Season 06 Episode 33: An American Werewolf in America

now nothing more than stubble. Located in southern Wisconsin, just north of the border with Illinois, the four mile stretch of two lane blacktop that stretched off into the distance was little more than a country lane. Bray Road was a typical slice of what some Americans call flyover country, seemingly no different from the myriad of rural byways that crisscrossed the American Heartland. Named after a family of homesteaders, The fifth generation descendants of the original Braid Brothers, still

farmed in the area. It seemed the most unlikely of settings for a paranormal encounter. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard mclin Smith. Back in the autumn of nineteen ninety one, Linda Godfrey was working as a reporter on a local newspaper, the Walworth County week A decade earlier, she'd moved to Walworth Camp with her husband to raise their two boys in this seemingly tranquil rural setting. Since then, Godfrey had turned her hand to news reporting, writing, and

drawing the occasional cartoon for the weekly paper. Forty five miles southwest of the city of Milwaukee, the county seat of Elcorn is the epitome of small town Bucolic America, so much so that in the late nineteen fifties, the Ford Motor Company had commissioned watercolor artist Cecil Johnson to paint six images of Elcorn for its company magazine to reflect the hometown image it wanted its brand to embody.

But over the last few years, reporter and writer Linda Godfrey had become aware of a less cozy undercurrent to life in that part of rural Wisconsin. That had been whisperings of Satanic colt activity, as well as an increasing number of apparent UFO sightings in the region. As autumn was about to turn to winter, Godfrey's editor assigned her to cover another emerging story. There had been recent talk around Elcorn that a strange creature had been seen in

the vicinity of Bray Road. One eyewitness, high school student, Doris Gibson, whom Godfrey was now on her way to meet, had apparently been driving down the road alone on Halloween night when she saw it. It all seemed a little ludicrous to Godfrey, nothing more than a tall tale from the overactive imaginings of a teenager. Before long, she was approaching the spot where she had agreed to meet the young woman, the precise location where she had apparently encountered

the creature. It was early evening when she was driving along the quiet country road, the eighteen year old high school senior explained. Steering with one hand, Gibson was singing along to a song on the car radio, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel in time to the beat, when one of her car's right tires jolted momentarily off the ground startled out of her pop fueled reverie. Gibson said it felt like she'd run over something. Slamming on

the brakes and putting the car in park. Gibson got out at the vehicle and peered nervously behind her into the night. With only a waning crescent moon just above the horizon, Gibson's car's headlights and glowing red tail lights eerily illuminated the faint mist that had risen around her. I was thinking, please, don't let it be a dog or a deer, explained Gibson, or worse, a person. But it wasn't either of those things. Rounding the rear of the car, she peered into the darkness, from out of

which something was emerging. This thing, she said, I don't know what it was, but it was big, and it started running for me. As the shadowy figure rapidly made its way toward her, the terrified Gibson ran back to her car, scrambling to close the door, forgetting to put her seatbelt on, and shaking with fright, the teenager rammed the car into gear. She later claimed that the shadowy figure lunged at her vehicle. Gibson heard scratching sounds on the rear of her car just as her tires got

traction and she drove off at speed. It wasn't long after eight pm when Gibson pulled into the driveway of her friend's house. Shaken by what she'd just experienced, the short distance to the front porch seemed a lot longer than normal. Pushing the lighted doorbell and hearing its two notes ring out, she nervously peered over her shoulder and heaved a sigh of relief as her friend opened the door.

A little over an hour later, Gibson, with her friend now in the passenger seat, was back on the same stretch of road, driving slowly toward the scene of the earlier encounter. Both of the young women scanned the dark surroundings intensely. Then Gibson's grip tightened on the steering wheel as something caught her eye on the roadside just up ahead. She hissed at her friend and pointed at a large dark form crouching by the road, partly hidden by bushes.

With her friend begging her to slow down, Gibson fought the impulse to press her foot on the accelerator pedal and ease the car into a steady crawl. Moments later, as they drew closer to it, the shadowy form vanished into the night, Godfrey's reporter's instincts told her that the eighteen year old was experiencing a genuine sense of fear as she recounted the events. And then there were the scratches on the trunk of her car that did indeed appear to be consistent with two sets of claws running

down the trunk. Driving home in the late afternoon gloom, Godfrey reflected that Pray Road might look completely innocuous in daylight, but now in the gathering darkness, with the mist thickening, the trees really did seem to lean in just a little further and a little more ominously over the road. Soon after Linda Godfrey met the high schooler, more eye witnesses came forward, also claiming to have glimpsed an unusual creature on Bray Road. One was Laurie and Ritzy, a

twenty four year old Elkhorn bar manager. And Ritzy told Godfrey that she'd been reluctant to go public with her story, initially for fear of ridicule, but on hearing that other people had reported a similar encounter, she now felt that she might be believed. It was a little over two years before. She said that she was driving home from work down Bray Road when her attention was drawn to

