Goatman

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The Goatman (German: goat man ) is an American mythical creature that is half a human and half a goat . The Goatman myth is particularly popular in the state of Maryland .

Appearance

There are various statements about the appearance of the Goatman. Some describe him as a person with a goat head and thus similar to the popular representation of the devil . Other sources report a hybrid being with the lower body of a goat and a human torso, similar to a satyr or the shepherd god Pan in Greek mythology.

Legend

The research center in Beltsville, where the Goatman is said to have originated from a failed DNA experiment.

In 1957, the first eyewitness accounts appeared, describing the Goatman 's appearance in Prince George's County , Maryland. Allegedly the Goatman lives in a cave near the town of Bowie , other sources locate the hiding place on a bridge in Beltsville or near the town of Davidson. In 1962 the Goatman is said to have killed and partially eaten twelve children and two adults who were camping near the cave at Bowie. In addition, pets are said to have constantly fallen victim to the monster.

Legend has it that the Goatman was created in a failed experiment by a scientist at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville when he was handling the DNA of goats and humans. Since then, there have been numerous reports of alleged eyewitnesses who claim to have observed the Goatman, not only from Maryland, but also from Kentucky , Texas , Alabama and other US states, and the monster is said to have been sighted in Canada .

When a goat with supposedly human facial features was born in Malaysia in spring 2016 , the Goatman legend in the USA came back into the public eye. A short time later there were renewed eyewitness reports about the appearance of the monster, which is said to have attacked teenagers near the village of Laurel . Alleged photographs of the Goatman were even distributed via the short message service Twitter .

Pope Lick Monster

The Pope Lick Monster is a variant of the Goatman myth from the US state of Kentucky. It is also described as a hybrid of goat and human. Legend has it that the monster came from Canada and came to Fisherville, Kentucky with a traveling circus , where it fled and has been haunted there ever since. It can affect people's thoughts, especially teenagers. The legend first became known at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and it became popular again in the 1950s and 1960s when a group of boy scouts reported an alleged attack by the monster.

reception

When the story of the catastrophic experiment at the Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville was once again spread widely through the Internet, the spokeswoman for the research center announced in an official statement that the legend was a "stupid", "not funny" invention and it was in has never given comparable experiments to the institution.

The Goatman motif has already been taken up several times in books and films, for example it is the subject of some horror and splatter productions .

Films (selection)

  • 2009: Goatman (short film)
  • 2010: Jimmy Tupper vs. the Goatman of Bowie
  • 2012: Deadly Detour: The Goat Man Murders
  • 2013: Legend of the Goatman: Horrifying Monsters (Documentary)

Books (selection)

literature

  • Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman: Weird US: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets . Sterling Publishing Company, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4027-6688-6 , pp. 110 f . ( Google Books ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tug Gettling: The legend of the real goatman. Daily Herald, July 29, 2012, accessed January 13, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Robin Hartmann: This cruel creature has kept Maryland in suspense for decades. travelbook.de, December 29, 2015, accessed on January 13, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b Andy Wright: Maryland's Goatman Is Half Man, Half Goat, and Out for Blood. Modern Farmer, September 16, 2013, accessed January 13, 2016 .
  4. ↑ George Harrison: Has The Goatman of Maryland returned? Fresh reports claim mystery beast is tormenting town's teens. The Sun, April 30, 2016, accessed May 12, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Matthias Kernstock: Woman dies while researching the mysterious Goatman legend. MOPO24, April 27, 2016, archived from the original on May 12, 2016 ; accessed on February 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Jeffrey Scott Holland, Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran: Weird Kentucky: Your Travel Guide to Kentucky's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets . Sterling Publishing Company, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4027-5438-8 , pp. 85 ff . ( Google Books ).