The Beast of Bladenboro

Naomi Aaron

The Beast of Bladenboro

In 1953, there were strange killings that were appearing in Bladenboro, North Carolina. Something was killing animals and leaving their bodies bloodless and skulls crashed. This killer was given the name “The Beast of Bladenboro” (Hotz). The first witness to see The Beast was a police officer, who described it as a black and large four legged animal. The second victims of The Beast were dogs. The dogs were ripped apart and found with not any blood in their bodies (Hotz). After this incident, numerous dogs were killed and their bodies torn. Most of the people who say they have seen The Beast described it as being dark and bigger than a dog (McCray). Everyone, including tourists, want to see The Beast of Bladenboro, so they could have a story to tell everyone. Police told townspeople, especially women and children, to stay inside their houses when the sun went down and to never walk outside alone (Hotz). One morning in 1954, a bobcat was caught in a large cage. Many people suspected that the bobcat was the Beast of Bladenboro, or wanted to believed that the bobcat was. Then the killings of 1953 and 1954, suddenly stopped and the tourists left Bladenboro, North Carolina. On June 15th, 2013 dogs were found dead with little to none blood in their bodies. Many people believed that this was the second coming of the Beast of Bladenboro (Mathews). The tourists came back to Bladenboro, North Carolina to look for the Beast. But, just as quick as it appeared, the killings stopped and the news channels left.

Works Cited:
Hotz, Amy. “The Beast of Bladenboro.” Starnewsonline.com. 27 October 2006. Web. 12 October 2015.

Mathews, Dana. “Has the Vampire Beast of North Carolina Returned? New Killings by Mystery Animal Match Classic Cryptid Case.” Weekinweird.com. 02 July 2013. Web. 12 October 2015.

McCray, Jonathan. “The Vampire Beast of Bladenboro.” Canofmystery.blogspot.com. Web. 12 October 2015.

Redfern, Nick. “The Beast of Bladenboro.” Monstrumathenaeum.org. Web. 12 October 2015.

Stroming, Jason. “The Beast of Bladenboro.” 2015.

Links for further research:
http://theoccultsection.com/2014/03/31/the-beast-of-bladenboro/Gives you images of what the Beast of Bladenboro might look like.

http://ads.bladenjournal.com/elizabethtown-nc/communication/newspaper/bladen-journal/2014-10-21-1325378-8th-annual-beast-of-bladenboro-festival-a-family-friendly-event-friday-oct-24-6-00-am-10-00-pm-saturday-oct-25-10-00-am-00-pm-classic-cruisers-car-show-free-horse-and-carriage-rides-dream-land-amusement-rides-friday-night-and-all-day- Talks about the annual Beast of Bladenboro Day in Bladenboro, North Carolina that people celebrate every year.

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Seekers-Society-Beast-Bladenboro-ebook/dp/B00B8W2JZS
http://www.wect.com/story/8432580/bladenboro-beast-is-on-the-prowl-on-the-history-channel
Example of when The Beast of Bladenboro was on the History Channel and many viewers watched and wanted to learn more about the Beast.
https://books.google.com/books?id=pcC6NW_NCK4C&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=beast+of+bladenboro&source=bl&ots=uGVvEhEsQq&siq=d4LYosRFagq2Nes7FM_Qi3N5yK0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBzgoahUKEwii-v7O8M_IAhVL6IAKHXpaDas#v=onepage&q=beast%20of%20bladenboro&f=falseThis article talks about animals including the Beast of Bladenboro that have been a mystery and only a few have claimed to see them.

The Chupacabra…fact or fake?

Author: Ashley Sharpe

Image from parazzare.

The chupacabra is a wretched, blood-sucking, vampire like creature who attacks helpless livestock animals in the dead of night. Ok, the chupacabra may not really be that severe, but it is a cryptid. A cryptid is a term used to refer to a creature whose existence is suggested but has never given scientific credit.

