- HOW ABOUT GIANT, FLYING SPIDERS DEPARTMANT -
Giant Spiders - Monstrous Myth, Or Terrifying Truth?
By Karl Shuker
Giant Spiders - Monstrous Myth, Or Terrifying Truth?
By Karl Shuker
Monstrous spiders of gargantuan size are perennially popular subjects in science fiction 'B' movies as well as in classic fantasy novels such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, but could such beasts exist in reality? The current record-holder for the title of world's largest spider is Rosi - a 12-year-old captive female specimen of South America's goliath bird-eating spider Theraphosa blondi (click here for a separate ShukerNature blog article revealing the outcome when T. blondi was formally challenged recently for its title as world's largest spider species by a near-legendary competitor). Rosi boasted a leg-span of 11.25 in (big enough to cover a dinner plate), a body weighing 6.17 oz (which is as heavy as six house sparrows Passer domesticus) and as big as a tennis ball, plus a total body length of 4.75 in.
Although these are impressive statistics, they are far from monstrous. In contrast, as I reveal in this present ShukerNature blog article, there are some remarkable yet currently-unresolved modern-day reports on file hinting that certain truly astonishing arachnids whose size very dramatically surpasses this latter species' stature lurk in shadowy zoological anonymity within various regions of our world.
A PUPPY-SIZED SPIDER IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The Kokoda Track (or Trail) is a predominantly straight, single-file foot thoroughfare running 60 miles through inhospitable terrain across the Owen Stanley mountain range of Papua New Guinea, and from July 1942 to January 1943 it was the site of a series of World War II battles between Australian and Japanese forces known as the Kokoda Track Campaign. In 2001, Australian cryptozoologists Peter and Debbie Hynes revealed that it was also here, while serving as a soldier in the Australian Army, that the father of one of Debbie's friends had a brief but unforgettable encounter with a mystery mega-spider:
"One day he had to take himself off into the scrub in answer to a call of nature. While thus engaged he noticed he was crouched down next to a very large cobweb - not the classic "fishing-net" sort but the fine, snow-white cottony stuff that spread all over the ground and tree trunk etc. His eye followed it one way and then the other - seems it was very extensive, like 10 to 15 ft either way. Then he noticed the spider itself, only a foot or so away from his face. It was a real horror - the body, i.e. thorax+abdomen, he described as the "size of a small dog or puppy", it was coloured jet black, the legs were thick and hairy but not as long as the classic "dinner plate tarantula" type spider that owes its size to the spread of its legs. This thing had more body bulk than spread. Needless to say he backed out of there very slowly and carefully."
In spiders, the 'body' is actually just the abdomen (opisthosoma), not the thorax plus abdomen (although it can look like that to laymen unfamiliar with spider anatomy), because the thorax section is combined with the head, yielding the prosoma or cephalothorax. So, judging from the above description, the Papuan 'puppy spider' must have been at least the size of an adult chihuahua!
This is not the only report of a giant mystery spider encountered in New Guinea during World War II. During an interview with cryptozoologist Rob Morphy of AmericanMonsters.com on the U.S. radio show 'Coast To Coast AM' a couple of years ago, a telephone caller named Craig recounted how his grandfather, while serving in New Guinea during WW2, encountered a monstrous spider in a web that scared him so much he hacked it to death with his machete. According to Craig's grandfather, the spider measured an immense 3 ft from tip to tip, and, unexpectedly, was not hairy like many big spiders are. Instead, it was shiny, and was emerald green in colour. This nightmarish arachnid was encountered near Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.
J'BA FOFI – 'GREAT SPIDER' OF THE CONGO
Yet even this monster pales into insignificance alongside the horrifying j'ba fofi ('great spider') claimed by the Baka pygmy tribe and also the local Bantu hunters to exist amid the central African jungles of Cameroon and also the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly the Belgian Congo). This eight-legged terror was first brought to attention in 2001, when cryptozoological explorer Bill Gibbons told me of a very frightening close encounter that had occurred one day back in 1938.
This was when explorers Reginald and Margurite Lloyd were driving along a jungle path in the Belgian Congo's interior. Suddenly, a figure stepped out onto the path just ahead of them, resembling a monkey or a small, stooped human. Reginald Lloyd stopped the car to let the figure pass, and was astonished to see that it was a huge brown tarantula-like spider, with a leg-span of 3-4-ft! As he turned to grab his camera, however, the giant spider scuttled into the undergrowth and disappeared.
