Passing Through

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

You chose to hit play on this podcast today.

Smart Choice.

Make another Smart Choice with AutoQuote Explorer to compare rates for multiple car insurance companies all at once.

Try it at Progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance and Affiliates.

Not available in all states and situations.

Prices may vary on how you buy.

Story 1.

The Legend of the Dover Demon

America's northeastern states are a vast region of rolling woodland and mountain ranges, which are allegedly home to countless cryptids, seemingly able to traverse the unsettled areas of these states largely undetected.

In April of 1977, the inhabitants of one small town in rural Massachusetts would catch an unwanted glimpse of one such creature.

Join us as we investigate the legend of the Dover Demon.

Bundle and safe with Expedia.

You were made to follow your favorite band, and from the front row, we were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel.

Savings vary and subject to availability, flight inclusive packages are at all protected.

I am so excited for the spa day.

Candles lit, music on, hot tub warm and ready.

And then my chronic hives come back.

Again, in the middle of my spa day, what a wet blanket looks like another spell of itchy red skin.

If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or CSU, there is a different treatment option.

Hives during my next spa day?

Not if I can help it.

Learn more at treatmyhives.com.

As her boyfriend Will had continued to steer the car through the winding country lanes, Abby Brabham sat beside him in the passenger seat, silently willing him to say something.

The couple were on their way home from a party, during which an altercation had occurred between them.

She had made an off-the-cuff remark about their relationship, which had caused him to lose his temper with her.

It had only been five minutes since they had left.

But those five minutes had seemed like an eternity, as he had still not said anything to her.

She was beginning to worry that this might be more serious than she had initially believed.

Sighing, she peered out of the passenger window at the surrounding countryside, as the passing tree lines and fields were briefly illuminated by the headlights of the car.

By now, they were only a short distance from her home, leaving precious few minutes for Abby to try and resolve the situation before being dropped off.

The 15-year-old was still frantically trying to think of a way to break the tension when she suddenly caught sight of something up ahead, squatting at the side of the road.

As the car continued to move forwards, its probing headlights picked out a strange humanoid shape settled on its hind quarters, staring at the approaching vehicle.

Brabham gasped out loud as its features were gradually revealed by the piercing light from the high beams.

Its oversized head sat atop an emaciated and painfully thin body, which was tan in colour and possessed four long spindly limbs.

It was the creature's face which had shocked the girl most.

It was entirely devoid of any kind of mouth or nose.

But the eyes.

The eyes were a pair of almond-shaped pits which seemed to regard her in a hungry and malevolent manner.

As the vehicle passed by, they shined bright green in the headlights.

It was at this moment, only meters away from the horror crouched at the side of the road, that Abby screamed.

Her sudden outburst caused Will to slam his feet hard on the brakes.

As his girlfriend sobbed and pointed out the rear window, He looked in the wing mirror to see the red hue of the brake lights reflecting off a short but spindly figure, which had now risen from the side of the road.

For a moment, it seemed to study him, and then suddenly made off across the carriageway and into the undergrowth on the opposite side.

In the days that followed, it would soon become clear that the young couple were not the only residents of the town to have had such an encounter, or to have been disturbed by this mysterious intruder's otherworldly appearance.

Situated on the banks of the Charles River, roughly 15 miles to the southwest of Boston, the small town of Dover had historically led a quiet and unassuming existence.

As one might expect, having produced few notable personalities and holding a large catalogue of local historical documents at its repository, the town had made little impact on the national scene.

That was until the Easter of 1977,

when a string of local teens reported haunting encounters with a strange and unnatural figure, which appeared to be stalking the fields and farmlands bordering the town.

These incidents would turn out to be so traumatising that great efforts were made to document them at the time they occurred.

meaning a vivid and lasting profile of the entity was compiled.

One which has endured decades of re-examination and investigation, cementing both the creature and the site of its appearance firmly in the history books.

The first documented encounter with this unusual entity took place on the evening of April the 21st, as three teenagers were driving home across town.

The Volkswagen in which they were travelling was driven by its owner, Bill Bartlett, who was giving his two friends Mike Mazzoka and Andy Brody Brody a lift to their respective homes.

The trio had been travelling northwards along Farm Street, when Bartlett caught sight of something straddling a low-lying stone wall, which was situated not far from the left-hand side of the road.

At first, the youth believed that what he was seeing was most likely a roaming pet, such as a cat or dog.

But as the car drew closer, he quickly realised that it was in fact nothing of the sort.

As the light shining upon it began to intensify, Bartlett was able to make out a series of horrifying and nightmarish features.

