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Blaming Cryptids For Crimes & Other Incidents

Colin Sprague

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Hello All!

I am a developing producer working on a new project for Discovery and Animal Planet that would investigate crimes where either a cryptid may have been involved, or the defense blamed the crime on a cryptid/mysterious animal. As someone who knows only a little on the subject, I wanted to reach out to see if anyone knows any stories or crimes over the last 200+ years where a cryptid was or may have been involved? The most famous example of this is the Dyatlov Pass mystery (https://en.wikipedia...v_Pass_incident), but we are open to investigating any crime or accident that may have been caused by a cryptid. Our hope is to find evidence in episode that could point to cryptid involvement in these crimes.

Thank you in advance for you help!
 
The Beast of Bodmin Moor springs to mind - a large cat responsible for killing and mutilating livestock.
 
Hi,

If you're after the last two hundred years, there's a lot of cases from the early Twentieth Century. You won't find any evidence though because they're just stories, but there were the supposed spate of killings in what was then Tanganyika by the Mngwa or Nunda. A large grey leopard like cat.

Several men were supposedly killed over the course of a few nights in a coastal town while guarding a market place. The man who brought the story to the attention in Europe was Captain William Hitchens. Described as a colonial administrator of some sort. This guy also claimed to have encountered half the mystery beasts of Africa at one time or another.

He also claimed to have had his dog taken by the 'Chemoist'. Known by many names, but most commonly the Nandi Bear, this cryptid has had many deaths attributed to it.

Another could be the case mentioned by Jim Corbett in one of his books. I think it was Rudraprayag. Anyway, during the attacks of a real leopard, some of the locals blamed a travelling holy man, believing him to be a were leopard.

Just outside your time window is the Geavadan beast. Often blamed on a cryptid. But there's still the 'Headless Valley' of the Yukon, sometimes linked to the giant dog like Waheelah. And of course, more recently the terrifyingly vague Mongolian Deathworm has also supposed to have notched up a few victims.

Hope that's of some help, but I doubt it really. All these are just stories, with the exception of Corbett's reference which is a side note in an account of real events, normally happening to nameless non Europeans, and related by pretty dodgy sources. But as it's cryptids we're talking about that's as close as your likely to get.
 
In various African areas there a lots of versions of crimes being committed by Magical means, from penis snatchers, to shapeshifting thieves to "tokoloshe" (which have been covered in depth in assorted Ft issues) As well as reports world wide of fires started by alleged Poltergeist activity, Mad Gassers, Spring heeled Jack, Alleged pet and livestock murders by chupacabra or bigfeet, alien cattle mutilations, obviously abductions...

Depends on your definition of cryptid - if you mean "flesh and blood" possibly undiscovered animals, obviously that leaves out the Poltergeists, and humanoid and magical ones, if you mean a more general "paranormal non-human entity" then go nuts.
 
This is entirely from memory but I do believe that there has been one boating accident which has been blamed on the Loch Ness Monster! If memory serves a sportsman was driving a speedboat when he hit something unseen in the Loch, and crashed and died as a result. I've got a feeling that this gets a mention on one of the versions of Nicholas Witchell's classic The Loch Ness Story (70's, and updated a few times). Needless to say the idea has been mocked since, and one doesn't hear much of it now.

There is also a disappearance of a young girl in the South of England - sorry to be vague -that has been blamed on a mystery big cat. Her bicycle was discovered but her body was nowhere to be found, I believe it may have been Di Francis who suggested that a big cat had pounced on her. The local police took the idea seriously.

Then of course the Himalayan Yeti has been accused of being behind many abductions of - mainly -women by the locals of that region : although I am not sure if any of these claims ever involved the law.
 
The big cat theory about the child on the bike fell through years ago. Someone was arrested a few years after it. If I recall correctly, Francis admitted the family had requested their child be kept out of her book.
 
This is entirely from memory but I do believe that there has been one boating accident which has been blamed on the Loch Ness Monster! If memory serves a sportsman was driving a speedboat when he hit something unseen in the Loch, and crashed and died as a result. I've got a feeling that this gets a mention on one of the versions of Nicholas Witchell's classic The Loch Ness Story (70's, and updated a few times). Needless to say the idea has been mocked since, and one doesn't hear much of it now.

