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An O.S.S.-created human-animal hybrid that lives in the tunnels beneath an abandoned dairy, stalks remote roads and is utilised as a bogeyman to frighten recalcitrant kids? I'm 100% interested!
The monster of all US conspiracy theories
24 SEPTEMBER 2019 - PSYCHOLOGY
The Billiwhack legend, also known as the 'Chivo Man', is where American folktale and government conspiracy theory meet. This urban tale has haunted the town of Santa Paula for decades, after a mysterious experimental dairy closed and fell into ruin.
Video at link (too brief, but the folkloric explanation is interesting):
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07nrjr7/the-monster-of-all-us-conspiracy-theories
Video by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman.
Brief article here:
The Billiwhack Monster of Ventura County
In 1964, the LA Times published reports of a strange beast haunting the abandoned concrete structures of the old Billiwhack Dairy in Aliso Canyon, Ventura County. The beast of Billiwhack had reportedly been seen several times by local high school students, who seemed obsessed with undertaking valiant quests into the monster’s territory. One youngster said that he had encountered a “snarling, hairy man in a hole,” and other reports unanimously described a tall, furry, muscular hominid with claws and ram-like horns. He was said to be half man and half sheep, and to be extremely aggressive.
Reports have largely been confined to the 1950s and 60s, yet people are still discussing the beast to this day. How can one account for this very time-specific legend that continues to have significance? Perhaps a bit of background is in order. The second half of the twentieth century has seen the rise of the notion of the government as ‘mad scientist’: according to popular culture, the secret bureaus of our nation since WWII have been sponsoring programs and experiments meant to change the very makeup of the human body.
Part of this is based on reality. Our government has indeed created programs that furtively transgress the body’s boundaries, such as the fluorination of tap water or the 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. And in popular legend, ‘anti-governments’ like that of Communist Russia have, in turn, made a move to poison the American water supply. Postwar thought was highly suspicious of government in all its incarnations.
Continued:
http://califolk.blogspot.com/2007/10/billiwhack-monster-of-ventura-county.html
The monster of all US conspiracy theories
24 SEPTEMBER 2019 - PSYCHOLOGY
The Billiwhack legend, also known as the 'Chivo Man', is where American folktale and government conspiracy theory meet. This urban tale has haunted the town of Santa Paula for decades, after a mysterious experimental dairy closed and fell into ruin.
Video at link (too brief, but the folkloric explanation is interesting):
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07nrjr7/the-monster-of-all-us-conspiracy-theories
Video by Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman.
Brief article here:
The Billiwhack Monster of Ventura County
In 1964, the LA Times published reports of a strange beast haunting the abandoned concrete structures of the old Billiwhack Dairy in Aliso Canyon, Ventura County. The beast of Billiwhack had reportedly been seen several times by local high school students, who seemed obsessed with undertaking valiant quests into the monster’s territory. One youngster said that he had encountered a “snarling, hairy man in a hole,” and other reports unanimously described a tall, furry, muscular hominid with claws and ram-like horns. He was said to be half man and half sheep, and to be extremely aggressive.
Reports have largely been confined to the 1950s and 60s, yet people are still discussing the beast to this day. How can one account for this very time-specific legend that continues to have significance? Perhaps a bit of background is in order. The second half of the twentieth century has seen the rise of the notion of the government as ‘mad scientist’: according to popular culture, the secret bureaus of our nation since WWII have been sponsoring programs and experiments meant to change the very makeup of the human body.
Part of this is based on reality. Our government has indeed created programs that furtively transgress the body’s boundaries, such as the fluorination of tap water or the 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. And in popular legend, ‘anti-governments’ like that of Communist Russia have, in turn, made a move to poison the American water supply. Postwar thought was highly suspicious of government in all its incarnations.
Continued:
http://califolk.blogspot.com/2007/10/billiwhack-monster-of-ventura-county.html