I've managed to run into a copy and paste of Brian Bethel's experience of an encounter with Black Eyed Kids. The post was originally on a newsgroup space online but over the years has been taken down. Technology being what it is, this account has been saved by many people and re-posted online. The link I'm about to post is connected with an internet 'conversation' with a chat group and a Mr. Jon Northwood, so Northwood's account of a very frightening encounter with BEKs immediately follows Bethel's.
Here's the material:
Bethel and Northwood accounts of BEKs
Now this was apparently re-posted by Bethel, as well. I have copied the latter part of the posting from the above page to place here. These accounts appear to have been posted and re-posted by Bethel in an attempt to sort out what might be going on concerning these Black Eyed Children.
Just below is Bethel's explanation for re-posting his account and the Jon Northwood account of BEK experiences. Bethel's words are in bold just to stand out from my own text:
[Jon Northwood has just ended his account with the comment, "I'm freaked out, people."]
"As was I, for obvious reasons.
Okay, now, the commentary:
I've been haunted -- no pun intended -- by this story ever since I decided to share it. Rather than the ridicule I expected, it seems that it touches some sort of strange, primal chord in people.
I've been trying, of course, to move beyond and forget these events, but inevitably something comes along to remind me of it.
Apparently, I've become something of an urban legend. I have people ask me all the time on the Net: "Hey, did you read the ghost story about the guy who saw the black-eyed kids who wanted to get in his car?"
"Yeah, that was me."
"Really? Cool!"
"Not exactly."
And that's something I can't seem to get the point across about. This was not "cool." It was not "just like being in a Stephen King novel!" or any of the inane comments that sometimes go along with it. It was real, though sometimes it made me feel crazy.
And now, I have a report from someone I trust that an extremely similar event has occurred -- and even resulted in the death of someone, at least indirectly.
In a word: Help?
I need thoughts. I need ideas. I need to calm down. ;) But beyond that ... I just want to know what people think about this?
I've protected myself in my own manner. I am not worried about any danger to me. But this is too close to what I experienced to be mere coincidence.
Your thoughts are welcomed.
Brian
Copyright©1999-2004 by Brian Bethel
brianbet@camalott.com"
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Hub 8 in the Hub Challenge: The Goatman of Maryland
http://urbanlegendfolkloremyths.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
The Goatman of Maryland is a hominid cryptid creature said to have originated in the Maryland, U.S.A. region.
The Goatman is part man, part goat, but there are different tales available about how the man came to have half man features as well as the body parts of a goat.
Some say The Goatman was into Black Magic and turned himself into a goat. Other stories differ and say a man was part of a strange medical experiment in a remote area of Maryland. This latter experiment went all wrong and a man ended up as a freakish hybrid man-goat who stalks the Maryland area still today. Most accounts tell of a hard-working goat-farming man who was overcome by a natural disaster, science experimentation, government/scientific projects, or black magic. Afterward, it seems the man survived, but not as a whole human being - rather - as a half human, half goat creature.
Some accounts give details about the Goatman's insanity
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Leeds Devil
For some really fantastic pictures, artists depictions of the Devil of Leeds, check out this google search (be sure to right-click tho' or you'll depart from the page/blog here.
Google Search on "Leeds Devil."
Now, if you've followed the link in a new browser window, you should have Google Images as a top link. Continue r-clicks to view some of these pictures! The link "Image results for leeds devil" should just open up a large page with THE most varied depictions of a much-talked-about creature as you've ever seen.
Wow!
I've researched some on the Dover Demon, Springheeled Jack, even the Mothman but with all of these, most eyewitnesses and research enthusiasts into those phenomena closely AGREE on what these entities look like. Not so with our Leeds Devil!
Otherwise known as The Jersey Devil. This Jersey Devil has been a legend for at least 250 years. As far as urban legends go, the time and place where the Jersey Devil was "born" is perfect!
Time: 250+ years ago when record-keeping of births, deaths, life events wasn't all that well done. Also - before the conveniences of phones, computers, easily accesible motor vehicles, etc like we have nowadays.
Place: somewhere in the vicinity of Pine Barrens (or somewhere near Smithfield), New Jersey - a heavily forested area along coastal southern New Jersey, U.S.A. Perfect - but let me give you a little more background here...
