Lon Strickler's Blog, page 30

The Day P.T. Barnum's CANNIBALS 'ATE' EACH OTHER!

The American showman Phineas T. Barnum was best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He was attributed for originally stating "there's a sucker born every minute" (which he didn't) ...but he did say that "every crowd has a silver lining," and acknowledged that "the public is wiser than many imagine." Barnum was shameless when it came to being a huckster and making money. This incident details one of his oddest stunts. The following excerpt is from James W. Shettel's 1929 book Circus Scrap Book:

The Barnum Museum, Menagerie, and World's Fair, in its second annual tour of the United States, arrived May 14, 1872, in York, Pa., where it was to give performances in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. Posters on dead walls and handbills distributed around the town and neighboring country had proclaimed the fact that the show was "positively the largest and most attractive combination of exhibitions ever known and without a parallel in the history of the world." Using the press and posters interest was worked up to a high pitch. It was not a little cause of wonder that the "combination" was to arrive by rail, for only once before - about 17 years previously - had a circus, the Spaulding and Rogers, been transported to York in cars. All others had traveled in wagons.

The shrewd Barnum, whose agents had been liberal in bestowing free passes among the ministers, boldly announced that his "was the only exhibition in America recognized and endorsed by both the religious and secular press and daily visited by eminent clergymen." This pronouncement was not without its influence upon a church-going community, to a part of which circuses had generally heretofore been taboo, although menageries were an allowable diversion because they were instructive.

Barnum seems at this time to have recognized the fact that a certain class in every community disapproved of the circus and made a distinct effort to overcome this prejudice. The word, "circus," an investigation shows, had a small part in the advertising. Attention was directed principally to the merits of the museum, menagerie, and world's fair, "exhibited in six separate colossal tents."

"Chaste and refined" were the terms used in referring to the circus performance. Sometimes it was announced in these words: "In the department of the hippodrome and circus, which is strictly moral and high-toned, are 100 of the best performers in the world - 11 first-class bareback riders, Including the great Melville and Stokes families. The first and only show in the world that uses a double circus ring and requires a double troupe of performers, acrobats, gymnasts, &c." The glories of the circus, however, in the advertisements at York occupied a second place in the appeal to the public. Taking precedence were:

The Four Wild Fiji Cannibals, Captives of War, lately ransomed from King Thakembau, by Mr. Barnum for $15,000.

Live Digger Indian from the Yosemite Valley.

The Only Giraffe in America.

The Only Group of Living Monster Sea Lions kept in Massive Water Tanks.

The Famous Riding Goat, Alexis.

The Wonderful African Snake Charmer.

Of the Fijis, Barnum had written in his book, which was sold at the circus:

"I have tried in vain for years to secure specimens of these man eaters. At last the opportunity came. Three of these cannibals having fallen into the hands of their Royal enemy, who was about to execute and perhaps to eat them, the missionaries and my agents prevailed upon the copper-colored king to accept a large sum in gold on condition of his majesty granting them a reprieve and leave of absence to America for three years, my agent also leaving a large sum with the American consul to be forfeited, if they were not returned within the time stipulated.

"Accompanying them is a half-civilized Cannibal woman, converted and educated by the Methodist missionaries. She reads fluently and very pleasantly from the Bible printed in the Fijian language and she already exerts a powerful influence over these savages. They take a lively interest in hearing her read the history of our Saviour. They earnestly declare their convictions that eating human flesh is wrong and faithfully promise never again to attempt it. They are intelligent and docile. Their characteristic war dances and rude marches, as well as their representations of cannibal manners and customs are peculiarly interesting and instructive. It is perhaps needless to add that the bonds for their return will be forfeited. They are already learning to speak and read our language and I hope soon to put them in the way of being converted to Christianity, even if by so doing the title of "Missionary" be added to the many already given me by the public."

The impression the Barnum show made in York, PA is expressed in this afternoon's notice in one of the local newspapers:

"The day was pleasantly cool and agreeable and thousands of people from the rural districts poured into town at an early hour. The huge canvas, under which the attractive sights were to be seen, covered a large portion of the (Civil War) hospital grounds and immediately after the hour of opening, dense masses of human beings thronged in its direction and soon filled every available space and avenue leading to and from the different places of exhibition.

"The presence of such an immense concourse of people, representing every district in our large and populous county, was itself worth the price of admission, but when the wonders which Barnum had collected and brought together from the remotest and most distant parts of the world, burst upon the eye, the spectators were more than satisfied that taking it all in all, they ne'er should look upon the like again. It was decidedly the greatest and most complete combination which has ever been seen in York and will certainly hold preeminence over all exhibitions until Barnum comes again.

"An attempt to give a detailed description of the great show is impossible and will, therefore, not be attempted, nor is it necessary, as those who care to have anything said about it in these columns were no doubt present and saw it.

"The museum was an object of interest to many, who lingered long in their examination of its wonders and curiosities, while there were others who passed it by without deigning once to pause for a moment, in their desire to reach other departments, which to them were more attractive.

"The collection of living animals, found under canvas No. 2, was very fine and there were some specimens in it, which had never been seen in this latitude before. The sea lions were objects of special interest and attracted far more than usual attention. They kept up considerable noise during the exhibition and manifested a great deal of uneasiness, and from their frequent divings into their tank, it is judged they miss the ice of their native Alaska, in which alone, it seems, they can thrive and be comfortable. They are a hardy animal, and it is doubtful if they will live long in this climate. Whether Barnum will succeed in piloting them through the hot summer that is before us is exceedingly questionable.

"The canvas under which the circus or hippodrome was held was spread over an immense area and was capable of seating at the lowest calculation 5,000 persons. It was filled to overflowing. There was scarcely a seat unoccupied. This branch of the exhibition has an advantage over all others of the, kind, yet seen here, in its high moral tone and bearing and in the entire absence of anything and everything, which could be calculated to displease the most fastidious. Quite a number of the clergymen of the town and from the country were present and seemed to enjoy themselves amazingly. The performances were exceedingly chaste and interesting.

"The riding goat, Alexis, did his part remarkably well, although the poor little fellow did get a tumble from his horse, which alarmed him for the time being very considerably. The performance throughout, - riding, tumbling and the doings of the elephant and trick horse - gave universal satisfaction; and the appearance in the arena of the armless woman, the bearded child, the man in miniature, the strange and brainless being, Zip, said to have been captured somewhere in Central Africa, and whose face and head are scarcely human, were never witnessed here before. The sixteen huge camels and dromdaries, richly caparisoned, as they swung around the circle, excited much interest and attracted a large amount of attention. They were the finest looking, most perfectly formed and seemingly healthy animals of the kind ever seen.

