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It was a
quiet night for two

lovers looking to get away.

A full moon had risen, giving
light to their hideaway

on a deserted back road.

They were all alone,
just like they wanted it.

But before these
enamored youngsters

got too ahead of
themselves, something

interrupted their night.

Despite her wishes,
he gets out to see

what could have made the sound,
leaving her alone in the car.

As the minutes
tick slowly by, she

begins to wonder what could
be keeping him for so long.

As she turned around to
see what had happened,

she could hear the steps of
whatever it was approaching.

As it stepped into the
light, she couldn't believe

the horror she saw there.

But then, looking down, she
saw the worst thing of all.

For as long as there have been

humans, there have been stories.

Stories meant to make sense
of the chaos of the world

and give meaning to some
of its worst elements.

Gods and heroes arise
from these tales,

giving character to
the weather, the trees,

and even our deepest desires.

Few of these stories
persist to this day.

Science having
replaced the old gods.

Yet, even still, anomalies
bleed through the fabric

of our modern narratives.

Bigfoot, Dogman, the
chupacabra, these creatures

that haunt our
nightmares come and go

as they please, seemingly
with no explanation,

as either flesh and
blood or something else.

There are few stories that
capture the imagination,

like that of the Goatman,
with the upper body of a man

and the head of a goat.

The creature stalks the halls
of American folklore, lurking

on dark backroads, waiting
to attack hapless victims

who venture down Lovers' lanes.

So prolific are his deeds
that the Goatman has been seen

in virtually every state,
waiting for his chance

to strike from his
hiding place, leaving

a bloody mess in his wake.

The half-man, half-goat beast
has many alleged origin stories,

but none more encompassing than
that of the Goatman of Prince

George's County, Maryland.

The Maryland
Goatman is a figure

that was first discovered,
quote unquote, in the 1970s--

I want to say 1971--

when a reporter ran across
a paper that had been filed

with The Maryland
Folklore Archive

that talked about
a Goatman figure

that occupied an area around
Prince's County, Maryland.

You know the different
iterations of the Goatman

itself, its origins and so
forth, were pretty varied.

But essentially,
you had a Goatman

in that area that had
been blamed for the death

and dismemberment
of dogs, would often

terrorize couples
that had been parked

in a Lovers' Lane-type area.

And over time, different
origin stories were

proposed for this creature.

The most popular revolves
around a place known

as the Beltsville
agricultural Research Center,

which is a facility about 10
miles from Fletchertown Road,

where, allegedly, they
do different types

of experimentation
and development

of new types of livestock
breeds, different types

of cows and pigs and so forth.

And so there's a story that
there was a mad scientist there

who was either experimenting
with combining human and goat

DNA, or there was some
type of horrible accident

to which this scientist
actually evolved into one

of these goat-like creatures.

The Maryland goat man
is an interesting case,

because it's one of those
goat man urban legend stories

that has a variety of
explanations for it.

Most of these Goatman stories
have some kind of myth

that seems to be at
the root of them,

trying to explain
where they came from

and how they got started.

And the Maryland Goatman is one
that has different explanations,

depending on who you ask and
what the version of the story is

And that, to me, is what sticks
out about this case, the most,

because you have
the version where

it was a circus
sideshow attraction that

escaped from its confinement.

In some versions, after
lightning struck its cage.

There's the theory
that it could be

the result of a goat
farmer crossbreeding

with one of his own goats.

The really interesting
version to me is that--

A doctor, Steven Fletcher,
was experimenting with the DNA

of an assistant,
along with goats,

and there was a terrible
accident that caused him to be

transformed into this human-goat
hybrid creature that has

since terrorized
the locals around

Beltsville and Bowie, Maryland.

The interesting
thing about this one

is that the USDA actually had
to make a public statement

saying, this is
factually not true,

because the rumors
had spread so far

and the story had picked
up so much traction.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
Though

clouded in various science
fiction origin stories,

to residents of Bowie, the
Maryland Goatman was very real.

Just one week following the
initial article breaking

the story of the
Goatman, three teens

heard strange noises coming
from the woods near their homes.

One even reported
seeing the animal,

describing it as six feet
tall, covered in hair,

and standing on two legs.

It made a high-pitched sound.

The following morning,
they discovered

their puppy was missing.

After searching, they found her
body near some railroad tracks,

with the head laying
a few yards away.

The story spread like
wildfire, and soon teens

all over Prince George's County
were traveling to Fletchertown

Road in an attempt
to have an encounter

with the Goatman of Bowie.

So great was the pandemonium
throughout the county,

the story began to
grow outside the state,

and soon, everyone knew
the Maryland Goatman.

As the story spread,
people attributed

more and more incidents
to the goat-like entity.

There was a young couple
in Maryland who were recently

married, and they were
driving home late one night

and they had a flat tire.

So the husband steps
out and tells the wife,

please wait here.

I'm just going to go
get a tire, get help.

I'll be right back.

Hours go by, and nothing.

Next thing you know, she
leans out of the window

and sees a
seven-foot-tall Goatman

standing on the car,
bent over, and staring

down into the window.

She rolls up the window,
terrified, starts screaming,

and just eventually
the Goatman walks away.

She passes out out of
exhaustion and fear,

wakes up the next
morning, still no husband.

But it's daylight
out, so she decides

that she's going
to go for a walk

and see if she can
track down her husband.

She got about 40 feet
away from the car

and found the remains
of her husband.

Head had been completely
ripped off, most of the limbs

were severely mangled.

I've tried really,
really hard to dig

up irrefutable proof on this.

I've yet to be able to find any
actual police reports on this.

And this is a troublesome
part when it comes to Goatman,

is there's a lot of
stories, but they're usually

told from person to person.

There's not really a whole lot
of actual documentation on it.

The presence of Goatman stories,

like the one previously shared,
do not exist in a vacuum.

Commonly referred to as Lovers'
Lane Stories, these tales

take place in areas
where people go

to be intimate with each other
in a semi-public setting,

and there is certainly
no shortage of them.

It's usually some
remote parking spot

on the outskirts of town,
down by the railroad tracks,

under the bridge, someplace
where they can have

a limited amount of privacy.

Also, of course, people go
to drink and tell stories.

The most famous legends
besides the Goatman legend

is the dead boyfriend
legend, where, of course,

the teenage couple are
getting intimate in a car,

there's a noise.

The boyfriend goes
out to investigate

and he doesn't come back.

The girlfriend goes to
check what happened,

and he's usually hung from
a tree limb above the car.

And then, of course,
there's the hookman

legend, that's the other
famous Lovers' Lane legend.

A couple parked
out on a Lovers' Lane.

The radio is still on, and
there's a special bulletin

that's made about an
escaped convict who

is menacing the
neighborhood, in which

this couple finds themselves.

And about the same time,
there's a loud scratching that's

heard on the side of the
vehicle on the-- typically,

the guy is driving, then the
gal is in the other seat,

and it's on her side of the car.

And some detail that comes
through on the radio.

Is that the escaped
convict in question

has one hook for a hand.

And this is all too
much for both of them,

they freak out and drive
away at a fast rate of speed.

