The Enfield Monster

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A cryptid sight that has gone down as one of the most discussed and argued over encounter of the last 50 years.

Read on to find out more.

Enfield, Illinois the 25th of April 1973, a seemingly ordinary day would end up as one of the strangest and bizarre cryptid sightings of recent decades. It all started about 10pm in the evening when Henry McDaniel was disturbed from his sofa after a hard day at work by a scratching sound coming from his front door. Thinking it might be a bear Henry grabbed his gun and a torch and went out to confront the creature. It was a windy night and between two shrubs Henry saw something that confused and shocked him. What he saw he later described as having three legs, two short arms a short body and large pink eyes, grey coloured skin and stood appropriately 4 - 5 feet tall.

Henry wasted no time in taking aim and firing 4 shots at it one shot hitting the creature. Upon being shot the creature let out a loud hiss and disappeared over a railway embankment covering 50 feet in three leaps. Henry called for the authorities and upon arriving and investigating the area a set of Footprints were found described as like that of a canine but with six padded toes. Mr McDaniel was a sensible and sober ex-military man who is not taken to flights of fancy or someone who would make up such a tale. He was well respected in the local community and was very much someone who kept to themselves. Briefly a second eyewitness was reported a one one Greg Garret a local boy of 10 years of age. He claimed that he had encountered the monster not 30 minutes previously to Mr McDaniel's sightings and the creature trod on his feet and tore his shoes to pieces. He later retracted this statement saying he was just having a laugh and the reporter and Mr McDaniel (and one can imagine seeing an opportunity for a young boy to get a new pair of shoes a hard choice to resist). 

All seemed quiet for a week or so, that is until Mr McDaniel had has second sighting of the strange creature. This happened on the 6th May at 3am in the morning. He claims he saw it yet again on the railroad tracks near his home. He phoned in to the local radio station WWKI to report this sighting. He reported that it didn't seem in any great hurry to go anywhere and later that same day a search was conducted including the new director from WWKI to look for this creature. They did indeed report that they saw something but the description did not match what Mr McDaniel had previously described. They reported an ape like creature that was seen standing in an abandoned building near the property of Mr McDaniel. They reported that they had recorded it's howls or cries before firing at the creature and making it run away. (this was investigated by Loren Coleman as part of his joint investigation in to the Illinois' 'Abominable Swamp Slobs').

A couple of days after this incident police we called to investigate gunfire in the area and arrested five men from out of town who claimed they were there for photograph the creature and the guns were for protection after some of the groups had claimed to have seen the creature. They reported that the creature fitted the same general description as told by Mr McDaniel but that the creature was hairy and very fast (superhumanly so) and that they had shot at it but as in previous encounters were not able to harm the creature. This was dismissed by local law enforcement and the men were charged with hunting violations.

So what did the eyewitnesses see? Potentially  there may have been two different sightings of two different cryptids. One as described by Mr McDaniel as a three legged short armed smooth skinned creature and a second sighting of a hairy bipedal humanoid. Some have claimed that all Henry McDaniel saw was an escaped kangaroo. The basic description may fit e.g. 4-6 feet in height, small front arms, three legs!!! (two legs and a long tail that could be mistaken for a third leg) they have short fur which may seem like it is skin rather than fur in poor light or the creature had some kind of disease affecting its physical appearance. However Henry was more that accustomed to kangaroos as he was ex-military and part of his time was spent in Australia where he would regularly interact with Kangaroos so it seems remis to assume that he would not recognise this animal if standing only a few feet away regardless if it did seem out of place or not. Also kangaroos are not known for their ability to absorb gunfire and the description of the prints found at the McDaniel residents do not match those of a kangaroo. The second creature may simply be a misidentification or pareidolia mixed with some unidentified screams/howls and the expectation and excitement of wanting to see something. Again this was seen by multiple witnesses so would need to account for that also. Finally there were many unverified reports of UFO activity in the area in the weeks and days leading up to the sightings which have lead some to believe that one or both of these sightings were extra-terrestrial in nature. Others believe that an evil entity is involved and what Henry McDaniel saw was a Demon and he was a lucky man to leave the sighting alive. Other investigators believe that Mr McDaniel did indeed have a close encounter with an as yet undescribed cryptid.

So what did Mr McDaniel and the others see? No idea, for his part Henry McDaniel never tried to get famous of the encounter and actively refused to be interviewed regarding this very strange sighting. He continued to live as he had always done working hard and looking after his family the only way he knew how. For me the second sighting seems like a different creature altogether and may make this case even stranger having a second sighting of a different unknown animal. Maybe it was an alien after all? Or maybe Henry really just saw a Kangaroo in poor lighting freaked out and fired wildly in to the night completely missing the creature and giving birth to a fascinating legend.

To find out more read here, here and here.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time

Stay safe

RTI

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