There is also a disappearance of a young girl in the South of England - sorry to be vague -that has been blamed on a mystery big cat. Her bicycle was discovered but her body was nowhere to be found, I believe it may have been Di Francis who suggested that a big cat had pounced on her. The local police took the idea seriously.

Then of course the Himalayan Yeti has been accused of being behind many abductions of - mainly -women by the locals of that region : although I am not sure if any of these claims ever involved the law.

It was John Cobb - I thought it was Donald Campbell who had died on Loch Ness until I found this.
60th Anniversary of John Cobb Disaster

The Inverness Courier notes the gathering today of speed enthusiasts to mark the death of world land and water speed record holder, John Cobb at Loch Ness. On that day of the 29th September 1952, the 52 year old had exceeded the record with a speed of 206mph. However, before the second mile run which would have established the record, the boat broke up on hitting a wave and Cobb was killed. The events of those days are shown on this YouTube video.



The memorial cairn at which these people gather today has a simple plaque but it speaks of the bravery and determination of the man who pushed the boundaries of speed.



Between 2000 and 2002, the Loch Ness Project team and other experts managed to find the debris field of the boat at a depth of 200m (picture below from BBC). However, unlike the Wellington Bomber that was recovered from Loch Ness, I am not aware of any attempts to recover the remains of the Crusader.




The Crusader had hit an unexpected wake which led some to ask a single question. The fact was that there should have been no wakes to disrupt and endanger the boat. The loch would have been cleared of boat traffic and Cobb would have had as calm as surface as possible. Hence the word "unexpected" applied to the rogue wake. But is "unexpected" the same as "unexplained"? The single question asked was whether the Loch Ness Monster had moved just beneath the surface and produced the deadly wave?

The only Loch Ness expert I am aware of who it is claimed held to the theory of a Nessie produced wake was Tim Dinsdale. Terence Gallacher, a documentary film maker relates a conversation he had with Tim (original link here):

He claimed that John Cobb, who was killed while attempting a new water-speed record on Loch Ness, “was killed by Nessie”.

Tim explained that when a water speed attempt is made on a loch (or lake), it is necessary for all craft, of whatever size, to be stopped. This is because the “line wake” of a craft is sufficient to upset the speed boat. What is required is what is known as a “Jelly calm”.

We knew that Movietonews had a shot of the disaster that befell John Cobb. It had been shot on 35mm film and showed the speed boat taking off just like a seaplane before it somersaulted and crashed back into the water.

I had the film step-printed to enable us to show, in slow motion, the very definite line wake and the bouncing of John Cobb’s boat when it arrived at the line wake.

This matter has never been resolved and it requires an answer.

One of this article's comments below pointed me to Tim's book "The Leviathans" ("Monster Hunt" in the USA). In this we read Tim's full investigation into the matter following a discussion with another Nessie hunter, Torquil MacLeod. You can refer to the book for further details of what Tim thought.

Clearly, if one believes there is one or more large animals in Loch Ness, then it is a possibility. However, what can be gained from following this line of enquiry is uncertain. Nicholas Witchell, in his book "The Loch Ness Story" suggests the reflection of the Crusader's previous bow wave was to blame but the Courier article linked above says the crash occurred at the end of the first run before such a wave became an issue.

In that light, the aforementioned Loch Ness Project team suggest one of Cobb's support boats was to blame. That is also possible though how one proves it is another question. Perhaps, it is best just to leave this minor mystery alone as it is the kind of Nessie headline that seems undesirable. To that end, we leave you with a photo of the man himself on that fateful day and again we recognise the bravery and determination that marked him out from others.



http://lochnessmystery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/60th-anniversary-of-john-cobb-disaster.html
 
There is also a disappearance of a young girl in the South of England - sorry to be vague -that has been blamed on a mystery big cat. Her bicycle was discovered but her body was nowhere to be found, I believe it may have been Di Francis who suggested that a big cat had pounced on her. The local police took the idea seriously.
This sounds like the Genette Tate case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Genette_Tate

As Wiki says,
"Following the conviction of serial killer Robert Black in October 2011 for the murder of Jennifer Cardy in August 1981, a spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland commented that "There are striking similarities" between the two cases.[5] Black had already been questioned by Devon and Cornwall Police about the Tate case, but in August 2008 the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence to charge him.[6][7]

Devon and Cornwall Police were looking in to the case again in June 2014 with the hope of prosecuting Black.[8] At the time of Black's death in January 2016, Devon and Cornwall Police were five weeks from submitting a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for a new decision on whether to prosecute him."

