Modern sightings of “goat men” hail from Florida — where many believe it is actually a misidentified SKUNK APE — to various locations in Texas, including Cameron Park in Waco, White Rock Lake in Dallas and, most notoriously, a spate of sightings in nearby Lake Worth in 1969, by a beast which is commonly referred as the LAKE WORTH MONSTER.
There have also been reported sightings in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Washington and even as far away as Ontario, Canada. Still, as populated as North America would seem to be with goat men, far and away the most famous member of this alleged species is said to dwell in a cave near a desolate, hulking, rust covered bridge in the wilds of Maryland, near the town of Bowie.
Described as a HYBRID BEAST that bears a horrific mélange of both human and goat-like characteristics, this horned, hoofed, goat featured horror would seem to be a modern re-interpretation of the ancient SATYRS found in Greek myths, yet eyewitnesses claim that this fiend is not a figment from BEYOND MYTHOLOGY, but a living, breathing, flesh and blood creature that is not to be trifled with.
When it comes to the Goatman it is difficult to separate legend from the reality, but the first official report of this brute hails from 1957, when eyewitnesses reported seeing a hairy, horned monster in the areas of Forestville and Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County.
Following that wave of sightings, the beast apparently decided to lay low until the summer of 1962, when the Goatman was accused of killing no less than fourteen people — twelve children and two accompanying adults — who were apparently hiking too close to its lair.
The survivors, who, of course, remain unidentified, claimed that the Goatman violently hacked it’s victims to pieces with an axe, all the while emitting ghastly sounds only the “devil himself” would make. According to this account, when the local authorities finally arrived on the scene all that was left of the bloodbath were half-eaten limbs and a bloody trail leading to an ominous looking cave. The police, it should be noted, have no written record of this tragic affair.
The supposed eyewitness’s allusion to the satanic sounds that emerged from the creature would seem to indicate that there may be more than a little Bible belt fear intertwined with these legends, as the Goatman’s Pan-like visage bears a striking resemblance to the demonic entity known as Baphomet, as well other medieval goat-like entities which remain popular occult images.
As to the actual origins of the Maryland Goatman, there are, of course, conflicting reports. Some involve escaped mental patients and others satanic rituals, but the most popular legend has it that the Goatman is the unfortunate result of an experiment involving one Doctor Stephen Fletcher that went horribly awry at his U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Beltsville.
Apparently, the doctor confessed to creating the Goatman by crossing the DNA of a goat and his assistant William Lottsford, but the experiment wen terribly wrong and result was the malicious, genetic atrocity known as the Goatman. As patently ridiculous as this origin story may be, it bears remarking that is very similar to that of the CHUPACABRA, which was also allegedly created in a now long abandoned U.S. lab located in Puerto Rico.
