Tales of the Unexplained - Are Lizard Men Living Among Us?

As most of you already know, I have an incredible fascination with monsters and strange creatures of lore, mythology, cryptozoology, television and of course movies.

Now today I was planning to write an article about one of the lesser known cryptids that have been seen all over the world, Lizard Men. My article was going to focus on the history of sightings here in California, and their possible link to the lost continents of Mu or Lemuria.

Mu and Lemuria are basically the Pacific Oceans' very own versions of Atlantis, to make a long story short.

Now, you may think that this is some sort of coincidence, but while I was skimming through the news on Google this morning I came across a story about a Lizard Man written by J.S. Holland for Louisville Mojo.

That's weird that I came across a story about Lizard Men on the very same day that I was going to write my own.

Some of you may say that this was some sort of fate, a cosmic connection, others will simply dismiss this as randomness. I however believe that all things happen do to plan, whether that be by God's plan or not.

Now to get to the meat of the J.S. Holland piece. It seems that way back on October 28th, 1878, there was an article in the Courier-Journal (Louisville) about a scaly "Wild Man of the Woods" that had been captured and put on display.

When one generally hears the term, "Wild Man", images of a Sasquatch or Bigfoot normally comes to mind, this creature, however, was far different. According to the original article, this strange being was about 6-foot-tall, with large eyes, and covered with scales.

This strange lizard-like humanoid was reportedly displayed in Louisville for some time before, like the "Minnesota Ice Man” and the Bigfoot captured by railroad employees around the turn of the century in Canada, it disappeared never to be seen again.

I should be noted that 'hoaxed' newspaper stories were very popular in the 1800s. Articles concocted to stimulate the public and boost newspaper sales. The more wild and unbelievable the better. However, according to Holland (I didn't read the article myself) the 1878 story in question was treated rather matter-of-factually despite its outlandish subject matter.."

Does that add any credence to the validity of the article? Probably not.

Regardless, this 1878 account of a "Lizard Man" is not unique, not on a worldwide scale, or even for the American south.

In June of 1988, a sixteen-year-old boy named Christopher Davis was attacked by a 7-foot-tall, scaly monster, while changing a flat tire near the Scape Ore Swamp in South Carolina.

The "Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp" (also known as the Lizard Man of Lee County) reportedly tried to attack the youth's car as he tried to escape.

In the following months after the attack other local residents reported sightings and other attacks on vehicles. Seems this "Lizard-Man" wasn't much of a car buff.

Reports of the creature, and sometimes creatures, continue to this day in the area, the latest being reported in 2005 and 2008.

Other areas of the country that seem to be home to lizard-like humanoids include Loveland, Ohio (The Loveland Frog), Thetis Lake, British Columbia, Canada (Thetis Lake Monster) and also here in my home state of California.


Is there really a race of "Creature from the Black Lagoon" like "Gill-Men" living in obscurity in North America?

Good question?

Though these things aren't seen with near the regularity of the Sasquatch or Bigfoot the reports may be worth some investigation.

Local legends of lizard-like races come from various periods of human history. There is the Cecrops, the mythical first King of Athens who was half-man-half-snake, the Dragon Kings of Chinese mythology, the Nāga in India and the Zahhak, a figure from Zoroastrian mythology, just to touch on a few.

One of the predominant theories about these creatures is that they are extraterrestrial in origin ( an aliens race from another world). Indeed there have been numerous reports of lizard-like aliens emerging from UFOs.

Many authors about UFO encounters have postulated that these guys are here to start a colony, but if that's true then they have either been really slow about it or they are already living here.

Food for thought for now though I do promise to write about all the California "Lizard Men" sightings as time permits.

Is there more here than meets to eye?

Check Out:

Tales of the Unexplained - The Borrego Sandman (1939 - Present)

Tales of the Unexplained - The Albuquerque Mystery Lights

Tales of the Unexplained - The Rougarou Roams The Bayous of Louisiana

Tales of the Unexplained - The Texas Big Bird Of 1976

Tales of the Unexplained - The Albuquerque Mystery Lights

During my teenage years in Albuquerque I experienced several strange things. As a rational person I can explain most of them away. There is one however that still puzzles me to this day.

