N.C. Cryptid: Beast of Bladenboro - New Evidence

I own a recording studio and video production company in NC and we have a clientele from all over the US. I recently did a simple project for a lady involving her 50th wedding anniversary. Very nice lady and a fine example of true Southern gentility. Bet you don't see that word used very often anymore.

Anyway, we had several meetings over the course of her project just to make sure everything was progressing along to meet her expectations. She would often travel with her husband as it was good drive to Raleigh from where they lived. Her husband was a real kick in the pants. Funny and really smart at the same time. Both were college educated, raised a family and lived the American Dream. (Whatever that means nowadays.) I tell you this to give you enough background to see that there is absolutely no reason for them to lie. The only reason we got into the following story is in passing time while I was making changes to their family project.

Basically we were creating a project of their family history. It turns out that they lived in Bladenboro during the early 1950's. When I learned of the time frame I couldn't pass up the chance if they had heard of the Beast of Bladenboro. The husband nearly fell off his chair laughing. He asked me what I knew of the Beast and I gave him the standard story of which most of us are familiar. If not, just Google a quick search. There is more than ample information available.

After I finished, he just looked at me and smiled and said something to the affect of, "Well, you know that story is bull." I laughed and said, "figures." According to my client, there never was a beast. There had been an animal death or two, but nothing out of the ordinary. But this time, there was a write up and talk around town that managed to travel beyond the borders of this tiny community. And that's how it all started...

People started to come visit and wanting to see the Beast. These people invariably made their way to the local service station owned by "Tater" Shaw. Mr. Shaw saw a golden opportunity in the revenue stream that the Beast brought to Bladenboro. Gas prices went up rather quickly during that time frame, LOL. All of sudden everyone was seeing the Beast everywhere. According to my client, the alleged eyewitness account by the lady on the front porch of her home never happened. It was needed to increase the traffic of sightseers and a growing cash flow. How did he know for sure? Oh yeah, he lived on the other side of the field from the house where this all allegedly occurred.

My favorite part of the story was how my client described a very simple, but unique way of creating a wailful cry in the night that I have to say was most impressive. The technique works quite well, but I would not have expected him to know about this unless he had seen it with his own eyes. Another check mark in his category for telling the truth.

So I asked my client to let me film him telling his story. It would be great just to have as a document to NC lore. His response: "Absolutely Not!" As he explained to me, just about everyone associated with the Beast of Bladenboro is dead now, but not all of them. There still many friends of his there and it wouldn't be right to take away there small claim to fame as that's about all that tiny community has at this point. After all, that's their claim to fame. They have had festivals celebrating the Beast and even documentaries examining the history and legend of the Beast. "It just wouldn't be right to take that away from them."

When I asked him if he saw the Monsterquest episode I was surprised when he said a friend sent him a copy of the broadcast. He said they all got a good laugh out of it, but he was disappointed that they didn't even bother trying to get any of the people still alive to appear on the program. That he said would have at least been fun to hear them tell that old story again.

I'm not trying to kill off a great NC legend here, just share a little info.

Thank you for this thread! There is one very under-publicized cryptid on these forums. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. If you have anymore information I would love to learn about the history of the beast/legend.

This is actually very disappointing to me. Not that the Beast of Bladenboro is bunk, but that some people are so willing to live a lie just to protect their reputation or 'claim to fame.' One would think that people who fabricated a story and cashed in on a lie would want a clear conscience, but I guess not. That's disheartening.

Thanks for sharing your story, though. And kudos for using the word 'gentility' in a sentence.

Those people could be lying to cover up that the BEAST is real

reply to post by PostPro
im sorry but that huband of that very nice woman you speak of probly dosent know a thing about it i am a huge fan of the legen and to tell you the truth i belive it i belive there is something to that story besides that its a panther i belive it could posibly be a mixture of two diffrent big cats i dont belive it was a vampire beast though