Feared and Revered: The Wendigo and Other Cryptids

0:17 Oh, hey there. Oh, hey there. How are you? I'm good. I'm Kate. And I'm Bradley. And this is History Buffoons. Huzzah. Yes. So normally you get right into it with the beers. I do. But we got a little bit of a different treat today. Yes. Because I came across something that I never knew. And we like gin and tonics. So we each have a gin and tonic. You sure fucking do. So cheers, cheers the history of a food. Cheers. Before you get into your story, I'm gonna teach you about the history of gin and tonic, apparently.

1:02 Oh. I I never knew this about it. Okay. So the gin and tonic uh has a pretty practical and colonial origin story. We all love origin stories. Well, we are colonizers. Well, you know. We came from them, kind of. Anyways, um, so it wasn't just like someone created a cocktail kind of thing. It actually had a practical use to it. But it uh grew out of medicine and empire, specifically the British presence in India in the 18th and 19th century. Okay. All right, so they had a problem when they were in India. Can you guess what that problem was? They wanted drinks.

1:43 Malaria. Am I right? So uh malaria was very rampant in India and other tropical countries, or colonies, I should say. And the British Army uh colonial officials and settlers were constantly at risk from malaria. What does malaria do? That's one thing I didn't actually dive into. Is that from um insects? I believe so. Can you get that from like mosquitoes? I think so. I think yeah. Well, while I talk about this, you can check that out for me. Um but at the time, the only effective prenate preventative and uh slash treatment was quinine. Do you know quinine? Yeah. Uh do you know where it's from?

2:25 Quarries? That's rocks. That's rocks. Uh it's a bitter compound derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, which is native to um South America. Okay. So the British used to import it to India uh from there, basically. So what they used to do, uh, it was extremely bitter and unpleasant on its own, the quinine, uh, to make it more uh enjoyable, we'll say. The British dissolved it in carbonated water, creating tonic water. So I guess I'll be honest, I didn't know quinine was the main one of the main ingredients in tonic water. Yeah, you'll see that on like tonic bottles made of quinine.

3:05 I probably have, I just don't recall because I guess how often do I read labels on tonic water? I guess like this looks like a clear liquid I want. It's got some bubbles. But uh, anyways, uh so obviously early tonic waters had a much higher quinine uh like content to it, basically. Yeah, especially compared to what we have today. Yeah, but they also, you know, we've modernized it and everything, and it's not used for what it used to be used for, kind of thing. Uh so British officers uh were already drinking gin. It was a very popular uh alcohol since the 1600s. Um, and apparently there was a gin craze. I didn't look into that, but I kind of want to now.

3:48 Wasn't part of your research. It was definitely was not. I'm just going off the history of the ginotonic, not like all the ins and outs of it. Uh so they began mixing their daily quinine dose with gin, lime, sugar, and water to mask the bitterness. So it's funny because it says not only made it tolerable, but actually refreshing in the hot Indian climate. I mean, that's how I started drinking. You hang out in India? No, during a hot, hot summer. Oh, fair enough. Yeah. All right. So um the gin and tonic wasn't just a medical necessity, it became a fashionable social drink among colonists. So uh by the uh mid to late 19th century, the drink was well established in India and then it went back to Britain because obviously that's where it originated, because that's where they were.

4:38 Yeah. Um, so it kind of stuck in India, but it finally made its way back to to uh England or Britain, I guess. But um obviously we were able to finally control malaria, so the use of it wasn't the same anymore. It just was more, hey, let's drink a gin and tonic. No, let's just have a gin and tonic. Yeah. So um today's modern gin and tonic, the tonic water contains only a fraction of the quinine that they used to put in it, obviously. Just enough for the signature bitter edge and a faint fluorescent under UV light. I didn't know a fluorescence. I think I said that wrong. I didn't know it did that. I kind of want to get a UV light.

5:18 But, anyways, I don't have one. No, that's okay. Nathan has a new light. I wonder if it does UV. I doubt it. Either way. But um, pretty much now more of it's pairing it with the botanicals because you like the Hendrix a lot, right? And that's a cucumber. Cucumber, but there's also what's the other very popular I mean juniper is juniper, that's the one I was trying to think of. Yeah, oh yeah, I should keep reading. Uh juniper, citrus, unlike me, and herbs. So obviously there's different garnishes. We have uh lime in ours. So the lushals, but you can, of course, do lemon, cucumber, and even less stuff like rosemary to get different aspects of the gin to come out.

6:03 Uh, so basically it's uh a relic of the colonial history that they used for medicine. That's cool. I had no idea. I never knew that was a thing. Yeah. I came across it and I'm like, uh, we like gin and tonic. Save. I think I need to save that, do a little different, and we'll go back to having a gin and tonic uh on the podcast. I'm feeling supersonic. Give me gin and tonic. You could have it all, but how much do you want it? Okay, so malaria is from a mosquito bite. It is. Okay, that's what I thought. It enters the bloodstream, infects the liver, and then re-enters the bloodstream and attacks red blood cells.

6:43 Oh, damn. Yeah. So within 10 to 15 days after being bitten, uh, fever and chills, sweating, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, or vomiting, and then untreated malaria, very severe malaria, anemia, organ fail failure, coma, and then death. Oh, that sounds pretty terrible. Sounds pretty terrible. Um, so a lot of prevention. Um, a lot of people will use mosquito nets that actually have incest insecticide treatments in it. Um, mosquito repellents, obviously, but then there are vaccines as well. Of course, yeah. This day and age. Yes. Um, there's a really good Nirvana album called Incesticide.

7:26 It's really fucking fantastic. It's not considered one of their albums because it's just a bunch of covers and B-sides, but it's so good. It's actually got some of their best stuff, in my opinion, on it. Anywho. Okay, so this is a shout out to Tony from Iowa. Um, he wanted us to do um Should you preface like why we're doing this particular topic? Yeah, because Tony. Time frame? Why? It's close to Halloween. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is our quote unquote Halloween episode. Last year we did a bonus episode for Halloween Day. This time we're just gonna do it right before Halloween. Yeah, for sure.