In November 2003, during an expedition to Cameroon seeking a mysterious long-necked water beast called the mokele-mbembe, Gibbons mentioned to the Baka pygmies the Lloyds' sighting (originally recounted to him by their daughter, Margaret). They were familiar with such creatures and provided him with additional information.
The Baka claimed that these colossal spiders were once quite common in this area but are rarer now (due to modern deforestation here?), although one was reputedly sighted by them as recently as June 2003. They used to construct hut-like lairs from leaves near to the pygmies' villages, and by spinning mighty webs between adjacent trees, with trip lines running across game trails, they ensnared and devoured victims as sizeable as duiker (small antelopes). Moreover, they were said by the Baka to be powerful and venomous enough to kill humans too, but are themselves killed by the pygmies if encountered by them. The j'ba fofi supposedly lays white peanut-sized eggs, from which yellow spiderlings with purple opisthosomas emerge, turning brown as they mature.
SOUTH AMERICAN MEGA-SPIDERS
Reports of comparably massive spiders have also been recorded from the rainforests of Venezuela in South America. In 2008, the American television series 'MonsterQuest' sent tarantula expert Rick C. West to investigate such stories in the field via a short, filmed expedition to some Venezuelan jungle villages near to the Orinoco River and the border with Colombia. During his three-day foray, he was accompanied by a team of local helpers and an experienced Amazon guide, Juan Carlos Ramirez, who has worked here for over 20 years.
West began his quest by visiting the village of San Rafael de Manuare. Here, one villager attested that as a child he had seen a giant tarantula-like spider capture a small dog from the village and drag it off into the jungle. Its opisthosoma was as big as a basketball, and when it reared up it was the size of a human. If such a gigantic spider existed, and its fangs (chelicerae) were in proportion to the rest of its body, they would probably measure 6-9 in long. Although such claims would incite considerable scientific scepticism, Ramirez was convinced of the villagers' veracity, stating that they know the local fauna very well, and would not mistake something familiar, such as a monkey or a sloth on the ground, for a giant spider.
West and his team also visited Pandari, a village deeper in the mountains. Here, two inhabitants, Antonio and his son Simoni, spoke of a small child who had disappeared, never to return – which had been blamed upon giant spiders. In addition, so real is the Pandari villagers' fear of such creatures that they even engineer their huts specifically to keep them out, building thatched roofs that extend all the way down to the ground, thus yielding dense tightly-interwoven barricades.
On the third day of West's expedition, they headed back into the jungle and found an extremely large spider lair in the ground, inside which they placed a videoscope. This revealed the presence there of a very big tarantula, which they captured alive. Although nothing like as sizeable as the reputed chicken-killing, dog-devouring, child-abducting specimens feared by the villagers, it was roughly the same size as the biggest tarantulas on record and was 2 oz when weighed inside a plastic specimen bag.
Sadly, West's expedition ended without finding conclusive evidence for Venezuela's fabled giant spiders. However, he was sufficiently impressed by the size of their captured spider to consider it possible that bigger ones did exist in the jungle, and stated that he planned on returning to continue the search for one.
In 2011, British cinematographer Richard Terry sought horse-killing, child-abducting giant spiders in Colombia's rainforest, for the television series 'Man v Monster'. He didn't find any either, but villagers claimed that these dreaded beasts inhabited subterranean lairs opening onto the forest floor via huge holes.
MONSTER SPIDERS IN VIETNAM
On 8 April 2013, American cryptozoologist Craig Woolheater posted on the Cryptomundo website a fascinating communication that he'd lately received from an American correspondent publicly identified only by their Cryptomundo user name, mrmaxima. This person stated that their father-in-law claims that while serving in the jungles of Vietnam during the Vietnam War as part of a five-man unit conducting scout work there, he encountered spiders with bodies the size of dinner plates, and, with their legs, yielding a total span of 20-30 in. These terrifying arachnids were always spied near to creeks or other water sources, and were so tough that even after being shot by him and the other men with their M16s and unloaded full magazines, they were still moving around.
GIANT SPIDERS IN SUBURBIA
One of the most startling giant spider reports comes from Leesville in Louisiana, USA. According to William Slaydon, it was here, while walking northwards along Highway 171 to church one cool night in 1948, that he, his wife, and their three young grandsons had spied a gigantic spider - hairy, black, and memorably described as "the size of a washtub". It emerged from a ditch just ahead of them and crossed the road before disappearing into some brush on the other side. Not surprisingly, the family never again walked along that particular route to church at night!