The area was/is called "barrens" because the soil SUCKS...it's highly acidic, quite sandy, and has poor nutrients. Though a ton of trees obviously grow there, a lot are a pygmy 'pitch pine,' just generally a hardy type of tree. Guess what else grows in the barrens?
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS.... ewwwe! So anyhow - once I learned this, it took me about 12 seconds to think about this far-stretching expanse of pines, "barren" of most 'common' sort of plants or useful plants - and a bunch of carnivorous variety of plants...and it was easy to understand the awe with which people 250 years ago must have lived.
It sounds like a very hostile environment without the flesh-eating plants, too, eh? Chances are, in "the olden days," back before science took North America by storm - when the land was largely still being 'settled' and 'broken,' the average person would likely be very frightened in the dense pines and with 'strange-behaving' plant species around.
Anyway - 'way back around 1735, with no comforts like we are used to - in a hostile, earthy environment, there was a woman living near "Leeds Point," who along with her very large family, was very impoverished. She had a dozen children already and lo' and behold - found out she was pregnant with her 13th bundle of joy.
Legend has it that she was overwhelmed with this pregnancy and she CURSED the child right off - "To The Devil With This Child!" or "Give This One To The Devil!" - so that when it was born it turned into a horrific creature.
Apparently, for the first few minutes of his/its life, the child appeared relatively normal - but not for very long...within scant moments, the child morphed into an ugly thing, and flew up and out the chimney...
Of course - that's just one version of the legend.
Other versions have the woman as a Mrs Shrouds who lived in Leeds Point, NJ - hence the title, "Mrs Leeds."
Some versions have the child being born with forked tail, horns on its head and wings. Also, with a horse-shaped head. Some versions don't have a definite description of the child. This cursed child is just said to have been born all deformed and misshapen. In most versions, the newborn child slinks away or flies away right after its birth, but in a few stories, Mother Leeds keeps her child for a little while, though the infant is deformed. She's shunned and feared by her community and keeps her child mainly sheltered inside at all times - partly worried that the Pine Barrens/Leeds community will kill him/it. In this version, however, with no real reference to how old the child grows to be while Mother Leeds is hiding it away, it is said to have suddenly flapped its wings and flown off!
That last paragraph has about 4 versions of mixed details but really - there are just so many versions of the Leeds Devil story - it's hard to keep track of things.
Some say the child was a product of union between an underaged girl during the Revolutionary War - and a British soldier she fell in love with. In this version, it is the people of Leeds who cause the troubles. They curse the girl for her horrific transgression - and when the child is born, it is born a devil. Either the transgression of the girl - or - the terrible treatment by the Leeds-folk is said to have caused the devil to be born.
There are versions which say the birth happened in Burlington, NJ. Versions hail from Estelville NJ., and the exact place where the Jersey Devil was born is hard to track down.
There are even discrepancies on which numbered child the Jersey Devil was. Some say the 10th child, others, the 6th child, the 8th or the 12th. The favourite number seems, however, to be 13 - another reason to call this Leeds child a devil - superstition over the number 13.
Here's a cool site with some information connected to a funky map
"Here's the map." (r-click and let the page load - it's an interesting site and a cool way to navigate!)
It's the "monsterlore" website. Just move your cursor/mouse around the map and over the placemarker dots. You might have to drag the square around in the left-hand corner first. Anyhow - everywhere there's a little yellow dot, there's a legend or a monster story attached to that place on the map. Naturally, I found the one for "Jersey Devil" by clicking the dot on the very far right - which highlighted as "Leeds PT."
So, once I had read the Monsterlore article, I got messing around with Google searches and found those incredibly varied pictures.
I still have at least a dozen windows open, browsing photos but I wanted to give you those two cool links and blog a little about one of my fave legends, the Leeds Devil.
Let me know if you had fun with the map, eh? Also - let me know what your fave legend is at that site. I'm slowly working through the articles over there - there are A LOT of them!
Google Search on "Leeds Devil."
Now, if you've followed the link in a new browser window, you should have Google Images as a top link. Continue r-clicks to view some of these pictures! The link "Image results for leeds devil" should just open up a large page with THE most varied depictions of a much-talked-about creature as you've ever seen.
Wow!
I've researched some on the Dover Demon, Springheeled Jack, even the Mothman but with all of these, most eyewitnesses and research enthusiasts into those phenomena closely AGREE on what these entities look like. Not so with our Leeds Devil!
