WILLIAM SHATNER: A demon born in the dead of night.
An insatiable monster hiding in the ocean's depths.
And a violent swamp beast
terrorizing an entire town.
Since the dawn of humanity, tales of monstrous creatures
lurking in the shadows of our world
have sparked both fascination and fear.
Today, we often dismiss these accounts as the stuff
of myth and legend,
but are we overlooking a potentially terrifying reality?
With scientists discovering
as many as 18,000 new animal species every year...
isn't it conceivable that there could be real-life
flesh and blood monsters
living among us?
Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
♪ ♪
In southern New Jersey, a vast sea of trees
stretches as far as the eye can see.
Below the dense canopy of these woods lies a primeval world
filled with ominous sights and sounds
that are shrouded by dark undergrowth.
This foreboding wilderness is known
as the Pine Barrens.
The Pine Barrens is basically a million acres of woodland
in the southern tip of New Jersey.
You can essentially get lost in the Pine Barrens
and never be seen again
because they are just so vast.
At nighttime, you can hear animals crunching all around.
But the problem is you can't see where these things are.
It's a terrifying place.
And it's very, very scary,
especially if you're lost there by yourself.
(owl hoots)
SHATNER: The Pine Barrens is home to over 500 animal species.
But according to locals, there is one creature
said to dwell here that has yet to be officially identified.
It's a grotesque, winged monster that is known
as the Jersey Devil.
The New Jersey Devil legend is ingrained
into the state of New Jersey so much.
It's something that every kid hears when they're growing up.
The Jersey Devil's gonna come and get you.
One of the most famous aspects of the Jersey Devil
is its horrific screech or roar.
(creature screeches)
If you hear something like that in the Pine Barrens,
you run.
(creature screeches)
CHAD LEWIS: The Jersey Devil looks like it should have come out
of Dr. Frankenstein's lab.
It's a hodgepodge of animal parts.
It has a horse's head with horns growing out of it,
a long dragon or kangaroo body,
ending in thin, long bird legs and hooves,
a forked tail on its back.
It has giant leather bat-like wings on its back.
If you were to describe something out of a nightmare,
the Jersey Devil would be that description.
SHATNER: Could a winged abomination
really lurk somewhere in the Pine Barrens?
Perhaps clues can be found by examining the origin story
of this fearsome monster that has been spoken of
in local lore for more than 250 years.
(creature screeches)
SHATNER: As the story goes, in 1735,
inside a small house in Leeds Point, New Jersey,
a woman gave birth to her unlucky 13th child.
And when it was born, it became a monster.
According to tradition, the Jersey Devil
is actually the 13th child
of a woman known as Mother Leeds.
And she is on record as having 12 children.
So, the story that we get is that, when Mother Leeds
was giving birth to this purported 13th child,
she apparently, legend says,
cried out, "The devil can take this one."
And she initially gave birth
to a healthy, happy baby boy,
who almost immediately transformed
into this demon-like creature.
(creature screeches)
Some stories say that Mother Leeds was killed
after the baby was born, by the baby.
Other stories just say he flew up the chimney
and into the Pine Barrens.
SHATNER: Skeptics are quick to dismiss the story of a devil
born of human flesh, but after this alleged event,
entirely new tales of the monster
started to surface in South Jersey.
...in the early 1800s,
a military officer of great distinction
was said to have had a firsthand encounter
with the Jersey Devil.
The Jersey Devil has had run-ins with many
famous people over the years,
such as Commodore Stephen Decatur.
He was a famous naval war hero,
and he came across the Jersey Devil
flying overhead.
He fired a cannon at the Jersey Devil.
And, according to some eyewitnesses,
he shot a hole through one of its wings,
but it just flew away like nothing had happened.
McNEILL: Naval Commodore Stephen Decatur spoke openly about this.
So, when a prominent person comes forward to say,
"Oh, no, absolutely, I saw this, you know, strange horse-faced,
winged, dragon-like creature, and I shot a cannonball at it,"
that impresses itself upon us in a way that kind of says,
"Wait a minute, okay."
The pattern of belief here is so consistent.
SHATNER: By the turn of the 20th century, belief in the existence
of the Jersey Devil had long been part of local culture.
But then, during the week of January 16, 1909,
an unprecedented avalanche of Jersey Devil sightings
surfaced in the numerous communities
bordering the Pine Barrens.
And for the first time, this demonic creature terrified
not just the residents of New Jersey
but also newspaper readers across the United States.