"Much more might be written about Barnum and his great combination, but as his name and fame are world-wide and he is known to be a man who never does things by halves, it can only be added that this exhibitions is the greatest in the country, as any one will be convinced by a visit."

The people who visited the exhibition were disappointed, however, In one particular. They did not see the Fiji cannibals. The reason for the non-appearance of "the man-eaters" Is explained in the account - highly colored it must be admitted - which appeared in the York Daily the following day:

"Barnum's Museum, Menagerie and Hippodrome met with quite a loss yesterday," said the Daily, "in the death of the notorious cannibal dwarf, which occurred at the Pennsylvania hotel. The little Fiji exhibited symptoms of indisposition several days ago, and the manager, W. C. Coup, sent 'the General,' as he is called to New York to be cared for by Mr. Barnum's family physician. But the little savage, becoming restless in the absence of his associates, he was returned to the company. Like all of his race, he had a native horror of shoes and clothing and even in the wet, cold days that came upon the company in New Jersey, the manager was unable to force shoes upon 'the General' and make him dress with sufficient warmth.

"Yesterday, the man in charge noticed that his fingers were constantly in motion, while he muttered continuously the only word he pronounced intelligently, 'Fiji.' He refused anything like food or nourishment and apparently thought of nothing but his native island. Dancing or violent gesturing of any kind was always a source of great merriment to 'the General,' but now the keeper could not provoke even a smile. The miniature being was dying and while the keeper was doing his best to cheer him up and make him take his medicine, he rose up in bed, muttered 'Fiji' in a whisper and fell back dead. His three native companions, who up to this time were wholly indifferent, now exhibited all the symptoms of genuine grief. They howled incessantly and such fearful physical contortions were probably never before witnessed in a civilized community.

"The death of this dwarf savage was not an unexpected event. The scene subsequent, however, sent a thrill through the very few conversant with the facts. Shortly after the corpse was placed in the coffin last evening, S. S. Smith, the keeper, locked the door upon the three companions in an adjoining room and left the building for the purpose of consulting the manager at the National Hotel. He states that he was not absent 30 minutes, but that upon returning a scene presented itself too horrible to detail. The two male associates had gained access to the corpse and were biting and gnawing at the fleshy parts of the body with all the eagerness of their native cannibalism. The female stood aloof in one corner and by sign, word and gesture was entreating them to desist. It is understood the woman is a convert to the teachings of English missionaries and looks with abhorrence upon all the unchristian habits of her tribe. Mr. Smith promptly interfered and the two miserable beings went sullenly to their apartment. All regret the unnatural affair and none more than the parties directly interested. The remains were buried in the evening."

Whatever may have been the purpose of the publication of such a story, it is doubtful if it was realized, unless it was aimed to start a controversy. Surely Barnum took no pride in the work, for in none of his autobiographies has he referred to the incident. The people of York were indignant. They had not only missed seeing the "cannibals," but later learned Barnum had perpetrated one of his humbugs.

The True Democrat came forward with the following:

"A few days ago the York Daily had an article in its columns, stating that the cannibal belonging to the Barnum show that died here last Tuesday, was partly eaten up by his companions, during the temporary absence of their keeper. We have since learned that there is not a word of truth in the story, that the Daily was liberally paid for the insertion and the whole thing was furnished to that paper, cut and dry, by the proprietor, as an advertising dodge.

"Barnum, although confessedly a great showman, is determined not to be outdone in the work of humbugging, a reputation for which he has sustained through a long life of singular changes and fluctuations. It is now positively averred that the female member of the cannibal troupe was born in the state of Virginia and was at one time a domestic in the house of a gentleman at present residing in Baltimore. This, had it been known in York last Tuesday, we venture to say, would have raised a loud laugh, if not something worse, at Barnum's expense and his man-eating party."

The True Democrat's story, exposing the Fiji humbug, was widely copied by the press and read by as many persons as had been the press agent's yarn in the Daily. Among those under whose observation it came was George Boyne, Sacramento, Cal. Boyne with a family of six children had resided in the same locality in the Fiji islands, from which "the cannibals" came. He asserted in a letter to the Trust Democrat after giving a personal history of the Fijis accompanying the Barnum show that they had been under Christian training for several years. From a personal acquaintance with the Fijis, he was able to speak with authority and declared that town and I am very sure that very few typos would like to reside within a quarter of a mile so near to such people as described in the York Daily. If the deceased dwarf had a native horror of shoes and clothing and in the wet and cold days that came upon the company in New Jersey, the manager was unable to force shoes upon 'the General' and make him dress with sufficient warmth, why is it that in California, which is warmer than your state, the little fellow went in this city with my children to purchase articles of clothing and was always forced to wear them?

"The truth is the exigencies of the show will not admit of it. When the Fijians know how they have been placed in this show for years, they will soon despond and there will be another for the Daily to serve up. If they even received pay, it would make no difference, their love for their island home is so strong.

"I cannot conceive how they can be kept there by their own free will by a gentleman, who professes Republican principles. I promised the poor woman to send for her when I got home, but I knew she is in too safe keeping to escape, especially as she is of a quiet disposition and lacks confidence among strangers. She could not get away without assistance. I am prepared to send her the means. I thank you for your expose of the late humbug."

Potter's field became the burial ground of the little Fiji. It was adjacent to the circus grounds and convenient for the show people who desired to witness the burial. At the time on the islands from which they were brought cannibalism never came under his observation.

"There are now 3,000 European residents in Fiji, and the number is constantly increasing. They are principally engaged in cotton planting and trading with the natives. The Christian king, Thakombu, has formed a parliament. Two-thirds of the members are Europeans. The Methodists have published the following statement of their mission: 'There are 617 churches, 10 English missionaries, 40 native missionaries, who are trained at a native college, 23,233 members; 905 catechists, 10,666 Sabbath schools, 1,549 day schools and 105,000 attendants on public worship.'

"The European town of Sevukee, Island of Bralam, Fiji, has a municipal council, mayor, I. Morey. A lodge of Free Masons was opened in due form last December. The lodge was opened by permission of the king. The town possesses two newspapers, the Fiji Times and the Fiji Gazette.

