Why Do People Keep Seeing Cryptids? w/ Lyle Blackburn | Ghost City Podcast

WEBVTT
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.679
People believe they have seen this.
00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:06.719
And then I'm not just talking about just the average person that saw like a shadow in the woods.
00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:14.560
I'm talking about credible people who you know have come face to face with something that they can explain.
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.679
And for that reason, it's fascinating to me.
00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:37.679
As you probably know, and today we actually have a guest who I'm actually excited to talk about uh and talk to because uh I mean I love talking to every guest.
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:39.759
I don't want to make any guests seem like they're inferior.
00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:40.320
Sure.
00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:45.359
But when we're talking about cryptozoology and Bigfoot, you guys all know I get terribly excited.
00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.000
Uh I actually find that way more interesting in ghosts.
00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.320
I don't know if I should admit that as the owner of this company, but it is what it is.
00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.799
Anyways, we're being joined by author, cryptozoologist, researcher.
00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:58.880
I mean, you name it, this guy has his hands in it.
00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.399
Uh today I want to welcome Lyle Blackburn to the podcast.
00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:03.759
So welcome, Lyle.
00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.439
Uh, and thanks for having me.
00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:06.719
Yeah, and thanks for joining us.
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:16.879
So, you know, uh, for anybody out there who might not know who you are or picked up one of your books or something, can you kind of give everybody a little preview into who Lyle Blackburn actually is?
00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.359
Well, I guess you could say, uh, you know, I kind of call myself an author encrypted researcher.
00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:33.359
Um, and I've I got my start with my fascination for Bigfoot slash the legend of Boggy Creek.
00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:42.400
And The Legend of Boggy Creek was a movie that came out in the 70s and it uh dramatized sightings of a Sasquatch-like creature in southern Arkansas.
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.599
I'm from Fort Worth, Texas, and so Southern Arkansas is just about three hours away.
00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:58.319
So for me, that was sort of my hometown, uh cryptid, you know, where early stories of Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, and things, it just seemed so far from Texas, you know.
00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:03.599
And so uh eventually, you know, I had a lifelong interest in that.
00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:14.400
Um, everything from movie monsters, and of course, I I love the subject of ghosts as well, you know, uh anything kind of spooky, but I was always kind of a monsters in the woods guy.
00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:37.039
I grew up hunting with my father all throughout Texas, and we often camped in Arkansas, so I was really into the outdoors, and I just sort of love that idea that you might be out there and see something that is just mind-blowing, something that is rarely seen, you know, something like you may read about, but you can't imagine seeing it yourself.
00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:40.080
So that's what drew me to the subjects.
00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:45.039
And as an adult, I eventually uh I've been a musician and a writer all my life.
00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:48.080
And I wanted to write a book, and I thought, what is my favorite subject?
00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.080
The legend of Boggy Creek.
00:02:50.080 --> 00:03:07.039
It's kind of a popular thing and very influential for many Bigfoot researchers that, you know, from guys on finding Bigfoot to everybody else, nobody had ever really written a book about the sightings that that was based on and the making of the movie and all that.
00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:17.120
So I just really from my own uh enjoyment and fascination, I I went out and researched and wrote the book.
00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.400
And so that book, The Beast of Boggy Creek, came out in 2012.
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:24.960
And from there it was just uh crazy stuff, you know.
00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:29.680
Uh television show had started calling, and you know, uh the book sold well.
00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:31.439
I thought, well, this is awesome.
00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.680
I'm gonna write another book, and it's just continued.
00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:46.400
So I've written 10 books and been on numerous TV shows, documentaries, and been involved in cryptid stuff now for gosh, it it doesn't seem that long, but it's been, you know, 17 or 18 years.
00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:46.960
Yeah.
00:03:47.199 --> 00:04:00.560
Well, one of the questions, uh, you know, when I when I was up uh working with Cliff a little bit, you know, was this idea of like, why would somebody dedicate their life to a subject where not many people actually believe in what you're researching?
00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:05.759
Like, for example, I think you know, Bigfoot is kind of the one that always pops to mind with people when they think cryptids.
00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:14.000
I I think I read an article a couple weeks ago that said like it was only like 27 or maybe it was 38% of people in America think Bigfoot's real.
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.839
And, you know, as you go down the list of cryptids, it's less and less people.
00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:28.399
So, what would for you particularly, what was it that made you say, you know, I'm I'm gonna kind of go against the grain here and spend my life researching these things that most people don't even believe in?
00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:43.199
For me, it it's as much the phenomenon of people reporting sightings like this in the modern world as it is the possibility of the creatures themselves.
00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:59.120
I mean, you know, at the end of the day, uh whether those creatures are physically there, you know, especially like Mothman, Lizard Man, all this other stuff, um people believe they have seen this.
00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:04.079
And and I'm not just talking about just the average person that saw like a shadow in the woods.
00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:11.920
I'm talking about credible people who you know have come face to face with something that they can explain.
00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:15.040
And for that reason, it's fascinating to me.
00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:29.439
Um, of course, I would like to you know stumble upon proof or provide proof or work with with groups that uh could prove any of these cryptids, but it but there's such a phenomenon to it.
00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:37.120
Like say take the Mothman, you know, there's a festival now in that little town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia that draws 20,000 people.
00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:38.959
People are just fascinated with that.
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:50.000
And that's a just a trippy thing that in 1966, four people saw something they described as a moth, or not even a mothman, but a winged humanoid.
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.079
And it turns into that.
00:05:52.079 --> 00:06:05.839
So so that's always been a lot of focus in my books is not only just people saw these things or believe they did, but they transform towns, they they become cultural icons.
00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:08.560
The story in itself is just as fascinating.
00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:14.000
Yeah, I mean it it's you know, you know, we're we deal with this too, you know, in the ghost world too.
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.920
You know, people are always coming to us with stories, they saw this, they experienced this.
00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:41.519
Um, and and for me, you know, it it and actually we've had whole podcasts about this where it becomes to it gets to a point where it's not, I'm not even interested in the ghosts necessarily, but I find the the people terribly interesting, you know, trying to understand, you know, what their mind was going through when they had these experiences and trying to put yourself in their shoes to determine like is this even plausible?
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.879
But then even I even feel bad because I always tell myself, I wasn't there.
00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:50.800
You know, I I don't know what these people saw as outlandish as their claims may see, who am I to tell them that they're a liar?
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.439
I I I wasn't there, and I'm sure you run into that sometimes too.
00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.199
Uh oh, yeah.
00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:05.120
I mean, that that you know, you you get a sense after a while of what seems credible and possible.
00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:18.079
But you know, even if you rule out sort of the more fringe and crazier sounding encounters, you there is a core number of those that you just simply can't explain.
00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:39.680
And when you especially if you get to know witnesses, and I have you know, in some cases, you know, I meet somebody and they like, well, you know, I don't tell many people this, but I had this experience, and somehow your lives connect and you see them again somewhere, you get to know them, and and you're like, man, this this person is a solid person.
00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:43.199
They if they told me they saw that, they saw something.
00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:53.519
And so, you know, you you you couldn't say you you know, you can't just go, well, you know, I didn't see it, it's it's not real.
00:07:53.519 --> 00:08:16.639
And I think the when you're like you and I, when you interview so many people and you're immersed in these subjects, we kind of see behind the curtain, you know, your average person in, you know, at the office or looking on their phone and see some ridiculous Bigfoot thing or a hoax, they just kind of base their judgment on that all it's ridiculous.
00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:28.879
But if they if they talk to some of the witnesses that I know that are not, you know, on mainstream news, they're suddenly like, okay, uh, how do I explain this?
00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:34.000
So, you know, it's it's um it's a fascinating thing, you know.
00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:39.840
Well, as a researcher and you know, as an author too, how do you reconcile stuff like that?
00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:50.240
Like, so one of the examples that automatically comes to mind, and and we were joking about a little bit before we got on the air, was this idea of like these people who have seen things like pig man and goat man, all that kind of stuff.
00:08:50.240 --> 00:09:01.840
And and for me, you know, I I want to be careful how I say this because I don't mean to insult anybody, but when an like those stories sound so fantastical, like how can that possibly be true?
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:09.360
You know, but you have to take what they're saying seriously as a researcher and and somebody who's trying to understand them and understand their story.
00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:15.120
Have you ever like how do you handle instances like that where it's like this just seems so fantastical?
00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:22.399
Like, I don't know if I can believe this person or not, but at the same time, they're so convincing and they seem like a good person.
00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.919
Like, how do you reconcile that in your mind as a researcher?
00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:27.200
Right.
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:40.799
I I think once you the further you step away from the more plausible logical things like Bigfoot or sea serpents, you know, the sea is huge.
00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:41.919
We have no idea.
00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:48.559
Um yeah, you get into things like pig man and lizard man.
00:09:48.559 --> 00:10:11.200
Um you know, I interview people who have seen claim to have seen things like that, and you know, some of it some of it is kind of outlandish, but the way I reconcile that is if the person seems quite credible and I think, well, you know, a pig man, I mean what is that?
00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:20.480
You know, is it a you know, a guy with a pig body or a pig with a human head, you know, yeah, or a goat man or whatever.
00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:32.559
Um, you know, a lot of these sightings are in poor conditions, that they're they're poorly lit, they're in swampy areas, you only get a glimpse of it for a few seconds.
00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:39.919
And I think a lot of times that your perception of what it could be is framed by your own beliefs.
00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:45.840
You know, if you're in an area where people you know that, man, there's some kind of legends of goat men or whatever.
00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:52.480
Well, if you saw something that I mean, maybe it was a Bigfoot with light colored hair, you know.
00:10:52.480 --> 00:11:00.159
Well, you see that, but you only see it enough to where you're like, oh, is this big ol' hairy thing walking on two legs?
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:08.320
You might say it was a goat man, you know, because that's kind of what you imagine that if you saw something weird out there.
00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:17.840
So you know, it's it's kind of crazy to explain one cryptid with another, but I think that sometimes these things take on a local flavor.
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:40.559
And I kind of like that because instead of just Bigfoot, you've got all these iterations of even like Boggy Creek Monster and Sabine Thing and Old Mossyback, any number of localized terms for people saying they saw an ape-like creature, and then you know, even weirder legends like pig man of Vermont or something.
00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:51.919
So I I think that it's it's you can't just blankly you know apply a brush and say, well, if they say they saw a pigman, pigman's impossible, therefore, no.
00:11:51.919 --> 00:12:03.759
They saw something that they believed wasn't a human or another common animal, and pig man is is what it, you know, the persona they gave it.
00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:15.360
So even those, you know, but at the end of the day, just the fact that somebody said they saw a pig man, you know, it's like well, even just the even just the chance that it could exist is kind of cool.
00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:26.960
You know, I you know, I I personally believe it's probably not real, but at the same time, just the idea of like, you know, half man, half pig, you know, man, bear pig, whatever.
00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:30.559
Um, you know, like the idea that it could exist is pretty cool.
00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:35.200
Well, even here in South Louisiana, we have that same kind of uh thing going on.
00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.080
You know, you know about the Rougarou, certainly.
00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:45.120
And you know, every time the Rougarou comes up in conversation around here, I my reply is, well, you just it's a misidentified Bigfoot.
00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:50.080
You know, um I I don't know that that's true, but that's just what my mind wants to say every time.
00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.559
But then people will be like, no, it's a dog man.
00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:57.039
Um I'm like shit, there's a lot of bands out there.
00:12:57.039 --> 00:12:59.279
Dog man, you know, like pig man.
00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:01.519
Where's where's dog woman and pigwoman?
00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.759
It's uh well I was telling the guys, I'm like, I'm waiting for like alpaca man.
00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:30.559
Um like something you can almost say, like but yeah, I mean it's like Rougarou, you know, it's sort of a that's definitely embedded in almost like folklore and wives' tales, but then people start sort of documenting dogman sightings, and you're like, well, that's a Rougarou is just a localized name, who knows?
00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:39.919
And again, you you know, you can go further and say, well, we can explain them if Bigfoot was in these areas.
