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Texas Monsters and the Chupacabra

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Texas Monsters and the Chupacabra [SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author or coauthor of seven books, including Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment. Texas Monsters and the Chupacabra “I read your research claiming that the chupacabra didn’t exist before 1995. I’m forty-three, grew up in the 1970s in Texas, and I am 100 percent certain that the chupacabra myth existed during my childhood. According to my grandfather, stories of it go back as far as : his childhood. These were told to him by his grandpa, so add a couple more generations to that. There’s a little town North of Abilene called Hawley. There they tell stories of a creature Q to scare the kids; some called him ‘the Hawley goat-man’ but those who could pronounce it called him ‘chupacabra.’ This creature matches the description, and his favorite meal is goats, hence the name. He was alleged to have glowing red eyes and jump great distances. I spent many nights staring out the window, terrified of brake lights in the distance or waking with nightmares of him jumping at me. .” —R. Culwell As described here in the which is why historical documentation SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and is required to establish the truth. in my book Tracking the In 2014, I examined what was Chupacabra, the origin of claimed to be evidence of a 1950s-era : the mysterious vampire chupacabra in Texas, captured in a beast el chupacabra can photograph claimed to be of the mon- A be traced back to an eye- ster. Though I solved the mystery, de- witness who saw the 1995 termining both the creature’s identity film Species, which featured an identical and the photograph’s origin (Radford monster. Many people assume that the 2014), that widely seen image may chupacabra dates back many decades, have contributed to the public percep- though in my research the best evi- tion that the chupacabra was reported dence is that it has only been around in Texas at least a half-century ago. for twenty years. Vampire beliefs have Memory research has shown that the existed for millennia all around the perception that something has been world—and there was a pre-exist- around for a long time influences our ing belief that something mysterious beliefs and recollections (for exam- was occasionally attacking animals ple, Braun et al. 2002). In this light, it prior to 1995 in Puerto Rico and seems quite possible that people who are certain they grew up hearing tales elsewhere—but there seems no ref- heard about it decades before (Radford of the chupacabra may be sincerely but erence to a blood-sucking monster 2011). Other lifelong Texans, however, incorrectly remembering the dates and called “chupacabra” before mid-1995 in inform me that they are just as certain details of when they first heard about it. Puerto Rico or anywhere else. that they’d never heard of the goat- Nonetheless, one common reac- sucker until the late 1990s. Absent cor- tion I’ve gotten from readers such as roborating evidence, both positions are Goatman, Goatsuckers, Mr. Culwell is that the monster did based on anecdotes and fallible mem- and the Lake Worth Monster indeed exist before 1995, because they ory and thus neither proves anything, I did my best to research Culwell’s claim 28 Volume 39 Issue 3 | Skeptical Inquirer that the “Goat-Man” of Hawley, Texas, or the quality of his research, but pre- upper body of a Sasquatch or ape. It is was an early report of the chupacabra. sumably if the Goat Man of Hawley covered in white fur and has scaly skin I consulted a dozen cryptozoological is as prominent as Culwell suggests, around its eyes” (Francis 2007, 134). sources, among them Monster Spotter’s it would merit at least a mention in a The Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology of- Guide to North America (Francis 2007); book dedicated to the subject. In Mon- fers a similar description: “witnesses de- The Field Guide to North American sters of Texas by Ken Gerhard and Nick scribed it as ‘a cross between a man and Monsters (Blackman 1998); Mysterious Redfern, the authors devote an entire a goat,’ covered in both fur and scales” Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology chapter to “Goat Man Terror.” The re- (Newton 2005, 255). Author Michael (Eberhart 2002); The Encyclopedia of search centers around a “truly vile and Newton suggests that the Lake Worth Cryptozoology: A Global Guide (Newton monstrous looking creature [that] came Monster “may had [sic] been an albino 2005); and The Field Guide to Bigfoot, storming out of the thick branches of Bigfoot