Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're talking about the Lizard Man of Lee
County. That's correct, the Lizard Man
of Lee County. Now, in the local folklore of
Lee County, South Carolina, there exists a tale of the
Lizard Man of Skateboard Swamp, also known as the Lizard Man of
Lee County, and purportedly this creature inhabits the swampland
in the region. It was first brought to the
public attention in late 1980s. The reported sightings and
associated damages linked to this alleged entity garnered
substantial coverage across newspapers, radio, and
television. And Professor Joseph P Laycock
specializes in religious studies, and he's characterized
the resulting media attention in the subsequent development of a
cult following of this and similar claims as a discernible
chain of events. Strange sighting, media
attention, more sightings, followed by visits from curious
tourists and monster hunters. Meanwhile, researcher Ben
Rafford acknowledges the compelling nature of the story,
but raises skepticism about several crucial aspects.
According to Rafford, these aspects do not withstand
thorough skeptical scrutiny. Either way, it's a good story
Now. On July 14th, 1988, the Lee
County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a car
that had been damaged overnight in Browntown, located outside
Bishopville, SC, on the outskirts of the scape or swamp.
The vehicle reportedly exhibited tooth marks, scratches, and had
hair and muddy footprints present.
Sheriff Liston Truesdale highlighted that this incident
marked the beginning of a series of claims that eventually
coalesced into a narrative involving a lizard man in the
swamp. In response to the report of
vehicle damage, Christopher Davis, a 17 year old local, came
forward to the sheriff asserting that his car had been damaged by
a creature he described as green, wet, like about 7 foot
tall and had three fingers, red eyes, skin like a lizard snake
and snake like scales two weeks prior.
According to the Davis, he encountered the creature while
driving home from night shift at a fast food restaurant where it
approached him after he fixed the flat tire.
Davis claimed to have nearly escaped the creature by applying
his brakes, causing it to roll off the car.
Subsequent media coverage elevated the attention given to
his claims, with local businesses capitalizing on the
trend by selling Lizard Man T-shirts and the local Chamber
of Commerce endorsing the media attention.
It's beneficial for the community.
The heightened newspaper and media coverage led to an influx
at reported sightings, turning the area into a tourist
attraction for both visitors and hunters.
Local radio station WCOS even offered $1,000,000 reward for
capturing the creature alive. On August 5th, Kenneth or an
airman stationed at Shaw Air Force Base filed a police report
claiming to have encountered the loser man on Hwy. 15 and having
shot and wounded it, or later recanted his account, admitting
to a hoax to maintain interest in the Lizard Man stories.
And that's the unfortunate thing.
You you have these things happen, and then you always have
some someone come in and try to muddy the waters.
It seems like sightings of the creature gradually declined by
the end of the summer, with local law enforcement
speculating that the reports were likely attributed to bear
sightings. In 2008, CNN featured the Lizard
Man legend in a story about a couple in Bishopville reporting
vehicle damage, including blood traces, which were later
identified as coming from a domestic dog.
In 2015, local television station WCIV presented photos
and videos purported to be of the Lizard Man allegedly taken
by Jim Wilson and other unidentified individuals.
In August 2017, the South Carolina Emergency Management
Division tweeted humorously about possible paranormal
activity during a solar eclipse, suggesting that residents of Lee
and Sumter counties should remain vigilant for Lizard Man
sightings. It just seems like anytime you
have a sighting on one of these things, we have a lot less
really open minded investigation done, you know, with critical
analysis than we do of people just kind of piling on it trying
to make a joke of it. Still a really cool story.
I want to look at a couple of these news articles now.
This first article comes to us from charlestoncity.com.
It says 4 things you should know about the Lizard Man written by
Paul Bowers, dated August 4th, 2015.
It's got a picture of some pretty unique looking lizard
footprints here. It's almost done in the plaster
cast, it says. Ever since ABC News 4 published
A hilariously grainy photo of the mythical South Carolina
monster Sunday afternoon, followed by an extremely zoomed
out video of something moving in the woods, the Internet hasn't
been able to stop talking about the possibility that a Bigfoot
style Southern swamp beast is walking among us here in the
Palmata state. What or who is the Lizard band,
and why does he hold our interest more than 2 1/2 decades
after his disappearance? Here's the primer.