00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:48.000
Again, the cultural perception is it's a Rougarou, but above and beyond that, you could you we don't know.
00:13:48.000 --> 00:14:12.159
I mean, these things could be real, we just don't have a perception of of what they are, and then there's no way to if it's if there's no way to prove them, we can't say that there's no pig man or some kind of strange, deformed, feral person, or you know, that it could be just any number of things that that we don't have an explanation.
00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:18.639
So I keep my mind open unless the witness just seems total, you know, out there.
00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.279
I'm listening and I'm documenting it.
00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:28.960
And at the end of the day, you know, it's like again, it's like these aren't werewolf tales from the 1500s.
00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:39.759
This is literally people in Louisiana today or wherever saying, I saw what looked like a werewolf, and that's just a trip to me.
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:45.279
I will say, if there's one crypt that I hope doesn't exist, it's dog man, because that would scare the shit out of me.
00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:49.200
Like if I ran into one of those things in the woods, like I would I would shit my pants.
00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:50.000
I would.
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:51.759
And I'm not afraid to admit that.
00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:54.240
Like, you know, Bigfoot seems benevolent, right?
00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:56.879
Like when you guys were in the woods of Oregon filming with us.
00:14:56.879 --> 00:14:57.759
Well, it does.
00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:59.679
Like he seems benevolent, like he really doesn't hurt people.
00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:00.879
Seven foot ape?
00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:01.279
Yeah.
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:07.039
Dogman, I feel like like that's just bad news if you run into one of them.
00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:08.639
Um I don't know.
00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:21.120
People do like witnesses that say they've seen a dogman often say they felt an evil presence, or you know, they attach more to it than just a Bigfoot.
00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:35.840
Now, there are cases where Bigfoots have allegedly attacked people or they they've known to throw throw rocks or whatever, but yeah, no one ever really says, Oh, I saw a Bigfoot and it was evil.
00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:40.159
Now, dogman, though, yeah, it's it's and just what you said.
00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:43.039
I have a lot of people that say, Man, I don't want to see a dog man.
00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:44.559
They may be fascinated with it.
00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:44.879
Right.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.600
My new book series, Terrifying Encounters.
00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:47.919
Uh-huh.
00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:59.200
I literally I kind of focus on the most like shocking and scary encounters with the first book had dog man and bigfoot.
00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:21.519
But uh so there are those cases where well let's pick let's pick a pick apart about dog, let's pick apart dog man a little bit because I feel like out of all these fringe cryptids, so to say, like that's kind of the one that gets the most attention, at least from what I see, you know, aside from Bigfoot and you know the the the main ones, the fringe ones, you know, but I I would say I hear more about dogman than anything else.
00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:29.519
Um so for for anybody out there who might not know, and I know you kind of described it already, what exactly are people reporting when they say, I saw a dogman?
00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:39.200
Essentially, um people describe what most people would know as a werewolf.
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:51.679
This would be uh a canine, sort of a canid that looks like a wolf or a a dog or something that's walking upright on two legs bipedally.
00:16:51.679 --> 00:17:12.559
Um sometimes they're they're on all fours and then they stand up or they just some ability to walk on two legs, which is obviously goes against the biological anatomical makeup of a of a canid because their body structure, their bones are meant to walk on all fours.
00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:25.920
Um and most times people describe it as standing, you know, six, seven, eight feet tall, and again, uh um sort of get this vibe of it's it's not friendly.
00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:32.160
And so these reports have existed for a while.
00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:44.960
I mean, mostly going back to the late 80s, the most famous case is the Beast of Ray Road from an area of Wisconsin that was researched by my late friend Linda Godfrey.
00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:52.640
And she documented these sightings of of this werewolf type thing, and they some quite credible sightings.
00:17:52.640 --> 00:18:00.640
In the years that have followed, um, there's been more and more of uh people claiming they have seen these creatures.
00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:15.440
But the particular thing about dogman that kind of strikes me as odd is prior to about seven or eight years ago, no one ever said anything about dogman.
00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:27.759
It was Easter Bray Road and a few other sightings, and then at some point it became popular, and then there was the Dogman Encounters podcast, and then it was just a flood.
00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:33.200
I don't know, maybe people didn't report them before because they just didn't know what to think or how to classify it.
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:37.759
Or if I say I saw a werewolf, people think I'm even more nuts than if I saw Bigfoot.
00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:38.880
You know, who knows?
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:45.839
I can't say, but but it's sort of like it wasn't there, and then it was just Dogman everything.
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:53.440
But I I've interviewed witnesses, and in fact, one from that had a sighting in plain dealing, Louisiana.
00:18:53.440 --> 00:19:01.279
That I mean, I interviewed this guy, and whatever he saw was not normal, and he's very credible.
00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:09.039
Carter Carter is our Louisiana lover of the bunch here because we're we're actually in Louisiana, we're just right outside of New Orleans.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:10.880
And you said that, and Carter started shaking his head.
00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:12.319
Do you know what Plain Dealing?
00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:14.880
Yeah, yeah, it's just a small little town in North Louisiana.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:18.079
Uh uh country singer friend of mine uh is from there.
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:19.599
Have you seen Dogman there?
00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:20.640
I've never been in plain dealing.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.759
Oh well, but there's there's not much to see in plain dealing, right?
00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:24.559
Hmm.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:28.640
Yeah, it's just uh you know, like you said, I I I noticed that too.
00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:32.000
You know, I've been interested in in cryptozoology ever since I was a little kid.
00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:37.920
Lock Loch Ness Monster is the one that got me hooked, and then it went to Bigfoot and then uh never really looked back.
00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:38.720
But yeah, you're right.
00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:43.039
I I don't remember hearing about dogman, you know, 15 years ago or 10 years ago even.
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:51.920
Um, and me being the cynic that I am, I just figured it was people trying to just jump on the uh dog man train, like, oh, dog man's becoming more popular.
00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:55.680
You know, we're gonna say that we saw one, you know, or something like that.
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.000
I'm sure there are a couple people that do that here and there.
00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:07.440
But like you said, there were actually very credible witnesses who have described the seven to eight foot tall wolf walking upright through the woods.
00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:11.920
Um, and to me, it's I just get to a point where I don't have an explanation for that.
00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:14.319
I'm sure you kind of agree.
00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:17.519
You know, if this is really what they saw, I don't have an explanation.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:20.480
I don't know how it works, I don't know what it is, I don't know where it comes from.
00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:22.480
Is it a biological animal?
00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:26.400
Is it uh something that has more of a paranormal connection to it?
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.119
I I I don't I have no explanation.
00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.559
Um it's much harder to explain.
00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:47.920
You can kind of rationalize Bigfoot, but the the more of these strange cryptids, it's it is hard to rationalize it, to explain it in just pure down-to-earth biological terms, you know.
00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:51.119
I mean, now animals can adapt.
00:20:51.119 --> 00:21:07.279
And, you know, one of the things, and I know Linda Godfrey proposed this, that they these wolves or you know, large canids were standing upright so they could look over the cornfields, you know, look over the cornrows.
00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.680
Okay, well, that makes sense, you know.
00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:13.599
I mean, they're gonna if they need to survive, they're gonna do what it takes.
00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:21.279
And then, you know, suddenly they become more adept at walking on two legs because they needed to for some reason.
00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:30.400
Um, now that may be true for a small population of these things in Wisconsin, you know, how does that translate to, well, they're doing it in Texas?
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:45.119
Well, for the same reason, they may need to do this, or you know, you can kind of rationalize it in a biological sense, but but then again, just the whole concept of it, it just definitely gets more paranormal.
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:57.440
And you think, well, you know, are these do we have monstrous creatures popping in about out of other dimensions and all these other, you know, theories that people propose?
00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.359
I mean, you can't say they don't.
00:21:59.519 --> 00:21:59.759
And
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.920
And it may explain legends of werewolves that go back many, many years.
00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:08.559
Other people have seen these and they just, you know, there was no label like Dogman.
00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:18.799
It was just then it was werewolves or uh demons or you know, what whatever they would call it framed on their own cultural perception.
00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:19.920
So who knows?
00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:23.759
But it at the end of the day, there's good, good, credible witnesses.
00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:26.720
Yeah, because the idea of a werewolf, I mean, that's not a new phenomenon.
00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:36.480
Uh, if if I remember correctly, I mean, that was even being reported in like you know, Europe during like the middle, like, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, people were reporting seeing werewolves.
00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:40.240
And and so the idea of seeing a werewolf is not a local phenomenon.
00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.640
It's just this idea of we're labeling it something different now.
00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:44.799
But that still doesn't explain the phenomena.
00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:46.799
You know, I don't know.
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:48.160
Well, they go back.
00:22:48.160 --> 00:23:24.720
I mean, that's how the rougaroo, you know, the the the term rougarou comes from Lugaroo, which is you know French uh term for these creatures, and the French Canadi the French who settled French Canada, French Canadians who eventually then settled in southern Louisiana that became the Cajuns, you know, the those those stories of the Lou Garoo and the werewolf and all that stuff came from Europe and it translated to these stories that we now associate with Rougarou.
00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:29.279
And then Rougarou sort of gets combined with dogman.
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:39.920
So it's almost like folklore and monster tales, they just kind of evolve, you know, based on now.
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:44.720
We got cryptozoology, but you know, that was demonology or something way back.
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:55.039
It's cool how it humans see monsters and it it evolves into how we rationalize and classify them.
00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:57.119
Yeah, and that that that's fascinating to me.
00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:17.599
Well, I will I've always wondered like, is there something just in the human condition, you know, like through like evolution or or something where like at one point we had to deal with things like these, like, you know, maybe even like a million years ago, like Australopithecines in Africa or something, you know, they had these big monsters, you know, lions, saber-toothed cats, all these things.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:35.440
And there there has been times where I've wondered if when people describe, you know, dog man and all these other things, if that's part of that, like something just gets triggered in your mind that kind of brings back like these evolutionary like memories, so to say, like, oh shit, like that's a big animal in the woods, you know, I should be fearful of it.
00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:37.599
You know, there's something weird going on.
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:38.000
I don't know.
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:39.119
Am I making any sense?
00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:40.240
I think I am.
00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:42.559
Um, it sure does.
00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:45.759
Those things are embedded in our DNA.
00:24:45.759 --> 00:25:01.839
I mean, because nature is so powerful, you know, the self-preservation and survival and all those instincts we have when we, you know, with fear of snakes, you know, well, that's not just be random.
00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:06.799
That's because we need to be careful with those because they can kill us.
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.079
Um, you know, those things never really go away.
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:14.559
Our our drive to procreate everything that nature has put in there for a reason.
00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:22.880
And this too may be just part of that where, you know, we've seen these things and we're wary of them.
00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:31.920
And, you know, if somebody sees an upright wolf walking around, then you know, it's it we feel it's an evil presence.
00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:33.359
Stay away from it, you know.
00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:36.000
That's just how people would react naturally.
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.680
You you kind of wear a lot of different hats, even though you really just wear one, the black cowboy hat.
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:57.359
But you know, when when you're when you're kind of working, so to say, are you more of an author researcher, uh researching like talking to people, or do you spend a lot of time in the field as well investigating, you know, the these reports, these legends?
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:00.480
Um, a little of both.
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:26.480
I mean, I I do go in the field, and part of that is I love the outdoors, and so that's a you know, I used to do a lot of hunting and stuff, but this gives me some I don't know, focal point to okay, I need to go here in this swamp because people said they've seen Lizard Man or whatever, and and it it sort of guides me to these odd locations I may not ever go to.
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:33.759
Um, but you know, people the whole term crypto zool just is, you know, there's no accreditation for that.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:38.799
You know, you can just say you're that, and so I never applied that term to me.
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:43.920
I felt like I was a you know, I started in this by writing a book.
00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:57.359
That's kind of what got me, but by but in the process of writing the Beast of Boggy Creek, I I needed to go to the place where people said they saw things and interview people, go to this small town of Falk, Arkansas.
