The Beast of Bladenboro

In 1954, a savage killer kept a small North Carolina town in a grip of terror. He left big tracks, a bloody trail and a hair-raising legend. Was it a bear? A vampire-cat? To this day, the creature remains a mystery

Bladenboro is a small community surrounded by pine forests and swamps at the southeastern edge of the North Carolina piedmont. It was also the setting for the greatest monster flap North carolina has ever seen.

On December 29, 1953 a local farmer reported a large, cat-like creature had attacked one of his dogs and dragged it into the underbrush. On New Year’s Eve two more dog carcasses, reportedly completely drained of blood, were found. The next day, two more dogs were attacked. Something was hunting animals in Bladenboro.

The two butchers at the Dublin IGA grocery store are a little confused about what exactly “the Beast of Bladenboro” was. A Revolutionary War tale, one says. The other jokes that he knows what it is: His daddy.

Just up N.C. 410, in Bladenboro, a man with a graying five o’clock shadow pays the gas station attendant for a bottle of Sun-Drop. He notices someone not from around town and strikes up a conversation.

“Yeah,” he says of the beast, “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it is.”

These folks shouldn’t feel too bad. To this day, nobody really knows what, in 1954, went around killing dogs, goats, hogs and small cows in the most unusual way – breaking their jaws, crushing their heads flat and sucking the blood from their bodies, according to local newspaper reports.

It was downright gruesome. Women and children stayed locked in their homes. Men dared not walk outside without some kind of firearm. Big-game hunters from around the country infiltrated Bladenboro, a town about 60 miles west of Wilmington.

The Beast of Bladenboro was big news then, but today, the story is buried in clumsy rolls of microfiche. Local headlines only give sensational clues: “Mysterious Beast is Still At Large,” “Vampire Tendencies Found In Bladenboro’s ‘Monster,’” and “Guns, Dogs Circle Blood-Lusty Beast.”

Only a few people who experienced the fear are still kicking around Bladenboro. Ask the people at Town Hall if they know anybody who was around when the beast roamed, and you’ll get a pretty good chuckle. But you’ll also get a file of newspaper stories kept in the town vault. And Delane Jackson, town manager, will direct you to Tater Shaw, a man who saw the carnage first-hand.

“Vampire lust”

Shaw lives in a nursing home not too far from Town Hall. On a recent October morning, the 87-year-old man, with his perfectly combed hair and neat long-sleeved gray shirt, sits in the commons area, people using walkers and canes clunking all around him.

“You want to know about the beast?” he says, throwing his hand up as if to shoe away someone. “Oh, you don’t want to talk about that. I’ve told that story before.”

It takes a little encouragement, but before long, he guides his electric wheelchair down the long, waxed linoleum corridor toward his room. You know you’ve reached it when you see a plaque on the door, “Tater’s Place” burnt into the wood.

Inside, bright family portraits and black-and-white World War II navy photos hang on the wall. Shaw glides over to a small table and pulls out a three-ring binder with typed pages out of the drawer. Years ago, a friend of his wrote a screenplay about the beast and based a character on Shaw. He seems quite proud of that.

Then, after shutting the book, Shaw gets comfortable in his wheelchair and says, “It started out one morning.”

Shaw, then the 35-year-old owner of a gas station, had heard about a goat killed on a fellow’s farm out on the edge of town. He’d been told there was something mighty odd about how it died. Curious, he decided to go see for himself.

“His head was flat as a fritter,” he says. “It had a great big ol’ track … It was weird.”

Shaw spreads four fingers of his right hand and places them on his left palm, simulating the size of the paw. Then he looks up and says the beast killed small cows, too, and “two or three” hogs.

Those details are missing from newspaper accounts of the time, though the Wilmington Morning Star (what is now the Star-News) and the Wilmington News, as well as others, thrived off the story for a good part of January 1954.

The stories start Jan. 4, 1954, with the deaths of three dogs, their “skulls crushed in and chewed.” There’s no mention of a goat, but then there’s a lot about this beast that is only uncovered with time.

People were already getting distressed enough to cause Police Chief Roy Fores to go out hunting for the killer with three coonhounds. The “dogs refused to follow the trail.”

Maybe they were smarter than their master. The next day, the chief released a chilling detail. Fores called it the “vampire aspect of the animal.”

