Cryptids—or “hidden creatures”—are a category of elusive animal reported across the world. They are a fascinating topic, and a comprehensive list seems impossible to create as sightings and descriptions vary wildly, implying the possibility of countless species and subspecies. Legendary creatures such as the Loch Ness monster (Nessie), Mothman, the Abominable Snowman, and Chupacabra are all interesting cryptids, but there is not enough proof whether to confirm or deny the legitimacy of reports made by witnesses who have seen them. Many cryptids have been sighted, but there are no reliable photographic or video records to prove their existence. Additionally, traditional science has been unable to explain many of these sightings. In most instances, it’s likely that conventional explanations for these animals are far more likely. For example, it’s very unlikely that Nessie is just a large sturgeon swimming underneath a mud flat along the Loch Ness shoreline. Rarely do cryptids prove fathomable, but they do inspire regard. There could be an incredible number of strange cryptids out there in the wild somewhere on Earth; all we know is that we haven’t found them just yet.

Join Unexplained Cases (www.youtube.com/c/UnexplainedCases) on their 3-part investigative series, Haunted M's of Philly, to learn the history and unexplained occurrences at 3 of Philly's most iconic haunted locations. Mummer's Museum www.unexplainedcases.com/2022/08/haunted-ms-of-philly-mummers-museum.html McGillin's Olde Ale House www.unexplainedcases.com/2022/10/haunted-ms-of-philly-mcgillins-olde-ale.html Morton Morton House www.unexplainedcases.com/2022/10/haunted-ms-of-philly-morton-morton.html

Dublin Lake, or Dublin Pond as some refer to it, is a 240-acre body of water that's about 0.8 miles long and 0.6 miles wide at its widest point. At its deepest point, the water is 110 feet deep. It is mainly fed by springs. While ideal for diving and training divers, Dublin Lake has minimal plant life and fish. Is it really possible for a lake monster to thrive down there in this seemingly insufficient habitat? Who has heard of the Dublin Lake Monster? I posted an article about it here, as well: https://www.paranormalzine.com/post/dublin-lake-monster Artist Marcus Whinney

Spirit boards have been known to convey some questionable and puzzling things, however. A #Ouija board once told a #Chicago woman to leave her mother's deceased corpse in the living room for 15 days before burying it in the backyard. Folks have tried to use transcripts of their spirit board communications in probate court. One board told a man to join the #Army. And he did. People have trusted and relied on their spirit boards without question to the point of obedience. Which begs the question: is it safe?

Just in time for October, Tennessee Hauntstorian, Allen Sircy has released two new books focused on hauntings in Middle Tennessee, Southern Ghost Stories: Downtown Nashville and Southern Ghost Stories: South Nashville. "I have lived in Nashville for most of my life," explained Sircy. "Not a lot of people know about it, but a battle took place in 1781 between early white settlers and Native Americans in what is now considered 'downtown'. The area where those men fought and died has been lost to honky-tonks and a sea of tourist traps. With Southern Ghost Stories: Downtown Nashville, I spent a lot of time digging into places Broadway as well as some high-profile murders that took place in places like the Men’s Quarter and Printer’s Alley." While there is a ton of history to draw from downtown, for Southern Ghost Stories: South Nashville, Sircy dug even deeper into the Civil War and the ghostly tales that spun out of the War Between the States. “South Nashville was ground zero for the Battle of Nashville,” explained Sircy. “The Union and Confederacy fought in Crieve Hall, Green Hills and other trendy parts of Nashville that have long since been developed. With all the death that came from the battle, naturally, there are a lot of ghost stories in that part of town.” But it’s not just ghost stories that are featured in Southern Ghost Stories: South Nashville, the book also digs into a Frankenstein story that took place in the late 19th century. “In 1879 Knox Martin was hanged in the hanging field off Murfreesboro Road,” explained Sircy. “Shortly after, doctors hooked Martin’s body up to a battery to see if they could revive him. There are a number of twists and turns in the story, but there are people who swore that they saw Knox Martin alive in the days following his execution.” To give back to the community for helping him with the project, Allen Sircy will donate books as well as a portion of proceeds to the Buchanan Log House. “The Buchanan Log House is a hidden gem and one of the oldest structures in Middle Tennessee,” said Sircy. “In addition to the hauntings there is so much history in that cabin. I really do hope that people will read the book and then go visit the old house on Elm Hill Pike!” Southern Ghost Stories: Downtown Nashville and Southern Ghost Stories: South Nashville are available for purchase at select retailers in Middle Tennessee. You can find it online at Amazon.com and Southern Ghost Stories.com.