Getting back to her
home, where she's safely

deposited back in the
friendly confines.

But assuming that he's at
least somewhat of a gentleman,

he comes around the other side
of the car to open it for her,

and there, hanging on the
handle of the car door,

is a disembodied hook.

So making it that the sound that
they heard was evidently this

escaped convict scratching
at the car, trying to get in.

I think we have
to consider the possibility

that we sometimes have a
confluence of different types

of urban legends or campfire
tales that come together,

particularly in rural
areas, and particularly

in these remote
Lovers' Lane areas,

where teenagers go and park at
night, where they like to spook

each other and tell stories.

So at some point the Goatman
and the serial killer, the hook,

those ideas kind of converged.

Folklorists
actually call him a Lovers' Lane

Monster because his legends
exist almost exclusively

in places like this where
teenagers or someone

of the like gathering.

There's a lot of sightings that
happen in locations that aren't

like this, where there's
no Goatman legend,

but people say they
see creatures like it.

So I think a lot of the
locations where he's

near railroad tracks
or bridges could

just be the more sensational
folklorist-type stories.

The fact that Goatman is
associated with Lovers' Lane

areas, I think, speaks to
his sort of folkloric role

as a kind of agent of judgment.

And you see this
playing out in a variety

of ways, like in
the case of the Pope

Lick Monster and the Trestle.

He's an agent of
judgment in the sense

that he's punishing you
for bad decision making.

It's a bad idea to climb out
on this active train trestle

when you could get run
down by a freight train

that you can't possibly escape.

Well, in the case
of a Lovers' Lane,

it's not quite the
same thing, but you

are very much capable
of poor decision making

out there in Lovers' Lane.

And maybe a couple drinks in and
you're out there with your loved

one, and one thing
leads to another,

and here comes the Goatman
to be that agent of judgment,

to say, hey, kids,
you break it up

unless you want some unintended
consequences to deal with.

Here, let me pound
on your car hood

to make sure that you
get out of here in time.

So I think he does
play that function.

If a person is entertaining
Goatman as sort

of an actual flesh
and blood cryptid,

then there's also the
added dimension that most

Lovers Lanes are remote.

You're going out there
because you don't want to be

bothered in the first place.

So where are you
going to seek out?

Well, it's not going
to be a populated area.

It's going to be a Lovers'
Lane, a darkened area,

and a place in near the woods
that you hope is not detectable.

And those are often
those liminal areas

that are also associated with
all manner of cryptid sightings.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
The Goatman

is not always relegated to
the Lovers' Lane, however.

Traveling from the East
Coast, another Goatman

legend emerges, this time in the
sun-baked hills of California.

So the Billiwhack Ranch is a
former dairy farm that's located

in Santa Paula, California.

It is home to, supposedly,
the Billiwhack Monster,

a humanoid-looking creature
that has Goatman-like features,

giant horns, and is reported
to even carry around a club,

that's violent in nature,
tends to attack people that

come across it, and the
cryptid story of this

is a little bit more
mysterious than what

you typically get in most
original cryptid stories.

It has
numerous parallels

to the Goatman of
Maryland, and what I mean

is that Ventura, California
is the basic area

involving Billiwhack.

There's a Billiwhack farms that
became established at that time

that it wasn't
immediately evident,

but as time elapsed and
people dug into the history

of this location,
that facility, there

appeared to have
been possible CIA

ties to at least the person who
was instrumental in founding

the farm site.

So August Rubel is
an interesting guy.

He's a pretty smart guy.

One of the things that
comes up about him

pretty often is that
he's from Europe.

He's Swiss.

So this is a guy that majored
in chemical engineering.

This is something that's
going to come up in the Billy

whack monster story.

But he also has apparent
ties to the OSS, which

is a precursor to the CIA.

It stands for the Office
of Strategic Services.

So this is an interesting guy.

He has government ties,
chemical engineering ties,

and now he's
associated with what

is supposedly a humanoid monster
that roamed around his ranch.

Now, the original story
involves August Ruble, and with

his chemical
engineering background,

was trying to manufacture a
super soldier using goat DNA,

and building an
indestructible force that can

be utilized in World War II.

That's story A.

Story B is that ruble
was more of almost

like a James Bond-type
of character,

where he went off
during World War II

and rounded up Nazi
scientists that Hitler

was utilizing to build his own
version of a super soldier.

And he rounded those guys
up, brought them back

to Santa Paula, to
the Billiwhack Ranch,

and utilized utilize
their knowledge to build

the Billiwhack Monster.

And at some point,
the monster escaped,

killing many of the
scientists, and now

runs free in the Aliso Canyon
near the Billiwhack Ranch.

And so
what you had were

a couple scattered tales of a
Goatman-type figure being seen.

In one case, by hikers
who felt that they

were being trailed by a
half-man, half-goat figure.

And so that traces
back to this idea

of a pseudoscientific
origin for the Goatman,

in that regard, that
I see the parallels

between Ventura, California and
Maryland, as far as origins go.

It's one of the
oldest ones that

I've seen reported
in newspapers,

I think goes back to the '50s.

A lot of the Goatman stories
cropped up in the '70s, at least

in papers.

They may have been talked
about by locals many,

many, many decades before that.

The oldest sighting
I could find dates

back to 1912, seen by a
herd of cowboys wandering

the Aliso Canyon area.

There wasn't much more to it.

Finding the actual cited
sources to that story

were a little tough to find.

I couldn't really do it.

It was a lot of just
copy and paste, copy

and paste, which is
pretty common in this era

with the internet.

So that would actually predate
August Rubel even purchasing

the Billiwhack Ranch, setting up
his dairy farm infrastructure.

And that would
actually more suggest,

too, the Billiwchack
Monster predating

any of these World War II ties.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
Both

the story of the
Goatman of Bowie

and the Beast of Billiwhack
feature genetic experimentation

as explanations
for their origins,

but few people would give
that theory any merit.

As far as these stories
about genetic experimentation

at an agricultural
center and half-man,

half-goat being created, my
first question is a critical

thinker would be, why?

What would be the advantage of
creating a half-man, half-goat.

And I think it almost
it seems to draw off

of a very famous story called
The Island of Doctor Moreau,

by HG Wells, the
great sci-fi writer.

And in that particular story,
there's a mad scientist

on an island, and he's
experimenting with splicing

human genes with animal genes.

And in fact, one
of the creatures

was a half-man, half-goat.

So I think that idea, that
seed, was kind of planted deep

in our unconscious
minds, and that may

have had an influence as well.

Genetic experimentation
is something

I don't know enough
about to say that,

yeah, that makes sense to me.

I do just very loosely
and anecdotally,

that scientists have attempted
to cross human and primate DNA

and that they were not
successful in doing so.

So if they were somehow able
to cross goat and human DNA,

that would speak to a level of
technological sophistication

that is beyond me,
certainly, and I

think is beyond our present
scientific capability.

So I think that concept
of combining humans

with other animals through
scientific experimentation

is very interesting to people.

It's got this cool
sci-fi quality.

