Werewolf stories, p.10
Werewolf Stories, page 10
August 3 was also the date on which yet another report was made, this time near Deatrick and South Clinton Streets. The single witness, a man, was making his way to the Henry Hotel at around one o’clock in the morning when he developed a deep and unsettling feeling of being followed. Such was his level of terror that after racing to the police station, he spent the rest of the night in the hotel lobby, fearful of what might be waiting for him should he dare to venture outside and into the darkness of the city.
The staff of the Crescent News knew a good story when they heard it, hence the August 4 article, “One Wolfman Report Logged.” The story was growing by the day. The Blade’s article reflected the police’s attitude on the matter: “Werewolf Case in Defiance Not Viewed Lightly by Police.”
In a city the size of Defiance, it didn’t take long before just about everyone had heard of the werewolf in their midst. One such citizen was a woman whose home backed onto the railroads. She was someone very keen to speak to the police when word of the potentially deadly attacks got around. For three nights running, the woman informed the police, she was woken up by the sound of someone violently turning back and forth the knob to her front door. Someone, or something, was trying to get in the house. Of course, it could have been a burglar, except for one thing: on each occasion, a low and disturbing growl could be heard directly outside.
Police Chief Don F. Breckler urged calm and told the citizens of Defiance not to try to take on the monster themselves but to dial 911 immediately and let the police handle the situation. He added: “We don’t know what to think. We didn’t release [the details of the story] when we got the first report about a week ago. But now we’re taking it seriously. We’re concerned for the safety of our people.”
Wearing a werewolf mask is not a difficult task. Covering one’s entire body with fake hair would be far less easy.
It was also the police who suggested a down-to-earth explanation for the weird affair: that the creature may have been a burglar wearing a werewolf mask to hide his real identity. Not an impossible scenario, but it’s important to note that of those who saw the thing at close quarters, all were unanimous on one point: it was covered in hair from head to toe. Wearing a werewolf mask is not a difficult task. Covering one’s entire body with fake hair would be far less easy. No wonder many scoffed at the idea of a masked burglar on the loose. Even the police noted this, admitting that, whether the mysterious entity was werewolf or burglar, “there is a lot of natural hair, too.” Quite!
When the story reached the media, other people came forward, all claiming that the man-monster had tried to force its way into their homes, always in the early hours, and sometimes leaving deep and long scratch marks on the front doors, which the police were careful to photograph and add to their quickly growing werewolf file.
As the publicity grew, other railroad workers — also working night shifts — came forward to say that although they had not been attacked by the creature, they had certainly seen it. But, for the most part, they had previously stayed silent for fear of ridicule. By now, however, no one was laughing.
It was as a result of this collective body of data that the police were able to put together a composite picture of the sinister shape-shifter. By most accounts, it stood at a height of around eight feet. The hair on its body was coarse-looking and short. And the creature was clothed, which led many to believe the inevitable: that this was a man who, whether by choice or not, was able to take on the form of a werewolf. Of course, the fact that the clothes — jeans and a shirt but no footwear — were always ragged and torn and that the beast was around eight feet in height provoked a theory that in his normal form, the man was of regular height and build, but when the terrifying transformation took place, he grew in size and burst out of his clothes in a style very much befitting Marvel Comics’ Incredible Hulk!
Nighttime and early-morning encounters continued into August, as did sightings of the huge beast in the vicinity of the railroad tracks. And then, as mid-August arrived, the beast was gone, never to return. Thus ended what was, without doubt, the weirdest saga in the history of Defiance, Ohio.
Sources:
Doc Conjure. “The Defiance OH Werewolf.” The Demoniacal, October 24, 2012. http://thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-defiance-oh-werewolf.html.
Redfern, Nick. Personal investigations, 2006.
Stegall, James. “Werewolf Case in Defiance Not Viewed Lightly by Police.” The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), August 2, 1972.
“Wolfman of Defiance.” 2016. Accessed March 25, 2023. http://www.oocities.org/zoomar1/wolfman.html.
Detecting Werewolves
It’s not as easy to detect the werewolves among us as it is to hunt down the vampires lurking in the shadows. Perhaps the most essential difference between the two creatures of the dark side is the fact that the werewolf is not a member of the undead. When lycanthropes are not in the throes of transformation precipitated by the rays of the full moon or the wearing of the magic wolf belt, they walk about the bustling streets of the city or the pleasant country lanes appearing as any normal human. Werewolves have no need to scamper off to a coffin before the rays of the rising sun begin to burn welts into their hide. Werewolves can don shades, lie out on the sunny beach, and work on their tan if that should be their pleasure.
Mirrors offer no problem for werewolves. They can straighten their neckties or apply lipstick without worrying if they are casting a reflection.
Crucifixes are of no concern. Werewolves might even wear the sign of the cross themselves, attend church services, and perhaps even serve as members of the clergy.
Some old traditions do offer certain advice when it comes to detecting the werewolves among us. As early as the seventh century, Paulos Agina, a physician who lived in Alexandria, described the symptoms of werewolfism for his fellow doctors:
Pale skin.
Weak vision.
An absence of tears or saliva, making the eyes and tongue very dry.
