Two readers respond with their perceived personal experiences with phenomena that may be related to the Loveland, Ohio Frogman along the Little Miami River.
The following accounts are responses to an older post I made about the Loveland Frogman:
"Mr. Strickler;
I read your mention of Loveland, Ohio on the blog. I had an experience there 30-plus years ago while visiting family. I awoke from a headache around two am. I heard an odd, "music" coming in the window. It was really strange. It sounded like someone was playing a record backward. It was odd enough that, despite my headache, I just had to investigate.
Leaving my wife to sleep I went outside of the complex of condos and followed the odd sound. Not sure why but I decided to hide behind some bushes then I noticed the sound was coming from the next condo over by the pool. Around fifty yards away from my position. I could see into a second-floor balcony with sliding glass doors. What I saw was odd to me. I saw several figures in robes with some kind of head coverings. The robes were red in color. One of the robed figures had a long knife. They were all moving around in a large circle, chanting. As I was watching the scene the knife holder suddenly quit moving about the circle. Instead, He/She came to the sliding doors and pulled a curtain across! No way they could have seen me! I felt like someone was right there in the bushes with me! I ran!
The next day we were to return home. So, I called the management of the condo complex and reported the "witches." The lady politely thanked me and said she would investigate. I had left my number with her but she never called me back.
A few years later I was reading a book about then-popular subjects of UFOs, psychics, etc. Published by Omni Publishing. I decided to read the 'About the Author' section. He related that he was a practicing witch in Loveland, Ohio, and had been thrown out of his condo after a "service." It appears we had met!" John
I also received the following account previous to my post:
"We bought a little house down by the Loveland Castle Museum back in 2000. It was perched above a ravine and creek, and the back of the house dropped off very steeply. There would have been enough room for a man or a bipedal person to stand behind the house, but the basement windows were eye-level and the first floor was quite far up from the place where one could stand. The reason I point this out is that because it was a very small house, we had to use the basement for our two boys' bedrooms. They kept complaining that "something" kept looking in the window at them and my husband and I laughed it off at first. It was a wooded setting, very rural and beautiful, and VERY DARK at night, having no streetlights out there. So it seemed funny that they were thinking something was watching them. We just told them maybe it was a deer (they are plentiful in the fall) and went about our business.
One night, however, I woke up hearing a weird sound just outside our bedroom window on the first floor. It faced out back of the house, and I was puzzled as to what it could be because it sounded like a man, breathing heavily. I started to sit up and realized that whatever it was, it was looking in my window, just inches from my head and I was terrified. I did not look out because I knew that I would see it and I kept feeling something urging me to look. We often would hear squeaking noises, screeching (not like an owl), and a crying baby. I woke my husband up and he said whatever it was, it would have had to be 10 feet tall to look in our window. I couldn't sleep that night, but whatever had been there had moved on. I didn't mention it to the kids the next day. The boys came up from the basement, shaken from seeing "the red, glowing eyes" the night before. They were every bit as big as red road reflectors and they heard heavy breathing and the hair on their bodies stood up on end.
This was only ONE experience we had out there in Loveland. It's right down by the Little Miami River, only a stone's throw. Many weird things out there: green glows, orbs, something very large and black on top of the roof of the house very late at night (when the light was shone on it, it did not go thru whatever it was on the roof, and it looked like a huge, dark figure.) I'd like to know if you have any more weird stories about this area. We moved a few miles away but still go past that area often." Crystal F.
NOTE: I assume that Crystal was not aware of the 'Loveland Frogman sightings.
The 1st sighting was in May 1955, around 3:30 a.m. an unnamed businessman claimed that he witnessed three bipedal, quasi-reptilian entities congregating by the side of the road. Later on March 3rd, 1972, around 1:00 a.m. an anonymous police officer was traveling along Riverside Road heading towards Loveland when he came across a frog-like creature on the side of the road. A few weeks later on March 17, 1972, Officer Mark Mathews, reported pulling over to assist an injured animal on the side of the road. Upon approaching the creature Officer Mathews was startled by a strange Frogman-like creature.
The story of the Loveland Frogmen begins on a barren stretch of road that runs along the Miami River in Clermont County, just on the outskirts of the small town of Loveland, Ohio. (This would probably be in the approximate area where Crystal lived). Around 3:30 a.m. in May of 1955, an unnamed businessman claimed to witness three bipedal quasi-reptilian creatures gathered at the side of the road. The businessman pulled over to the curb and observed the creatures for what he estimated to be about 3 minutes. He went on to describe the creatures as being between 3 and 4 feet tall, covered with leathery skin, and having webbed hands and feet.
Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of these creatures however is their distinctly frog-like heads, which the businessman reported to have deep wrinkles where their hair should have been. As the anonymous businessman watched the three “frogmen” one of the creatures suddenly held up with the witness described as some kind of wand above its head, he further claimed that sparks spewed out of the top of the wand. Upon witnessing this strange site the businessman fled the scene fearing for his life.
The next documented encounter with the Loveland Frogmen occurred at approximately 1:00 a.m. on March 3, 1972, when a police officer, who chose to remain anonymous, was traveling down Riverside Road heading towards Loveland. The officer claimed that he was driving slowly, due to overly ice roads, when he saw what appeared to be a dog on the side of the road. Suddenly the creature darted out in front of the cruiser causing the officer to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the unknown animal. When the cruiser came to a stop the headlights fell upon a crouched frog-like creature.
Quickly the creature stood on two legs and stared back at the officer; its eyes illuminated by the high beams, and scrambled over the guard rail, down the embankment, and finally vanished into the Ohio River. The officer described the creature as being 3 or 4 feet tall and weighing in the area of 50 to 75 pounds. He also stated that the skin had a leathery texture and that the animal’s resembled that of a frog or lizard. Later that evening another officer returned to the scene but found no signs of the animal, but did report that there were distinctive scratch marks on the guard raid that the creature reportedly scrambled over.
Another sighting by a police officer, Mark Mathews had an encounter of his own two weeks later. According to Officer Mathew’s report, he spotted what he believed to be an injured animal on the pavement while driving into Loveland. Mathews stepped out of his cruiser to remove the injured animal from the ice-slicked road. As Officer Mathews got closer to the body the creature lurched upwards into a crouched position. Startled by the strange creature's frog-like appearance, Mathews drew his gun and fired at the creature, wounded the “frog man” limped to the side of the road, and slide over the guard rail. Officer Mathew’s description of the frog-like creature matched that of the other officers sighting two weeks prior.
Years after his original sighting, Officer Mathews has somewhat changed his story. He now claims that the creature he saw that night was nothing more than a large reptile that had escaped from its owner. He further insisted that the reason he shot at the creature was to help confirm a fellow officer’s story. Did Mathews change his story due to ridicule or a fading memory of an event that took place one dark night on an icy road outside of Loveland? In the many years following this small string of sightings, there had been no reported sightings of the strange creatures which has become known as the Loveland Frogmen. Now I wonder if the phenomenon started again in light of Crystal's reports and the new information I received later? Your thoughts? Lon
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