an odd shape by the roadside. The shape appeared to be part human, part something else, and it was crouched over, looking as if it were feasting on some kind of road killed animal. She described the creature as five foot five, probably weighing around one hundred and fifty pounds, and with brownish gray fur, glowing eyes, pointed ears, and fangs, Andritzy claimed it also appeared to have fur covered hands and

long claws. The bar manager apparently observed the creature for around forty five seconds before it locked a pair of glowing eyes with her and then ran off into the night, and the reports kept coming in. Laurie and Ritzy's mother, Pat Lester, the local school bus driver, remembered over here hearing one of her young passengers telling friends that she'd

seen the creature around Christmas time the previous year. When Godfrey went to visit the passenger, an eleven year old schoolgirl, she described how she'd been near Loveland Road, about a mile and a half southeast of Bray Road, around four thirty one afternoon with some friends when they spotted what looked like a large dog walking along a creek in a corn field, but when the children called out to the animal, it suddenly stood up on its hind legs,

looked up at them, and took four wobbly steps before dropping back down onto all fours and running straight toward them, only to turn off suddenly and run away. Another woman claimed that she was walking with her four children on Bray Road when a deer ran across the road right in front of them, chased by a large, fierce looking

creature walking not on all fours but on two legs. Meanwhile, dairy farmer Scott Bray claimed to have seen a strange looking dog in his pasture near Bray Road two years earlier in the autumn of nineteen eighty nine, while another local man, Russell Guest, also reported seeing a tall creature walk out of some bushes on two legs nearby. Each time, as one after another recounted their sighting, Godfrey would marvel at how white they would turn. Some even sweated visibly

at the memory of it. Not everyone in the local community was convinced that there was anything unusual about the reports. However, One local man, Jeff Hubbard, who'd hunted regularly in the area for years, was unswayed by the graphic description of a two legged dog or wolf like humanoid, stating the Marshers are home to a lot of deer and coyote. I've seen plenty while out hunting, but I've never seen

the creature. Meanwhile, the local sheriff's department joked about getting some silver bullets made just in case, But after several weeks collecting eyewitness reports, Godfrey was starting to wonder if there was something to the story after all. Using her skills as an illustrator, she made a sketch of the creature corresponding to the accounts. Then she spent time at the local library searching through wildlife books, trying to match the image to pictures of wolves and other local wildlife,

but nothing fit. So Godfrey paid a visit to the county animal Control officer to see if they might be able to shed some light on it all. John Fredericson was a fairly straight down the line kind of guy who was typically kept busy following up on reports of mistreated dogs and cats, So when Godfrey asked him what he thought about the sightings, she was expecting to be given short shift. What happened next caught her completely by surprise.

As John Fredericson explained to Linda Godfrey he'd been collecting his own reports of a strange creature in the area since nineteen eighty six. Godfrey watched, astounded as Fredericson then wandered over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a Manila folder. The one word label on it read simply werewolf. There was some common characteristics to the reports which Frederickson

had compiled. Most people described a bipedal dog, but with a humanoid appearance, hairy and with clawed hands rather than paws, red or glowing yellow eyes, pointy ears, a long snout, and legs bent backwards like a dog's. The creature was often said to have stirred and run on its hind legs,

all in keeping with everything Godfrey had been told. Most sightings seemed to occur between ten thirty pm and five am, and although reports occurred all year round, they seemed to peek between August and October, when cornfields full of yet to be harvested crops would facilitate covert movement, and while apparent witnesses seemed genuinely frightened by what they saw. There were no reports lots of attacks on people. In fact, when encountered, the creature seemed to want to get out

of sight as quickly as possible. On December twenty ninth, nineteen ninety one, The Walworth County Week published Godfrey's story as the Sunday's centerfold. It detailed the full testimonies of Doris Gibson and Lourie Andretzy describing the wolfish looking creature they'd seen on Bray Road. The piece also included the sketch that Godfrey had made from reports of the creature, depicting a werewolf like animal kneeling in the road clutching

a hunk of meat. Avoiding the more dramatic and incendary term, Godfrey named the phenomenon the Beast of Bray Road, acknowledging that the stories seemed more like something you might read in the National Enquirer. Linda god Godfrey fully expected that not long after its publication the story would simply fade away. Instead, it launched a media frenzy, and the word where wolf

was on everyone's lips. At the end of nineteen ninety one, newspaper editor Joe Shackleman was relaxing at home watching TV one evening in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when he became aware of the newsreader talking about the Beast of Bray Road. When Linda Godfrey's sketch or the creature appeared on the screen, every hair on Shackleman's body stood on end. He recognized that image. Rushing to the next room, he searched through stacks of documents until he found his sketch. Then Shackleman

called Godfrey to relay his father's story. In nineteen thirty six, Joe's father, Mark, was in his early thirties and working as a night watchman at the Saint Coletta School for

exceptional children on the outskirts of Jefferson, Wisconsin. Shackoman was out patrolling the sprawling grounds, which included orchards, gardens, and several Native American burial mounts, when he apparently saw what appeared to be a shaggy, dog faced creature with a muscular human torso kneeling on one of the mounds, digging into the earth slowly. Shackoman backed away and spotting him, the creature did the same for a few paces before running away on two legs. When Shackoman went back to

