The Beast of Bladenboro is the name given to a monster that killed numerous dogs and livestock in Bladenboro, North Carolina, during the winter of 1953–1954. It was probably a wildcat, as per witness accounts and tracking, however, its identification was inevitably unconfirmed. The majority of the animal’s victims were dogs, and reports say that it frequently squashed or beheaded them. On December 29, 1954, a rancher reported that one of his dogs had been attacked and pulled into some brush by a huge cat-like creature. This was the beginning of the slayings. On New Year’s Day 1955, more murders took place. Two dogs were discovered dead with their blood totally drained. The next day, the unidentified wild animal attacked 2 more dogs.
Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw, a 21-year-old mom, had seen the creature chasing her at 7:30 in the early hours on January 6, 1954. She managed to run inside the house while screaming. The creature left cat-like paw prints, which her husband noticed while running outdoors with a shotgun. A farmer also mentioned that 3 of his swine, a few of his dairy cattle, and one of his goats were all killed by an unknown animal. The goat’s head was fritter-like and fatty. Additionally, strange noises that resembled cats and some that heard like a baby crying and a woman screaming were also got to hear.
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Hunting and Comeback Of the Beast
Locals claimed to have seen a hybrid animal that was approximately 3 to 4 feet long, 30 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. Its fur is shaggy, brownish, and tabby. The creature also has a long tail, cat-like head, and puny-looking ears. The Vampire Beast was only described in these terms. Roy Fores, the chief of the police for the community, organized a search for the monster but returned empty-handed. When W.G. Fussell, the mayor, informed the media of the beast. The beast attracted widespread attention and hunters from as far away as Tennessee. The chases for the beast were covered by newspaper articles from Arizona to New York.
Townwide panic reigned at the time. In an attempt to locate the beast, men rushed the trees carrying guns and forbade children from playing outside after dark. The quest was over when hunters Fores and Fussell killed a sizable bobcat. Situations then began to calm down once more.
In 2007, the creature came back to North Carolina, bringing fresh shocks and terror. Sixty goats were discovered in Lexington with their faces smashed and their blood vented. Some other farmers in Greensboro, located 30 miles away, suffered a similar goat loss. Bill Robinson, who lived in Bolivia, was attacked by the animal and lost his pit bull. Although he buried it, the body was still there the next day where it had been found dead. Just 4 days later, Leon Williams, a different local, discovered his pit bull killed, splattered with blood, and with some internal organs missing. For a pit bull, there were indications of hardship.
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10 dogs were lost overall in other locations in just 2 weeks. Further tracks were discovered; these ones had a diameter of 4.5 inches. That evening, a group of Wilmington hunters followed the animal for 3 miles (4.8 km) through swampland. They claimed that the tracks revealed claws at least an inch (2.5 cm) long, indicating an animal weighing 80 to 90 pounds (35 to 40 kg). The trappers claimed that the beast’s circling behavior indicated it might have had young or a mate near the area.
The creature was seen targeting a dog on January 5; the dog fled and was never discovered. There have been 2 types of trail, one of which was smaller, along the bank of a creek close to one of the invasion sites. Another local mentioned “a big mountain lion” close several dogs 3 houses down later that day, in the evening hours. When she started shouting, the beast ran away from her before turning and leaving. According to Police Chief Fores, the footprints left on the dirt road in front of her house were “greater than a silver dollar.”
Legacy Of The Beast
Based on the media exposure the town received from the thrilling news reports, writings about the occurrences of the winter of 1953–1954 tend to be doubtful. On January 6, the mayor of the town, Woodrow Fussell, who ran the theatre, traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to reserve a day showing of the movie The Big Cat. Despite the fact that it was he who called the Wilmington publications to report the dead dogs, Fussell said in an interview that he thought the beast was a fake story. He thought their cases were peculiar and asserted that “some little media exposure never harms a town.”
In 1954, a “one-arm sign painter” created car stickers with the slogan “Home of the Beast of Bladenboro” to match up with the sensationalist headlines that followed the events. On December 15, 1954, early in the morning, on a leasing farm close to Robeson Memorial Hospital, “3 chickens, 5 moderate pigs, and “crumbled skulls on 3 of the pigs” were among the killed that were discovered. Mysteriously, there was no sign of blood, suggesting the murderer had similar blood-sucking abilities to the Bladenboro creature.”
Despite the fact that tracks discovered at the ranch were not tried to compare to those of the dead dog, and it wasn’t clarified how the dog might have managed to reach the hens, which were supposedly roosting in a tree, the County Dog Warden has said that the stray dog that was killed the following day was “most likely” the predator from the previous day.
Boost The Beast of Bladenboro (or “BOB”) continues to serve as the emblem for the yearly “Beast Fest,” which is put on by The ‘Boro, a Bladenboro society booster. The public event Boost The ‘Boro uses the beast’s infamous past among residents to add interest.
The beast was sought after by the 2008 television program MonsterQuest. They came to the conclusion that a cougar was likely what people had been observing and massacring. With the exception of Florida’s tip, the eastern coast of America has brushed aside cougars as extinct.
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