Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:873 I Thought I Shot A Man

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

David said "In 1981 I was in North Louisiana and I came across this creature. He came from around a tree that was about 6 feet from me and we stared at each other. I wasn't sure what it was but I could tell by his facial expressions he was mad and working himself up to attack me. I shot it and I know it was a lung shot. I could describe every detail about him. This has weighed on me for the last 40 years, I have only told one person about it. It bothers me that I shot but from the way it was acting I thought it was him or me."

Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. You know, I got really sad news. I did a show, episode 820. It was a member's only show with David from North Louisiana. And he had an encounter back 41 years ago in 1981. And I told David, after the show, you know, I'd really like to put this in my best of. And I found out recently that David had actually passed away here very, very recently.

in his sleep, he went peacefully, and I just really liked David. You know, when I spoke to David, he reminded me of like, gosh, I wish I had a dad or a grandfather that was a sweet old man. And that's kind of how David came across. You know, he had a great sense of humor. I really enjoyed chatting with them. And one thing that he told me, and you're about to hear the incident, but one thing he told me after this interview, he said, you know, Wes, one day I'm going to have stand before God. And I don't have an answer for my actions on what I did. He really was a kind soul, and it's a very fascinating account.

Let's take a listen in remembrance of David. All right, sir. Well, it happened the first week or two of October of 1981. I worked nights at a small local distribution center, and I got off every morning around 5 a.m. And every morning I would go fishing. And the little town I lived in, there was a lake about 10 miles outside of town. And that's where I would go. This one particular morning, you know, this same as every morning before, weather permitting, I was fishing.

I stopped and got my bait and drove out to the lake. And as you approach to lake, the lake is on the left-hand side of the road. It's just a little two-lane blacktop road runs out through the country. and on the right hand side of the road is a bayou, Bayou, Batatabu. And the very first area that you can get to to fish on the lake is where I always stopped. So that morning it still wasn't daylight, and I pulled over on the left-hand side of the road and parked,

and I got in, and I took my tackle box and riding real, and I walked up the levee to the lake. And I was standing there waiting for the sun to come up, so I could see the fish. And I just had an overwhelming sense of dread. Something was telling me, just go home. Fish aren't going to bite today.

You don't even want to be here. Just go home. And I'm really not sure why that happened. I mean, because I never had done that before. But I was standing there, and the sun was starting to come up, and I had my back through the road, looking out across the lake. And I heard a noise behind me. It sounded as if it came from.

across the road directly behind me. It was kind of a groan and a growl mixed together. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before or since. I've listened

to a lot of podcasts in the years and I've never exactly heard this sound before. But anyway, the first two things that entered by mind when I heard it was that it either had to be an alligator or a wild hog.

But I also knew at the same time that it wasn't either one of those because it was, the volume of it was just too great. It was too deep and too strong for it to be there. And I was, for whatever reason, I was scared. I mean, I don't know why it scared me as bad as it did, but it really scared me. And I regretted even staying at that point. I wish I'd went home when I thought about. But I had to turn around to go down the levee to get back to my truck.

And I was afraid to turn around because afraid of what I would see. And Bigfoot never entered my mind. Sasquatch never entered my mind. At that time, I had seen the legend of Boggy Creek. But that was, you know, that was it. I hadn't even seen the Patterson film at that. that point in time. I'd heard of it and I've read about it in school books and stuff. I was kind of fascinated with it, but that never entered my mind. So anyway, I turned

around real slow and there was nothing there. Well, let me go while I can. So I got my tackle box and riding real and I walked down the levee. I got to my truck and I still kind of looking around, still hesitant, still scared, and still still trying to figure out why I was so scared. So I get in my truck and I leave. I keep going the same direction I was going. And that road eventually led to the Vogue round, a great big, huge, gravelled area.

And it was, like I said, it was a large lake, and there was a lot of fishermen there every day. And I sat there for a little bit to calm myself down, steady my nerves, to figure out, try to figure out why I was so scared and upset. because I've never had anything like that happened to before, and it didn't make sense for me to be upset. I sat there as long as I thought I needed to.

I said, well, I'm going to leave, but I didn't want to keep going that same direction because that road turned into a gravel farm road, and it would end up 20 miles on the other side of town. So that meant I had to go back the way I came. So I rolled my windows down, and I took off going that way, and I was driving kind of slow, looking, and now it would be on my left-hand side,

I was looking through the wooded area and the trees and stuff as I was driving by to see if I could see what made the noise. When I got to the area where I was at originally where I heard the noise, I pulled over to the gravel area that was on the bayou side. Why I do not know why I stopped. To this day, I questioned why I even stopped. But I did. A truck I was driving was a standard, so I put it in neutral and put the emergency brake on and left it running in case whatever reason I had to leave in a hurry, it was running.