The story in the Morning Star on Jan. 5 began, “This nervous town chewed its collective nails today, dreading the pitch of night that might bring a return visit by a mystery killer-beast with vampire lust… (Fores) said a dog found killed last night ‘was opened up today. And there wasn’t more than two or three drops of blood in him.’ In all three cases, the victims’ bottom lip had been broken open and his jawbone smashed back.”

People gettin’ crazy

Shaw remembers the fear. “Everybody was scared,” Shaw said. “Everybody, near ‘bout, that had a gun was carrying it.”

Irrationality began to set in. Locals claimed to have seen the beast, described it, then retracted their statements.

Another resident got trigger happy. He heard his dogs barking one night, looked through a window and saw a shadow. Grabbing his shotgun, he rushed outside, blasting away. On closer inspection, he found his child’s bicycle “crumpled to the ground with the tires in shreds and the seat ripped with buckshot.”

Witness accounts of the beast conflicted. Some said it was about 90 pounds, others said 100 or even 150 pounds. Some claimed it was black, or brown, or tabby, or just “dark in color.” Most people agreed it was a cat, but one veterinarian said it could be a big dog.

The sound is about the only thing people halfway agreed on. They described it as like either a baby or a woman crying, only louder and blood curdling.

“Anyhow, it was getting so bad, it was getting in the newspapers and the radio,” Shaw said. “There came hunters from all over, I mean big hunters.”

At the height of the hunt, according to newspaper accounts, 1,000 men armed with pistols, shotguns and rifles divided into posses and combed about 400 acres of swamp. Some were fraternity boys from UNC Chapel Hill looking for a good time; others were professional hunters accustomed to killing lions and tigers.

Bladenboro only had about 1,000 residents at the time. It only has about 1,700 now. You’d think that if anything was out there, somebody would’ve stepped on it.

Many of these hunters would stop by Shaw’s gas station on their way to the Green Swamp and brag about how they were the ones who were going to kill the beast. Those same men usually stopped back by after the hunt – and always empty-handed.

A friend of Shaw’s, Jabe Frink, also owned a gas station during this time. Frink lives in a brick house just a couple miles from the nursing home. He’s 82 and doesn’t mind talking about beast at all. Frink remembers one group of hunters who brought trained “bear dogs” to turn loose in the swamp. “They said they gonna ‘catch that vampire,’ but they never did,” he said.

Mostly, Frink remembers how terrified everyone was. “It kept snowballing and snowballing. It got so nobody would walk out on the street at night,” he said. “There was a dog that scared that lady on her porch, though.”

Frink is referring to a 21-year-old mother named Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw. She apparently walked out onto her front porch at about 7:30 p.m. January 6, 1954. She was minding her own business when she looked up and saw the “beast” stalking toward her. It was only about 20 feet away, she told the Morning Star.

Kinlaw screamed and ran into the house. Her husband, Charles Kinlaw, grabbed his shotgun and ran outside but only found cat-like paw prints all around his yard.

Everyone’s worst fears seemed to be confirmed. The beast had shown interest in a human.

Not long after that, S.W. Garrett, an experienced hunter from Wilmington, warned women and children to stay indoors. Residents were also advised to keep dogs, “whose nighttime howling reportedly grows more piteous nightly,” locked up indoors.

By Jan. 6, the victim count was up to at least six dogs including one that was dragged into the swamp,never seen again. The next day, the count jumped to seven.

As victims multiplied, town officials became more desperate.

Chief Fores considered tying a few dogs up in the woods as bait but Mayor W.G. Fussell called off.

The mayor may not have had his heart into the project anyway. His day job was owner of a local movie theater and he found a way to capitalize on the beast.

Fussell distributed flyers announcing: “Now you can see the cat. We’ve got him on our screen! And in Technicolor too! The Big Cat, all day Saturday, January 9.”

The day the movie ran, Fussell made another announcement — the hunt was off. The Morning Star headline that day read, “Vampire Beast Wins Battle of Bladenboro.”

The reason for the halt was safety, Fussell said. With so many hunters in the swamp, someone was liable to mistake a man for a beast.

Then, on Jan. 13, it seemed the mystery had come to an end just as quickly as it began. On that day a bobcat was caught in a steel trap, then finished off with a bullet to the brain.

Still, no one was certain this bobcat was the beast, not even Mayor Fussell.

“I just hope this is it,” he told the Morning Star. “If not, I just hope the other one starts down the road and keeps going.”

At home, Frink opens a drawer by his recliner and pulls out three square black-and-white photos. One shows his business partner, Bunny Prevatt, squatting over the cat at their gas station. Another shows Prevatt with a man named Blanco Duvall, holding the beast up by its front legs. The cat’s head only comes up to the man’s waist.

