AL285 The Lizard Man of Bishopville

Original Airdate 06.22.2024 (On Podcast Audio Platforms)
On June 29, 1988, around 2:30 a.m., Christopher "Chris" Davis drove home after working the night shift at his local McDonald's. Driving along Browntown Road, which cuts through the dense woods of Scape Ore Swamp in South Carolina, Chris hears the pop of a flat tire on his car. As he finishes installing the spare, he notices something large and dark coming out of the trees, moving towards him about 30 yards away and swinging its arms. In an interview with The Item newspaper, Chris described seeing this humanoid creature with glowing red eyes close up, saying it was "green, wetlike, about seven feet tall and had three fingers... a red-eyed devil." Terrified, Davis ran to the driver's door and jumped in. Once inside, this bipedal beast was now right outside his window, where he could see it from the neck down. It then jumped up onto the roof of his car, where he could see its "rough-looking, black-fingernailed hands, sticking down from the windshield." The cryptid deeply grunts as Chris peels out, attempting to escape. As he estimated he was driving about 35-40 mph, this thing had caught up to the car and jumped onto the roof again, banging and clawing at it. The creature finally fell off as he swerved frantically, racing home. This encounter would become the best-known report of this impossible monster emerging from Scape Ore Swamp, but it was not the first, nor would it be the last. At least one verified account tells of a sighting occurring two years prior, and a handful of police reports describe run-ins that happened in the years following Davis's experience. Chris Davis never called it the "Lizard Man," but residents had already labeled some previously seen brute by that description. And when a local reporter printed the nickname, the moniker stuck in the broader public's imagination. Sheriff Liston Truesdale was the one person who vetted all the claims, took reports from witnesses, and investigated their stories. And we're fortunate and grateful to have on our show tonight the one person who spent time interviewing Sheriff Truesdale, questioned locals, visited locations, and wrote a book about it all, our friend and noted cryptozoology researcher and author Lyle Blackburn. Lyle's 2013 book, Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, is the phenomenon's most comprehensive and detailed history. As the sightings and questions continue, perhaps the most puzzling and troubling thing is whether everyone sees the same being and whether it is reptilian, more Bigfoot-like, or some other horror altogether.
Visit our webpage at the link below for this episode and access a lot more information about it, including research links, articles, and images:
astonishinglegends.com/al-pod...
And SUBSCRIBE on your favorite Podcast Platform and FIND US on Social at:
linktr.ee/astonishinglegends
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Astonishing Legends Network Update
00:06:09 - The Legend of the Lizard Man
00:11:34 - The First Sighting
00:16:54 - Monster Sauce and Bigfoot Sightings
00:22:55 - Investigating Cryptid Sightings
00:28:42 - The Cost of Overpaying for Wireless
00:34:07 - The Beginnings of a Book Series
00:40:12 - The Baffling Sightings of the Lizard Man
00:46:06 - The Mysterious Car Attack
00:51:43 - The Story Spreads: The Lizard Man Phenomenon
00:57:11 - Chased by a Mysterious Entity
01:02:47 - Discussing Doctors and Healthcare Options
01:08:15 - Encounter with a mysterious creature
01:13:54 - Feral Creature Encounter
01:21:42 - Chance Encounters with Unknown Creatures
01:25:30 - Unexplained Creatures and Varying Descriptions
01:31:26 - Creatures and Witness Discrepancies
01:37:18 - Different Creatures Being Seen
01:43:06 - The Feeling of Being Watched and Strange Sightings
01:48:30 - Eyewitness Accounts of the Creature
01:54:01 - Reluctance to Share Encounters and Polygraph Test Results
01:59:23 - The Credibility of Witness Accounts
02:04:55 - Encounters with the Lizard Man
02:10:15 - The Sasquatch Encounter
02:15:33 - Lizard Man Sightings and Speculations
02:21:17 - Time Slips and Creature Sightings
02:27:59 - Access to Bonus Content