Black's death in prison was reported quite recently.

A pity he wasn't prosecuted, but it seems pretty certain that no cryptid was involved in the case.

Genette's disappearance occurred just weeks before my own daughter was born, also in Devon, which heightened my interest in the story. (I'm pretty sure I've posted on this before.)
 
The haunting of 50 Berkley Square in London could fit your criteria, reckless sceptics that spent a night in the haunted room reported being found dead of fright, stabbed themselves or leapt from the room to plummet to their death .... or found impaled on the railings below.
 
Does a haunting involve a cryptid?
Probably not.
 
The haunting of 50 Berkley Square in London could fit your criteria, reckless sceptics that spent a night in the haunted room reported being found dead of fright, stabbed themselves or leapt from the room to plummet to their death .... or found impaled on the railings below.

A couple of FT mags ago there was a feature on the case that concluded it was all made up, I'm afraid. A story that has lived on in modern times in the internet echo chamber but was just a myth in the first place.
 
A couple of FT mags ago there was a feature on the case that concluded it was all made up, I'm afraid. A story that has lived on in modern times in the internet echo chamber but was just a myth in the first place.
I read that article although I prefer to think the ghost got bored or ran out of energy or something, only because I like the story so much to be honest.
 
Gunshot fired at Kentucky campground; shooter claims he was firing at Bigfoot ...
Camper: Alleged Bigfoot sighting prompts gunfire at park

Federal officials are investigating a report that a man fired a gunshot while camping at Mammoth Cave National Park, an incident that another camper says was prompted by an alleged sighting of Bigfoot.

Mammoth Cave said law enforcement rangers responded early Sunday to a report of a person with a firearm at one of the Kentucky park’s backcountry campsites.

Brad Ginn told news outlets he and his girlfriend were camping nearby and were awakened about 1 a.m. by a man with his son. The man said they were going to investigate strange noises he kept hearing. Ginn said he heard a gunshot minutes later and the man returned to say Bigfoot had emerged from the woods, so he fired.

Ginn said he and his girlfriend decided to leave and report the incident.

Park spokeswoman Molly Schroer says an investigation continues and the park is safe to visit.

SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/117a6f7e7a6a48dcb06ad068477a094a
 
In Vermont someone's distributing flyers advising residents Bigfoot / Sasquatch is not the reason for a bridge closure.

Anonymous flyer denies ‘Sasquatch’ reason for bridge closure

An anonymous flyer denying that Bigfoot is behind the prolonged closure of a bridge in a Vermont town has got locals talking about the mythical forest creatures.

The flyer first spotted at the Bradford post office said the prolonged closure of the Creamery Bridge over the Waits River was not due to the “displacement of or intrusion on a ‘Sasquatch’ or Bigfoot, either a single creature or several.”

Last week Dartmouth College Professor Alexander Chee posted a photo of the flyer to Twitter . Since then, copies have been popping up across town.

Local resident Claudia Johnson tells MyNBC5 she thinks there’s a local Bigfoot because she’s heard unexplained rustling behind her home.

State transportation officials say the bridge is scheduled to be fixed in October.
SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/c8c1f6a06c104938acc2dc27f8646399
 
I think by and large your average cryptid is a law abiding citizen.

No point in attracting attention, after all
 
I think by and large your average cryptid is a law abiding citizen. No point in attracting attention, after all
Kondoru, I find your namby pamby liberal attitude towards cryptid crimes appalling. Next you'll be blaming society for everything cryptids do, when really they need to be taught to take responsibility for their actions. Isn't it obvious that the reason cryptids are so hard to find is that they all have something to hide? Pretty much all cryptids are criminals and they take a lot of care to lay low from law enforcement, not to mention the laws of science.
 
The most famous example of this is the Dyatlov Pass mystery (https://en.wikipedia...v_Pass_incident), but we are open to investigating any crime or accident that may have been caused by a cryptid. Our hope is to find evidence in episode that could point to cryptid involvement in these crimes.
I have strong doubts that a flying radioactive almas was responsible for the Dyatlov Pass incident. If I were looking for cryptid criminals, you might try looking at US National Parks disappearances. They can't ALL be due to serial killers and bandits.
 