Nor is that the only report of a giant spider in suburbia. On 11 February 2013, Adam Bird from Nottingham, England, shared the following remarkable, never-before-publicised account on Facebook. It was related to him by a local librarian, Sheila, who had encountered the spider in question about 12 years earlier. One evening, Sheila was driving along Nottingham's Stone Bridge Road, on one side of which was a farm (still there today) and on the other side a disused factory (now demolished). As she approached the factory, her car's headlights lit up what she thought at first was a hedgehog, crawling towards the factory site. As she drove nearer, however, she realised to her horror that it was a huge, hairy, tarantula-like spider. Sheila estimated that its body alone was the size of a large dinner plate, and when the length of its legs were added, she deemed its total width to be about 2 ft. She continued to watch as it scuttled across the road and through the fence into the factory, then she quickly drove away, but, not surprisingly, the memory of this spine-chilling encounter has remained with her ever since.
PHYSIOLOGICAL SIZE LIMITATIONS
So, could immense spiders truly exist? Other than Leesville and Nottingham, the areas where they have been reported are all sufficiently impenetrable, inhospitable, and little-explored to be potentially capable of hiding some notable zoological surprises. However, the fundamental problem when considering giant spiders is not one of zoogeography but rather one of physiology.
Their tracheal respiratory system (consisting of a network of minute tubes carrying oxygen to every cell in the body) prevents insects from attaining huge sizes in the modern world, because the tracheae could not transport oxygen efficiently enough inside insects of giant stature. During the late Carboniferous and early Permian Periods, 300 million years ago, huge dragonflies existed, but back in those primeval ages the atmosphere's oxygen level was far greater than it is today, thereby compensating for the tracheal system's inefficiency.
Moreover, until quite recently prehistory offered a truly spectacular, fully-confirmed super-spider too - the aptly dubbed Megarachne servinei, formally described in 1980 from a 300-million-year old Upper Carboniferous fossil specimen discovered by Argentine palaeontologist Mario Hünicken in the Bajo de Veliz Formation at San Luis, Argentina. Its body measured roughly 16 in long, and is estimated to have possessed a leg span of some 20 in. In 2005, conversely, the identity of Megarachne as a mega-spider was challenged in a Biology Letters of the Royal Society paper by Manchester University zoologist Dr Paul Selden and Hünicken, who proposed that it had actually been a very different chelicerate creature – not a spider but rather a sea scorpion or eurypterid. This identity has since been confirmed – exit Megarachne as a giant spider!
Some of the modern world's largest known spiders utilise a tracheal respiratory system, whereas smaller spiders employ flattened organs of passive respiration called book lungs. Yet neither system is sufficiently competent to enable spiders to attain enormous sizes, based upon current knowledge at least. So if a giant spider does thrive in some secluded, far-off realm, it must have evolved a radically different, much more advanced respiratory system, not just a greatly enlarged body.
GIANT CRABS, NOT GIANT SPIDERS?
Interestingly, there is a notable precedent for the development of a novel respiratory organ among large land-dwelling arthropods. The largest of all such species living today is the coconut crab Birgus latro, which sports a body length of up to 16 in, a weight of up to 9 lb, and a leg span of more than 3 ft. Indigenous to various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, despite being a crab it is exclusively terrestrial (it cannot swim and will drown if immersed in water for over an hour), and has evolved a unique respiratory organ known as a branchiostegal lung that enables it to exist entirely on land, and which developmentally can be seen as midway between gills and true lungs.
So who knows: if crustaceans (which are predominantly aquatic arthropods) can achieve this during evolution, maybe spiders (which are predominantly terrestrial anyway) have also achieved something comparable. Moreover, it has suggested that perhaps some reports of so-called giant spiders are actually sightings of giant land crabs, but crabs are very different in appearance from spiders, due in no small way to their instantly visible chelae (pincers), and no such crabs are known to exist in any of the regions from which the giant spiders documented here have been reported.
In any case, all of this is sheer speculation, and is likely to remain so – unless, for instance, in the not-too-distant future a Baka pygmy should happen not only to kill a j'ba fofi but also to preserve its body afterwards, and duly alert scientific attention to it. Then at last we might have the long-awaited solution to this fascinating mystery – although arachnophobes might be more than happy for it to remain unsolved indefinitely!
