The
Enfield Monster refers to reports of an unidentified creature around Enfield, Illinois, United States
in April 1973. The reports were covered by the news media at the time,
with some suggesting they may have been caused by a wild ape or escaped kangaroo.
Used as a case study for a paper on social contagion in 1978, sociologists cite the episode as an example of collective behavior
where a group or crowd can be affected by the spread of "group
emotions" such as "panics, hysterias, collective visions, and extreme
instances of suggestibility.
At about 9:30 on the night of April 25, 1973, Henry McDaniel heard a
scratching sound at his front door. He looked out, and saw something
that he thought might be a bear. Taking a gun and flashlight, he headed
outside into a strong wind and saw a creature between two rosebushes.
He later said "It had three legs on it, a short body, two little short
arms, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half
feet tall and was grayish-colored."
He added later that it was "almost like a human body".
McDaniel fired four shots at the creature, one shot hitting it and
causing it to make a hiss "much like a wildcat's", before fleeing
towards a nearby railway embankment, covering 50 feet in three jumps.
McDaniel called the local authorities who discovered footprints in the
soft earth near the house, which McDaniel described as dog-like in
shape, with six toe pads. The police considered McDaniel to be "rational
and sober" in his reporting of the incident.
In a later press interview, McDaniel said "If they do find it, they
will find more than one and they won't be from this planet, I can tell
you that."
Investigators interviewing nearby residents were told that Greg
Garrett, a ten-year-old neighbor of McDaniel, claimed to have
encountered the creature half an hour before McDaniel did, and that the
creature had stepped on his feet, tearing his tennis shoes
to shreds. The boy later told Western Illinois University researchers
that his report was a hoax "to tease Mr. M and have fun with an out of
town newsman."
Two weeks later on May 6, McDaniel called the radio station WWKI claiming to have seen the creature again, at 3am that morning.
It was negotiating the trestles of the railroad tracks near his home,
and McDaniel said "I saw something moving out on the railroad track and
there it stood. I didn't shoot at it or anything. It started on down the
railroad track. It wasn't in a hurry or anything."
A search party including WWKI's news director Rick Rainbow
explored the area later that day, and reported observing an "apelike"
creature standing in an abandoned building near McDaniel's house.
They claimed to have made a recording of the creature's cries, and fired a shot at it before it fled.
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman investigated the case and the sound recording.
Two days later, a day after McDaniel was interviewed on local radio,
the local press reported that police were called to investigate reports
of gunfire, and arrested five young men from out of town who had come to
Enfield in order to photograph the creature, carrying shotguns and
rifles "for protection", the men having claimed to have sighted the
creature. The White County sheriff dismissed reports of this as a
"monster hunting expedition" as an exaggeration, saying that the men
were just "out drinking and raising hell", mentioning the monster only
briefly during questioning.
The men were charged with hunting violations.
The incidents were reported widely in the press at the time – it
appeared in newspapers throughout the state on 27 April 1973, and on 7
May there was an interview on radio station WGN, Chicago and articles in
the
Chicago Daily News, the
Moline Dispatch,
Champaign-Urbana Courier and the
Alton Telegraph. There were earlier articles in the
Carmi Times,
and an updated summary of the events appeared in Pennsylvania's
Reading Eagle in August 1973.
After the arrest of the five men who had arrived to hunt the creature,
residents of Enfield expressed fears that press coverage would lead to
further "monster hunters", who might inadvertently shoot citizens or
livestock.
It was suggested that the creature may have been a kangaroo escaped from a nearby zoo, which would explain the "three legs" description as the tails of kangaroos look like a third leg.
McDaniel was adamant that the creature "wasn't no kangaroo", having
owned such a creature as a pet while on military service in Australia,
and noting that kangaroos have narrow faces and tracks that leave claw marks.
Following media coverage of the creature, an Ohio man contacted a local
newspaper stating that the creature may have been his pet kangaroo,
Macey, which had been lost or stolen a year previously.
A few days after the event, United Press International
quoted an anthropology student who suggested that the creature may have
been a wild ape, noting that such animals had been reported throughout
the Mississippi area since 1941.
- Source: wikipedia -
Now, don't confuse this with the Enfield Poltergeist, which was the name given to the claims of poltergeist activity at a council house in Brimsdown, Enfield, England.
What I found interesting and mildly amusing, about this tale is how the hunting party went after it and got arrested. It reminded me of people nowadays going after Bigfoot with rifles. It can become dangerous.
What do you think the Enfield Monster is? I'm leaning towards it being a kangaroo.
Thanks
~Tom~
This
post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the
cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto
Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of
unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild
land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet
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