Latest / Journey to the Fringe / A tail as old as time
Transcript
- 0:03From the unexplained to the mundane, come join
- 0:06us on a Journey to the Fringe. We have always
- 0:20been those people and it's very clear in our
- 0:22back catalog. It's true. We are, your podcast
- 0:25hosts Taylor and Chelsea, here today to talk
- 0:27not about Bigfoot, but it probably gets confused
- 0:30for it all the time. No, today we're talking
- 0:32about monkey sightings in North America, Chelsea.
- 0:35Big monkeys, not Bigfoots. Okay, now I get why
- 0:39you opened it like that. And don't we ha - We
- 0:42don't have those. North America has no native
- 0:46monkey populations. We do have monkeys that live
- 0:49in zoos and a lot of the time when we're talking
- 0:51about these sightings it's either going to be
- 0:53oh you kind of miss saw a bigfoot or it was probably
- 0:56a monkey that escaped from the zoo. like that's
- 0:59the most common things you're saying in this
- 1:02episode like it would be more likely you saw
- 1:04a bigfoot than like a gorilla yeah basically
- 1:07and in fact i kept the ones out where it was
- 1:10a gorilla there are ones where it is a gorilla
- 1:13but no these are I love that. They're historical,
- 1:16some of them. Some of them are recent. There's
- 1:18a whole story behind it, Chelsea. And guess what?
- 1:20We get to touch on one of our favorite people,
- 1:22Hammerson Peters, who did a lot of research into
- 1:24this. And again, I just need to say it, Hammerson
- 1:26Peters, not enough work on the Bigfoot genitalia.
- 1:29Oh, no. Are we going to it's going to become
- 1:31evident again on this episode? See, I hate that.
- 1:35It becomes more evident that he should have known
- 1:37about the box. Because basically we're going
- 1:40to be talking about a backwards box here. Okay.
- 1:43I don't know what that means, I don't think.
- 1:46Okay. Are you going to tell us? I think it'll
- 1:48be evident as we move forward to those of you
- 1:51who don't know what a box is. Go back like four
- 1:54episodes to the Bigfoot genitals episode. We
- 1:57don't need to repeat ourselves about that. But
- 1:58I'm confused. What's the box? B -O -Q -S. Oh,
- 2:04okay. I thought there was some mysterious Bigfoot
- 2:07box that I forgot about. No. Okay, we're on the
- 2:13same page. Now, of course, when we're talking
- 2:15about things, we like to go back to historical
- 2:17accounts or the historical record of a subject
- 2:20and there is a historical record for wild monkeys
- 2:24living in North America. Hammerson Peters has
- 2:26found us some great stuff. At the southern border
- 2:29of Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory, there's
- 2:31an oral tradition that seems to trace back to
- 2:34the watershed of the Copper River, home to the
- 2:36Atena Nation. According to storytellers, vicious
- 2:39long -tailed men once lived in the Menta - mountains
- 2:42of southeastern Alaska and in caves along the
- 2:45Tanada Creek and the Slana and Copper Rivers
- 2:47north of the Wrangell Mountains. They called
- 2:50these peoples the Satani, meaning the tailed
- 2:52ones or the monkey people. Versions of the legends
- 2:55appear in Johnny Smelser's In the Shadow of the
- 2:58Mountains and in James Carras' Tatla -tun -nen.
- 3:03Wow, that was great. Tatla -tun -nen. The Headwad.
- 3:08The headwaters people's country. I'm familiar.
- 3:11I knew it. And it was perfect, wasn't it? Yep.
- 3:14Smelter's grandmother, Mary Smelter Wood, and
- 3:17Ahtna elder, Markle Pete, describe the creatures
- 3:19as kind of human -like, hairy all over, walking
- 3:22on their hind legs with long tails. So it's in
- 3:25the back this time, Chelsea, is what I was saying.