8:07 Yes. Um, so Tony requested that we do an episode on the Wendigo, which I know of, but I don't know much about. I didn't, I've only heard of. Right. Did not know anything about it. Same. Um, but instead of just going into just the Wendigo, I am going into four different types of cryptids. Are you gonna get more in definition of what a cryptid is? Um, a cryptid is like uh animal from lore. Basically, it's not exactly what we call a regular animal. No, not even close. It's usually a hybrid of something. Hybrid, exactly whatever, yeah, for sure.

8:48 So we are gonna do it on the Wendigo. Um, the Chupacabra. Oh, the good old chupacabra. Uh-huh. And then the Mothman. Yep. And Bigfoot. Yes. Yes. And then it's from a movie. Oh. And then in between each cryptid, you're gonna play a game. Well shit. I get to play. It's okay, all you have to do is roll dice and flip a coin. I do. Yeah. I think I know how to pull that off. Yeah, I think you do. Okay, so the Wendigo. So we're gonna go to like northern Alberta in 1879.

9:32 Good old Canada. We're gonna fly to Canada. Tell me what it's all about. The land was frozen solid. There was a white desert full of pine and silence. Okay. Um the Algonquin speaking peoples, the Cree trappers. Cree trappers. Even said that the wind had teeth. Like it was just a bitter, nasty, cold winter. Yeah, white out winter. I can kind of picture some of that. Yeah. A uh Algonquin Cree trapper named Swift Runner. Swift Runner was a big man. Okay.

10:12 He was strong, he was clever, he was known for his booming laugh. Oh. D try. Oh, oh, uh, uh, uh yes, with less electronic sounding. Swift. Uh, uh Swift Runner was tall, broad shoulders, cray man, and he was had a reputation for his strength and his humor. Okay. He was a former member of the Northwest Mounted Police. Okay. And a respected figure in his community. Nice. Yeah. He was also known for his intelligence and imposing presence. Just a big man, so that usually was a big man. Yeah.

10:52 Yeah. Okay. But by 1878, something had changed. He had developed a problem with alcohol. Oh, dear. And that habit kind of cost him his his job with the mounties, um, his role as a guide um through the mountains, well, excuse me, through the forests. Okay. And some of his relationships. I would imagine, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that fall Swift runner took his wife, six children, oh my gosh. Mother-in-law, and brother into the northern Alberta wilderness to trap for the winter. All right. They never returned. Oh shit.

11:33 All of them? None of them returned? One did. Oh, really? In the spring of 1879, Swift Runner emerged alone. Oh dear. At the Catholic mission in St. Albert, well fed, cheerful. Okay. And claiming his family had starved to death. But he was well fed. So did he eat them? Is that speculative? That's a good speculation. Yeah. Um, the priests were like. Something seems fishy here. Well, if he was well fed, why did they all starve? Exactly. Is it because he took all their food? So a man who supposedly lost eight family members to famine shouldn't have looked so healthy.

12:18 No, he would have been pretty frail and withered away as well. When pressed, his story shifted. And he spoke of a presence in the woods. So now he's making shit up to cover what he did. A wendigo. It whispered to him in the night. Oh Lord. Urging hunger and coaxing madness. Okay. He said, quote, it's in the wind. You can't stop hearing it breathing. Okay. Authorities followed Swift Rounder to his camp deep in the woods. Yeah. And what they found. Didn't really add up to what he was saying. No, it made their their toes curl a little bit.

12:59 Oh dear. Not in a good way. I hate one. Not in a good way. Wow. All right. It's probably more like hammer toe, you know. That's a cool. That sounds fucking awful. Let's move on from the feet. No, gross. Is that what that is? Yeah, it's like, it looks like that. Gross. I hate I hate feet. I don't like feet. They found human bones. Well, of course. Some cracked and missing its marrow. Oh, so like sucked it out even. No. Okay, that is unnecessary.

13:39 Skulls were smashed open. Well, I gotta get to the brains, man. A cooking pot was coated in grease. The remains of his entire family were boiled, gnawed, and burned. He did confess immediately. That he ate them. His eldest son had been the first to die out of starvation. Okay. But Swift Runner didn't leave to seek help. He stayed. Clearly. And he said the Wendigo had entered his dreams. Driven by a hunger that didn't feel like his own. He killed and ate his wife. He killed and ate his children.

14:20 He killed and ate his brother. And the mother-in-law. He killed and ate his mother-in-law. He said it wasn't murder. Yes, it was. It was relief. Oh my God. Swift Runner was arrested and put on trial. The defense offered no insanity plea. Colonial authorities weren't interested in spirits or possession. Right. He was convicted and hanged in December of 1879. Witnesses said he faced the gallows without fear, joking with the guards and asking for a pipe before stepping onto the platform. Okay. To the Cree, Swift Runner's story was not just a crime, it was a warning, a textbook case of when to go possession.

15:10 So wait. Textbook case. So this has happened before. Hunger, isolation, and a spiritual imbalance had opened the door to something ancient. Something that they say still echoes in the northern forests. So in the dead of winter. Before Swift Runner did all this and blame the Wendigo, was the Wendigo like something they knew about prior to him? They they figured it was some kind of like a spiritual essence that happened that overcame humans when they were like incredibly hungry.

15:51 So I guess what I'm kind of asking is did Swift Runner create the name Wendigo? Okay, so it was already around. Yes. Gotcha. He just used that as his scapegoat. Yes. For eating his family. Yes. Uh, and coming back all fat and satiated. Okay, so the Wendigo originates from Algonquin speaking nations, particularly the Cree, the Inu, and the Ojibwe. Okay. Okay. In their traditions, though, Wendigo is a spirit of hunger and greed. Gotcha. It appears in times of famine when survival turns on morality's edge. It is not merely a creature, but a warning.

16:32 Right. Okay. No single description exists, but most versions depict the Wendigo as emanciated, gaunt, with like the skin pulled over really tight against the bones. Is it uh emaciated? What'd I say? Emanciated. Yeah. Emaciated. That's awesome. Um, it uh its eyes were sunken in and its lips were all like tattered and torn. Kind of curled back almost. Sometimes with bloody teeth. Right. A heart made of ice, a breast so cold it burns. And some say it stands 15 feet tall.