The last photo shows a crowd of people lined up to gawk at the outstretched feline.

“Cars were lined up around the block wanting to see the bobcat,” Frink said.

Seems the beast had the last laugh, though. That cat was barely cold in the grave when another headline ran: “Bladenboro ‘Beast’ Returns from Hiding.”

“I saw the hog,” Frink said. “That was about the last thing that happened.”

So what was the Beast of Bladenboro?

In 2008, the History Channel television series Monster Quest performed an analysis concerning these attacks, which were beginning to happen again, and concluded that the attacker might have been a cougar.

But what about the possibility of the beast being a Lynx? Or a lynx hybrid? The above illustration by Gary Longordo was based on specific features described by local eyewitnesses. Although their range once extended down into the northern portions of the United States, Canadian lynx have only been confirmed in Maine, Montana, Idaho and Washington, but could it be possible that if they show up in the continental U.S. at all, that one could have traveled out farther in search of food? They are twice the size of the southwestern bobcat and can get up to 40lbs.

Whatever the Beast of Bladenboro was, the story lives on as a time when all eyes focused on a usually quiet little town. So far, no one has been able to find any definitive evidence about the existence of the Beast of Bladenboro. Most attacks do not seem consistent with known area predators, so what could be lurking out in North Carolina’s swamps?

Source Credit(s): northcarolinaghosts.com/piedmont/beastofbladenboro.php, © Amy Hotz starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS/61027007/1051&tc=ar

Top Illustration: A rendering of the beast of Bladenboro © Gary Longordo
Bottom Illustration:John James Audubon (New York, 1785-1851) New York Lynx Canadensis…Canada Lynx, plate XVI, from [The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,] 1845-1848

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Marozi, the Spotted Lion of Africa

Onza, King Cheetah, Eastern Panther, Thylacoleo carnifex, these are all names of enigmatic felines (or feline-like animals) from across the globe. They are not alone, the list is staggering of mysterious cats, but amongst them are a few rare examples where physical proof possibly exists that adds credence to local legends and travelers tails. The marozi is one such rare example, the Spotted Lion of Africa.

The marozi is little remembered today, and sadly may no longer even exist as the reports have for the most part stopped during the last 40 years. The brunt of the evidence for the once existence of this lion starts in 1931. In that year a farmer in the Aberdare Mountain area of Kenya shot two small lions at an elevation of around 10,000 feet. These specimens where eventually mounted as trophies, and caught the attention of the Game Department. Upon further examination by officials at the Game Department in Nairobi the skins became a conundrum. As the skins where from a male and a female of pubescent age, but the skins where spotted something that only appears in lions at an early age. With those two skins, the chronicle of the marozi begins.

Kenneth Gandar Dower steps into the picture. A well-to-do adventurer he wished to see Africa’s wildlife with his own eyes:

“Mine was not a promising situation when I found myself stranded in Nairobi. My only assets were a love of Rider Haggard and a vague half-knowledge of what I wished to do. I wanted to see big game in their natural surroundings, to take their photographs, and, once that was done, to fit myself to go alone into the great forests. I wanted to discover and to explore. Yet I could not speak Swahili. I had no fiends in Kenya. I had scarcely taken a still photograph (that had come out) or fired a rifle (except upon a range). My riding was limited to ten lessons, taken seventeen years previously when I was nine, on a horse which would barely canter. My shy suggestions of the possibilities of new animals brought only rather scornful jokes about the Naivasha Sea Serpent and the Nandi Bear.”

And so at the age of 26 Kenneth Dower sets forth. Not immediately to find a mystery animal, but a animals and nature in general. He hooks up with a farmer / guide / hunter named Raymond Hook, who becomes vital in the eventual search for the spotted lion. Much of Dower’s expeditions are written about in his 1937 The Spotted Lion, although the title itself is misleading. He touches on during his exploration and expeditions such items as the Nandi Bear, discovered species, black lynxes as well as the marozi. Three months after arriving in Africa Dower set off in search of the legendary animal he had heard of, and that his now friend Raymond Hook had said was “Rubbish”. But, the questions remain as to where to search, what to search for and what to do if one is ever found:

“This opportunity, given so undeservedly to a novice, who three months ago had never been to Africa or really ridden a horse or fired a rifle at a living thing, was almost too great a responsibility to bear. I felt small. Even with Raymond’s help, how could I hope to find this rare animal, the very existence of which had for so long been unsuspected, in 2000 square miles of wilderness, through which we could hardly travel, to find it and track it down, and shoot it, or photograph it and capture it alive?”