Otherwise known as The Jersey Devil. This Jersey Devil has been a legend for at least 250 years. As far as urban legends go, the time and place where the Jersey Devil was "born" is perfect!
Time: 250+ years ago when record-keeping of births, deaths, life events wasn't all that well done. Also - before the conveniences of phones, computers, easily accesible motor vehicles, etc like we have nowadays.
Place: somewhere in the vicinity of Pine Barrens (or somewhere near Smithfield), New Jersey - a heavily forested area along coastal southern New Jersey, U.S.A. Perfect - but let me give you a little more background here...
The area was/is called "barrens" because the soil SUCKS...it's highly acidic, quite sandy, and has poor nutrients. Though a ton of trees obviously grow there, a lot are a pygmy 'pitch pine,' just generally a hardy type of tree. Guess what else grows in the barrens?
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS.... ewwwe! So anyhow - once I learned this, it took me about 12 seconds to think about this far-stretching expanse of pines, "barren" of most 'common' sort of plants or useful plants - and a bunch of carnivorous variety of plants...and it was easy to understand the awe with which people 250 years ago must have lived.
It sounds like a very hostile environment without the flesh-eating plants, too, eh? Chances are, in "the olden days," back before science took North America by storm - when the land was largely still being 'settled' and 'broken,' the average person would likely be very frightened in the dense pines and with 'strange-behaving' plant species around.
Anyway - 'way back around 1735, with no comforts like we are used to - in a hostile, earthy environment, there was a woman living near "Leeds Point," who along with her very large family, was very impoverished. She had a dozen children already and lo' and behold - found out she was pregnant with her 13th bundle of joy.
Legend has it that she was overwhelmed with this pregnancy and she CURSED the child right off - "To The Devil With This Child!" or "Give This One To The Devil!" - so that when it was born it turned into a horrific creature.
Apparently, for the first few minutes of his/its life, the child appeared relatively normal - but not for very long...within scant moments, the child morphed into an ugly thing, and flew up and out the chimney...
Of course - that's just one version of the legend.
Other versions have the woman as a Mrs Shrouds who lived in Leeds Point, NJ - hence the title, "Mrs Leeds."
Some versions have the child being born with forked tail, horns on its head and wings. Also, with a horse-shaped head. Some versions don't have a definite description of the child. This cursed child is just said to have been born all deformed and misshapen. In most versions, the newborn child slinks away or flies away right after its birth, but in a few stories, Mother Leeds keeps her child for a little while, though the infant is deformed. She's shunned and feared by her community and keeps her child mainly sheltered inside at all times - partly worried that the Pine Barrens/Leeds community will kill him/it. In this version, however, with no real reference to how old the child grows to be while Mother Leeds is hiding it away, it is said to have suddenly flapped its wings and flown off!
That last paragraph has about 4 versions of mixed details but really - there are just so many versions of the Leeds Devil story - it's hard to keep track of things.
Some say the child was a product of union between an underaged girl during the Revolutionary War - and a British soldier she fell in love with. In this version, it is the people of Leeds who cause the troubles. They curse the girl for her horrific transgression - and when the child is born, it is born a devil. Either the transgression of the girl - or - the terrible treatment by the Leeds-folk is said to have caused the devil to be born.
There are versions which say the birth happened in Burlington, NJ. Versions hail from Estelville NJ., and the exact place where the Jersey Devil was born is hard to track down.
There are even discrepancies on which numbered child the Jersey Devil was. Some say the 10th child, others, the 6th child, the 8th or the 12th. The favourite number seems, however, to be 13 - another reason to call this Leeds child a devil - superstition over the number 13.
Here's a cool site with some information connected to a funky map
"Here's the map." (r-click and let the page load - it's an interesting site and a cool way to navigate!)
It's the "monsterlore" website. Just move your cursor/mouse around the map and over the placemarker dots. You might have to drag the square around in the left-hand corner first. Anyhow - everywhere there's a little yellow dot, there's a legend or a monster story attached to that place on the map. Naturally, I found the one for "Jersey Devil" by clicking the dot on the very far right - which highlighted as "Leeds PT."
So, once I had read the Monsterlore article, I got messing around with Google searches and found those incredibly varied pictures.
I still have at least a dozen windows open, browsing photos but I wanted to give you those two cool links and blog a little about one of my fave legends, the Leeds Devil.