1909 is really a key year
for the Jersey Devil story
because what we see happen
is really what amounts to
just an absolute panic.
There starts to be report
after report after report
of people encountering the Jersey Devil,
shooting at it...
...seeing its hoofprints on top of their chicken coops
and their farm buildings.
People are sheltering in place
because of the Jersey Devil.
One of the more dramatic sightings involved
a trolley car in Haddon Heights, New Jersey
that was allegedly dive-bombed by the creature.
When accounts of these Jersey Devil sightings
and attacks surfaced in local newspapers,
it actually caused mass hysteria.
Local businesses and schools were shut down.
The Philadelphia Zoo offered a reward of $10,000
for the creature's capture,
and vigilance committees and posses were formed
to hunt the creature.
HEIMBUCH: I do think because of the sheer amounts of accounts
that happened in 1909,
of course some of them are not gonna be true. Absolutely.
But the fact that so many of them happened,
I really believe that there were some
actual Jersey Devil encounters during this time.
SHATNER: The panic of 1909
immortalized the Jersey Devil
in both national and local history.
But curiously, Native American lore suggests
that the origins of this Pine Barrens monster
may actually go back much further into the distant past.
In this part of the world, before the arrival of colonists,
the tribes that lived here were the Lenape,
and they referred to this part of the world-- the Pine Barrens
of what is now New Jersey-- as "the place of the dragon."
So, the presence of a creature
in this place of the dragon
has been recorded long into the past.
We really do see two different cultural understandings
of this place coming together
in the idea that there's a creature here
that maybe looks a little bit like a dragon.
HEIMBUCH: Whether or not you believe
the Jersey Devil theories or legends,
he existed well before any of that stuff existed,
and it's a big part of the state's identity.
The Pine Barrens is such a huge, vast place
that, absolutely, a creature can live there
and not ever be seen by anyone
for the rest of their entire lives,
which kind of leads credence to the theory that
this creature does exist.
(creature screeches)
SHATNER: Population: 733.
This small town near the eastern border of Texas
appears similar to hundreds of other
rural communities in the region.
A single highway cuts through town,
which is surrounded by vast woods,
creeks,
and acres of mosquito-ridden swampland.
Fouke, Arkansas is thousands of acres
of very swampy area.
And within that,
there is plenty of places that creatures
could find seclusion and could easily survive.
The woods and the swampy bottoms
are just so thick that
they could travel through these woods
and not be seen, uh, very much, if at all.
SHATNER: This rugged landscape is teeming with wildlife,
but according to locals,
there is a massive, monstrous creature
that stands out from all others,
because it bears an uncanny resemblance
to a human.
They call it the Fouke Monster.
LEWIS: By physical description,
the Fouke Monster--
it's very large-- seven to ten feet tall,
very thick, long, matted-down hair,
usually dark brown or a reddish tint.
It's a biped walking and running upright on its hind legs.
BLACKBURN: The creature is often known
to elicit a frightening howl.
(creature howling)
It's often said
to have a very terrible, rank odor.
It's said to be similar to a Bigfoot,
yet more scraggly,
more rugged looking,
and witnesses often have a very
emotional reaction because of the fear of this creature.
SHATNER: It's estimated that there have been hundreds
of sightings of the Fouke Monster,
dating back to the 1800s.
And locals are convinced
that tangible evidence of the beast exists.
Over the years, people have made numerous plaster casts
of unusually large footprints
said to have been left by the massive creature.
Today, many of them are preserved
in a town museum known as the Monster Mart.
STATNER: Are these strange footprints proof
that a giant, hairy beast roams the swamplands
of Southwest Arkansas?
Perhaps. But, of course,
many residents don't need convincing,
because they claim
to have actually seen the Fouke Monster
with their own eyes.
Back in the early '70s,
my friend Karen and I were riding
in the back of a pickup truck.
And all of a sudden,
we saw this thing step out from behind a big tree.
It was probably about three and a half feet
across the shoulders.
And it turned and took another step
and was gone into the plum thicket.
That's why we never went in the woods anymore after that,
'cause we... we knew how big it was,
and that thing could snap you like a twig.
DOYLE HOLMES: About 2004, I'm in a little canoe,
and I hear splashes.
I could see the image,
the silhouette of something with two legs
standing up.
This thing was hairy. It's big legs, big trunk.
It was very impressive-looking.
After a while, he just turned around
and just walked off in the marsh,
and I didn't see him again.
Now, I, at that point, never believed in the monster,
or that there was something else out there.