00:26:57.359 --> 00:27:07.519
And I went into the sulfur river bottoms myself and I looked and I thought, well, heck, if I see it, well, now I I can know what uh people are telling me.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:24.319
Um, so I I go into that, and I feel like I'm some something of a documentarian where I have, especially in a lot of old cases, like Boggy Creek, Lizard Man, Lake Worth Monster, uh Momo and the Missouri Monster.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:26.720
I've comp I've compiled the whole story.
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:31.519
Like, you know, these are sort of like iconic cryptids, but there's not a book.
00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:38.160
So I I created these books by researching it and you know, documenting all these things that would be forgotten.
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:42.480
I've interviewed people that have since passed away that this would have been lost.
00:27:42.480 --> 00:28:02.319
Um, so I always felt I'm sort of an investigative journalist, sort of Indiana Jones meets, you know, Stephen King or something, and and uh I love the process of writing a book and that sort of lets research this particular case or this phenomenon.
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:09.039
And um so I I I I kind of thought, you know, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a biologist.
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:13.519
Proving things is is not my main focus.
00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:18.400
It's it's documenting these, learning about it, and going to the area.
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:26.160
But certainly if I find tracks or if I record some audio or a video, all the better.
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:28.400
You know, I've got something like that.
00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:37.119
So I'm I'm kind of in between uh investigative journalist and um, you know, a zoologist, I guess.
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:37.680
Right.
00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:54.880
Well, I think there's an important lesson in there, you know, for a lot of the people that are kind of getting into this field, because, you know, especially with shows, you know, like Finding Bigfoot or, you know, even people reading books like yours, like there, there, there seems to be more interest in this whole cryptozoology field now than there has been at any point that I'm aware of.
00:28:54.880 --> 00:29:00.799
But a lot of people, they just go to Google, you know, how to look for Bigfoot or, you know, whatever, whatever.
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:04.880
And for for most of them, that's their idea of doing research.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:10.400
But you're going out and talking to the people who have seen these animals or or whatever they are.
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:12.000
You're spending time in the environment.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:20.000
And I think that's an important lesson for for people who are wanting to get into this field is that you actually have to get out into the world and and and talk to people.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:23.200
Don't just Google whatever it is and say, Well, I did my research.
00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:28.319
That's not research because Google fucks shit up more times than not, honestly.
00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:32.240
Um, there's inaccuracies with this stuff, man.
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:33.839
It uh I can't believe it.
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:41.200
And copies of copies of copies on blogs of the same stuff that is so far from the original source.
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:44.079
You know, they don't have copies of the original news files.
00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:48.720
Most of this old stuff, you can zero it back to Lauren Coleman.
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:54.079
You know, somebody at some point pulled these newspaper articles and interviewed these people.
00:29:54.079 --> 00:30:02.240
Um, I had a I had a guy just I answered this message yesterday, asked me about the Lake Worth Monster case.
00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:07.519
And the Lake Worth Monster was a case from 1969, which is actually closer to me.
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:17.920
It's north of Fort Worth, and it people reported seeing this something of a goat man or a white-colored ape-like Bigfoot creature.
00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:24.559
I didn't know about that because it was sort of like beyond my radar, uh, if it happened so long ago.
00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:26.720
But I've since written a book on it.
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:31.039
And anyway, this guy's gonna wanted to go and research that case.
00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:34.079
I'm like, honestly, dude, he's like, where do I start?
00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:35.599
I'm like, I've already done it.
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:37.839
My book literally has everything.
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:41.200
I've I found every newspaper article I live here.
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:48.960
I talked to witnesses that were still living, uh, people who had experiences down there, the locals.
00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:52.880
Um just literally I'm embedded in that.
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:58.960
I just helped the uh city of Fort Worth make a display for the Lake Worth monster at City Hall.
00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:03.599
Um, so I said certainly I there may be things that I don't know.
00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:09.119
There could be a witness that I've never tracked down or hasn't come forward.
00:31:09.119 --> 00:31:10.880
So there are always something else.
00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:17.680
But, you know, I literally was have been out to that lake, you know, 50 times and talked to locals.
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:19.279
So I had to do that.
00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:21.440
There's no substitute for that.
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:27.039
If you Google Lake Worth Monster, it's got nothing compared to what I've got in my book.
00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:32.319
You know, there's photos that were never on the internet, you know, um, things like that.
00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:54.319
So yeah, if you want to research, you really got to do boots on the ground and at least visit the town or you know, the woods where people said they saw it, it gives you uh a much better perspective and a much better chance of running into somebody, some old timers that, oh, you know, I was there, and now you can talk to somebody face to face, you know.
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:59.279
Yeah, it's uh I mean, actually, some of the guys that work here kind of went through this same experience what we're talking about.
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.400
So, I mean, you can't see them now, but we got Carter and Paul back here.
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:04.240
They're two of the producers on the show.
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:16.240
And when we went out to spend a couple weeks with Cliff to do uh, you know, some filming and some researching, one of the things they both said was that they they did not believe in Bigfoot at all before we left.
00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:20.720
And by the way, they they don't believe now, but like I said, we moved the needle a little bit.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:27.920
But one of the things they said is like until I was actually in that environment, I could not comprehend how an animal could hide here.
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:30.960
I think that to paraphrase you, Carter, that's essentially what you're saying, right?
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:34.559
Like, yeah, it's just the the vastness of the forest.
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:38.160
Yeah, and until you get there, you you because you hear it all the time.
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:39.920
I I know you do because we hear it too.
00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:41.920
Where would these animals hide?
00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:44.160
There's no way they could exist, they wouldn't hide.
00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:46.240
And then you get out there and it's like, holy fuck.
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:47.440
Like you can hide.
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:48.480
Yeah, you can hide.
00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:50.640
You can actually a lot of you can hide out here.
00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:51.839
Almost lost Tim.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:52.880
No, you didn't.
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:54.000
Quit lying.
00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:57.039
Um, did no, no, you didn't.
00:32:57.119 --> 00:33:01.039
No, you just that one time you held you uh stayed back and then you tracked us down.
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:02.880
Yeah, I tracked you guys right to where you were.
00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:04.160
So, what the hell do you mean I was lost?
00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:05.119
I know what a track.
00:33:05.119 --> 00:33:06.799
Um Stephanie was worried.
00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:08.000
No, she's fine.
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:23.200
Um but yeah, and uh and you know, even the people, you know, going out and meeting those people, you know, you can read an interview online, but it's absolutely you, you it's a a totally different experience to sit down across from them and you know, watch their face and watch their expression and or whatever emotion they're using.
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:24.559
I mean, that's where you get the real story.
00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:27.759
It's not reading it online, but that's what everybody wants to do now.
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:31.200
I think online's help because now we have video, you know.
00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:36.640
Before it would be like read John Green's book, 1986, or whatever.
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:40.559
Now we have where you can interview these people on video.
00:33:40.559 --> 00:33:46.480
So yeah, that's that's definitely you know gives you another perspective.
00:33:46.480 --> 00:33:56.880
And I and I in most of my presentations I do, I I do point out that you know people may be laughing because oh, where where are these creatures gonna hide?
00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:07.839
But it's if I dropped you off in the middle of the sulfur river bottoms out there in foul near Falc, Arkansas, with no phone and no compass, good luck, find your way out.
00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:19.039
Something every 15 yards, something can be hiding, and you can't see it.
00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:30.000
It's so thick, and that's what perspective most people don't have unless they're hunters or hikers or people that go way off off grid.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.719
And when you get out there, you're like, you know what?
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:37.440
A small population of something could easily survive out here.
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:43.840
And if they didn't run across the road or have any reason to approach a human, nobody would know.
00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:46.079
Yeah, yeah, especially city people.
00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:49.920
That's why you got to be wary of city people, they have no idea what they're talking about.
00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:51.840
There's no way it can live out there.
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:54.559
I'm like, just pull up Google Maps for God's sakes.
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:57.440
Like, you don't even have to go there necessarily, like it's huge.
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:03.280
Yeah, I remember like dropping a pen, or like when you take a photo on your iPhone, you can go back later and see like where you were.
00:35:03.280 --> 00:35:07.519
And then I remember being at the Airbnb and just just kept zooming out, zooming out, zooming out.
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:09.360
I was like, oh my god, we were deep.
00:35:09.519 --> 00:35:11.039
Yeah, you were in the middle of nowhere.
00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:18.239
Yeah, Cliff took us out to a couple of his research areas, um, which are very much off the map, um, so to say.
00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:21.039
I think that was probably the most dense woods you guys have ever been in.
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:22.320
But no doubt.
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:23.440
Yeah, good times.
00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:26.320
We're actually going back next month to film with him for a couple more weeks.
00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:32.320
So it's for me, it's like a kid on Christmas morning, except for Christmas morning, still five weeks away.
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:36.639
Um, so every day it's like we're almost there, we're almost there, we're almost there.
00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:43.039
Um, you know, from an author's perspective, you know, you're going out, you're you're talking to these people, you're trying to form a story.
00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:56.800
You know, and I know there's a lot of people out there right now who are also interested in, you know, maybe becoming an author one day, or you know, like you said, kind of like that blend between, you know, investigative reporter, but also like going out into the world and doing like field research and stuff like that.
00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:03.039
You know, like what advice would you be able to give to somebody like that, other than don't write the same books I do?
00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:06.960
Um because I know that's very popular too nowadays.
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:13.440
Um yeah, you've got to find you know your own angle with it.
00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:18.400
Like people people ask me when are you gonna write a book about Pacific Northwest Bigfoot?
00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:20.480
It's like, man, there's so many great books about it.
00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:23.519
I, you know, and I don't it's a place I've been less.
00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:26.159
I'm the southern guy, you know, swamp guy.
00:36:26.159 --> 00:36:29.840
Um, you know, find find the angle of the story you want.
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:43.840
You know, you may have reports in your area about some cryptid or some monster thing that people saw that's not really on the internet, you know, like you know, your grandmother talked about it.
00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:50.159
It's like, you know what, that's that's a cool story that has not been, you know, tread to death.
00:36:50.159 --> 00:36:53.760
And you know, you could start with what did your family know?
00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:56.960
Start talking to your friends and old timers there.
00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:06.639
And, you know, just once you start to kind of hit the pavement, start talking to people, all of a sudden you you're so surprised by how much information you can get.
00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:10.559
That's especially older people, they're not posting stuff all over the internet.
00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:12.559
This stuff is just stuff they know.
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:26.800
Um, you might could find some newspaper reports, or even if it's not about like whatever that whatever they called that cryptid, you might find other reports in the area that were about Bigfoot or other weird phenomenon.
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:34.960
So you start kind of putting those together and build this sort of like this area has a lot of weird stuff, and go to the area, you know.
00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:44.239
You you cannot just using even Google Earth or whatever, that that's that's a fine way to do your sort of map out what you're gonna do and where you're gonna go.
00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:49.039
But getting in the car and going there is different.
00:37:49.039 --> 00:38:03.440
And you know, that but it so the advice is you know, find a story or an angle that's personal to you that gives you the drive to go out there and spend time to do it and take your time doing it.
00:38:03.440 --> 00:38:09.760
You know, you it you don't, you know, it's not something you can dig up all the information overnight.
00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:12.079
It just you got to keep your radar going.
00:38:12.079 --> 00:38:13.760
And it these things come in.
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:25.599
Some of these books took me years to write because I would collect little bits here and there when I saw or when I talked to somebody, I'd make notes or whatever, and they were built over long periods of time.
00:38:25.599 --> 00:38:30.880
You don't just yeah, you know, walk to the state park and then boom.
00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:34.559
Um, and then you know, don't just do it for your own.
00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:36.320
You got to do it because you want to.
00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:38.960
Nobody may or may not read the book.
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:43.199
You know, when I wrote Beast of Boggy Creek, I did it literally because I wanted to know the story.
00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:54.960
I had no idea how it would sell so well, or that you know, I would find Bigfoot called about two months later and said, Well, we're we're covering the legend of Boggy Creek story.
00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:58.400
You've you're you wrote the book, get on the show.
00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:01.840
And so, you know, stuff like that.
00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:06.719
So you you you can't have these grand expectations, you just have to do it because you want to.