A burden of proof to be found. The evidence collected during this expedition was circumstantial, a spoor found along side a series of tracks taken to be that of a marozi. For the series of tracks from two animals was taken to be a male and a female. The smaller set of tracks to be female, the larger ones male. The larger track being bigger than a leopards, but smaller than a lions. As the animals where following a trail of buffalo it is assumed that they where hunting, and hence not cubs, but rather a hunting pair of lions. And again at a latter time at an elevation of 12,500 feet a track from a lion was found, again taken to be from the spotted variety due to the location. And at an even latter date the part missed the possibility of seeing one of these animals by a matter of a single day.

The expedition had failed in finding conclusive proof of the marozi, but the effect of the search did not fail. Dower is the single person to push the marozi to the attention of the world through the publication of articles in The Field and through his book, as well as the collection of anecdotal accountings from the natives. In these accountings there is a distinct separation among the people of the area, without having seen the specimen’s skin that Trent had shot, of the normal lion and the spotted lion, simba and marozi.

From his writings Dower’s spotted lion became well known and for years after the first article in 1935 sporadic accounts where published in The Field. With the last in 1948 by a J.R.T. Pollard, also a friend of Raymond Hook. In this letter Pollard emphasizes that Hook believed the possibility was there that could be a spotted variety of lion, but that the evidence was not sufficient to prove it. Which is similar to what Dower had written about 11 years prior in which he quotes Hook as saying the marozi stories where “Rubbish”.

Yet, some of the other reports from The Field are as interesting. For instance also in 1948 an entry by G. Hamilton - Snowball recalls learning of the marozi prior to Dower’s expedition. He even may have spotted a pair of these animals at an elevation of 11,500 feet along the Kinangop Plateau. These animals retreated prior to his being able to shoot one, but the natives with him where heard to be whispering the word marozi amongst themselves at the sight of these animals.

Still more reports where around prior to the first article by Dower. Colonel Richard Meinertzhagan had reportedly heard the name marozi prior to 1908. And Captain R.E. Dent, a game warden, reportedly spotted four of these animals at an elevation around 10,000 feet in 1931. And a specimen may have been killed in a trap during this time as well. Undeniably something was being seen in the Aberdare Mountains earlier this century. The question remains what was it that was being seen?

Theories as the origin have been mixed. The main ones have been that the marozi is a natural crossbreed of a leopard and a lion, that the animals seen where abhorrent specimens of lion, that the natives made up the stories to please the explorers, and that the animals seen are spotted due to tricks of light. It is possible that some of the explanations can account for some of the sightings and reports, but it is doubtful that they can explain all sightings away.

If these animals where deliberate hoaxes by the natives, then why would they whisper among themselves, probably unaware they where being overheard, that the animals seen where marozi. The classic example of this would be the report by G. Hamilton-Snowball, wherein the natives whispered the name while he was trying to get his rifle to shoot one. There was a single expedition, split into several smaller ones but encompassing one large expedition only, run by Kenneth Dower. In essence there was no financial gain to be made by creating this legendary animal, as no future expeditions ever searched for the animal.

Biologically speaking the hybrid theory also is flawed. Although crossbreeds to occur, they are in captivity and the offspring are traditionally sterile. In the wild a crossbreeding between species would be especially rare and unlikely, although genetically possible. The fact remains that species are isolated, and remain so due to behavioral differences and varied geographies that act as barriers to inhibit crossbreeding.

There are cases of leopons (lion and leopard mix) and other feline mixes, like ligers (lion and tiger mix). And these leopons do express the characteristics of the marozi, especially the intermediate size and spotting. But, thus far this phenomenon has only occurred in controlled environments and not in the wild. To have a population of leopons in the wild would require successful natural crossbreeding and then fertile offspring that mate and produce other fertile offspring. Each becomes statistically narrower in possibility as the reproductive cycle continues, in this case at least 40 years worth of reports and thus more than one generation of animals.