But my mind started getting open
to the possibility at that point.
SHATNER: For the residents of Fouke, Arkansas,
the possibility that an unidentified creature
could dwell in their midst is simply part of living
in this rural community.
And many believe that the monster is
not only real, but also quite dangerous.
The most infamous incident
that cemented the Fouke Monster's
menacing reputation occurred on May 2, 1971,
when it reportedly attacked a local man named Bobby Ford.
One of the most sensational
and well-known encounters with the Fouke Monster
originates at what's known as the Ford house.
On a Saturday night, the Ford family started
to hear something creeping around on the porch.
And all of a sudden,
this big, hairy hand came in through the window.
Bobby Ford went outside and shot at it.
(gunshots)
All of a sudden, something ran out
from beside the house and attacked him.
He barely managed to escape,
and whatever had happened shook him up so bad
that they ended up having to transport him
to the Texarkana Hospital,
where he was treated for shock and injuries
as a result of this attack.
The Fords found a strange footprint
which looked large and somewhat human-like,
yet had three toes.
And so, something very scary
and something very unexplainable happened.
SHATNER: The attack on Bobby Ford made headlines
around the country,
due to the sensational nature of the story,
and because shortly after it took place,
physical evidence was recovered
which seemed to corroborate the Ford family's claims.
Following the publicity around the Ford incident,
a farmer found a track line of footprints
that went across a soybean field,
and these tracks were roughly human-shaped,
yet had three toes.
And this was investigated
by the Miller County Sheriff's Office,
the game warden, wildlife officials,
and none of them could really explain
what the heck these footprints were.
So, that built credibility to what the Fords were saying.
SHATNER: Perhaps what's even more remarkable
than the fact that inexplicable, three-toed tracks were found
shortly after the Ford incident is that a plaster cast
of those footprints can still be seen today
in the Monster Mart.
SHATNER: While the outside world may be skeptical,
many people in Fouke, Arkansas remain utterly convinced
that their town is home to a monster
that is not the stuff of myth and legend,
but rather flesh and blood.
But there's another legendary monster
that inspires nothing but terror,
because it's said to be so evil
that it can drive ordinary people
to commit... unspeakable acts.
SHATNER: A group of psychiatrists
from the University of Miami School of Medicine publish
an intriguing and unsettling study.
Their report documents a rare mental illness
that is known as Windigo Psychosis.
BLACKBURN: Windigo psychosis is a kind of controversial condition
in which a person is believed to have
intense cravings for human flesh.
This could result from isolation,
lack of food, in which a person ends up
getting a condition of high anxiety
that just sort of comes out
in this bizarre cannibalistic craving.
SHATNER: While Windigo Psychosis continues to be studied
by medical professionals...
...the name of this disturbing condition
actually has its origins in Native American lore.
For centuries, when native people heard
the word "windigo," they understood it to be
not a form of mental illness
but rather a terrifying monster.
The windigo is a creature
that comes to us from Algonquin tradition.
So the Ojibwe People,
the Cree People right around the Great Lakes area,
in both the U.S. and in Canada.
This is an area of the world--
the Great Lakes region-- where winters are harsh.
And starvation-- that was a common thing.
The key theme to the windigo story is
that this is a creature that eats human beings.
"Windigo" is a word from the Algonquin language,
which translates into "evil spirit that devours mankind."
Descriptions of the creature vary from tribe to tribe,
but in general, the windigo is a very tall giant
with glowing red eyes,
rows of sharp teeth, and an extremely long tongue.
Many cultures believe that the windigo is
the most fearsome and deadly creature
ever to set foot in North America.
It has an insatiable hunger for human flesh.
The more it eats, the bigger it becomes.
SHATNER: A skeletal monster that becomes bigger and stronger
with each human it devours?
It's undoubtedly terrifying, to say the least.
But could the legend of the windigo actually be true?
Well, according to Native American tradition,
it is.
And perhaps the most haunting part
of the legend is that these hideous creatures were once
human beings.
BLACKBURN: According to the Native American stories,
the process for somebody becoming a windigo is either
an evil spirit possesses the person
and then becomes the windigo
or the person simply
transforms into the monster.
LEWIS: If you dreamed of the windigo,
that would welcome the windigo to come and attack you.
So, there were multiple ways
that you could be possessed by the windigo.
SHATNER: While Native American legends
of windigo transformations might be easily dismissed
as parables rather than real events,
that may not be the case.