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:15.760
And if you do it well and keep doing it, typically you will eventually find some success at it, you know.
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:23.119
Well, you know, even as we're talking, I mean, I think, you know, like when you when you go out and do these research and talk to these people, it's not just about the cryptids.
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:29.840
Um, you know, one of the projects that we're working on here is is a documentary called Last Storytellers of the Bayou.
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:32.239
And, you know, it's a it's a newer project.
00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:36.239
We, I mean, we're still literally in the like ideation phase and all that kind of stuff.
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:48.320
But essentially what it is is that, you know, we live in South Louisiana, and when we meet people, especially the older generation, like they all have these incredible stories, you know, whether it's folklore or legends.
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:58.159
And, you know, the younger generation just doesn't seem to be as interested in in hearing those oral traditions or oral stories and passing them down as they've been done for for so long.
00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:03.679
So we thought it was like it was like, well, we kind of have maybe an obligation to help kind of gather up some of these stories.
00:40:03.679 --> 00:40:19.360
And they don't have to be cryptid stories, they could be, you know, just like you know, those life lessons like don't go out in the swamp after night because you know, so and so is gonna get you just to preserve these stories because a lot of these legends and and and folklores are being lost to to time.
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:21.440
And once they're gone, they're gone.
00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:27.519
So, you know, you're also doing good work there, you know, helping keep those stories alive.
00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:29.679
Um, absolutely, yeah.
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:39.119
And I think, you know, just any stories like you start talking to older generation, you know, they they come at you with some cool stuff, you know.
00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:44.639
Um, you know, if it's even if it's just a life lessons or some strange experience.
00:40:44.639 --> 00:41:03.599
And yeah, we need to preserve those because I think everything's becoming more homogenized and um culture is cultures are always blending and mixing, of course, and they always have, but it seems like we're sort of that's being wiped out, you know.
00:41:03.599 --> 00:41:15.679
It's like less loc, you know, there's less mom and pop stores, there's less um regional identity, you know, that sort of stuff.
00:41:15.679 --> 00:41:19.840
So those are important to capture because once those people are gone, those stories are gone.
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:29.920
Because again, they're these could be people ain't they ain't on the internet typing these up or exactly if you know if you, I or whoever doesn't get them, they're gone.
00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:35.199
It was really funny, and it was total it it was the perfect incidence of coincidence.
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:38.719
You know, I I I actually picked up a new copy of your book.
00:41:38.719 --> 00:41:40.800
Um, well, you know, not the last one.
00:41:40.800 --> 00:41:44.239
I was listening to the one about your last one with the the devil monkeys.
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:45.360
Is that what people were calling them?
00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:47.280
The devil monkeys, right?
00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:50.639
And it's in terrifying encounters, volume one.
00:41:50.639 --> 00:41:50.880
Yeah.
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:59.599
And what's funny is my handyman at my house, I was asking him, like, hey, do you know any of these like old Cajun type of people that that maybe we can interview and talk to their things?
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:04.079
First thing out of his mouth was, I know a guy who's seen the devil monkeys.
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:09.280
And I'm like, devil, I was like, I just heard about this on uh you know the podcast you did with Cliff and Bobo.
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:11.599
I was like, you know, wait a minute, devil monkeys?
00:42:11.599 --> 00:42:16.400
And he's like, Yeah, like we've seen them, you know, or they've seen them, you know, in the woods at their house.
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:18.559
And of course, I'm asking, like, how big are they?
00:42:18.559 --> 00:42:25.840
And you know, he's telling me that they say they're like the size of chimpanzees, like just some crazy stuff, which might be real, by the way.
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:31.679
Um, because we have a primate research center literally, I don't know, what, three miles down the road, guys?
00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:34.159
And those monkeys are getting out like at least once a year.
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:40.320
There's stories like be on the lookout, there's a fucking gorilla wandering the Walmart parking lot or something.
00:42:40.320 --> 00:42:43.199
Um, and I'm exaggerating there a little bit, but you know what I mean.
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:44.559
Like these monkeys are always getting out.
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:57.519
So I'm in my mind, I'm like, okay, well, you know, that that's not like cryptids, like most people think of cryptids, but that really could be just a escape population of monkeys who are like just lost their mind and want to kill people.
00:42:57.519 --> 00:42:59.440
Um, I don't blame them.
00:43:01.119 --> 00:43:08.719
But now they're they're sort of like baboon, described like baboons and but not baboons, like baboons are scary, dude.
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:10.480
You know, oh yeah, I wouldn't want to fuck with one.
00:43:14.559 --> 00:43:16.159
Yeah, those things are creepy.
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:27.519
And so yeah, Devil Monkey is a my terrifying encounters book gave me the opportunity to kind of explore some other tangent cryptids that I couldn't.
00:43:27.519 --> 00:43:35.679
I mean, I can't write a book on it, there's not enough, but you know, by by and certainly every Devil Monkey sighting was pretty terrifying.
00:43:35.679 --> 00:43:44.960
So, you know, I had to have a section in that, and I started from zero because I had heard about some, but I had to look into what is this and what is what are people describing?
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:48.719
And it just sounds crazy, devil monkeys.
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:55.440
So uh, but but again, like you can suddenly talk to some guy and you're like, he mentions devil monkeys.
00:43:55.440 --> 00:43:59.760
You're like, how does he even you know, I've never heard of this until just recently.
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:06.639
And now some guys, and that's what I mean about getting out there when you talk to people, you you're floored in.
00:44:06.639 --> 00:44:06.960
Yeah.
00:44:06.960 --> 00:44:10.159
What they might offer up that you never knew.
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:17.599
Yeah, I mean, for me, it was surprising because this is literally the first guy that had the potential of being interviewed, you know, being a part of this documentary that we're making.
00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:19.920
And literally first guy, devil monkeys.
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:33.199
I was like, like one, like I said, it was a coincidence because until I listened to your podcast with you know the guys, I never really heard I I knew monkeys sometimes escape and create feral populations, but the idea of like devil monkey I'd never heard of before.
00:44:33.199 --> 00:44:34.480
It's literally twice in a week.
00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:42.159
You know, went from not even knowing double monkeys were a thing to hear some guy that lives 30 minutes from here who claims that he sees them every now and then.
00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:44.239
Um, it's pretty cool, actually.
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:46.559
Maybe we need to go look for double monkeys, guys.
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:49.280
That's uh out out in De Ritter, I think.
00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:50.320
Derritter?
00:44:50.320 --> 00:44:51.199
Oh, okay.
00:44:51.199 --> 00:44:53.679
So he even knows the city that is in well, Paul just looked it up.
00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:54.480
Oh, okay.
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:54.960
Yeah.
00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:55.679
Yeah.
00:44:55.679 --> 00:44:59.920
In De Ritter, there there was a uh carcass found on the road.
00:44:59.920 --> 00:45:09.840
I'm almost certain that's the town some years ago that was some sort of small-looking ape thing that no one could identify.
00:45:09.840 --> 00:45:12.239
So De Ritter has that story.
00:45:12.239 --> 00:45:25.599
And um, but yeah, you know, it it things like Devil Monkey are those cryptids that again, if you start looking it up, it's like blog after blog has copied the same information all throughout.
00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:33.360
So I had to dig as much as I could back to the source, to the original sources, and and say, what is this?
00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:38.480
You know, because it'll be like cryptid wiki and it'll have devil monkeys as an entry.
00:45:38.480 --> 00:45:43.920
Right, but there's very thin on the documentation of it.
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:55.280
So, you know, I I look at something like that and say, okay, I'm gonna find out where this originated and find as many as I can as far as encounters, you know.
00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:00.079
So that takes some work and to do all to do that, you know.
00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:07.199
Now now, do you also spend time exploring not necessarily cryptids, but animals being where they're not supposed to be?
00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:12.719
Um, and I know that was a horrible way of phrasing this, but the other day I was talking to Brittany Barbieri.
00:46:12.719 --> 00:46:14.000
I don't know if you know Britney or not.
00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:17.280
She's out of Florida, she does you know, work with cryptids and stuff.
00:46:17.280 --> 00:46:22.239
And we were talking, I told her about my experience here in Louisiana where I saw a maned wolf.
00:46:22.239 --> 00:46:24.800
Like 100% I saw a maned wolf.
00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:27.679
If you know what they are, they're they're quite unmistakable.
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.000
You're not confusing that with a fox or something.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.360
Um, do you ever spend any time you know working in that area as well?
00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:40.400
You know, like you know, Black Panthers, all this other kind of stuff, or is it just these unknown to science type animals?
00:46:41.679 --> 00:46:43.280
Um uh somewhat.
00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:54.719
I mean, I I haven't focused too much on that as a research thing, but people certainly give me uh encounters and stuff.
00:46:54.719 --> 00:47:04.639
There was a guy in uh Texas who sent me a game camera picture of what he said was a Black Panther, like literally on his property.
00:47:04.639 --> 00:47:16.000
And it was a picture of a black, uh it was a Black Panther, but that that term is loaded because when people say Black Panther, they're implying that that is a melanistic cougar.
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:21.360
Right, that does not exist, which scientifically doesn't exist.
00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:26.800
But a Black Panther is also a melanistic jaguar or leopard.
00:47:26.800 --> 00:47:42.079
Well, I could see the faint spots on on this animal, and I'm like, well, that's not an unknown animal, but dude, you have a jaguar on your property, which is kind of scary.
00:47:42.320 --> 00:47:45.519
Yeah, they're even seen sometimes around here in South Louisiana.
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:48.719
Um, they're they have to be here.
00:47:48.719 --> 00:47:52.400
Wasn't one of you guys telling me no, it was one of my other workers who said he saw one.
00:47:52.400 --> 00:47:57.119
Like one of the guys who works in my reptile facility, he's literally like, dude, I saw one in a tree stand one night.
00:47:57.119 --> 00:47:58.719
Well, he was in the tree stand.
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:04.320
The cougar, the the panther was not, Jesus, the jaguar was not in the tree stand, he was in the tree stand.
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:05.119
You know what I'm saying?
00:48:05.119 --> 00:48:06.480
Um, but he swears up and down.
00:48:06.480 --> 00:48:09.360
He's like, dude, this thing had to be 175, 200 pounds.
00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:15.119
He's like, I just walked across the field, you know, tail swagging behind it, wagging behind it.
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:16.960
He's like, I know what I saw.
00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:20.639
Uh, but then you have fish and wildlife, they're like, nope, don't exist.
00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:25.199
Like, even up in PA, they're still I'm from Pennsylvania originally, and they're still like, there's no mountain lions here.
00:48:25.199 --> 00:48:26.719
I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?
00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:30.079
Everybody I know has seen a mountain lion in Pennsylvania at some point.
00:48:30.079 --> 00:48:32.000
Um they just deny it.
00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:45.440
Yeah, I can produce witnesses to seeing those, even if it was just a regular mountain lion, you know, that that fishing game says is not in that state or area.
00:48:45.440 --> 00:48:49.519
That they're just giving a pat answer so they don't have to deal with it.
00:48:49.599 --> 00:48:53.039
But yeah, lesson of the day don't trust the government ever.
00:48:53.039 --> 00:48:56.159
Um they're gonna lie to you 100% of the time.
00:48:56.559 --> 00:48:58.079
But yeah, those things come around.
00:48:58.079 --> 00:49:23.119
If somebody said they saw, I don't know, a kangaroo or any other weird thing out of place, you know, I will I will definitely put that in the files and yeah, and uh and you know, I I'm working on a terrifying encounters this series has different each one has a different uh collection of different cryptids.
00:49:23.119 --> 00:49:34.079
Um I just released the second book, but the I think the third book, and I'm working on that, does have like phantom felines and hellhounds and all that kind of stuff.
00:49:34.079 --> 00:49:40.800
So it's the first time I've really had the opportunity to sort of really delve into the research of that sort of stuff.
00:49:40.800 --> 00:49:52.400
Just and again, terrifying encounters, even if they saw it came face to face with a a black jaguar, that's scary enough because you don't expect to see that, and that would be scary.