The chupacabra legend began sometime in the 1990’s when animals in Puerto Rico were turning up dead. The animals were killed by having their blood drained by what looked like a vampire bite to the neck. The owners of these animals said that the creatures were a grayish color, walked on its hind legs, and had vampire like fangs. Other locals described the creatures as looking like dogs.

Scientists concluded that these chupacabras were mearly coyotes with mites that had burrowed under the skin. This gave them the grayish mange look. So I ask you, do you believe in the chupacabra or do you believe that it is mearly a legend?

Works cited:

Viegas, Jennifer. "Chupacabra Mystery Solved." Discoverynews.com. Discovery Communications, LLC, 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.

“Definition of Cryptid”. Monstrous.com. n.p. n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.

http://parazzare.webs.com/photos/Mysteries/El%20Chupacabra.jpg

Links for further research:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggMWBHivne0

This is a video that gives more information about the chupacabra.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130912/NEWS/130912024/

This is an article in which a man claims he has killed a chupacabra.

The Living Life of Elizabeth Bathory

Author: Caysie Smith

            When you think of vampires, you probably do not think about the “Blood Countess” who began to lurk amongst the people in 1560 (Joshi 6). However, the people like Joshi who do know about Elizabeth Bathory acquaint her to be part of a very powerful family in Hungry (6). If you were to look up Elizabeth Bathory, you would not find anything about her being wise and adored by the people. In fact, you would be told Elizabeth was once a cruel aristocrat who, according to what you believe, may or may not have been a vampire. Although the decision to believe if vampires are real or not is up to the individual, it is known for certain that Elizabeth Bathory practiced being one (Joshi 6).  

Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory

As Elizabeth grew up she found that she enjoyed watching other people suffer in pain. Even as a child she liked to torture her pets (Bullock 239). Some believe she liked watching and conducting such horrors because she grew up having to cope with seizures and severe outrages (Melton 41). Since Elizabeth was very wealthy, she possessed a great amount of servants. Elizabeth took a certain interest in the girls who she was in charge of. Unfortunately, this interest was used for supplying Elizabeth in what she enjoyed most, which was torturing (Joshi 6). Elizabeth loved to bestow great amounts of physical pain on these girls from slapping, biting, cutting, and other sadistic actions. Sometimes Elizabeth would even settle for death of the peasant girls.

Elizabeth’s pleasures were taken up a notch when she was told that drinking virgin’s blood would keep her from aging. So, being such a ruthless woman, Elizabeth not only murdered and drank the girls’ blood, but also bathed it. Since Elizabeth came from such a powerful family, servant girls’ blood became too “weak” for her she began devising a plan on how to get virgin’s blood from other wealthy families.

Elizabeth decided to open up a school for aristocrats’ daughters. However, Elizabeth had no intentions of teaching these little girls anything. When word got out that the families’ daughters were missing, Elizabeth’s school was raided and all horrors were exposed (Joshi 6). The Blood Countess’s accomplices went to trial and were murdered by the government. However, Elizabeth was convicted and pleaded innocent of her crimes even after a journal was found in her hand writing a list of more than 650 names of all the girls she tortured and murdered.

               

 Works cited:

Bullock, David L. “Bathory, Elizabeth (1560-1614).” Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopdeia. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 2. Detroit: Yorkin Publications, 2000. 239-244. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.

“Elizabeth Bathory.” Angelfire.com. N.p, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

“Elizabeth Bathory.” Photograph. Evilladies. Evil Ladies, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2012.

Joshi, S.T. Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, California. Greenwood, 2011. Ebook.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopdeia of the Undead. Canton, Missiouri: Visible Ink Press, 2011. Print.

Sheppard, R.Z. “Gothic Whoopee.” Time 146.7 (August 1995): 70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

“Vampire.” Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Ed. J. Gordon Melton. 5^th ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 1620-1623. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.

Links for further research:

Evil Ladies
http://evilladies.com/serial-killers/countess-of-blood-elizabeth-bathory/ 
Articles and information about evil women in history

Weird Encyclopedia
http://www.weird-encyclopedia.com/Bathory-Elizabeth.php
 Articles and stories about many unsolved legends and myths

How Stuff Works
 http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/hungarian-countess-serial-killer1.htm
Research by Josh Clark about the life of Elizabeth Bathory as one of the world’s most brutal murderer

Zombies: What's the Fascination?