But in terms of how genetics
actually works and ultimately

motivation and why someone
would do something like that,

I think it's a big problem.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
Although

no power-crazed scientists
may have created

a human-goat chimera, there are
other versions of the Goatman

that may offer
different explanations

for the mysterious
creature's origins.

Good
evening, Fort Worth.

We interrupt our
regular programming

to bring you an extraordinary
report from Lake Worth.

In an unprecedented event
last night, on July 10, 1969,

several residents claimed to
have witnessed a creature dubbed

"The Lake Worth Monster."

Reports described the beast as
a half-man, half-goat hybrid,

standing over seven
feet tall with fur,

scales, and large horns.

Witnesses, including teenagers
who were at the lake,

say the monster
leaped onto a car,

denting its roof before
vanishing into the dark.

The original encounter
with the Lake Worth Goatman

occurred in July
of 1969, when two

couples were parked at the Greer
Island Nature Center one night.

And they claimed that this
creature actually jumped out

of a tree, onto the
roof of their car,

attempted to abduct
one of the women,

and ended up
scratching their car.

And they were so
terrified that they

immediately drove to
the Sheriff's Office

and reported their encounter.

The next night, there
were 40 people out

searching for the
monster, and allegedly,

in front of about 30
or 40 eyewitnesses,

this creature appeared on a
bluff, picked up a spare tire

and hurled it at the crowd,
and it bounced about 500 feet.

Now, what's interesting is
that the creature was described

as being a white color, but
the initial description,

the two couples said that
it was a scaly Goatman,

whatever that means,
and so ultimately

became known as the Goatman.

But then later
on, people said it

had more of like a
gorilla-like look to it.

Strange thing about the tire
throwing incident with regard

to the Lake Worth
Monster is the fact

that it evidently happened with
so many eyewitnesses involved.

Between 40 and 50
people, evidently,

were at the rim of this pit.

But all the stories in the
paper and in Clark's book report

that the creature threw this
tire 500 feet at a rate of speed

that caused everyone to
immediately scatter and leave

the vicinity, because they
would have been killed

had it hit them.

With such a dramatic entrance

for the Lake Worth Goatman,
and with so many witnesses,

law enforcement felt
pressured to provide answers.

When law enforcement is
brought into the picture, which

is relatively right away,
I mean, the first stories

that were filed that appeared
in the local newspaper

were within a couple
days of each other.

The law enforcement
took the stance

that it was an escaped bobcat,
that a bobcat had been released

into the wild by their owner,
and had taken up residence

in the Greer Island Area and
was in the habit of going up

into trees and dropping
down onto unassuming people,

especially seem to like landing
on cars for whatever reason,

and then scratching them up.

That was their explanation
to many of these sightings.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
The newspapers

didn't seem interested in
following up on the story

beyond the incredible
tire throwing incident,

and many people were content
to explain it all away

as the work of pranksters.

And that would have been the end
of the Lake Worth Monster saga,

if it weren't for
Sallie Ann Clark.

After reading about the
incidents in the Fort Worth Star

Telegram, Clark made
her way to Greer island

to investigate for herself.

Armed with a camera and
a cassette tape recorder,

Clark proceeded to interview
dozens of witnesses who claimed

to have encountered the beast.

She then compiled
the information,

along with her own observations,
into a self-published book

titled The Lake Worth
Monster of Greer

Island, Fort Worth, Texas, which
was released in September 1969.

All I can tell you
about Sallie Ann Clark

is what she reveals in her book.

And so she is a self-described
private investigator

and freelance writer.

And what else she was doing
beyond that, I have no idea.

But that is the angle that
she takes in her book,

and it's a very
interesting read.

She goes around in the book
describing her random driving

from one location to
another, especially

in the vicinity of Greer
Island, collecting reports

from individuals, some of which
are extremely dramatic stories.

In one case, in the
flow of the book,

talks about meeting this
young eight, nine-year-old boy

on Greer Island,
getting a report

from him that the Lake Worth
Monster had killed his cousin.

In detail, she goes into this
story about the Lake Worth

Monster swinging
through the trees

with his cousin in
his arms and then

throwing them, throwing
his cousin at a car,

effectively killing him.

And that same boy
that she had talked to

falls asleep on a rock.

She wonders, what do
I do with this kid,

because it's not her child.

And that as she's
wondering what to do,

she hears the sounds of the Lake
Worth Monster approaching her.

She climbs up in a tree and
watches as the Lake Worth

monster approaches this
boy, who's still asleep,

and it scratches
the child's cheek

and then wakes up,
sees the monster,

and calls out to Sallie
Ann, who's up in the tree.

"Lady, lady, I'm seeing the
monster that I told you about."

And then after that
whole incident wraps up,

she goes to the diner
and has a piece of pie.

It's very bizarre.

And to this day, I
don't really know

how to take that bit
of writing, because she

presents it as factual,
take it or leave it.

And it's sort of
Gonzo journalism

before that phrase was
even coined, I think.

After Sallie Ann Clark's venture

into the case, another notable
researcher dug into the Monster

of Lake Worth's story.

Ken Gerhard.

I first
investigated the Lake Worth

Goatman about 20
years ago, 2004,

along with another researcher
named Nick Redfern.

We went to the Greer
Island Nature Center.

We found The Bluff, the area
where it supposedly threw a tire

at this crowd of people,
and then we went out

onto Greer island itself,
which was said to be the haunt

of this Goatman creature.

And we did find a weird
teepee-like structure.

We found a large
impression on the ground

nearby where something
had been laying down,

and we also found the remains of
a fish that had been half eaten.

So since that time, I've been
to that particular location

a few different times.

I looked around, I haven't
found any significant evidence,

and in fact, I spoke to
some of the park rangers

there and asked them
about the monster legend,

and they kind of
tried to brush it off

and say that it was
probably a hoax,

maybe someone dressed up
in a costume and so forth.

But it's worth noting
that there were

a lot of people that claimed
to have seen this creature.

But the Lake Worth
monster is very--

is described, always, in
very aggressive terms.

Beating people against the
side of their cars, one

ex-military person
that Clark allegedly

spoke to who made a big
deal out of the fact

that he had purchased
this convertible,

and he was very proud of it.

He mentions it a
number of times,

was driving around
out on Greer Island,

before all these
other reports hit,

and he saw the
monster bludgeoning

this guy against the side of his
car, almost apparently to death.

And he said, I had far too
much to drink at the time,

but I sobered up on
my way back to town

because I was going
180, putting this car

to-- taking it to its limits.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
I myself

have done extensive research
into the story of the Lake Worth

Monster, even finding witnesses
who were only just now talking

about their experiences.

My own book, The Lake Worth
The True Story

of The Greer Island Goatman,
delves both into the history

of the case and the legacy it
has built around my hometown

of Fort Worth.

But the answers as to what
the creature is or was

remains a mystery.

One theory, however,
presents itself

most prominently in another
encounter with the monster.

The last alleged sighting
occurred in November of 1969,

when a guy named Charles
Buchanan was parked

alongside Lake Worth, and he
claimed the creature climbed up

in the bed of his
pickup truck and stole

a bag of fried chicken, and
then jumped in the lake and swam

away.