- 3:28Oh, OK. Fred and Katie John, who shared their
- 3:30own versions with Carrie and the Satani, said
- 3:32the Satani were as big as a tall person, with
- 3:35human -like faces and hands, but covered in body
- 3:38hair. And that's an interesting distinction when
- 3:40we're talking these monkey sightings they're
- 3:42never like bigger than normal people they're
- 3:44either at normal person height or smaller okay
- 3:48so we're thinking regular monkeys not quite bigger
- 3:52than a regular monkey okay so it's like it would
- 3:55be like its own species it would have to be its
- 3:58own species yes now here is the tales that they
- 4:01tell in this indigenous group several hundred
- 4:03years ago an Atena band camped at the confluence
- 4:06of the slana and copper rivers near present -day
- 4:08slana alaska they began began to experience mysterious
- 4:11disappearances. It started after a dog dragged
- 4:13the fresh tail of a fish into camp, which was
- 4:16odd because the band hadn't been fishing that
- 4:18season. Suspecting another group nearby, scouts
- 4:20went upriver to investigate. The scouts never
- 4:22came back. Over the following months, more people
- 4:25vanished, first children, then women, then elders.
- 4:28Even men who stepped beyond the fire late at
- 4:30night disappeared as they swallowed by the dark.
- 4:32Fear spread through the camp, the kind that makes
- 4:35you question whether the woods themselves are
- 4:37alive. And one day, a hunter returned terror,
- 4:40claiming that he'd seen a man -like creature
- 4:42with a long tail perched on a fallen tree. A
- 4:44young warrior decided to track it, and he was
- 4:46convinced this tail one was behind the disappearances.
- 4:49Following the creature's prints, the warrior
- 5:01found a hidden trail strung with grass ropes
- 5:05and primitive traps, which he managed to avoid.
- 5:08Eventually he reached a hill south of what's
- 5:10now Batzelnettis near Tanatta Creek. There he
- 5:13saw several tailed men in the distance, using
- 5:16their tails to propel themselves forward, curling
- 5:18and recoiling them like springs. He climbed a
- 5:20tree and watched as the monkey people played
- 5:22a game, shrieking with delight as they rolled
- 5:24a ball back and forth. Then he realized with
- 5:26horror that the ball was the severed head of
- 5:28a young man who had recently gone missing. Rain
- 5:39began to fall and the creatures retreated up
- 5:41a trail to a cliff along the Copper River, climbing
- 5:44into caves that lined the rock face. The warrior
- 5:46ran back to camp, certain he'd found their lair.
- 5:49The Aetna gathered their weapons and torches
- 5:51and were determined to end the killings. When
- 5:53they reached the cliff, they found the ground
- 5:55littered with human bones, not clean. The women
- 5:58tied green branches into bundles and lit them
- 6:00until they smoked, and thrust them into the cave's
- 6:03mouth. As the smoke filled the caverns, the monkey
- 6:05people began to crawl out, screeching for air.
- 6:07only to be met by spears, arrows, and more clubs.
- 6:10The fight was brutal, one Aetna warrior was killed,
- 6:12but by nightfall the tribe believed they'd wiped
- 6:14out every last sitani. They returned to camp,
- 6:17never to be troubled by the tale once again.
- 6:20Weird thing about that story Chelsea. It reminds
- 6:22me a lot of I forget the name of that cave in
- 6:26Arizona It was the giant redheaded people that
- 6:29like got lured into a cave and then they burnt
- 6:32this fire at the mouth of it I know exactly what
- 6:34you're talking about. It was a love lock Love
- 6:38lock. Yeah, it is it is but it's funny. It shares
- 6:41a lot with that story, but there's just Differences
- 6:45to it. Yeah, there are differences to it the
- 6:47tails for one. I love the tails are like springing
- 6:51back and forth Yeah, these ones are actually
- 6:53aggressive. I actually can't remember I don't
- 6:55remember the Giants being that bad in love lock
- 6:57cave. They just they're racist It didn't like
- 7:00them yet. No, it does remind me of love lock
- 7:02cave But I can't remember the specifics of love
- 7:05lock cave. These guys are killers I wasn't convinced
- 7:08at first but now that I have the evidence they
- 7:10definitely seem like killers especially that
- 7:12they're playing soccer with a head and setting
- 7:15traps But, yeah. Legend says the cave still dots
- 7:20the cliffs along the Copper River and that fragments
- 7:22of charcoal and scorched arrowhead relics of
- 7:24that battle can still be found there. In 1939,
- 7:27archaeologist Froelich Gladstone Rainey described
- 7:30a site near Bathelnetus that locals identified
- 7:32as the Satani Den. 30 rectangular pits dug into
- 7:35a moss -covered bench above an old stream bed.