I have strong doubts that a flying radioactive almas was responsible for the Dyatlov Pass incident. If I were looking for cryptid criminals, you might try looking at US National Parks disappearances. They can't ALL be due to serial killers and bandits.
Right! We all know bears, mountain lions and hazardous trails alongside a sheer drop are rarer than Bigfoot in the National Parks. Of course people just don't get lost and dehydrate or freeze, cuz that's just too OBVIOUS. Duh.
 
Right! We all know bears, mountain lions and hazardous trails alongside a sheer drop are rarer than Bigfoot in the National Parks. Of course people just don't get lost and dehydrate or freeze, cuz that's just too OBVIOUS. Duh.
The cases I am more interested in is when toddlers go missing in rough terrain and show up 20 miles away, or when people go missing and their bodies show up on ground previously searched many times. Or those occasions when people travelling in groups vanish from sight for only a moment and are never seen again.
 
The cases I am more interested in is when toddlers go missing in rough terrain and show up 20 miles away, or when people go missing and their bodies show up on ground previously searched many times. Or those occasions when people travelling in groups vanish from sight for only a moment and are never seen again.
How many of those kinds of case comprised the over 1000 that he often cites? Those do sound mysterious, but Paulides hasn't actually confirmed any very mysterious facts of those cases, has he? Going by the media or personal accounts is not going to cut it. He seems to cherry-pick things. I don't see that he established a mysterious disappearance in the first place. People die in the woods. It's not paranormal. Paulides is out to make a buck by mystery mongering.
 
Right! We all know bears, mountain lions and hazardous trails alongside a sheer drop are rarer than Bigfoot in the National Parks. Of course people just don't get lost and dehydrate or freeze, cuz that's just too OBVIOUS. Duh.
I'm pretty sure that Yogi the Bear was a dedicated pic-a-nic basket thief. ;)
 
I'm pretty sure that Yogi the Bear was a dedicated pic-a-nic basket thief. ;)
Bears - will pay you a visit just to mess up your s***.
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How many of those kinds of case comprised the over 1000 that he often cites? Those do sound mysterious, but Paulides hasn't actually confirmed any very mysterious facts of those cases, has he? Going by the media or personal accounts is not going to cut it. He seems to cherry-pick things. I don't see that he established a mysterious disappearance in the first place. People die in the woods. It's not paranormal. Paulides is out to make a buck by mystery mongering.
I think his "over 1000" is simply a number of disappearances/deaths where the case is not fully closed. It's not cases known to be paranormal, but things with unfinished investigations. It's hard to verify this though as I don't have a list of all 1000+ cases....
 
How many of those kinds of case comprised the over 1000 that he often cites? Those do sound mysterious, but Paulides hasn't actually confirmed any very mysterious facts of those cases, has he? Going by the media or personal accounts is not going to cut it. He seems to cherry-pick things. I don't see that he established a mysterious disappearance in the first place. People die in the woods. It's not paranormal. Paulides is out to make a buck by mystery mongering.
All of them actually. Paulides is actually very stringent in excluding cases that don't meet his specific preconditions. Yes, he "cherry picks", but not in quite the way you suggest. He is choosing the cases that can't be explained by normal means, but he is more interested in establishing statistical clusters where the cases have a series of specific similarities. Things such as whether the body was ever recovered, the absence of footwear, the presence of granite outcrops. the presence of water, length between reporting and discovery. In short, he is using many of the statistical modeling methods common to police departments, which isn't surprising given his police background. Is he making money? Of course, but everyone needs to make a living. Don't invalidate a person's work just because they are getting an income from it; that's the worst sort of prejudice; the unthinking sort. On that basis, everyone who ever wrote a book and didn't publish it for free is essentially suspect by your standards.
 
All of them actually. Paulides is actually very stringent in excluding cases that don't meet his specific preconditions. Yes, he "cherry picks", but not in quite the way you suggest. He is choosing the cases that can't be explained by normal means, but he is more interested in establishing statistical clusters where the cases have a series of specific similarities. Things such as whether the body was ever recovered, the absence of footwear, the presence of granite outcrops. the presence of water, length between reporting and discovery. In short, he is using many of the statistical modeling methods common to police departments, which isn't surprising given his police background. Is he making money? Of course, but everyone needs to make a living. Don't invalidate a person's work just because they are getting an income from it; that's the worst sort of prejudice; the unthinking sort. On that basis, everyone who ever wrote a book and didn't publish it for free is essentially suspect by your standards.