17:14 That's pretty big. But others say it hides inside men, which is what Swift Runner was kind of going for. But one detail never changes from story to story. Okay. The more it eats, the hungrier it becomes. Well, yeah. I mean, probably got a thyroid issue. Might want to get that checked out. Can you check my window? I mean my thyroid. So early settlers recorded tales of Wendigo encounters from the 1600s. Oh, so it's been around that long. It's been around the block. Wow. That's I didn't okay. I didn't realize it was that old. So in 1878, the Hudson Bay Company um documented couple multiple Cree families reporting Wendigo sightings during harsh winters.

18:01 So this is about around the time of Swift Runner. Right. Um, the cases of Wendigo psychosis were reported into the 20th century, where individuals often isolated and starving believed they were transforming into the monster. Oh, Jesus. Okay. Now we have Jack Fiddler. He was an OG Cree shaman and respected leader of the sucker people. What's an OG Cree shaman? Like an like original gangster? Um, no, it's the um the two um Ojibwe oh Cree. I think they just called it OG Cray Kree. So it's a it's like a combination of the two or whatever. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha.

18:41 So um he was a respected leader um in like the northwestern Ontario area. Okay. Um, he wasn't known for healing the sick or you know, living large in his community. He was actually feared and res revered, feared and revered as a Wendigo killer. Wow. How many uh do you like scalp them after they were done or get some pelts or something? How many Wendigoes did he kill? 14. No mention of scalping. So, what proof did he have that he killed these said Wendigos? So they weren't monsters in the woods, but people within his own community who had become possessed by the Wendigo spirit.

19:22 So basically, he was a serial killer. They were often loved ones. A son, a sister, a friend, a wife, people who showed signs of transformation. Oh my god, that is so fucking stupid. There was uncontrollable rage, refusal to refusal to eat traditional food, or the unmistakable craving for human flesh. Who doesn't have that, huh? So, okay. He it sounds like he just like you looked at me the wrong way. You're a fucking Wendigo coming for you. How could you do that to like your son? Because you think he's the Wendigo? I mean, that's fucked up.

20:03 So he Jack said he didn't kill out of malice, he did it to protect the others. Who are the others? Other people in the community. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't some like weird Nicole Kidman movie or whatever. Is that right? Do I got the right one? Okay. I mean, it's a valid question. I think I've seen that once. I know. Me too once. Yeah. Okay, so in March of 1907, colonial authorities finally caught wind of his practice. And Jack and his brother Joseph were arrested for the murder of a woman whose name I'm not going to try to pronounce. I'd like you to.

20:44 Wasaka piqua. Yeah, don't do that again. Nice try. I like the effort though. Thank you for trying for me. So this this woman happened to be Jack's daughter-in-law, who had fallen ill and believed to be turning into a Wendigo. Just because she was sick? Yeah. Come on. So her family had asked Jack to act before she harmed anyone. And he did. For fuck's sake. But to the Northwest Mounted Police, this was Mudda. Well, all of his were murder. All of them were murder. I'm sorry. I don't care how much he wants to. I'm just killing Wendigo, bro.

21:24 So is he like Van Helsing? Is Van Helsing a murderer? Wendigo's aren't real, vampires are. So. Um, I mean, I kind of, I guess in a different setting, lore, whatever you want to say. Yeah, I mean, it's more or less the same thing, right? Because they're just killing people because they said, ah, you've been bitten by the vampire, now a vampire, you're turning into a Wendigo. I'm gonna kill you, which is otherwise otherwise called murder. Murder. So wow. So the trial was set for the fall.

22:06 Okay. And Jack Fiddler never made it. Why? In September 1907, while in custody, he escaped into the woods and hanged himself. Oh, 1907. So this happened 30 years after. So 1907 is when he was arrested. Mm-hmm. He was arrested and he did some of these for the last 30 years, basically. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. So he chose death in the forest over a courtroom. So do you think the one to go hang hung him? So his brother, Joseph, did stand trial and was convicted. Well, yeah, because they murdered people. The government later issued a pardon.

22:47 Come on. But it arrived three days after Joseph died in prison. That sucks. How did he die? Do you know? The cause of death is only listed as illness. Okay. And nothing else. Yeah. I'm sure records were pretty shoddy back in 07, you said? Yeah. To the OG Cree, this was mere. This was more than like a legal type of tragedy. It was what they think as criminalization of ancient medicine. Jack wasn't a killer for hire. He was a guardian against spiritual corruption. So the Wendigo didn't just claim lies, it changed the very laws of survival.

23:33 Right. Jack Fiddler died believing that the spirit was real. Well, of course he did. He also murdered people. So over time, colonization warped the legend. Western storytellers turned the Wendigo into more like a cannibal monster. Yeah. Um, kind of stripping away its cultural meaning of hunger and greed. And to the Algonquins people, the Wendigo still represents a spiritual infection of greed-made flesh. So if one of them was greedy, they just thought of like, I want all these brownies. Yeah, whatever. I want all the brownies. They're like, Wendigo! Pretty much. That's insane.

24:15 Okay, we are gonna play a game now. Oh dear. Okay. I'm calling it scenario, consequences, predicament, and fate. Oh my god, that's that's that's a mouthful. Don't expect me to repeat that. Okay, so we're gonna do three rolls and one coin flip. Three rolls and the coin flip. So the first roll is scenario, the second roll is the twist, and the third roll is the predicament. Okay. And per the predicament, the coin flip is whether or not you live. Oh shit. Yeah. Okay. All right. So for the one to go, roll number one. You want me to roll number one? No, roll for the first one. I got a one. I rolled number one.