- 7:38Rainey's team found only scattered charcoal,
- 7:40but the layout matched the oral tradition almost
- 7:42perfectly. Whether those pits were homes, traps,
- 7:45or something else entirely, nobody knows, but
- 7:46the story of the Satani, the monkey people of
- 7:49the Copper River, remains one of Alaska's strangest
- 7:51intersections of folklore and archaeology, a
- 7:53tale that sits somewhere between myth and memory.
- 7:56There are other similar stories to this one throughout
- 8:00the region. Amongst the Gwich 'in of northern
- 8:02Alaska, people living near Chandler Lake spoke
- 8:05of an ogre, described by a more sophisticated
- 8:08informant as looking like a monkey. The Ayak
- 8:10of the Copper River Delta told of a hairy man
- 8:13-like being haunting their territory, more gorilla
- 8:16than monkey since it lacked a tail. The Tanana
- 8:19and Talton also describe tailed man -like creatures,
- 8:22sometimes called the monkey people. But I guess
- 8:24they wouldn't have a word for monkey at the time,
- 8:26would they? Well, I guess there wouldn't be monkeys
- 8:29in North America. You know what? I'm glad that
- 8:33you called attention to that because I kept thinking
- 8:35what that's so weird that they're calling them
- 8:38what they're calling them because wasn't it tailed
- 8:41men on the other one? Yeah, or monkey people.
- 8:44And I think it's just because like they describe
- 8:46tailed men, they call them monkey people, but
- 8:47they wouldn't have a word for monkey because
- 8:51it wouldn't be there. Interesting. I'm glad you
- 8:54brought that up. Thank you. Now, McKennan even
- 8:58linked these beliefs to notes by Father Emil
- 9:01Petito, a 19th century missionary among the Dene
- 9:04of the Mackenzie River. Petito recorded a legend
- 9:07claiming that the ancestors of the Dene migrated
- 9:09from western lands populated by hairy -tailed
- 9:12men, a mythic memory of origins that sounds eerily
- 9:14like the Satan stories. Later, McKennan noted
- 9:17that Yukon storytellers distinguished between
- 9:19the Monkey People and the Brush Man, a man eating
- 9:22wild man known elsewhere as the Nakani or a Mahoney
- 9:25Man. The overlap between these figures' tailed,
- 9:28hairy predatory suggests shared mythical vocabulary
- 9:31stretching across the subarctic with this story.
- 9:33Another long -tailed humanoid of Alaskan lore
- 9:36is the kushtaka, the land otter man. This creature
- 9:39haunts the coastal panhandle where the sea and
- 9:42the forest blur together. According to anthropologist
- 9:44James Tate, in his 1921 Journal of American Folklore
- 9:48article, Talton Tales, some indigenous speakers
- 9:50even called them monkey people when speaking
- 9:53English. The kushtaka are said to be speared
- 9:56that prey on those lost in the wilderness. Like
- 9:58fairies in Celtic folklore, they confuse their
- 10:01victims, causing hallucinations and madness,
- 10:04and some lure wanderers to watery or subterranean
- 10:06homes, trapping them forever. Others simply lead
- 10:09travelers astray until they vanish. Now, although
- 10:12the Cushtaca are most often associated with the
- 10:15Tlingit folklore, Tlingit being the historic
- 10:18sovereigns of the Alaskan Panhandle, they also
- 10:20appear in the stories of the Talton, whose homeland
- 10:23stretches across northwestern British Columbia
- 10:25and south -central Yukon. At least one Talton
- 10:28tale, recorded by anthropologist James Tate,
- 10:31portrays the kushtaka not as a terrifying predator
- 10:33but as a mischievous kleptomaniac. More prankster
- 10:36than monster with the mannerisms of a monkey.
- 10:38The story centers on a young Tlingit man who
- 10:41didn't believe in the land otter men and wasn't
- 10:43afraid to camp alone in the wilderness. One night
- 10:45he heard noises outside his tent and assumed
- 10:47it was wildlife. He built up his fire and loaded
- 10:49his musket. As he drifted towards sleep he noticed
- 10:51a figure watching him from the edge of the firelight.