What are your thoughts on this case, anyone?

A short story submitted January 2022 It was almost 11 pm when I decided to go back home. I stuffed everything in my bag, wiped my face with the towel, and put that in the bag as well. I picked my bag then and started to leave the gym. It was my routine to work on my fitness and I used to spend 2 hours in the gym after work. It was chilly out there, so I wore my hoodie and started to walk home. I was walking and looking around when suddenly I got a call from my office. I picked up the phone and came to know about some urgent work that came up and that was supposed to be done within an hour. I looked around for a cab as it was a 30min walk from the gym to my apartment. I waited for a while but there was too little crowd at this time and I couldn't find anything. Suddenly I remembered that there was a shortcut to my house through the graveyard. I felt a bit relieved as I started walking towards the graveyard. As it was already quite late so nobody was present there. It was completely silent. I wrapped my hands around me as a cold breeze hit me. I was walking slowly and carefully as I did not want to step on any grave. I could hear dogs in the distance. I looked around, but couldn't see where the voices were coming from. Suddenly I heard someone walking behind me, I turned around but there was no one. I paced a little when I heard another bark right behind me. I jumped at the bark and turned around to find nothing. I felt a little strange about everything but I kept on moving. I couldn't believe what I saw next. I saw someone at the far end in a white wedding dress, and I saw very clearly blood falling from her neck. She was not moving, just standing there. I wanted to scream but I held myself together and kept moving. All of a sudden, I saw a dog standing, a couple of rows beside me. He was barking loudly. I was still thinking about where this dog came from when suddenly its face changed to that of a cat. I rubbed my eyes, but the image was still the same, a dog with a cat's face. I started to run faster. The exit was just a few miles away. I could see the dog was sitting not moving but still it was moving further with me, its face kept on changing from dog to cat and goat. I was sweating hard because of running. I wondered if I was going on the right path, but since I hadn't taken any turns, it was not possible to be lost. I heard a girl giggling from a distance to my right, but I didn't dare to look, I just kept on running. It felt like hundreds of people were running behind me. I tilted my head a little but there was no one but I could still hear them running behind me. The strange dog was still following me while I was hearing the barking of hundreds of dogs. Suddenly, the footsteps behind me stopped, I felt relaxed and worried at the same time. The loud barking of the dogs was deafening me. Suddenly, I saw the bride at the far end floating towards me. That was the time when I almost stopped myself from fainting. I had to keep myself together; this was not the time to back away. I started hearing loud melodious singing of a girl sometimes near me and sometimes away from me. The horrifying bride was still floating towards me, and I was unable to see the exit. Suddenly, I heard a loud scream right beside my ear and my soul almost escaped from my body. I was watching the bride coming nearer when suddenly I saw the gate. I paced faster and finally, I made it through and when I hit the road, I fell on the ground and fainted. ********** When I opened my eyes, I saw myself in a hospital and my mother was sitting beside me. They told me that someone picked me off the road and took me to the hospital. I awoke after 2 days. I told them about everything, and that was the last time I used the graveyard as a shortcut.

*The pic below is simply for attention*

Tales of this malevolent spirit of indigenous folklore are wildly popular in the States. We love a good scary cryptid story, but Wendigo is not entertaining for those affected by the missing people believed to have been taken by this devil in the woods of Ontario. Hundreds of people, of all ages and backgrounds, have vanished into thin air over just the past 40 years in the northern and central Ontario forest areas. Their remains are almost never recovered, leaving people to believe that their demises were not met at the hands of humans but rather something supernaturally evil, that which may not be working alone. What are your thoughts or experiences?

What are your thoughts and-or experiences regarding this cryptid?