"The eldest of Barnum's cannibals lived very near to this there was much said about an appropriate grave stone which Barnum was to purchase to mark the place of burial. This it was expected the great showman would certainly do. The years have, however, passed and there is nothing to distinguish the grave of the Fiji from the hundreds of friendless paupers buried on the plot. Barnum failed to keep his promise. Some years ago Potter's field was moved to a new location north of the city, and it was then that the exact spot where "the General" was buried was identified with great difficulty. - James W. Shettel. Circus Scrap Book, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct), 1929, pp. 43-50

The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself [image error]

The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum [image error]

Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Getting Money (P.T. Barnum) [image error]

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

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CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
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Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
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YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


OUR PRIVACY POLICY
This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

'JEEPERS CREEPERS' in NYC? A Bronx 'Monster' Tale

A Jeepers Creepers-like winged entity was seen in the treetops in a Bronx, NYC neighborhood. The residents were shocked, but a neighbor said it resembled an old folk tale human-like being.

I received the following strange account:

“About a dozen years ago, in 2011 or so, I was living in the Bronx, NYC. My mum and I were outside having yarns and laughs. She heard this strange noise, what sounded like an aircraft or flying object cutting through the air. At first, I thought she was joking, until I heard it. he was like, "Look, baby, it looks like a bat." I was like "That's too big to be a bat." Then she was like "Well it must be the weather balloon." She then walked back into the house strangely, so I sat at the back waiting for her to come out. She came back with coffee when I heard something cutting through the treetops. Whatever it was had landed in my neighbor's tree (it had been cut back a lot, but had enough leaves covering it). It had a big thump to it when it landed. Mum ran inside when she heard it. I was freaking out, but couldn't help but stare.

As I walked to the fence, I noticed that there was no wind whatsoever. As I was trying to get a better look, a big deep breath blew into my face. I was startled, stood back, and said, "If you're a man of God show your face now! But if not, just leave please." As I was stepping back I saw it. Shocked like a stunned mullet, this big wind roared up, and with a huge thump, it flew into mid-air. Damn, that thing looked like 'Jeepers Creepers!' A big, tall dark man with a solid body, 7-8 feet, and it looked like it had wings like a bat! I ran into the house and went directly to my room, lying down and thinking about what I witnessed.

The next morning, Mum left to go to work, so I decided to rake the backyard. Then my neighbor yelled, "Hey Sis, what happened to you last night?" He then said, "You're lucky it didn't take you!" He yarned about an old folk tale, that there was a man with wings like a bat, that used to come around every now and then, take women back to where he lived, and make them his wives. The way he described it was what I saw. Still to this day, I don't know for sure what or who this thing was?" T

NOTE: I believe that the witness may have lived in an Arawak (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles) immigrant neighborhood in the Bronx, NYC. I'm not familiar with the folklore, but I have heard similar accounts from other Caribbean nationals. Lon

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


OUR PRIVACY POLICY
This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

Irish Village Locals Feared Cottage Was CURSED BY VIOLENT FAIRIES!

Back in July 2014, locals in the village of Lixnaw, County Kerry, were seeking the demolition of a cottage they believed to be cursed. At least five tragic deaths are associated with the property, including the violent murder of a woman in 2013.

Lixnaw’s parish priest said locals believe there is a “máchail” (defect or harm) or “mí-ádh” (bad luck) associated with the council-owned cottage on the edge of Ballynageragh bog. The local’s fears were brought to light at the first meeting of the Listowel Electoral Area meeting.

Five of the cottage’s residents have been the victims of tragic, accidental or violent deaths. Just last year, on November 27, Susan Dunne (62) was murdered in the house. Her autistic son, Patrick (20) is to stand trial for her murder, at the Central Criminal Court, on April 13.

Locals also say a man who lived in the cottage was stabbed in Wales, another resident died in a road accident, and in the past 20 years, there have been three tragic deaths at the cottage, involving different families.

Sinn Fein Councillor Robert Beasley told the Irish Examiner that no one will ever live there again and said locals are concerned that the council will try to house another family in the house.

The council has confirmed that they are considering demolishing the cottage, however, the recently deceased Dunne’s personal effects remain in the house. They are liaising with her family and have yet to make a decision about a refurbishment or demolition.

More recently, the following article was published:

Irish Cottage May Be Haunted By Violent Fairies

All is not well in the cottage at the edge of the Ballynageragh bog.

The simple home lies on the outskirts of this blink-and-you'll-miss-it village in west Ireland's County Kerry.

During the last two decades, no fewer than five inhabitants of the tiny white building used for public housing died suddenly in tragic and unusual circumstances.

The unsettling events have tapped into a culture of legend and supernatural belief that continues to color life here.

One man dozed off with a lit cigarette and succumbed to smoke inhalation. Another hanged himself shortly after moving from the house. One inhabitant died in a car accident, and a fourth was stabbed to death while traveling in Wales.

Then in November 2013, neighbors found the body of Susan Dunne, 62, in one of the cottage's bedrooms.

She had moved in 18 months earlier with her autistic teenage son, who stands accused of her murder. Patrick Dunne, 19, is being held in a Dublin mental hospital until his trial in April.

Dunne's murder was the last straw. Villagers buttonholed Kerry County Councillor Robert Beasley during local election campaigns in May to say they wanted the county-owned house destroyed.

Although Beasley says he raised the motion at council meetings, several factors have delayed a decision about the cottage's fate.

Among them, no action will be taken until the county has arranged with Susan Dunne's family to remove her belongings, which remain in the house.

But for all those who want the house leveled, there are also many who argue that the deaths were just a coincidence that doesn't justify the demolition of a perfectly good dwelling.

Ireland's devastating financial collapse in 2008 and prolonged recession forced the local authorities to slash budgets. As a result, County Kerry has been slow to replenish its public housing stock. Waiting lists are long.

Some would be happy to live with the cottage's bloody legacy as long as they have a roof over their heads, locals say.

"There's a lot of people who would love to have it," says Paddy Quilter, proprietor of Quilter's pub in Lixnaw. "All this bullshit about knocking it down — ah."

Quilter says he doesn't believe in ghosts. A clutch of locals drinking at the bar nod in agreement. But all are familiar with the host of legends, superstitions and fairies that once populated late-night tales in rural Ireland — and that still have real-world implications for many people.

"In the old days, they called it piseog," Quilter says, a Gaelic term (pronounced pi-shawg) meaning superstition, voodoo or anything suggesting a supernatural power at hand. "There were a lot of piseogs and ghosts before electricity came in."

It's a word someone might use to explain an unusual or unsettling phenomenon — the mysterious deaths of five residents of a single cottage, for example.