- 10:53He raised his gun but found he couldn't pull
- 10:55the trigger, and then everything went black.
- 10:57Between flashes of consciousness, he saw the
- 10:59creatures throwing snow onto his fire, trying
- 11:02to smother it. Another joined in, both working
- 11:04together as if this were a routine chore. Every
- 11:06time he tried to aim, his body refused to obey.
- 11:08When dawn came, the fire was out, the sun was
- 11:11gone, and the clearing looked untouched. Shaken,
- 11:13he started back towards his village. The trail
- 11:15home wound through a narrow pass between two
- 11:18hills, and at the entrance, leaning against the
- 11:20stump was his missing musket. The story simply
- 11:22ends with - After that, the young man believed
- 11:25in Kustaka and was afraid of them. Now folklore
- 11:29aside, reports of monkey -like creatures still
- 11:32surface from time to time in North American wildernesses.
- 11:35What sets a few of them apart from the standard
- 11:37Sasquatch stories is the mention of a tail, a
- 11:40detail that's rare enough to make investigators
- 11:42take notice. In his 1970 book Year of the Sasquatch,
- 11:46journalist John Willison Green described the
- 11:49experience of Gordon Ferrier, who claimed to
- 11:51have seen a monkey -like creature near his home
- 11:53in Mamquam River, a tributary of the Squamish
- 11:56River in British Columbia. In June morning in
- 11:581969, Farrier spotted the animal standing in
- 12:01a roadside ditch, was covered in hair, walked
- 12:03upright and had a bushy tail. Later he found
- 12:06three toed tracks in the same spot, 15 inches
- 12:09long and nearly as wide as his hand. Local dogs,
- 12:12he said, were very upset on many occasions. The
- 12:28Squamish Times identified Farrier as a border
- 12:31of Paul and Norma Gratton, who lived on No Name
- 12:35Road, just south of the Mamquam Bridge. According
- 12:38to the paper, Ferrier had first seen the creature
- 12:41weeks earlier after it ripped open a window in
- 12:43the Gratton's home. He described it as about
- 12:45five foot eight, reddish furred, and long -tailed.
- 12:48Not quite human, not quite animal. The following
- 12:50day, Mrs. Gratton and her children stayed with
- 12:52a neighbor, Trudy Gulliman, fearing the visitor
- 12:55might return. Their fears weren't misplaced.
- 12:57While they were gone, someone or something entered
- 12:59the house through a window and left a pile of
- 13:01moss on the floor. About a week later, around
- 13:08six in the morning, Farrier saw the creature
- 13:10again from the dining room window. He described
- 13:12small pointed ears, reddish hair, and a pushed
- 13:15-in face like a Pekingese. It walked on two legs.
- 13:18He shouted for Paul Gratton, who arrived just
- 13:20in time to see a long tail vanish into the brush.
- 13:23Outside they found deep tracks, heavy enough
- 13:26for a 300 pound animal. It just sounds adorable,
- 13:29I think. Maybe it's because he said Pekingese.
- 13:31See, I think the cute thing about Pekingese is
- 13:33that they're like five pounds. Is it not? This
- 13:37thing was like 300 pounds and five foot eight.
- 13:39I don't know. It could still be cute. Mrs. Gratton
- 13:45reported the incident to the RCMP, who took plaster
- 13:48casts of the prints before raking away the originals.
- 13:50According to Green, the casts were later destroyed.
- 13:52Nauti suggested hanging a bag of bread and honey
- 13:55from a tree to see if a bear would take it. The
- 13:57bag remained untouched. The Vancouver Sun quoted
- 14:00local housewives describing the police response
- 14:02as bemused tolerance, polite disbelief. But for
- 14:06the Grattons and their neighbors, the experience
- 14:07was anything but amusing. If they said ma 'am,
- 14:13are you sure you didn't see a bigfoot that? Looking
- 14:16thing juice does certainly sound adorable though.
- 14:20There's a reason I'm yeah It does sadden me a
- 14:23little bit that they go back to the classic.
- 14:25Yeah, you saw a bear just hang something up It
- 14:27is disappointing, but I was half expected being
- 14:30how you introduced this that they didn't say
- 14:33ma 'am Are you sure you didn't see a bigfoot?