In August of 1980 my best friend, myself and members of our respective families witnessed a large glowing green orb in the night sky directly over Albuquerque. It hovered there, motionless, for well over an hour before it disappeared.

On this particular evening it was warm but not to hot so my buddy and I were hanging out on my patio. My mother was washing the dishes in the kitchen and my buddy’s dad was outside watering his garden. It was a typical late summer night.

I don’t know which one of us noticed it first but something in night sky grabbed our attention. There was an extremely large bright light hovering over the city. My friend and I got up from the table and walked out to the cinder-block wall at the edge of my backyard. As it were, my house sat up on a hill that overlooked an elementary school below. From this vantage point we could see over the whole city. This was one of the perks of living in the NE Heights.

Our first thoughts were that the object was a helicopter, though are minds soon changed because the object simply didn’t behave like a helicopter … and it didn’t make any noise. Generally, any aircraft flying over the city made some sort of sound that you could discern even from a long distance. The Rio Grande valley that Albuquerque sits in had great acoustics and sound would travel through the thin air and reverb off the Sandia Mountains.

My friend’s dad, who was doing his watering, a few feet away inquired what we were up to. We pointed out the light to him and he was perplexed by it. He had mentioned that in all his years living in the Southwest he hadn’t seen a star that bright. He was intrigued, but not enough to stay out with us once his watering was done.

My mother had come outside and noticed all of us talking and joined the group. Like my friend’s dad, my mother was interested in the phenomena, even speculated a bit about it, but ultimately returned to the house.

We just stared at the thing for awhile before I remembered that my dad had a pair of his army binoculars in the garage. I raced to retrieve them.

Once I was able to locate the object and focus on it, I quickly realized that what were looking at was no chopper, or planet for that matter. What I observed was not one single light, but a honeycomb of multiple smaller lights. I handed the specs over to my friend to see if he was seeing what I was seeing.  His expletive laden response was all I needed.

We pondered on what it was we were looking at for some time, but in true ADD teenager fashion, we soon grew bored of looking an object that just sat there and did nothing (even it may have come from another universe) and retreated to our respective homes.

After about a good solid hour of early 80s television I decided to venture back outside to see if anything was happening with our celestial visitor. To my surprise the object was gone.

Of course, the thing had to zip off while I wasn’t looking!

As you can imagine, we weren’t the only people to notice a giant green light in the sky over Albuquerque that night. According to the media, the police, the local TV stations, the Albuquerque Journal (our hometown newspaper) and even the Air Force at nearby Kirtland AFB received calls regarding the phenomena.

As is the case in most of these kinds of incidents someone with an advanced education stepped up to the plate to explain what everyone was getting all worked up about.

The official answer: the planet Jupiter.

A lot of people bought that explanation, but my buddy and I weren’t having it.

As it were, our theories, or at least our belief that the lights weren’t Jupiter would be proven right a few days later.

Our strange green illuminated object would return, though this time it was over different part of town. When next we spotted it, the lights were hovering over Kirtland AFB to the south. This, of course, makes you believe some real X-Files stuff was going on because it’s directly over a military facility.

Just like last time it hung out there for a good hour or so, my buddy and I got bored, then it was gone.

There was no media buzz about the phenomena this time, which was weird. At least nothing was said about it publicly anyway.

After that night, we never saw the object(s) again.

Yet, the story doesn’t end there.

Recently I was doing a little research and stumbled on several reports of green glowing UFOs that were spotted in the skies over New Mexico dating as far back as the late 1940s.

Check this out:

Why Mysterious Green Fireballs Worried the U.S. Government in 1948

On February 29, 1949, the Los Alamos, New Mexico Skyliner newspaper ran a piece on what it referred to, in typical newspaper parlance, as “flying saucers”—and a possible conspiracy around them:

“Los Alamos now has flying green lights. These will ‘o wisps seen generally about 2 a.m., have alerted the local constabulary and their presence is being talked about in Santa Fe bars. But local wheels deny any official knowledge of the sky phenomena. Each one passes the buck to another.”

The story ended with, “Have you seen a green light lately?”