And at that point in time, back then, everybody had a gun rack in their truck. And I had a shotgun with birdshot in it because it was dove season, and I had a 22 rifle. And I knew that whatever made that noise, whether it was an alligator or a hog, it would be extremely low. large and neither one of those would do the job. I had a pistol under my seat, and so I reached under my seat and got my pistol, and it was a large caliber handgun. It was an old Western-style single action, but it was an extremely large caliber. And I stood there looking around, and there was the woods on that side of the road were old

growth oak with a lot of Spanish moss on them. So it was kind of creepy looking anyway. Now, from the edge of the road to the drop off to the bough, in different locations, it would be 30 foot from the edge of the road or it would be 100 foot from the road. It's just dependent on the curve of the road and the curve of the bif. But as I was standing there looking around, on the outside edge of the gravel area of the park, the grass was about maybe a foot high and there was a heavy dew that morning

and I saw two trails leading off toward the woods from the gravel area where something on two legs had walked through the grass and disturbed the dew on it and I was curious in I said well that's got to be a person maybe what I heard somebody was hurt it seemed awful loud and awful deep and strong to be a person. But that's the only thing, you know, really that could make sense, but I still didn't know.

So I started walking real slow following the trail through the grass. I had my head down looking at it, and I would look up to see where I was going, you know, just looking up and down, back and forth. And the farther I went into the woods, the less grass there became, And the fainter the trail was to follow. The last part that I could see it, it was leading past an oak tree. And it's a wooded area, but it's not so thick with woods that, you know, it's just a foot or two apart. There's space down more than that.

But anyway, I see the trail leading past this oak tree. So I'm walking toward this oak tree. and I get approximately six foot from this oak tree and this thing steps out or pivot sound from behind the oak tree. And I say pivot because if it was standing behind a tree with his face against a tree, I would have seen his shoulders and arms because he was wider than the tree. So he had to be standing sideways behind it, waiting for my approach.

When I got within about six foot of the tree, he pivoted out and stood there in front of me. I instantly lost my breath. It just scared me so bad, I lost my breath. I took a gasp. And I stood there in just disbelief and fear. He was about seven to seven and a half foot tall. Shoulders were, if they weren't four foot, they didn't miss it by an inch or two. Waste was about three-foot.

It narrowed down to about a three-foot waist, so he was wide-shaped, extremely, extremely muscular, very well-defined muscles. But not bulging muscles like a bodybuilder, like a Mr. Universe or something like that, more of athletic design, useful muscles, not show muscles. His legs, his thighs were very, very thick and well-developed. calves were kind of lean and narrow. The hair on his chest and abdomen was jet black and it was very, very

coarse hair. The hair shabs were thicker than a human's, probably two to three times or more thicker than a human's. It wasn't so thick that you couldn't see through it because I still see the underlying skin under the hair.

But it was just just heavy, heavy hair, and they were about an inch and a half long. The hair across the top of his shoulders and down the back of the tops of his arms, from his shoulders down to his elbows on the backside of the arms was probably four inches long. And it was just as thick. It made like a, I guess you would say like a cape because it hung down. to mid-shoulder blade in the back. The hair on the back of his forearms was longer.

It was probably six to eight inches long and thinner. It was more wispy, willowy hair. It was thinner. He had his hands cupped backwards. So the palm of his hands were facing away from meat. His hands were cut. And I was in shock. I was just in total disbelief.

And I didn't know what to think. I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. I was just terrified. It was horrifying. And I knew then what it was. I had read about it, you know, in school books. But, you know, you had books like Monsters in Miss in America and things like that. There was no, in my part of the country, there was no great.

wealth of knowledge all it, at least that I had seen. But I knew what it was then. I knew that's what made the sound, and I knew what it was. I looked this thing in the eye, his face, the hair on his head was jet black. All the hair was jet black, and the hair on his head was swept back, and it hung down probably to about where the cape in the back did, about mid-shoulders. he had a full beard and mustache. I could not see his lips because his mustache was so long that it hung down over his mouth.