Industrialization weakened Ireland's belief in the fairy world but didn't stamp it out completely, says Criostoir Mac Carthaigh, an archivist at the National Folklore Collection in Dublin.

As a result, he says, many people adopt a better-safe-than-sorry stance. Some farmers continue their forebears' habits of not plowing certain parts of a field said to be favored by fairies, while disavowing belief in the supernatural themselves.

"Even down to today, there's kind of a residual belief and it's not articulated, it's not spoken about," Mac Carthaigh says. "'Leave well enough alone,' is a phrase you sometimes hear people say."

Sometimes it goes farther than that.

In 1999, the National Roads Authority was notified that a proposed bypass in western Ireland would destroy a hawthorn bush that played an important role in fairy military history. (You read that correctly.)

Irish fairies are no Disneyfied pixies. They hold grudges. Destroying the bush could result in violent fairy retribution — faulty brakes, mangled cars, death.

The government rerouted the highway and built a protective fence around the bush as an offering to the spirits.

The fairies' main lobbyist in the human world in that case was Eddie Lenihan, a grizzle-bearded folklorist in western Ireland's County Clare.

He began his career as a "seanchaithe," or traditional storyteller, when he was completing field research for a masters degree in linguistics and found himself more interested in the stories old folks told than the accents they told them in.

Lenihan says he's contacted almost weekly by people who want to placate fairies on their property or suss out their feelings about upcoming construction.

His questions about the Lixnaw cottage have nothing to do with council budgets or housing demand.

"Was the house built in a place where it shouldn't be?" he wonders. "Is there a fairy fort (a remnant of an early Christian structure) nearby?"

"It might be built on a fairy path or a funeral path, which would be a problem," he adds. "It'd be lunacy to be on one of those. According to the old people, if you're on a fairy path, you'll never have peace or luck in a house like that."

No fairy paths are evident near the cottage today. The low-slung structure, abandoned for almost a year now, stands at the end of a dirt drive blocked by a rusting gate.

Overgrown hedges encircle the property. As storm clouds closed in on a recent windy afternoon, the branches rustled with an insistent sound, like the footsteps of someone or something approaching.

The house next door is for sale. - USA Today

Here is an article from November 2013 following Susan Dunne's murder:

Man Accused of Murdering Devoted Mum to Appear in Court

The man accused of murdering Susan Dunne is set to appear in court on Friday.

Gardai have confirmed that the death of Susan Dunne in her home in Lixnaw, Co Kerry, is now a murder investigation.

Horrified neighbours discovered the body of the 53-year-old autism campaigner in the bedroom of her council home yesterday morning.

A Garda spokesman said: "The results of the post mortem have been furnished to the investigation team but are not being made public. We are not naming the deceased at this point.

"An 19 year male remains in custody in Listowel."

The victim, a mum of three, was the head of Kerry Autism Action and regularly appeared in local media.

It is believed she was attacked with hatchet.

She was originally from the UK but had lived in Kerry for a number of years with her teenage son Patrick – who is autistic and recently graduated from the Nano Nagle school in Listowel.

Local parish priest Fr Mossie Brick told how the community has been rocked by the death. He said: “The events have numbed everybody.

“The mother is the heart and soul of every family. Susan was Patrick’s soulmate, his minder and his carer.”

Locals became concerned for her welfare when a man drove into nearby Listowel and collected her welfare payment.

A short time later the postmistress arrived at her home in Ballinageragh.

She noticed the door was ajar and “things seemed out of place”.

The postal worker contacted neighbours and two locals walked into the home and made the discovery in a bedroom.

A security source explained: “She suffered serious head injuries. It would appear that she was beaten to death.

“It is not clear whether a blunt weapon was used or if she was punched to death.”

Emergency services were called but the mum was pronounced dead at the scene.

A short time later gardai arrested a 19-year-old man in Listowel.

He was being medically examined last night and gardai are waiting for clearance from doctors before they can interview him.

He can be detained for 24 hours before being charged or released. Detectives from Listowel are investigating the death.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster travelled to the scene last night where she carried out a preliminary examination on Ms Dunne’s body.

The remains were due to be removed to Kerry General Hospital in Tralee last night for a postmortem.

Sinn Fein Cllr Robert Beasley said the area was shocked by the death and added: “This is a small farming community and people are really upset.

“A number of people moved to Lixnaw during the boom years.

“It would appear this woman moved into this home around two years ago after the previous owners left.”

Ms Dunne moved to Kerry some years ago and lived in Abbeydorney before moving to Lixnaw.

She has two adult children living in the UK.

It was the third tragedy associated with the council bungalow in Ballinageragh. In 1990 a local man died from smoke inhalation at the house. - herald.ie

The Supernatural 'Little People'

The Pooka are much more frequently sighted (not Leprechaun) and have a much greater effect on how people live their lives. Pooka are small fairies, feared and respected for their ability to cause harm and mischief. They come out at night and cause havoc around homes and farms. The Pooka causes milk to curdle, frightens hens into stopping laying, and will break property if he is not kept appeased. Pooka are kept happy by being offered a small portion of the harvest each year.

The Fir Dearg, or red man, is another solitary mischievous fairy said to dress always in a red coat and a red cap. The Fear Dearg was blamed for household accidents, and for bringing bad dreams at night.

Other supernatural Irish creatures are said to bring death in their wake. They evolved out of earlier legends of vengeful gods and goddesses who demanded human sacrifice. In Christian times they morphed into dark figures who foreshadowed a death. Beware. Lon

A History of Irish Fairies[image error]

Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth[image error]

Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia[image error]

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore (Celtic, Irish)[image error]

*****

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Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

IDAHO FALLS UFO & HUMANOID Sightings in Autumn 1967

In Autumn 1967 there were at least three UFOs with humanoid sighting reports from eastern Idaho (all were in the Idaho Falls metro area). These reports were filed and investigated by NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon). Two of these reports follow...the other witness did not want to reveal his name, and was reluctant to discuss the details of his encounter:

Date: November 2, 1967
Location: Ririe, Idaho

Guy Tossie and Will Begay, two Indian youths, were driving south on Highway 26 just outside Ririe on November 2, 1967, when, about 9:30 p.m., there was a sudden blinding flash of light in front of their car, followed by the abrupt appearance of a small, domed UFO. The dome was transparent and in it were seen two small, strange-looking occupants.