Perhaps the most compelling argument
that windigo possession is in fact real can be found
by examining the horrific story
of a 19th century Cree trapper named Swift Runner.
The story of Swift Runner is one of the most gruesome
and heartbreaking tales of a person becoming a windigo.
During the winter of 1878 and '79,
Swift Runner took off with his family
to their winter hunting grounds.
But then the game disappeared.
Times were tough and food was scarce.
During this particularly brutal winter,
he actually killed and ate his wife and his children.
And according to the story,
Swift Runner been possessed by the spirit of the windigo.
LEWIS: Swift Runner said
an evil presence overcame him.
When authorities took him back to the grounds,
they discovered something out of a horror movie.
Bones thrown all about, skulls everywhere.
He was eventually arrested and sent to Edmonton,
and was hanged for being a windigo.
SHATNER: Did Swift Runner commit shocking crimes
because he was possessed by the windigo,
as some people believed at the time?
Or was he simply afflicted with an extreme form of psychosis,
as the modern medical community now claims?
Just like many tales regarding monsters of myth and legend,
the truth remains elusive.
The key defining feature of the windigo
is about cannibalism.
We can see that as a supernatural creature
or we can see it as a medical condition.
But as far as anyone can tell, the windigo psychosis
is pretty specific to that cultural area.
And there are things known as culture-bound conditions
that only happen to people from a given cultural background.
BLACKBURN: The fact that we have science
referring to the windigo--
it doesn't prove that the windigo exists,
but it just underscores the fact that the windigo
has transformed from Native American tales
to something we're talking about in modern times.
Is the windigo a real creature made of flesh and blood
or a menace that dwells within the human mind?
In either case, it embodies pure terror.
Not unlike a massive, winged beast
that, in 1909, incited such widespread panic
that a $100,000 reward was offered
to anyone who could slay it.
The hideous monster was known as...
the snallygaster.
SHATNER: The residents of this quaint
rural community are shocked to read an unsettling report
in a local newspaper named the Middletown Valley Register.
An eyewitness claims
to have seen a gigantic flying monster soaring in the sky.
The creature appeared to have bronze wings,
an enormous horned head and a 20-foot-long tail.
This hideous beast was referred to as the "snallygaster."
The first documented reports
of the snallygaster started in 1909.
And then it just kept getting printed again,
different sightings throughout the area,
mischief that it was causing.
It was described as this dragon-like creature
with a beak and tentacles and razor-sharp claws
and all kinds of terrifying things.
And then it escalated from,
"I saw it flying over the mountain" to
"It killed my chickens and destroyed part of my barn."
So it definitely escalated into a frenzy where people
were truly afraid.
LEWIS: In 1909, people of Frederick County
were seeing the snallygaster everywhere.
It was out in farm fields, it was crossing roads,
people were taking shots at it.
-(bird squawks) -(gunshot)
They would say that their bullets would bounce off
of its skin as though it had a scale-like armor.
SHATNER: Newspaper coverage about the snallygaster
terrorized people throughout Frederick County.
But the panic escalated
when a report surfaced that the winged freak
had actually killed
a human being.
There is one death blamed on the snallygaster.
It was a Middletown man named Bill Gifferson.
People found the body,
had no idea how this happened,
and eyewitnesses said that it was
a snallygaster that got hold of him in the night.
GERHARD: Allegedly, the gentleman was scooped up,
his jugular vein bitten by the creature,
drained of his blood,
and his body was discarded on a hillside.
COOPER: Bill Gifferson's death actually led
to more horrifying kind of media coverage,
telling people to stay inside and to be afraid
and watch out for it.
And especially once it got dark.
SHATNER: As reports of the snallygaster circulated,
the monster famously drew the attention
of a very powerful person who loved to hunt big game.
The 26th president of the United States:
Theodore Roosevelt.
McNEILL: Teddy Roosevelt
was ready to pick up his gun and go down and shoot it.
He was ready to cancel trips he already had planned
to take on this creature.
Now, in the end, Teddy Roosevelt said,
"I don't need to march to Maryland
and kill this thing myself anymore."
But it was a big deal when it happened.
SHATNER: It's easy to assume
that the frenzy surrounding the snallygaster
in 1909 was simply the result of mass hysteria.
But the history of this part of Maryland suggests
that the truth may be far more intriguing.
Because, during the 1700s,
German colonists living in this area
also reported a fearsome winged creature.
Although, back then,
the snallygaster had a slightly different name.