00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:56.159
So so I think those are we were talking to somebody a couple of weeks ago.
00:49:56.159 --> 00:49:56.880
Who was it?
00:49:56.880 --> 00:50:00.239
Oh, it was uh Caleb from uh Skinwalker Ranch.
00:50:00.239 --> 00:50:02.719
He's one of the guys who works at Skinwalker Ranch.
00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:07.920
And he was saying that they that they f they have found proof of dire wolves.
00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:10.400
And this is just through him.
00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:20.880
I uh you know, I haven't verified anything or looked into it, but he was telling me that they they found these huge wolf skulls on their property, or at least one of them, and they sent it off for testing, and that the testing came back.
00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:23.039
The guy was like, dude, this is a direwolf.
00:50:23.039 --> 00:50:26.880
Which my first question is, how do we have direwolf di DNA to compare it to?
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:29.119
You know, maybe that's a question for another time.
00:50:29.119 --> 00:50:32.000
But have you heard anything about these direwolves?
00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:35.599
And could that maybe be part of the dogman phenomena?
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:39.280
You know, that's been thrown out there.
00:50:39.280 --> 00:51:00.800
I I wasn't, you know, I wasn't privy to the fact that they had found an alleged direwolf skull at Skinwalker Ranch, but I do know that in the hunt for the Skinwalker book, they kind of start off with that story of that bizarre incident with that wolf thing where they saw it and they chased it and they shot at it and all that stuff.
00:51:00.800 --> 00:51:08.079
So that's you know, that wolf aspect has been a part of the skinwalker legends in that ranch.
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:10.639
Um, but yeah, dire wolves and stuff.
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:31.519
I mean, you know, a lot of times when you're discussing cryptids that are like that, you kind of try to look back in the what was here before, what's in the fossil record, what kind of something fits that description that may we believe is extinct.
00:51:31.519 --> 00:51:37.920
You know, that's pretty common for um lake monsters and everything else.
00:51:37.920 --> 00:51:49.599
Iron Wolf is certainly one where it's like prehistoric wolves and bears and other things may provide uh some strange explanation to s to what people see now, you know.
00:51:49.679 --> 00:51:49.840
Yeah.
00:51:49.840 --> 00:51:53.599
I really want those giant law lands lost to come back.
00:51:53.599 --> 00:51:55.599
Like I think those would be badass.
00:51:55.920 --> 00:52:01.840
Well, Paul Paul just pulled up the uh the information from it uh about the about the dire wolf.
00:52:02.079 --> 00:52:07.840
Yeah, it seems like they found a rotting carcass of a unknown wolf in a riverbed.
00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:17.119
And when they went and did the DNA testing, they said it was 11% wolf and 89% was unknown wolf profile, which is why it led them to believe it was a dire wolf.
00:52:17.360 --> 00:52:21.280
Oh, so it didn't say direwolf, it just said something else.
00:52:21.599 --> 00:52:26.719
Something something wolf-like that we don't have evidence of, but it was also fucking giant, apparently.
00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:27.119
Yeah.
00:52:27.119 --> 00:52:29.119
Well, direwolf is supposed to be giant.
00:52:29.119 --> 00:52:31.119
Everything that used to exist was giant.
00:52:31.119 --> 00:52:34.639
The land sloths, the bears, the like everything was giant.
00:52:34.639 --> 00:52:43.920
Um well, well, so you know, in in all in all your years doing this, what is one story that really took you by surprise?
00:52:43.920 --> 00:52:50.800
Like maybe you went into it thinking, like, you know, not necessarily like this is a load of rubbish or something, but you're like, this just seems so far out there.
00:52:50.800 --> 00:52:54.400
But I'm gonna put boots on the ground, I'm gonna go talk to the people do the research.
00:52:54.400 --> 00:53:03.440
And when you walked away, it left you with this idea of like, holy crap, I you know, not saying that you believed it, but just really surprised you.
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:17.440
Um, I mean, there's certainly a number one of those where you find credibility in stuff that you you had you you had doubts about.
00:53:17.440 --> 00:53:28.719
I would say one that is sort of the most outlandish almost, and the one that I was quite dubious about is has to do with the Lake Worth monster.
00:53:28.719 --> 00:53:38.320
And in in July of 1969, there was a couple that went out to the lake, and this is north of Fort Worth.
00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:45.039
It used to be sort of a um, it was a wildlife refuge, but it was very heavily wooded, undeveloped.
00:53:45.039 --> 00:53:48.320
Um Lovers Lane Hangout, Dirt Road.
00:53:48.320 --> 00:53:49.760
People went there to fish.
00:53:49.760 --> 00:54:01.199
And this guy, uh John Rikert Reichert, and his wife went out there one evening and he was fishing, and all of a sudden, or his wife stayed up in the car.
00:54:01.199 --> 00:54:06.480
She kind of felt it was kind of creepy and she didn't want to get out, and she wouldn't she wouldn't get a fish.
00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:14.639
So she was hanging out in the car, and all of a sudden he heard her scream and he turns around and runs up to the car.
00:54:14.639 --> 00:54:26.239
He could see that something had come down on the hood and got down on the passenger side and was trying to reach in and attack his wife, presumably.
00:54:26.239 --> 00:54:34.880
So he went up and he basically tussled or fought with this thing for a few moments before he got in the car and they sped away.
00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:59.039
Now he went down to an old cafe that was open there on Jacksboro Highway and called the police, and the police responded, and and and then some other witnesses who had been parked down there drove into the parking lot and said, Yeah, we saw some kind of big white something come out of that the woods and try to attack that lady.
00:54:59.039 --> 00:55:14.639
And so this ended up in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, and it was he John Reichert described it as this sort of goat man thing that had horns and hair and maybe scales.
00:55:14.639 --> 00:55:34.400
It was a very sort of a chimera of description, and that launched, long story short, that launched this sort of whole uh summer of sightings of this white-haired creature there and other newspaper articles and um that sort of thing.
00:55:34.400 --> 00:55:43.119
But but it became known as the goat man, even though though a lot of people following that described it more like an ape-like creature with white hair.
00:55:43.119 --> 00:55:49.519
So, you know, I'd heard that, I read it in the newspaper, and you're you're totally dubious of like, I don't know.
00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:53.119
And people have claimed that it was a hoax and this and that.
00:55:53.119 --> 00:56:04.480
Well, I never met John, the original witness, because he passed away, but through providence and luck, I was able to connect with his son.
00:56:04.480 --> 00:56:11.920
Now, this is the first time I could interview somebody was that close to the dude, you know, otherwise it was just a newspaper story.
00:56:11.920 --> 00:56:16.239
I I found his son to be knowledgeable about this.
00:56:16.239 --> 00:56:19.679
He said, My dad talked about that sometimes.
00:56:19.679 --> 00:56:23.199
He said he didn't like to tell many people because people would just laugh it off.
00:56:23.199 --> 00:56:27.440
But he said, My dad believed that it was a goat man looking thing.
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:31.360
He fought with it, they escaped, it had horns.
00:56:31.360 --> 00:56:39.599
He said, My dad drew a picture of it, and he goes, I remember the picture, I remember the story, and the whole deal.
00:56:39.599 --> 00:56:57.119
And so once I connected that with at least still secondhand, but with a family member who, you know, it wasn't like, oh, my dad, you know, later on said that was a joke or no, this thing was something that stuck with him his whole life.
00:56:57.119 --> 00:56:58.320
And I thought, well, you know what?
00:56:58.320 --> 00:57:00.480
I mean, this guy had to be very close to it.
00:57:00.480 --> 00:57:02.079
There was other witnesses.
00:57:02.079 --> 00:57:06.880
How can you say it wasn't what he said it was?
00:57:06.880 --> 00:57:17.360
I mean, if and if it was somebody dressed up in a costume in July of 1969 out in the woods, I mean, that just seems preposterous, at least in that instance.
00:57:17.599 --> 00:57:18.639
Well, you would get shot.
00:57:18.639 --> 00:57:22.239
A lot of people say that about Bigfoot too, like, oh, it's just a man walking in a suit.
00:57:22.239 --> 00:57:25.119
I'm like, where I'm where I'm from, that would get you shot.
00:57:25.119 --> 00:57:27.039
Like, nobody's really doing that.
00:57:28.400 --> 00:57:35.360
And if it's got white hair back in those days, there's maybe there was a Yeti costume you could buy, possibly with white hair.
00:57:35.360 --> 00:57:37.519
I mean, there just wasn't a lot of options.
00:57:37.519 --> 00:57:40.639
You could buy a Bigfoot costume now on Amazon, you know.
00:57:40.639 --> 00:57:46.320
But anyway, that was one that surprised me that that held up as a story.
00:57:46.320 --> 00:57:59.440
And and Eric, that John's son was adamant that he said, Man, my dad, whatever that was, it was not not a person, and it was not something that can easily be explained.
00:57:59.440 --> 00:58:04.800
So I was surprised, and that's one reason I ended up writing the Lake Worth Monster book.
00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:15.199
Not only that, I've been asked to speak at the Lake Worth Library and Fort Worth Libraries because it's such a local cryptid story that I thought, you know, I need to write a book.
00:58:15.199 --> 00:58:17.519
It's like just put it all in there.
00:58:17.519 --> 00:58:30.480
But uh, but those are the kind of things that like now that's sort of the the springboard of my book is like I literally talked to to the son of this guy who's long since passed away, you know.
00:58:30.719 --> 00:58:31.039
Yeah.
00:58:31.039 --> 00:58:37.760
Well, one that gets you like uh as a husband, that gets you like a permanent get out of jail card free.
00:58:37.760 --> 00:58:42.400
Like, so you guys know Stephanie, my wife, uh my wife Stephanie.
00:58:42.400 --> 00:58:44.159
So I've been trying to get her to do this thing.
00:58:44.159 --> 00:58:45.920
I'm calling it topless Saturday.
00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:48.960
And it sounds like I'm joking, I'm trying to be funny.
00:58:48.960 --> 00:58:51.360
This is a real thing I'm trying to implement in my house.
00:58:51.360 --> 00:58:53.440
And uh, she's like, no, I'm not doing that.
00:58:53.440 --> 00:59:00.880
But if I could be like, I fought off a fucking goat man for you, I feel like like topless Saturdays might end up being a thing.
00:59:00.880 --> 00:59:01.920
Like, how do you like?
00:59:01.920 --> 00:59:04.000
Well, yeah, you did fight off a goat man for me.
00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:05.360
I definitely got more leverage.
00:59:05.360 --> 00:59:05.920
Yeah.
00:59:05.920 --> 00:59:06.719
You know.
00:59:06.719 --> 00:59:09.840
Or do do you participate in topless Saturdays?
00:59:09.840 --> 00:59:11.119
I mean, I would if she did.
00:59:11.119 --> 00:59:12.239
I mean that's fair.
00:59:12.239 --> 00:59:16.000
Yeah, it's not like you know, I'm being sexist and I'll I'll do it too.
00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:21.119
But um, I mean, one, I mean, it I mean, who knows?
00:59:21.119 --> 00:59:23.360
I mean, that that that's the that's the hard part of all this.
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:28.159
You know, I I don't want to assume you know people are lying, even though you know they do and they exaggerate.
00:59:28.159 --> 00:59:33.119
But you know, if that guy's telling the truth, I mean that that's just an unexplainable story.
00:59:33.119 --> 00:59:37.920
You know, how do you make sense of that and fit that into our nice little world that we have?
00:59:37.920 --> 00:59:40.480
You know, it's just hard sometimes.
00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:41.519
Um right.
00:59:41.519 --> 00:59:47.119
You know, again, it just kind of goes back to who are we to say that that was not what the guy saw.
00:59:47.119 --> 00:59:48.960
I mean, he was there.
00:59:48.960 --> 01:00:07.840
He he had it he was interviewed by the Fort Worth Police Department, he was interviewed by the uh Fort Worth Star Telegram, you know, other things, and then his son well knew the story, and and he said his mom wouldn't really ever talk about it.
01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:11.920
She was, I think, traumatized by it.