24:55 You are snowed in for days. Oh shit. With no food left. Okay. Your stomach growls louder than the wind. Oh dear, that's pretty loud. Across the fire, Kate starts to look delicious. Oh dear. Roll number two. Oh my god. I don't know if I can kill my co-host. One again? What the hell? Voices of your friends. These are not like what you would call great. I've gathered as much. So just bear with me. Alright, no worries. Voices of your friends call from the trees. Apparently you were not alone with Kate.

25:36 I have friends. Voices of friends call from the trees. Okay. One sounds like it's right behind you. Roll number three. Oh Jesus. Two. Lisa finally was something better. Bradley starts acting a little weird. He's either possessed or hangry. Which if he haven't eaten for days. Or in Kate's life minutes. I mean, I'm over here looking delicious, but like I'd like a snack, please.

26:16 Do I confront you or do I play along? So flip your coin. I got a yes or no coin here. Yes. No. I will flip flippity flip. I'm gonna drop this. Told you. I'm trying to do wow. I almost fell. Pull the muscle. Pull the muscle. Do we have workers come up on this? Jesus, that hurt. I will do one more attempt, otherwise, I'll call it from the way I see it. No. You gotta hold it up.

26:57 Oh, I'm sorry. It says no. Turns out. No. Sorry. Okay. He lunges at you. At me. Mid speech. Like you're giving a speech, or I'm giving a speech. I'm giving a speech and you lunge at me. Guess who's the can't fire snack now? That's what I say? Yeah, you kill me. Oh. So you were possessed. So um I will be taking applications for a new co-host. It's been fun. Sorry, I've been fun. Sorry, I kill you. Is that a fun game or what? I mean, I don't feel like I'd kill you, but alright.

27:41 Sorry. Okay, we're gonna go to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Is this the troopacabra? Yes. So the village of Canovanas. Okay. Puerto Rico. Yeah. Sleeping. Crickets are humming. Roosters are sleeping. Then the goats begin to scream. Don't they bleat? Is that what they do? Do show us. I can't do that. Should I see if that yelling that yelling goat thing is free use, I can put it in here.

28:25 I mean, it's a meme. It should be free use, right? Just saying. If no one copyrighted it, hey, am I right? Okay. Not often. When farmer Madeline Talentino reached her goat pen, she found eight of her animals collapsed in the dirt. Out of how many? I don't fucking know. That's important. Is it though? Yeah, because if it's eight out of a hundred, that's only eight percent. And that's not very many. Am I wrong? Shut up. If it's eight out of ten, that's eighty percent. That's fucking terrible. Okay.

29:05 Eight of them. Okay. Sorry. Each one had two puncture wounds at the neck. Vampire. No tracks. No blood on the ground. Right. Every drop has been drained from as if by a thisty vampire. So even their bladder? That's a drop. I'm talking blood. Oh, okay. You weren't you didn't you didn't clarify. At first, locals were like, this is a satanic cult. Oh shit. Because obviously. I'm sorry, what year is this again? This is the year 1995.

29:48 Oh, 30 years ago? Yeah. I turned 16 that year. Yeah, 1995. Wow. They're like vampire, satanic cult. Nervous. They look like Capri Suns, whatever. Capri suns. You know what? Did they have a strawana little rapper? You know, like those Capri suns that are like the pouch, and then you suck them dry and they're like No, I get it. I just gave them Like a disheveled mummy. That's exactly where I was going. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, anyways. So over the next few nights, more attacks came. There were chickens, there were rabbits, cats, dogs, all found with the same puncture wounds. Okay. And someone, some witnesses saw they didn't, but okay.

30:30 I don't know, but like there was something about four feet tall, gray green skin, big eyes, spines down its back. Isn't that usually where your spine goes? Like I know what you meant. I'm just making a stupid saurus. It moved like a kangaroo. Like I'm glad you finished kangaroo because it didn't sound like you said that at first. It moved like a kangaroo. No, it's at first sounded like you said nope. I'm gonna bleep that. Mine. And then it also smelled like sulfur. Sulfur, okay. So Madeline drew a sketch and the press dubbed it El Chupacabra.

31:13 So is there like a genesis of that name? Like, how did they come up with that? It's literally called the goat sucker. So like it's it's Spanish. I did not realize that. I mean, I knew it was Spanish, but I didn't know that was the liter literal like interpretation of it. So if you ever just go up to somebody like, you're a chupacabra, you're calling them a goat sucker. Goat sucker. Oh, that's that brings new meaning to chupacabra. So within weeks, the panic spread across the island. Of course. Police patrols armed farmers, tabloid reporters, a few bore teenagers. So wait, the police armed the farmers or the armed, they were just armed farmers? Police patrols, comma.

31:55 Okay. Armed farmers, comma. Tabloid reporters, comma. Did they arm the tabloid reporters too? Some claimed to find strange claw marks. Well. Others said that the creature flew into the jungle. Alright. Well, that would make sense why there's no footprints. Then it jumped borders. We're talking Texas, Chile, Mexico, Florida. Wherever livestock bled dry, someone whispered chupacabra. I am so sorry. Wow. Even NASA caught some blame. They caught blame?

32:35 Conspiracy fans insisted that it was an escaped alien experiment. Oh, come on. Why does it always gotta go to fucking aliens? Okay, but wait. Jesus Christ. 2004. 21 years ago. 2004. Yeah, I got that. Veterinarians. Okay. Finally examined, apparently, finally, examined these carcasses from one of the fresher attacks. I'd say because they examined a nine-year-old carcass. That seems odd. The k the killer was canine teeth. Sure. Feral dogs with mange.

33:16 Right. That makes more sense. It makes more sense. Where's the footprint? No, no. They flew away. Well, I think I think when dogs get manged, they grow wings. I think so. I'm almost positive that's the case. So this was first reported in 1995 in Puerto Rico. Isn't it weird to think about like it wasn't that long ago? It's 30 years ago. I like 30 years ago today, if it was today, I'd be 16. I could drive a car, you'd be 10, so a little younger. But isn't it kind of weird to like talk about something like this that evolved in our lifetime? That's weird. That's so fucking weird to think about because it's like, wait, what?

