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Mystery

Mysterious Alabama – Something White and the Tinfoil Alien

Alabama is a US state found in the southeastern United States and is bordered with the US states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida and also has a very small outcropping coast along the Gulf of Mexico. The state capital is Montgomery and the largest city is Birmingham.

Alabama has the 2nd largest inland waterway system in the US and about three-fifths of its environment is a gentle plain that descends down towards the Mississippi River and in the North of the state is mostly mountainous land with the Tennessee River creating a large valley, which includes streams, creeks, rivers, more mountains and lakes. 67% of Alabama’s land consists of forest. There are numerous National Parks, Monuments, Historical Sites, Historical Trails, and National Forests in the state and a number of natural wonders to be observed.

The state tends to be warmer in the south and cooler in the north, summers tend to be very hot and winters mild. The state is prone to tornadoes and also hurricanes that may come inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

Alabama grew to eventually have a growing diversified economy after a period of hardship due to the ending of slavery after the American Civil War, taking a toll on their highly relied upon agricultural sector. Today its economy includes major sectors such as management, automotive industry, financial services, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail and technology. Although the state economy has grown, poverty still remains high, especially in rural areas.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Now let’s us get on to the strange and the unexplained of Alabama.

So, let’s start with the Alabama White Thing or otherwise called the Alabama White Thang. It is said to be Alabama’s version of the Bigfoot, except that it has albino fur/hair instead of a dark/light brown or reddish coat that is more commonly reported on the typical sasquatch and also other Bigfoot variants. Its albino coat brings some comparison with the Himalayan Yeti, another type of Bigfoot believed to roam over there and is much more well-known.

It would be kind of strange for it to have such light coloured fur in Alabama due to the environment, the Yeti has white fur due to the snowy environment, but of course such a creature if it does exist could actually be affected by Albinism, which possibly means it could actually just be a normal Bigfoot (if such things exist of course).

But it remains a problem for me as I think such creatures themselves, being large and all, would find it hard to not have been discovered by now, and this would be even more the case with a white/albino fur/hair Bigfoot, which should clearly stick out in the brush. Of course, some also believe again that Bigfoots are spiritual beings with powers that enable them to easily vanish and not actually a creature in any normal sense – so if it does exist I can see it only being possible through this way, but that’s a whole other can of worms in and of itself.

Anyway, the White Thing is said to be found most commonly in the North of Alabama in the forested hills and mountains and the legend of its existence goes back until at least the early 1900s, possibly further. There are numerous different descriptions of the creature, as there can often be when it comes to an unknown creature or cryptid, one such description has it standing at 7-8ft in height and of course covered in thick white fur, other descriptions may claim it looks more like other animals rather than a hominid, such as some descriptions having it resemble an albino mountain lion or a kangaroo-like creature with a cat head, while others have described it as being a dog-like creature.

Other common traits that can also be associated with other Bigfoot-type-creatures are that a foul odour can follow it and that it can make a screaming noise similar to the scream of a woman – although some could argue that this noise is actually merely just wildcats, especially when in the act of mating. But there are some other unique traits that are specifically associated with the White Thing, in that it is said to be able to run extremely fast and may not always use two legs, but sometimes run on all fours.

Some of this makes me think that perhaps this creature, if it is spiritual, also has the ability to shapeshift which may explain these interesting differences, or it is simply misidentification of some kind of normal animal, perhaps afflicted with Albinism and other unusual oddities/defects. One thing that is probably probable though is that we’ll never surely know with certainty.

One may find assurance in that according to eyewitnesses the creature isn’t aggressive in any physical way, although it may cause some mental anguish after it screams in your face.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Next up is the tale of a wolf and not any normal wolf, this is a wolf-human hybrid, in Alabama’s oldest city, Mobile, during April 1971 much hysteria came about over their being some kind of wolf-hybrid roaming about.  

It was described as the back end of a wolf but the front being that of a pretty woman. Dozens of people reported to the Press Register newspaper about seeing it and a number also reported being harassed or chased by the creature, but no one was ever directly attacked.  

Reports mostly came from the plateau and port areas of the city, including people worrying about being stalked back home by the creature, many of these people went as far as to close and lock all the doors and windows of their house just in case.  

One of the typical stories was that it was some kind of freak that had escaped from a circus. Others who look back on the events though note that it begun in April, around about the time of April Fool’s and so many believe it was merely an April Fool’s joke that went perhaps further than expected.  

