More from the Surreal Menagerie Fishermen will always tell you about the "one that got away," rather than the one they caught, and how, "It was this big", and how, "It bent the rod right over..." Surely such fishy yarns are the stuff of folklore, right? Not in the case of Wolf Pond, in Dauphin County. It is here that the legend of a huge fish or reptile lurks, although the lore suggests it may... [continue]

64. The Beast Beneath. Of all the things I have written about with regards to weird phenomena in London, what you are about to read is possibly one of the strangest and most significant tales ever. This story comes via two good friends and fellow researchers – Jonathan Downes and Nick Redfern. Nick, a Texas-based investigator heard from Jonathan Downes, who runs The Centre For Fortean Zoology, that during the 1940s at the Royal... [continue]

More Beastly Legends! Philly may not be heavily populated by bizarre creatures, let alone by tales of such beasts, but those counties that surround the area have harbored some truly weird monsters, or at least the folklore surrounding them. In 1919 at Schuylkill County's Broad Top Mountain, legend persisted that a snake measuring more than forty feet had taken up residence. The creature was mentioned in Janet & Colin Bord's 1989 book Modern Mysteries Of... [continue]

It is a rather worrying and tragic fact that each year thousands of people seem to vanish from the face of the earth, never to be seen again. Of course, many of these absentee's may well have been murdered or suffered accidental death, but what about the victim in the following case....the weird disappearance of Dixie-Lee. Dixie-Lee Arensen was a gifted and sensitive girl. Aged just twenty-years, she was the bride of an associate youth... [continue]

63. The Horses Of Death I've often been intrigued by reports of phantom animals, especially horses when they are seen to be leading a carriage through some misty backroad of a night. What perplexes me most is the fact that if inanimate objects have no souls, then why should the coach appear alongside the horses? And, if the horses never died together or with the coach, then why should they appear coupled in the... [continue]

Weird vapors, misty mists and blobby blobs! We at Phillyist have often been intrigued by quirky reports of strange objects and things falling from the sky over the years, whether it's rains of fish, falls of frogs, a bombardment of tennis-ball sized hail, giant pieces of ice and even metal. Such events (bizarre items, forms and liquids vomited from the zenith) seem relatively common the world over. On September 26th, 1950 two policemen were driving... [continue]

62. The Scariest Urban Legend Urban legends are often considered myths, or 'friend of a friend' tales (FOAFtales), which differ from classic mysteries in the sense that they are perceived as exaggerated yarns. London has many such tales from its dark, foggy corners, but there is one such story which has become criminally forgotten, and for me remains one of the capital's most horrifying legends – namely 'The Maniac On The Platform' first discussed... [continue]

Garbage Guts! In 1909 as the Jersey Devil began its reign of weirdness and cast a shadow over parts of Philly, another peculiar event took place that was rather more down to Earth in its strangeness, but still odd enough to baffle doctors. On the 21st of May, the Maryland Valley Register reported on an unusual eighteen-month-old baby who apparently had a cast iron stomach; the headline at the time was AN INFANT "HUMAN OSTRICH"... [continue]

61. Voodoo? There are many misconceptions of so-called 'witchcraft', which is in fact an ancient, harmless worship of nature – but pick up any book previous to the 1990s and such a word will nearly always be connected to bloody tales of black witchery, grim sorcery and diabolical summoning. The press have long misunderstood white and black magic, choosing to mingle instead of separate the two, so such confusion remains today. Many 'satanic panics'... [continue]

Although slightly further afield from Philly, one of the most sinister of monster legends which has fascinated us for years concerns Lancaster County, a place which, over the years, has been known for its reports of ferocious werewolves and also Bigfoot. In the past at Phillyist we've discussed these eerie legends with brief mention of one of the strangest spectres known to haunt the county: The Albatwitches. These spookily-named apparitions have been the belief and... [continue]

60. More Than Just A Haunting... In the borough of Lewisham sits Brockley Road. Not exactly known for its supernatural relations or unnerving apparitions, but let me share with you a campfire story to chill even the warmest of hearts... It happened during the 1800s and the experience was written up and posted to a magazine known as the Review Of Reviews edited by a Mr W.T. Stead who would unfortunately perish aboard the... [continue]

The Legend of the Hermit Is it just a whisper on the wind that strange people, resembling a bizarre cult, once inhabited Philly and became known as the Wissahickon Cult? The cult is considered the first of such Doomsday worshipers and is said to have formed in the 1600s. Is there any truth in the murky legend that such a group also became known as The Society of the Woman of the Wilderness, a peculiar... [continue]

59. The Monster Of Markham Square I would like to share with you a true tale of utmost horror and of some obscurity. I have never been one for the repetition of dark, sinister yet factual tales and this particular yarn is no exception – but like all classic, yet truly terrifying stories, this too will extinguish the flames of any cosy campfire by the by the sheer chill of its terror. I have... [continue]

The Witch... That Wasn't! During the witch crazes that once swept the planet, to have been a person harboring clairvoyant talents, or mystical knowledge must have been something akin to a dire curse. As many women during the 1600s were killed if found "guilty" of being possessed by dark forces, reading today as spectacularly spooky tales of evil and sorcery even if the truth is less strange than the fiction. In 1683 a woman named... [continue]

On April 2nd 2005 at 11:00 am a witness contacted various UFO groups to report several strange objects over Hollywood. The first unidentified flying object was a geometrical black orb hovering in the sky days previous, the following day, a Sunday, the witness returned to the area and viewed another black sphere and then for several consecutive days noticed several white and black objects often firing strange laser-like lights from their under-carriage, whilst also performing... [continue]

In 1947 UFO hysteria swept across the world after Kenneth Arnold's alleged sighting of peculiar disc-like objects in US skies. Reports from Los Angeles are certainly nothing new either, and government intervention or involvement is certainly not just a modern possibility. In 1956 over Burbank a strange craft was observed in the zenith by two brothers at 2:00 pm as they pottered outside in the garden of their grandparents. A 'shiny dot' appeared in the... [continue]

58. Doomsday! For centuries mankind has been superstitious about certain happenings and signs, perceiving such anomalous symbols and events as omens of doom, or forewarnings of death and destruction. Of course we'll never truly know if such fears are justified, but what we do know is that the end of the world has always been nigh... In our modern climate the dread of terrorist attacks is common, an inner fear that lurks, for although... [continue]

Fiery Ghosts! One of the most classic anomalies this strange planet has ever produced is known as "ball lightning." It's a phenomenon that has been suggested to be anything from ghostly activity, to electricity in the air, to a will-o-the-wisp-type effect, to the fiery origin of Spontaneous Human Combustion. Such manifestations have also been connected to phantom hounds, with many such bizarre ghost dogs often appearing at first as balls of fire, or transforming into... [continue]

57. Eight-legged freaks! Although Hamsptead Heath's leaf-strewn pathways, patches of shadowy thicket and lillypad littered ponds are ideal habitat for an abundance of wildlife, this idyllic spot in London has had its fair share of alien invaders when it comes to peculiar out-of-place animals. In previous episodes I have spoken of seals being caught in the Vale of Heath pond in 1926, and also bizarre legends of wild pigs lumbering through the sewers of... [continue]

"There's darned well something up here!" Two veteran pilots were soaring in the skies over Philly during the hazy nights of the 1960s. One of the airmen was Virginia resident and television personality Arthur Godfrey. Whilst working for CBS New York he often flew his private plane to broadcasting duties. On 25th June 1965 whilst chatting to comedian Orson Bean on the subject of UFOs he recalled one particular night whilst in flight above Philadelphia... [continue]