the mound the next morning. He later said that the earth looked as if it had been raked over by a claw. The following evening, Shackelmann was again walking the grounds around midnight when he encountered the creature for a second time, but instead of running off this time, he claimed that it stood to face him. The watchman described the beast as covered in thick, dark hair and smelling like long dead meat. He said that it had fangs

and was over six feet tall. Its thumb and forefinger seemed shrunken, so that it appeared to have only three fingers, He claimed. The creature then looked him in the eye and spoke in what seemed to be a proto human language, uttering what sounded like gard ah Rah Gadara is a place mentioned in the Bible where a man was filled with demons a deal Catholic. Shackelmann later told the story to his wife, making her promise to keep it a secret.

It was some twenty two years later, in nineteen fifty eight, that Mark finally told his son Joe about it. At his father's insistence, Joe started to draw what his father described being corrected over and over again until the sketch matched his father's memory. The apparent wolf like man had ears that looked like pointed devil horns, a row of prominent fangs, and no visible tale hair hung off his

arms and legs like dark lichen. Satisfied finally with what Joe had drawn, his father looked down at the image. That damn thing came straight out of hell, he said. As Joe Shackleman recounted his father's story to Linda Godfrey, she was reminded that several eyewitnesses had commented that they thought what they'd seen was some kind of Satanic entity. A committed Lutheran. Godfrey wondered if there was a connection between the Beast of Bray Road and reports of Satanic

rites and devil worship in the area. The idea had also been mooted by county animal control officer John Fredericson. He'd heard rumors about individuals posing as animal control officers in search of stray dogs. Then in the summer of nineteen ninety one, Fredericson came across roughly a dozen animals in a ditch along Willow Road, a quiet country lane near Bray Road. Some had ropes secured around their legs. Their throats had been slit, others had been decapitated entirely

or dismembered. One dog's heart had been removed. Several of the deceased animals matched the description of missing local pets. To Frederickson, it certainly looked as though the animals had been used in some kind of cult ritual. Then one law enforcement officer told him that several counties in Wisconsin were notorious for satanic cult activity, and that Walworth County

was one of them. Meetings were rumored to occur in some of the county's forested areas, but when Fredericson brought his findings to the attention of the local police, his suspicions were dismissed. The local police chief insisted that the animal corpses were part of a boneyard for local livestock, and shortly afterwards they bulldozed over the ditch where the

dead animals had been found. The satanic trail had gone cold, and as the months then years passed, sightings of the strange humanoid dog like creature dried up and interest died down. Then in two thousand and two, a mysterious three minute video came to light, presented by someone called Steve Cook. Back in nineteen eighty seven, Kirk wrote a song that fueled interest in another apparent creature, known as the Michigan

dog Man. Kerk initially claimed that he'd found the footage on an old reel to reel tape purchased at a garage sale, purporting to have been made back in the nineteen seventies and known as the Gabled Film. It depicted the camera operator driving his pickup truck down a rural dirt road, then suddenly being attacked by a huge, four legged beast. For nearly ten years, Cook claimed the film was real and not altered in any way, until finally admitting to Linda Godfrey on an episode of the History

Channel's Monster Quest that the film was fake. In twenty thirteen, Linda Godfrey was contacted by Lee Hemple, a retired maths and physics teacher from Illinois who'd bought a forty acre hayfield close to Bray Road, Impressed by stories his neighbours told him about the so called Beast of Bray Road having been seen on his property, who set up camera traps documenting the mutilation and disappearance of dozens of animal corpses in ways that he claimed defied the laws of nature.

Hemple had been filming the carcass of a sixty pound deer, which he'd placed in full view of one of his cameras. The carcass disappeared overnight, but when Hemple examined the camera footage, at some time in the middle of the night, a mist had formed, obscuring the carcass from view. When the

mist cleared in later footage, the deer was gone. After this incident, Emple claimed to have found unusual tracks that appeared to be the hindset of canine like prints crossing his land, taking the evidence to the local Department of Natural Resources, they told him that it was nothing but an abnormal coyote. Over the intervening years since the original Beast of Bray Road reports put Elkhorn on the map, the town has done relatively to capitalize on its beastly legend.

Local opinion remains divided on whether the apparent beast is real, imagined, or a case of mangy mistaken identity. Linda Godfrey spent the latter part of her career researching and writing about the Beast of Bray Road, werewolves and other cryptozoological phenomena. She said it was something that she never felt comfortable joking about or dismissing. Everyone wants to believe in, something. She wrote in her two thousand and six book Hunting

the American Werewolf. What if you see something you don't understand. The fear lies not in the beast itself, but in not knowing what to make of it. Linda Godfrey died in November twenty twenty two. No physical evidence of an unknown canid creature has so far been found in Woolworth County. Thank you to Paula Udelitche for suggesting this week's episode. This episode was written by Diane Hope. Unexplained is an

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