So his lips were hidden. His eyes were almond-shaped. They were hazel in color. He had large black pupils. And there were whites on either side of his eyes. There were whites to his eyes. I've heard people say his eyes were jet black, you know, and I could see maybe in the darkness where the people would dilate and they would appear like that because his people's were jet black. His nose was unlike any description I'd ever heard since because once this happened, I have read and looked up anything that I could find on the subject.

Most people describe a gorilla-type nose. His nose was very human-like, and what we always called a hop-nose. I believe I sent you a picture last night of a gentleman's nose, and it was basically that shape. He had ears. They were covered by the hair, but I could still see them through the hair. Everything on his face was symmetrical.

I mean, everything was proportionate to his size, except for the ears. They seemed to be a little longer from top to bottom than what you would think they would have been on a person. If it was a person looking at you and their ears were like that, you would think, well, he's got some big ears. They weren't outlandishly big, but they seemed a little bigger than what they should be. He had an Arab look to him. and I don't mean that as any type of ethnic slur or anything of that nature. At the time, I did not know what that look was. It was only in the years afterwards that I discovered what that look was.

I looked him dead and I, and he was looking at me, and he had a look on his face. of amusement. He had an impish look in his eyes, almost like he was happy. I could see his cheeks rise up, as if

when someone smiles, their cheeks rise up, you can see their eyes crinkle in the corners. That's what he did. I couldn't see his lips because of the mustache. But I could tell he was smiling. He was happy. He was pleased that

this had happened. He had to be sitting there knowing that I was coming and waited on me. And forgive me for stammering. I've only spoke about this out loud to one other person, and you know who that was. Yeah, no apologies needed at all, David. I know this happened to you over 40 years ago, and I can't even imagine being in this position, and you relive it every time you tell it, and you're just, doing great. I really do appreciate you. And by the way, the whole Arab thing, I think most people realize that's not racist.

Sometimes people say they look like Native Americans and what they're referencing is the certain features. You know, Native Americans have pretty features. They have round eyes. And so I think, you know, it's okay to relate it that way. I don't even want you to worry about that. So what kind of happens next? Well, I'm standing there and I'm looking. looking at him, and I notice the expression on his face, and I look him up and down. That's how, you know, I'm getting a better description of the body and the hair and everything, because I slowly look at my eyes travel all the way down and all the way back up. It was a male and all the way back up. And what I make eye contact with him again, he still has that, it's almost like a smirk,

but for lack of a better term on his face. So then he looks me up and down. He never moves his head, just his eyes. His eyes travel all the way down me and all the way back up. When he looks back at me, I don't think it was a look to, like he was sizing me up. I'm sure he had done that when he saw me get out of the truck

and walk that way. this was more of, I took it as he was mocking me, you know, as if you looked at me, well, I'm going to look at you. So, and I was terrified. I could hear the blood just pumping in my ears. It was, it was just, I don't know, I was just extremely afraid, terrified. The time lapse on this is really hard to determine. from beginning to end, it could have been 10 minutes. It could have been a little bit longer. I'm really not exactly sure.

But I look at this thing, and he looks me up and down, and he can see the fear on me, and he seems to be getting pleasure from my fear. Like, you know, he's really happy. And then he does something odd. he kind of leans his eyes go from this merriment and glee, his face becomes relaxed. Because I can see his cheeks lower back down. And his eyes take on a glassy look, kind of a glazed look.

Like maybe he's looking in a distance or in deep thawed or something. And he kind of leans his head and upper chest back, not a whole whole. lot just a little bit. And he starts to make a noise. The noise was something I will try to mimic it. It was a, and it kept getting stronger and louder and deeper.

And he was building himself up for whatever he was fixing to do. Like I said, I was terrified. He wasn't looking at me anymore. His head was, he was, like I said, looking kind of upwards. His eyes were glassy looking. And I knew right then that he was, you know, the thought that come to my mind. And I remember thinking this is probably going to sound silly.

But I remember thinking, Mama's going to be so sad. Because I knew I was dead. I mean, I knew he was working himself up into a bloodlust. That's the only way I could describe it. It's just he was a bloodlust. He was working himself up and to do and whatever it was he was fixing to do. And my opinion, that was, he was fixing to kill me.

At this, you know, up until then, I forgot that I even had the pistol with me. And I guess when he looked me up and down, he didn't notice it just from the way I was standing because it was hanging down by my right side, kind of behind my leg a little bit, but maybe not all the way. But when he started making this

and my level of fear, I didn't think could go any higher, but it actually went higher. I remembered I had it. And I said, I knew that he was fixing to do whatever it was he was fixing to do. And that my time was just about up.