Before Buchanan left the scene,

he spotted something
on the ground,

a footprint that
resembled that of a human,

yet it was 18 inches long.

Cryptid enthusiasts would
be quick to point out

that a giant, human-shaped
footprint might belong

to something like
a Sasquatch, rather

than a goat-like creature.

And indeed, there
seems to be a lot

of Sasquatch activity in the
areas surrounding Lake Worth.

In the 1960s, newspapers
reported run-ins with ape-like

creatures in the areas
surrounding Fort Worth,

encounters with
so-called wild men.

Large, man-like
figures covered in hair

were confrontational in
nature, with the wildman

growling, yelling, or throwing
rocks at the eyewitnesses.

While Sasquatch are typically
described as being covered

in dark hair, some reports,
especially those in the Northern

United States, describe
Sasquatch with white hair,

matching the description of the
Lake Worth Monster more closely.

But the Lake Worth
Monster is not

the only Goatman story
to be closely associated

with Sasquatch reports.

In 1957, a week-long panic
gripped the town of Upper

Marlboro, Maryland, when over
200 people claimed to have

encountered a large bipedal
ape that was quickly dubbed

"The Abominable Phantom."

Local authorities searched the
woods of Prince George's County,

but found no sign of
the alleged creature.

All of this occurring a little
less than a decade and a half

before the Goatman of
Bowie made his debut.

So you can imagine
a lot of this stuff

is about perspective
and interpretation.

If somebody's out in the
woods where they heard

there was a Goatman and they see
a big hairy man-like creature

running through the woods,
well, then that's the Goatman.

People aren't thinking
Bigfoot, at that point.

They've already had
their perspective

colored, to some extent.

If we're open
to the idea of Sasquatches

existence, which I know many
people are, then the idea

that Sasquatch could be seen
and then mistaken for something

else could explain any number of
supernatural or cryptozoological

encounters, because
many of these sightings

take place from a
distance, they're

very fleeting, they're
often taking place at night,

they're in very
frantic situations.

So if Sasquatch is
out there, which

I tend to think there's a
pretty good chance that it is,

I think that's
certainly a possibility.

What's striking about
these descriptions,

though, when we're talking
about the Goatman motif,

is this recurring idea
of it having horns.

And Sasquatch, if we're
going on the assumption

that it's a primate,
primates generally

don't have horns, so
that's kind of where

we run into some difficulty.

As a cryptozoologist.

First, I have to consider
the fact that something

like a half-man, half-goat,
an anthropomorphic creature,

is a zoological impossibility.

The two lineages that led to us
Homo sapiens and artiodactyls,

or hoofed animals, like goats,
the last common ancestor

we shared was about 65 million
years ago or something.

So you're talking about
two distinct lineages that

went in opposite
directions, that evolved

over a long period of
time, and therefore,

could not converge again.

So it's a biological
impossibility, which almost

implies either more of
a supernatural origin,

or there are some
people that talk

about diabolical
genetic experiments,

where nefarious
government agencies

or laboratories are trying
to splice human and goat DNA.

Now, admittedly, that
type of knowledge

is kind of beyond
my understanding,

so I don't know if that can
actually be achieved or not.

But it's worth noting that,
throughout history, there

have been weird genetic
anomalies in humans.

For example, there have
been humans born with tails.

It's very, very rare,
but it does happen.

And it's called an atavism.

An atavism is when
a human displays

an ancient physical trait
that's locked into our deep

in our genetic code from
a long, long time ago.

And there are also humans that
have horns, believe it or not,

they're called cutaneous horns.

And it's actually a strange type
of tumor that grows on people,

and oftentimes, on their
foreheads, strangely enough,

and it looks just like a horn.

There's a woman in China
known as the unicorn

woman that has one of
these horn like structures.

So you can imagine,
throughout history,

if there were humans
with horns or humans

with tails, as rare as that was,
how that might apply or spawn

some of these Goatman legends.

While misinterpreted Sasquatch

sightings may explain away
some of the Goatman sightings,

it does not explain
the description

of horns, which are so
characteristic of these

creatures.

A biological answer
doesn't seem likely either,

leaving few rational
possibilities to explain

the creatures origins.

One of these possibilities
leads to a much darker side

of the phenomenon,
one that also shines

a light on the darkest
parts of humanity.

And it lies only 30 miles
away from Lake Worth.

The Goatman of
the old Alton Bridge

is one that I find fascinating
because of its roots

in local folklore, having
to do with a bridge that

connected a couple
communities, essentially,

in North Central Texas.

The
story is that there

was an African-American
goat farmer in the area

who was very successful.

He was doing very well,
making a big name for himself.

His name was purported
to be Oscar Washburn,

is how the story goes.

Had become fairly
successful in being a goatherd

and selling goat
products in the area.

And in fact, advertising
his wares by hanging

a sign on the Alton Bridge that
said, "this way to the Goatman."

And it was his form
of advertising.

Evidently, the local KKK didn't
like that too much and hated

the idea of a successful
Black man peddling his wares,

so they held a clandestine
town council meeting where they

outlawed the type of
advertising that he had placed

on the bridge, and then went out
to accost him and accuse him,

and tried to throw him
in jail for this crime

that he was now committing.

They formed a noose, and
they were going to lynch him

off of the side of the bridge.

And when they did that--

and here's where many
variations occur,

either that they went
through with the lynching,

only to find that
his body was missing,

or that his head had become
separated from the body,

and depending on what version
you hear, but they then go back

from that apparently
unsuccessful attempt

to kill him, or
it was successful,

and they buried the
body and told everyone

they couldn't find the
body, but evidently, they

murdered the entire
Washburn family after that.

And as a result
of this horrific event,

this half-man, half-goat
entity is now purported

to haunt the old Alton Bridge.

And people go out there and
they do ghost investigations.

They go out there at night, they
take EM readings and things.

Sometimes they get results,
sometimes they don't.

But this is one of
those stories that's

associated more with the
darker side of this legend.

It's not so much just
a monster sighting it.

It talks about some of the
worst parts of humanity,

and looks at some of the
darkest places in our history

as the backdrop for this story.

So unlike some of these
other Goatman legends,

where oh, it was a government
experiment or a man cross-bred

with goats, it's
grounded a lot more

in reality, in a very dark way.

There's some
real weight to the story,

because if that actually did
happen to Oscar Washburn, then

there is some sort of justice,
that it seems to be much needed.

And to me, this is one of the
telltale signs of the Goatman,

in many of these cases, where
he appears as a kind of avenger

or an agent of judgment.

The apparent difference

between the Goatman of old Alton
Bridge and other Goatman cases

previously discussed is
its brutal origin story.

No longer is the Goatman
a result of an experiment

gone wrong or a
misidentified Sasquatch.

It has now been transformed
into a spirit of vengeance,

to right the wrongs
that the living

have suffered at this bridge.

The old Alton bridge is one of
the things that makes the Lake

Worth Monster so interesting,
because you have two Goatman

stories or legends or sightings
that are really only about 35

miles apart in a straight line.