But it does beg to think what these at least 50-eyewitness accounts saw, was it merely just some kind of mis-identification? Were some of them making it up as a prank? Or did some of these people actually see such a creature and the presence of the time of April Fool’s was just a coincidence?  

The sightings of the creature didn’t last too long and after a while sightings of the creature ceased as quickly as they had come about.  

Personally, I do not think any of it was real and was likely a case of mass hysteria caused by an innocent April Fool’s shenanigan.  

One of the Alabama Metal Man photos taken by Jeff Greenhaw.

On the outskirts of Falkville an interesting and curious event took place in October 1973 when a flying saucer was reported to the local police chief, Jeff Greenhaw. The flying saucer was said to have landed in a field and although at first Greenhaw likely didn’t believe it was anything he did bring a polaroid camera with him just in case.

When the officer arrived, he did not find any flying saucer or craft in the field where it said to have landed but upon travelling a bit further out from the alleged landing sight, he claims to have come across something most peculiar. Some kind of humanoid being clad in a tinfoil like attire all over its body, with no discernable neck and also an antenna on top of it. He found its moves to be unusual, likening it to that of a child or monkey but also mechanical like.

Not wanting to lose the opportunity the officer quickly shot four photos of the being, which can actually be found and viewed on the internet, to me the photos merely look like a human wrapped in tinfoil, but the story is not yet over.

The officer claims as he attempted to position himself for another better shot the being suddenly zoomed off, quicker than any human could possibly run, the officer attempted to chase it down in his cruiser but the being was even able to outpace the officers vehicle and eventually the officer hit a bump and crashed into a ditch, losing the being for good.

In the end though Greenhaw regretted ever seeing the creature, for a short time after the encounter he told of his experience to a local reporter and also talked about it on television for a bit, but misfortune would soon come to get Greenhaw. A few months later Greenhaw was removed from his job by the Town Council, his marriage fell apart and his home also burned down.

These following incidents though made Greenhaw into a martyr of sorts as in the following years a certain following would come to believe Greenhaw’s encounter and would see the following incidents afterwards as some sort of related conspiracy to keep him and other possible witnesses silent.

It is hard to come to a full conclusion on this interesting and unexplained event. Could the officer have merely been pranked by a person or people? Was it misidentification or perhaps was it actually a real and genuine encounter… and what about the aftermath? Was any of it related? Many questions remain.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Next up we have something that is very obscure and is confined to the folklore of the residents of Winston County. The legends talk of a creature called the Downey Booger, named after the cousins John and Joe Downey who first sighted it. The story was recounted by Vera Whitehead, a daughter from the Downey family, parents being Margaret Catherine Downey and Jim Plunkett.

The legend comes from the late 1800s and begins with John and Joe Downey returning on horseback from a dance. The road they travelled down was dense pine forest with hardly any properties along it, only two being mentioned.

Down this road they were riding back home when suddenly a creature, looking like some kind of animal-human hybrid, perhaps some kind of Wildman, leaped out in-front of the men and their horses, causing the frightened horses to buck up and almost knock the riders off and then the horses turned around and bolted away back down the road they had been coming from, eventually the men were able to get their horses back under control and turn them back around.

When the men and their horses reached the same spot that they had been attacked at the horses stood still and no matter what was done they would not budge and so they had to take a longer way back. The boys on their return home were not believed on their story, but the family was yet to have another encounter.

On a night three months after the original incident, the family were returning home from a church service, when in the same spot on that road back the creature was witnessed again, with it revealing itself and then quickly darting off into the forest, the children were so scared for months afterwards that they had to sleep with their mother.

There was another incident involving a man called Jim Jackson, happening during the night on early fall, he was driving a mule-drawn wagon full of homemade moonshine towards the Commisary in Galloway, but on his way their he got the peculiar sense he was being followed.

Upon looking around Jackson saw a strange creature indeed following him and he then considered if he should try outrunning it, but realized his mules would not be good at running along a level-surface and so instead picked up his revolver and fired two shots at the creature, hitting it and causing it to scream like a woman and limping off on three feet back into the forest.

After that news spread on it and a posse was formed to hunt down the injured creature, although some blood was found the creature itself was never found and since then has apparently not been seen again.


Well I think that will about do it for Alabama before this gets too overly long. Next up will be the strange and the weird of the US state of Michigan.

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