And I figured, well, I'm not going to go out without doing something. I'm going to shoot him anyway. So the pistol I had, like I said, it was heavy caliber.

a large board pistol. And it was a single action, which meant you had to pull the hammer back to fire it. So I started raising my arm up, not real fast, but not just real slow, just kind of a deliberate

movement. And as I'm raising my arm, I'm rolling the hammerback, and it made three distinct clicks as it locked the cylinder into place. He heard that sound. And when Within just a matter of seconds, he snapped out of the bloodlust.

He looked at me and he looked at the gun in my hand, and his eyes turned to rage, hatred, rage, anger. The time that it took for me to raise my arm, pull the hammer, him hear it, his facial expression in eyes, was about two and a half seconds maybe. I've done this motion before. I've timed it just to see it from best of my memory. So in about two and a half seconds, all of that happened.

My arm raised, I pulled a hammer back. He heard it. He looked at me. He looked at the gun. And when the gun was about just a little more than eye level, I fired. The bullet struck him. just to the on him it would be just to the left

of his breastbone just to the left of his breastbone maybe three-quarters the way up his chest the impact of the shot because by the time my arm was extended my arm was three foot from his chest probably three foot the impact of the round

staggered him back two feet. He took two steps backwards and sat down on his butt hard. He looked at me and the look on his face in was of shock and almost like betrayal. Like, how could you do this? Like, the range of emotions in his face were so, human-like. The expressions were so human-like. And then his eyes changed from the shock or betrayal look to pain. I knew then he was feeling pain. And he started bleeding. He took his left hand and he,

and he clutched his chest. He looked at, it looked at his hand and it was bleeding heavily. he looked back up at me and it was just fear then. He had fear. I don't think he'd ever felt pain like that before. I don't think of course if he

had it. I mean, it was it was really very emotional. He opened his mouth to make a noise and he gurgled.

and then blood started coming from his mouth. And if you ever have deer hunted and what they call a lung shot, you'll see they'll get a pink, frothy blood come from their mouth. Well, that's what started coming out of his mouth. So I knew then that I shot him in the lungs. He was still making a gurgling noise like he was trying to. to make another noise, but he just couldn't. I think he was so tense from the impact and the blood that was coming up.

All I could do was gurgled, and he was bleeding heavily from the wound and the mouth, more so the mouth. It was dripping down his chest onto his abdomen. And I knew then with the amount of blood that was coming. coming that it was fatal. Like I said, I had hunted all my lives. I had accidentally flung shot of deer before. And I know there was no recovery from what it just happened to him. He was not going to recover.

He was still sitting on his behind with his left hand clutching the entry wound. and he rolled to his left and took his right hand and put it on the ground and use it to steady himself to stand up. When he stood up, his back was too many, and there was no exit wound. So I knew then that that caliber of that bullet that went in there, it just damaged everything that was inside because it didn't exit. It was a 265 grain bullet, and it didn't exit. So it went in, it did its damage. And he was dying. There was no recovery for what happened.

He started walking toward the edge of the bluff toward the bough. And this one particular tree had a vine hanging from it, probably about an inch diameter vine. and he got to the tree, and he took his right hand and steadied himself against the tree. He took his right shoulder and leaned and steadied himself against the tree. His left hand was still clutching his chest. He grabbed the vine with his right hand, and he stepped over it and eased down over the side of the bluff. In that area, it was about 30 foot to the wall. water. So I stood there and I never heard a splash. If he had died and fell into the water, I'd

heard a splash. So he either crawled down the bank, the cliff to the bank and got into the water or into the woods or he was still there. And I didn't want to go to the cliff to look over because I was afraid he was still there and that he would grab me. Once he disappeared from, you know, when he went over the side and disappeared, I can't really tell you how long I stood there. It was probably 10 or 15 minutes anyway, if not longer. I stood there trying to gather my thoughts best I could. And the thing that hit me, when I,

Well, I started walking back to the truck, and I got back to my truck, and I got it in. The truck was still running. I thought to myself, I just killed a person. I just killed a man. The reason I said that is because the facial features were so human-like, the shape of the eyes, the shape of the nose. There was no hair on the cheeks but a full beard and mustache. and the expression that it, the range of emotion that it displayed in his eyes, from enjoyment and kind of an impish glee that it had trapped me,

to a mocking look when he looked me up and down, to his what I call his bloodlust, to anger, to, anger, to, dismayed and pain and then shock and betrayal. I mean, every one of those emotions he expressed with his eyes. The only sounds I ever heard from this thing was what was made at the time I was fishing, the groaned or growl. And then when he started working himself up into a frenzy,

and I've heard similar noises at the zoo. you know, from apes or whatever. It was just, I've heard them make that noise before. But I thought that had shot a man. I went, I was numb. I was very, very numb and in shock. Still terrified. So I left there and I drove home.