The Alton Bridge is a little bit
south of the Dallas Fort Worth

area, and it's this
old iron trellis bridge

that was constructed in 1884.

And for a long time, it
was a main thoroughfare.

It was used by people
on foot, horses, cars,

until it was finally shut down
and they installed a new bridge

and moved the road
over a little bit.

The bridge is still there.

You can visit it,
you can walk on it,

it's a popular tourist draw.

And there's already a lot of
paranormal folklore associated

with these old iron bridges.

Iron itself has a lot
of lore and stories

and mythology attached to it.

Bridges are considered places
of crossing over, liminal areas.

Water is considered to be a very
spiritual, supernatural thing

in a lot of belief systems.

So these old iron bridges,
for a lot of people,

represent intersections
of high strangeness.

And when people
investigate these places

or they just visit them,
they very frequently

come away talking about
ghosts, hearing voices.

There's this idea in the
world of high strangeness

and the paranormal,
of strange things

existing in liminal spaces.

Liminal, in this
sense, refers to like

a threshold, a place that really
nothing has any sort of dominion

over.

So in this sense,
things can exist there.

It's not really a place that
has a beginning or an ending.

It's just a place
that's going somewhere.

It sort of exists in
this transient state.

So the idea of a
paranormal entity

sort of finding a home there
kind of lends some credence.

Now, you get other ideas of
like Hecate, the goddess,

she's the ruler
of the crossroads.

You have a lot of stories
of crossroads being

associated with the paranormal.

It kind of lends into the idea
of bridges and train tracks too.

Deals going down there,
entities existing.

So I think that could
play into the idea

of why things exist near these
transient liminal places.

"Crybaby bridges" is a
term I'm hearing more lately,

but people will report
hearing babies crying,

which is something we know
John Keel was talking about

back in the '60s and the '70s.

That's something that's been
in our minds for a while.

But a lot of this stuff
seems to intersect

with these iron bridges.

Crybaby bridges or
crybaby lanes, for that matter,

seem to be a phenomenon that you
can find in almost every state.

Every state's got one.

So the the basic premise
of the crybaby bridge

is, more often than
not, the bridge

becomes haunted because
of a terrible accident

that happened there.

People end up dying,
and then years later,

activity will start to
be reported on there.

Now, in particular, when
it comes to crybabies,

this often means that
there was a death

of a child or several children.

There's an interesting one in
North Carolina that originally

was considered to be
a Lovers' Lane bridge,

but has since become
a crybaby bridge.

Apparently, what happened here
is there was a school bus that

ended up veering
off of this bridge,

and all of the children
in the driver died.

Fast forward several
decades later,

this bridge has now been
remade and another road

has been put on the side of
it, so the bridge is just

kind of abandoned, and this
becomes a very popular spot

for teenagers to go
run off and make out

in the middle of the evening.

And it wasn't too far after
this little bridge became

a private hiding spot for
teenagers that most kids who

went out there started to
report hearing children crying

and handprints appearing
on the windows.

There's always been a link
with supernatural creatures

and bridges of various
from various cultures.

Trolls are supposed
to live under bridges,

spirits can't cross
water, things like that.

If he is a
supernatural creature,

allegedly running water can
provide energy for things

to manifest, so it might
be easier for something

like Goatman, if he is something
akin to a spirit that needs

energy to appear, a bridge
would be a good location

for him to do that.

And there's often supernatural
and paranormal aspects

and stories of many
bridges around,

such as Emily's Bridge
in Stowe, Vermont,

where there was a tragic
story of a bride-to-be who

ended her life around
this bridge as she

was stood up at the altar.

And there are many stories
like that elsewhere as well.

There's all sorts of haunted
bridges all over the world.

We have a couple in Texas.

We have another
human-animal hybrid,

the Donkey Lady
Bridge in San Antonio,

down on old Applewhite Road.

And that's a very
similar story to some

of these Goatman legends,
where someone was killed

and somehow they were
fused with this animal,

and now they haunt this area.

And it's a tradition, or was
for a long time in San Antonio,

for people to drive out there
at night and park their car,

go poke around in the woods.

And there are a lot of stories,
if you look around online,

of people hearing something or
seeing something in the woods.

So it's a recurring motif
that we see in our culture.

It's something that pops
up all over the place.

I'm honestly not
sure if there's really

a paranormal connotation
to these goatmen

being seen in specific
areas around bridges

and railroad tracks.

I tend to think it's more
of a cultural phenomenon,

in terms of the old legends
of European trolls living

under bridges and
some of those stories.

As far as railroad
tracks go, I think

it's interesting
to point out that I

grew up next to some railroad
tracks, kind of in a rural area.

And there's almost
something spooky,

particularly as a young person,
when you go out to these areas,

these Lovers' Lane
areas, if you will,

where these goatmen
have been described.

There's something kind of
spooky about railroad tracks,

particularly when you're walking
along a long line of railroad

tracks next to a forested area.

I don't know.

It's quite an
interesting question.

One could derive the
idea that there's

some type of energetic
force or something

that conjures up
these Goatman images

when you're in these
specific types of locations.

The stories of Goatman seem more

paranormal in nature, but why?

I think it's kind
of hard to pinpoint

a Goatman entity existing
as a biological creature.

There's nothing in
the fossil record that

suggests a Goatman could exist.

Unlike a Bigfoot, you have
Gigantopithecus, things

like that, that we have
evidence of something

like this can
actually biologically

walk around and exist.

Goatman, on the other
hand, not so much.

However, if you tie in the
idea of the supernatural,

the paranormal, and
these things existing

without any rhyme or reason,
but through fantastical means,

I think something
like that can exist.

Maybe it's phasing in
and out of reality,

or is some sort of ancient
deity that pops into existence,

I think that may be more
of what's going on here.

I don't think a half-man,
half-goat makes any sense

in the biological kingdom,
based on my limited

zoological knowledge.

And unlike a lot of other
human-animal chimeric beings

that we see in
folklore and mythology,

and even in the modern
cryptozoological lexicon,

Goatman is generally described
as distinctly being half-human,

half-goat, as having
this goat head on a very

distinctly human body.

That doesn't really make sense.

So if it's not a hoax,
a hallucination, just

an urban legend, if it's
something that actually exists

in the form that
we're perceiving it,

you could make the
argument that it would have

to be something supernatural.

Something from outside
the veil, if you like.

Returning to the beast

of Billiwhack, we see that the
paranormal aspect of the Goatman

legend is not far from the more
commonly touted origin stories.

Leasowe Canyon is also home
to what some Spanish speakers

call the Chivo Man,
a Goatman-like entity

with supernatural roots.

So the Chivo Man and
the Billiwhack monster,

they're essentially
one and the same.

The only difference there is,
the Chivo Man has more of roots

in Mexico and Central
America, as the y chivo

creature, which is essentially
a Goatman-like creature that

is human.

It's a brujo, a witch, a male
witch that utilizes witchcraft

to turn himself into a
Goatman-like creature

or other sort of
humanoid-looking entities.