This ShukerNature blog article is excerpted from an entire and exceedingly extensive chapter on giant mystery spiders – indeed, the most comprehensive coverage of such cryptids ever compiled and published – in my book Mirabilis: ACarnival of Cryptozoology anf Unnatural History (Anomalist Books: New York, 2013), which contains several additional examples. So be sure to check it out (unless of course you're seriously arachnophobic, in which case it may not be a good idea to do so!).
Source: Shuker Nature
http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2014/07/giant-spiders-monstrous-myth-or.html
- FEELINGS, NOTHING MORE THAN FEELINGS DEPARTMENT -
The Sexy Side of the Supernatural
By Micah Hanks
The Sexy Side of the Supernatural
By Micah Hanks
Sexuality, many would argue, forms the basis of our very being, and the continuation of virtually all complex biology on our planet. Hence, is it totally outrageous to ask whether there could be sex that occurs elsewhere… if not on other planets, then perhaps in the afterlife?
The question may sound absurd, and perhaps even scoff-worthy in the eyes of one such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who would likely reject the premise outright based on its insinuation that consciousness may carry on after bodily death (granted, Dawkins has drawn quite a bit of criticism lately for controversial sex-related statements he has made as well). But putting aside our skepticism for a moment, perhaps if we suspend our disbelief regarding an afterlife and consider what role sexuality plays in the physical world, this idea could make for a more interesting exercise in thought than you might think.
Sexuality does undertake a variety of roles aside from its obvious practical purpose; even some animal species, which include dolphins, will engage in sexual relations for pure enjoyment, rather than mere procreation. Among humans, while procreation and recreation are the key reasons for engagement in sexual intercourse, sexuality also has a history of use in ritual and symbolism that ties in with the supernatural.
Among the most erudite presentations on the subject, Benjamin Walker’s Sex and the Supernatural: Sexuality in Religion and Magic (Macdonald Unit 75, London, 1970), summarized it thusly:
From earliest times sexual union has been sanctified in countless symbols, and the representation of the act was a profound arcanum concealing hidden truths. The Ark of the Covenant, the chest of acacia wood housed in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon, contained among other things a sacred stone which, according to certain Talmudic scholars, was a symbol of the male and female organs in union. The Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece included a rite known as arretophoria named from the Greek words meaning ‘carrying things not to be mentioned’, in which a basket containing a stone phallus and the ‘womb’ of the goddess Demeter was taken out in sacred procession.
In primitive (preliterate) societies it was and still is almost universally believed that human generation is directly linked with supernatural powers. Even in those communities–and there are some, according to anthropologists–who are not aware of the connection between sexual intercourse and pregnancy, the act of copulation takes on a special significance and is regarded with sentiments of religious awe.
Looking throughout history, the fact that there is a religious sentiment underlying the sexual act is of course rife throughout virtually every culture and their practices. However, arguably the significant role that sexuality plays is often rather subconscious, and perhaps applies to a range of purportedly unexplained phenomenon in the modern era.
Ghost sex, for instance, has been popularized in modern times in film and popular documentary-style paranormal programs, with particular emphasis made on the idea of ghostly or demonic sexual assault (take for instance the decidedly disturbing 1982 film rendition of The Entity, starring actress Barbara Hershey, which is among the more sensationalized presentations on the subject). The prevalence of such accounts in modern times no doubt served as inspiration for author Brad Steiger, who devoted an entire book to purported sexual relations carried out with denizens of the spirit world in his Otherworldly Affaires: Haunted Lovers, Phantom Spouses, and Sexual Molesters from the Shadow World. Granted, not all the encounters with randy spirits discussed in the book are violent or non-consensual; in a few instances, there have been individuals who described the experiences as enjoyable.
Years ago, I was contacted personally by a woman who wished to share something that was “slightly unnerving, but a bit personal.” I suspected, based on her initial hesitation, that this might have to do with some perceived phenomenon of a sexual nature and, upon further discussion of the incidents in question, the woman confided to me that her husband had awoken on two separate occasions to find her seemingly engaged in sex acts–and apparently enjoyably so–while sleeping, and in the obvious absence of any real partner. The husband had been quite disturbed by the displays, and advised she seek help, though she herself maintained virtually no memory of anything happening.
It may be possible that such circumstances are due in part to little understood bodily processes; for instance, one often-asserted solution is that these individuals are merely suffering from sleep paralysis. However, in the case related above, it would seem counter-intuitive if known functions that render bodily paralysis while one is sleeping could nonetheless allow for an individual to thrash about as though engaged in a sex act.