The creature was too big to be a domestic cat, standing about three and a half feet tall and being distinctly humanoid in appearance.

Its emaciated torso seemed far too inadequate to support the bulbous head which sat atop its shoulders, and which was devoid of any features, save for a pair of large orange eyes.

There was no fur covering its naked body, the skin of which appeared to be rough like sandpaper and was coloured somewhat like a peach.

The bizarre-looking creature was slowly and methodically crabbing its way across the top of the wall.

its tendril-like fingers curling around the stones in order to gain a sufficient grip.

As the car drove by, the entity quickly melted away into the darkness.

Bartlett excitedly asked his passengers if they too had seen it, only to be met with confused expressions.

Immediately upon his return home from having dropped off his friends, the youth quickly told his father what had taken place, and then drew a detailed picture of what he had seen.

Little did he know it at the time, that this would not be the only sketch of the creature composed that evening.

Several hours later, on the other side of the town and at the southern end of Miller Hill Road, 15-year-old John Baxter had also been making his way home.

He had just spent several hours at his girlfriend's house and was conscious that he would most likely be in trouble upon his return due to the lateness of the hour.

As he hurried through the empty streets towards his destination, the youth caught sight of another pedestrian, walking towards him from the opposite direction.

Initially believing his fellow traveller to be a younger child due to its short stature, Baxter had slowed his pace to investigate, only for the figure opposite to immediately follow suit.

With the skies above being overcast and the person ahead of him being stood just outside the illuminating hue of a nearby streetlight, Baxter could make out very little detail.

Whoever it was remained completely still and seemed to regard him.

Then, in an instant, the figure had turned and scurried off to the left, disappearing into a wooded gully which happened to run alongside the road.

Breaking into a sprint, Baxter gave chase.

hearing the sounds of rustling leaves and snapping twigs up ahead as he began to gain ground.

Seconds later, the boy found himself standing at the bottom of the gully, quite alone.

Or so he thought.

Quietly surveying his surroundings, he noticed an unnatural shape, standing on top of a large rock off to the side of a tree about 30 meters away.

In that moment, A shaft of moonlight peered out from beyond the cloud cover, providing just enough luminosity to make out the details of what lurked before him.

In the dim light, John Baxter saw something unlike anything he had ever seen before.

It was a bizarre-looking creature with a pale, simian-like body, possessing a painfully thin neck, which seemed to be struggling to support its grossly oversized head.

The face staring back at him across the short distance was completely blank and devoid of any features, save for two dark patches where the eyes should have been.

Now terrified that this creature may have lured him away from the town in order to attack him, Baxter turned and ran as fast as he could, finally emerging onto the main road.

A few minutes later, a passing car had slowed down to investigate.

It was driven by a young couple, who were sufficiently concerned by the boy's emotional state to offer him a lift home.

The image of the the alleged creature which Baxter went on to draw would prove to be eerily similar to the one produced by Bill Bartlett.

The same can be said of a third image which would go on to be drawn as a result of Abby Brabham's encounter the following evening.

The various sketches and interpretations of the creature, which would in time become known as the Dover Demon, are perhaps the most significant reason this strange series of sightings remain such an enduring mystery.

Some commentators have highlighted what they believe to be similarities between the being's featureless face and wide-eyed stare and witnessed testimony of traditional grey extraterrestrials.

But the absence of an accompanying spacecraft or similar technology during the Dover encounters would seem to contradict this theory.

The fact that the entity made no effort to approach or communicate with any of the witnesses, instead choosing to evade them on every occasion, has led many to suggest that it may have been some form of cryptid.

Massachusetts possesses many areas of rugged and inaccessible terrain, largely untouched by human beings.

It is perhaps little surprise then that the state has played host to a high percentage of cryptid encounters.

These include reported sightings of Sasquatches, the giant-winged thunderbird, and the enigmatic pukwudgees, dwarf-like hominids which were first referenced in the stories of Native Americans.

Anthropologists who have studied the case have pointed out that all three of the Dover Demon encounters took place in close proximity to local water sources.

This suggests that whatever the creature may have been, it is possible that it was attempting to remain close to its natural habitat.

In the aftermath of the incidents, a local resident named Mark Sennot would later come forward, providing details of an even older encounter with the creature.

He would describe an incident in which he had been driving through the town one evening during the summer of 1972, when he had been startled by something which had run across the road in front of him.

This unknown creature was notably short in stature and was running upright on two legs.

possessing a pair of brightly illuminated eyes.