Of course, feel free to add your own! Alabama (AL) Royal Pines Rehab, Hayden Alaska (AK) Badarka Road, Chugiak Arizona (AZ) Jerome Grand Hotel, Jerome Arkansas (AR) Hell's Half Acre, Hot Springs California (CA) Pogonip Park, Santa Cruz Colorado (CO) Cheeseman Park, Denver Connecticut (CT) Union Cemetery, Easton Delaware (DE) Cooch's Bridge, Newark Florida (FL) Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach Georgia (GA) Hell Church, Canton Hawaii (HI) Manoa Falls, Honolulu Idaho (ID) Fort Hall Bottoms, Pingree Illinois (IL) McPike Mansion, Alton Indiana (IN) Dog Face Bridge, San Pierre Iowa (IA) Mitchell Cemetery, Boone Kansas (KS) St. Jacob's Well, Englewood Kentucky (KY) Joppa Church, Mammoth Cave Louisiana (LA) Poverty Point, Pioneer Maine (ME) Route 2A, Haynesville Woods Maryland (MD) Glenndale Hospital, Glenn Dale Massachusetts (MA) Fort Revere, Hull Michigan (MI) Holy Family Orphanage, Marquette Minnesota (MN) Loon Lake Cemetery, Lakefield Mississippi (MS) King's Tavern, Natchez Missouri (MO) Lawler Ford Road, St. Louis Montana (MT) Blue Cloud Creek, Helena Nebraska (NE) Seven Sisters Rd, Nebraska City Nevada (NV) Pyramid Lake, Sutcliffe New Hampshire (NH) Kimball Castle, Gilford New Jersey (NJ) Devil's Tree, Basking Ridge New Mexico (NM) Santa Fe Trail (NM Hwy 21) New York (NY) Spook Hill, Middlesex North Carolina (NC) Helen's Bridge, Asheville North Dakota (ND) Trollwood Park, Fargo Ohio (OH) Moonville Tunnel McArthur Oklahoma (OK) Gap Road, Bartlesville Oregon (OR) Homestead Road, Salem Pennsylvania (PA) Cossart Road, Chadds Ford Rhode Island (RI) Nine Men's Misery, Cumberland South Carolina (SC) Buncombe Road, Newbury South Dakota (SD) San Haven Sanatorium, Dunseith Tennessee (TN) Chapel Hill Railroad, Chapel Hill Texas (TX) Marfa Lights Viewing Area, Marfa Utah (UT) Sherman Ranch, Ballard Vermont (VT) Mud Pond Park, Williston Virginia (VA) Crawford Road, Yorktown Washington (WA) Seattle Central College, Seattle West Virginia (WV) Grey Flats Trail, Beckley Wisconsin (WI) Cherney Hotel, Maribel Wyoming (WY) Lake Yellowstone, Yellowstone Nat'l Park

These are the legends that are more than just folklore. These next several paragraphs will cast light upon the truth behind 5 chilling campfire stories that we've all heard, but didn't realize their factual, sinister origins. A Nightmare on Elm Street wasn't entirely fictional... Wes Craven film was inspired by true events that were taking place in the late 1970s. While no knife-glove-wielding pervert was actually taking the lives of sleeping teens, something was taking the lives of young, healthy men of Asian descent while while they slept. The sleep-death phenomenon known as "Asian Death Syndrome" or "Brugada syndrome" claimed the lives a few dozen people. Curiously, its victims were Hmong refugee males who had fled the Cambodian Killing Fields for America, having survived the Khmer massacre. While the syndrome is now medically detectable and preventable, there is still no explanation as to why it would have so ruthlessly affected this small group of people. Craven spoke about one particular, spine-chilling incident involving a family and their young son that really galvanized his mission to create the film. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare.” There was most certainly a Mad Bunny Man in Virginia... Internet versions of the Bunny Man have carried the local legend to new heights, but they can’t discredit the core facts. Someone, around Halloween 1970, was attacking folks with a hatchet whilst dressed in a rabbit suit. Air force Academy Cadet Robert Bennett reported to Fairfax County, Virginia police that while he and his fiancée were parked on Guinea Road, a man dressed in a “white suit with long bunny ears" threw a hatchet through the car window and then disappeared into the night. The police had the hatchet but suspects. Two weeks later, a security guard spotted the lunatic taking an axe to a support beam of a newly constructed house on Guinea Road. When approached, the Bunny Man threatened to bust him on the head. Then guess what – he disappeared into the woods. There are twelve more reports just like these that take place over the span of a couple of weeks. Candy Man, oh Candy Man, tell me your crimes... One so horrible it must be true. The Candyman is a great movie, but the story was not simply pulled from the ether. Twisted sadist Dean Corll worked at the Houston Heights candy factory which his family owned and was known to give out candy to the neighborhood kids, but this monster was far from sweet. Dean Corll raped, tortured and murdered at least 27 young men in the Houston, Texas area between 1970 and 1973, the mass murders making global headlines. With the help of two paid accomplices, Corll lured young men to his home in Pasadena, Texas, where kept them prisoner, torturing them before killing them. Mexican ritual murders were actually taking place in the 1980s... One may be inclined to write stories of vacationing Americans falling prey to foreign cultists as Satanic Panic at its finest, but one may also be naïve. Take for instance Adolfo Constanzo and his Palo Mayombe-practicing followers in Mexico City. When the Cuban-American Adolfo moved from Miami to Mexico City, his animal sacrifices quickly escalated to human sacrifices. It was his belief that his sorcery was behind the success of the drug cartels that he had become affiliated with, and he needed to kill to make his spells more potent. The abduction, and subsequent ritual killing, of American student Mark Kilroy during his spring break lit a fire under Mexican officials to investigate the local murders, leading the gruesome discovery that he had been sacrificed to Satan at Adolfo's murder compound - Rancho Santa Elena. Mark wasn't alone, as the cult had killed at least 20 others., maybe as many as 100. It gets even weirder. A map drawn two years prior by confessed mass-killer Henry Lee Lucas had predicted with inexplicable accuracy that the bodies of victims of satanic rituals would be found right where Kilroy and the others were found. No one has ever really been buried alive...right? Wrong. Octavia Hatcher of Pikeville, Kentucky was a young woman who married the richest man in town. They seemed to be happy, but even more so with the birth of their first, and only, child. Heartbreakingly, the baby only lived a few days. Octavia became sick, seemingly from depression and took to bed, her health beginning to decline rapidly, and soon resulting in her apparent death. With no signs of life left in her, she was promptly buried. Shortly after, it was discovered that members of the community were succumbing to a coma-like illness from the bite of the tsetse fly. Fearing the worst, Octavia's grave was exhumed, revealing that she had woken from her coma within the casket and had tried to claw her way out.