At the time I was 18, like I said, I still live with my parents. So I went home and all the rest of that day and all the next day. spoke very little. My parents, you know, would ask me, son, you're all right, what's wrong? It's all-girl problems. You know, just I would try to dismiss it. Change the subject. Two days after it happened, I wanted to drive back after to see if anything was going on.

And like I said, it was about 10 miles out of town. The first few miles were residential houses. This next couple miles, you know, there was a fall. farm here and a farm there. And about the last four or five miles, it was just fields or wooded areas. There was no houses or anything. And right before you got out to that point, there was just a, there was a sign in the road. It said, road closure, bridge out. We had to turn it, you know, they were turning traffic around. There were no people there just a sign. But there was a little area right there to turn around. So I turned around. Then I was really,

scared. I said, well, somebody has found something. So for the next several, several, several days, I kept waiting for a knocking at door. I kept waiting for the police because if someone found this thing and they did an autopsy, they would find the bullet. And I was the only person in that area who had that caliber of handgun because I would have to get the shell special order for me. So that would be an easy way to track, you know, who it was. So I was in fear that any day that someone was going to knock on the door, because I really thought that I had killed a person.

So as time goes on, as years rolled by, I have looked into all kinds of different things to try to make sense of my encounter. At that point in time, there was no internet. I went to the public libraries, but there was still not that much knowledge on them. There were no actual photographs that I could find. Just some sketch drawings,

and the sketch drawings in the books didn't look anything like what I had saw. so I'm still swaying toward a human. Then I started, after I got that in my head, I started looking up through encyclopedias and stuff, different facial structures and characteristics of different ethnic groups. I would look, you know, for different locations, regions of the world. And one day I come across a picture of an Arab man.

And I thought, wow, that's pretty close just from the shape of the nose and the shape of the eyes and then I started looking again the more in that area and say Syria

Saudi Arabia Turkey all in that region right there they share a lot of the same facial characteristics a lot of the same facial features not all of them but there's wrong trait in all in that area.

And that's what I thought. That's where I got the Arab look from. I said, well, that's, that's what it looked like. It looked Arabic. I know, I told myself it's not, but that's the best way that I could describe it. Years later, the internet came along, and that opened up a vast knowledge. By that time, I had seen the problem. Yeah, you broke up there, David.

Was it the Patterson film? Is that what you said? Yes, sir. And that wasn't exactly what I saw. That, you know, she was huge and square and bulky, whereas this one was, he was about seven and a half foot tall. Probably if I had to guess a weight, I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 pounds, wasn't barrel-chested. it was long, useful muscles, not show muscles. I mean, very, very, very muscular.

Don't get me wrong, but it was not like bodybuilders just blowed up muscles. Yeah, I think I know what you mean. I know you're nervous and this is haunted you really for the last 40 years and I get all of that. And to be honest with you, David, if I was in your shoes, I would have shot too, especially being at point blank range. And if I have a feeling it's getting squirrelly on me, I'm absolutely going to shoot it. You know, a lot of eyewitnesses, they'll say what I ran into was King Kong, you know, take Arnold Schwarzenegger and make him a thousand pounds. And that's basically what I saw.

There is eyewitnesses, though, that will say it was big, bigger than me. But it reminded me more of like a basketball type, body type. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes. Yes. It's what I call useful muscles. I mean, they're athletic muscles.

They're not just pumping iron to build up mass. It was very much like a basketball player or a track star, something like that. I mean, they were, the thigh muscles were very, very developed. The abdomen was lean and hard. It was narrow-waisted, broad-chested, but it wasn't a barrel chest. I mean, the bone structure made the shoulders wide. the chest muscles, the pecks were very defined. The arm muscles, the biceps and triceps were very defined,

but they weren't overly defined. I mean, it was just a very fit and very tone for its size. Very fit and very tone. But yes, I agree. It was, you know, like a basketball player or something like that. I mean, it was, yeah. And looking at all these things, you know, I started listening to podcast.