After Sennot had brought his car to a stop, he had watched the running figure reach the nearby woods, where it had then disappeared from sight at the edge of a large pond, which was situated there.

It has been highlighted that all the sightings took place during the hours of darkness, and when plotted on a map, they appear to track in a straight line which passes directly through or across the local area.

This raises the argument that whatever the witnesses observed may have been migrating or travelling in a set direction, as if the town itself may not have been of any interest or consequence to the entity.

As is common with sightings of unknown creatures or alleged monsters, rational explanations for what has been seen are numerous.

There have been suggestions that the creature observed by the teenagers may have been an orphan moose cub, in possession of a very pale pelt of fur.

These animals have very long and spindly legs, and it has been proposed that in poor light conditions, their gait could be mistaken for a taller creature walking or running with its upper torso bent forwards.

However, Dover does not lie anywhere near any regional moose habitats.

To counter this somewhat inconvenient fact, Similar hypotheses have been put forward.

Some suggest that the Dover demon could have been an albino albino calf, or some other animal which had escaped from a local collection, such as an exotic ape or monkey, or even a disfigured forest animal.

And yet a simple glance at the creature depicted in the drawings by the teenagers at the time of the encounters suggests that what they saw could not have been any known species.

There are simply too many commonalities in these sketches of something which did not resemble or even move like anything they had ever seen before.

Is it possible that the children were the victims of some elaborate hoax or that they were instead the perpetrators of one?

In the half century since the incident, there have been no further sightings of the creature in the town or indeed anything which resembles what they saw.

That said, Creatures of a similar description have been seen elsewhere across the globe.

In 1996, for instance, Brazilian authorities were reported to have captured a being in Verginha which closely resembled the one seen in Massachusetts in 1977.

As it stands, without any evidence to back up the testimonies of those involved, and without a convincing enough argument to logically explain what they saw, The events of that fateful weekend in Dover remain one of America's most intriguing mysteries.

We have already explored a variety of unusual cryptid sightings which are alleged to have taken place within the USA, and as time passes, such incidents continue to occur, often accompanied by dash cam or mobile phone footage of the creatures involved.

It is possible that at some future time, The evidence needed to verify the existence of the Dover demon may yet surface, and in doing so, answer the questions which remain about what took place in this sleepy and unassuming northeastern community

Say hello to the next generation of Zendesk AI agents.

Built to deliver resolutions for everyone.

Zendesk AI agents easily deploy in minutes, not months, to resolve 30% of customer and employee interactions on day one, quickly turning monotonous tasks into autonomous solutions.

Loved by over 10,000 companies, Zendesk AI makes service teams more efficient, businesses run better, and your customers happier.

That's the Zendesk AI effect.

Find out more at Zendesk.com.

There's only one place where history, culture, and adventure meet on the National Mall.

Where museum days turn to electric lights.

Where riverside sunrises glow and monuments shine in moonlight.

Where there's something new for everyone to discover.

There's only one DC.

Visit Washington.org to plan your trip.

During the autumn of 1903, numerous inhabitants of Waniowan city were subjected to a series of terrifying encounters with a mysterious winged intruder.

Over a century later, both the origins and ultimate fate of this enigmatic creature continue to remain shrouded in mystery.

Join us this week as we examine the bewildering story of the Vanmeter visitor.

Pulling his coat a little tighter to his chest in an effort to stave off the paralyzing effects of the cold night air, Eugen Griffith found himself wondering just how late the hour truly was.

A cursory check of his pocket watch soon confirmed the salesman's worst fears.

It was already gone one o'clock in the morning, far later than he had promised his wife he would be returning from his rounds.

Quickening his pace, Griffith hurried through the city's business district, which was unsurprisingly devoid of activity due to the lateness of the hour.

Yet even without having to negotiate obstacles such as other pedestrians or traffic, The door to his abode still remained a frustrating 10-minute hike away.

The businessman had managed to make it halfway along Main Street when something had brought him to an abrupt halt.

There, atop the roof of the nearby Mather and Gregg's building, someone had placed an open lantern which was burning brightly, its light spilling onto the street below.

Taking into account the time, and believing that no honourable man should have any business on a rooftop at such an hour, Griffith was more than a little perturbed by the sight.

Having decided it was within his civic duty to investigate, he proceeded to walk confidently out into the middle of the road and call out a challenge.

Almost immediately and to his utter surprise, the light from the lantern suddenly leapt into the sky, travelling several meters up the street and then landing on another rooftop.

Dumbfounded, Griffith was momentarily at a loss as to how to proceed, before again persuading himself something illicit must be afoot.