01:00:11.920 --> 01:00:18.639
But but again, and his dad, you know, if it wasn't true, why would he stick with this?
01:00:18.639 --> 01:00:24.639
And he said, My dad was just you know adamant that this happened and he was he was there.
01:00:24.639 --> 01:00:27.039
So hey, that's what happened.
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:28.159
Weird as it may be.
01:00:28.480 --> 01:00:34.559
Well, on the flip side of that, is is there any stories or you know, particular cryptids that you kind of had a lot of hope for?
01:00:34.559 --> 01:00:42.719
Like, you know, you've you've done some research and you think I think this is plausible, but once you start investigating it, you realize like uh I don't I really don't think there's anything to this.
01:00:42.719 --> 01:00:44.960
Have you ever been in that situation as well?
01:00:46.559 --> 01:00:49.519
Um I'm trying to think something I set out.
01:00:49.519 --> 01:00:53.360
Yeah, there's been some um gosh.
01:00:53.360 --> 01:01:09.119
Trying to think usually localized regional stories um like older cases where the thing would have a encrypted wiki or whatever would have an entry for it.
01:01:09.119 --> 01:01:19.039
I'm trying to think of one specifically, they're just localized um names or something, but you know, you're like, okay, that sounds cool.
01:01:19.039 --> 01:01:34.880
I'm gonna, you know, see if there was a terrifying encounter or whatever, and then you investigate it and you find the old news reports and you find a follow-up or something like that, and you realize eh, somebody admitted a hoax, or this was obviously not true.
01:01:34.880 --> 01:01:44.719
And that that's happened in sort of a more narrow sense of just some small flap of something, you know.
01:01:44.719 --> 01:01:56.559
Um, but you know, in a bigger scope, I think things like something I once had a high belief in or high hope would be like Loch Ness Monster.
01:01:56.559 --> 01:02:00.639
I I think over time we've got a lot of technology.
01:02:00.639 --> 01:02:02.960
It's a you know, it is a finite area.
01:02:02.960 --> 01:02:04.719
This isn't just open woods.
01:02:04.719 --> 01:02:08.960
This there is the lock is only so big, and of course it's very deep and dark.
01:02:08.960 --> 01:02:18.480
But you know, we've really thoroughly and uh looked into that and just the thought of I guess when we were kids, I'm reading whatever strange but true.
01:02:18.480 --> 01:02:22.320
And it's like I'm thinking there's a dinosaur, a plesiosaur swimming around.
01:02:22.320 --> 01:02:28.480
You know, you have to you have to kind of admit, well, I don't think that's the case.
01:02:28.480 --> 01:02:34.239
Um there could be another weird explanation, giant eels or something more mundane.
01:02:34.239 --> 01:02:45.920
But you know, you have to be realistic at this point that I we're not probably gonna pull out a giant monstrous plesiosaur or or something.
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:47.039
So then but that's fine.
01:02:47.039 --> 01:02:54.960
That doesn't mean that other cryptids don't exist, or there's not other lakes with Lake Champlain or something, may have a a creature.
01:02:54.960 --> 01:03:00.239
You know, there's plenty of others to look at, even if thing doesn't seem plausible.
01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:06.800
Yeah, the day I finally admitted to myself, you know, because like I mentioned earlier, Lochness Monster is the first cryptid that really drew me into this world.
01:03:06.800 --> 01:03:12.960
And I think the day that I finally had to admit to myself, uh, I don't think the Loch Ness monster is a pleasure sore.
01:03:12.960 --> 01:03:14.719
I felt like a part of me died.
01:03:14.719 --> 01:03:25.599
Like, because of you know, so I was telling somebody the other day, I was like, Well, we still got uh Umkalium Bembe, you know, the saur pod from the Congo that's supposed to be seen sometimes.
01:03:25.599 --> 01:03:30.960
And like, so there's still hope, but you know, even that story seems a little fantastical.
01:03:31.119 --> 01:03:42.079
Um yeah, Mokilium Bembe, the more you look at it, the more you're like, I don't know, that it the Congo is is a thick jungle place, so it's uh possible.
01:03:42.079 --> 01:03:56.159
But again, you start to think, eh, Mokilium Bembe is man, when I was a kid, you know, those kind of stories or congamato, which is a like a uh pterosaur from that area.
01:03:56.159 --> 01:04:05.440
Um you you when you look at him sort of as an adult with it and sort of objectively, you're like, probably not.
01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:06.079
Right.
01:04:06.079 --> 01:04:06.559
Yeah.
01:04:06.719 --> 01:04:07.360
And that's sad.
01:04:07.360 --> 01:04:11.920
I mean, since not maybe one percent is still possible.
01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:12.719
Right.
01:04:13.280 --> 01:04:30.800
Well, out of all the cryptids, I I I'm willing to bet I probably already know your answer, but you know, out of all the the cryptids that you've studied, all these weird stories that you've looked into, you know, talking to all these witnesses, if you had to pick one cryptid that that you would put money on that that it is a real animal, which one would it be?
01:04:32.159 --> 01:04:33.280
Bigfoot for sure.
01:04:33.440 --> 01:04:33.760
Yeah.
01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:38.719
I I think most researchers would always go that direction.
01:04:38.719 --> 01:04:55.280
It's got it it's the most plausible, has the m most number of credible sightings, a long history, and I would, you know, if you had if if you had to bet, that would be the one you're gonna put your money on.
01:04:55.519 --> 01:04:55.760
Yeah.
01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:57.840
I think I think it's only a matter of time.
01:04:57.840 --> 01:05:17.199
I mean, uh when we were out in Oregon, we were talking with all the guys, and everybody kind of had this like 10-year idea, you know, between the DNA research that's that you know UNC is starting to take seriously, um, the newer technology that we have access to, you know, everybody's saying, like, you know, within 10 years we think we're gonna have science except that it's a real animal.
01:05:17.440 --> 01:05:19.360
Um I think so too.
01:05:19.360 --> 01:05:23.519
I mean, I've always I kind of was always it's gonna be tomorrow.
01:05:23.519 --> 01:05:29.599
I mean, all almost always, because I was so embedded with, you know, guys like Cliff and uh Dr.
01:05:29.599 --> 01:05:39.679
Meldrum and other, you know, was privy to a lot of stuff that it's like, dude, just any minute now, you know, somebody's gonna shoot me a text or something.
01:05:39.679 --> 01:05:48.320
Uh, you know, it still drags on, and um, but I still believe that that's one where you it just there's something to it.
01:05:48.320 --> 01:05:50.719
It's just it you there's just too much.
01:05:50.800 --> 01:05:59.599
You cannot well, I I think one of the things that the general public doesn't realize, you know, they think that like every once in a while somebody has a Bigfoot encounter.
01:05:59.599 --> 01:06:03.760
These things are are seen all the time, like all the time.
01:06:03.760 --> 01:06:14.880
Um just you know, and and you know this already, but for people that aren't listening, if you put yourself in the position of somebody who's seen a Bigfoot, you might understand why most people never come forward, they just keep it to themselves.
01:06:14.880 --> 01:06:23.599
You know, uh you know, when we were in the mu uh the NABC, you know, Cliff was showing us some videos that he can't make public because he doesn't own them.
01:06:23.599 --> 01:06:29.760
I mean, there's literally hundreds of these things that the general public was never gonna see.
01:06:29.760 --> 01:06:31.519
So yeah, I I think you're right.
01:06:31.519 --> 01:06:34.400
I I do think it's gonna be Bigfoot and I can't wait.
01:06:34.400 --> 01:06:35.840
I don't know what's gonna happen though.
01:06:35.840 --> 01:06:39.199
I mean, is it gonna be like kind of a sad moment when it's proven real?
01:06:39.199 --> 01:06:40.159
Like the mystery's gone.
01:06:40.239 --> 01:06:50.320
Well, I mean, there's still gonna be plenty of mysteries, but you know you once said uh long ago when I first started working here that if you were to discover Bigfoot or someone discovered Bigfoot, you'd be like, Oh, that's cool.
01:06:50.320 --> 01:06:51.519
All right, what's next?
01:06:51.840 --> 01:06:57.039
I mean, maybe to a small extent, but that's where it becomes really interesting because like that software Cliff and I are building together.
01:06:57.280 --> 01:06:59.199
Well, not now you're invested, like really invested.
01:06:59.199 --> 01:07:01.920
So I think now you would be a little a little more excited.
01:07:02.079 --> 01:07:04.400
Yeah, it's like now we gotta figure out how these animals live.
01:07:04.400 --> 01:07:09.199
I just want to know what they do for fun, like you know, all those little type of questions, you know.
01:07:09.199 --> 01:07:14.400
Like, you know, you see like gorillas growing up in the wild and like the little babies rolling around and playing with mom and dad.
01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:20.480
Like I'm I'm assuming Bigfoot are have that same kind of structure to some degree, you know.
01:07:20.559 --> 01:07:24.559
Like I think they're like, hey man, you know what we should do today?
01:07:24.559 --> 01:07:33.119
Go up on that road and like run out real quick and run back in the woods and freak those people in that motorized thing.
01:07:33.119 --> 01:07:37.119
Yeah, you know, well, they're just I can't assume that I came up with this theory.
01:07:37.199 --> 01:07:43.519
So uh about a year ago, I was talking to Matt Moneymaker, and and him and I were kind of tossing some ideas back and forth.
01:07:43.519 --> 01:07:51.280
And it was back when I started to take so my real job, I mean, I I know I own this company and do all these other things, but I'm a software engineer.
01:07:51.280 --> 01:07:55.440
And over the last couple of years, obviously, we've been using AI more and more and more.
01:07:55.440 --> 01:07:58.079
And I'll and a small brag here for a second.
01:07:58.079 --> 01:08:04.559
So I developed uh uh a model that would predict where Bigfoot might be on any certain day.
01:08:04.559 --> 01:08:13.440
So when I was in Oregon last, like I was showing Cliff the model, and I think it was every single time we ran that model and it said go here, we think they're gonna be here.
01:08:13.440 --> 01:08:18.079
Cliff would like threw his hands up in the air, and he was like, like that's where we're going.
01:08:18.079 --> 01:08:21.840
Like, you know, so we're taking advantage of all this new technology.
01:08:21.840 --> 01:08:23.760
But um, wait, why am I even talking about this?
01:08:23.760 --> 01:08:24.880
What was I talking about?
01:08:25.119 --> 01:08:29.039
Um the idea of um your strategy to finding Bigfoot.
01:08:29.199 --> 01:08:29.600
Yeah, yeah.
01:08:29.600 --> 01:08:43.439
So we're working on this software that treats you know, Bigfoot like it's a real animal, and it's gonna help us, you know, use AI plus reports and all this stuff to try to make essentially not the software does not prove Bigfoot's real.
01:08:43.439 --> 01:08:52.399
This this software assumes Bigfoot's real, and we're wildlife researchers who are trying to understand the patterns and habits of this animal and then using AI to make sense of it.
01:08:52.399 --> 01:08:54.800
So when we go back in a couple of weeks, we're gonna try it out.
01:08:54.800 --> 01:09:00.479
You guys don't know this yet, but we're gonna be trying it out even more to see if we can get some really good, good stuff with that.
01:09:00.479 --> 01:09:04.560
But no, the point was so with Moneymaker, I was telling them, I was like, isn't it funny?
01:09:04.560 --> 01:09:19.920
Because AI started to establish these patterns that these road sightings, you know, Bigfoot running out in front of cars and stuff like that, they were happening in areas where hallucinatic hallucinogenic mushrooms were in bloom during the time that these animals were running out in front of cars.
01:09:19.920 --> 01:09:21.039
And I ran that by Matt.
01:09:21.039 --> 01:09:22.960
I was like, hey Matt, do you think they're getting high?
01:09:22.960 --> 01:09:30.319
And they're just like running out in front of cars, like you know, if you've ever done mushrooms, one, if you haven't, go do them because they're fucking awesome.
01:09:30.319 --> 01:09:31.840
At least once, go do mushrooms.
