This week's installment is the first in a two part series from the article "Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois" by legendary researchers Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman. It was published by FATE in the July 1974 edition of the magazine (Vol. 27, #7). It is being reprinted with permission from FATE Magazine and all reproductions rights remain with them.
And now, journey back into the FATE Magazine archives and learn about a truly strange series of creature sightings which stumped Illinois residents in the early 1970's...
Swamp Slobs of Illinois
By: Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman
FATE Magazine, July 1974 (Vol. 27, #7)
Illinois harbors some strange inhabitants not mentioned in the tourist guides. In fact, the vast majority of the state’s citizens do not even recognize their existence. About the only ones who do are the handful who have seen them and even these persons have a hard time talking about “them.”
For one thing, “they” don’t even have a name. Researcher John Keel, who has studied their appearances and habits over the years, calls them “abominable swamp slobs” but the moniker hasn’t caught on. Call them what you will, they’re unwelcome. Any creature, animal or human that prowls around scaring people—and on top of that smells bad—isn’t likely to be loved.
They are so far beyond our understanding that it’s no wonder stories about them incite incredulity. But the frequent reports of their appearance in the wooded and watery areas of Illinois and other places, coupled with the obvious sincerity of those who say they have encountered them, could convince us something awfully strange is going on in the backwaters of America.
In the summer of 1973 Murphysboro in southwestern Illinois was the scene of a bizarre series of events involving a creature which appeared suddenly and disappeared just as suddenly two weeks later, leaving in its wake a number of baffled, frightened individuals who probably never again will feel completely at ease in the woods around their hometown.
The creature was first seen shortly after midnight on June 25, 1973. Randy Needham and Judy Johnson were parked on a boat ramp to the Big Muddy River near Murphysboro when a cry “about three times as loud as a bobcat, only deeper” sounded in the nearby woods. The two looked up to see a huge biped lumbering toward them, still shrieking but now in altering tones. It was not a human sound.
Randy and Judy agreed the thing was about seven feet tall, white, its short body hair matted with river mud. They were not interested in examining it at close range and by the time it got within 20 feet of them they were roaring away from the scene, bound for the Murphysboro police station.
Officers Meryl Lindsey and Jimmie Nash checked the area and found “impressions in the mud, approximately 10 to 12 inches long and approximately three inches wide,” according to the report they filed later. To a FATE reporter, Needham later described the impressions as “something like a man with a shoe would make—only the thing wasn’t wearing shoes.” He suggested that toe prints may not have registered in the mud.
At 2:00 A.M. Nash, Lindsey Needham and Deputy Sherriff Bob Scott returned to the scene. This time they discovered fresh tracks, similar in general appearance to those they had seen an hour earlier, but deeper and smaller. The police report reads: “The prints in the mud were very irratic (sic) in that no two were the same distance apart and some were five to six feet apart. Also, prints were found very close together.”
Officer Lindsey left to get a camera to take picture of the prints and while he was gone the other three followed the tracks. While they were bending over to examine some of them, there came “the most incredible shriek I’ve ever heard,” Nash recalled. Apparently the creature was hidden in the trees less than 100 yards away. The trio didn’t stick around to find out. They beat a hasty retreat to the squad car. In the hours that followed officers did scour the area in pursuit of the elusive splashing sound but found nothing.
When daylight came things quieted down but with darkness the creature returned.
The first to see it this time was four-year-old Christian Baril who told his parents he had seen “a big white ghost in the yard.” They didn’t believe him—but 10 minutes later, when Randy Creath and Cheryl Ray saw something very much like that in the neighboring yard, parents and police reconsidered the youngster’s words.
About 10:30 P.M. Randy and Cheryl were sitting on the back porch of the Ray home when they heard something moving in the trees along the river just beyond the lawn. Then they saw the creature standing in an opening in the trees, quietly watching them through glowing pink eyes. Cheryl insists the eyes were glowing, not reflecting—there was no light source nearby.
The creature was either the same one the other young couple had seen the night before or one similar to it. It was white and dirty, weighed close to 350 pounds and stood seven feet tall; it had a large round head. Cheryl thought its arms might be “ape-length,” although she wasn’t certain because it was standing in waist-high grass.
Randy went down to get a closer look while Cheryl went inside to turn on the yard light. The light didn’t reveal much more of the creature than they had already seen.
Finally the thing ambled off through the trees, making considerable noise. Later, investigators found a trail of crushed weeds and broken vrush, as well as imprints in the ground too vague and imperfect to be cast in plaster.
Cheryl’s mother Mrs. Harry Ray called the police. While waiting for them to arrive, they suddenly began to smell a “real strong odor—like a sewer,” but the odor lasted only a short time.
Soon Officers Nash and Ronald Manwaring pulled up in their car. What happened then is recounted in their report:
“Officers inspected the area where the creature was seen and found weeds broken down and somewhat of a path where something had walked through. Jerry Nellis was notified to bring his dog to the area to see if the dog would track the creature. Upon arrival of Nellis and his dog (a German shepherd trained to attack, search buildings and track) the dog was led to the area where the creature was last seen. The dog began tracking down the hill where the creature was reported to have gone.
“As the dog started down the hill it kept stopping and sniffing at a slime substance on the weeds; the slime appeared periodically as the dog tracked the creature. Nellis put some of the slime between his fingers, rubbed it and it left a black coloring on his fingers. Each time the dog found amounts of it, the dog would hesitate.
“The creature was tracked down the hill to a pond, around the pond to a wooded area south of the pond where the dog attempted to pull Nellis down a steep embankment. The area where the dog tracked to was too thick and bushy to walk through, so the dog was pulled off the trail and returned to the car. Officers then searched the area with flashlights.
“Officers Nash, Nellis and the dog then proceeded to the area directly south of where the dog was pulled off the tracks. The area was at the end of the first road to the west past Westwood Hills turnoff. The area is approximately one-half mile south of the area of the pond behind 37 Westwood Lane.
“Nellis and the dog again began to search the area to see if the dog could again pick up the scent. Nellis and the dog approached the abandoned barn and Nellis called to Officer Nash to come to the area as the dog would not enter the barn. Nellis pushed the dog inside and the dog immediately ran out. Nash and Nellis searched the barn and found nothing inside. Nellis stated the dog was trained to search buildings and had never backed down from anything. Nellis could offer no explanation as to why the dog became scared and would not go inside the barn. Officers continued to search the area and were unable to locate the creature.”
The Murphysboro creature was reported two more times. During an evening July Fourth celebration in a city park near the river, carnival workers said they had seen it watching the Shetland ponies. And on July 7 Mrs. Nedra Green heard a shrill piercing scream from near the shed on her isolated farm. She did not go out to investigate.
So what was the Murphysboro creature? The authorities admit they don’t know.
“A lot of things in my life are unexplained,” Police Chief Toby Berger says, “and this is another one. We don’t know what the creature is. But we do believe what these people saw was real…These are good, honest people. They are seeing something. And who would walk through sewer tanks for a joke?”
More on the spate of Illinois 'Swamp Slob' sightings of 1973 in next week's FATE Flashback.