I discovered those, and I started listening. And I've listened to a bunch of them. And for the most part, I would say 80%, if not more. And no offense to anybody listening or whatever, I certainly hope, you know, but most of them were just, I don't know, they weren't very informative, they weren't very sincere. I've listened to a few that are.

And I say this, yours is by far the very best that I've listened, I think, to every episode. I wasn't a member for a long time. I would listen to it on YouTube. And then I realized that I was missing a lot of episodes that were, you know, member episodes. So I joined so I could hear those. I was trying to get any encounter that I could to sway my mind, that I didn't kill a person. And there's a member on there that I became friends with on Facebook.

We belonged to a couple of different Bigfoot clubs. I guess you would call them clubs. And we have spoke numerous times, you know, in emails and text messages. We had talked about her encounter many times. And she's a very sincere lady. I've got a lot of respect for her. And it came up one night. She asked me,

if I had ever had an encounter. And I told her yes, but I wasn't ready to talk about it. And she said, well, you know, you ever get ready to talk about it? I'm here to listen. So I guess it's probably been a while since that conversation. And we were speaking again. We don't know one night. And I told us, well, I think I'm ready to tell you my encounter.

And I had never spoke this out loud in 41 years, almost. none of my family believes in Bigfoot. I'm married. My wife doesn't believe in it. They think it's all a bunch of hooey and just a big joke. So I would never dare mention it to them. So I've kept this inside for like 40 plus years thinking that I've tried to convince myself that it wasn't a person that I should.

And that it had to be a satchquatch. and that they're not human. Even with some of the Melville catching test results, showing that the mitochondrial DNA was human, I still tried to convince myself that it wasn't. Yeah, and I understand we're coming from, David, and I'm curious how you felt today, but looking back, I could see why you would think it was a human.

A lot of eyewitnesses say, they were very human-like, take the hair away and make them a little bit smaller, and they would pass as human. Not every encounter, you know, there's other encounters where people go, remind me more of a chimp, but there are the ones, as you and I talked about, off the air, mini-hunters who've had them in the scope and didn't fire because the facial expressions and just everything screamed some weird human, so they couldn't pull the trigger. again, I don't know if it brings you comfort or not. I don't buy for two seconds that these creatures are human, but that's my opinion.

What are your thoughts today? I mean, what are your feelings on, you know, I can imagine walking around for 40 years and this weight on your shoulders? How do you feel about what happened 40 years later? Well, I'll put it this way. I mean, I've pondered this, like I said, a long time. if we had not been so close within six foot of each other, if he had been across the road or if he had been across the field, I would not have shot because I thought somewhere in there was a person.

I would not have shot. The only reason I shot is because I thought I was fixing to die. He was working himself up and to do something, and I thought he was fixing to do it, And I figured, well, if I'm going out, I'm going out with a bank, and I raised my gun up and fired. I didn't think, to be honest with you, I didn't know if it would do any good or not. But it's the only thing I had in my hands, so that's what I did. At that time, at that time, I probably wouldn't have shot if it had been farther away.

Looking back at it now, when I told my story to this lady, this other member. She was silent. I went through the whole thing, and I was way, I was all over the place to tell them the story, because I would back up and tell her, well,

I'd go forward a little bit more. I'd say, wait, wait a minute, hold on, me back up a little bit. Anyway, when I got through with the story, I asked her, I said, I want to ask you one question

before you say anything. I said, do you think I shot a human, a person? She said, no. and just from hearing one person tell me that was such a weight lifted off my mind and off my heart that it was it was such a,

it was just like a deep breath that I felt immediately better because I've tried to convince myself it wasn't a human. And I know in my heart and in my head it wasn't a human. It's just that some of the characteristics, characteristics were so human-like, especially the eyes. I mean, because that's what threw me off all these years was just the eyes, just the expression in those eyes, the way they changed.

And being able to understand what the expressions were. But I know now that it wasn't. Her telling me that is what made me come forward to you, because I told her, she said, oh, you've got to, you know, you've got to let Wes know this. You've got to let him know this story. And I really didn't want to. I said, well, I'm not looking for notoriety. I'm not looking for anything like that.

I said, I've lived with it this long. I can live with it a little bit longer. I said, you gave me all the validation that I was really looking for. Just saying it out loud, talking the whole story out loud, and having one person tell me, no, it wasn't a human. That was such a relief. But you have done so much. I've listened to, like I said, almost every one of your podcasts.

If I've missed one of them, I don't know which one it was, because I've listened to a bunch of you and I were discussing that on our previous conversation, about the earlier ones and the ones now. But your demeanor, your mannerism, your way that you talk, to the people. It's very comforting. You're not judgmental. You're not forming an opinion.