- 14:36Now, Chelsea, we have this type of creature up
- 14:39here that is mostly man with a tail and hairy.
- 14:43But overall, there's something in North America
- 14:45called the devil monkey or the devil ape, which
- 14:48is a phenomenon mostly in the U .S. Is it a real
- 14:52creature? Well, it's a cryptid. Oh, OK. May I
- 14:56Google it? Sure. Yeah, I don't think you're going
- 14:58to find much. OK, I just want to see what I'm
- 15:01looking at. We think it's a cryptid. Yes, it's
- 15:03definitely a cryptid. But it sounds I have to
- 15:08remind you, there are no native monkey or ape
- 15:11species to North America. While modern sightings
- 15:17of tailed monkey -like creatures are rare in
- 15:18British Columbia, they're surprisingly common
- 15:20in the eastern half of the continent, especially
- 15:22in the Appalachian Mountains. Cryptozoologists
- 15:24call this elusive primate the devil monkey or
- 15:27the devil ape. Some researchers argue that consistency
- 15:29across reports suggests a single species. In
- 15:32mysterious creatures, a guide to cryptozoology
- 15:34George Eberhart described the Devil Monkey as
- 15:37standing anywhere from three to eight feet tall.
- 15:40That doesn't sound like consistency. Sorry, just
- 15:43an aside. Not at all. They consistently describe
- 15:46it between three and eight feet tall. Yes, consistently.
- 15:51His height is variable. They generally describe
- 15:54it as a color. This looks like a baboon. kind
- 15:59of yeah sorry let me finish the description here
- 16:01covered in light brown to black hair with pointed
- 16:03ears and a baboon like muzzle witnesses often
- 16:07mention a long tail sometimes bushy sometimes
- 16:09hairless and tracks about a foot long with three
- 16:12rounded toes it's said to walk on two legs or
- 16:15all four attack dogs and livestock and make hooting
- 16:18or screaming sounds that don't match any known
- 16:20animal Hooting? Hooting and hollering sounds.
- 16:23It's an owl. Or hooting and screaming. Everyone's
- 16:25confused. Why didn't he come up in the owl episode
- 16:29then? Lauren Coleman chronicled several early
- 16:33Devil Monkey reports in Mysterious America in
- 16:361983. The first came from a 1941 article in Hoosier
- 16:40Folklore, describing a preacher named Reverend
- 16:42Marsh Harpole hunting squirrels near Mount Vernon,
- 16:45Illinois. He claimed, quote, a large animal that
- 16:48looks something like a baboon, end quote, leapt
- 16:51from a tree and advanced towards him. Harpole
- 16:53struck it with a gun barrel and fired into the
- 16:55air until it fled. At least he didn't shoot it.
- 16:59Yeah, I mean people were built differently in
- 17:01the 40s They had the restraint to strike first
- 17:03and then shoot into the air I do appreciate that
- 17:07of the 40s. Soon after, locals began hearing
- 17:10blood -curdling shrieks at night and finding
- 17:12strange tracks in your creeks. Farmer's dog was
- 17:15killed by an unknown predator and hunters organized
- 17:17a track what they assumed was a panther. One
- 17:20driver later saw a creature bounding across a
- 17:23road near the Big Muddy River and another found
- 17:25tracks along the West Okaw River. Some speculated
- 17:28it was an escaped kangaroo. Despite the search
- 17:30though, no one caught it and the story faded,
- 17:33but not before planting seeds for decades. of
- 17:35similar stories. Chad Armand's North American
- 17:38Bio 14 review in 2000 recounts a 1959 case near
- 17:43Seltville, Virginia. Early one morning, a couple
- 17:46driving down a rural road was charged by a large
- 17:49monkey -like creature that slammed into their
- 17:52car, leaving deep scratches in the paint. The
- 17:55woman described it as having, quote, light taffy
- 17:57-colored hair with white blaze down its neck
- 18:00and underbelly, end quote. Standing on two muscular
- 18:03back legs with shorter front limbs. It chased
- 18:06the car briefly before disappearing into the
- 18:08woods. Days later, two nurses in the same area
- 18:10reported being attacked by something that ripped
- 18:12the convertible top off their car. Search dogs