Excessive thirst.
Ulcers and abrasions on the arms and legs that do not heal, caused by walking on all fours.
An obsession with wandering in cemeteries at night.
Howling until dawn.
Many old traditions insist that the hands may provide the biggest giveaway. Check the palms of a suspected werewolf, and if his palms are covered with a coarse, stiff growth of hair, you had better avoid his company on the nights of the full moon. And while you would rightfully argue that any reasonably intelligent werewolf would be careful to shave the palms — especially a female lycanthrope — if you are observant you would be able to notice that the flesh of their palms would be rough, perhaps even a bit scaly.
While a unibrow alone shouldn’t be cause for alarm, it is on the list of signs that some scholars suggest for detecting werewolves in our midst.
Another certain sign of the werewolf, according to a vast number of ancient traditions, lies in the extreme length of the index finger. If you should notice a man or woman with an index finger considerably longer than the middle finger, you have quite likely spotted a werewolf.
Then there is the matter of the eyebrows growing together. If they should meet in the center of the forehead, there is cause for genuine concern that you have encountered a werewolf. Once again, if it is obvious that the area is regularly shaved, beware of walks in the moonlight with this individual.
A good many traditions regard the pentagram, the five-pointed star, as a symbol of Witchcraft and werewolves. Some werewolf hunters of old believed that the sign of the pentagram would be found somewhere on a lycanthrope’s body, most often on the chest or the hand. It was also believed that the shadow of the pentagram would manifest on the palm or forehead of the werewolf’s next victim and would be visible only to the monster’s eyes.
And speaking of the eyes of the werewolf, while they appear normal at all other times, when the curse is upon them, their eyes glow in the dark, most often with a reddish hue.
Perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek, the following test for detecting the werewolves among us was posted on Tina’s Humor Archives on the Internet. Although some of the items on the list are actually traditional determinants in the folklore of werewolves, others are a bit off the wall. Allegedly compiled by a scholar who has been studying werewolves for 50 years, here, edited and condensed, is Dr. Werner Bokelman’s test for determining if your friend or neighbor is a werewolf:
Werewolves have extra glands that emit unpleasant odors. Therefore, if your friend or neighbor smells like a mixture of stale hay and horse manure, he or she could be a werewolf.
Doctors in Denmark have declared that a certain mark of the werewolf is evidenced when he or she possesses eyebrows that meet in the middle of the forehead.
The arms, legs, and bodies of werewolves are extremely hairy, especially the backs of their hands and the tops of their feet.
Werewolves reach sexual maturity five years ahead of normal humans, so keep an eye on that neighbor’s child who seems unusually attracted to children of the opposite sex at the age of seven or eight.
Check the ring finger of both of the suspected werewolf’s hands. Experts have determined that a long ring finger is a certain sign of a werewolf.
Does your neighbor own large pets that are always disappearing, only to be replaced by others? Because werewolves have demanding appetites that require large amounts of raw flesh, they may be devouring their pets.
If you hear strange howling and moaning sounds at night in the neighborhood where there is a full moon but no dogs around, you are quite likely living next to a werewolf.
Have you noticed his or her skin slowly changing color? It may take a few hours for a werewolf to transform from human to animal form, and the first sign of the coming metamorphosis is a gradual darkening of the skin.
If you spot your neighbor wandering around graveyards and mortuaries and often appearing at the scene of fatal accidents, he or she may be a werewolf scouting for fresh corpses.
If you have the courage to be near a werewolf in the daylight, you might follow him into a public restroom to see if his urine is a deep purple in color — another sure sign of a werewolf.
Sources:
Douglas, Drake. Horror! New York: Collier Books, 1966.
Hurwood, Bernardt J. Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghouls. New York: Ace Books, 1968.
Noll, Richard. Bizarre Diseases of the Mind. New York: Berkley Books, 1990.
Diana the Huntress
Throughout the Middle Ages, Diana, the goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, ruled all the dark forests of Europe. Some scholars have declared that the Inquisition was instituted to stamp out all worship of Diana in Europe. The book of Acts in the Bible is filled with the struggles of the early apostles to counteract the influence of Diana, whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” the tradespeople of Ephesus shouted at Paul and his company, setting in motion a riot (Acts 19). To the members of the Christian clergy, Diana was the Queen of the Witches. To the infamous Witch-hunter and Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, Diana was Satan.
The goddess Diana (Artemis to the Greeks) was the deity of the hunt and the wilderness. She had a twofold nature, being both the Lady of Wild Creatures and Queen of Heaven, but also the Huntress and Destroyer.
From ancient times (to the Greeks, she was Artemis), Diana was the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of Creatures, the Huntress, the Destroyer. While the early Christian fathers felt great satisfaction when the peasantry bent their knee to worship Mary as the Queen of Heaven, in truth, the majority believed that they were really worshipping Diana, the great and powerful goddess of old.
Diana, with her pack of hunting dogs, her stature as the Mother of Animals, the Lady of Wild Creatures, was the patron goddess of those who chose the life of the outlaw werewolf and all others who defied conventional society. She has remained the goddess of the wild woodlands and hunting throughout most of the Western world.
