RPJ and the Chupacabras

Fortean friend Red Pill Junkie has a great new article at Intrepid Mag that digs into one of his particular fascinations: the Puerto Rican Chupacabras.

It starts like this...

"Although UFOlogy will always be my 1st & foremost paranormal passion I consider myself a true Fortean, since all manner of things that go bump in the night fascinate me. Ever since the day I found a copy of Tim Dinsdale’s book Loch Ness Monster, back when I was a little mask-less luchador, I began a deep interest in the field of Cryptozoology; Nessie, Bigfoot, Champ & Mokele Mbembe, I still have a deep love for this menagerie of monsters.

"…All but for one exception: The infamous Chupacabras. I just can’t stand that thirsty son of a bitch, for reasons I’m about to explain…"

 

And here's RPJ's complete article, which is as entertaining as it is fascinating!

 

 

A "Hangar 18" for Monsters?

There's a new Mysterious Universe article from me that starts like this...

"There can be very few people (if any!) with an interest in UFOs who have not heard of the tales of so-called 'alien bodies in the morgue.' Area 51, “Hangar 18,” Homestead Air Force Base, the Dugway Proving Ground, and many more highly secret, fortified installations have all been suggested as the final resting places for the preserved corpses of extraterrestrial entities. But, what of so-called cryptids, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Abominable Snowman, the Chupacabras and other mysterious, or unacknowledged, creatures?

 

"Although they are far less known than those involving their alleged alien counterparts, there are a number of cases on file that suggest it’s not just the bodies of beings from beyond our solar system that are held deep below ground, in well-guarded, bunker-style facilities. Welcome to the controversial saga of the morgue of monsters."

Chupacabras Versus Chupacabras

My latest Mysterious Universe article is on the subject of the Chupacabras. Or, rather, it's on the subject of the two Chupacabras: the Puerto Rican original and the Texan equivalent. Are they the same animal? Are they totally different? And if the latter, how did they come to share the same name?

Read on...

Creatures for the Kids

Each November, I do a series of lectures for Dallas' Highland Park School District on the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Chupacabras, the Yeti etc. And every year the teachers have the kids (aged around 7) mail me drawings and letters of the things they liked and learned from the lectures. And above are a few of the latest...

Synchronicities and the Chupacabras

Over at Mysterious Universe, I have a new article that deals with a couple of strange synchronicities I had while involved in a Chupacabras hunt back in 2005, one focused upon the whole "MJ12" controversy.

The article begins as follows:

"It was late one night in the early summer of 2005 when good mate and Canadian filmmaker Paul Kimball, of Red Star Films, with who I had worked on a number of earlier projects, phoned me with a proposition.  His company, Paul explained, had just been commissioned by Canada’s Space Channel to make a documentary titled Fields of Fear, the subject of which would be animal/cattle mutilations. Part of the filming was to take place on the Chupacabras-infested island of Puerto Rico.

"Paul knew that I had been to Puerto Rico previously, that I had established good contacts and leads there, and that I had written about official, FBI files on animal mutilations in my 2003 book, Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown.  As a result, Paul hired me as both a consultant to, and a participant in, the show. And so, I was soon airborne for the island of mystery, and my second excursion in search of the Chupacabras."

Tales of the Chupacabras

There's a new Lair of the Beasts post from me at Mania.com on my trips to Puerto Rico in search of the legendary Chupacabras.

You can find it (the article, not the Chupa!!) right here...

MIB, WIB, Monster

There's a new article from me at Mysterious Universe that focuses on one of the strangest stories to have come my way while searching for the Chupacabras on Puerto Rico.

Although I have now made a number of trips to the island, and uncovered a lot of weird tales, this one (told to me and Paul Kimball of Red Star Films in 2005) is very odd.