There had been werewolf sightings in New France (now Saint-Pierre and Miquelon) during the 1600s, and it’s no stretch to imagine these beasts made their way inland. It’s speculated that werewolves, or at least one werewolf, sailed over from France on ships with the first French settlers. It’s documented that France had been battling what they believed were werewolves since the 1400s. During this period, many were tried, convicted, and ultimately burned at the stake. The Loup-Garou of Quebec was publicly reported in The Gazette in 1767 but the story went cold by the following year. Nowadays, stories of these Dogmen, man-wolf hybrids, are still circulating, especially in the areas surrounding waterways and lakes in distances between Montreal and Quebec and as far as New Brunswick. It’s no wonder there are many sightings since this particular strain of werewolf isn’t confined to morphing into its beast form during the full moon but is doomed to transform every single night.

Myth to some, mystery-waiting-to-be-solved to others. It's easy to pass Plato's tale of the lost island of Atlantis as parable, considering how tough it is to find anything at the bottom of the ocean. Plato didn't invent the story as part of a Socratic dialogue but, supposedly, borrowed it from the Egyptians. While he claimed that the story of the city had been passed down by survivors to his grandfather, his two books are the only record we seem to have of it. It made for a great festival speech, with its societal comparisons and philosophical theories, and so people generally disregarded it as having been too convenient to be true. There was no way to very his story if the entire island had sank, of course. But islands do sink, so to speak. We know this now. Over geological time, islands have been known to have subsided below the surface of the ocean, and subsequent tectonic forces along with changing sea levels have even made islands reappear later. The scenario is in many respects plausible. One would think a sunken island wouldn't be too difficult to locate in this day and age, but are we looking in the right places? If Atlantis is based on an Egyptian story, then its location could be much different than Plato had speculated. Interested parties are constantly searching for clues and connections, and I like to believe we're getting closer by the centennial. In January 2015, a metal called orichalcum that Plato said was found in the city of Atlantis, was recovered from a ship that sunk off the coast of Sicily about 2,600 years ago.

The general consensus seems to be that people are thrilled and awed at the sight of them, but we frown at the notion of being taken aboard. Naturally. Those who claim to have been abducted by aliens either have horrific memories of the event(s) or no real recollection at all, due to their captors' ability to erase the memories. These fantastical stories are hard to believe, but they have had the attention and support of some of the world's greatest, and open, minds like the late John E. Mack. Whether you believe them or not, they believe. US researchers at Harvard University have held numerous experiments to examine the physical responses of their subjects to the memories of their abductions, finding that they show the physiological changes associated with PTSD. It's important to understand that while there is never any shortage of attention-seeking cuckoos making false claims, most abductees do not want any association with the phenomena and only desperately wish to be able to cope with the ordeal to go about their lives. Something to consider next time you're star-gazing is the possibility of your leisurely viewing of those nocturnal lights escalating into a Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind.