Ep 285: The Lizard Man of Bishopville with Lyle Blackburn
“There have been strange noises heard in the swamp for years. Animals have been found pulled apart. And nobody’s ever explained the woman whose head was twisted off at Ashwood Pond near the swamp 15 years ago.”
Description:
On June 29, 1988, around 2:30 a.m., Christopher "Chris" Davis drove home after working the night shift at his local McDonald's. Driving along Browntown Road, which cuts through the dense woods of Scape Ore Swamp in South Carolina, Chris hears the pop of a flat tire on his car. As he finishes installing the spare, he notices something large and dark coming out of the trees, moving towards him about 30 yards away and swinging its arms. In an interview with The Item newspaper, Chris described seeing this humanoid creature with glowing red eyes close up, saying it was "green, wetlike, about seven feet tall and had three fingers... a red-eyed devil." Terrified, Davis ran to the driver's door and jumped in. Once inside, this bipedal beast was now right outside his window, where he could see it from the neck down. It then jumped up onto the roof of his car, where he could see its "rough-looking, black-fingernailed hands, sticking down from the windshield." The cryptid deeply grunts as Chris peels out, attempting to escape. As he estimated he was driving about 35-40 mph, this thing had caught up to the car and jumped onto the roof again, banging and clawing at it. The creature finally fell off as he swerved frantically, racing home. This encounter would become the best-known report of this impossible monster emerging from Scape Ore Swamp, but it was not the first, nor would it be the last. At least one verified account tells of a sighting occurring two years prior, and a handful of police reports describe run-ins that happened in the years following Davis's experience. Chris Davis never called it the "Lizard Man," but residents had already labeled some previously seen brute by that description. And when a local reporter printed the nickname, the moniker stuck in the broader public's imagination. Sheriff Liston Truesdale was the one person who vetted all the claims, took reports from witnesses, and investigated their stories. And we're fortunate and grateful to have on our show tonight the one person who spent time interviewing Sheriff Truesdale, questioned locals, visited locations, and wrote a book about it all, our friend and noted cryptozoology researcher and author Lyle Blackburn. Lyle's 2013 book, Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, is the phenomenon's most comprehensive and detailed history. As the sightings and questions continue, perhaps the most puzzling and troubling thing is whether everyone sees the same being and whether it is reptilian, more Bigfoot-like, or some other horror altogether.
Click here to purchase an autographed copy of “Lizard man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster” directly from lyle blackburn, as well as his other offerings, like his monster sauce hot sauce
Click here to purchase an autographed copy of “Lizard man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster” directly from lyle blackburn, as well as his other offerings, like his monster sauce hot sauce
Reference Links:
Scape Ore Swamp near Bishopville, South Carolina from the US Geological Survey website
Bishopville, South Carolina“Lizard Man on the Loose South Carolina” CNN news report from the RevengeofShinobi1 YouTube channel
“Sumter man killed; ‘discovered’ Lizard Man” from The State newspaper, via The Wayback Machine
“A Search for Mysteries and Monsters in Small Town America” from Smithsonian Magazine
Related Books:
Location:
Bishopville, South Carolina, the largest town near Scape Ore Swamp, home of the Lizard Man and/or other large cryptids.
Suggested Listening:
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CREDITS:
Episode 285: The Lizard Man of Bishopville with Lyle Blackburn. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess. Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2024 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.