33:58 Yeah. No, most of the shit, like the the Wendigo, you know, is 145 years ago or whatever, give or take. Or no, you said 1600s, even. I'm sorry, that's right. I'm just talking about when Swift Runner was around. Yeah, that was 1879. Yeah. So, I mean, that's a hundred years before I was born. Yeah. 1600s, obviously, that was over 400 years ago. This was 30 years ago. It doesn't, I didn't know it was only that young, I guess, is what I'm saying. It's just it's weird to think about that's some legend or spooky whatever came up in our lifetime. Because normally it's shit from long ago. Right. Days of Yore. Back when people didn't know any better.

34:40 I mean, I think most people still don't know better. That's fair. So the classic description of the chupacabra is about four to five. Excuse me. Ooh. About four to five feet tall. Yeah. Gray or green scaly and or leathery skin. With the little stegosaurus spinals. Yes. Or quills potentially down the spine. Oversized red or glowing eyes, leaps like a kangaroo, sometimes has wings, always has the bad breath, fangs capable of puncturing bone, and occasionally it leaves a sulfur smell. How do they know that it has bad breath? It was something that I just put in. It was maybe I think he hasn't been to the dentist in a while, so I'm gonna go with probably not even once.

35:30 No. If you're sucking blood from a goat, you probably don't smell great. I've never tried. Yeah, let's let's keep it that way. I don't know. I might get hungry apparently. So the Puerto Rican chip chupacabra was kind of alien-like, reptilian, sometimes linked to F UFOs. Then there's a Texan chupacabra, which is usually like a hairless coyote with mange. Hairless coyote, okay. And like deformalities. Deformities. There it is. Deformalities. I I love how you speak sometimes. I just make up words.

36:12 Or character traits. So wildlife biologists trace most attacks to feral dogs, coyotes, raccoons. Right. Mange causes hair lice, hair, hair loss, and thickened skin. I mean, hair lice could be a thing too. And it kind of gives animals kind of a mutant look. Sure. Um, puncture wounds came from canine bites, where blood drains internally. Correct. Yeah, that makes sense. Yes. Um, so modern sightings, they do continue continue yearly in Texas, Mexico, and sometimes the Carolinas randomly. What? They usually end with it being like a hairless raccoon shit like that.

36:54 Hairless raccoon. Okay. Poor guy. Scenario number two, the chupacabra. Oh dear. Roll number one. Roll number one. Four. Bright lights hover over the ranch. The goat panics. And something thuds onto the roof. Of the ranch? Roll number two. Oh jeez. There's only one. Are you kidding me? Oh, it's so far away. Should be fine. Roll number two. Sorry about that. Technical difficulties.

37:36 Four again. What is up with the doubles here on the first two questions? The livestock starts staring at you, and one bleats your name. Bradley. Bradley. Roll number three. Oh, that was scary in its own. Three. The ranch lights go out. No. Do you risk running to the generator in the dark or wait inside as something circles? Flip a coin. Do I know that it's circling? This is not a time for questions.

38:16 No, I'm sorry. Yes. You fix the lights just in time to spot it scurrying away. You lived. Oh, thank goodness. You lived against the chupacabra. Now I gotta go cook Kate up. What? What? Oh, these stories don't blend together? No. Okay. I have an itchy ear. For the love of God. For the God of love. Alright. Sorry about that. I will try and not drop the die again. Okay. My apologies. Now we're going to November 15th, 1966. Oh, so still not that long ago. Point Pleasant, West Virginia. West Virginia.

38:57 Two young couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry. Okay. And Stephen Mary Mallet. Stephen Mary Stephen and Mary Mallet. Sounded like you said Stephen Mary Mallet. I mean, their Mallet is their last name. No, I never mind. There was no like. They were just whatever. Whateves. They were driving back roads near an old World War II munitions plant locals called the TNT area. Was it Dun Dirt Cheap? ACDC. So how old were these people? Uh, I don't know. They were young. Was that not a part of your research? Okay.

39:37 So that's kind of necessary. It was just after midnight, and it was Appalachian area. There was a nice thick fog. Okay. And the quiet that was almost like too quiet, you know? No. Up ahead, headlights caught something. A pair of glowing red eyes. It's probably a raccoon. Coyote. Not animal eyes reflecting light. These seem to generate light. Oh, well, you know. Have you ever shined a light in a dog's eye? Yeah, it's creepy. Yeah, it like reflects. Yeah. That's how they see at night. That's how we get red eye in pictures. I don't.

40:18 Isn't it weird that red eyes like a not a thing anymore? With like the cameras and shit. Did you ever notice that? You don't really get that anymore. Not really. No. Yeah, it's so weird. Even though there's still like a option to remove red eyes in like editing programs. I feel like um that's just an unnecessary add-on you gotta pay for it. I'm just kidding. I have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Okay, so yeah, a shape emerged. It was big, Roger said. Like seven feet tall, wings folded behind it, gray color, like a big man with wings. It shuffled, then unfurled those wings.

41:00 I'm guessing. Probably had bad breath too. And it rose into the air. Wow. The couple screamed, and Roger floored it. Did he hit it? The creature followed. Of course it did. It's hungry. Followed. For miles. Hooray. How much I'm getting into this. For miles. Yeah, your acting is just fucking on point right now. It chased the car down Highway 62. Oh, good old Highway 62. Keeping pace at nearly 100 miles an hour. I feel like they should have got a speeding ticket. Where are the cops, man? Seriously. When they finally made it into town, the thing veered off into the night sky.

41:42 Gone. So there the four of them were in this car, and Roger was the one driving. Okay. Within days, Point Pleasant exploded with reports. People saw the same glowing eyes near homes on rooftops and hovering around the TNT domes. One man's dog even tried to chase after it. A local woman said it screamed like a mechanical banshee. I'm guessing. So then came the men in black. Will Smith showed up. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Johnson. Holy shit. Strangers in suits warning witnesses to stay quiet.

42:27 Reporters descended. The Mothman name. Stuck. How Mothman? How did it get the Mothman name? Because he looked like a Mothman. He looked like a Mothman. So again, how did the Mothman come like name come to be though? Because just because he looked like a Mothman. I don't know. I didn't look it up. Seems pretty like, I don't know, weak. Because like if he's a seven foot tall fucking creature with wings, I don't know if you've seen a moth before in your life.

