Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2017 14:12:25 GMT
The Goatman
I grew up hearing terrifying tales about a goatman that haunted a few key areas in the Southern Maryland region. My mother and a family friend told me a story when I was about thirteen that kept me extremely frightened to go near or over this one particular one-lane bridge off of Acton Lane in Charles County, MD. They called it "Goatman Bridge" because the stories claim that a woman wrecked her car off of this bridge one snowy winter's night, and she was carried away by the goatman...who left bloody goat tracks as evidence in the snow. Supposedly her body had disappeared and the police could find no human footprints around or near the wreckage.
Who is this goatman creature? The sightings of eyewitnesses state that he is a half goat/half man creature. The top half of him resembles that of a man but he sports a beard and horns...and the bottom half of him is like that of a goat...with the cloven hooves and all. As a child and a teenager, this creepy image haunted my dreams. Now that I am an adult, this image reminds me of an older mythical creature called a faun (an example of a faun - Mr.Tumnus in the Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe written by C.S. Lewis) and even of the Pagan god, Pan. These same characteristics could be related to the Christian enemy image of Lucifer, more commonly known as "the devil" or "Satan". Nevertheless, I do not plan on hanging out around the Acton Lane bridge at any time of the day.
The goatman creature has been spotted in other areas in Maryland, more notably in Prince George's County near Beltsville. The first sighting happened in the year of 1957, and many more were to take place after this. The most infamous of local goatman stories tell of a group of teenagers that went hiking through the woods in 1970, only to run into the goatman who chopped them to pieces with an axe and then ate most of their remains. Supposedly one of the teenagers escaped and tried to tell the police...but there is no substantial police evidence that this ever occurred...but to this day locals swear that it did happen. There have been other tales told of this mutant goat creature, including stories of the goatman breaking into houses and killing family pets.
The goatman is also associated with a road in Prince George's County, MD known as "Lover's Lane". This is a road in which adolescents park their cars and do whatever it is that teenagers do...but for the past ten years most teenagers do not dare to visit Lover's Lane at night. The reason? Goatman is said to appear if a date leaves the parked vehicle to pop a squat in the nearby bushes...but in this legend, instead of wielding a bloody axe, he carries a hook with him and slices up the unsuspecting horny teenager and leaves hook marks on the lovers' car. Obviously this urban legend has been told in other ways before...not having anything to do with goatman, but mainly telling of a psychotic murderer with a hook that slices up teenagers caught doing the hippity dippity in the woods.
There are various theories on how goatman came into existence. The main and most well known theory is that goatman was a by-product of human/animal experimentation. Apparently some "mad scientist" fiddled with science in ways that he should not have been and created this murderous monster from his idiotic lab partner and an innocent goat. Other goatman creation theories include local Satanic churches summoning the devil (the goatman being the devil himself or Satan's worker) and also that goatman could be an ancient Pagan being like that of a satyr or faun. However he was created, the legends in Maryland are all too real to many people who have sighted this beast...and the fear of the goatman will live on for many years to come.
