By Kristi O’Toole

I first heard of Goat Man as a small girl when my father told me of the legend. At the time I wasn’t sure if he was telling me about Goat Man in an attempt to coerce me in to behaving or if it was a legit story; reflecting back now I am convinced that he genuinely believed in the creature. My father never really was a ‘story teller’ as such, but more of the kind to share his vast knowledge.

Sadly, I can’t remember all of the details, but I remember being told that there was even an encounter of some fashion with an entity that my father felt could have been Goat Man.

So what is he? It? According to urban legend, the Goat Man is an ax-wielding half animal, half man creature that was once a scientist who worked in the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. The tale holds that he was experimenting on goats until one experiment backfired, and he was mutated and became goat like himself. He then began attacking cars with an ax, roaming the back roads of Beltsville, Maryland. A variation of the legend tells of the Goat Man as an old hermit who lives in the woods, seen walking alone at night along Fletchertown Road.

The story seems to originate with an alleged sighting in 1957. The Goat Man is also said to have murdered a number of hikers in 1962. This was part of my father’s recollection, he told me of the hiker’s murders and how it had scared him enough, that though a nature enthusiast, he stayed away from the woods for a long time.

While Maryland’s Goat Man seems to be the most popular and aged version, there are also stories of a Kentucky Goat Man, Texas, Wisconsin and even England Goat Man.

Numerous sightings in July 1969 led to the belief of a half-man, half-goat creature living in Lake Worth in Texas. Terry Deckard, a reporter, wrote an article about it in the newspaper, which made the front page. The headline read: “Fishy Man-Goat Terrifies Couples Parked at Lake Worth.” The couples that reported the sightings described it as a half-man, half-goat, with fur and scales.

A man named Tommy Burson soon after reported the creature landed on his car after jumping out of a tree. An 18-inch scar on the side of his car was shown by Burson as proof. The police at this point decided to investigate. Up until then, they had laughed at any reports they received, thinking it was a hoax.

The following night, reports came in of the creature hurling a tire from a bluff at overlooking bystanders, which was reportedly witnessed by up to 10 individuals. The most well-known photograph (and perhaps the only one) of the creature belongs to a woman named Debrah Grabee, who received the photo from Allen Plaster, who took the picture in October 1969 near Lake Worth during the tire throwing incident. I’ve googled the photograph but honestly, pick the bones out of it. I wasn’t impressed.

The Kentucky Goat Man, or Pope Lick Monster as it’s locally known is slightly different from the others in it is believed to have a hypnotic ability about it. The Pope Lick Monster is a legendary part-man, part-goat and part-sheep creature reported to live beneath a railroad trestle bridge over Pope Lick Creek, in the Fisherville neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.

Numerous urban legends exist about the creature’s origins and the methods it employs to claim its victims. According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers onto the trestle to meet their death before an oncoming train. Other stories claim the monster jumps down from the trestle onto the roofs of cars passing beneath it. Yet other legends tell that it attacks its victims with a blood-stained axe and that the very sight of the creature is so unsettling that those who see it while walking across the high trestle are driven to leap off.

Most recently an Ohio couple potentially fell victim to the Pope Lick Monster. They were a pair of thrill seekers just looking for a good time. The couple had visited Waverly Hills Sanatorium and decided to pop by the notorious trestle bridge when it all went horribly wrong.

To a certain kind of young adventurer, the legend of the Pope Lick Monster is irresistible. Denise Harris, a Louisville local, said her nieces and nephews have climbed the trestle looking for the folkloric beast. “The Goat Man, when they climb up on the trestles and they cross it, he’s supposed to come out,”

Like so many before them the couple climbed to the top of the bridge and waited, but by the time the young couple spotted the locomotive, bearing down the railroad trestle at over 30 miles an hour, they had no choice. Facing an 8-story drop on either side, with no way to outrun the train to the trestle’s end, the pair’s only hope was to cling to the sides of the tracks. The engineer later told officials he blared his horn and tried to slow down. Though the man on the tracks managed to make the split-second dive to the edge, the train was traveling too fast for his companion and there simply wasn’t enough time.

Though it a tragic story resulting in the death of a young woman, I have to ask myself how on earth neither one of the two heard the train coming? Could a person not feel the vibration on the tracks? Or is this a genuine case of the hypnotic spell cast by the Goat Man?

In every telling, the Goat Man remains fiercely attached to the trestle over Pope Lick Creek. The ‘Sheep Man’ is a local version often told; it’s been around at least three generations. Filmmaker Ron Schildknecht created a 16-minute short film titled, “The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster,” that appears to come straight from the yarns a young Kentuckian might spin to impress a date a part-sheep satyr that can hypnotize its victims, leaving them helpless in front of oncoming trains.

The list of urban legends is a long one. Some are so ridiculous you can’t even entertain them while others make you pause and think, what if? For me, due mostly in part to my father’s first hand account, I’m leaning on the side of belief regarding Goat Man. It’s a big world out there so who’s to say what does and doesn’t exist.

I’ve never been one to tempt fate or thrill seek so the likelihood of me ever encountering our local KY Goat Man is slim to none, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less likely to believe.

Next time I’ll discuss the legend of the Banshee.

Until then, leave the night light burning.

When Kristi isn’t writing for NewzBreaker, she writes supernatural suspense novels having three currently published. If you would like to check out any of her books they can be found online and at other major retailers like Books a Million and Amazon. Never one to rest, she also paints/designs shoes and items for the home. Check out her eBay store, Watered Down Vodka and her FB page.

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