01:09:31.840 --> 01:09:39.760
Um, but this idea of like, you know, like headlights coming down the road and a Bigfoot, like, you know, and then like running out in front of it.
01:09:39.760 --> 01:09:40.720
I don't know.
01:09:41.039 --> 01:09:53.439
But um that could explain why, you know, an animal that's so its own survival depends on staying secluded and you know, off our radar.
01:09:53.439 --> 01:10:04.159
That would explain why they would be seen sometimes, you know, because maybe they're you know, you're not you're not thinking your best when you're on mushrooms and then like you're you're joking around or running in the road.
01:10:04.159 --> 01:10:06.640
So see that that's thought on.
01:10:06.960 --> 01:10:17.600
Well, the idea was that they it seemed like they were taking more what we can would consider risky behavior in areas where hallucinatic whose hallucinogenic mushrooms were in bloom bloom during that time.
01:10:17.600 --> 01:10:19.680
And you know, obviously I don't know for sure.
01:10:19.680 --> 01:10:22.239
Matt told me he's like, nah, that can't be it.
01:10:22.239 --> 01:10:27.840
You know, I think part of it was just because it wasn't Matt's idea, and I love Matt, but we all know like how it is.
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.319
Um, but I was like, I wonder if there's something to that.
01:10:30.319 --> 01:10:31.439
You know what we're gonna have to do?
01:10:31.439 --> 01:10:37.039
We're just gonna have to go buy a whole bunch of mushrooms and like bait them next time we're in Oregon.
01:10:37.359 --> 01:10:39.199
Bobo was putting out donuts, I think.
01:10:39.199 --> 01:10:45.279
He should have been putting out hallucinogenic mushrooms, yeah, or a joint or something.
01:10:45.359 --> 01:10:45.840
I don't know.
01:10:45.840 --> 01:10:48.479
Um, yeah, Bobo's a you know, I haven't met him.
01:10:48.479 --> 01:10:51.279
Yeah, I haven't met him yet, but that dude.
01:10:51.279 --> 01:10:52.880
I mean, you guys haven't seen the shows.
01:10:52.880 --> 01:10:56.079
I mean, this guy was putting on raves in the forest, like all kind of crazy stuff.
01:10:56.159 --> 01:10:59.520
Like, yeah, we we were watching at the Airbnb and we're like, where's this guy?
01:10:59.520 --> 01:11:01.439
We would we want to interview this guy.
01:11:02.159 --> 01:11:03.680
Yeah, Bobo's a good dude.
01:11:03.680 --> 01:11:14.880
I I enjoyed knowing yeah, I know all the finding Bigfoot casts, but uh you know, Cliff and Bobo are my the closest buddies, but yeah, some great dudes.
01:11:14.880 --> 01:11:20.880
But we've had some good times over the years talking about this, hanging out at conferences or whatever we do.
01:11:21.119 --> 01:11:21.680
Yeah.
01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:24.319
Well, you know, so what what what's next for you?
01:11:24.319 --> 01:11:28.880
You know, I I know that you mentioned that you're kind of working on a couple other ideas, you know, another book.
01:11:28.880 --> 01:11:32.079
You know, what what does the future hold for uh Lyle Blackburn?
01:11:33.199 --> 01:11:34.720
Um, let's see.
01:11:34.720 --> 01:11:52.560
But yeah, I've kind of been focusing on this terrifying encounters book series, and I'm it it's exciting because I have been able to research other cryptids that I have not been able to do, other cases that just never fit into my other uh pursuits and and case books.
01:11:52.560 --> 01:11:53.600
So that's been fun.
01:11:53.600 --> 01:11:55.600
So I'm really I'm kind of working ahead on those.
01:11:55.600 --> 01:11:57.199
Those have been selling really well.
01:11:57.199 --> 01:12:00.159
So they're smaller, like retros, paperbacks.
01:12:00.159 --> 01:12:18.640
It's been really fun, like a throwback to my youth when I used to buy these sort of vintage paranormal books, or they weren't vintage then, but um, so I've been working a lot on that, just really researching um fringe things like devil monkeys and what have you.
01:12:18.640 --> 01:12:30.000
And uh I I've got some projects coming up next year that are for film work that I I can't really divulge and I don't really know all the information.
01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:35.359
Um, and I'll be heading up to the Boggy Creek area once the temperatures drop a little bit.
01:12:35.359 --> 01:12:51.199
I've got two two outings planned to go up there and because Boggy Creek's kind of my my home base, and uh I've got some some every once in a while I'll get some good information or uh uh something about a sighting.
01:12:51.199 --> 01:12:55.039
So I've got some some field work to do there.
01:12:55.039 --> 01:13:01.119
And I'm I'm at various conferences this fall from Ohio to Texas to wherever.
01:13:01.119 --> 01:13:02.399
So always busy.
01:13:02.399 --> 01:13:04.560
Wherever you're needed, you will be there.
01:13:08.720 --> 01:13:09.680
Right, exactly.
01:13:09.680 --> 01:13:11.359
Actually, just an off question.
01:13:11.359 --> 01:13:15.039
So Boggy Creek, has there has has interest been growing in that?
01:13:15.039 --> 01:13:18.960
Like, are are people still doing a lot of research in that area or has it kind of fallen off a little bit?
01:13:18.960 --> 01:13:22.239
You know, because that doesn't get talked about quite as much as it used to.
01:13:22.239 --> 01:13:28.479
Um because in my head, I'm like, I would love to go to Boggy Creek at some point and just poke around.
01:13:28.479 --> 01:13:30.399
I I'd but I don't even know the ins and outs of it.
01:13:30.399 --> 01:13:33.119
Like, is a private property, is a public property, I have no idea.
01:13:33.359 --> 01:13:38.000
Um but well that yeah, yeah, that there's always interest in that.
01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:46.479
I mean, I I worked with the director's daughter, the guy who Charles Pierce that put out the uh original movie.
01:13:46.479 --> 01:13:57.199
I worked with her to restore the movie, remaster it with Kodak, and uh then you know, I've documented sightings.
01:13:57.199 --> 01:14:04.720
You know, a lot of people thought all that all happened in the 70s, but there's been sightings that occur and still occur down there.
01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:13.279
Well, I'm not gonna say frequently, but there are sightings that sort of um constantly coming forth.
01:14:13.279 --> 01:14:22.000
And you do have a few researchers that kind of concentrate on that area, not just me, but there's a couple of friends of mine that that's their particular area.
01:14:22.000 --> 01:14:25.840
And you'll have people coming there every day from all over.
01:14:25.840 --> 01:14:29.039
There's a place called the Monster Mart that's in the small town of Falk.
01:14:29.039 --> 01:14:42.880
And I mean, literally every single day, people from everywhere, other countries, every all 50 states that they sign the book there, they're coming there because they want to see the home of the legend of Boggy Creek, which is not much to see.
01:14:42.880 --> 01:14:46.720
It's a small town, and then the sulfur river bottoms are quite vast.
01:14:46.720 --> 01:14:57.199
So you can go out in there, and that is more or less public land that's in some cases still looks the same as it did in the 70s when the movie was filmed.
01:14:57.199 --> 01:15:02.479
Um, so I'm always kind of there, and there's a Falconster festival that happens every April.
01:15:02.479 --> 01:15:09.840
Um, so it's it's got its own its own thing going, and it's steady, steady interest in it.
01:15:09.840 --> 01:15:15.920
And every once in a while, like PBS just did a special on the Falconster on their Monsterum show.
01:15:15.920 --> 01:15:22.479
So, you know, I'll be on whatever show there is, Expedition X shot there not long ago.
01:15:22.479 --> 01:15:26.079
So there's always a TV production coming there, something always going on.
01:15:26.399 --> 01:15:29.680
Yeah, we're always looking for new, new, you know, film research projects.
01:15:29.680 --> 01:15:33.920
And you know, that's not too far from where we are, but it also feels like it's kind of overdone.
01:15:33.920 --> 01:15:37.439
Like, I don't know, like why do another documentary on it?
01:15:37.439 --> 01:15:38.159
You know what I mean?
01:15:38.159 --> 01:15:39.600
Like uh I don't know.
01:15:41.039 --> 01:15:41.600
There is, yeah.
01:15:41.600 --> 01:15:53.520
I mean, it has been done, so it's like in if you you know if there was some dramatic thing, but yeah, I mean I say you know, there's plenty in your area.
01:15:53.520 --> 01:15:56.079
You you're close to the Honey Island swamp monster.
01:15:56.079 --> 01:16:00.479
Um you know, or you could research grunches.
01:16:00.479 --> 01:16:02.239
Do you know the legend of the grunge?
01:16:02.560 --> 01:16:03.680
I've heard about the grunge.
01:16:03.680 --> 01:16:06.399
I feel like you guys had that on your podcast not too long ago.
01:16:06.399 --> 01:16:07.840
Yeah, we talked about the grunge.
01:16:07.840 --> 01:16:08.319
Yeah.
01:16:08.319 --> 01:16:09.840
What was the grunge again?
01:16:09.840 --> 01:16:12.079
Fantastical monster.
01:16:12.079 --> 01:16:13.760
Fantastical monster.
01:16:14.800 --> 01:16:18.640
There's the grunge is like these evil dwarves or something.
01:16:18.640 --> 01:16:23.279
Kind of east of New Orleans, there was a road out there.
01:16:23.279 --> 01:16:33.439
I actually didn't know anything about that until I would I was on a show called Buried Worlds with Don Wildman, and me and Don went out there and we were just like, What is this man?
01:16:33.439 --> 01:16:35.199
I've never actually even seen the episode.
01:16:35.199 --> 01:16:35.520
Right.
01:16:35.520 --> 01:16:38.399
To be honest, sometimes I'm on TV, I don't see it.
01:16:38.399 --> 01:16:40.079
Um, but yeah, that's one.
01:16:40.079 --> 01:16:43.119
But you know, Grunge, I was like, okay, terrifying encounters.
01:16:43.119 --> 01:16:48.159
Whenever I can get to like little people or gnomes, I gotta look into that.
01:16:48.239 --> 01:16:50.560
So well, if you're ever down our way, hit us up.
01:16:50.560 --> 01:16:52.800
We'll help you get into wherever you need to be.
01:16:52.800 --> 01:16:56.079
Most people like us around here, so we can we can access to most everything.
01:16:56.079 --> 01:16:58.800
Now, the honey alley the honey island swamp monster.
01:16:58.800 --> 01:17:01.119
I mean, that's just in my opinion, a bigfoot.
01:17:01.119 --> 01:17:06.399
Um yeah, and and I've actually known people here who have claimed to see one.
01:17:06.399 --> 01:17:14.399
Actually, you know, I I I you know, I haven't lived in Louisiana that long, you know, like 10 years, 10 very, very, very long years.
01:17:14.399 --> 01:17:25.520
Um but the one that the place that's getting a lot of uh traction right now is up in that Kissachi National Forest, kind of like above um, what is it, above like Baton Rouge and stuff by like an hour?
01:17:25.520 --> 01:17:29.840
Um there's been a lot of Bigfoot sightings coming out of that area too lately.
01:17:29.840 --> 01:17:31.760
So which is funny.
01:17:31.760 --> 01:17:35.600
I uh the idea of going into a swamp though, it doesn't freak me out.
01:17:35.600 --> 01:17:41.039
And it's even weird for me because I have a reptile conservation center and we work with like 400 snakes every day.
01:17:41.039 --> 01:17:45.039
Like that we have endangered species we breed and all that kind of stuff.
01:17:45.039 --> 01:17:47.760
I don't want to fuck with the snakes around here though.
01:17:47.760 --> 01:17:52.720
Like you guys have like cotton mouths and copperheads and rattlesnakes and shit.
01:17:52.720 --> 01:17:54.239
Like, I don't want to fucking get bit.
01:17:54.239 --> 01:17:55.039
I know I'll get bit.
01:17:55.039 --> 01:17:55.920
And you want to know why?
01:17:55.920 --> 01:18:00.319
Because I'm the I'm always bragging about like I'm the reptile guy, so if somebody's gonna get bit and die in the woods.