You're not trying to make someone change your story to fit a narrative. You're very open. You're very accessible. And I respect you very much for that. And you were the only person that I'll ever go on there to tell this too. Like I said, I told her to get my validation. I'll tell it to you in case for whatever reason, somebody, there may be somebody out there that has had an encounter just like this one,

and it was just like me that has never come forward with it because they thought that. Well, I'm here to tell them they can get that off their mind and get that off their heart because it wasn't a human. And if they want to come forward with it, then it is a great burden. removed, just talking it out loud. But you were the only one that I would tell it to because the way you handle yourself and your guest and your show, I commend you for the work that you do. I know that it's time consuming,

that it's all consuming because, you know, just the time you spent talking with me, and I'm just one person. And there's multiple. And then when you get all, all that, you've got to put it together and edit it and get it ready to be broadcast. So I know that what you do is very, very time consuming and you're very dedicated to it. And you have helped a lot of people, whether you're humble and you won't admit it, but you have helped a lot of people sleep easier at night.

Just being able to say it out loud what happened. Yeah, I'm humbled by your kind of words, David. You didn't have to see any of that. Thank you for saying it. And, you know, there is a lot of people out there who have shot these things and probably have been walking around for years with kind of this weight on their shoulders. And if anyone's listening to your account and they get a relief or that burden kind of gets lifted, that's really, I'm well rewarded. That's the most thanks I need. Listening to your account and really what happened to you in this moment and time, I don't, as I told you before,

I would have shot it too. If I would have thought for one second, this thing's going to get squirly. I'm shooting it. I wouldn't have hesitated. And you talk about that behavior of them kind of working themselves up. And you hear that time and time again from eyewitnesses. And it's usually right before they attack or come after you.

Looking back now, having over 40 years to really think about this moment, do you think now looking back its next move was to harm you? Most definitely. Just from his actions, his eyes had glazed. Oh, there was one important part that I left down, and I'm very sorry. I did this talking with the other person the other night. When he started making this noise, he had turned his head and chest kind of leaned backwards, and he was making this noise.

As he was doing that, I heard something. And I felt something on my legs. And I looked down and he was about, and I'm not trying to be tacky, but he was probably half aroused and was urinating on me. And that's what I was hearing is I felt it hitting my legs and I could hear it hitting the ground. He was, he was urinating. And that's when I said, told myself, you know, I said, my God, he's working itself up into a bloodlust. And those were the words I thought of at that time was blood-bloodless.

And that's the only way to describe it. He was working himself into a frenzy. And I knew that I was fixing to die. I knew I was fixing to die. And it was at that moment that I remembered that I had the gun. And like I said, in just the two and a half seconds that it takes to raise your arm up and pull the hammer back, his facial features changed from glassy-eyed to, to anger.

Now, I don't know if he actually knew that that was a gun. I could have held a rock in my hand and him be just as angry. I think, I don't, you know, I know that he knew that it was a weapon of some sort, but, you know, a rock or a stick can be a weapon. I don't know if he actually knew that, hey, that's a gun and he's fixing to shoot me. I don't know that. He just knew that I had something and he was extremely, angry. I mean, just raging anger in his eyes. And that's when I pull the trigger.

And I also understand what you're saying, David. You know, when we were talking about earlier, how sometimes when hunters have these things in their scope and they're looking at it through the scope, they think it's, you know, some weird human. And, but in your situation, you're not looking downrange through a scope, you know, trying to focus in on what it is. You're right there, right in front of this thing. How close do you think you two were when you fired? We were standing about six foot apart, but with my arm extended, the gun was probably three foot from his chest. Yes, I mean, you're basically at point blank range when you fired, and you got such a great look at this creature, and you did a really good job at describing what you saw.

And my question is, what do you think that they are? And I ask everyone that, David, and there's no wrong answer. Just with your experience being a very unique and up-close experience, what do you think that these creatures are? You know, I knew you were going to ask that. I knew you were. And I thought about that all day long. There is no easy answer for that. I will say this.

I believe, I don't believe that it is human like we are, like you and I and modern people. I think that it is a mixture. Somewhere deep down in there, there are some humanoid qualities, just from the range of emotions in its face. I know apes and chimpanzees. they have emotions and even dogs, you know, that's where the expression puppy dog eyes come from. They can look sad.