Conversely, melatonin, which governs photoperiodic bodily cycles and functions, is related both to sleep and sex in humans. It would seem plausible, in theory, that melatonin production might stimulate the body in a variety of ways, based on the individual, that have relevance particularly to sexuality in relation to the dream state. Similar to the apparent connection between presumed spirit-sex and sleep cycles are reports of alien abduction, which at times bear a starkly sexual nature. Researcher Paul Deane noted in his book Sex and the Paranormal that some early abduction cases where the purported female captives weren’t merely examined by their alien captors, but described literal sexual assault while in their presence; one of several elements that has contributed to rather fantastic theories among researchers in some UFO circles, which reveal humans as intergalactic breeding stock to alien visitors.
In fairness to all branches of purported strange phenomena, it wouldn’t be fair to exclude cryptozoology, as indeed, a sexual component will often appear in relation to creatures like Bigfoot just as well, if you look deeply enough. In fact, silence on the matter encouraged researcher Loren Coleman to begin lecturing on the subject a number of years ago, in a series of presentations themed around “Sex and the Single Sasquatch,” where he hoped to demystify the taboo nature of sexuality in relation to discussion of the beast. Arguably, if understanding the presumed existence of Sasquatch means learning all its habits, sexuality and breeding should hardly qualify for exclusion.
Fundamentally, our sexuality is part of what makes us human… perhaps the single most important part, in fact. Gender roles govern who we are, and how we will act, and when considered in this way, perhaps it is of little surprise that sexuality would also arise in relation to purported supernatural or paranormal claims. Does this merely betray the human component behind all of this, or does it point to a continuation of an actual interplay that is innate to us, and perhaps evidential of something that exists beyond?
Source: Mysterious Universe
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/07/the-sexy-side-of-the-supernatural/
- MORE GOATMAN DEPARTMENT -
Maryland’s Goatman Is Half Man, Half Goat, and Out for Blood
By Andy Wright
Illustration by by Chris Rodenhurst
Maryland’s Goatman Is Half Man, Half Goat, and Out for Blood
By Andy Wright
Illustration by by Chris Rodenhurst
Prince Georges County is about 500 square miles of green fields dotted with suburbs, located just outside Washington D.C. in Maryland. Its less than a million inhabitants enjoy nature preserves, historic reenactments, an annual blues festival and a sparkling waterfront development on the Potomac. In other words, it’s fairly bucolic. And, of course, beneath the surface of every bucolic locale roils something dark and fierce. Meet the Goatman.
When scared teenagers whisper about Goatman, not all agree on the form he takes. Some say he was a man who kept goats and went mad after teenagers killed his flock, driven to seek revenge against any youngster. But perhaps the most titillating version traces the origin of Goatman to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a sprawling USDA facility anchored by a big brick building appointed with white columns. In this version, a mad scientist is conducting experiments on a goat when something goes horribly wrong, turning him into a half man-half goat beast that is, naturally, hungry for blood.
He may not be as famous as his cryptid cousins Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, but Goatman has a devoted following. He’s inspired a horror movie called “Deadly Detour” (they went with the Goatman-as-human version due to budgetary constraints, according to director Mike O’Mahony) and a Halloween attraction. He’s paid lip-service in the classic coming-of-age movie “American Graffiti.” When editing the illustrated Fantagraphics tome “BEASTS!”, Jacob Covey said he received more Goatman entries than he could include.
The stories began surfacing a “long, long, long” time ago, according to Dr. Barry Pearson, a folklorist at the University of Maryland. (Which happens to be in Prince Georges County and is home to a Goatman archive.) But the stories really kick into high gear around the ’50s and ’60s, with the Goatman having his “heydey” in the ’70s. Probably because of the dead dog.
In 1971, a puppy named Ginger met a grisly end in the city of Bowie. Reporter Ivan Goldberg covered the incident for the Washington Post, writing: “Ginger, a spritely mongrel who resembled a German Shepard, has been decapitated cleanly at the neck. The body is not found.” Goldman’s story suggested that perhaps the dog had been hit by a train, its head separated from its body and launched into the air. Locals quoted in the story fingered the marauding Goatman.
According to Pearson, when it comes to folklore and urban legends (“I hate that term because these stories almost always take place somewhere out in the woods,”) there’s always a “keeper” who passes the story on from one generation to the next. In this case, the keepers are bored teenagers with time to kill who go on what folklorists calls “a legend trip” to ferret out the Goatman.
