Chupa at 2000

CHUPACABRAS @ 2000 AD:

What We Knew Back Then

Most of this material was on the Artbell.com site as of 2001, and referenced in the Yahoo group Chupacabra's back files information. This also included the "porky up a tree" photo which I ran last time and which I thought had the "Face" retouched to show "Fangs." Some of the other photos on the site were mangy-dogs again, but this one photo shows a fake-but a fake done by somebody that obviously knew what the original was supposed to be like in this instance. What gives it away is that the pasted-on fin is too big. The source for the photo had added this letter:

Date: 2-27-97
To: artbell@aol.com
From: ????@????.com

Hello Art, 

Derik Lattig in San Antonio here. I thought  you would want to know
that my TV station has obtained photos of a chupacabra captured in 
a trap just south of San Antonio.  A rancher  took photos of the 
beast and brought them to us.  He claims there were three, one in 
the trap and two others jumping up and down and they ran when he 
approached.  I'll try my best to describe the photos for you.  

The creature is about as long as a human leg, pasty white and has 
ridges on its back like a Dragon.  It has two front legs and two 
rear legs and at the end of each two tiny offshoots that I would 
not call fingers, but I wouldn't call them paws either, almost 
claw looking.  You can see teeth on the thing which is draped 
across the ground in an arch.

The farmer says "some men" saw him showing the creature and took 
it saying they would have it stuffed.  He claims to know where 
the body is and we are investigating it.  I'll be happy to send 
you a copy of our story if you'd like it or send you video of 
the polaroid pictures.  Contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx tomorrow 
afternoon.  

I thought you'd want this info for your show this morning 
though.  Yours in News Derik Lattig.

This is also from the Art Bell site and it looks like a version of the Wisconsin Hodag, and is probably a taxidermy gaffe meant to represent the Missouri Gowrow instead, as a sort of enormous iguana lizard with an exaggerated crest of spines down its back and horns over its eyes. The similarity between the Hodag and Gowrow should not be too surprising since all they are is the White Men's adoption of Native Water-Monsters such as the Misipizhiw or Water-Panther (I subsequently learned that "Piasa" is a legitimate name for such creatures as well) I believe the spiny-backed water-monsters to actually have originated in the Southwest and in Texas and the image moved northwards to merge with other types of water-monsters not originally horned or spiny-backed. The Gowrow is typical of the series of Spinybacked water-monsters in a category which also includes the Whangdoodle and Kingdoodle: one sighting in 1950 apparently misapplied the name Bingbuffer to one of them, but the Bingbuffer is something elsethat tosses mud with its tail (as an angry alligator might do?)



Wisconsin Hodag



Winnebago Medicine Animal



Utah Petroglyph, note more accurate proportions & stance




Havasupai "River Liz","Mini Rex" or "Jimplicute"
With a Creationist's reconstruction at left.




Duelling Male Iguanas



Arkansas Fearsome Critters: The Gowrow

The Gowrow is so enormous, the earth shakes when it walks.  It hatches from a egg, lives in a cave and growls "Gow-row! Gow-row!" from which it receives the Gowrow receives its name. 

Sometimes people at a carnival party pay fifty cents to see a Gowrow.  They go into a darkened tent and wait for the curtain to be pulled back.  Soon there is a terrible roaring and rumbling along with screams and gunshot fire.  Then a man comes rushing out screaming.  "The Gowrow is loose! Run for your lives!"

So everybody runs.  But if you are one of the people there don't run until you get your money back, since this is an old trick to trick people.  There isn't a real Gowrow behind that curtain just an old woman roaring, screaming, banging on a pan and firing a gun into the air.

This is an old tent-show trick and it was also done with the Hodag and other creatures supposedly escaped.

Rather more important in reference to the Chupacabras is the Jimplicute, which is a large lizard described in very similar terms.

Fearsome Critters of Folklore

The Jimplicute According to Vance Randolph, this creature is a weird combination of "ghostly dinosaur, an incredible dragon or lizard supposed to walk the roads at night, grab travelers by the throat and suck their blood." Randolph further suggests that the creature was invented after the Civil War "to frighten superstitious Negroes."

