9. The Beast Of Bray Road
Standing at around 7ft tall, the Best of Bray Road is usually described as a bipedal, wolf-like creature that haunts a lonely stretch of rural roadside just outside of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Imagine the result if Bigfoot mated with a werewolf and youre getting there... Surely conventional science does not allow for the existence of such a creature? Youre right. It doesnt. However, that doesnt stop the beast from being regularly sighted throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere. He isnt alone, either. The Beast of Bray Road has at least one cousin in The Michigan Dogman, another shaggy-haired, bipedal wolf-like creature. The Dogmans legend dates back to the late 19th century, but it gained renewed popularity in the late 1980s when a local radio DJ made a song about him/it. In addition, hoaxed footage of the Dogman (convincing enough to baffle more than a few experts) purportedly taken in the 1970s was famously created in 2007 by ingenious amateur filmmaker Mike Agrusa. Agrusa also made a gory sequel to his classic hoax a short time later. Tales of wolf-men are common throughout the United States; such creatures are described in the Louisiana folk tales of the Loup Garou (no doubt an offshoot of French werewolf tales/events, such as the murder spree attributed to the famous Beast of Gévaudan in the 1760s). However, whilst it is tempting to ascribe a European origin to all werewolf mythology, let us not forget that Native American tales of shape-shifting Skinwalkers share much in common with European werewolf stories... In 2006, a family living on a remote farm in Palmyra, Maine reported experiencing a horrifying night, as a pack of large, wolf-like beasts with glowing eyes surrounded their house and threatened all inside... Could all these stories be describing a real creature? Or do they merely speak to an unconscious fear of the predator within by giving a name and a form to the howling, animalistic id within us all, yearning to be free? Either way, its a pretty scary prospect.