Now it seems like, you know, you have these sightings sometimes
that seem pretty solid, and then years later you'll have people
come along and try to do hoaxes or try to imitate it, so you
have to be careful of that. Anyway, says the Lizard Man is
at least 27 years old. The first known sighting of the
Lizard Man took place around 2:00 AM on July 29th, 1988, near
a swamp in Lee County, South Carolina.
Christopher Davis, a 17 year old, told authorities he was
driving home working a night shift at McDonald's when his 76
Celica blew a flat tire on Browntown Rd. about a mile past
the scape, or bridge, and he pulled over to put on a spare.
As he was placing his tools back in the trunk after changing the
tire, he said he saw something move toward him from the tree
line. In an interview with the item,
he described the creature as green, wet, like about 7 feet
tall, and had three fingers with two glowing red eyes.
Wouldn't that be something to run into in the middle of the
night out there? Here's how Davis described the
encounter to the Houston Chronicle After the story had
gained national attention. I ran into the car and as I
locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle.
I can see him from the neck down, the three big fingers,
long black nails and green, rough skin.
It was strong and angry. I looked at my mirror and saw a
blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he
jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt, and
then I could see his fingers through the front windshield
where they crawled around the roof.
I speed up and swerved to shake the creature off.
Christopher Davis isn't around the tail, the tail, anymore.
He was murdered in his home in 2009.
In his Seminole 2013 cryptozoological book Lizard
Man, The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, author Lyle
Blackburn mentions that a few other Lizard Man witnesses have
died of unnatural causes, establishing what he calls a
peculiar pattern of death surrounding anyone who had seen
the Lizard Man. Sounds like that thing that was
called wet weather, possibly where people that knew too much
were just eliminated. Or it could just be strange,
coincidental circumstances, I suppose.
It says he's a biter. Davis only came forward with his
story after the Lee County Sheriff's Office started
investigating A mysteriously damaged car in the rural
Browntown community on the outskirts of Bishopville.
Blackburn describes the incident.
In The Lizard Man Cometh, the opening chapter of his book.
A family by the name of Way reported that their 1985 Ford
Ltd had been mauled during the night while they slept.
The vehicle, which had been parked under an open metal
carport, had suffered extensive damage to the molding side walls
and hood. It would have seemed like the
work of a vandal, but hair and footprints found on the car LED
them to believe some kind of animal might have been
responsible. But what kind of animal would
sink its claws and teeth into the metal skin of a car?
The hair fibers were determined to have come from a red fox, and
a biologist said that the footprints on the car it could
have come from a black bear, not an uncommon sight in the nearby
swamp. Still, why would a wild animal
attack a car Moby Dick style? The rumors started flying about
a monster on the loose, and after Davis gave his account,
other witnesses started telling their stories.
Before this week's newly surfaced photograph, Lizard Man
sightings had been reported as recently as 2011 and
Bishopsville and surrounding communities.
Here's a short SCETV documentary, says, And I'll go
ahead and I'll post a link there at the Kofi site you can take a
look at that goes on. It says.
For a brief time in 1988, Bishopville became world famous,
and of course, people capitalized on it.
Christopher Davis signed autographs and answered
questions at the makeshift Lizard Man Information Center
inside Bishopsville's Cotton Land Restaurant.
According to Blackburn, Lizard Man T-shirts and hats became hot
sellers as far away as Myrtle Beach.
The county started hosting a Lizard Man 5K race, and at least
three songs were written about the Lizard Man.
The string of sightings proved to be a small economic boon in
Bishopville, and some locals have called for a statue to be
erected for the creature. And then there's the SCC Cotton
Museum, a Bishopville institution that includes an
exhibit to this day about the legend of the Lizard Man.
Executive director Jason Cock reached out and reached by phone
today, says interest has picked up since the latest sighting
quote. Oh, there's always interest
anytime they show anything about the lizard Man.