“You have to figure out what teenagers have going for them,” says Pearson. “Today they have the mobility of the automobile and rampant hormones so they’re always off to Lovers Lane.”
Goatman is also purported to frequent Lovers Lanes, although he’s typically mauling a teenager’s car with a rock or axe instead of pursuing romance. He’s also often spotted near Fletchertown Road and Lottsford Road in Prince Georges County. Both stretches were once winding and dark but are now bustling thoroughfares whizzing past malls and tidy two-story houses, not really the stuff of nightmares — unless one is especially sensitive to the homogenization of the American landscape.
Some might wonder why a goat lies at the center of this horrifying legend. (This reporter for instance, who devolves into baby talk whenever a goat is near.) Why not, say, an animal that can actually kill you?
“If you look at some of the other versions of the Goatman that are half man and half goat there are a few that stand out,” says Pearson. “The Satyr in Greco-Roman times was the kind of keeper of the woodlands, drunk all the time and known mainly for being lustful.” Employing a bit of folkloric humor, Pearson adds, “ I mean talk about being horny.”
Examples of libidinous and violent goats abound. There was a cult in Roman times, for instance, that worshipped Dionysus and was led by a man dressed as goat. They were rumored to get very drunk, go into a frenzy and tear animals apart and eat them raw. Pearson is quick to point out this probably never happened. Witches were often depicted in the company of Satan, represented as a half man-half goat.
In medieval times goats were thought of as “being exceptionally lascivious.” Picky Dark Age-types even took issue with their eyes because of their “leering look, the lecherous look of the beast.”
Goatman may be all fun and games for Maryland teens, but there is one player in the story who is not amused. The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
“We just think it’s stupid,” says Kim Kaplan, spokesperson for the center. Maybe it’s sort of fun, just a little bit, to be part of a local legend?
“People really don’t even talk about him,” says Kaplan. “I mean its so silly, it’s not even something that’s joked about.”
Kaplan was also quick to poke holes in the Goatman story. “Don’t you think he would have retired by now?,” she asked. “Is his great-grandson a goatman? Is he collecting Social Security?”
Kaplan could not even recall when there were last goats at the center, although she surmised it had been “generations ago.” In fact the center is mostly devoted to records and genetics. They have, for instance, kept elaborate mathematical records pertaining to what bull sperm helps produce the best milk cows.
Even if the Goatman is not beloved by the center, he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon. As long as teenagers need an excuse to be alone in the woods together, Goatman lurks nearby, one in a long chain of sinister ruminants.
“Tell people to be careful,” Pearson says, offering a parting bit of sardonic advice, “ and don’t turn their back on the cute little goat.”
Source: Modern Farmer
http://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/marylands-goatman-half-man-half-goat-blood/
- I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS A CRIME DEPARTMENT -
Police Hunt For Boys Who Allegedly Turned Into Cats
Police Hunt For Boys Who Allegedly Turned Into Cats
Detectives at the Rumuolumeni Divisional Police Station in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria, are investigating a case involving three persons who allegedly transformed to cats.
One of the suspects is a twelve-year-old boy simply identified as John who had transformed to a cat and was caught by policemen at the Rumuolumeni Division.
DailyPost reporter who visited the scene of the incident reports that the policemen became curious after noticing that a particular cat was always running across the police station and decided to lay ambush for the animal.
It was further gathered that after the animal was caught and the policemen attempted to kill it, it mysteriously transformed to a boy.
The twelve year old boy later confessed that he was initiated by one aged man named Womadi, adding that there are many of his kind in Port Harcourt, and their mission was to suck human blood and inflict their victims with diseases.
The paramount ruler of Rumuolumeni in Oibio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Eze Ndubueze Wobo confirmed the transformation of three members of his community into cats.
Eze Wobo told Dailypost that one of the men, who is popularly called PAPA, confessed to him at the police station that he initiated the people to suck human blood and inflict their victims with diseases.
Wobo said the victim listed some items which would be used to cleanse initiated children, some which include native alligator pepper, Local gin, Local kola nut and so on.
Some of the residents of the community, including the security operatives who captured the cat before it changed into a human being said that the man confessed that he used packaged beef roll and other things to initiate the victims, who are mainly schoolchildren.
Source: Daily Post Nigeria
http://dailypost.ng/2014/08/02/witchcraft-boys-allegedly-transforming-cats-caught-police-rivers-state/
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