- 18:16refused to follow the trail and the creature
- 18:18was never found. Years afterwards, witnesses
- 18:20compared the animal to a magazine illustration
- 18:23of a prehistoric lemur -like primate. normal
- 18:33creature would just like slam into a car most
- 18:37animals would be afraid of a car I would think
- 18:39oh yeah for sure no this one it's it's too brazen
- 18:43for its own good like yeah it just like got Canada
- 18:47Goose level of bravery yeah either that or it's
- 18:50got rabies or something like it's rabid now next
- 18:53up would be the Einfeld horror which is given
- 18:56a very brief section here but you can go back
- 18:58and listen to that episode we did it during one
- 19:01Halloween we covered behind I'll give you the
- 19:05Cole's notes here. Coleman also documented three
- 19:08more encounters near Enfeld, Illinois in the
- 19:10spring of 73. Witnesses describe a gray monkey
- 19:12about five feet tall, heard howling and shrieking
- 19:15in the woods. The consistencies of these reports
- 19:17in the same region helped cement the devil monkey's
- 19:20reputation as a distinct cryptid rather than
- 19:22a misidentified bigfoot. Oh, I remember this
- 19:24one. It was never described as a monkey, was
- 19:27it? It was that one that kept coming into backyards.
- 19:29I think they settled on Kangaroo, but it was
- 19:33described as monkey -like no if I remember this
- 19:36which I don't it was It was a horror If I remember
- 19:43correctly. Now, one of the most detailed modern
- 19:46accounts came from Debbie Cross, whose story
- 19:49was recorded by researcher Ron Schaffner and
- 19:51Kenny Young. In the early hours of June 26, 1997,
- 19:56Cross was watching TV at her rural home outside
- 19:59Duncan'sville, Ohio, when her dog began barking.
- 20:01She turned on the porch light and saw a fur covered
- 20:04monkey. Was it her home? I sure hope so. I have
- 20:08to ask the important questions. She turned on
- 20:19the porcelain and saw a fur -covered, monkey
- 20:21-like creature standing by the pond about 30
- 20:24feet away. It was about three to four feet tall
- 20:27and gray in color, she said. It had large, dark
- 20:31eyes, rounded ears above the head, it had long
- 20:33arms and a short tail, and it made a gurgling
- 20:36sound. I don't think I would like that, like
- 20:40any of it, the gurgling sound. But wait, the
- 20:44creature glanced at her and then skipped across
- 20:46the lawn on its hind legs, bouncing with its
- 20:49knuckles. No, I don't think I'd like it. I think
- 20:51I'd be rather disturbed. It followed Barbara's
- 20:53fence before vanishing into the dark, screeching
- 20:55as it went. See, yeah, I think you want to see
- 20:58the West Coast version of this thing, Chelsea.
- 21:00I gotta be honest, I don't know that I want to
- 21:02see any versions. I don't want to see anything
- 21:05out of place. I like to see creatures that are
- 21:07supposed to be there. If I see a monkey that
- 21:10shouldn't be there, I - No, you don't. You don't
- 21:12even want to see - a fish in the water. No I
- 21:14don't want to see that. Though if I saw something
- 21:16with a Pekingese face I could be pleasantly surprised.
- 21:20I might accept it, depends on if it's 300 pounds
- 21:23or not. I think it might be okay as long as it's
- 21:26not ramming my car. Armand's later Bio 14 review
- 21:30included a follow -up from a woman who saw a
- 21:32similar creature while driving between Roanoke,
- 21:34Virginia and Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
- 21:37She described it as all black with short, sleek
- 21:40fur, pointy ears, and a long, thin tail. Six
- 21:43feet tall and upright, with a torso like a thin
- 21:46man and hind legs like a wild cat or dog. Eberhart's
- 21:49Encyclopedia lists another sighting from Danville,
- 21:52New Hampshire on September 9, 2001. Oh, could
- 21:56this have been a Mothman -like figure? for 9
- 21:58-11. The witness described a giant black monkey
- 22:01that appeared eight more times over two weeks.
- 22:04Monkeys don't count. Okay. Winged humanoid in
- 22:07any sort I would accept. This did not have wings.