The car was brought to a stop - Begay, driving, did not have to apply the brakes - and the object hovered about five feet above the highway immediately ahead of them. It was about eight feet wide and flashed green and orange lights around the rim. The area was bathed in a vivid green light. (Compare this with Mrs. Moreland's report, above)

The dome opened as if hinged and one creature emerged, apparently floating to the ground. It was about three and a half feet tall, and on its back was a kind of pack that protruded above and behind its head. Its face was oval and heavily pitted and creased. Two small, round eyes and a straight, slit-like mouth completed the facial features. Large ears stood high on the hairless head.

Approaching the driver's side of the car, the alleged being opened the door and slid behind the wheel. Horrified, the two witnesses pushed over to the right. The car began to move - whether driven by the being or "towed" by the UFO was uncertain. It was taken well out into a field of stubble wheat, and the UFO kept a fixed position a few feet in front of it.

As the car stopped, Tossie, sitting next to the door, suddenly opened it and bolted, running for the nearby farmhouse of Willard Hammon about a quarter of a mile away. He later reported being followed by a bright light - presumably carried by the second occupant.

Meanwhile, in the car, Begay cowered in the front seat in a state of near-shock while the first creature jabbered unintelligibly at him, making sounds that were high and rapid, "like a bird." The second being, who had apparently given up chasing Tossie, returned to the car. The first then got out, and the two beings "rose up and into the UFO," which then ascended in a zigzag path.

Meanwhile, at the home of Willard Hammon, Tossie could scarcely make himself understood by the astounded farmer and his family. After having calmed the Indian down, they accompanied him back to the field, where they found the car. Begay was sitting nearly speechless with fright, his eyes tightly closed.

The engine was running and the lights were still on - about 15 minutes had elapsed from the moment the young men had seen the flash. Hammon listened to their story and then followed the frightened youths home in his car. Perplexed, he later stopped at a local bar and grill to see if he could learn anything more. While there, a county deputy sheriff stopped in and Hammon told him the story. Later, both witnesses also came by and voluntarily told the deputy sheriff, in their own words, what had happened. State Police were summoned and an investigation was begun. It was discovered that several local farmers had reported that their cattle had bolted during the evening for unknown reasons. Others claimed to have seen lights in the area.

The report was investigated for NICAP by C.R. Ricks, of Idaho Falls. During his investigation, he learned of a man who claimed that, on the same night, he had a similar encounter. Ricks eventually tracked this man down and confirmed the report, although the witness was emphatic about not revealing his name, and was reluctant about discussing the details of his encounter. - NICAP

Date: December 8, 1967
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho

On the night of December 8, 1967, Marilyn Wilding, age 15, of Idaho Falls, went out on her front step to look for a friend coming by to pick her up. It was about 7:40 p.m. The evening was dark and overcast, cold, with snow on the ground. Miss Wilding's attention was attracted to a light source reflecting on the snow and glancing upward she saw a large light above, partially obscured by the roof of her house.

Stepping out into the yard, she saw a large, brightly lighted object hovering not far above the end of her home. It was so bright that she was unable to perceive any other color than white. The object was circular in shape, "about as big as a car."

She told the NICAP investigator that it was close enough for someone to have thrown a rock at it and hit it.

As she stood looking, the object tipped and rotated partly so that she was able to see that it had a domed top. In the dome, which was transparent, she could make out the indistinct outlines of two figures, but she was unable to make out any details because of the glare. She ran into her house and called for her younger sister to come and look, but the youngster was barefoot and did not come out. Miss Wilding then ran back outside in time to see the object begin to rotate, in a clockwise direction as seen from below. It maintained its tilted attitude while rotating, and therefore gave the appearance of wobbling. With this motion, it began moving away toward the north. As it receded into the distance, the light dimmed and turned orange in color.

The UFO's departure was observed from inside the house by Miss Wilding's younger brothers and sister, who had been alerted by the witness. (Mr. and Mrs. Wilding were not at home at the time the incident occurred.) In her written report, Miss Wilding also gave the names of the Schuldt family, and neighbors, as witnesses.

At its closest, the object was no more than 100 yards away, and from 50 to 100 feet above the ground. The incident lasted for approximately three minutes. Miss Wilding's sighting may also be compared with another incident that occurred at Ririe, Idaho, a little more than a month earlier.

Strange: Unexplained Tales from Idaho and Beyond [image error]

Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds [image error]

The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us [image error]

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DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

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LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
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Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

'LIZARD MAN' HUMANOID Encountered at Family's Hunting Cabin!

Family and a friend are at their hunting cabin. The witness and his Grandfather heard some moving around outside. Later, while investigating the noise, they encounter a lizard-like humanoid!

I received the following account from a reader:

"I wanted to share an encounter I had in 1999 at the end of August. My Dad, Grandpa, my best friend, and I were at my family’s hunting cabin (no location was provided). It just turned dark, and my dad and friend left to go get fishing bait we forgot to pick up earlier in the day.

As they were gone, Grandpa and I were talking in the cabin living room when something on two legs came walking up the porch steps. It was loud enough for my Grandpa to hear it, even with his hearing aids he could still hear. He said, “It looks like we have company.” So I walked over to the door and opened it, but there was nothing there, and we didn’t hear anything leave the porch, which was weird. I guess the creature was jumping over the porch rails, somehow.

Grandpa said, "I know someone was there," scratching his head when again we heard something come back up the steps on the porch. This time it opens the screen door to get to the main door when I grabbed my Grandpa's .357 pistol and aim it at the door while this thing is turning the knob on the main door. I holler out, “I will shoot you through the door if you don’t announce yourself!” Strangely enough, it let go of the door handle. It was a matter of that door moving inches of shooting threw it.

So, I walk over to the door, with the gun aimed at it, to open it to see what the heck is out there moving around. I pull the door open ready to shoot someone in the face, and once again nothing there but I see the headlights of my Dad and friend coming back with fishing bait. I shut the door and turned to tell Grandpa that I saw nothing but my Dad coming back. Grandpa starts freaking out telling me I've got to go out there and tell my Dad we have an intruder wandering around.

So I open the door as they are pulling into the driveway and walk out there in the dark to tell them what is going on. They started laughing at me like I was joking but I said, “Would Grandpa give me his .357 to come telling you all this crazy stuff?”

Grandpa tells me to tell my friend what happened to us as he tells my Dad in the kitchen. As I’m telling my friend, sure enough here comes the thing again up the steps. My friend grabbed the .357 and ran out the door and I followed with a Jim Bowie knife and my Grandpa’s military flashlight he used in the Korean War. I had the blue lens on.