Sources:
Hazlin, W. E. Dictionary of Faiths Folklore. London: Studio Editions, 1995.
Spence, Lewis. An Encyclopedia of Occultism. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1960.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper Row, 1983.
Dog People
The Inuit have a legend about the Adlet, the Dog People, the offspring of a great red dog and an Inuit woman. This beast/human marriage produced five ugly weredogs and five regular dogs, and the disgusted mother set them all adrift on rafts.
The five dogs eventually reached the shores of Europe and begat among them the various white ethnic groups. The weredogs evolved into horrible, bloodthirsty monsters who still haunt the northern icelands in search of human flesh.
Sources:
Larousse Dictionary of World Folklore. New York: Larousse, 1995.
Dogman/Cryptid Conference, Tennessee, 2022
The term “Dogman” is occasionally used as a modern-day name for the centuries-old werewolf. That’s right: the creatures that you thought could never live … do live. For decades I’ve followed stories of the werewolf type, and from my perspective, the phenomenon is all too real. Of course, the mystery provokes rolling eyes and shaking heads. Nonetheless, in 2022, a conference on the history of the hairy creatures was held in Paris, Tennessee.
A similar event, called the Dogman Symposium, had taken place in 2016 in Defiance, Ohio, organized by cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard. Among the displays there was a Dogman figure used in the indie movies Dogman (2012) and Dogman 2: The Wrath of the Litter (2014) by Traverse City, Michigan, filmmaker Rich Brauer.
The more recent 2022 event was organized by Josh Turner, who has had his very own Dogman encounter. When he invited me to speak at his Dogman/Cryptid Conference, I didn’t just say “Yes!” I said, “Hell, yes!” Other speakers joined in, a date was set in August, and the Dogman was unleashed.
Author Nick Redfern poses with a head from indie movies Dogman (2012) and Dogman 2: The Wrath of the Litter (2014) at the Dogman Symposium of 2016.
The other speakers were ace cryptozoologists — and good mates — Ken Gerhard and Lyle Blackburn, skin walker expert David Weatherly, and just about all the key Dogman investigators there are: Ron Murphy, D. A. Roberts, Joedy Cook, Barton Nunnelly, Bettina Moss, Elijah Henderson, Tony Merkel, Jay Tucker, and Josh Nannochio.
Saturday, August 13, 2022, was a great day. Attendees and participants embraced the mystery, the high strangeness, and the many lectures and displays related to Dogman/cryptid/werewolf phenomena. Things began with cool words for Linda Godfrey (1951–2022), without whom, in all likelihood, the Dogman phenomenon would not be what it is now. Linda really launched the phenomenon in the 1990s, and without her, we wouldn’t have what we do now: masses of data, thick case files that Linda generously shared with the Dogman/Cryptid Conference, and much more. Soon the crowd of around 300 people took to their seats. Josh hit the stage and introduced the speakers. And we had liftoff, so to speak.
Theories abounded among the participants as to what the Dogmen might be. It’s not surprising, because the creatures are fascinating in multiple aspects: the paranormal, the supernatural, and even the occult. Some are sure the beasts are a form of large wolf that can walk upright. The Dire Wolves, for example, are said to be large and powerful wolves that lived thousands of years ago and were more monster than animal. Another idea is that at least some Dogmen might actually be hairless bears. (Have you ever seen a photo of a grizzly bear without its hair? It looks downright creepy!) There is also the theory that people who think they’ve seen Dogmen have really encountered Bigfoot creatures. Of course, the fact that wolves have muzzles and the Bigfoot beasts don’t provokes some controversy.
David Weatherly, an expert on the skin walker phenomenon, shared his thoughts about the Dogman. David’s words included matters relative to the trickster phenomenon, the shape-shifting Djinn, the fear provoked by the creatures, and the skin walkers’ notable ability to run on both two legs and four. Both the skin walkers and the Dogmen can provoke illness in people — a sinister phenomenon. More impressive: some of these creatures have been seen running around up to 60 miles per hour. David elaborated on the matter of shape-shifting, including ties to such animals as the crow, the raven, the were-hyena, and multiple other animals that seem to be part flesh-and-blood and part paranormal.
I found it fascinating there was a kind of split between some of the Dogmen enthusiasts. The paranormal angle kept surfacing, as did the theory that these creatures were simply unknown animals that were able to hide themselves to amazing degrees. Burial rites, ancient mounds, and Witches all came into play as the picture of the Dogman grew. One of the questions put to me was whether the Dogmen can jump portals and dimensions. I have no issues answering yes! I’ve heard of many cases that seem to allow these creatures to exist in our world and what I can only term “elsewhere.”
Here is one fascinating issue that I must share with you. I had a very weird experience back in 2002. I was in a state of sleep paralysis in my bedroom. As I believe that sleep paralysis has an external, supernatural aspect to it (rather than it being due to the mysteries of the mind), I feel it’s relevant to share the story here. I had gone to bed and then had an extremely curious encounter. It was around 4:00 a.m., and I was awake and yet not awake. And I couldn’t move. I was suddenly aware that something was slowly heading down the corridor of my duplex that linked the bedroom to the living room.