- 22:11Even Canada has a few outlier cases for these
- 22:14monkey sightings. Thomas Morgan of Kawartha Lakes
- 22:18Ontario found a 1992 report from Ian Harper who
- 22:22claimed to have seen a quote big white monkey
- 22:25and quote near Lake Scugog while biking with
- 22:28his dog. The creature stood three feet tall with
- 22:31long arms and a large head and made a deep grunt
- 22:33when confronted. Morgan also recorded a mid 2010s
- 22:37account from two Cree sisters near Jackhead,
- 22:40Manitoba, who saw a large monkey like creature
- 22:42cross highway six about four feet tall, brown
- 22:45haired, broad shouldered and tailed. The location
- 22:48details are fuzzy, but the description fits the
- 22:50devil monkey profile almost perfectly. That one
- 22:53sounds OK. Yeah, he's stubby and he isn't ramming
- 22:57cars and gurgling. I might accept that guy. I'd
- 23:01be a little bit freaked out. albeit because he's
- 23:04out of place. In 2001 in Danville, New Hampshire,
- 23:07over a couple of weeks, the local fire chief
- 23:09and many other witnessed a large black monkey
- 23:11as it ran amok in the small town. It jumped out
- 23:14of the trees. As soon as he hit the ground, he
- 23:16took a giant leap and went back where he came
- 23:19from. The first thought I had was there's nothing
- 23:21that's native to here. That's nothing that's
- 23:24native to here. That's from an article from that
- 23:26time. It would be accompanied by a strange hooting
- 23:29or howling sound. This monkey was spotted multiple
- 23:31times in the fall. days despite attempts to catch
- 23:34it however after a few weeks the creature disappeared
- 23:36never to be seen again locals concluded it must
- 23:38have been pet or a zoo monkey turned feral after
- 23:41being abandoned yeah and of course Chelsea no
- 23:45episode is complete without us doing a quick
- 23:48search for stories like this on reddit to see
- 23:50what kind of story I thought it was gonna be
- 23:52a rating of one of the Satan's I wish like the
- 23:55one -star rating from a zoo and the monkey enclosure
- 24:00To be fair, most of these sightings are in Appalachia,
- 24:03and if you're going to Google reviews of Appalachian
- 24:05places, you're gonna just be in for a bad time.
- 24:08You know, I've heard that the Appalachia is not
- 24:11known as a rich part of the US. I've heard that
- 24:13that area is super spooky and like full of crazy
- 24:18monsters. I think it's just because it's so -
- 24:20uninhabited for long parts of it and it's such
- 24:24a like that's not rich people that usually live
- 24:26in the Appalachias. Okay I didn't know that.
- 24:29So this comment is posted by reddit user use
- 24:33me and the first e is with a three use underscore
- 24:36me underscore okay written four months ago so
- 24:40this would be February of 2026. I believe my
- 24:43aunt and her partner saw one of these. They had
- 24:45a cabin in West Virginia and both of them had
- 24:47a dream of a predator baboon looking thing was
- 24:50peering in their bay windows of the bedroom.
- 24:52They later were driving through an old campground
- 24:55and saw this thing leading to discovery of each
- 24:57other's dreams. They had no idea what a devil
- 25:00monkey was. After she told me about this, I informed
- 25:03her of such shit. Said it hopped across the road.
- 25:06fairly close in front of their truck. They looked
- 25:08at each other and said something along the lines
- 25:10of, I thought I was just having a nightmare about
- 25:12that thing. She told me this casually chilling
- 25:14on the beach a few years ago. They sold the place
- 25:17after. I can ask her whatever need be. Pretty
- 25:19wild. She's odd, but not one to fuck around like
- 25:22that. So even people already are seeing the baboon
- 25:25guys, the devil monkeys. On the scale of cryptids
- 25:29I'd like to hug or stay away from, I'm thinking
- 25:32I'm closer to the stay away from these ones more
- 25:35so than a Sasquatch. Sasquatch actually seems
- 25:38a lot nicer than these guys overall. I think
- 25:40it depends on the particular mood of the Sasquatch.
- 25:45Yeah, but this seems like 100%. These things
- 25:47are kind of just assholes. Oh, you're going to
- 25:49get an asshole interaction with this. Yeah. Whereas
- 25:51with the Bigfoot, it's the personality. Oh, yeah.