43:09 I have. Creepy. Not that big. Mm-mm. Pretty tiny. So it is widely believed that it had been inspired by Batman. Man Bat? Man Bat. Did you know there's actually a comic character in the DC universe called Man Bat? Mm-mm. Yeah. It's like a way to fucking get creative. Yeah. Hey, what if we I got an idea. Let's create Man Super. What the fuck? Man Bat? There's a whole thing on the Man and on um Sheldon talks about on Oh really? The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon and the group, obviously.

43:50 But about like, I'll have to play for you the clip of it sometime. Because they're like literally talking about if Man Bat dressed as Batman or something weird like that. I don't remember the details, but but yeah, there's actually a Man Bat. So I feel like Man Bat would be better than Mothman. Yeah. Maybe it's Man Moth. Man Moth. Okay. A year later. Oh, Jesus. December 15th, 1967. Wow. Just 10 days before Christmas. Oh shit. Rush hour traffic clogged the Silver Bridge. It was it spanned over, excuse me, spanned over the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Okay. And Galapolos Galapolis, Ohio.

44:32 Okay. At 5.04 PM. Yeah. With cars bumper to bumper, holiday shoppers heading home. Without warning, the bridge snapped. It just like went off. Yeah, we're like, Yeah, I get it. A lot of weight on it, probably. Yeah. So the 31 vehicles plunged into the frozen water. 46 people died. Holy fuck. That is sad. Many were trapped inside their cars. Right, yeah. Yeah. Two victims were never found. Oh wow. Yeah, I don't even know how that happens. Maybe they were riding a Vespa. Maybe. I don't know.

45:12 Maybe Mothman ate them. Well, survivors decided, excuse me, survivors described the sound as a massive clap of thunder, and then there was silence. Only only the screams could they hear. Yeah. The cause was a single fractured eye bar link. Oh, Jesus. 2.5 millimeters deep. That's wild. Over time, stress and corrosion caused what engineers called, quote, catastrophic brittle failure. It sounds catastrophic. I mean, that sounds fucking terrible. Yeah. So clearly they just what, I don't know, didn't do maintenance on this bridge.

45:55 I have no idea. Ever? I have no idea. Wow. So how does that link into Mothman? Well, let me finish with this little bridge here. Sorry. No, that's okay. Because the bridge lacked redundancy in its design when one part failed, the entire structure followed, essentially. Yeah, yeah. So it had been built in 1928. Okay. Long before modern standards accounted for the vehicle's weights. The now vehicles' weights. Yeah, which obviously increased exponentially from that year. So locals could not ignore the timing. Oh, Jesus. For over a year, sightings of the Mothman had plagued Pount Mount, nope, Point Pleasant.

46:38 You're gonna say Mount Pleasant, which is a uh town in Wisconsin. Tall, dark, with glowing red eyes, the creature was seen by dozens, and after the bridge collapsed, the sightings stopped. Some believed it was a warning, others an omen. Either way, the Mothman legend and the local bridge disaster became forever entwined. Do you think he might have been driving home with his gifts and just was one of the people that died? Probably. I mean, that makes the most sense. That makes the most sense. Do you want to circle back to Mount Pleasant real quick? I always thought it was funny when I drive through Mount Pleasant and I see a police car because it says Mount Pleasant Police.

47:21 I would never want to mount an angry one. Anyways. I mean, am I wrong? So between 1966 and 67, over a hundred reported sightings occurred within 13 months. That's that's a lot. That's a lot, yeah. It's described as how many? A hundred? I mean, damn, that's 13 months. It's almost 10 a month. Well, a little less, but you know what I mean. That's that's quite a quite quite often. Yeah. It's about one a week, roughly. Yeah. Give or take. So it's always described as a tall gray humanoid with like 10 foot wings and glowy red eyes.

48:02 So was it always like portrayed as like a roughly seven-foot creature? Yes. In every story or every sighting or whatever. Well, most of the sightings occurred around that World War II bunker. So it was probably an alien they just let out for some playtime. Probably. I mean, it all comes back to aliens. Everything does. It does. So some theories say like the sandhill cranes. Oh, yeah. Large migratory bird with a seven-foot wingspan, red flesh around its eyes. Well, that's true, yeah. Some cranes can hit around 100 miles an hour. Can they really?

48:43 Holy fuck. I never knew that. An owl theory. Yeah. Like misidentification in the headlights, but the 100 miles an hour doesn't really work for that. Um, mutants, the TNT area, chemical waste, mutant bird, Godzilla. Makes me think of the Toxic Avenger. Aliens. Aliens. Oh, that one too. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So every year in Point Pleasant. Do they have a Mothman? They have a Mothman Festival. Look at me go. They celebrate the Mothman.

49:23 Isn't that kind of a weird thing to celebrate, especially when like what's they're like, hey, 46 people die. Let's celebrate the death of 46 people on this bridge that we just so happen to like associate with this weird creature that we think existed at one point. Yeah. When it was just really shoddy bridge like craftsmanship and lack of maintenance for that matter. Yeah. Um. Why would you sell? Okay. So how do they celebrate? Let me know. It started in 2002. Okay. It actually was to one honor the local folklore, but also boost tourism. Of course. So there are costume contests, guest speakers encrypted and paranormal entities.

50:07 Yeah. Tours of the TNT area, live music, food vendors, Mothman merch. Okay, so I have to interject this because I just saw this again not that long ago. Speaking of like, we talked about the Warrens where she was a demonologist and all that, right? She was a clairvoyant. He was a demon. He was a demonologist. I'm sorry, he was a demonologist. But then what you just said kind of reminded me of that. And have you ever heard of the uh comedian Mateo Lane? I don't think so. He's a gay comedian, very open about it. He's fucking hilarious. I love that. Like, I love seeing his videos. And he was shitting on this um uh ghost, whatever show.