And one of the interesting
things about that,

if you were to tie in witchcraft
into the idea of the Billiwhack

monster, the
Billiwhack monster is

located in the Billiwhack
Ranch, but that was originally

in the Aliso Canyon area.

That's what the entire area
surrounding Billiwhack Ranch is.

Now, "aliso" means
alder in English.

So Alder tree.

If you look into
elemental magic,

the Alder tree is
associated with being

a gateway for the fairy
folk, the fae people.

It's utilized as a portal to
go from one realm to the next.

So if you were to add in
the idea of witchcraft

into the idea of this
Billiwhack monster creature,

now you can see why a creature
can pop in and phase in and out

of existence, and
not really have

any sort of biological
precedent for existing.

And the Aliso Canyon
area acting somewhat

as a window area, a hotspot for
anomalous activity to exist.

When considering the possibility

of the Goatman being
something otherworldly,

the floodgates are open to
a plethora of explanations.

Nathan Couch, author of the
book Goatman: Flesher Folklore,

offers one of the most
interesting and unique

takes on what the
Goatman may be.

We discussed, like, could
he be a zoological creature?

And I think it's
an impossibility.

And the fact-- and of
course, I said earlier

that he has a lot of
supernatural traits

and skills in these stories
and in these sightings.

I think if he does
exist, he'd have

to be something supernatural,
something that hasn't

been explained by science yet.

I think he'd have to be like
a nature spirit of some type.

I don't really
necessarily mean a spirit,

as in a ghost or human
spirit, but pagan religions

worship nature spirits like the
fey, fairies or nature spirits,

all these things like gnomes,
trolls, things of that nature.

They're all these supernatural
creatures that exist in nature

that aren't human, and
they have some sort

of supernatural or
divine quality to them.

Goatman looks a lot like the
god Pan, from Greek mythology.

He was a half-man,
half-goat creature.

Pan was the god of the wild.

He was very connected
to nature, very

symbolic of humankind's
relationship

with nature in the
Greek pantheon.

And the term panic, as in
extreme fear that we use today,

comes from Pan's name.

That's the root term for that.

Because Pan, when you're
walking in the wilderness

and you hear animals howling
in the wind and the sounds

of the wild, that's said
to be Pan shouting at you

or calling out into the night as
you pass through his territory.

So when you look
at the modern day

and you have some of these
more modern Goatman encounters,

a lot of times, they're
accompanied by people saying,

I heard a wailing sound, I
heard this horrible scream,

this inhuman cry
coming from the night.

So at the very least, there's a
tangential correlation, not only

in the physical
resemblance between Pan

and the modern Goatman, if you
want to call it that, but also

the way in which
these things behave

and the way in which
they seem to approach

people when they're in these
wild and wooded places.

And there is
an exact sighting in Dallas,

near white Rock Lake, that I
believe Nick Redfern uncovered,

where a woman who was
jogging around the lake,

felt like she was being watched.

She turned, she saw
this goat-like creature

looking at her, smirking.

It walked towards
her a little bit

and then there was
a smell of sulfur.

He just disappeared in a
flash after laughing at her,

and she said she
felt like she was

having a panic attack, something
that she had never felt before.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
The parallels

between the Goatmen and the
satyrs of the ancient world

are obvious on the surface.

Half-man, half-goat figures
that live in the wild,

sometimes feeling
travelers with panic

if they are unlucky enough
to come upon one at night.

Yet, perhaps the connection
is more than skin deep.

The
correlation between goatmen

and satyrs or fauns really
seems very, very natural

when you stop to think
about the functions

of those figures in mythology.

They were associated
with virility, fertility.

They were also associated with
debauchery and wild parties.

And so it just seems like, in
the case of the Lovers' Lane

stories, they're
modern retellings

of these sort of Saturnalia.

I mean, that's where the phrase
comes from in the first place,

is the satyr.

And the overlap between that
and pagan holiday festivities.

Pan, as well, as far as a
lowercase god is concerned,

was very much involved
with these sort of tales.

And so there does
seem to be, again--

although in the modern
tellings, it's not so much

encouraging the behavior
as it is discouraging

or talking about consequences.

Exacting some sort of judgment.

In the case of
Alton Bridge, it's

a folkloric agent of judgment
in a frontier justice.

Some consequence must be levied
upon those who are doing wrong.

So I do see that there is a
way that those paradigms, even

though they they morph
slightly in function,

that that seems to
be a pattern that

occupies the psyche of
humankind, for whatever reason.

There does seem to be a
connection or correlation

between some of this activity
and the sexual energy

of human beings.

And the prime example
of that is you

start talking
about poltergeists.

These are often connected
to young women who are just

now beginning to come of
age, and all of a sudden,

this activity starts.

I think it might have
something to do with the fact

that around those times
in a person's life,

the chemicals in your
brain start to shift,

and therefore, your
perception is going to shift.

And when that starts to happen,
there's a good possibility

that you might be able to open
yourself up to other channels

and see different
layers of reality.

And that's where I think a
lot of this stuff comes from,

is layers of reality that's
stacked on top of us.

And at the same
time, I also think

that has something to do with
human consciousness and the way

that we remember things
as far as history goes.

Because satyrs, they were
very popular and very believed

in during Greek times.

Now, fast forward to a time when
spirituality is not necessarily

part of our main sphere
of existence, but now

we have all of these
people who are starting

to take an interest in it.

So now we're starting to
see sightings of things

like Goatman, Dogman, stranger
cryptids that don't necessarily

have the popularity of, say,
Bigfoot or Loch Monster,

but enough sightings
in recent times

have certainly made it a
little bit more interesting.

You go
through this continuum

of natural explanations,
supernatural explanations,

scientific, and you'd think
that it would stop at that,

but it's kind of gone
back in the direction

of the supernatural and
dark, even satanic direction.

And I think that's where this
idea that is whispered about

or talked about in
very cautious ways

is that somehow this thing could
have been conjured, in much

the same way as like dogmen
are talked about today,

and highly suggested, like in
the case of the Beast of Bray

Road, for example, that
some sort of occult activity

could have intentionally
or inadvertently

brought this thing to life.

And how that works, how long
that it stays in our dimension

are questions I'd
rather not know

the answers to, but
seem to be put forward

as a possible explanation.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
These nature

spirits are not the only
thing the Goatman resembles.

With a goat-like head
and a man-like body,

the Goatman might as well
be the devil himself.

I think what
sets the Goatman legend apart

from other cryptids is the
fact that our essential image

of a half-man,
half-goat conjures

up Satan, demons, the
embodiment of ultimate evil.

And so in that
respect, the Goatman

is almost scarier than
something like a Bigfoot,

or a Dogman, or
even a chupacabra,

because it is demonic in nature.

It's got paganistic
qualities, so it hearkens back

to that ancient form
of evil, something

that evolved centuries ago,
something that's still around.

Psychologically, I think
people are very, very scared

of the notion of something that
looks like a half-man, half-goat

because it's demonic.

The quintessential image

of the Satanic
goat-like entity known

as Baphomet stems
from early occultist

writers like Eliphas Levi.

Later, it became entwined
with inverted pentagrams.

