Familiar: No
Spirit Animal: No
Spirit Guide: No
Totem: No
Mythical: No
Supernatural: Yes
Cryptid: Yes
Urban Legend: Yes
Creepypasta: No
The Maryland goatman is exactly what it sounds like. It is a satyr-like creature or manmade hybrid that appears to be half man, half goat. It is known for terrorizing lovers, chasing down teens with an axe, and decapitating dogs, as well as squealing and making goat noises. it has been known to wield an ax and attack both animals and humans.
There are many variations of how the Goatman came to be, including an angry goat herder gone mad and seeking revenge on teens who killed his goats, something resembling a Bigfoot creature, the result of a genetic experiment, or even simply an old hermit who lives in the woods and wanders Fletchertown Road at night.
According to urban legend, Goatman is a creature resembling a goat-human hybrid often credited with canine deaths and purported to take refuge in the woods of Prince George’s County, Maryland, United States.
The creature was commonly claimed to have a human face but with a body covered in hair. However, descriptions differed on whether Goatman greater resembled a hairy humanoid or a human with the lower portion of a goat similar to the fauns of Greek mythology.
The experiment myth is the most pervasive of them all, and it involves the nearby Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Dr. Stephen Fletcher supposedly confessed to crossing the DNA of a goat and that of his assistant William Lottsford, which naturally went terribly wrong. The newly created Goatman then escaped and began attacking cars with an axe and roaming the back roads of Beltsville. Of course, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has outright denied any of this is true.
The first reported sighting of the Goatman was in the early 1900s. A family by the last name of Sullivan were some of the first to encounter the beast in the 1930s and not live to tell the tale. Mary Sullivan and her infant child went missing. Their bodies were never found. Soon after that, the father and young son also went missing. The area around their house is where many goatman sightings have taken place.
In the early 1950s was a family called the Glasses who had a little boy named Bobby who was playing in the back yard. His father saw a tall strange figure in the darkness. That night, when Bobby was sleeping in his bed, he was awoken by a quiet scratching sound. He could see something clawing against the glass and called for his dad. His dad ran into the room and the figure runs away but the creature was already gone. The next day they go outside to find what attacked them last night. There entire front yard was covered in hoof prints. Years later, Elliot Forbes, a social anthropologist realized that the land the Glasses’ house was built on was the same property that the Sullivan home had been on in the 1930s.
In 1957, eyewitnesses reported seeing it in Forestville and Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County. The story goes that a young couple went to Fletchertown Road and were suddenly startled by something in the woods. The young man got out of the car to investigate, but he never came back. When an investigation occurred the next day, his severed head was found hanging in a tree above where the car had been parked. His body was never found.
Another violent encounter supposedly took place in 1962. The Goatman was accused of killing 14 people, 12 of whom were children, with the other two being adult chaperones. The group was evidently hiking too close to the Goatman’s home. Unidentified survivors claimed that the Goatman hacked the victims to pieces with an axe, making noises “only the devil himself” would make. When police arrived, they found half-eaten limbs and a bloody trail leading to a cave.
The most famous incident involving the Maryland Goatman occurred in 1971. It was at this point that the article “Residents Fear Goatman Lives: Dog Found Decapitated in Old Bowie” written by Karen Hosler appeared in Prince George’s County News. In this article, Hosler described how a family by the name of Edwards had lost their dog, Ginger. Ginger was found by Ray Hayden, John Hayden, and Willie Gheen a few days after going missing. She was found headless near Fletchertown Road. A later article connected the death of Ginger to the Maryland Goatman because a group of teenage girls, which included 16-year-old April Edwards, had heard strange noises and saw a large creature the night the dog had disappeared.
Stories of the Goatman had been around in the ’50s and ’60s, but the incident with Ginger in the ’70s caused heightened interest in the creature. During this time, searching for the Goatman was a local teen obsession, and “Goatman parties” were even held. It was also during this time that there were increased sightings of an “animal-like creature that walks on its hind legs” along Fletchertown Road.
Mark Opsasnick, who grew up during this period, wrote an article for Strange Magazine titled “On the Trail of the Goatman.” For this article, he interviewed the Edwards family and the three men who found Ginger. John Hayden told Opsasnick that they’d seen an animal that night, and he described it as about six feet tall, hairy, and walking on two feet. He also mentioned that it made a “high-pitched sound, like a squeal.”
A middle school called St. Mark the Evangelist has had an unknown house behind it for 30 years. Rumors have spread all that time that the Goatman has been seen in and around the house. Some people have even claimed to have found bones, knives, saws, and leftover food inside the house. The Governor Bridge, otherwise known as the “Cry Baby” Bridge, is also known as a place for the Goatman. If one parks under the bridge at night, they’ll supposedly hear a crying baby or a goat braying, or they’ll even see the Goatman himself. bored teenagers keep the Goatman legend alive by repeating the story and Teens and young adults alike are said to still go “Goatman hunting.” A common sighting of Goatman has been reported on a bridge, known to locals as “Crybaby Bridge.”
And as far as more recent claimed sightings, the station WBAL-TV received two separate emails about an animal at Montpelier Park in Laurel, Maryland. One woman described it as looking like a “sasquatch with horns.” Another man said he thought he saw a bear, “except it doesn’t look like a bear.” The article described the photo as looking like a goat standing on two legs.
In the last 10 years there was a more recent sighting by teenagers in an area called Lover’s Lane. Brandon Johnson is with his girlfriend and one other couple in their vehicles spending time together. During their activities, he saw a figure out of the corner of his eye. It was a tall strange hunched over human with an axe walking towards the other car. He began honking his horn and flashing his car lights to warn the other car. The other car took off speeding and the creature began coming towards Brandon and his girlfriend now. Brandon starts his vehicle and as he pulls away, the creature takes a wild swing towards the truck. The next morning, Brandon cannot believe if those events actually took place but the front of the truck was a giant dent where the axe had hit the front of his bumper.
Despite evidence to the contrary, stories of Goatman’s existence continue to circulate, especially among local students. Graffiti reading, “Goatman was here,” was not uncommon, and law enforcement would habitually receive calls of reported sightings, albeit with a number being pranks.
As far as taking the Goatman legend into the modern day, two movies have been made starring the creature, 2011’s Deadly Detour: The Goat Man Murders and 2013’s Legend of the Goatman.
One explanation for why a goat is at the center of this scary legend as the history of goats in myths is very prevalent. The Satyr in Greco-Roman times was the kind of keeper of the woodlands, drunk all the time and known mainly for being lustful. a cult that worshipped Dionysus that was led by a man dressed as a goat. The cult was rumored to get drunk and eat animals raw, though this probably never happened. Goats were also thought of as “being exceptionally lascivious” in medieval times.
Danger Level: Dangerous
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