As I got outside and shone the light on this thing. It stood about six feet tall with an impressive physique of about one hundred eighty pounds with no body hair. It looked like a lizard man. It was grayish-blue in color. My friend shot over its head. We stopped chasing it where the property line stopped. This humanoid ran incredibly fast in the dark down a mountainside toward the river, faster than any animal I had ever seen in my life.

My friend and I sat up all night that night never seeing or hearing anything then or the rest of our trip. I’m the only one left alive who was there that night. My Dad, Grandpa, and friend have passed since that incident. I thought I would share this with you while I'm still around. I was 18 years old when this happened." M

*****

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DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
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Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

MASSIVE CRYPTID BIRD Encounter Reported in Eastern Washington

An Eastern Washington woman contacted me about an incident that she had while she was in a tent on her grandparents' property. Did she have an encounter with a massive cryptid bird?

I received the following account:

“Hi, Lon. I recently watched your 'Unsolved Mysteries' episode on Netflix. I decided to contact you directly about an encounter I had. My experience happened in eastern Washington in a town called Leavenworth on Seagull Creek Drive.

I was on my daughter’s great-grandparents' piece of land. They had a mountain behind their house. We parked on the edge of the woods. There was a grassy field behind us. We put the tent up. We had the van. We had a cooler and everything and my boyfriend at the time, he had woken up and he had made himself a sandwich and then went for a walk in the woods. 

As I was lying there and I was sleeping I heard an incredible 'whooshing' sound that woke me. This is so hard to explain. A loud whooshing sound, like, 'Whoosh! Whoosh!' Then, all of a sudden, my tent started collapsing from the velocity and force of these wings that were so big. I’m inside the tent now, keep in mind, so I don’t actually see it except for the huge shadow of it. The tent was made of thin plastic and was creature was backlit by a floodlight nearby. It must have been an 18 to 20-foot total wingspan.

I woke up to this and just freaked out! I crawled out of under the plastic. This is the strange part. My boyfriend had put on top of the cooler a loaf of bread and whatever this was, with the talons, it picked up the loaf of bread and was like screaming as it flew away. It dropped the loaf of bread about 20 yards away.

I mentioned the incident to my grandfather, who is a police officer. He said that there are no birds near the size I described in the region. But he didn't tell me that I may have imagined the size. He said that a few unexplained creatures had previously been reported in the area, including loud whooshing sounds heard by others.” R

*****

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DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

NOT DEER? Abnormally Large Buck Fluidly Crosses Road on Two Legs!

A Luce County, Michigan witness described an abnormally large White-tailed buck effortlessly crossing the road in front of him on two legs. It was as if it was a normal movement for the deer.

I received the following account:

"Hello, Mr. Strickler. I have perused your blog and was amazed by some of the strange creatures described in it. I'm from Luce County, Michigan. I lived in a small town where there were still dirt roads and plenty of forested areas. Because of this, I, like most Upper Peninsula residents, am extremely familiar with deer. No one wants to wreck a car from hitting one.

So, I'm driving home at night way back when going slower than usual because it's spring and I'm watching for deer crossing the road. And I see one dash across the road in front of me, so I brake because when there is one, there's probably two, if not more.

The thing is, I caught a glimpse of this animal and it was deer-like in every single way. Antlers, a regular deer-shaped face, reflective eyes, short hair, all that.

But it was running on two legs. And so tall. It also turned its head in my direction, for a few seconds, as it was walking. Deer are pretty big. I've been very close to them and they are often bigger than what people realize, but this would have been an above-average sized animal.

I'm well aware that deer can and do go on their hind legs, but running across the road that way would be abnormal. And its motions were very fluid, not off balance like you'd assume a four-legged creature to be on only 2 legs.

So, it was very strange. Probably nothing abnormal or paranormal, but still something that sticks out in my mind as very odd." M

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
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Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
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YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

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Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

Young Elk Hunter Observes SASQUATCH Smoothly Stride Through the Cascades Forest

A teenage Washington elk hunter in the foothills of the Cascades northeast of Yakima when he spots a humanoid figure smoothly striding through the forest. He believes it was a Sasquatch.

I received the following account:

"I've told my family this story a couple times, and I get some weird looks, but it really stands out for me so I will share it with you. It is the only sighting I have ever had, and wouldn't call it an encounter per se.

Anyway, I was a teenager at the time and was enjoying a late-season elk hunt in Washington State with my father. I don't recall the exact area, but it was in the foothills of the Cascades, northwest of the Yakima area. This was in mid-November or so, with a minor skiff of snow on the ground; not enough to completely cover the ground.

My dad and I set out from the truck in the early morning and followed a ridge line that was on one side of a natural bowl that had been logged a few years before. The ridge line was still treed and fairly dense until you reached the edge of the ridge. We decided to make our way to the bottom of the bowl and follow a road/skid trail that went from the bottom to the top and try to push any hidden game towards my brother-in-law who went around the other side of the bowl. It probably took us about 20 minutes to go from the ridge to the bottom.

Halfway up the skid trail we stopped to take a break (it was pretty steep in places) and watch for game sign. As I turned to look towards the bottom of the bowl I glanced up towards where we had previously been and saw a dark humanoid shape moving at a speedy pace along the ridgeline where we had come from. Now, it wasn't a hunter so far as I could tell; it had no hunter orange on or a discernible pattern of clothing. What was more impressive was the long gate of the figure as it rapidly moved along the edge of the trees. My younger mind told me it had to be a cross-country skier because of the gate and speed at which it was moving, but like I said, there wasn't near enough snow for a skier to be moving that quickly. The primary reason to believe it might be a skier was its smooth locomotion. The head and shoulders didn't appear to rise and fall as you might expect from a bipedal creature, especially one on the move like it was. It didn't look like a human on the run at all and I had this uneasy feeling as I watched it cover the space of a quarter mile in what seemed like seconds. It continued on down the ridge until it disappeared from view, entering the trees.

I remember sitting in stunned silence before we resumed our climb. At the time I didn't mention it to my dad because I knew he would say it was just another hunter, but even to this day, I have very deep doubts about that possibility. I wish I had said something. I wish I had pointed it out.

Maybe 'Harry and the Hendersons' made too big an impact on me when I was a kid, but I feel I spotted Bigfoot that day." S

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

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Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

Did Witness Encounter the BULL VALLEY MONSTER in Woodstock, Illinois?

