2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
In search of the goat man myth
Kristi Tousignant
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
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He is Goatman.
The legend that has haunted Prince George's County for decades has become part urban, legend part ancient folklore. With his own Wikipedia page, Facebook groups and haunted house show, Goatman is an icon to rival any Bigfoot, Yeti or Loch Ness Monster.
His home turf is the university's back yard. He has been reported seen across the county in Beltsville, Mitchellville and Bowie, though, sightings in Texas, Alabama and Michigan have elevated Goatman to a national phenomenon.
And as this year's Halloween festivities arrive, his legacy has finally been chronicled in print with the publication of alumnus Mark Opsasnick's book, The Real Story Behind the Exorcist: A Study of the Haunted Boy and Other True-Life Horror Legends From Around the Nation's Capital, which includes an in-depth chapter on the Goatman.
Opsasnick said he set out to discover Goatman's true origins.
After digging through newspaper archives, he discovered a cache of 1957 articles describing an "abominable phantom" lurking in Upper Marlboro with the same physical description as the modern Goatman. Opsasnick believes this phantom is what evolved into the story of Goatman over the next few decades.
"It traveled through the county and was transformed through word of mouth," Opsasnick said in an interview. "It was used to scare kids to keep them in line and eventually spread through high schools to become a legend."
It was in the 1970s that Goatman began to spawn other legends.
In one version he was an old hermit creeping around the back roads of the county. In another, he became a kind of Sasquatch figure.
The third legend that emerged became the most popular. This variation told the story of mad scientist, Dr. Stephen Fletcher, who worked in the United States Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville where one of his experiments went horribly wrong. Working with goat and human DNA to try to save his fatally ill wife, Jenny Fletcher, Dr. Fletcher's research mutated into a hybrid beast; part goat, part man.
This version of the story has become an running joke among employees at the Agricultural Research Center.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Greg
posted 10/31/07 @ 8:03 AM EST
No quote from Dr. Barry Lee Pearson? Where is my BLP??
jimbo
posted 10/31/07 @ 6:33 PM EST
He chased me on my bike down Fletchertown Rd in Bowie once in the early 90s. I squirted my water bottle at him and swatted at him with my air pump. I never said anything because no one would believe me. (Continued…)
derek
posted 11/06/07 @ 1:59 PM EST
I think this is the biggest pile of crap and propaganda I've ever heard! Have any of these rumors been proven? This is nothing more than the media's continuing attempts to keep the public in fear. (Continued…)
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