Sceptics are the very worst cherry pickers of them all.
 
All of them actually. Paulides is actually very stringent in excluding cases that don't meet his specific preconditions. Yes, he "cherry picks", but not in quite the way you suggest. He is choosing the cases that can't be explained by normal means, but he is more interested in establishing statistical clusters where the cases have a series of specific similarities. Things such as whether the body was ever recovered, the absence of footwear, the presence of granite outcrops. the presence of water, length between reporting and discovery. In short, he is using many of the statistical modeling methods common to police departments, which isn't surprising given his police background. Is he making money? Of course, but everyone needs to make a living. Don't invalidate a person's work just because they are getting an income from it; that's the worst sort of prejudice; the unthinking sort. On that basis, everyone who ever wrote a book and didn't publish it for free is essentially suspect by your standards.
I disagree because what I found when I did research on a few of the cases.

Paulides claimed that there was no sign of a wildlife attack in the Bart Schleyer death. Every official source disagrees with that. Mr. Schleyer's family even helped investigate and they came to that conclusion. The obituary published by his next of kin speculates that he may have been killed by either a wolf or bear. But Paulides's version says that's impossible? Either Paulides did bad research or faked it.

I forget the name but in one of the other cases Paulides made a big deal about how Special Operations soldiers assisted with a search that failed. The difference though is that they were already in the area doing a training exercise, they weren't actually deployed to search, and even when they did search they were acting in support of the local National Guard, and not acting on their own.

But I haven't actually read his book, this is based on reading what others have repeated about what he wrote in the book. My conclusion is that Paulides did actual research, and did carefully select only cases that were in some way mysterious, but that he also fictionalized them to make them sound good. In Bart Schleyer's case his cause of death is genuinely unknown. But that's more a matter of questioning if he was dead before the animals got to him. There wasn't much left of him and based on the evidence people apparently didn't start looking for weeks after he was dead, so much of the evidence might have been lost in that time. Blood stains and footprints don't last forever. The case is seemingly a mystery because people didn't start looking while it was fresh. The site had gotten cold(figuratively) and wet (literally) before anyone even thought to look.

Is this typical of the cases reported in the book? I don't really know. But based on what I've seen, I have to conclude he either didn't pay enough attention when collecting evidence, or he's misrepresenting the facts.

EDIT: given the sheer numbers of cases involved, it's entirely possible he felt he didn't have time to rigorously investigate them all. But using good analytical methods with bad data doesn't produce a useful result.
 
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Sceptics are the very worst cherry pickers of them all.
Skeptics is spelled with a "k" and I consider myself to be one. I will give people something of the benefit of the doubt and I try to be a bit stringent in what I will tolerate as evidence, but I try to give every claim a fair hearing where it can stand or fall on the quality of its evidence. Paulides seems to be trying pretty hard to do things to a decent standard of evidence, and I can respect that. I can also sympathize with people who had a schizophrenic episode that felt entirely real, who think they saw something abnormal, but have nothing to show for it.
 
Skeptics is spelled with a "k" and I consider myself to be one. I will give people something of the benefit of the doubt and I try to be a bit stringent in what I will tolerate as evidence, but I try to give every claim a fair hearing where it can stand or fall on the quality of its evidence. Paulides seems to be trying pretty hard to do things to a decent standard of evidence, and I can respect that. I can also sympathize with people who had a schizophrenic episode that felt entirely real, who think they saw something abnormal, but have nothing to show for it.

I wouldn't normally refer to someone else's spelling on the internet, but as you raised it: in British English (or, as we used to call it, "English" :) ) "sceptic" is spelled with a c, not a k. While I'm at it, we also spell "sympathise" with an s.

That aside, I like your definition/description of a sceptic. We could do with a bit more of that in life: people giving a fair hearing to other points of view, but expecting to be persuaded by reasonable evidence rather than wishful thinking or preconceptions.
 
I wouldn't normally refer to someone else's spelling on the internet, but as you raised it: in British English (or, as we used to call it, "English" :) ) "sceptic" is spelled with a c, not a k. While I'm at it, we also spell "sympathise" with an s.

Quite!

@AlchoPwn No need to appoint a spelling monitor! There are enough people here juggling cats and coffee, posting on the ragged edge of sleep, with dyslexia an acknowledged issue... Courtesy and realism please.

Frideswide
 
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