Tracks of the Beast

A good hunter knows how to read a landscape for signs of his quarry’s passing, to track an animal all day just for the chance to get off one shot. But only an obsessive, stubborn, crazy hunter would keep up the chase after he learned that the creature he hunted was no ordinary animal, that it could easily turn the tables and become the hunter.

Daniel had been a hunter since he was old enough to hold a rifle. In the woods of Pennsylvania, doe and bucks were plentiful, and Daniel had bagged many over the years, becoming a skilled woodsman.

Daniel writes to tell me about the hunt he went on in 1994. The snow was deep and early that year and it was easy for the hunters to track the deer from the fields and into the forests.

On the trail of a beast!

Next week on Scary True: Follow the tracks and meet the monster in "Tracks of the Beast." May belongs to the monsters! And check out this week’s Midnighter story, "The Midnighters: Green Man."

The Midnighters: Green Man

For over thirty years, Jerry worked as a police officer in Pittsburgh. In his time on the force, Jerry had seen some bad things, some worse things, and some downright evil things. Cleaning up when people got mad or got crazy was part of the job, but there were other things that Jerry saw, things that most people never see, things that prowl the night, things that refuse to die.

I interviewed Jerry several times in 2002. The following incident is just one of the many stories Jerry shared in hours of audio recordings. I have transcribed them just as they were told to me by Jerry.

“There’s this spot in Pittsburgh, it’s called Panther Hollow, OK? Nice place. They got a nice lake and some trails – it’s like a park or something. Anyway, it’s in this valley right in the middle of town, right? And there’s a bridge that goes over it and, I’m telling ya, it’s a long, long way down.

The Midnighters are coming for Monster Month!

Next week on Scary True: What monsters lurk in Panther Hollow? The Midnighters find out as Monster Month continues next week with “The Midnighters: Green Man.” May belongs to the monsters! And check out this week’s monster story, “Nomads.” 

Nomads

When the U.S. housing bubble burst, it took whole neighborhoods with it. Empty houses, some abandoned by their owners, lined streets from Florida to California. Although the economic toll is, in some ways, invisible, the disintegration of communities is not. As the homes fell apart, opportunistic invaders such as weeds, rats, and other unwholesome things moved in.

Jim has lived in the same home outside of Phoenix, Arizona his whole life. After his parents emigrated from Korea in the 1940s, they bought the house that Jim now calls home.

In 2008 Jim’s neighborhood seemed to dry up and blow away under the hot Arizona sun. “It started out with the Sanchez house on the corner,” Jim tells me. “Then the Stephens and their neighbors on both sides moved out.”

May belongs to the monsters!

Next week on Scary True: In 2008, the financial crisis sparked record home foreclosures across the country. As people moved out, the monsters moved in. Monster Month continues next week with “Nomads!” And check out this week’s Bigfoot story, “Attack on Camp Wepawaug.”

Attack on Camp Wepawaug

Jason could hardly wait for camp in the summer of 2003.  All his old friends would be there for swimming and canoeing, marshmallows and hot dogs, campfires and late-night ghost stories. It was going to be a summer that Jason would always remember, even when he desperately tried to forget it.

Eleven-year-old Jason headed off to Connecticut’s Camp Wepawaug with his sleeping bag, some bug spray, and rampant enthusiasm. “I think my parents were glad to see me go,” Jason tells me, “because I wouldn’t stop talking about it.”

That week at camp flew by faster than Jason expected, but maybe that was because what he was really looking forward to was the last night of camp. “Since I was old enough,” Jason explains, “I was allowed to go to the big sleep over at the old campsite.”