As he began a determined pace along the building line, he again called out, demanding the holder of the lantern descend from the roof and identify themselves.

Once again, The result of his order was that the ball of burning light instead hurtled up into the sky, this time sailing directly over the top of him and settling settling on a roof situated on the opposite side of the street.

Completely stunned by what he was seeing, Griffith could only watch on in further amazement as the light now rose vertically up into the sky.

It travelled in a steady and unwavering path directly upwards, before suddenly appearing to vanish into thin air.

Griffith stood perfectly still for a short time, waiting for the mysterious light to reappear.

When it did not, he slowly shook his head in wonder before continuing on his way.

Resolving to speak with the owners of the buildings he had seen the light on the following morning, he again quickened his pace, eager to make up for the time he had just lost.

Eugen Griffith was a prominent and popular member of the community in the city of Van Meter,

and so on the morning of September 30th, 1903, when he began to talk about his experiences, people naturally stopped and listened.

As a result of Griffith's claims, the roofs and upper levels of the buildings in question were checked for any potential trace of a prowler, but there was nothing to be found.

Whilst the day wore on, the businessman's story began to spread throughout the city.

naturally resulting in a palpable increase in community tension.

It was of little surprise then that just after midnight the following evening, some of the town's inhabitants were feeling particularly nervous about who or what it was that one of their number had allegedly encountered.

Amongst this group was a local physician named Dr.

Alcott.

He had been lying on a cot in his back office struggling to get off to sleep.

when a bright and unnatural light had unexpectedly shone into the room through the window.

Convinced this must be the same prowler that Griffith had sighted the previous evening, clearly now looking to force entry, Olcott pulled his pistol from his desk drawer and ran downstairs.

But what he saw when he exited the building would end up haunting him for the rest of his days.

Clinging to the wall immediately outside his office window was a monster right from the depths of hell.

It was largely humanoid in shape, possessing a huge wingspan and with what appeared to be a long beak protruding from its face.

The lengthy talons which the creature possessed at the termination of each wing were unlike any known species of bird and seemed as unnatural as the blunt horn that jutted from the centre of its forehead.

Alcott could see that it was this bizarre extension that was somehow projecting the unearthly light in through his window and was like nothing he had ever seen before.

With a cry of terror, the doctor raised his pistol and fired, at which point the creature looked down at him, inadvertently blinding him with the light that was pouring forth from its horn.

In desperation, Olcott fired his weapon a further four times, at which point the entity gave a piercing shriek and then flew off quickly into the night.

The following morning, the authorities found several spent shell casings on the ground outside the doctor's office, as well as what appeared to be minor damage to the brickwork and wooden sill around the window.

But there was no sign of blood or that the bullets which had been fired had in any way adversely affected the strange intruder.

When added to the testimony of Mr.

Griffith, The good doctor's alleged encounter had quite the detrimental effect on his fellow citizens, with several deciding to take steps to protect both themselves and their businesses from the machinations of this nocturnal intruder.

As darkness once again fell upon the city, a lone figure sat holed up inside the city bank.

Clarence Dunn was employed as a teller at the premises, and had decided to spend the night on the bank floor with his shotgun.

in the event that it turned out to be the next premises to be targeted.

After a time, Dunn had dozed off, but was subsequently awoken by a bizarre gargling and rasping sound, coming from just outside one of the nearby windows.

Checking his watch and realising that it was past 1am,

he reached for his weapon and then cautiously headed across the room towards the source of the noise.

But as Dunn had reached the window and peered out into the darkness, he had been immediately blinded by a brilliant light, which had shone in through the glass and into his face.

Staggering backwards, the bank employee had rubbed his eyes vigorously with his free hand, before opening them again to see that the mysterious beam of light was now sweeping back and forth across the room.

As it had swivelled from right to left, seemingly searching the inside of the premises, Dunn had caught a glimpse of the nightmarish and demonic face behind it, complete with a pointed snout full of sharp teeth and a pair of soulless dead eyes.

Without hesitation, the teller's finger had automatically tightened against the trigger of the shotgun, firing the weapon directly through the window at the creature which was lurking outside.

The glass had instantly shattered as the bookshot smashed into the small panes.

with the creature once again fixing him in the beam of light being projected from the center of its head, before disappearing into the night.

The following morning, the police found what appeared to be footprints on the floor outside the window.

They were abnormally large in size, with three toes sticking out from the end of each imprint.

Several efforts would be made to take plaster casts of these, each unfortunately proving unsuccessful.