In fact, a great many had, and would continue to do so—enough to prompt TIME magazine, in November 1951, to publish a piece on the phenomenon called “Great Balls of Fire.” What makes the multiple sightings of “flying green lights” in New Mexico in 1948 and onward such a significant chapter in UFO history is exactly that—there were multiple sightings.

That was unnerving enough. But most alarming—particularly to the United States government—was that the sightings were concentrated around the Los Alamos and Sandia atomic-weapons laboratories. And other highly sensitive military installations, including radar stations and fighter-interceptor bases, weren’t far away. That meant the sightings were reported by typically cool-headed pilots, weather observers, scientists, intelligence officers and other defense personnel, and led many to suspect the fireballs were Soviet spy devices.

Cold War spy craft…or extraterrestrial probes?

This potential explanation could not have occurred to those on the ground in New Mexico in 1948. After interviewing more than a hundred witnesses, Dr. LaPaz went on to advise the military and the Atomic Energy Commission of his opinion that the fireballs were likely either top-secret “unconventional defensive devices” being tested by the U.S.—or Soviet spying devices.

When Edward J. Ruppelt, director of the U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book UFO investigations, visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory in early 1952 to interview scientists and technicians, he noted that they became particularly animated when the idea of interplanetary vehicles was suggested.

“They had been doing a lot of thinking about this, they said, and they had a theory,” wrote Ruppelt in The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1953). They thought the fireballs were actually extraterrestrial probes “projected into our atmosphere from a ‘spaceship’ hovering several hundred miles above the Earth.”

Officially, government investigators concluded that the green fireballs were some kind of never-before-seen natural phenomenon. Interest in, and investigation into, the fireballs dropped off at the outbreak of the Korean War.

“Writing these off as natural phenomena did not solve the problem,” says UFO researcher Jan Aldrich, who believes the green fireballs were related to aerial phenomena spotted in Fort Hood, Texas, in 1949. “It just pushed it under the table.”

You can read the rest of the article here - Why Mysterious Green Fireballs Worried the U.S. Government in 1948.

And even weirder yet, here are some reports from August 1980. These would seem to back up the assumption that these objects are indeed spying on our military, in this case Kirtland Air Force Base just south of Albuquerque. It should be noted that my best friend's brother, who worked for the US government as a photographer documenting top secret tests at the base, told us that he witnessed some sort of laser weapon being used that could blow up boulders. Of course, he could have just been trying to impress us, but I never knew him to make up tall tales, so I always took the report to be a factual one. Oh, and before I forget, it was always rumored that there was a large stockpile of nuclear warheads stored in the adjacent Sandia Mountains.

I can see why you would want to keep the fact that an arsenal of nukes was being stored in the outskirts of a city of some five hundred thousand people under wraps.

Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

8 August 1980

2350 MST

Three Security Policemen on duty in Charlie Sector, East Side of Manzano Weapons Storage Area, observed a very bright light that traveled with great speed and stopped suddenly in the sky over Coyote Canyon. They at first thought the object was a helicopter, but after observing the object perform unusual aerial maneuvers, they felt it could not be a helicopter. The light was observed to land in the Coyote Canyon area. Sometime later they observed the light take off again and proceed straight up at a high speed until it was no longer visible.

9 August, 1980

0020 MST

A Sandia Security Guard was driving east on the Coyote Canyon access road on a routine building check of an alarmed structure. As he approached the structure, he observed a bright light near the ground behind the structure. He also observed an object that he at first thought was a helicopter. As he came closer, he observed that it was not a helicopter, but a round disk shaped object. When he attempted to radio for backup, he found that his radio was not functioning. He approached the object on foot armed with a shotgun, and the object thereupon took off in a vertical direction at high speed.

22 August, 1980

Three other unnamed Security Guards observed a light over Coyote Canyon that behaved in a similar manner as the one seen on 8 August. Coyote Canyon is part of a large restricted test range used by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Sandia Laboratories

The truth is out there my people!

Check Out:

Tales of the Unexplained - The Rougarou Roams The Bayous of Louisiana

Tales of the Unexplained - The Texas Big Bird Of 1976

Tales of the Unexplained - The Rougarou Roams The Bayous of Louisiana

As many of you know I have made quite a name for myself over the past decade for writing a series of articles about the myths and legends that have stirred peoples imaginations for decades in the golden state of California. The most popular of these articles was the one that I co wrote with my wife Terri about Bigfoot sightings in the desert regions of Southern California. That article was quoted in several prominent works about the legendary cryptid as well as being prominently featured on Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce website.