It starts like this:

"While the term 'Men in Black' is one that pretty much everyone understands – regardless of whether or not they have an interest in the UFO issue, conspiracy-theories, or Forteana in general – what about their female counterparts, the Women in Black, or WIB? Although reports are far more scarce, they do exist and are no less intriguing than the more well-known MIB. Indeed, back in 2005, I was caught up in the investigation of one such case…

"For years, sensational and sinister stories have surfaced from the forests and lowlands of Puerto Rico that tell of a strange and lethal creature roaming the landscape by night and day, while striking overwhelming terror into the hearts of the populace – which is not at all surprising since the animal has been described as having a pair of glowing red eyes, powerful, claw style hands, razor sharp teeth, a body not unlike that a monkey, a row of vicious spikes running down the length of its back, and occasionally, and of deep relevance to this particular chapter, a pair of large and leathery bat-like wings."

And here's the complete feature.

A Diary of Monsters: New Book

Anomalist Books have just published a new book from me: Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures.

Written in first-person style, the book chronicles my on-the-road investigations of all-things cryptozoological from early 2009 to late 2011. And here's the AB background-info on the book...

MONSTER DIARY is the latest saga in Nick Redfern’s ongoing series of worldwide road-trips in search of strange creatures and terrifying beasts.

In this transatlantic trek, Redfern is hot on the trail of...a Mothman-like creature in Wisconsin; giant eels that lurk in the canals of Birmingham, England; a spectral mammoth and a ghostly big-cat in American woods; Bigfoot in New Mexico; a Chupacabras in the wilds of Oklahoma; vampire-like beasts roaming the valleys of Wales; and California’s very own shape-shifting Skinwalkers.

MONSTER DIARY reveals that many of the unknown animals of our planet are not all they seem to be. They may appear to be flesh-and-blood creatures, but is that what they really are?
Redfern sets out to prove that the true nature of the fearsome creatures that dwell in dark and shadowy woods, atop imposing mountainous peaks, and within the depths of murky lakes and rivers can only be understood with a knowledge of ancient rituals designed to conjure up foul life forms from some terrible realm, ominous sacrificial ceremonies undertaken in the dead of night, and disturbing occult rites.

Monsters do exist. Monsters are among us. But they are not what you probably think there are.

Peacock High-Strangeness

This is weird. Well, kind of...

In Wisconsin new reports have surfaced of sightings of peacocks and Bigfoot. So what? Well, this is not the first time peacocks and bizarre beasts have appeared in the same story.

In 2004, me and Jon Downes (pictured proudly posing below in the El Yunque Rain-Forest), of the British-based Center for Fortean Zoology, traveled to Puerto Rico with the SyFy Channel's Proof Positive show to film an episode on the Chupacabras. While we were there, Jon and I headed out to a farm high in the hills where the owner had lost an entire collection of peacocks to what he believed was the diabolical predator, the Chupacabras.

As the crew filmed, a familiar story was told to us of animals drained of blood; of vampire-style puncture wounds on the necks of the birds, and of an overwhelming paranoid fear that would pervade the entire area after darkness fell.

Moving on, in my 2008 book, There's Something in the Woods, I related the strange saga of a large, monkey-type creature seen crossing a field and a road next to the ancient Chartley Castle, Staffordshire, England in 1986. Yep, that's the castle:

The same field was the site of a Crop Circle I investigated in 2006 - inside of which were a number of peacock feathers (see the photo at the top of this post).

And here's the field and the Crop Circle:

Then, there are the following words of good mate Neil Arnold that appear in his Shadows in the Sky book. There's no attendant beast in this case, but it's still a weird peacock-themed saga:

"One of the most baffling ghost bird stories appeared on the BBC website in November 2006 under the heading, ‘Ghost peacock baffles rescuers’, after motorists in East Sussex had claimed to have run over a bird that left no trace. The mystery began when a female witness, driving on the A267 near Five Ashes, called wildlife rescuers to say she’d hit a peacock. The following day a lorry driver also claimed to have run over the bird. Rescue co-ordinator Trevor Weeks, examined the site of the alleged road kill but could find no trace of the bird. The arches of the lorry were examined but no sign of blood or feathers could be found..."

So what does all this mean? Damned if I know! If only John Keel or Charles Fort were still around to help us figure it out...





Puerto Rican Paranormal Puzzles

What's the connection between the Chupacabras, a Man in Black and a Woman in Black? Well, they all appear in my latest Lair of the Beasts post at Mania.com...