Philadelphia Weirdness

3. Bizarre Creatures

Although the legend of the werewolf spans across the world, real incidents of such encounters are either very scarce or simply never documented, but they do in fact exist. Lancaster County may be an hour's drive from Philly but we simply couldn't resist the following tale of wolfen weirdness to howl, or indeed shudder at!

Wisconsin author Linda Godfrey, in her fantastic book, Hunting The American Werewolf, comments that:

With a Germanic heritage second to none, Pennsylvania has always enjoyed a lively folkltale repertoire including werewolf, or Woolfmann, notions brought from the old country where trials of alleged witches and changesters remained vivid in emigrants' minds.

With that we venture to Lancaster, where sightings of Albatwitches, meaning 'apple snatchers,' have been recorded. Such humanoids were seen in February 2002. They were said to resemble stick-like figures, strolling by the road side. Such beings are covered in hair and stand around five to six feet in height, but are not bulky. Bigfoot researchers have argued that such creatures may be juvenile Sasquatch, but witnesses argue that the monsters they have seen have long muzzles and are not ape-like but very skinny.

Another eerie beast said to roam Lancaster County is the Goatman. Sightings date back to the 1970s when farmers recorded seeing a bipedal wolf-like animal stealing a chicken. The beast was gray in colour with a white mane, and had long claws, and on its head were two horns. Meanwhile, Spook Wolves are odd entities said to roam near Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania. These beasts are said to be wolf spirits that were seen as far back as the 1800s. Legend has it that wolf corpses, stuffed and once on display at the Philadelphia Centennial, were in fact mere shells to house such evil spectres, and although such ghosts could never attack anyone they were often associated with the Devil, and seen by graves. Some researchers have suggested that such monsters are similar to phantom black dogs, or 'hellhounds,' which are also considered bad omens.

Photo courtesy of Jom D's photostream

Sources: Monster! The A-Z Of Zooform Phenomena by Neil Arnold, and Hunting the American Werewolf by Linda Godfrey (Trails Books 2006)