People call, people want the T-shirts and all that, so we're
happy to supply your fantasy, Clock said.
Wait, so it's just a fantasy, You have to come here and find
out for yourself, Clock said. What you have to understand is
even back to the dinosaur age, there was a lizard looking
creature that stood on its hind legs like the lizard man is
described. The Native Americans talked
about men with tails that came to live with them.
So the stories have been going on for centuries.
Makes you wonder doesn't it? Well, you know, it's weird how a
lot of this paranormal stuff does kind of overlap with Native
American tradition and lore. The article goes on.
It says in August 1988, Kenneth Orr, an airman stationed at Shaw
Air Force Base near Bishopville, told Lee County Sheriff Liston
Truesdale that he had crossed paths with the Lizard Man while
driving to the base at 6:00 AM. He said he fired a warning shot
with his revolver before shooting and wounding the
creature. The state picked up the story
with the tabloid worthy front page headline.
Florence Man says He wounded Lizard Man, according to the
newspaper reports at the time, Or drew a sketch of the creature
and presented some blood and scales that were on the road
that were on the hood of his vehicles as evidence.
But the sketch looked suspiciously like the one that
was being sold on T-shirts in town, and the scales appeared to
come from a fish. There was one other problem with
the story. Or eventually admitted he had
perpetrated A hoax and was charged with a misdemeanor count
of filing a false report, according to newspaper reports
and assigned statement to the Sheriff's Office that was
reprinted in Blackman's book or wrote I made the report just to
keep the legend of the Lizard Man alive.
Some people do crazy things sometimes.
There is, of course, little evidence to prove the existence
of Lizard Man, and plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise,
starting with the latest fact that the latest sighting appears
to be of a man in a rubberized costume.
This is one of these things. It just seems like a parallel
narrative to me. I mean, the young man makes this
report clear back in the 80s. And then here we are, you know,
35 years later or something, 30 years later when this was
written. And we have this picture and it
looks to me like obviously somebody in a costume and
they're, it's almost like they're using these people
joking around and having fun with this thing as a way to
denigrate and and devalue the report by this original
eyewitness. Kind of like what happened with
Roswell. You know, we have someone come
forward and say, yeah, we had this crash spaceship or multiple
ships, there were bodies. And then, you know, you come
along in the 90s under Bill Clinton, I believe it was when
they came out and said it was some sort of crash test dummy or
secret project. And then even after that, I
believe it was like in the mid 2000s, ten 2012 area, they came
out with it with another parallel narrative.
They just don't quit. Then the article kind of
finishes up with a little more of a debunking quote here from
this fellow Kenneth Orr talking about how people are basically
trying to just pursue religious belief in the paranormal.
You see that in a lot of these articles, they do report some of
the facts and then they spend the rest of the article talking
about why it couldn't possibly be true.
They spend some parallel narratives, usually from the
hoaxers. But I think the important thing
about this is it's just the detailed interview this young
man gave, you know, Quebec here in the in the mid 80s.
It looks like this next article is from WYF f4.com.
It says people still talking about South Carolina's Weirdest
Legend festival, held three decades later.
Man who first reported Lizard Man attack in 1988, was gunned
down in 2009. This is my Carla Field.
Yeah, the story has a very strange twist.
I mean, this young guy reports this encounter that he had, It
seems like he was very sincere about it.
It's had a big impact on the community.
People just haven't let it go. And then he ends up getting
killed. What?
Like a little over what? 20 years later, it says.
Greenville, SC. Over the weekend, a festival was
held commemorating one of the weirdest events ever recorded in
South Carolina history, and one about which some people love to
debate. Now, this article here is dated
June 3rd, 2019, so it's a little more recent.
The second annual Lizard Man Festival was held at the Cotton
Museum in Bishopville May 31st to June 2nd.
The festival included panel discussion about Lizard Man and
related paranormal topics on Saturday and tours of Lizard Man
trail important Lizard Man locations including the escape
or swamp on Sunday, it says. Sometime in either June or July
1988, depending on the source, Christopher Davis, then
seventeen, reported encountering a creature that quickly became
known as the Lizard Man of scape or swamp.
