The maryland goatman -urban legend or experiment?

The Goatman is described as a hybrid creature; part man and part goat. According to those who claim to have seen it, it has the legs and feet of a goat, the upper body of a man, a horned head, and a body partially covered by fur. A witness placed his height at 7 feet and weight at 300 pounds.

It is often associated with Governor’s Bridge Road, Lottsford Road and Fletchertown Road, in Prince George’s County, and with the nearby Glenn Dale Hospital, the former site of a state tuberculosis sanatorium. It is reported to have attacked a number of witnesses and to have damaged property, and to have killed family pets.

There are references to a magical creature that the Piscataway native tribes people believed could change into animal form as written in 1666 by a Jesuit priest, in which the illustration of a Bigfoot-like creature standing on two legs appeared in the document.

The sightings seem to have begun in 1957.The first encounter said to be reported, a young couple were parked alone a lonely country road during a moon lit night , when they suddenly heard something banging on the hood of their car. Looking up they were startled to see a goat like creature staring at them, waving what looked like a double edged axe in it’s hand. The creature suddenly turned and dashed into the surrounding woods. This smacks of urban legend but reports continued.. A motorist spotted a seven foot creature near Beltsville in 1969. In 1971 there were several sightings around Bowie, including a witness who claimed Goatman beheaded her dog. A woman heard her pet dog barking wildly outside, peering through a window she saw the shadowy figure of the creature moving about where the dog was tied up. Being to scared to go outside in the dark, she looked in the morning, only to discover the dog had been beheaded.

One of the famous sightings in Maryland dates back to1973 and took place in Sykesville, a town on the southern edge of Carroll county .It Occurred March when a man was driving along Rt. 32 when he saw a “huge beast on two legs with glowing eyes.

Media reports:

On November 10, 1971 edition of the Prince George’s County News carried a front-page banner declaring “Residents Fear Goatman Lives: Dog Found Decapitated in Old Bowie” with a photo of the remains of the mutilated pet. The canine victim, named Ginger, belonged to April Edwards and had disappeared after Miss Edwards and friends had reported hearing strange noises in their yard on the night of November 3, 1971 and then saw a large creature moving in the dark. The article also reiterated that reports of an “animal-like creature that walks on its hind legs” have proliferated along Fletchertown Road.

The Prince George’s County News coverage of the Goatman climaxed with one last front-page story on November 24, 1971. Focusing on Mrs. Evelyn Johnson, who lives on Fletchertown Road, the article mentions the trouble and harassment she and other neighbors received from Goatman hunters, including an incident where the road was blocked off by two cars and one truckload of people who claimed they had the creature trapped. Mrs. Johnson had to call the police in order to reach her property.

So urban legend or not the Goatman has had some publicity over the years and been seen in other locations such as Fort Worth. The local story has it that a scientist crossed goat DNA and human DNA which produced the goatman who escaped and then it was hushed up by the government. It is unlikely that it was possible to do such experiments in the 1950’s as the technology wasn’t available. The computer power to work out the DNA sequencing was not around nor the programmes to do it. Still it makes a great story and who is to say that people didn’t see something unusual that could be a new species or the remnants of a very old species of creature. Though I do know a local priest claims it was a wild man living rough in the woods dressed in skins and mud that had lived in the area from 1930’s to 1950’s. That doesn’t account for the sighting in 1971.