And so it's hard to say that that is all human expression because animals make it too. I think it's, God, I think it's part ape or some type of primate. I'm not going to say ape. I mean, some type of primate, because. of the noises that it make. I've heard that in zoos before. I've heard in the primate house them making that noise.

The hair. The hair was thick, way thicker than human hair. I'm talking about the hair shafts themselves. I think it's a mixture. I think it's somewhere along the evolutionary line where humans branched off. This was a sub-branched.

and I don't know if it just developed anymore or if it maybe it didn't need to develop anymore. It developed all it needed to because it could survive in the wild. It didn't need to adapt, you know, whereas, you know, we adapt, our human bodies adapt over time to our climate and the situations that we live in. they didn't need to. They had everything they needed. They had the hair that they could, you know, with thin out or get thick, I guess, for comfort and warmth, hunting skills.

They were the apex predator. There's nothing I know of that could take on this, even the one I saw. And, you know, I want something else. If you look at this thing, this may not make any sense at all. But if it was a person standing there because this other person, this lady asked me the other day, if I thought that it was a juvenile. And I thought it was kind of an odd question because of the size.

And I said, no, I figured it was in its early 30s. And she laughed. You said, well, what do you mean by that? I said, well, just the fact of the smoothness of the skin, it wasn't all wrinkly and it didn't look old. It didn't look like a juvenile. If I had to put it in people years, if it was a man standing there that size, I would say that he was in his early 30s,

well-fit athlete in his early 30s. That was the impression I got. He wasn't very young, but he wasn't old either. But I think they bleed, they breathe, they eat, and they die. I think I don't think they're, I don't think they're, you know, extraterrestrial. I don't think they're, I don't know. I mean, they have a lot of the same qualities we do.

They need to eat. They need to sleep. They need shelter. I don't think they need as much as we do because they've adapted and situated themselves to their environment. But I believe somewhere along the human evolutionary chain, they just branched off and stopped developing because they didn't need to anymore. I may be totally wrong. But I think it's somewhere eight and human. I mean, some type of primate human mixture.

Well, I really don't know. It's hard to even put, as long as I stood there and looked at this thing, I still don't know what it is. I know it's not a man. Now I know that it's not a man. Yeah, I hear you. And I think it's a fair answer. I mean, especially with the encounter that you had. And it's one of those things to where I can't imagine walking around and holding onto this for 40 years.

You know, after this whole thing happened, did you ever go back to that, the place where this happened? Well, like I said, two days afterwards, I tried to go out there and the road was closed. So the next day I went back and the road was open and I drove through there. I couldn't see any activity where, you know, people had been in there to just, you know, quote unquote, discover the body. But it was, that was my most favorite fishing spot that I had. And I didn't go back there for about a year or so. And then not early morning. I waited until it was well daylight.

And I went armed. But, you know, it was after, it was well after a year before I went back to the woods. Yeah, I hear you. Were you ever able to find peace and what happened that day? Yes, sir. Yeah. And, you know, this is, it's kind of silly to say it. But when I spoke to the other member of the other night, the very first time I spoke the whole story out loud,

and I asked her, do you think I shot a person without hesitation? And most definitely, she said, no, you did not shoot a person. at that point I felt peace I just needed somebody to tell me because I had nobody to tell this too I didn't I didn't know who to reach out to that's the reason I said I was listening to

broadcast to see if there was someone I could go to but none of them seemed sincere until I got across yours and then I had to listen I was intrigued to listen then at that point to see if anybody else's story matched mine. There was a lot of similarities, but a lot of differences. But when I told her my story, and she said, no, it was not human. At that point, yes, a huge weight was lifted off my mind and off my heart. Because I didn't know what to believe you.

I mean, I knew deep down that it was some type of creature, but it wasn't a human, but I still couldn't talk myself out of. I just needed a little bit of validation for somebody telling me no it wasn't. And when she did that, she said, well, you know, now you've got to talk to West. And I said, well, I don't need to now.

I've got what I needed. I've got the piece I needed. And she said, well, but there may be somebody else out there that needs that piece that won't come forward because they think their encounter was unusual. and that they killed a person. Here you tell your story,

maybe they'll come forward to tell theirs, and they can get some peace. And that made a lot of sense to me. It was a whole lot of sense. And that's when I told her, I said, well, I'll talk to him, and she contacted you. Gone but not forgotten.

Rest in peace, my friend. Until next time, everyone. The ocean Move slow motion And it hit me Out of the I follow blindly

However I'd I'd find you I'd find you I just knew New dead and you can tell that your work still