Whatever his origin, the jimplicute has kin throughout the Southeast and Mid-west, and numerous hunting parties with baying hounds and impressive arsenals have scoured mountaintops, swamps and isolated farms searching for a misshapen creature that was drinking the blood of dogs, cows and hapless humans. No doubt the Texas "wowzer" is a close relative.[Actually, at one point, Texans also used the name "Jimplicute"]

Sightings are not restricted to the mountains and the prairie, either. For example, the "Vampire Monster of Bladenboro" received extensive newspaper coverage in 1954, and an atmosphere of hysteria surrounded this North Carolina coastal community for several weeks. In the final days, over 1,000 armed men scoured the countrysides and swamps looking for "a sleek, black creature with a round head" that was slaughtering dogs, sheep and cattle. When a half-starved bob-cat was shot, many hunters refused to believe they had killed the "vampire monster" and continued the search. However, the killing of domestic animals stopped.

[Giant Bat rumors also circulated in the Carolinas both at this time and on other occasions-DD]

The Jefferson, Texas, Jimplicute
Quoting

Wikipedia: Jefferson Jimplecute
The Jefferson Jimplecute is the newspaper of record in the city of Jefferson, Texas.
It was founded in 1848 and is the fifth oldest newspaper in the state.
The origin of the paper’s unusual name is not known, as the original publisher did not leave any clues. However, four theories have arisen as to the origin:
(1) An early editor dropped several pieces of type on the floor, and upon returning them to his composing stick, randomly spelled out the word “jimplecute”.
(2) A mythical creature developed to frighten superstitious slaves during the American Civil War.
(3) A slang term meaning “attractive”, “slim”, or “neat” (the word “jimp” is defined as such in some dictionaries.)
(4) An acronym for the motto “Joining Industry, Manufacturing, Planting, Labor, Energy, Capital (in) Unity Together Everlastingly...” 

The word “jimp,” according to Tarpley’s research, is of Scottish origin and dates to the 16th century. Then, the word meant “small, slender, slim, delicate, graceful, neat.” The word “jimp” still appears in dictionaries and is defined as described above.
The[second] explanation is that a “Jimplecute” is, in fact, a horrible mythical creature created, some say, to frighten superstitious slaves before and during the War Between the States.
The beast has been described as “a crouched animal with the mouth of a dragon,... the body like that of a large armadillo, the front legs and feet like those of a lion ready to spring.” The creature also featured a snake atop its back[meant to say a ridge of spines?] and a forked tail.[The typical dragon's tail with an arrowhead point is often called "forked"-DD]
[It would seem that this specifically lizardlike creature was not thought of as being so unattractive to the people that named it, since they called it by a name that marked it as small, slender and good-looking. It also seems that if Ivan Sanderson's informants hasd used a local name for the "Ornitholestes" they saw, it would have been Jimplicute. The name has also been interpreted as deriving from  "Cute Jumper"-DD]
Jimplecute Dinosaur

Categorical Perspectives

"I recall reading that in the Ozarks, 'There are men still living that recall stories of the Jimplecute, a kind of ghostly dragon or dinosaur said to roam the roads at night, seize travellers by the throat and drink their blood [this gives an attribution to an 1870s creation of the legend in Arkansas in order to frighten  Blacks, with a journal citation, but as a matter of fact the legend was already circulating widely by 1848, even reaching Texas at that early date. The reference to Vance Randolph also returns to the same theory that the creature was made up to frighten ex-slaves, but a more trustworthy statement on the internet states that it was invoked as a nursery bogeyman to frighten bad children. This is more likely overall.]

 Wampus Society Dictionary

JIMPLECUTE : A phantom lizard that has been the end of many ill-fated wayfarers due to its appalling, vampiric appetite.