The following evening, there would be yet another traumatic traumatic encounter with the creature, this time at a hardware store situated a little further along Main Street from the location of the original sighting.

As with Clarence Dunn, the proprietor, O.

V.

White, had been awoken by an odd rasping noise coming from the street outside.

Seizing his rifle, he'd hurried out of a side door to find a large shape regarding him from a position perched on top of a nearby telegraph pole.

But before he could open fire, the figure had opened its wings and emitted a horrific and overpowering odor.

As White had dropped to his knees choking and coughing, the creature had immediately taken flight, passing over the head of another shopkeeper named Sidney Gregg, who had heard the commotion.

Both men watched on as the winged figure slowly disappeared from sight, heading in the direction of the aging coal mine around which the city had originally been built.

The following morning, when the pair had related their experience to their neighbours, it was decided that enough was enough.

Having been confronted by a deputation of angry local business owners, the mayor had sent for the director of the mine to be brought before him.

A rather flustered Mr.

Platt arrived a short time later, unsure of why he had been summoned.

But But after a brief back and forth with the city elders, Platt revealed that some of his men had recently reported strange sounds floating up from the depths of several long abandoned shafts located near the main site.

Their claims had largely been dismissed as nonsense.

That evening, a couple of armed men were posted to watch the mine entrance, with orders to notify the police if they saw or heard anything suspicious.

In no time at all, they had subsequently come hurrying back into the city to report that they had not seen one, but two of the entities emerge from the mine shaft and fly off up into the night.

A combined force of miners and local residents were promptly pulled from their beds and set off to lay a hasty ambush for the creatures, which both reappeared just as dawn was breaking.

Descending towards the mine, they were subjected to a volley of murderous gunfire.

The only effect that the hail of bookshot and bullets seemed to have on the two entities was to produce inhuman screams and further noxious emissions.

Despite numerous hits, neither creature seemed to sustain any form of injury, instead flying directly past the townsfolk and fleeing back into the abandoned mine works.

Wasting no time at all, the men who were present had quickly dynamited the entrance to the shaft in question, ensuring that no one could access it or that anything could get out.

Volunteers were posted over the next week and a half to search for any sight or sound of the creatures, but nothing further was ever seen or heard of them.

It may be that the Van Meter visitors eventually passed away in the depths of the mineshaft, or somehow found a different way to escape into the wilderness.

But in truth, nobody can say.

In the century that has passed since the people of Iowa fought off and drove away their mysterious winged trespasser, the story of the Vanmeter visitor has grown into a global legend.

The enigmatic creature now stands shoulder to shoulder with other notorious flying cryptids, such as the Mothman and the Laundale Thunderbird.

But at the time of the alleged sightings, the story was largely dismissed by commentators.

Despite being described in great detail by a number of local newspapers, national distributors were highly sceptical that the incident had ever taken place, citing a notable lack of supporting evidence.

But to the people of Van Meter, there is little doubt that this bizarre occurrence did indeed take place.

The witnesses to it were amongst the city's most affluent residents, hardworking men of learning and standing, all impassioned and consistent in their description of the beast.

And yet, over a century later, nothing even remotely resembling this fantastic creature has ever been encountered anywhere else on this earth.

It seems the unnatural combination of a flying monster with the ability to project a beam of light from its body is almost too bizarre a phenomenon to replicate.

Some who have investigated the matter matter have speculated that it may have been a prank executed by local youths, using flying lanterns backed up with animal calls, which were misinterpreted by an already frightened and intimidated populace.

Others have gone further, claiming that the town was experiencing severe economic issues around the time of the incident.

They believe that elements within the city council deliberately concocted the story in the hopes that national interest would bring tourism and investment to the community.

The dawn of the 20th century was a fitful and worrying time for the American people.

With the memory of the civil war still lingering in the minds of the older generation and indications that a confrontation of a similar scale was brewing in mainland Europe, tensions were high.

A number of infamous hoaxes took place around the same time, such as in Cardiff, New York, where the skeleton of an alleged giant turned out to be a money-making scheme by a local grifter,

and in the state of Texas, where a slew of reports describing dragons and flying lizards turned out to be simple trickery.

Ultimately, the reason for the longevity of the story surrounding the Vanmeter visitor is because of its truly unique elements.

The description of the creature remains unique in cryptid lore, so outlandish and fantastic that it eclipses eclipses scientific argument and the lack of any physical evidence.

Whether the creature did exist or the people of the time merely willed it into existence, it continues to live on in some form to this day,

like so many more of North America's shadowy and monstrous interlopers.

Bedtime is over.