A Woodstock, Illinois man is walking to his friend's home at night when he is stalked and later observes a tall humanoid figure with the head of a wolf. He believes it was the 'Bull Valley Monster.'

I received the following account:

"At the time of this incident, in the summer of 2017, I lived in Woodstock, Illinois, a suburb northwest of Chicago. I was about half an hour away from the Wisconsin border. This cryptid has been called different names since the late 60s. It was known as the 'Bull Valley Monster' on the Illinois side. I recall my uncle speaking about it when I was 12 and he seemed nervous even talking about it, but he never saw it. The general public probably knows it (or them) as the 'Beast of Bray Road.'

At the time I worked a night shift so on my days off I was a night owl. That night a friend had invited me over. It was nearly 11 at night. I crossed the highway and got on this bike trail near the train tracks. To the left of me was this large field and on my right train tracks and the highway. After I got to the point where some trees covered the field I got this weird feeling. All of a sudden I heard movement in the trees, thought it was a deer perhaps because 'it' was moving the smaller trees as it moved forward. My first instinct was to give it some room to pass until I heard this growl and my thought was 'Uh oh, a badger.' Then a second later it hit me that this was at least as large as a deer and moving large tree branches, not a badger. Then it growled about ten times louder.

Now it was moving my way faster and breaking branches. I immediately turned and ran across the train track and onto the highway not even looking to see if any cars were coming. Once I hit the other side of the street I didn't stop running for about fifty feet and turned my head and saw about three cars coming. I looked across the road and could see a crouching humanoid shape with a wolf head profile. There was a hint of bright red eyes seen in the darkness. It was at least 7 feet tall hiding between 2 train cars watching me. It seemed to be scared to be seen. I ran and did not stop running for about 3 blocks. Did not stop till I reached this well-lit area where there was this cluster of factories and a closed auto store. Even then I did not feel safe till I reached the old downtown area. There was a 24-hour gas station and a few open bars. I slowed my pace and walked a block to my friend's house. All the time I was trying to absorb what had happened.

It was a bipedal animal that had probably stalked me long before it charged me. But I will say that I 'sensed' it. That was the weirdest thing, the sense of uneasiness that preceded it. That and the loud growl that was very inhuman.

Anyway, I got to my friend's house and he had his front door open. He asked if I was alright. I just pushed past him and grabbed 2 beers from the case we had not finished the night before and said, "Man, sit down. You're not going to believe this." We spent the rest of that night talking about my encounter. We were throwing out all these theories about what it could actually be and if it might be able to walk through dimensions and that is why no corpses of these things are ever found. This was something that was "unclassifiable." D

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved

PAPAL CONSPIRACY: The Death of POPE JOHN PAUL I

"Private property is not, for no one, neither some inalienable right nor some absolute one. No one has the prerogative to have the exclusive possession of goods beyond his needs, since there are those starving to death. These are severe words. In light of them, not just financiers but everyone, especially us, within the Church should ask ourselves: "Did we fulfill the task that Jesus Christ assigned to us when he said: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself?" Pope John Paul I

He was born Albino Luciani in Forno di Canale in Belluno, a province of the Veneto region in northern Italy. He reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from August 26, 1978, until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history.

On the evening of September 28, 1978, Pope John Paul I is talking to Cardinal Villot (the then Secretary of Vatican State). There was an angry dispute. The reason is that Pope John Paul I was planning to revolutionize many facets of the Vatican, especially the Vatican's hierarchy, but he also planned to start investigations on the Vatican's involvement in unusual stories of money laundering through its bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), the Vatican's connections with "bad associates" like Mafia, Masonic lodges, etc....and to replace Villot himself with Benelli. Many parties in the Vatican were very concerned about these proposed changes and obviously interested in keeping the then status quo.

The Pope had started reforming customs and habits within the Church:

- refusal to use the majestic plural
- refusal to be crowned during the first official ceremony
- refusal to wear the Papal Tiara
- stated to be "open-minded" about contraception for some conditions
- he had reservations about the Opus Dei

The morning after the aforementioned dispute, at 4:30 am local time, as she has done every day for the past 33 days, sister Vincenza Taffarel carries a coffee to the Pope and leaves it on the desk of the office connecting with the room where John Paul I is asleep. She knocks on the door and says: "good morning Holy Father"

Fifteen minutes later, sister Vincenza comes back, and immediately notices that the coffee is still there: since this is very unusual, she decides to knock repeatedly on the door and finally, after having got no response, she enters the room.

John Paul I is sitting on his bed, leaning on a couple of pillows, his head slightly inclined towards his right. The lamp on the night table is turned on and he's still wearing glasses and holds some papers in his hands. Sister Vincenza takes his pulse and realizes that the Pope is dead.

The first press release states:

This morning, September 29, 1978, around half past five, the Pope's private secretary, having not found, unusually, of the Holy Father in the chapel of his private apartment, has searched his room and found him dead in bed with the light on, as if he was reading. The death was confirmed by Dr. Renato Buzzonetti:

After attesting his death, he stated that the death allegedly occurred about eleven o'clock last night, and argued it was sudden death that might have been caused by acute myocardial infarction.

In the official press release, it had been stated that the body was found by the Pope's private secretary, but actually, he was found by Sister Vincenza. Why the lie? The presence of a woman in the room of the Pope could have been considered somehow improper.

The statement by Renato Buzzonetti: “Death caused likely by acute myocardial infarction” was accepted by the College of Cardinals. Autopsy? Not needed....the doctor was right. No autopsy has ever been made on the body of Pope John Paul I. Besides, any 'difficult' autopsy results would likely be covered up anyway.

What happened to Sister Vincenza? She was shipped off to a convent and she can’t speak. The Vatican encouraged her to agree with a Vow of Silence though, she did manage to tell John Paul I biographer, Camillo Bassotto... "I leaned my hand close to his forehead and he was still warm." It's interesting to note that the embalmers, who had arrived at around 10:00 am that morning, stated that “the hypostasis was not complete: we can esteem that the death occurred four hours before our arrival”

David Yallop, author of In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I[image error] suggests that the possible cause of death could be a type of poison that didn't leave trace evidence of use. Giovanni Gennari, journalist and Theologist, stated that “someone” highly placed in the Vatican entrusted him that the Pope had been prescribed a vasodilator drug for high blood pressure and that the Pope 'received' an overdose by mistake. It was later revealed that John Paul I talked to his personal doctor (Antonio Da Ros) by phone that same evening. He didn’t mention anything about any problem or distress. The physician assessed the Pope as healthy and feeling fine.