Now that I have left California and its insane cost of living and rising crime rates for the land of God fearing, level headed folk here in Louisiana I thought that it would be in my best interest to find out just what kind of creatures are lurking in the bayou that runs literally a stones throw from my front door.

According to reports, there be werewolves about.

In the swampy bayous of the south, the beast is known as the “rougarou” or the “loup-garou.” The legend of the wolf-man like creatures began centuries ago in France. The tales arrived in the states with French immigrants and evolved over time.

The swamp creature is said to stand seven to eight feet in height, is covered in wet brown and black tangled hair and has glowing red eyes along with large canine-like teeth. The original monster was thought to have been born from a mutation. Victims might suffer the same fate if bitten by the beast or upon being cursed by a witch.

Today, the rougarou is one of the most popular characters of Bayou folklore. However, as wolves are not indigenous to Louisiana, the creature is now thought to be a shapeshifter that transforms into various common animals. Regardless of the form he takes, the creature is no less dangerous.

The story of the Rougarou was often told to children in an attempt to keep them from wandering or to make them behave. However, the tale prevails and many adults continue believing in the creature’s existence. After Hurricane Katrina, some heard strange growling sounds during the night, which led people to believe the monster may have left the swamps and entered the city of New Orleans via the flood waters.

Check Out:

Tales of the Unexplained - The Texas Big Bird Of 1976

The Secret: You are about to embark on a fantastic adventure

Whatever happened to the Fair People: the goblins, dragons, fairies, leprechauns and other fantastic creatures of the Old World?

The Second Clue:

Of all the romance retold
Men of tales and tunes
Cruel and bold
Seen here
By eyes of old
Stand and listen to the birds
Hear the cool, clear song of water
Harken to the words:
Freedom at the birth of a century
Or May 1913
Edwin and Edwina named after him
Or on the eighth a scene
Where law defended
Embedded in the sand
Waits the Fair remuneration

The First Clue: The Secret: You are about to learn the answer to an age-old mystery

"The jewels collectively are worth over ten thousand dollars. The treasure casques themselves are of incalculable value, never having been owned by man or woman."

"Every treasure casque is buried underground, at a depth of no more than three to three and one-half feet. The casques are protected by lustrous transparent boxes, and are sealed."

Encoded Transmission: (1) 26 35 54 67 75 (3) 20 25

Encoded transmission received 2/17/18 0730

Message printed as received:

(Ref: Leagamar seoltóireacht ar an bhfarraige nua seo toisc go bhfuil eolas nua le fáil, agus cearta nua a bhuaigh, agus caithfear iad a bhuaigh agus a úsáid chun dul chun cinn na ndaoine ar fad. Maidir le heolaíocht spáis, cosúil le heolaíocht núicléach agus gach teicneolaíocht, níl aon choinsiasa aige féin. Braitheann sé nó sí i bhfeidhm ar mhaithe le tinn nó le droch-bhraitheann sé ar dhuine, agus níl sé ach amháin má tá seasamh réamhtheachtaithe ag na Stáit Aontaithe, is féidir linn cabhrú le cinneadh a dhéanamh an mbeidh an aigéan nua seo mar farraige na síochána nó ag amharclann nua cogaidh. Ní deirim gur chóir dúinn níos mó ná mar a dhéanfaimid neamhshuim i gcoinne mí-úsáid naimhdeach na spás ná mar a théannimid gan chosaint i gcoinne úsáid naimhdeach talún nó mara, ach deirim gur féidir spás a iniúchadh agus a máistreacht gan na tinte cogaidh a bheathú, gan athrá a dhéanamh ar na botúin a rinne an duine ag leathnú a chuid scríbhneoireachta timpeall an domhain seo.

Níl aon strus, gan dochar, gan aon choimhlint náisiúnta sa spás amuigh fós. Tá a chuid guaiseacha naimhdeach dúinn go léir. Is fiú an chuid is mó den chine daonna a chuid conquest, agus ní mór a lán teacht arís arís.)

