THE LIZARD MEN OF KENTUCKY
On the Road with Brad and Mary Sutherland
BUFO RADIO
While in Kentucky, Brad and I were told about a 3 toed clawed print inside a cave area found in a cave entrance at Pound Gap. There is a photo of this print that we are trying to track down. Hopefully we will be successful in obtaining at least a copy of the photo.
I have heard this story from five people - of which four of the five have seen the photo.
While this one gent was down in the caves he came across a print that looked like it had 3 claws. They 'assumed' it was a giant bird print. However, dabbling as i do in cryptozoology, I recognized it as a reptoid that are known for living in the cave systems and marsh/lake areas.
Reports of clawed and three-toed prints are coming in from Big Deltox Swamp in Wisconsin -to Kentucky - Georgia , Arizona , Tennessee to Missouri.
OHIO RIVER VALLEY
Loren Coleman came across this great gem while digging into the back issues of the Louisville, Kentucky, COURIER-JOURNAL, 24 October 1878 issue. A 'WIld Man of the Woods' was captured, supposedly, in Tennessee, and then placed on exhibit in Louisville. The creature was described as being six feet, five inches tall, and having eyes twice the normal size. His body was 'COVERED WITH SCALES.'
Again coming out of Louisville, more stories of REPTILIAN ENTITIES. In October 1975, near Milton, Kentucky, Clarence Cable reported a 'giant lizard' was roaming the forests near his junkyard. Author Peter Guttilla described the creature Cable surprised as 'about fifteen feet long, had a foot-long forked tongue, and big eyes that bulged something like a frog's. It was dull-white with black-and-white stripes across its body with quarter-size speckles over it.'
"On-site field investigations by Mark A. Hall, however, indicated this 'giant lizard' RAN BIPEDALLY, according to other Trimble County, Kentucky witnesses. The Ohio River is Louisville's, Milton's, and Trimble county's northern boundary.
"On 21 August 1955, near Evansville, Indiana, Mrs. Darwin Johnson was almost pulled forever into the depths of the Ohio River. In what seems to be a very close meeting with one of those creatures, Mrs.Johnson, of Godtown, Indiana, was swimming with her friend Mrs. Chris Lamble about fifteen feet from the shore when SUDDENLY SOMETHING GRABBED HER FROM UNDER THE SURFACE. It felt like the 'hand' had huge claws and 'furry' (or scaly?) palms. It came up from behind, grabbed her left leg, grabbed her knee, and pulled her under. She kicked and fought herself free. It pulled her under again. Although both women could not see the thing, they were screaming and yelling to scare it away. Finally, Mrs. Johnson lunged for Mrs. Lamble's inner tube, and the loud 'thump' apparently scared 'it' away, and 'it' released its grip. Back on shore, Mrs. Johnson received treatment for her scratches and marks on her leg.
"Fortean investigator Terry Colvin passed on the information that Mrs. Johnson had a palm-print-shaped green stain below her knee that could not be removed, and it remained for several days.(Interestingly, Colvin learned the Johnsons were visited by an individual who identified himself as an Air Force colonel who took voluminous notes and warned them not to talk further about the incident. Of course, this sounds so similar to the 'Man-In- Black' encounter that is goes almost without saying.)
"For anyone who has seen CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, the Ohio River encounter of Mrs. Darwin Johnson is already familiar, for her attack was foreshadowed in that movie...
"1972... In March of that year on two separate occasions, two Ohio policemen saw what has become known as the 'Loveland Frogman.' Investigated by Ron Schaffner and Richard Mackey, these researchers interviewed the officers involved but have not published their names, instead using the fictitious names 'Williams' and 'Johnson.'
"The first incident took place at 1:00 A.M. on 3 March 1972, on a clear, cold night. Officer Williams was on route to Loveland, via Riverside Road, when he thought he saw a dog beside the road. But when the 'thing' stood up, its eyes illuminated by the car lights, looked at him for an instant, turned, and leapt over the guardrail. Williams saw it go down an embankment into the Little Miami River, a mere fifteen or so miles from the Ohio River. He described the thing
as weighing about sixty pounds, about three to four feet tall, having a textured leathery skin, AND A FACE LIKE A FROG OR LIZARD. Williams went on to the police station and returned with Officer Johnson to look for evidence of the creature. They turned up scrape-marks leading down the side of the small hill near the river.
"On approximately 17 March 1972, Officer Johnson was driving outside of Loveland when he had a similar experience. Seeing an animal lying in the middle of the road, he stopped to remove what he thought was a dead critter. Instead, when the officer opened his squeaky car door, the animal got up into a crouched position like a football player. The creature hobbled to the guardrail and lifted its leg over, while constantly looking at Johnson. Perhaps it was the funny
smirk on its face, but Johnson decided to shoot at it. He missed, he figured, since the thing didn't slow down. Johnson later told how he felt it was more upright than the way Williams described it. One area farmer told investigators he saw a large, FROG-LIKE OR LIZARD-LIKE CREATURE during the same month of the officers' sightings..."
Charles Berlitz, in his 'WORLD OF THE INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE' (Fawcett Crest Books., N.Y.), related the following incident concerning another hominoid predator or 'Lizard Man':
During the summer of 1988, residents of Bishopville, South Carolina, reported accounts of a SEVEN-FOOT-TALL LIZARD MAN WITH GREEN SCALY SKIN. According to witnesses, Lizard Man has only three toes on each foot, as well as long apelike arms that end in three fingers tipped with FOUR-INCH CLAWS.
"Seventeen-year-old Chris Davis first encountered Lizard Man around 2:00 A.M. on June 29. On his way home, the teen stopped near the brackish waters of Scape Ore Swamp outside Bishopville to change a flat tire. While replacing the jack in the car's trunk, he glimpsed something running across the field toward him. Jumping into his 1976 Toyota Celica, he was quickly engaged in a tug-of-war with the reptilian creature as he tried to pull the door closed. Then Lizard Man jumped onto the car's roof, where he left scratches in the paint as evidence of his attack.
"Hysterical, Davis returned home and told only his parents and a few close friends about the experience. Law enforcement officers,however, interrogated him after neighbors said the boy might know something about the strange bite marks and scratches found on another car.
"Davis wasn't alone in his report. Soon other reports were flooding the sheriff's office. Teenagers Rodney Nolfe and Shane Stokes, for example, were driving near the swamp with their girlfriends when Lizard Man darted across the road in front of their car. Construction worker George Holloman also claimed Lizard Man jumped at him as he was collecting water from an artesian well.
"Investigating the area around the swamp, state trooper Mike Hodge and Lee County deputy sheriff Wayne Atkinson found three crumbled, forty-gallon cardboard drums. The tops of saplings were ripped off eight feet above the ground. And there were, according to Hodge, 'humongous footprints,' fourteen-by-seven- inch impressions in hard red clay. Following the tracks for four hundred yards, the officers backtracked and found new prints impressed in their car's tire tracks. According to state wildlife biologists, the footprints matched no known animal species."
(This "Lizard Man" sighting was covered in one of the episodes of Tim White's "SIGHTINGS" documentary, "MONSTERS" segment, on the Fox Network - Branton).