The idea of the snallygaster originated
with the German immigrants who made their way
to the Maryland area in the 1700s.
They had called this thing the Schneller Geist,
a fast spirit or quick ghost, as they called it.
Eventually, that became corrupted
into the "snallygaster."
It was thought to be a deadly monster.
And people feared it for a hundred and some years
before it was ever mentioned in any known written account.
SHATNER: It's fascinating to trace the history
of the Schneller Geist in colonial times
to the snallygaster in 1909.
However, you might think that as the 20th century progressed,
modern people would stop panicking
over this alleged monster.
But, in fact, it was just the opposite,
because in 1932,
it appears that the snallygaster returned
to terrorize this community.
In 1932, the sightings began again.
We had a lot more people going out and hunting
for the snallygaster.
News coverage made its way even further,
even down to Washington, D.C.
This was not a small, localized story.
This was a story that went big.
The Smithsonian offered $100,000
for proof of this creature's existence.
The Smithsonian Institute,
who, if they don't grant gravitas to a story,
I don't know who does.
SHATNER: What are we to make of the numerous occasions
in which the snallygaster has incited widespread panic?
Ultimately, it's hard to say whether sightings
of the monster were genuine encounters
or simply the product of mass hysteria.
But one thing is certain:
the snallygaster continues to loom large
in the history of Frederick County, Maryland.
When I moved to Maryland,
I started researching local folk legends,
and the snallygaster really caught my eye
because it was such a big part of history.
So I go to local businesses and paranormal conventions
and things like that, to just speak
about the folk history of Maryland
and how it ties into the snallygaster.
And even in modern times,
there are people that live out there
that hear and see strange things
that could be considered the snallygaster.
So, the fact that this legend has persisted throughout time
definitely means that it could still be around to this day.
SHATNER: Whether or not the snallygaster actually exists,
it remains fascinating from an historical perspective.
But halfway around the world, off the coast of Australia,
some believe that a giant sea monster lurks
in the depths of the ocean.
And remarkably, there may be scientific proof
of this formidable predator.
SHATNER: The deep waters of the Pacific Ocean just
off the eastern coast of the land down under
are world famous for deep sea fishing.
Here, fisherman regularly catch a variety of marine life,
including marlin, swordfish,
and even sharks.
But in March of 2019, an unusual incident took place
when a local fisherman hooked
a 550-pound Mako shark on his line.
As he hauled it into his boat, the only thing left...
was a severed head.
The rest of the massive shark's body
had apparently been devoured by an even larger--
and unidentified-- ocean predator.
Pictures went viral of this mako shark
just absolutely decimated from the head down.
There was so much mystery surrounding this
because looking at this picture of this mako--
this thing looks humongous.
It seriously did cause some speculation
as to what kind of mega predator could have caused
a bite this big
on such a huge shark.
SHATNER: What animal could be so large and so ferocious
that it literally ripped a shark to shreds?
As news outlets around the world reported
on the story, an extraordinary theory emerged.
Is it possible that this violent encounter
was the work of a real-life sea monster?
It may sound like an outlandish notion
but the surprising truth is
that this is not the first inexplicable attack
that has been recorded off the coast of Australia.
In fact, scientists have been actively searching
for an elusive and monstrous predator
in these waters since 2003.
In 2003, I was involved with Australia's
premier scientific organization, the CSIRO.
They had started a satellite tagging program to better
understand the movement patterns of great white sharks.
We tagged four or five great white sharks,
and one of them in particular,
Shark Alpha, was around nine, ten feet in length.
No small animal by any stretch of the imagination.
About two months later, the tag showed
this shark had been chased down
the continental shelf edge,
down to a depth of around 2,000 feet,
where it appeared to have been devoured by something.
And that something had an internal temperature of
around 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that temperature, regardless of where the tag went then,
the depth, that temperature stayed relatively constant.
It was a bubble of temperature showing
it was inside the stomach of something.
What that could be, we don't know.
But the proportions it would have to have
to eat a great white is colossal.
It would have to be massive.
You're really starting to stray
into the realm of the unbelievable.
So that leaves the kind of
uncomfortable notion of: what is it?
SHATNER: It's alarming to think that there could be a giant
sea monster lurking in the deep
that can swallow a great white shark whole.
Nevertheless, some scientists claim that
even more evidence of a fearsome sea creature
lies in the strange behavior of marine life
off the coast of Australia.
FANARA: In 2023, a number of pilot whales
beached themselves on the shores of Western Australia.