50:53 I don't remember the name of it off the top of my head. I'd have to see the video again. And he he's like shitting on the host of it. He's like, I'm a demonologist. He's like, um I'm gonna I'm paraphrasing not getting this right. But basically, he says, like, I don't know what'd be worse coming out as gay to your parents or telling them I'm gonna be a demonologist. It's fucking hilarious the way he delivers it because he's just he's just so good at what he does, yeah. But he's very funny, so I'll I'll have to show you some clips of him because he's fucking great. Um, but what you just said is like just reminding me of that because it's like, how can you celebrate that?

51:33 Seriously, anyways. So the festival attracts thousands of visitors every year from all over the world, it is centered around the Mothman Museum. There's a museum. What kind of artifacts do they have in this museum? No, I'm gonna go with literally none because there aren't any. There is a 12-foot chrome monument with abs. Like abs? Abs. I don't have any. I have a I have a keg. And then there was um a film, well, a book and a film, The Mothman Prophecies. Prophecies, yeah. I knew that. There was a book from 1975 and the film from 2002. I knew of the film, yeah.

52:14 I never I didn't know it was based off a book. I didn't either. We'll have to look into that. Yeah, for sure. Now onto the game. Roll number one. Roll number one for Mothman. Mothman. Prophecies. Two glowing eyes reflect in your flashlight from deep in the tree line. They blink sideways. Roll number two. I'm scared. Six. Mothman lands beside you and speaks one phrase of prophecy. You must improvise what it says.

52:56 This is part. Did did you just Joe Biden that? What's that mean? He would read the teleprompter and be like, Yeah, I did. Wait for applause. Mothman leans beside you and speaks one phrase of prophecy. You must Bradley, you must improvise what it says. The more dramatic, the better. What does Mothman say to you when he lands next to you? Eat your co-host. Okay, roll number three. One.

53:39 Jesus Christ. You see a vision of disaster, but saving others might kill you. Oh, Jesus. Do you warn them or run? Flip a coin. No. You warn them, but nobody believes you. Well, why would they? You're flattened by poetic irony. So I die? At least I die. At least I die full. Wow. That sucked. I don't want to die.

54:24 Alright. So we are gonna go to 1967. Like these are all like king, bam, boom. Yeah, that's just wild. I mean, again, you just think these the shit is older, you know? We're gonna go to Northern California, October 20th, 1967. Holy shit, that was just a couple days ago. Plus 60. The Redwoods. Yes. Where Star Wars was filmed. They're silent except for like the little critters, little insects. There was a distant buzz of a film camera. Are we talking about the staged fucking film? Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin rode their horses through Bluff Creek Valley.

55:11 Okay. A rugged strip of forest that felt ancient enough to swallow many secrets. Okay. Roger, a rodeo cowboy with a taste for mystery. Which rodeo cowboy doesn't have a taste for mystery? We had one goal to prove that the stories were real. Okay. Tell me how. Wow. They're real. Okay. For years, loggers and hunters had whispered of a giant hairy creature. Yeah. Half man, half ape haunting these woods. Right.

55:51 They called it Bigfoot. A name born from the massive 16-inch tracks found in 1958. So that's when the first tracks were found, give or take, obviously. At least in America. Well, right, right, right. Because Yeti and Bigfoot is the same thing at different locations, more or less. More or less. Yeah, I know there's some differences. Right. But more or less, it's kind of along the same line, as I guess what I'm saying. Okay. I think Yeti would be more like snowbound. Snowbound. Yeah, but I mean, it snows in Northern California, right? Oh.

56:31 Never been. Never been. I've been there once. At 115. Yeah. The horses are suddenly spooked. Not the horses. Bob turned, and there was the squatch. She was. How did he know it was a sheep? I don't know. They have furry titties? I'll say so. That's weird. It walked upright, he said, swinging its arms like a person. Yeah. Covered in dark brown hair, about seven feet tall. I never knew that video was considered they considered that a female at that. I never heard that before. I just always assumed it was a male for some reason. Maybe I typoded it. I mean, that's probable. Actually, more likely.

57:13 Robert, Robert, Roger scrambled for his camera. Yeah. Okay. The 16 millimeter film whirled her life, and the creature glanced over its shoulder, that famous sideways look, and calmly walked into the trees, vanishing like smokes in between the trunks. That was poetic, and I'm just if I could cry, I would right now. No to the podcast. I don't know how. The Patterson Gimlin film ran for just under a minute, but it became the most analyzed piece of cryptid footage in history. But here's here's the problem.

58:02 Believers show swore that it showed muscle movement. Are you have you seen this video? I have not. You've never actually watched that? There's no fucking way that you can see muscle movement in that video. There's no fucking way. Okay, so native legends predate Bigfoot. Tribes across North America tell tales of Sasquatch. Correct, which, yes. Mm-hmm. A hairy, human-like forest guardian. Yeah. Guardian? What did he guard? The forest. Often seen not as monsters, but as ancient people of the woods.

58:45 Spiritual, reclusive, sometimes protectors, sometimes thieves. You know, like a bear in in a campfire, in a camp, you know. Site. In a campfire. The name Bigfoot entered pop culture in 1958 when bulldozer operator Jerry Crew discovered enormous footprints near Bluff Creek, California. Okay. Newspapers printed photos, and the myth went viral national. Yeah. Old school viral. Yeah. Patterson and Gimlin's 1967 footage cemented it as America's favorite cryptid. Well, I mean, it is obviously the most popular.

59:27 I mean, that's the one you always hear about. Yeah. And there are firm believers that Bigfoot exists. Yeah. And there's probably people that hunt for Bigfoot all the time. There's one on the way to Appleton. A Bigfoot? Yeah. There really isn't. Yeah, I see it. No. Whenever I go to Appleton, there's a Bigfoot in the woods. Is it that metal statue like I used to see on my way out to Whitewater? It's wooden. I saw a metal one and it had a baby squatch. So here's the thing though. If this was anywhere real, where's the fucking boat? They they die. I can't imagine they're immortal. Do you know what the difference between immortal and invincible is?

