Who or what was the 'Gorillaman.' A group of boy are exploring a tunnel, but are later spooked by indications that they are being followed. After they leave and go home, the account really becomes bizarre.
The following account was forwarded to me:
"The premise of the account. Boys go into tunnel, find "leave now" note upon exit, get followed by stumbling creature that runs off on all fours. Creature returns to dance around a fire, boys drive by it with one of their mothers who sees it take off very fast on all fours after it yells unintelligible speech at the boys when they yell and throw the sign at it.
This would have been in late summer of 2018 in southeast Missouri. I would like to note that I was not eyewitness to this story, but it has been corroborated by 6 eyewitnesses that describe the same thing. This story has been told to me by my younger brother and his friends, which may lead some to question its credibility, but it was also (partially) witnessed by one of the boys' mothers and sister.
In a nearby town, there is a collection of softball fields in a residential area. My brother's girlfriend at the time was playing in a tournament there. And, out of happenstance, he had friends with sisters or girlfriends also playing there. I have been to these fields as a teen, and there are usually lots of kids and parents around during a tournament like this, approx. 300-500 people I would guess on average. The boys would all have been around 15-16 at this time.
Apparently, one of the boys was aware of a tunnel entrance nearby the fields. How he would have known about it is beyond me, because it is pretty obscure. Regardless, it does exist, and I have stood in the entrance of it myself about two years after all of this took place. It is about 8' in diameter. The boy who knew of the tunnel told the others, and they walked over to it. The entrance is in a small collection of trees, and you have to go down into a small creek bed, but it is still well within a quarter mile of the fields.
This tunnel is part of system that directs storm runoff to a large river. I have dug up maps of this system out of curiosity. I think the particular section they were in goes 4 miles or so, but (judging from the maps I found, and not eyewitness) I believe there are many more miles of tunnels in this system under the town.
The boys explained that as they followed the shallow running water into the tunnels by the light of their phones, the sun was just starting to set. They estimate they may have gone 2+ miles into this tunnel. At the entrance, they said there was lots of graffiti, and eventually there was no more. They went way past all of the graffiti and they saw no markings or signs of anyone having been in the tunnel until they reached the point they turned around. Occasionally, they would see smaller tubes joining the tunnel (described as barely large enough to perhaps wriggle into) and some of them would have a bit of water running from them.
The boys reached one of these smaller tubes that was spitting out a lot of water. They had to run up and around the water. When they reached the other side, they saw written on the wall in what they all described as "creepy handwriting" the statement, "6 dead, 1 alive." This freaked them out. They were already feeling very anxious by this point, and they decided to turn around when they heard a noise behind them.
They basically all panicked and ran back. When they eventually got to the entrance, the sun was starting to set. One of the boys happened to notice a 1x4 plank in the entrance with a piece of paper duct taped to it. It had the words, "Leave now" scrawled on it with this weird symbol that looks something like a circle with a jagged arrow going through it at a 45* angle. The boys postulated that the note was probably intended to float down to them, but got caught not very far inside.
One of the boys picked up the scrap of wood and carried it with him. My brother said the others did not realize the implications of the note, and he had to point out that this meant someone had been watching them, and might be right at that moment. This prompted them all to be scared and look around. They did not see anything, but they quickly climbed up out of the creek bed and, as they emerged from the trees, they got back on the sidewalk to walk back to the softball fields.
They had not made it very far on the sidewalk when my brother noticed that they were being followed by a very strange being. They all were scared out of their minds when they realized this. They describe the creature as being very tall, they approximated it to be 6 foot 5 inches in height. They said its shoulders were unnaturally narrow; and it had long, spindly arms. It stood hunched over with its arms hanging limp. The creature stumbled along on its two feet, falling all over itself like a drunk man, and was all over the sidewalk. It was dressed in all black, skin tight clothing like spandex or similar, and had black gloves on. Between the sleeves and the gloves they said there was extremely pale skin. Intriguingly, they described the head to be like a greasy, black pom-pom. There were no distinguishing facial features.