[The Jimplicute or Jimplecute is also the origin of such reports as "A dinosaur forced a car off the road at.." when it seems that the car swerved off the road to avoid hitting the creature. Some such rumours come from Texas, and it is quite obvious that the Jimplecute is the same thing as the River Liz, established as of 1848 it seems. But that is not the oldest occurance of the name "Mountain Boomer" in such stories: I happened to locate that original reference I had mentioned before as well--]

From Vance Randolph's article "Fabulous Monsters in the Ozarks," The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 9:2 (Summer, 1950), p. 69:
Quote: Originally Posted by Vance Randolph
The kingdoodle is another big reptile, doubtless related to the gowrow, the jimplicute and the high-behind. One of my old neighbors in McDonald County, Missouri, told his children that the kingdoodle looks like an ordinary mountain boomer, except for its great size. The mountain boomer or collared lizard seldom attains a length of more than ten inches, while the kingdoodle is "longer'n a wellrope, an' fourteen hands high." It is strong enough to tear down fences and pull up saplings, but is not bloodthirsty. Near Jane, Missouri, my wife and I stopped to look at a small building which had fallen off its stone foundation and rolled into a ditch. Probably a high wind was responsible, but a little boy who lived nearby didn't think so. "I reckon the old kingdoodle must have throwed it down, in the night," he said soberly.
Clarification: elsewhere he says that the kingdoodle and whangdoodle are synonymous. [Interesting to note that the smaller kind is vampiric and at least partly carnivorous but the bigger ones are "Harmless" herbivores. The bigger ones are said to "Shove things out of their way", another trait which might be ascribable to alligators. Fourteen hands is 5'2" probably a standing height for not-the-largest-ones, since 7 feet tall is repeatedly alleged in "River Liz/Mini-Rex reports, and a well rope is only as long as the well is deep, a vague and inaccurate measurement. Also the fore legs are much shorter than the forelegs os on all fouts it is "Higher-Behind"-DD]

TIMELINE and Information

[CHUPA] TIMELINE

By Lawrie Williamswlmss@peg.apc.org

mid-1970s

Rio Grande Valley South Texas

Sightings of what may have been a condor linked to a rash of mutilated cattle. Blood was removed to the last drop.[Some sightings instead insisted on a large bat or a spiky-backed lizard or "Dinosaur"] 

Early 1970s.

Brownsville Texas

Rancher finds a bull dead - no blood around it, no tracks.[Several more "Animal Mutilation" cases continue throughout the 1970s. Most are thought later to be due to the actions of feral dogs-DD] 

1994

Puerto Rico

4 or 6 "little grey aliens" found under a bed and chased out of the house with a broom. (reported by Joyce Murphy.)[Very similar to some reports of  4 to 6 "Baby Dinosaurs" found in the Western USA about that same time, one of these reports mentioned on the Unsolved Mysteries TV program-DD] 

March 11 1995

Orocovis

Eight sheep found dead. The animals had three strange marks or puncture holes in the chest and were described as "completely drained of blood." [Bites to the chest were not killing bites, but presumably left by scavengers testing or tasting the corpse. Killing bites would be to the neck ordinarily-DD] 

August 1995

Canvanas, Puerto Rico

Chupacabra blamed for the death of about 150 animals.

Sun Nov 19 1995

Puerto Rico

The chupas is blamed in the deaths of dozens of turkeys, rabbits, goats, cats, dogs and even horses and cows...

Said to have ripped open the bedroom window of a house in the north-central city of Caguas, destroyed a stuffed teddy bear, and left a puddle of slime and a piece of rancid white meat [?vomit]on the windowsill. It had hairy arms and huge red eyes [if it was vomit, almost certainly a dog-DD]. In another attack it came at about 7 a.m. "It just showed up and -- poof -- it vanished."[or ran off] 

Nov 19 1995

35 times in three months. Canovanas Puerto Rico Resident saw it one afternoon in his back yard when it came out of the brush and bit the family dog. "I think it belongs to the monkey family, but it isn't a monkey exactly," he said. ``It ran like a monkey and was about four feet tall, but it didn't have a tail.'' [Could be a (lab) monkey in this case-DD]

Dec 7

near Guanica, Puerto Rico

Unusual bloodless deaths of chickens and cows.

Dec 14

Naguabo on the east coast

Several caged rabbits were "found dead with holes in the neck area, without a drop of blood." Other rabbits had disappeared. Near rabbit cage was a track with a three-toed claw.[partial track?] 