Now as I looked at the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of the four of them. The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved.

Location: 33°58.1′N 105°14.6′W

Use cipher to decode message. Once decoded re-transmit via all channels.

Encoded Transmission: (02) 12 19 23 34 65 49

Encoded Transmission: (02) 12 19 23 34 65 49

Encoded transmission received 2/10/18 0730

Message printed as received:

(Ref: Der Kongress darf kein Gesetz erlassen, das eine religiöse Einrichtung respektiert oder deren freie Ausübung verbietet; oder Verkürzung der Redefreiheit oder der Presse; oder das Recht der Menschen, sich friedlich zu versammeln und die Regierung um Wiedergutmachung von Beschwerden zu bitten.)

A-bimi constructed seven pyramids side by side for his father, his mother, and his four brothers. 

For the pyramids he created a setting of tall columns on which there were carvings. Some of these carvings were of suits of armor and some were of ships. It was a monument to their victories, which travelers from overseas could visit. (shinu gowesa a-da bako e-gachi a i-shimi dinda)

Key: 29.9792N 31.1342E 

 

Use cipher to decode message. Once decoded re-transmit via all channels.

Kim Novak Talks About Vertigo

Intro And Quotes Compiled By: Ken Hulsey
Source: Labyrinth.net

While searching online tonight for information on one of my favorite movies "Vertigo" I ran across this great 2003 interview with actress Kim Novak. In this interview the actress shared some rather intimate details about the production and her relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock and fellow actor James Stewart. Novak also revealed that while playing the part of Judy Barton she opted to go without a bra.

Told ya it was an intimate interview!

Here are some excerpts that I thought the readers of Monster Island News would enjoy!

"The script was always the most important thing to me and I loved the script. For one thing, I’ve always admired trees. I just worship them. Think what trees have witnessed, what history, such as living through the Civil War, yet they still survive. I’ve always felt that part of why they survive is because they don’t try to intercede, to advise ‘No, that’s the wrong way,’ or to try and wipe out an army. They stood and observed. When I read that part of the Hitchcock script where Madeleine and Scottie are among the redwoods, she touches the tree rings and says, “Here I was born and here I died. It was only a moment. You took no notice,’ I got goose-bumps. When it came to shoot that scene, I had goose-bumps. Just touching that old tree was truly moving to me because when you touch these trees, you have such a sense of the passage of time, of history. It’s like you’re touching the essence, the very substance of life. I remember taking my father to see the redwood forest once. He wept and so did I. He ‘got’ it in the same way as I do. We never talked about it. That scene in Vertigo I felt more than any other, except the one in which Judy says to Jimmy’s character that if she lets him change her, will he love her? And she says she’ll do it, she doesn’t care any more about herself. That scene was so important to me. I was so naked there, so willing to be anything he wanted, just to be loved."

(On Hitchcock)

"Technical points were his main thing. He’d always look through the lens to watch your performance, unlike directors who sit off to the side. You’d never have a sense looking at his face how he thought it was going. He was the camera and I always felt comfortable with the camera. It was always difficult to have a director off to the side. Why I loved working with Hitchcock was that he allowed me that creativity and input. I always painted when I’d go home from a day on the sets of my movies. I love to paint but, back then, I was largely painting out of frustration. I don’t think I painted at all while I worked on Vertigo. I didn’t have the need to. I was so into doing what I was doing and I felt good about what I was doing. No one was telling me, ‘Do it this way.’ Hitchcock wouldn’t tell me how to think. Bad directors love to tell you how to think. I mean, why do they hire you? Today, they could just computerize you."


"I was always opinionated. Once we were making Vertigo, Hitchcock never questioned anything about what I was doing character-wise. Before shooting started, he sent me over to Edith Head, who showed me a set of drawings. When I saw them, the very first thing I said was, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t wear black shoes.’ When she said, ‘Alfred Hitchcock wants you to wear these shoes,’ I said, ‘I’m sure he doesn’t mind.’ I didn’t think it would matter to him what kind of shoes I wore. I had never had a director who was particular about the costumes, the way they were designed, the specific colors. The two things he wanted the most were those shoes and that gray suit. When Edith Head showed me that gray suit, I said, “Oh, my god, that looks like it would be very hard to act in. It’s very confining.’ Then, when we had the first fitting of the dress, it was even worse and I said, ‘This is so restrictive.’ She said, ‘Well, maybe you’d better talk to Alfred Hitchcock about this.’"

