staring at ponies with its head cocked to the side in what was described as a \u201cdeeply curious\u201d pose.<\/p>\n

While this would prove to be the last \u201ceyewitness\u201d report of the creature, its reign of fear was not quite complete. Later that same night a woman named Nedra Green asserted that she heard a screaming sound coming from a shed on her rural farm. She, wisely it would seem, chose to remain inside her home rather than go out to investigate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Following the carnival sighting yet another crowd of locals — most of whom were armed to the teeth —\u00a0 gathered in Riverside Park hoping to take a shot at he furry, white fiend.<\/p>\n

This only exacerbated Berger’s concerns for the townsfolk’s safety, so he implored the town fathers to bring in “expert” help.<\/p>\n

The man they chose for the job was St. Louis insurance agent and serious student of\u00a0 SASQUATCH reports HARKAN SORKIN. Sorkin led a group of five men — including reporters from the Kansas City Star and a lawyer — into the woods near Murphysboro in the fall of 1973, in an effort to track and possibly capture the Murphysboro Mud Monster.<\/p>\n

Sorkin claimed that private groups had offered as much as $2.5 million for the creature\u2019s capture. With that in mind this small expedition came armed with a stun gun with the capacity to take down a for a 500-pound animal, as well as chocolate and bananas, which Sorkin stated they would use to pacify the beast.<\/p>\n

They also carried loaded shotguns, which they claimed would only be used if their safety were threatened. Sorkin further claimed that they had local zoos standing by and that arrangements had been made for a cage to be flown in by helicopter should they get lucky and manage to imprison the monster.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, this mini-expedition met with very little success. Sorkin asserted that they heard \u201ca very loud yell or guttural sound, between a roar and a bellow” and saw huge footprints and found two-inch saplings pulled out of the ground.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, it wasn\u2019t long before the press got their talons into this tale of a colossal, mud-caked critter. The local paper, The Southern Illinoisan, ran a small story on the search, which was eventually picked up by the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Famed cryptozoologist LOREN COLEMAN<\/a> investigated the sightings in the 1970s and came to the conclusion that the Mud Monster was a Bigfoot-type creature, stating: “I think it’s within the context of other reports of a Bigfoot.”<\/p>\n

Coleman also felt that the Murphysboro Mud Monster represented a distinct type of ape-like creature distinct from its west coast counterparts in that they are known to be more aggressive: “There’s something very unique about this eastern-midwestern Bigfoot. From the reports from the Mud Monster it seemed to frighten people the way it didn’t in the west.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Over the next three years there were sporadic reports throughout the area of animals that resembled the Mud Monster. Perhaps the most intriguing of these sightings occurred on January 26th, 1975, when four truckers — all of whom were traveling separately — radioed in reports of seeing a bizarre \u201cbear-like\u201d creature near the Illinois 149 junction west of Murphysboro.<\/p>\n

On July 7th, 1975, two Murphysboro men reported a sighting of a strange creature that they believed may have been the Big Muddy Monster near a pond in the Harrison community, north of Murphysboro. Needless to say these isolated events in no way compared to the tremendous flap of encounters that had plagued the community in the summer of ’73.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It bears noting that in July of 1969, there were reports of a large, hairy, white creature called the LAKE WORTH MONSTER hailing — not surprisingly — from Lake Worth in Texas. While most assumed that this was a standard Hairy Hominid sighting, there were some who insisted that it was a HYBRID BEAST<\/a> that was half-man, half-goat, much like Maryland’s infamous GOATMAN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case of the Mud Monster — which began on a lonely LOVERS LANE<\/a> and ended near a desolate farmhouse — is just one of two cases that remain unsolved in the history of the Murphysboro Police Department.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Police Chief Berger put it most succinctly when he said: “A lot of things in life are unexplained, and this is another one. We don’t know what the creature is, but we do believe what these people saw was real.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright Rob Morphy 2002 — 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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