Over the years, the Vatican has hired 'investigators' to research the available evidence of the Pope's death, including John Corwell, who wrote A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican[image error] He stated that the Pope was not murdered but died of a pulmonary embolism, possibly brought on by overwork and neglect. For the record, the Vatican never hired a licensed physician to investigate this case. BTW, Corwell was also the author of Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII[image error] in which he accused Pope Pius XII of assisting in the legitimization of the Nazi regime through the pursuit of a Reichskonkordat in 1933 and of remaining silent during the Holocaust.

So, if Pope John Paul I was murdered, who would be the most likely suspect? The Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) AKA "Banca Vaticana", between the years 1946 and 1971, was a shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano. In 1978, the chief inspector of the Bank of Italy, Giulio Padalino, discovered a money laundering operation between the Banco Ambrosiano and several foreign entities. Later, it was confirmed that Paul Casimir Marcinkus, Archbishop from Illinois, and President of IOR, was behind the illegal activities. Some letters of patronage signed by Marcinkus himself to Roberto Calvi (manager of Banco Ambrosiano) were found, proving that the Vatican, directly and indirectly, was controlling Manic. S.A. (Luxembourg), Astolfine S.A. (Panama), Nordeurop Establishment (Liechtenstein), U.T.C. United Trading Corporation (Panama), Erin S.A (Panama), Bellatrix S.A (Panama), Belrosa S.A (Panama) and Starfield S.A (Panama).

These enterprises were established to “clean” money coming into Banco Ambrosiano which was later proved and confirmed by an Italian magistrate. The Minister of the Interior, Beniamino Andreatta, decided to close the bank since 2 billion dollars was "missing". Later, Archbishop Marcinkus was investigated for links to the Mafia, association with the Italian Masonic order, money laundering, and the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

Archbishop Marcinkus: The Vatican's Banker

Marcinkus was the President of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, also known as the Vatican Bank, from 1971 to 1989. As early as April 24, 1973, Marcinkus was questioned in his Vatican office by federal prosecutor William Aronwald and Bill Lynch, head of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the United States Department of Justice, about his involvement in the delivery of 14.5 million US$ worth of counterfeit bonds to the Vatican in July 1971, part of a total request of 950 million US$ worth stated in a letter on Vatican notepaper.

His name and the official letter had arisen during the investigation of an international gang which included Vincent Rizzo, who eventually served twelve years in prison. Marcinkus "said he considered the charges against him serious but not based enough on the fact that he would violate the Vatican Bank's confidentiality to defend himself. Back in the United States, it was agreed on the highest levels that the case against Marcinkus could not be pursued any further."

In July 1982, Marcinkus was implicated in financial scandals being reported on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout Europe, particularly the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano, in which Propaganda Due (aka "P2"), a masonic lodge, was involved (Marcinkus had been a director of Ambrosiano Overseas, based in Nassau, Bahamas, and had been involved with Ambrosiano's chairman, financier Roberto Calvi, for several years). He was also involved with Michele Sindona, who had links with the Mafia.

In 1984, Marcinkus was named as a possible accomplice in the murder of Pope John Paul I by investigative journalist David Yallop in his book In God's Name. Yallop made allegations regarding several suspects associated with Marcinkus' business dealings, claiming involvement of members of the Mafia on behalf of the Vatican Bank, further stating that Marcinkus might face criminal exposure, should he be removed from his position at the bank.

Upon the election of Pope John Paul II, Marcinkus was promoted within the Vatican bank and remained in office for several years before the scandal widened, after the body of Calvi, whose Banco Ambrosiano had dealt with Marcinkus, was found hanging under London's Blackfriars Bridge in June 1982. The death of Calvi was seen by some as symbolic since Propaganda Due referred to themselves as the "Black Friars." Adding to the troubles, journalist Mino Pecorelli, who had been investigating Marcinkus, the Vatican Bank, and ties to organized crime, was found dead in 1979. Marcinkus, however, escaped indictment.

He stepped aside as head of the Vatican Bank soon after, with a board of laymen assuming control of the bank. The Vatican eventually paid £145 million in a settlement with creditors, with Marcinkus observing in 1986 that: "You can't run the Church on Hail Marys."

He returned to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1990 before retiring to Arizona, where he lived as an assistant parish priest. He declined to discuss his role in the Ambrosiano scandal. Archbishop Marcinkus died in Sun City, Arizona aged 84, of undisclosed causes.

Marcinkus was played by actor Rutger Hauer in the Italian film The Bankers of God. In Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III, actor Donal Donnelly portrayed Archbishop Gilday, a character based on Marcinkus.

There have been other suspects mentioned over the years but all had some association with those groups involved in the Vatican Bank scandals.

NOTE: All in all, in my opinion, the death of John Paul I was a result of him pushing at tradition, then tradition pushing back much harder. Old ties are hard to break and scandal in the Roman Catholic Church will continue, as evident today. The Vatican is a huge conglomerate with a huge number of confederates on its side. Because of that caveat, it's nearly impossible for the truth to be disclosed, let alone, for the truth to be acknowledged. Lon

Sources:
vatican.va
abovetopsecret.com
Murder In The Vatican: The Revolutionary Life Of John Paul And The CIA, Opus Dei And The 1978 Murders[image error]
tldm.org
dreamscape.com
crisismagazine.com
insidecatholic.com
In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I[image error]
churchandstate.org.uk

*****

*****

DISTURBING 'MIMICS!' - NATURAL, CRYPTIDS, or SOMETHING ELSE? | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (WITNESS REPORTS!)

PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!

LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHARE
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on Spotify
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LIST
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE

'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS

CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)

WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES

Hey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!
I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.
If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me  by email  or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! Lon
CHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube Playlist
Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map
Hey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. Lon
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED
-----

-----
Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK
-----
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

-----

Have you had a sighting or encounter?Contact us by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. Lon
 Noted UFOlogist Dr. Raymond Keller believes the idea of extraterrestrials and even ultra-dimensional beings from many different planets and alternate realms living and working among us clandestinely is more than just another conspiracy theory.Available on Amazon.comSan Francisco Book Festival Honorable MentionNew York Book Festival Honorable Mention

Also available with audiobook narration by Terry Springs, CBS-TV Las Vegas affiliate.


This blog and newsletter are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Work 3.0 United States License.
Registered trademark PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS ® / PHANTOMS & MONSTERS ® - USPTO #90902480 - Lon D. Strickler
© 2005-2024 Phantoms & Monsters - All Rights Reserved