This thing followed them, even though it was very unsteady on two feet, and they were freaked out enough by it that they hurried away and hopped the fence to the softball fields. Interestingly, the being did not leave the sidewalk when they did. It was almost as if it was stumbling along in a trance, they said. From the safety of the other side of the fence, one of the boys yelled out to it, "Hey, we got your note!" The being seemed to snap out of its trance, and bounded up a steep hill on all fours at an incredible rate of speed into another patch of trees. The boys were dumbfounded by this. All of this should have been in full view the softball fields had anyone been paying attention.
The boys ran back to one of the boy's mothers who was present and told her what had happened. She scoffed in disbelief, until, at some point, this thing wobbles out of the trees, and starts a fire in an open field right across from the softball fields. This, too, was in full view of anyone paying attention. The boys said it seemed to start the fire instantaneously, leading them to consider it may be some kind of demon or something. I guess the mother saw all of this, and was intrigued, perhaps because she is a bit of a religious fanatic.
All of the boys loaded up in her car with the mother and sister, and she drove them past the creature. The mom was dumbstruck. The thing seemed to be dancing in a wobbly, unsteady fashion around this fire it had started. They rolled down the car window and yelled to the being, and threw the sign at it. Its head snapped to look at them, even though they could see no identifying facial features, and it yelled back in unintelligible, garbled speech. Apparently, this really seemed to disturb the boy's mother who was driving, and the sister, who screamed in terror.
This caused the being to take off, yet again, on all fours, at an incredible rate of speed into the trees. Today, whenever they talk about this event, they refer to him as the "Gorillaman" because of the look of the hair covering its head like a black pom-pom. I happen to know an older guy who grew up in that area, and he was not aware of the tunnels or any such creature. Some of the explanations the boys have proposed were a possessed human, a demon, an alien, or that it is some kind of cryptid creature.
A couple weeks after the sighting, the mother, who had apparently been shaken, had discussed it with her husband. The husband, who is a bit religiously fanatical as well (I say this because they are convinced it is a demon or related), was enamored by the story, and started digging for information. I guess he had found a newspaper article stating there was a dismembered body found in the exact group of trees that the creature ran off into found only weeks prior to the boys seeing it.
To this day, I have no idea what they saw, but some of the descriptions here seem to be somewhat similar. I do find it odd that this thing was out in the open. I must say that starting a fire in this area is just plain strange, but I think it would be totally unheard of for a cryptid to do so. I'm of the persuasion that it must have been a crackhead or something, but the boys are convinced its movements and proportions were not human." B
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Lady Ann Selene - Reiki Master, Vampyre Witch, Experiencer, & Author - Phantoms & Monsters Radio
Phantoms & Monsters Radio welcomes Lady Ann Selene to our show.
Lady Ann Selene was born with the paranormal in her blood and she has had experiences beginning with her earliest memories. From ghosts, shadow entities, Sasquatch encounters and more. Ann is a Reiki Master, Intuitive Tarot reader and Vampyre Witch who loves to dive into the Spiritual realm and adds an otherworldly flavor to her show at caravanoflore.com
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'CHIRPING, RED-EYED' WINGED HUMANOIDS / BIGFOOT / BEKs - LIVE Narrated P&M Personal Reports
Welcome to Phantoms & Monsters 'Personal Reports' - cryptid & unexplained accounts directly from the archives of Phantoms & Monsters. Narrated by Lon Strickler.
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A truck driver at work in Bensenville, Illinois, just southeast of O'Hare International Airport, encounters a red-eyed winged humanoid that was heard making 'chirping' sounds. That same night, approximately a quarter-mile away, there is another sighting of the same creature. Is there more than one? Are they coming from nearby O'Hare International Airport? Many more personal eyewitness reports are included.
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Have you had a sighting of a winged humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area / Lake Michigan region? The entity has also been referred to as the 'Chicago Mothman', 'Chicago Owlman' & 'O'Hare Mothman.' - Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map - Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com - your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated.
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