Thelema, Freemasons, Aleister
Crowley, and the teachings

of Anton LaVey, both
of whom associated

the Baphomet with the god Pan.

What's more is the
sigil of Baphomet

is the official insignia
of the Church of Satan.

In many ways, equating
the Goatman with the devil

is a natural thought process,
but not necessarily the most

explanatory.

Classically, the devil is
often portrayed as something

very similar to a satire.

You have the cloven hooves,
the rather muscular torso,

and then you have
the head of the goat.

Where that imagery actually
comes from, I cannot be sure,

but it is now made its way into
the psychological aspect of how

we perceive good and evil.

There's a whole stream
of thought that goes

into consideration of goat man.

As far as like occult, or
we'll just go right to Baphomet

and Satan, it says, why this?

And I think part of this is
related to ideas that correlate

to the ability that
evil has or does

not have to make and create.

And this has been explored
in the writings of C.S. Lewis

and JRR Tolkien and
others, but that Satan

does not have the power to
create things from nothing.

He can only take what's
there and corrupt it.

And so here's where it
really gets interesting,

is that the idea, in some cases,
like the Pope Lick Monster,

for example, early
reports seem to break

in the direction of a
sheepman, but later ones

go in the direction of Goatman.

And a correlation
here could potentially

be that, in the case of sheep,
when you think of a sheep,

you don't think of
something malevolent,

you think of something innocent.

You think of something pure.

And taking this to scripture,
such as the Holy Bible,

you have the son of
God, who is described

in terms of the lamb of God.

So you've got this symbol
of purity and goodness.

What's a way to corrupt that?

Well, potentially take it in
the direction of a goat, which

is less likable as a
figure, certainly one

that we associate with
things like eating

trash and living off of that.

While a ram, a sheep's
ram can develop horns,

we don't think of a lamb
as having that ability,

but a full grown
goat has the horns,

and therefore, seems
more intimidating

and will, in fact,
resort to violence

when that's seen as needed.

So I think that there may be
some territory to explore there,

that a goat is a
violent or corrupt form

of an innocent little lamb, and
maybe, somewhere along the way,

our expectation or
perception of what

half-human, half-sheep,
then goat, becomes,

is colored by that.

One of the most notable

of all Goatman stories
is that of the Pope

Lick Monster of Kentucky.

Some legends suggest
that if one walks

to the middle of
the train trestle,

the Goatman will appear
on the other side.

Others claim that the Goatman
is the result of satanic rituals

conducted in a nearby shack.

Stories of the Pope Lick
Monster are as varied

as any that have
already been discussed,

but they also
introduce new elements

into the mythos of the Goatman.

My name is David Domine,
I'm a Louisville-based

author and educator,
a folklorist as well.

And I've lived in
Louisville since 1993,

and one of the first urban
legends I heard about

was one that said to be rooted
here at the Pope Lick Trestle.

It's called the Goatman.

Some call it the
monster of Pope Lick.

This is an active trestle.

We have early
mentions of it in 1909

already, so we know this train
track has run through here

for at least 100 years.

Interestingly enough, this is
a case where an initial, very

old reports seem to describe it
as Sheepman instead of Goatman.

And at some point, that tilts
in the direction of the goat

instead of the sheep.

There's some rather sort
of highly bizarre stories

having to do with origins.

Supposedly, there
was this goat-like creature seen

in the wilderness of Canada,
and this circus owner

named Silas Garner, who was
somebody who I have not been

able to prove ever
existed, found out

about the creature hired
someone to capture it,

to put it in a sideshow.

Supposedly by capturing this
creature, he cursed himself.

And on a stormy
night, as the train

was traveling through
Kentucky, the Goatman's curse

caused the train to derail,
and he escaped, and now lives

under the bridge at Pope Lick.

Others say that there was a
local farmer who was a little

too friendly with his goats.

He was breeding with
them, and that's one

of the more interesting takes.

Another far more even
sinister origin stories

having to do with a farmer who
made goat sacrifices, hoping

to gain some sort of
satanic dark power,

and he ends up
becoming the Goatman.

It's very much
an urban legend.

It's said that there's a
half-man, half-goat kind

of creature who lives
under the trestles,

and he's a siren-type of being.

He likes to attract unsuspecting
visitors up to the tracks.

Sometimes he mimics
voices, sometimes

he acts like he's in distress.

But for whatever reason, people
are led up to the trestle,

and many people don't realize
this is still an active trestle,

several times a day.

So there's an almost
800 foot span.

And if you're caught up there
where a train is coming through,

there's really no place to go.

All you can do is outrun the
train, which most people can't,

or you have to
jump over the side

and dangle from one
of the pieces of wood

that juts out, which
is kind of a hard task

because it takes usually
at least five minutes

for a train to rumble overhead.

That's when people often fall to
their deaths, or they're running

and they stumble and
they fall over the side,

because there's
really no railing.

It's just tracks up in the sky.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
One thing

separating the Pope Lick Monster
from other Goatman stories

are the very real deaths
connected to the legend.

As of 2019, at
least 12 people have

been injured while
seeking the Goatman

upon the Pope Lick Trestle.

There are some
people that have actually

gone out there to
look for the Goatman,

and their lives have
been tragically ended,

as in the case of a couple
who went up there around 2015

or 2016, and they were
on the train trestle

and a train started
coming their way,

as there are 20 to 25 trains
that actually go over this train

trestle every day.

The boyfriend managed to jump
and hang onto a steel beam,

where the girlfriend
met her tragic fate

90 feet below onto the ground.

JC Bahm was a teenager,
I believe, in 1988,

and he was struck by
the train and killed,

and presumably fell to his
death off of the trestle.

Those stories-- and they're
matters of historic fact--

people who have gone out
on the tracks and have

died because of it.

So unlike a lot of these other
stories where they kind of just

add up to a bunch
of fun sightings

and a few spooky
stories, this is

one that actually has a tangible
death toll attached to it.

Some people have taken
it to say that, oh, well,

that means the Goatman is
responsible for these deaths,

or the Goatman hypnotizes people
and brings them into the woods.

I tend to think some places
are just very dangerous,

and that's why people get
hurt when they go out there

and don't take the
appropriate precautions, when

they go to places that
they aren't supposed to go.

But there's no
separating this legend

from this place and all
of the tragic events

that have gone on here.

CRAIG WOOLHEATER
The final key

to the Goatman mystery is
the influence of the media.

In the age of information, where
a sensational news can and does

influence the decisions
of individuals,

the proliferation
of certain stories

are bound to ignite the
imaginations of people.

A single newspaper
article was all

that it took to
lure teenagers out

to Fletchertown Road in search
of the Goatman of Bowie.

Even years later, when the
story of Ginger the Dog

was revealed to
have been a hoax,

the legend had grown
well beyond the newsprint

and was now part
of modern folklore.

Hundreds of people
flock to Lake Worth

when the sensational
sightings were mentioned

on local television news.

Deaths on the Pope Lick
Trestle that were once

seen as accidental were
now shrouded in mystery

due to the popularization
of an urban legend

through an independent film.

In every major case
of the Goatman,

there lies a strong media
backing to the legend.