A newspaper article said Davis was attacked by 7 foot Blizzard
type creature while he was changing a flat tire.
The article quoted Davis saying he set its searing eyes, 3
clawed fingers and snake like scales made him initially
believe he was under siege by the devil himself.
The same article said two men told Lee County deputies they
had been chased by a similar creature while they were getting
water out of a spring two weeks before.
The article said the mystery has fed on rumors, which have
multiplied since Tom and Mary Way's car was mauled last
Thursday while they slept. Their forged torn molding and
dented sidewalls, broken hood ornament, along with red hairs
and footprints left behind indicate some kind of animal was
responsible, a report in 2009 said.
In the summer of 1988, twelve more people claim to see the
lizard man escape or swamp. Some people were chased by the
creature and others were slowly being followed until a creature
was spotted and ran away. There were also more reports of
mutilated cars. On July 24th four teenagers on a
double date saw a massive looking thing run across the
road about 20 feet in front of them.
Shortly after receiving this initial report, the police
received several more reports of howling and screeching coming
from the area. Officers were dispatched to the
area and discovered 340 gallon cardboard drums smashed and
scattered all over the road. Several trees also had their
tops torn off about 8 feet off the ground.
There were also more 3 toed footprints measuring 14 inches
long by 7 inches wide that fall to trail almost 900 feet into
the swamp itself. Be a lot of work to go to if
you're faking one of these sightings and the fact that
these trees had their tops torn off.
So you see, we get into this different article here and we
have a lot more focus on the sightings themselves.
And there are multiple sightings, multiple encounters,
and physical evidence left behind.
I think it's why it's so important.
When you're looking at this stuff, you really have to look
at it for more than one perspective.
Authorities never figured out what led to the reports, but the
legend has lived on, seemingly taking on a life of its own as
years past. Well, maybe what led to the
reports was people actually saw this thing.
Numerous magazine and newspaper articles have been written about
the legend. Several books have been written
about Lizard Man, including one by Texas writer of Cryptozoology
Research allow Blackburn title Lizard Man.
The true Story of the Bishop Bill Monster Davis, the original
Lizard Man victim, was back in the news in 2009, unfortunately
because he was gunned down in his home when he was 37.
The came in. Devar Butler, 19, and Angori
Central Slater, 22, were charged with murder in Davis's death
during the total eclipse of 2017.
South Carolina Emergency Management tweeted a map of
possible Lizard Man sightings from 1980 to 2001 overlaid on
the path of the eclipse with the tongue and cheek warning.
This historical map is in response to recent media reports
about possible paranormal activity associated with the
upcoming total solar eclipse. SCEMD does not know if Lizard
Men and become more active during a solar eclipse, but we
advise that residents of Lee and Central Counties remain ever
vigilant. You have to wonder, why is it so
important for these guys to taunt people with stuff like
this? They have the time to create
this silly little lizard man sightings map and just as a way
to, I suppose, taunt the people that pay their wages.
Anyway, really cool story I think.
A sad ending for the guy that saw it.
It kind of this whole lizard man thing though it speaks to a lot
of different aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
You know, other people have talked about these reptilian
aliens that have abducted them or they've had encounters with
and so I think it deserves some serious study.
The fact that I like about this article is that they talk about
these these 8 foot tall trees having their tops snapped off.
Something that you would think of what happened with Bigfoot,
with a scrutual just kind of annoyed or enraged and starts
you know just turning the living daylights out of trees and
stuff. And also the fact that the
tracks went 900 feet back into the swamp.
Now, you know I don't live in South Carolina, but that seems
like quite a lot of work to go to walking back into the swamp
swamp, making these tracks just to do a hoax on someone.
The fact that we had lots of people reporting this thing, you
know, right around the same area it you could say, well, mass
hysteria, but you know people took the time we had the we had
the vehicles that were damaged. They claimed it was possibly a
bear or something. Pretty weird that you didn't
have that going on before the sighting of the lizard man.
Until next time, this is UFO Warning.
Over and out.