Author: Olivia Grace Burbage

 Cartoon of a zombie

Zombies. Why are we all so curious about zombies? More fiction than fact, the zombie is, at its barest minimum, the living corpse of a human body. But how can it be a living corpse? If “living” refers to the presence of life and “corpse” refers to the presence of death, how can the two words come together to describe one creature? That is exactly the point. Nothing can be both alive and dead – functioning yet not processing, thinking, or controlling itself – can it?

A zombie is a flesh eating, supposed to be dead human who acts on to its desire for flesh and nothing else. It does not think, remember, or rationalize. To kill a zombie, according to J. Gordon Melton’s The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, a sharp blow to the head should do it (831). That, of course, is not so simple when the zombie is desperately trying to eat you. They hang out in mobs, which makes destroying them even more difficult, and as far as their concern over keeping up appearances – it doesn’t exist. J. Gordon Melton describes them as decomposing human bodies wearing horrid expressions (831). Their hair isn’t combed, their clothes are tattered, and their bodies, trying desperately to decompose, eventually form gaping holes. I ask again, why are we all so curious about zombies?

Map of Haiti

So where did the zombie come from? Someone’s overactive imagination, perhaps? Actually, the zombie was first born out of Haitian voodoo. Before modern science came to the rescue with its current definition of the death-state – no response, no breathing, no heart-rate, and no brain activity – many people were buried alive. Haiti, with its limited technology and medical knowledge, buried many a live person. So when these allegedly dead humans came back from the dead, the scare must have been tremendous. During the 1980s, an author named Wade Davis encountered this first hand when he traveled to Haiti to perform some research (Hall). He actually met and carried on a conversation with a man who wore a scar on his face from the nail of his coffin. (Hall) Perhaps it was stories like this that led to the birth of the zombie.

Maybe, however, it was the use of a certain drug called tetrodotoxin, discovered in Haiti by ethnobotanists and anthropologists according to research done by Penn State's James Conroy. Tetrodotoxin is a “potent neurotoxin,” taken from the puffer fish. This poison is so deadly that the amount in one fish is enough to kill about thirty people (Conroy). Haitian witchdoctors used this drug, so zombies may have developed through its use. The problem with such a drug being the cause of zombification is that the amount given to a person would have to be so specific that it would shut down their mental processes, almost to the point of a coma, yet not kill them. Author of the book The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia Peter Dendle believes that a few rare times in history this phenomenon may have happened, but not enough to fear the coming of the zombie apocalypse (Conroy).

So, if zombies as we know them are not living bodies returning from a too early burial or the result of this powerful neurotoxin, what are they? Who can define and describe a zombie? Because zombies are mostly the result of overactive imaginations, they are incredibly difficult to define. I may feel confident in my description of a zombie, but someone else may disagree on nearly every point. But on one point, most every expert in the field agrees: zombies are fiction. What they are is not nearly as important as why we let them go to our heads.

Works Cited:Brand, Anton. “#9403566 – Cartoon of a green zombie hand coming out of the earth.”

Cartoon. 123RF. N.p. 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Oct. 2012.

 Conroy, James. ResearchPennState. The Pennsylvania State University. 29 Oct. 2007.

Web. 18 Oct. 2012.

Engdahl, F. William. “The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti.” Map. Global

Fluxguru. Blogger. Web. Friday, Feb. 4 2011. 22 Oct. 2012.

Hall, Carla. “Back From The Realm of The Zombies: Author Wade Davis’ Account Of

            His Voodoo Pilgrimages Haiti’s Zombies.” Washington Post. 7 Feb. 1986: 1+.

            Washington Post (Historical) (ProQuest). Web. 17 Oct. 2012

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Canton: Visible

Ink Press, 2011. Print.