Fri 15 Dec 1995

Puerto Rico

In one year is thought responsible for at least 1000 killings- goats, sheep, cattle, chickens and other animals. There are many eye witness accounts. The creature is 3- 5 feet tall [or long?], walks upright[bipedally], is not humanoid, and has large oval alien type eyes.

18 Dec 1995

Puerto Rico

Animals died as the result of a single puncture mark found on some part of the body which apparently drained them of blood. One photo shows a Siamese cat with a puncture mark through its skull. [The puncture mark in the cat's skull points to the doublesized false vampire bat, the medium-sized one with the long fangs, said to be about 30 to 35 pounds in weight in Chupacabras cases. It favors biting attacks on the head and neck and killing by biting into the brain is its favorite attack. It also dislikes cats especially. The False Vampire bat SUPPOSEDLY does not attack to drink the blood of its victims but local superstition almost universally states that it DOES do so.-DD] 

Dec 18 1995 Puerto Rico
          Local tabloid Vocero echoed the possibility that giant vampire bats had infiltrated the island
          in cargo shipments proceeding from South America. Normal sized bats are fairly common in 
          the Caribbean.

Thurs Dec 21

3 am near Guanica, Puerto Rivo

44-year-old Osvaldo Claudio Rosado was washing a car. He was grabbed from behind. He tried to fight off the intruder and saw a black-haired "gorilla" about five feet tall which ran off. Rosado had cuts in his abdomen, possibly torn by fingernails or claws.

Thurs Dec 21 1995

Klamath Falls

Pregnant heifer dead with her right ear gone, hide cut from her face, the tongue cut lengthwise along the top of the teeth, all four teats removed leaving black circles on the surface of the udder, and the rectum and vagina cut out in a neat "keyhole" cut. No blood at any of the excisions or on the ground.  [this is wierd enough to fall into the "Satanic Cultists" category, especially the removal of the sex organs]

Tues Dec 26

Early morning hours Puerto Rico

Torrecilla Baja region

Woman heard strange noises in her house and dog barking. Siamese cat found dead with the genitals removed, two guinea hens with their throats slit, a chicken with "perforations," and four ducks and four rabbits dead in their cages.[This is the medium-sized bat with its characteristic fang perforations] 

Tues Dec 26 1995

Puerto Rico - San German

Eleven goats found dead.

Jan 4 1996

Isabella County, Michigan.

Eight calves frozen and dead. Two were skinned of their hide from head to hooves; six were skinned of all their hide from neck to hooves. All were black and white Holsteins and about a week old.

          [Sorry about that one: Obvious Human Criminal Activity-DD]

Jan 7 1996

Klamath Falls, Oregon

One week old calf dead and mutilated. Right ear had been cut off and the entire skull had been removed. [? Human activity in removing skull-DD] 

NW Miami rural area

March 1996

Killed about 40 animals. One woman saw a dog-like figure standing up, with two short hands in the air. [Some dogs DO stand on their hind legs...] 

May 2 1996

Rio Grande Valley South Texas

Pet goat dead with three puncture wounds in its neck. 6 y.o. goat found with "telltale marks of the "Chupacabra"

Thur May 2

Juarez Mexico

Many small mammels, dogs, etc. have met their fate with this 3-to-4-foot tall "animal"-like being with three toed feet and hands, on haunches with the fore arms suspended at chest level very similar to a kangaroo. It has a row of spikes or straight feather like projections from it's head and down it's back that raise and lower and which seem to glow with their own light. Has been seen to take off [run away]on all fours. The "sucking " device seems to be a tube like projection from the mouth, [or else this is its tongue-DD].

Thur May 2 1996

Mexico and Miami

Attacks are becoming more distributed. Wounds resemble 1/4" holes similar to a biopsy puncture that extend completely through muscle tissue and in at least one instance the wounds were discovered pronouncedly through the inner tissue without leaving any wound traces on the surface layer skin.

May 3 1996

Calderon Village Sinaloa, Northern Mexico.

A giant bat-like creature terrorizes a village. Goats are found daily with their blood sucked dry, witnesses said today. Farmers have formed night vigilante squads. "We are telling people to keep the women and children locked up inside at night" a villager said, "Nobody knows really what it is." Dozens of goats have fallen victim to the bloodsucker. It has allegedly attacked one human.