1:00:09 Immortal, you can still die. Did you know that? Immoral. Immortal. It was like what? Not immoral. Immortal. You can still die. By like what? Cutting your head off? Being stabbed with a stake. Shot by a gun. Yeah. So the description of Bigfoot. That was fun. Seven to ten feet tall. Seven to ten feet. Holy fuck. Up to 800 pounds. How would they know? Covered in brown or black hair, occasionally reddish, like a little red tone under there, you know. If they just got their highlights. Yeah, right. If the sun like shines on them just right. Oh, I just thought they went to the hairdresser. Often accompanied by a musky, foul odor like wet dog.

1:00:55 And bad breath. And known behaviors like tree knocking, rock throwing. Are you their tree? Hurling and camera shyness. Because they don't exist. Okay, so there is an undiscovered primate. That is a theory. Gigantopithecus. I've heard of that, yeah. Gigantopithecus. A giant ape species that crossed from Asia. And then we have a relicit hominid. Oh, I love hominids. A surviving cousin of early humans. Okay.

1:01:35 A hoax. Yeah. Or interdimensional interdimensional being. Oh. I didn't know that. That makes that's that makes so much sense now. Yeah. They literally, the reason why they're never filmed is because they leave this dimension and go to their own. They do. Or another one for that matter. They do. Alright. I believe in Sasquatch, yeah. Thousands of footprint casts have been collected. They haven't been. Some showing dermal ridges like fingerprints, hair samples, scat, nearly all um inconclusive or attributed to known animals. Weird.

1:02:15 Weird. You're telling me that the shit they recovered didn't come from a Sasquatch, but a fucking dog or a canine or coyote, whatever you want to say. Are you serious? I can't believe that's false. So every US state except for Hawaii reports Bigfoot encounters. Do you know why? They don't like to swim. Washington, Oregon, and Northern California lead the pack in sighting. I say the Pacific Northwest typically is what you hear these stories about. So yeah. In Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Oh, good lord. You can buy a book Bigfoot hunting license. How many have been captured with the said license?

1:02:58 It wasn't part of my research. I'm gonna go with a zero route. It doesn't fucking need to be a part of your research. Zero have been caught. Alright, let's move on to the game. Bigfoot, roll number one. God damn it. Six. You realize you've wandered into mating season. Damn right I did. The growl behind you says, I'm not impressed with this backside. Oh Jesus. Oh dear. Roll number two. What the fuck? Four, not impressed with this backside.

1:03:40 It copies your voice, then your laugh, then whispers your full name. Roll number three. Two. Bigfoot leaves you a pile of shiny rocks. Oh, that's so nice. What the fuck? Bradley of history buffoons. Here's some rocks. I got some eggs and some other ones. I got some quartz? Quartz? Agus? Amethyst? You're gonna love these. You're gonna love these. They're gonna look great in your collection. Do you take one or leave an offering of your own?

1:04:21 Roll the uh flip the coin. Jesus. Yes. You leave a shiny bottle cap. Friendship achieved. I am friends with the squatch. The squash. And then we dance. Okay. Woo! That was the Wendigo, the Chupacabra, the Mothman and Bigfoot. And all the survival scenarios that were really terrible. I mean, I I don't like the fact that I died in the the Mothman one. No one believes. Now you're friends with Bigfoot. And we're gonna run off into the Redwoods and live happily ever after.

1:05:03 Even though it doesn't like my backside. How am I supposed to get any? Oh no, you're just friends now. Sorry, sir. You're just friends now. Oh, thank God. Oh, I suppose, yeah, because we we shared gifts. So now we're just friends. So it doesn't matter about my backside. I wouldn't want a hairy backside either. Now it's bros before hose. Did you say rose? Hose. Oh, okay. Bros before hose. Bros, bros, yeah. Yeah. Hairy bros before hose. Sorry, Sarah. I gotta say it again now because I feel like I just offended her. My apologies, Sarah. Oh my goodness. I still think I'd pick Sarah over my newfound friend.

1:05:47 Said Sasquatch. Yeah. But um, anyways. How did you like your gin and tonic? I liked it very much. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long. So I'm I just finished mine. You did, you did. How did you enjoy yours? Oh, I love gin and tonic. So good. Isn't that a weird like origin for gin and tonic? I never knew that. So Emma Watson. Oh, yeah. We yeah, you can go ahead. Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies. Well, she played. She doesn't play, but yes. Okay. Well, I mean, it's semantics. Sure. Proper wording. She hasn't done it in years. She and her brother have their own company where they make gin. Yeah, out of France, right? I think it is out of France.

1:06:28 Believe it. And it's like her her family's like vineyard or something. Something like that, yeah. Um, but we actually tried to buy some of that, but they don't ship to pretty much any state that him or I would have relation to. Yeah. So like I have access to Arizona, Colorado, um, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and uh and Wisconsin, and we can't get it anywhere. And I didn't even look at Vegas, but it's like, I'm not gonna drive out to Vegas to see Al, which I'd love to do, to just bring a bottle of gin back. Yeah. So we tried to order it. I tried to order it. Um, apparently it's available in 35 states.

1:07:08 Just not any of the ones that have access to. So uh we are trying to do that because, well, we're both big Harry Potter fans. Um, I I like Emma Watson, she's great. Don't know much about her brother, just that it's her brother. Yeah, but uh, so we are trying to I've been trying to do this for a while. I've been sitting on this gin and tonic uh little origin thing um for a while. But uh we just decided, uh let's just get normal gin that we could get at the store, local store kind of thing. Yeah, so um we did that, but yeah, I know I never knew that's kind of how gin and tonic came about. Yeah, had no idea so that was the fact that it was um to help battle malaria, no idea.

1:07:54 Yeah, so that was kind of funny. So I had to share that because you I I know we both like gin and tonics, so I thought that was funny. Yeah, but anyways, well, I suppose. All right, buffoons, that's it for today's episode. Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore? Hit us up on social media where History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at history buffoonspodcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers. Follow us wherever you get your podcast and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

1:08:37 Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us. Remember, the buffoonery never stops.