- 25:54Whether he's hangry, things like that. Here's
- 25:56the distinguishing thing, I think, is these seem
- 25:59more wild animal like and out for blood. Except
- 26:03unless they're on the West Coast. They have like
- 26:06a sophisticated culture in sporting tradition
- 26:09with a human head Yeah They're cultured though.
- 26:14It doesn't yeah see in the Bigfoot. He is like
- 26:18intelligent they are Mimicking they are Knocking
- 26:24they are I don't know other stuff that I don't
- 26:27feel like listing right now, but they seem much
- 26:30more sophisticated i think and like maybe you
- 26:34could catch them in a good temperament maybe
- 26:36you could catch them in a bad one you don't want
- 26:38to fuck with them but at least yeah in none of
- 26:41these sightings did i get the idea that this
- 26:44thing was sitting there thinking or doing something
- 26:46with its brain like outside of the old tales
- 26:50of old yeah and that's why i said that because
- 26:53none of them they all seem to be instinct like
- 26:56animal like wild animal but have you i'm interested
- 26:59because i'm only so far into um where the footprint
- 27:03ends which we haven't plugged that enough i don't
- 27:05think in the last couple episodes it's been a
- 27:08bit of a heavy big foot error right now in the
- 27:11podcast Is there any mention of murdering? No,
- 27:16not specifically. I'd have to look back. I don't
- 27:20think there is. I don't think it's come up for
- 27:22me as well. There's talks about death for sure,
- 27:28but it's generally not attributed to the Bigfoot.
- 27:31It definitely kills pets. Bigfoot definitely
- 27:33kills pets. Like that's unfortunately part of
- 27:36it. Yeah, I can't blame them for that. But yeah,
- 27:40this episode was actually meant to like entail
- 27:42all of North and South America. Actually, it
- 27:45was meant to just be like monkey people sightings
- 27:47around the world, and I had to limit it just
- 27:49to North America because there are so many different
- 27:52cryptid monkeys. Yes, they do, but they also
- 27:55have cryptid monkey creatures like Bigfoot. yeah
- 27:59it's called the mono grande it's weirder in an
- 28:02area where monkeys are not native to the area
- 28:05yeah just big foots are native to the area so
- 28:08it's much weirder when you get like a regular
- 28:10monkey i know because the cop can actually just
- 28:15say oh you saw a monkey yeah are you sure you
- 28:19didn't see a big bush Are there any more reddit
- 28:24sightings of monkeys? No, that was the only one
- 28:26I could find. There probably is more, but man
- 28:29can it be hard to search reddit sometimes. Yeah,
- 28:32it can be hard. And like, devil ape or devil
- 28:35monkey sightings ended up coming up with far
- 28:37too many people who saw the devil. Yeah, and
- 28:39sometimes not all reddit sightings are good.
- 28:42That's true, not like this one. We only give
- 28:48you the best of what we find on Reddit. But yeah,
- 28:51there's a ton of like sub types of Bigfoot sightings
- 28:55just in North America, where there are like distinct
- 28:58species that are distinct from what we normally
- 29:00think of as Bigfoot. And I thought it'd be fun
- 29:02to just look at one of them here and say, like,
- 29:05these are the monkey -like ones with actual tails.
- 29:08They're different than the Bigfoot. Yeah. for
- 29:11what I've learned in this episode. And the hilarious
- 29:14thing is, is like Bigfoot's an undiscovered cryptid
- 29:17species. They're doing the work of breaking it
- 29:19down into subcategories of Bigfoots. Yeah, the
- 29:22Bigfoot are, right? Yeah. Did I understand that
- 29:24properly? The weird people like us who like to
- 29:27talk about the Bigfoots. Right, right. And that's
- 29:31probably a good enough spot to end that because
- 29:32I was so eloquent with it. I have been Taylor,
- 29:35here with Chelsea. We are Journey to the Fringe.
- 29:37Thank you all for listening and we'll see you
- 29:38next week. Bye. Thank you for listening to Journey
- 29:42to the Fringe. If you have liked what you have
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- 30:16For now, I'll see you in the next episode.