"I went in and he said, ‘I understand you don’t like these black shoes.’ He asked me why and I said, ‘I tell you, black shoes always sort of make me feel I’m pulled down. I’ve always felt that your feet should be the same as the top of your head, so that you’re connected. Wearing the black shoes would make me feel as if I were disconnected.’ He heard me out. And then he said, ‘Fine. When you play the role of Judy, you will not have to wear black shoes. When you are playing Madeleine, you will wear them.’ When he put it like that -- after all, he’s the director – I said, ‘OK.’"

"I really wanted the chance to express myself and he allowed me that chance. It felt OK because he had heard me out. He felt my reasons weren’t good enough, they weren’t right. I just wanted to be heard as far as what I felt. So, I thought, ‘I’ll live with the grey suit.’ I also thought, ‘I’m going to use this. I can make this work for me. Because it bothers me, I’ll use it and it can help me feel like I’m having to be Madeleine, that I’m being forced to be her. I’ll have it as my energy to play against.’ It worked. That suit and those shoes were a blessing. I was constantly reminded that I was not being myself, which made it right for Madeleine. When I went out of Alfred Hitchcock’s office, I remember his wonderful smile when he said, ‘I’m so glad we had this talk.’ I think he saw that this was going to be good. He didn’t say to me, ‘Now use that,’ he allowed me to arrive at that myself."


(On Going Commando)

"That’s right, when I played Judy, I never wore a bra. It killed me having to wear a bra as Madeleine but you had to because they had built the suit so that you had to stand very erect or you suddenly were not ‘in position.’ They made that suit very stiff. You constantly had to hold your shoulders back and stand erect. But, oh that was so perfect. That suit helped me find the tools for playing the role. It was wonderful for Judy because then I got to be without a bra and felt so good again. I just felt natural. I had on my own beige shoes and that felt good. Hitchcock said, ‘Does that feel better?’ I said, ‘Oh, yes, thank you so much.’ But then, I had to play ‘Madeleine’ again when Judy had to be made over again by Scottie into what she didn’t want to be. I could use that, again, totally for me, not just being made over into Madeleine but into Madeleine who wore that ghastly gray suit. The clothes alone were so perfect, they were everything I could want as an actress."

(On working with James Stewart on Vertigo and Bell, Book and Candle)

"It seems to me that when Jimmy and I were making that movie (Bell, Book and Candle), Vertigo hadn’t been released yet. I don’t remember talking with Jimmy about Vertigo. We were just on to the next movie. We had such a wonderful time making Bell, Book and Candle and just got closer as people. We had a wonderful friendship. The director would yell ‘Cut,’ the scene would be over, they’d throw on the lights and we’d still be sitting there. We wouldn’t even say anything to each other. We’d just be there with our feet resting on an end table and communicating silently, comfortable in each other’s presence without feeling we were in the midst of Hollywood. I always felt Jimmy was trapped in Hollywood. He felt it himself. He loved aviation so much and he wanted to be able to do more of that. He somehow just got stuck here. I’ve never met two people who were less ‘Hollywood’ than Jimmy Stewart and Fred Astaire, with whom I made The Notorious Landlady (1962). They didn’t belong here but their lives were here. They couldn’t break away from it, for some reason. I just had to break away."

Read the complete interview - HERE

The Monstrous Movie Quote Of The Day: Judy And Scottie (Vertigo 1958)

Judy: "Couldn't you like me, just me the way I am? When we first started out, it was so good; w-we had fun. And... and then you started in on the clothes. Well, I'll wear the darn clothes if you want me to, if, if you'll just, just like me."

Scottie: "The color of your hair..."

Judy: "Oh, no!"

Scottie: "Judy, please, it can't matter to you."

- Judy Barton (Kim Novak), John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James Stewart)/ Vertigo (1958)(Paramount Pictures)