Fri May 3

Mexican State of Sonora - Veracruz and Agua Prieta.

Numerous animals drained of blood and a vague report of a human suffering the same fate.

Fri May 3

Sinaloa State, the state below Sonora State.

Dead cows and sheep. The animal(s) is described as 1-1.5 feet[tall/long?] and able to take flight.[bat]

Fri May 3

Six other states in Mexico

Similar attacks have been reported.

May 9 1996 2 a.m.

Espinoza Family - a front door was opened and a creature was seen 3 to 4 foot high with scaly skin, clawed hands, red eyes, and a row of spines from the skullcap and down the back. The creature "mumbled and gestured".

May 9 1996 5-5.3O a.m. - dawn

A seven year old boy in the same house said the creature stood on his bed and briefly on his chest. Both the older and younger Espinoza family members described a smell "like a wet dog."[=a dog. The standard description must have been given as expected: tracks turned out to belong to the Espinoza boys themselves and so there is already an element of deception in this report.]

May 10 1996

Florida

Reports of a chupacabra among Hispanics.

Wed May 12

Mexico's southern state of Chiapas

28 dead rams found with puncture marks [unable to place this predator without specifics as to where the puncture marks were or how deeply they went into the body-DD]

ADDITIONAL NOTES

"The world's 3 species of blood-drinking[Vampire] bats live predominantly in the warm climates of Latin America. Similar recent cases have emerged from Pureto Rico, Costa Rica and El Salvador."
...
"The New Jersey Devil adheres to descriptions of physical appearence as well as the nature of the wounds. Puncture wounds are often left resembling the classic vampire bite."
"Very large, slanted, glowing red eyes. Face is flat, perhaps simian-like [on biggest bat form], body some say is covered with spotted skin "like a frog's" and has "spikes on its head and back" with "chicken legs" that have a 3-or-4-toed foot about six inches long [outer and inner toe not counted on 3-toed track: innermost toe is smallest]. Such tracks have been found and photographed in dirt near dead animals.[some are definite dog tracks] This creature has been seen to jump, hop, or fly, from the ground to a tree or from trees to the ground, sometimes into water where it swims away."

El_Chupacrabra_by_Hareguizer, Deviant Art
Although drawn with somewhat doglike anatomy, the facial
features and especially the "Turtle" eyes look more like an iguana.

The "Russian Chupacabras", one of the first signs we had
 a worldwide plague of "Chupacabras" sightings

[For my part, I think that the doublesized-FALSE-Vampire Bat is a very good culprit for the more mystifying killings/sightings. I think that it normally has a more restricted range in PART of Northern South America but that it has an occasional/intermittent range that it can spread over the SE United States, The West Indies, and down into Chile and Argentina-as far as Patagonia exceptionally. Oddly it is seen rather less often in areas where the reptillan sightings are commonly made But both the smaller-biped reptillians and the medium-sized Giant Bats were blamed as livestock-killing vampires back into the middle 1800s and hence have been "Chupacabras" for at least that long.                      Best Wishes, Dale D.]

Example of a deep puncture wound such as said to be done by Chupacabras, this example being a wound on a goat which continued to bleed profusely overnight.

Chupabat of the medium-sized type, body is about a foot long or 18 inches (compare to goat in scale) This should be compared to the photos of the Spectral/False Vampire bats below. It is probable that the drawing is not exactly right: for one thing the artist did not get the relative sizes of the head and ears right, but together they have about the right size and shape. The facial features are similar, but the fangs are very much exaggerated in the drawing. In the live chupabat, both upper and lower canines are probably at least an inch long and the mouth has been stated to be able to open up to a gape of eight inches. The large and robust body is also noteworthy. These bats are known to hunt in family parties when rearing young and reports of the small-dog-sized "Chupacabras Giant Vampire bats" also state that they can mob prey collectively.



Chupabat mockup for internet story about a Mexican Chupabat raid..
In this case the creature had to fly over a 6 high predator' wall
in order to get at the sheep secured within the walled compound.