The other possibility, aside from a separate species of lion, is that of abhorrent specimens of lion. This is not a new occurrence, and has taken place with the birth of white lions from normal lions. The first authenticated reports of the white lions come from Timbavati Nature Reserve (near Kruger National Park). Where in 1975 2 the mating of normal lions was recorded, and the birth of two white lions documented (named Temba and Tombi). These where not albino specimens, rather white lions with lighter eyes, but otherwise normal animals. Other incidents of abhorrent specimens of felines are documented such as the white tiger and even the king cheetah. So, the possibility of this being an explanation for the marozi is there and with the proper mixing of dormant genes and some inbreeding then an explanation could arise, however, the geographic distribution of the traditional lion does not foster this scenario. As these marozis are reported from high wooded country, and not the plains.

One is then left with the unknown question of what is the marozi? If the anecdotal reports stood alone then the animal may be viewed as a curious account in natural history, however that is not the case here. The skin of one of Michael Trent’s lions shot in 1931 still exists along with a possible skull at the Natural History Museum in London.

Few possible specimens of mystery animals exist. And some, as in the case of the possible onza specimen killed in 1986 in Sierra Madre, Mexico, turn out to be of a known species that may be an adaptive specimen to a particular environment. The Trent skin however, may be something altogether different and establish that there may have once existed a species of lion that exhibited a spotted coat. However, little examination of this skin and the possible skull from Trent has occurred.

A Marozi Skin. This is 1 of the 2 specimens killed by Michael Trent in 1931.
From the book “The Spotted Lion”, 1937, by Kenneth Gandar Dower. R.I. Pocock of the Natural History Museum in London examined the specimens prior to 1937. His is apparently the last full examination of these specimens. His findings are as follows:

“It is a male, measuring approximately: - head and body 5ft. 10˝ in., tail, without terminal hairs of the tuft, 2 ft. 9 in., making a total of about 8 ft. 8 in. This is of course small for adult East African lions, of which the dressed skins may surpass 10 ft. over all. From its size I guessed it to be about three years old, a year or more short of full size. There is nothing particularly noticeable in its mane, which is small and, except on the cheeks, consists of a mixture of tawny, grey and black hairs, the longest up to about 5 in. in length. … the peculiarity of the skin lies in the distinctness of the pattern of spots, consisting of large “jaguarine” rosettes arranged in obliquely vertical lines and extending over the flanks, shoulders and thighs up to the darker spinal area where they disappear. They are irregular in size and shape, the largest measuring 85 by 45 or 65 by 65 mm. In diameter. Their general hue is pale greyish-brown, with slightly darkened centres, but at the periphery they are thrown into relief by the paler tint of the spaces between them. On the pale cream-buff belly, the solid richer buff spots stand out tolerably clearly. The legs are covered with solid spots, more distinct than the rosettes of the flanks, and on the hind legs they are more scattered and a deeper, more smoky grey tint than on the fore legs. The skulls of the pair of spotted lions secured by Mr. Trent were not preserved when the animals were skinned; but a skull presumed to belong to one of them, with all the teeth and the lower jaw missing, was subsequently picked up near the spot and submitted to me with the skin. It is a young skull with all the sutures open, showing it had not attained full size and may well be the estimated age of the skin. It is not sufficiently developed to be sexed with certainty … The skull in question may prove to be that of a slightly dwarfed lion with the teeth and skull reduced to about the size of those of an ordinary lioness.”

According to Daphne Hills of the Natural History Museum in London others have evaluated the specimens over the years, but that there is little to add to Pocock’s evaluation. However, there may still be a glimmer of possibility in that Hills has also stated:

“It is probable that the specimen will be included in any future DNA studies…”

Whether these studies are ever conducted remains to be seen, but the specimens are still present in 1999 in the museum collection.

What is known thus is that the Aberdare’s spotted lion is a small lion intermediate in size between a plains lion and a leopard. They travel in groupings of two and in at least one incident four where seen together. They exhibit a striking spotted appearance into adult hood. The males lack a traditional mane, and if present it is minimal at most. The geographic distribution in the Aberdares is in the higher elevations of the mountains within the treelines. The natives also firmly establish that there is a difference between the two lions, hence two different names simba and marozi.

The enigma of the spotted lion has not been answered, the more one looks the more questions arise. However, the one fact that stands out is the 1940’s there have been no reports from the Aberdare Mountain area. A disturbing fact that may answer the enigma once and for all, the spotted lion is gone now, at least in that area. But, other locations in Africa have similar reports of smallish lions with spotted coats. So hope may still remain that the ikimizi from Rwanda, abasambo in Ethiopia, kitalargo in Uganda, and so forth.