And with every legend tripper
that seeks out the Goatman

and has an experience
either real or imagined,

the mythos continues to grow.

I think part of the reason why
there are so many origin stories

and such variants has, in part,
to do with the explanatory power

of things over time.

And what I mean by that
is 150, 200 years ago, you

would have had sort of agrarian,
naturalistic explanations

for things, yet
mundane sort of reasons

that a Goatman might appear.

In other words, a fleshly union
between farmer and animal,

as sickening as
that is to consider,

that is one stream
of explanatory story

that was given about that.

And then you start to bring
in folk religion, witchcraft,

and so forth.

And now, the devil
and dark forces

become to swirl into the
story, where if some sort

of pact or agreement was made.

Then that would result in a
necessary consequence of making

a deal with the devil,
is you have to pay

a price that you don't expect.

And certainly, being forced
into the form of a goat man

would qualify as one of
those terrible prices to pay.

And then, with the rise
of science as something

that explains everything,
you get into then stories

having to do with
breeding taking place,

normally in a secret facility
where, evidently, DNA

of some type could be spliced.

And that sort of
rules the creation,

if you will, of a creature
like Goatman or Sheepman,

where you're moving
away from a kind

of spiritual religious
overtone into the realm

of a scientific,
reasonable explanation.

Goatman is generally
always, at least

in the stories I've
looked at, somehow

intimately tied to human nature.

Again, if we look at Pan
and those early stories

that talks about how humankind
interacted with the wild,

how we viewed wild places,
and what we learned to fear,

it symbolizes this mash up of
humanity and something wild.

And again, a lot of
cryptids do that.

But these modern Goatman
stories, the origin stories

are always racism,
genetic experiments

gone wrong, humans and animals
intermixing, just bad things.

A lot of cryptid stories,
we get monsters that

kind of represent humanity.

They're upright, maybe they're
hominids, Bigfoot stories.

But Goatman reports seem
to, again, just talk

about the worst
parts of humankind.

Science gone wrong, racial
prejudice, greed, violence.

There's never anything
positive in there.

There's never anything
that we look at and go,

that makes me feel a little
bit better about the world.

Unlike with, say, again,
Bigfoot encounters

or some other potentially
unclassified animals,

the Loch Monster.

People have these
encounters and it changes

their life for the better.

I don't think we've heard a
story like that about Goatman.

The
locations where

he's a known legend, like
the trestle at Pope Lick,

so you have those types
of stories, which probably

not even a morsel
of truth in them,

but you have
sightings of creatures

that very much could be in
the realm of real experience.

Like perhaps a lot
of these sightings

have nothing to do with the
outlandish stories they've been

given, people are
experiencing them

and then people
are attaching plot

lines from movies
and comic books

and campfire stories
to these sightings.

I think there's
so many different versions

of Goatman just because
again, sort of exists

as this primordial
fear that we have,

this idea of fear of the
woods, fear of the unknown,

and the idea of going
back, again, to Pan,

the trickster God of the woods.

There was essentially
a Goatman entity that

would lure you to your doom.

Maybe that sort of memory, that
genetic memory that we have

of danger in the woods,
has been personified

into the idea of this
Goatman-like figure that--

now that can exist all across
the world, in every state,

in every country, in every dark
wooded area that we wander into,

the idea of this goat man
waiting there to get us

can exist and live and thrive,
and is probably experienced

by numerous amounts of people.

When considering the
archetype of a Goatman,

I think there are many
different influences

and we have to accept
that many of our cryptids

are actually examples of what
I call composite identity,

meaning there's
different influences

coming together to form
this one specific archetype.

And so, for example, the
idea of a half-man, half-goat

goes back a long time.

In the fifth century BC, we find
the first Greek interpretations

of creatures known as
satyrs, which are essentially

forest beings that
are often portrayed

as having goat-like
features big ears, horns.

So that particular idea has been
around a very, very long time.

And then that evolved
over time, and I

think those ancient
Greek mythologies

and legends were
adapted by the Romans,

and the satyrs became the fauns.

And then as
Christianity took over,

a lot of these old pagan
ideas of things like satyrs

were kind of pushed to the side.

And then eventually,
early interpretations

of Satan or the devil began to
resemble a half-man, half-goat,

almost as if
Christianity was saying,

OK, well, these old pagan ideas
of goatmen, these are demons.

These are the devil.

And so the Goatman, therefore,
become an evil entity.

It's become kind of an
embodiment of pure evil

or demonic activity.

And furthermore, I think
we have to acknowledge

that a lot of urban
legends and campfire tales

actually migrate and evolve.

And as different
communities and areas

adapt these monster stories,
they put their own brand on it.

There are always some similar
themes or motifs in terms of,

it's out in the woods,
in a remote area,

or near an old
spooky stone bridge.

So the basic themes
remain the same.

I think a good
parallel example are

these legends of giant
catfish living under dams.

And I've been to many places
in the United States--

Arizona, Georgia, Texas-- where
I've heard this recurring story

about below a dam, there
are these car-sized catfish

that will swallow people
and animals and things.

And so you find these similar
legends in different places,

and it's almost as if
they kind of migrated.

Similarly, a lot of
these Goatman stories

may have migrated from Europe,
with European immigrants

that brought some of the old
world stories and tall tales.

And finally, there's
an aspect in terms

of when you consider what
occurs at Lovers' Lane areas.

Teenagers are lustful,
they're looking to party,

so they're out there,
they're drinking,

they're doing things that their
parents don't want them to do.

And so it's almost like there's
an unconscious connection here

to ancient Greek mythology
and the satyrs, who were

the original party animals.

They were out with
Dionysus, they

were drinking wine, they were
debaucherous, chasing women.

And so I think by associating
the Goatman legends

with these remote
Lovers' Lane areas,

it's almost like
we're harkening back

to the earlier age of
paganism and the types

of debauchery that
occur in places where

people are not supposed to go.

What sets
the Goatman legendarium

apart from other
cryptid stories is

that I think it's hard to
even consider it a cryptid.

If we're taking of an old
school approach to cryptozoology

and saying that a cryptid
is simply an animal that's

gone undiscovered
and uncatalogued,

but it's out there
waiting to be found,

Goatman doesn't appear to be
that kind of entity whatsoever.

It doesn't seem to
occupy a physical space.

Spiritual space, perhaps,
or a folkloric space, yes,

depending on what stories
you're listening to.

Monsters associated
with Goatman legends

have done things
like kill people.

But when you're asked to
produce even an obituary,

you run into dead
ends immediately.

So I think the central issue is
that Goatman is like a cryptid,

wedded with urban legend,
wedded with folklore and stories

that humans have
been telling ever

since they could tell stories.

The Goatman, it seems,

is greater than the sum
of all of its pieces.

It is more than folklore.

It is more than a cryptid.

It is something
that has seemingly

existed alongside humankind
for thousands of years,

and yet never
physically existed.

Perhaps it's the inexplicable
nature of the Goatman

that keeps us coming back
to that bridge after dark,

or stepping into the
woods in hopes of adding

our own experience
to the legend,

perpetuating the mystery
well into the future.