Links for further research:

ABC Science

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/12/09/1260445.htm

Has fascinating research about actual cases of zombification in Haiti and gives more detail on the process.

Skeptoid

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4262

Also talks about Haitian zombies but from a more skeptical point of view. It goes into much more detail about the most widely known case of Haitian zombification

InevitableZombieApoclypse

http://www.inevitablezombieapocalypse.com/2009/03/defining-the-dead-what-is-a-zombie/

Offers a workable definition based on the opinion of the author of what a zombie actually is

Vlaislov III Dracula, Vlad the Impaler

Author: Ryan George

Vlad Dracula III, also called Vlad the Impaler, was born in Sighiorsa, Transylvania in the year 1431.His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon; an order committed to the preservation of the Christian faith against Islamic influences by any means required. In 1438, however, his father betrayed the order and joined forces with the Turks, allowing them to keep Vlad III and his brother Mircea as guarantees of Vlad II’s loyalty.

When, in 1447, Vlad II was killed by John Hunyadi for his Turkish allegiance, Vlad III was released. When he returned to Wallachia to take his place on the throne, he discovered the boyars (a word for a minor nobleman) of Tirgoviste held the throne and had murdered his brother. In 1456, the teenage Vlad finally gained his rightful throne after killing the boyars and the murderer of his father with the help of Turkish cavalry.

Thirteen years later, Vlad began his reign of blood during an Easter feast. He ordered the healthy boyars attending sent off to labor in the construction of a new castle on the Arges river, the unhealthy were impaled in a public display.

In addition to killing his enemies, Vlad also despised the weak. He held a feast to which all his subject were invited, under the rouse of wanting to feed all the poor in his kingdom. When the guests arrived, he had them fed and got them drunk, then asked who among them would like to go without care or hunger forever. Of course they all wanted to, so Vlad boarded up the mansion he used for the feast and had it burned to the ground, ridding himself of all the poor, ill, and handicapped in his land.

Vlad’s main weapon was, not surprisingly, psychological. In the year 1461, Vlad failed to assassinate the Turkish Sultan, who became enraged and vowed to kill Vlad. Vlad, when he discovered the failed plot, knowing he couldn’t defeat the Turkish army, retreated with his army to Tirgoviste. While he retreated, he burned every village he found, dumped the corpses of pigs into the wells to putrefy them, and left fields of impaled villagers.

The sultan, his army demoralized, retreated for a few years, and Vlad’s brother Radu led the Turkish forces to take his throne. Hungarian reinforcements, meant to aid Vlad, instead arrested him. They escorted him back to Hungary where he was interred until 1474. Vlad died in the year 1476, however, shortly after retaking his throne, in a battle with an ottoman lord who claimed the Wallachian throne.

There are many unknown tales of Vlad, which may or may not be true. One such tale was that, in order to win support for his country, Vlad placed a golden cup on a stand overnight unobserved. The next morning, the cup remained. His subjects knew that to take the cup and be caught meant a slow, certain death. Another tale holds that, when three foreign ambassadors came to visit Vlad, they were told to remove their hats. When they refused, their hats were nailed to their heads. A third is that, when Vlad had 30,000 of the merchants and nobles of the city of Barasov impaled, he held a feast among the forests of those people still alive on their poles in order to fully enjoy the experience. He noticed one of his own nobles holding his nose against the stench, and so the man was impaled above all the others.

There are other tales, and other vesions of those tales. For further study, I’ve included a few links below. 

Works Cited: 

Picture of The Impaler. Digital image. Listal. Listal, 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://i2.listal.com/image/4185404/600full-vlad-the-impaler.jpg>.

"Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476)." Vlad the Impaler. Historicaltimeline.com, 29 Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.

"Vlad Dracula/Tepes - The Impaler." Vlad Dracula/Tepes - The Impaler. Castle of Spirits, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

Evolutica. "Dracula." Vlad. Draculas.info, 5 Aug. 2006. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

Jenkins, Mark. Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2010. Print.