or North American Ape,” curi- Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates a large nearby tree. Reportedly covered ously ignoring the fact that Bigfoot are Worldwide (Coleman and Huyghe in a coat that seemed to be comprised not reported to have scales or goatlike 1999). of both scales and fur,” it tried to grab a legs or hooves. Most of them had some mention woman in the summer of 1969 at Lake Newton places the Goat Man firmly of a Goat Man—reported in Prince Worth, near Fort Worth. Loren Cole- in Maryland, but also offers a possible Georges County, Maryland. Reports man quotes an eyewitness as reporting connection between the Maryland Goat vary, though most describe him as a that the hairy beast looked like “a cross Man and Texas, writing that “A curious half-human, half-goat Satyr-like crea- between a human being and a gorilla or twist was added to the Goatman legend ture with the upper body of a human ape” (Coleman and Huyghe 1999, 58). in 1998, when the name was applied to and covered in coarse back hair. From This, of course, is a classic Bigfoot de- a ‘hairy, horned monster’ sighted in the nubs or horns on his head to the scription (though with white fur), and northern McLennan County, Texas” “long beard that dangles from his though Coleman notes that the Lake (Newton 2005, 176). This would seem pointed chin” to the cloven hooves, Worth Monster is also known as Goat- to place a Goat Man report around “Goatman is often mistaken for Satan” man, he offers no explanation for this Waco, Texas, and he provides a ref- (Blackman 1998, 168). The creature appellation, and it’s not clear from his erence to a Waco newspaper I’ve been was reported to be about six feet tall account where the “goat” element came unable to locate. However, as Hawley and have blazing red eyes1. This Satanic into the legend. is over 200 miles away from Waco, it’s Maryland Goat Man is clearly not the In his book Monster Spotter’s Guide unlikely to be connected to any ch- chupacabra. to North America, Scott Francis offers upacabra reports there—which in any A 2014 book titled Goatman: Flesh a different and more chimerical de- event according to Culwell predate the or Folklore? doesn’t contain a single scription of the Lake Worth Monster, 1998 incident by decades. reference to any Goat Man in Haw- quoting from the Fort Worth Star-Tele- This is the main Texas-related Goat ley or nearby Abilene, Texas (Couch gram as “being a ‘fishy man-goat,’ this Man report. However, there are several 2014). I’m not familiar with the author beast has the legs of a goat and the problems with connecting it to the Goat An alleged chupacabra (left), later identified as a coyote, found in Blanco, Texas, in 2009, as prepared by taxidermist Jerry Ayer and later sold to a creationist museum. Photo by Jerry Ayer and used by permission. Texas rancher Phylis Canion displays the head of a canid “chupacabra” (right, later identified through DNA testing as a coyote) found near her home in Cuero in 2007. Photo by the author. Skeptical Inquirer | May/June 2015 29 [SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Man of Hawley, much less a chupaca- phrase “the return of ” suggests prior bra by anyone before the 1990s. I can’t bra. The “scales and fur” coated creature Hawley Him sightings, which might prove a negative, and even if somehow bears little resemblance to most reports be interesting to research but are irrel- the word chupacabra was applied to an of the chupacabra, and anyway this al- evant here since neither its name nor early Texas monster (unlikely given its leged encounter happened near Fort description has any connection to the apparent mid-1990s provenance), it will Worth, which is over 160 miles east of chupacabra. not do to simply redefine “chupacabra” Hawley. Redfern notes that during one So we have a caprine Goat Man as merely a version of a Lone Star Big- encounter with the Goat Man when in Maryland, a Bigfoot-like Lake foot; the chupacabra has several forms locals chased the Bigfoot-like crea- Worth Monster, and a Hawley Him (such as a spiky-backed, alien-esque, ture, “towering over the crowd at ap- in Texas—all of which are clearly not nearly-hairless bipedal creature and a proximately ten yards, the Goat Man the chupacabra and none of whom are mangy, four-legged canid) but none of hurled a huge tire at the group, which claimed to have an appetite for goats. them can be credibly mistaken for an resulted in the throng wildly scattering There is some overlap in the charac- albino Bigfoot or seven-foot-tall ape- in all directions” (Gerhard and Redfern teristics of these Texas creatures, and man. If any readers have information 2010, 84).
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