These whales were huddled in an unusual way.
People got some of these whales back out to the water,
but they came right back in and beached themselves again.
What the reason was remains a mystery.
One of the theories is that this pod of whales
was escaping something, was running away from something.
Now, if it was a great white coming towards a pod of whales,
there's power in numbers.
They wouldn't beach themselves over that.
So it couldn't have been just a regular great white shark.
There's no way.
But if it was something
about 65 feet long... maybe.
RIGGS: Is there something else that's in the food chain
that is literally frightening them to shore?
Is it possible that there is something
out here that we literally haven't seen before?
That's the question.
SHATNER: With so many anomalous incidents happening
in the waters off Australia, it naturally begs the question,
are they all connected?
Is there a giant sea monster that can bite
a mako shark in half,
swallow a great white whole,
and send a horde of whales fleeing for their lives?
The truth is that, for the moment, scientists
are at a loss for answers.
And for many, the possibility that there are
monstrous, undiscovered creatures in the unexplored
depths of the ocean should not be dismissed.
When you take into consideration that we literally
don't know very much about the ocean,
we only have mapped something like 20% of it,
and we've only seen something like one or two percent of it,
there could be things hiding out here
that we've never seen before.
SHATNER: If there is a nightmarish monster that inhabits
the ocean's depths, we can take comfort that it hasn't yet
claimed any human victims, at least as far as we know.
But there's another creature that is said to inhabit
the remote deserts of California,
which is even more frightening
because it has reportedly attacked
unsuspecting people.
SHATNER: This rustic town, located in the Mojave Desert,
is adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.
Each year, millions of people visit Joshua Tree
to hike through its twisting expanse of boulders
and oddly shaped trees.
But unfortunately many adventure seekers
who trek into this wilderness never return.
BLACKBURN: On occasion, human remains have been found
out in the area of the Joshua Tree National Park,
and these are presumably hikers
who have gone missing over the years.
So, while it's a beautiful, striking-looking place,
it's also very secluded and very dangerous.
SHATNER: It's easy to see how tourists hiking in Joshua Tree
could get lost and fall victim to the scorching
temperatures of this desert environment.
However, some locals believe that mysterious
deaths in the park are the work of
a frightening monster, who is referred to
as the Yucca Man.
The Yucca Man is seen in the southern regions
of the California area.
Sightings of the Yucca Man date back to at least the 1960s.
It's described as being very tall,
covered in hair over its entire body.
CHRISTOPHER BADER: The Yucca Man is what you might call a desert-based Bigfoot.
People go missing in the Yucca Valley
and its various campgrounds.
Part of the evolving lore of this creature is, perhaps it is
preying on humans when it finds people who are vulnerable.
SHATNER: The idea that a giant monster roams this remote area
and preys upon unsuspecting hikers is chilling.
But according to local lore, another fearsome encounter
involving the Yucca Man
allegedly took place at a nearby U.S. Marine Corps Base.
One of the more famous Yucca Man encounters occurred
in 1971 at the Twentynine Palms Marine Base.
A marine was on night duty
and encountered this eight-foot-tall
blond Sasquatch creature.
He then became unconscious, and when he was found,
his rifle was bent in half with no explanation.
He was unharmed, but it's pretty scary to think of a Marine being
knocked unconscious and a rifle being bent in half.
SHATNER: While it's impossible to verify the Yucca Man's
alleged run-ins with military personnel,
many locals are convinced that this dangerous creature
actually lives in the Mojave Desert.
And like other monsters that have been
widely reported by eyewitnesses
but not officially recognized by science,
the possibility of its existence
both tantalizes and terrifies.
We love believing in these creatures
and monsters because we love getting scared.
But we also love the unknown.
Not knowing if we've
discovered every species on the planet.
The mystery is the best part of it all.
McNEILL: We are often inclined to see belief in
fantastical creatures as somewhat irrational,
maybe fantastical.
Something that isn't scientific.
And yet there's news reports of people
interacting with creatures that maybe we can't identify.
That keeps it alive. It is not fundamentally proven false.
And that kind of monster is what we are continuing
-to be obsessed with. -(creature shrieks)
From frightening encounters with the Fouke Monster
to supernatural stories about the Jersey Devil
and panicked reports of the snallygaster,
it can seem like our world is literally teeming with monsters.
And while physical proof is hard to come by, the sheer number of
eyewitness accounts suggests that we share our planet with
dreadful creatures that remain unidentified
and... unexplained.
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