Wilde, Robert. "Vlad the Impaler / Vlad III Dracula / Vlad Tepes." About.com European History. About.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

Links for Further Research:

http://www.vladtheimpaler.com/vlad_the_impaler_bio_003.htm A site about Vlad in particular, seems to have a few historical sources.
http://www.castleofspirits.com/vlad.html
A site about creepy things. Fairly corny, but useful for the tales about Vlad.
http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/famouspeople/a/Vlad-The-Impaler.htm
A site which gives the history of Vlad the Impaler in an unbiased way. It may have been translated from another language, as the wording is, at times, a bit off. 

The Vampire Beast of Bladenboro

Author:  Jonathan McCray

 Previously, the small town of Bladenboro encompassing approximately 2.2 square miles of land, was an unknown shadow of the southeastern piedmont of North Carolina.  That changed dramatically during the winter 1953-1954.  In North Carolina Ghost and Legends, it explained that a local farmer reported seeing a huge cat-like creature that mauled one of his dogs and dragged it into the woods four days after Christmas of 1953 (“The Beast of Bladenboro”).  Several other mysterious attacks followed including an attack on New Year’s Eve where two dogs were killed and another one a day later in a farm named Woodie Storms (Weaver).  After New Year’s, a young wife went on the front porch and discovered a four foot tall animal “stalking” towards her.  Frightened, she ran into the house, slammed the door and summoned her husband.  Later that night, while surveying the premises, he later found unusual paw prints in the dirt (Administrator). Local theater owner and mayor W.G. Fussell decided that the scare needed more publicity.  He reported the beast to larger, state newspapers and it caught fire.  Reports on the newspaper went public the week after Christmas 1953 saying that the monster crushed the skull and sucked the blood out of its victims.  These sensational reports soon caught headlines and the attention of hunters eager to get a shot at this beast.

“Vampire Beast of Bladenboro.” 

 

With the attacks of dogs and livestock during the winter of 1953 and into 1954, came the terror of the citizens of Bladenboro at large.  Women and children stayed inside the house while men cautiously went about their business armed with a weapon (Hoyt).  Then just as suddenly as the mysterious attacks and sighting started, they stopped.  The creature vanished without leaving a trace.

“Then in September of 2007, the mysterious attacks started up again across a much larger area.  Similar attacks on dogs and goats have been reported in North Carolina along a 200 mile track including the towns of Greensboro, Lexington, Bladenboro, and Bolivia.  The methods of attacks have been similar to those reported in 1954 (Adminstrator).”

The History Channel visited Bladenboro in 2008 for an edition of MonsterQuest.  After exhuming the remains of some of the canine victims and examining them, they concluded that the dogs died from blood lost and severe spinal trauma.  Given the nature of the evidence, they said a vampire-like animal could have not attacked the dogs of the livestock (Administrator).  People still believe that the beast is still in existence to this day, and the people of Bladenboro hold a festival every year to attract more tourists and to bring more attention to the area.  The beast has certainly brought a  tradition to the town of Bladenboro.

Works Cited:

 

Hotz, Amy. “The Beast of Bladenboro.” StarNewsOnline.com. Star News Online, 27 October 2006. Web. 16 October 2012.

Administrator.  “The MonsterQuest Search for the ‘Vampire Beast.”  The Monster Site. N.p.,

            2 February 2010. Web. 12 October 2012

“The Beast of Bladenboro.” North Carolina Ghost Stories and Legends. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 October 2012

Weaver, Jefferson. “Coverage of "beast" became real monster for Bladenboro” BoroBeast. Loren Coleman. 1 September 2006. Web. 9 October 2012.

“Vampire Beast of Bladenboro.”  Photograph. Webshots. 2008. Web. 19 October 2012

Links for further research:

You Tube website  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVGX7McTX8s 

Contains the episode of MonsterQuest featuring the beast

Star News Online 

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20061029/NEWS/61027007 

Contains an article written for the Beast of Bladenboro

My Reporter
http://www.myreporter.com/?p=781 
Contains more information on the beast of Bladenboro.