Let me know if you had fun with the map, eh? Also - let me know what your fave legend is at that site. I'm slowly working through the articles over there - there are A LOT of them!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Which is Scarier - Clowns or Kids?
I've seen Children of the Corn (1st movie) again recently - freaky! And did you realize there were 7 - S E V E N - movies in that series? Oh yes, there sure were.
This is because kids are TERRIFYING.
In some other "kids-turn-bad" movies, evil children start out all nice and smiley, girls sashaying around in pretty dresses and boys nodding politely, saying "Yessir" and "Yes ma'am!" And then something happens to them - or they grow out of politeness and into something else. I'm not sure what it is, but in the movies, they shed off the niceties. Soon, the smiles turn to strange time-sucking stares. Stares turn to sneers - sneers turn to snarls...
What's up with that, anyway?
"Hold my hand..."
(Um, maybe later kid)
"Walk with me..."
(Well, uhhh - I've got some work to do, little girl)
"Why can't you come play with me?"
(Well, little boy, I can't - because you're not cute anymore now that you're evil and your blue eyes are now glowing green!)
And have you seen Children of the Damned? What are those creatures - whoops, I mean what ARE those kids supposed to be, anyway. Maybe I haven't seen the movie 19 times yet to understand what's fully going on - but are those kids ALIENS or something? Genetically altered, or what?
C R E E P Y !!!
Almost as creepy as Pennywise in "IT."
Now, admittedly, I do have a touch of Coulrophobia (fear of clowns), but now I'm wondering if there's a phobia, too, about fear of evil movie-children...
What would that be called? Kideraphobia? Childraphobia?
Oh wait - it's simpler than that - I just looked it up on Wikipedia. Fear of children is called "pediophobia."
I like my names for it better. Maybe fear of children can remain with the label pediophobia - and fear of evil movie-children can be called Childraphobia. Fear of bratty, shape-shifting kids with glowing eyes and such in movies can be called Kideraphobia, okay?
So - still - which entities are worse? Clowns or evil movie-children, huh?
On one hand, we have Children of the Corn, Children of the Damned, and new age "threats" like Black Eyed Kids ...
(See my BEK Lens) right-click or you'll go off the page.
On the other hand, we also have Pennywise the clown from the movie "IT." Not to mention that real life serial killer, John Wayne Gacy actually was a registered clown - as a secondary job.
So which do you think is scarier, anyway - kids or clowns?
This is because kids are TERRIFYING.
In some other "kids-turn-bad" movies, evil children start out all nice and smiley, girls sashaying around in pretty dresses and boys nodding politely, saying "Yessir" and "Yes ma'am!" And then something happens to them - or they grow out of politeness and into something else. I'm not sure what it is, but in the movies, they shed off the niceties. Soon, the smiles turn to strange time-sucking stares. Stares turn to sneers - sneers turn to snarls...
What's up with that, anyway?
"Hold my hand..."
(Um, maybe later kid)
"Walk with me..."
(Well, uhhh - I've got some work to do, little girl)
"Why can't you come play with me?"
(Well, little boy, I can't - because you're not cute anymore now that you're evil and your blue eyes are now glowing green!)
And have you seen Children of the Damned? What are those creatures - whoops, I mean what ARE those kids supposed to be, anyway. Maybe I haven't seen the movie 19 times yet to understand what's fully going on - but are those kids ALIENS or something? Genetically altered, or what?
C R E E P Y !!!
Almost as creepy as Pennywise in "IT."
Now, admittedly, I do have a touch of Coulrophobia (fear of clowns), but now I'm wondering if there's a phobia, too, about fear of evil movie-children...
What would that be called? Kideraphobia? Childraphobia?
Oh wait - it's simpler than that - I just looked it up on Wikipedia. Fear of children is called "pediophobia."
I like my names for it better. Maybe fear of children can remain with the label pediophobia - and fear of evil movie-children can be called Childraphobia. Fear of bratty, shape-shifting kids with glowing eyes and such in movies can be called Kideraphobia, okay?
So - still - which entities are worse? Clowns or evil movie-children, huh?
On one hand, we have Children of the Corn, Children of the Damned, and new age "threats" like Black Eyed Kids ...
(See my BEK Lens) right-click or you'll go off the page.
On the other hand, we also have Pennywise the clown from the movie "IT." Not to mention that real life serial killer, John Wayne Gacy actually was a registered clown - as a secondary job.
So which do you think is scarier, anyway - kids or clowns?
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