Beast of Bladenboro

The Beast of Bladenboro refers to the creature responsible for a string of deaths amongst Bladenboro, North Carolina animals in the winter of 1953-54. According to witnesses and trackers it was likely a wildcat, but the uncertain nature of its identity lends itself to cryptozoology. It was known to most commonly crush or decapitate its victims, which were mostly dogs.

Possibly related to the Bladenboro incidents, a dog was found dead in Clarkton, North Carolina (about eight miles from Bladenboro), killed by what Police Chief Roy Fores reported witnesses as describing as "sleek, black, about 5 feet long...." on December 29, 1953.

On December 31, two dogs belonging to a Bladenboro man named Johnny Vause were found dead. There was reportedly a significant amount of blood at the scene near their kennels. The two dogs were "torn into ribbons and crushed," according to Vause.

My dogs put up a good fight. There was blood all over the porch, big puddles of it. And there was a pool of saliva on the porch. It killed one dog at 10:30 and left it lying there. My dad wrapped the dog up in a blanket. That thing came back and got that dog and nobody's seen the dog since. At 1:30 in the morning, it came back and killed the other dog and took it off. We found it three days later in a hedgerow. The top of one of the dogs heads was torn off and its body was crushed and wet, like it had been in that thing's mouth. The other dog's lower jaw was torn off.

On the next day, January 1, 1954, two more dogs were found dead in Bladenboro at Woodie Storm's farm. One was "sort of eaten up," according to a witness.

On the night of January 2, a farmer named Gary Callahan reported that a dog of his had been killed.

Two more dogs were found dead on January 3. One of the dogs was autopsied, and according to Police Chief Roy Fores "...there wasn't more than two or three drops of blood in him [...] The victim's bottom lip had been broken open and his jawbone smashed back." Fores also said of the dogs found dead so far, "The ear of one dog was gnawed off and the tongues of two had been chewed out."

According to The Charlotte News, on the night of the 5th a pet rabbit was found "cleanly decapitated and still warm." On January 7, a dead dog was found in a pasture near the Bladenboro swamp.

Julian "Tater" Shaw, who owned a local gas station, heard that a goat had died in a strange way and traveled to the edge of town to see for himself. According to him, "His head was flat as a fritter [...] it had a great big ol' track... It was weird." Shaw also claimed that whatever killed the goat killed cows and hogs.

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Wikipedia