These scattered reports from the continent also may add fire to the debate that the marozi was a crossbreed or an abhorrent representative. As, if one population exists then the possibility of an biological mixing is possible (although unlikely), however if scattered reports separated by hundreds or thousands of miles report a similar animal, then there may well be a distinct mountain species of lion still existing. Perhaps one day another intrepid explorer, like Kenneth Gandar Dower, may stumble upon a pocket of spotted lion reports and once and for all squash the question of their reality into the current times.

Top Illustration: A Drawing of the Marozi (spotted lion), courtesy of William M. Rebsame

Second Illustration: From the book, Rumors of Existence Newly Discovered, Supposedly Extinct, and Unconfirmed Inhabitants of the Animal Kingdom

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Underwater Mystery Cat

Native North Americans have a long tradition of stories regarding the Mishibizhiw, an underwater panther.  Some tribes, particularly Anishinaabe, Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi, of the Great Lakes region of Canada consider this being as the most powerful underworld being.  The Ojibwe held them to be the master of all water creatures.  Some myths include this water lynx in their creation legends.

In the Ojibwe language, this creature is called “Mishibizhiw”, “Mishipizhiw”, “Mishipizheu”, “Mishupishu”, “Mishepishu”, “Michipeshu”, or “Mishibijiw”, which translates as “Great Lynx,” or Gichi-anami’e-bizhiw (“Gitche-anahmi-bezheu”), which translates as “the fabulous night panther.”  Often, it is referred to as the “Great underground wildcat” or “Great under-water wildcat.”  In Lake Superior Provincial Park on Ontario, there are pictographs of a mishibizhiw and two giant serpents.  These creatures were described as water monsters that live in opposition to the Thunderbirds which are masters of the powers of the air.

With the body of a cat, usually like a lynx and the horns of a deer, it also sports scales on it’s back and sometimes even bird feathers.  They typically are sporting long tails.  Like many other creatures in native lore, it is said to be a shape shifter.  It is said they roar or hiss like the sound of rushing water. Mishipizheu were said to live in the deepest lakes and rivers and can cause storms.  Other traditions claim they can sometimes be helpful and protective, but generally they are viewed as bringing death or other misfortune.  Traditionally, offerings are made to help with safe passage across the water.

“While skirting some rocks, which by their height and length inspire awe, we saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes. They are as large as a calf: they have horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail.”
—French missionary Jacques Marquette, 1637

It was a widely held belief that copper came from the creature and charms were made to bring luck to hunters.  After the hunt, these charms would be destroyed.  Native Canadian preferred guns with brass plates depicting European dragons; they likely were interpreted to be images of Mishepishu. An Anishnaabe Ojibwa club from around 1800 has a Mishepishu figure on the end closest to the blade. In 2011, one of the Canadian Mint Mythical Creatures coins depicted a Mishepishu.  The Canadian Museum of Civilization includes an underwater panther in its coat of arms.  While often depicted in both ancient and modern art, modern sightings are virtually nonexistant.

Story by The Centre for Fortean Zoology - Canada
Feb 2012

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Mngwa, The “great gray ghost” of the East African country Tanzania

The Mngwa (“”the strange one”) is the “great gray ghost” of East Africa. Natives of the former Tanganyika (now Tanzania) insist that the mngwa is not simba (the lion).

They have known of the Mngwa for hundreds of years, describing the animal as an extremely aggressive, gigantic, unknown felid the size of a donkey.

English contact with the animal began, in earnest, in the 1900s. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Mngwa was commonly known by the name Nunda, but because of the books of Gardner Soule (The Mystery Monsters and The Maybe Monsters) and Bernard Heuvelmans, Mngwa is the appellation now more frequently employed.

An influential, open-minded discussion of this cryptid appeared in the then-world famous British scientific journal Discovery in 1938.

In his Nature Parade (1954) romantic naturalist Frank W. Lane writes of his interview with Patrick Bowen, a hunter, who tracked a Mngwa. Bowen remarked that the spoor were like a leopard’s but much larger. The fur was brindled but visibly different from a leopard’s.

Lane, a cryptozoologist before the label even existed, speculated that nineteeth-century reports of attacks by the South African chimiset, usually associated with the Nandi Bear, might more plausibly be linked to the Mngwa.

Bernard Heuvelmans theorizes that the Mngwa may be an abnormally colored specimen of some known species or that it may be a larger subspecies of the golden cat (Profelis aurata).

Source:

Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature by Loren Coleman (Author), Jerome Clark (Author)