01:18:00.560 --> 01:18:02.079
The scares with the water moccasins.
01:18:02.159 --> 01:18:03.119
Yeah, like I'll get bit.
01:18:03.119 --> 01:18:03.920
I know I will.
01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:06.640
Like, remember I got bit by that fucking healer monster?
01:18:06.640 --> 01:18:08.399
Like, that was not fun.
01:18:08.399 --> 01:18:10.960
Um, yeah, you wanted us to hold you want us to hold it.
01:18:11.119 --> 01:18:18.239
I was I've been in a canoe up in a like a little slough, and they were there were a cotton mouse hanging from the trees.
01:18:18.239 --> 01:18:21.520
I know, like glaring at you, like, don't come in here.
01:18:21.520 --> 01:18:25.279
And I was like, dude, but I mean I go in swamps all the time.
01:18:25.279 --> 01:18:28.880
You just need snake boots and don't watch where you sit down.
01:18:28.960 --> 01:18:32.079
That's you know, you gotta I'll make call Paul go first everywhere.
01:18:32.079 --> 01:18:34.239
Paul, you go, you lead the way.
01:18:35.359 --> 01:18:38.399
Well, see, he'll stir it up and then you you follow.
01:18:38.399 --> 01:18:39.439
That's a good plan.
01:18:39.439 --> 01:18:40.560
Yeah, I'll go first.
01:18:40.560 --> 01:18:43.039
And it's gonna you'll be the victim.
01:18:43.039 --> 01:18:46.800
But uh yeah, you know, but I I've researched Honey Island Swamp.
01:18:46.800 --> 01:18:49.039
I covered it in my Sinister Swamps book.
01:18:49.119 --> 01:18:49.359
Uh-huh.
01:18:49.439 --> 01:18:54.560
I love that story because I saw it on In Search of that whole show in Search of in the 70s.
01:18:54.720 --> 01:18:54.880
Yeah.
01:18:55.039 --> 01:19:00.000
So I just love the swampy nature of that as well, and the aspect of that story.
01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:09.039
So I did research that, but you know, it's not like something that there's like there's sightings, but it's not like it's crazy going on.
01:19:09.039 --> 01:19:13.920
But I don't think Louisiana Bigfoot gets much coverage, honestly.
01:19:13.920 --> 01:19:24.960
Like there are sightings and there's those spots like you you talked about where there's hot spots, but to me, it's like very little coverage.
01:19:24.960 --> 01:19:29.520
It just specifically in terms of the Louisiana Bigfoot.
01:19:29.840 --> 01:19:38.239
Well, I think part of it is one, you know, on one hand I would say it's because it's hot, but then again, you know, there's tons of Bigfoot, you know, skunk ape, whatever you want to call them, sightings in Florida and stuff like that.
01:19:38.239 --> 01:19:40.800
So it's like, okay, well, maybe it's not that it's that hot.
01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:56.319
But when you actually start digging around Louisiana, especially the part of Louisiana we're from, uh, so much of it is inaccessible, but it's different, it's a different kind of inaccessible than you know, like the Pacific Northwest, you know, and and you do have this in like you know, the the areas you're from too.
01:19:56.319 --> 01:20:03.760
Some of these swamps, like, unless you have a really good boat and you know where you're going, you have no business going out in them because you might not come back.
01:20:03.760 --> 01:20:05.359
Um, like how do you guys say it?
01:20:05.359 --> 01:20:06.800
That I always say your words wrong down here.
01:20:06.800 --> 01:20:07.920
The Achafalaya.
01:20:07.920 --> 01:20:08.800
Achafalaya.
01:20:08.800 --> 01:20:11.920
Achafalaya, like I mean, that's massive.
01:20:11.920 --> 01:20:21.840
And and there's a lot of people, you know, airboat captains, you know, shrimp fishermen, they claim to see uh, you know, a Bigfoot every once in a while on one of these little islands, but good luck finding them.
01:20:21.840 --> 01:20:24.000
I mean, it's just so remote.
01:20:24.000 --> 01:20:26.960
And um, the water makes it even more difficult.
01:20:27.279 --> 01:20:28.560
But I think they're here.
01:20:28.560 --> 01:20:34.640
I can't just you know, I'm gonna be a Bigfoot researcher and saunter into the swamp like that.
01:20:34.640 --> 01:20:35.760
It is super dangerous.
01:20:35.760 --> 01:20:39.199
And Bigfoot is probably not what's going to be your problem.
01:20:39.199 --> 01:20:47.359
It's like you we say the snakes, the gators, and all manner of getting lost and treacherous places, you know.
01:20:47.600 --> 01:20:52.159
Yeah, I'd rather deal with mountain lions up in the Pacific Northwest than all that shit down here.
01:20:52.159 --> 01:20:57.199
I know everybody might not agree with me, but you know, mountain lions are gonna leave you alone for the most part.
01:20:57.199 --> 01:20:58.239
Yeah, we're in a big group.
01:20:58.239 --> 01:21:00.960
I feel like alligators will come out of the way just to bite me in the ass.
01:21:00.960 --> 01:21:03.359
So yeah, not fucking with them.
01:21:03.359 --> 01:21:06.720
Um so you know, Lila, I don't want to keep you on here forever.
01:21:06.720 --> 01:21:08.159
I we usually keep it about an hour.
01:21:08.159 --> 01:21:10.880
I think we're running it like an hour and a half, so I don't want to take up too much of your day.
01:21:10.880 --> 01:21:16.880
But you know, before before we drop off here, you know, obviously you you you're you're an author you have all these things going on.
01:21:16.880 --> 01:21:21.840
So if people wanted to pick up any of your books, you know, read about who you are, or even listen to your music.
01:21:21.840 --> 01:21:22.720
We didn't even get into that.
01:21:22.720 --> 01:21:24.000
I meant to ask you about your band.
01:21:24.159 --> 01:21:28.000
Um yeah, I wanted to ask, is is Count Lyle uh technically encrypted?
01:21:28.000 --> 01:21:28.720
Is what?
01:21:28.720 --> 01:21:29.920
Count Lyle.
01:21:29.920 --> 01:21:31.840
Count Lyle, I don't know what is that.
01:21:32.880 --> 01:21:34.800
That's my rock and roll name.
01:21:34.800 --> 01:21:39.439
So when I was in high school, people because I was all into vampires and monsters.
01:21:39.520 --> 01:21:41.199
So oh, I thought it was like Ghoul.
01:21:41.439 --> 01:21:44.079
Uh well, I'm in a band called Ghoultown.
01:21:44.319 --> 01:21:45.520
Ghoul, yeah, yeah, that's what it is.
01:21:45.760 --> 01:21:52.239
Ghoultown is like a dark western something like Johnny Cash meets Rob Zombie.
01:21:52.239 --> 01:22:05.439
So that's like I said, I've been a musician and I I've been in, you know, relatively well-known bands and what have you, and music and writing is all I've ever done as a profession.
01:22:05.439 --> 01:22:08.560
But um, so yeah, I have that whole thing going on.
01:22:08.560 --> 01:22:14.000
We don't we don't tour a lot anymore, so that right, you know, we do we do albums sometimes or whatever.
01:22:14.000 --> 01:22:20.800
But uh but uh but yeah, that that's a whole aspect of of my other thing.
01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:35.760
But you you know, if you if people want to know about all of this, if you go to my website at lilblackburn.com, there's links to you know everything, sort of list of my books and uh television appearances and and lit jump-offs to the band.
01:22:35.760 --> 01:22:42.239
And of course, you can get Gooltown music on many platforms, you know, Apple Music and Spotify and what have you.
01:22:42.239 --> 01:22:43.439
So you can just look it up.
01:22:43.439 --> 01:22:51.520
Um, and then uh most of my books are available on Amazon as well, except for terrifying encounters.
01:22:51.520 --> 01:22:57.680
That is a I have attempted to cut Amazon out of the profits here, and that's sort of a special book.
01:22:57.680 --> 01:23:04.479
So you can only get terrifying encounters from my online store if you go to lilblackburn.com and you can pick those up.
01:23:04.479 --> 01:23:10.079
So I've been just volume two just came out and I'll get hundreds and hundreds of orders.
01:23:10.079 --> 01:23:12.319
So I feel like a shipping and receiving department.
01:23:12.720 --> 01:23:13.600
All right, you need to hire one.
01:23:13.680 --> 01:23:34.479
Yeah, I need like I need more stuff to do, but it's super great because I sign each book and it's so cool because people really love the series, so it's you know, I just like I just like that feel of like they're getting a a book that's sort of a retro book and it's signed and you know, stuff like that.
01:23:34.479 --> 01:23:35.199
Yeah.
01:23:35.439 --> 01:23:39.279
Well, I I don't want to keep you any longer, but I I really do appreciate you coming on.
01:23:39.279 --> 01:23:49.359
Like, you know, I've known about you forever, and and obviously the first time we're ever chatting, but uh you know, after after meeting a lot of other people, everybody only has great things to say about you.
01:23:49.359 --> 01:23:55.119
Um, so I was really happy that when Chris was able to get you on the podcast, I was like, You got Lyle Blackburn?
01:23:55.119 --> 01:23:56.079
Because I've been telling her for a while.
01:23:56.079 --> 01:23:58.239
I was like, she's like, but we need more cryptid stuff.
01:23:58.239 --> 01:23:59.680
I was like, Lyle Blackburn.
01:23:59.680 --> 01:24:01.680
And then all of a sudden you pop up on the calendar.
01:24:01.680 --> 01:24:03.680
I was like, Yes, finally get to talk to you.
01:24:03.680 --> 01:24:07.359
So I I genuinely, genuinely appreciate you coming on the podcast today.
01:24:07.359 --> 01:24:08.560
Um, it means a lot to do.
01:24:08.800 --> 01:24:09.359
No problem, man.
01:24:09.359 --> 01:24:20.319
I appreciate you having me on, and it's cool that you're working with Cliff and and we both have skulls in the background, so we're I think we're you know, we've we're thinking, you know, we're legit.
01:24:20.319 --> 01:24:23.119
If you have a skull behind you, you're totally legit.
01:24:23.119 --> 01:24:24.479
So we're thinking the same way.
01:24:24.720 --> 01:24:31.119
Well, they had this screwed up, like I had this skeleton like choking itself and grabbing itself inappropriately, and they fixed it.
01:24:31.119 --> 01:24:34.079
So I've you know sorry, yeah.
01:24:34.079 --> 01:24:36.399
Thanks for ruining the vibe, guys.
01:24:36.399 --> 01:24:39.119
I mean, the skeleton's not even grabbing your own tits anymore.
01:24:39.119 --> 01:24:40.560
But what's the fun in that?
01:24:40.560 --> 01:24:42.479
Um his name is Bill.
01:24:42.479 --> 01:24:43.840
Oh, okay.
01:24:43.840 --> 01:24:45.199
That explains it.
01:24:45.199 --> 01:24:50.800
No, but uh no, I uh you know, if if anybody wants to learn more about Lyle, you know, pick up any of his books.
01:24:50.800 --> 01:24:52.239
Obviously, check out the show notes below.
01:24:52.239 --> 01:24:54.479
We're gonna have the links down there for all that as well.
01:24:54.479 --> 01:24:59.199
Um, but you know, to wrap this up, once again, I really appreciate you coming on, Lyle.
01:24:59.199 --> 01:25:01.439
And uh thanks for joining us.
01:25:01.760 --> 01:25:02.319
Absolutely.
01:25:02.319 --> 01:25:03.199
Thanks.
01:25:04.159 --> 01:25:11.840
This episode was brought to you by Ghost City Tours, your guide to the haunted side of history in over 30 cities nationwide.
01:25:11.840 --> 01:25:17.199
From restless spirits to unsolved mysteries, our tours bring the dead back to life.
01:25:17.199 --> 01:25:21.840
Look now for a haunted city near you at ghostcitytours.com.
01:25:21.840 --> 01:25:28.399
Be sure to subscribe to the Ghost City Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts.
01:25:28.399 --> 01:25:30.880
And remember, stay spooky.