The Werewolves Of Wisconsin 

By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher 

 

            Is Wisconsin a hotbed for werewolf sightings? Or maybe dog-like bigfoot? When several witnesses describe similar creatures seen in the same area, one has to wonder.  A review of some historic “werewolf’ sightings in that state give some frightening details.

            In 1936, Mark Shcackelman was driving one evening in southeastern Wisconsin when he saw a figure digging in an Indian mound. He claims to have seen a creature covered in hair, and well over six feet tall with both dog-like and ape-like features. He described it as having pointed, erect ears. But he gave an interesting detail: He said the creatures hands had shriveled thumbs and forefingers along with three fully formed fingers.

            Schackelman returned to the area the next evening only to see the creature again. He said it was was making “neo-human” sounds described as three syllable growling. Little did he know that there would be reports of similar creatures in other parts of the state in later years.

            In an evening in 1991, also in southeastern Wisconsin, an unnamed woman felt a bump in the road like she’d hit something large. She stopped her car and got out to check the damages and looked off into the distance only to see a dark, hairy creature with a muscular chest running towards her. In a panic, she got back into her car and tried to get away when she claims the creature jumped onto her trunk. As she sped away, the creature finally fell off as she said the trunk was too wet for the creature to keep a grip. She returned to the scene later with a friend only to see a large, dark form rising from the side of the road.

            In 1989, Lorianne Endrizzi was driving just a half mile from the scene of the above encounter when she thought she saw someone kneeling on his haunches on the side of the road. She slowed down to get a better look and the creature stared back at her from no more than six feet across the width of her car. It had grayish-brown hair, fangs, and pointed ears.

            “His face was long and had a snout like a wolf,” she told a local reporter. 'The arms were really a kind of strange; jointed like a man or woman would be," she explained. "He was holding his hands with his palms upward. The arms were muscular 'like a man who had worked out a little bit." She went on to describe a creature with red-glowing eyes with its back legs behind it like it was kneeling. She had no idea what the creature might be until she later saw a werewolf in a book in the local library.  The sighting only lasted maybe 45 seconds. 

            Near this same time in the same area, Scott Bray, a local dairy farmer claimed to have seen a “strange-looking dog” beside his pasture. He said it was much larger than a German Shepherd, had a hairy tail, and pointed ears, with grayish-black wiry hair. He said the creature had a massive, strong-looking chest. He claimed he found enormous footprints in the dirt near the area which were four to five inches in diameter.

            Whatever these creatures were described by these witnesses, it certainly points to the idea that “werewolves” may have roamed the areas of southern Wisconsin for many years.******DF