Ok, im just posting this to spread around the story and the hellish luv that comes with it.
Its a long story so if youve gotta go to the bathroom or get a snack do it now, i'll know if you leave your computer while reading this! big brothers always watching.

this story was told by the witnesses son, Joe. The witness, mark was to afraid of public ridicule.

Ok, here it goes

Back in 1948 a man by the name of Mark Shackleman encountered a strange, bipedal creture that was just nearly canine in apearance, but just barley. Mark was a security officer for the catholic convent of St. Colleta's and he encountered this creature on two different occasions on two consecutive nights.

The first occasion was when he encountered it making his rounds of the land surrounding the convent around midnight. he found the creature kneeling on a native american burialground, clawing and digging at the ground, when he shone his flashlight on it, the creature snarled, paused in the daze of sudden light then ran off. before it went though Shackelman noted that it had very long, spindly fingers ending in cruel looking claws.

In the morning Shackleman went back to the mound to look for evidence, he found the Mound marked with rakings in the earth that seemed to be made by three claws, Mark later told his son joe that this may have been because when he first saw it, he also took note that the thumb and pinkie finger seemed "shriveled" or considerably shorter than the middle three fingers of the beast. The creature may also have tended to fold in these two outside fingers in the manner of a person making a "clawing" motion.

Mark Shackleman must have been a brave man, because he went back to the mound the next night at midnight, armed with a heavy flashlight he could use as a club. and sure enough, the creature was there, kneeling again on the burial mound, scratching at the earth like before. This time, instead of running away, it stood up and faced Shackleman, he guessed the creature must have stood over 6ft tall.

He later told his son "It was covered in dark, or black fur and gave off a bad, bad odor... like long-dead meat... It had eyes that looked right into me. and it made a sound, like a three-syllable growl, it was low and mean, something like 'Gadarrah', it had an accent on the second syllable" when interveiwed he said "it had a neo-human voice, and it made eye contact."

Mark Shackleman was no weakling; he had been a heavy-weight boxer, but he confessed to his son that he was deathly afraid, his hair stood up all over and he somehow knew that this creature had it fully in its power to kill him if it so desired.

As they stood locked in the terrifting stare-down the creature growled at Shackleman. He told his son, "Then i did the only thing i could do, I prayed to god to save me... and the creature turned slowly and walked away. it looked like it was sneering at me. I stood there a long while afterwards, with that bad smell still hanging in the air. And then I said a prayer of thankfulness. I never saw that thing again or anything even like it.

Mark Shackleman told only his wife and swore her to secrecy. Years later he also confided in his son Joe, who made a sketch according to his father's description (sorry, i couldnt get the illustration) It shows a well-muscled figure with three long claws on each hand and foot and a head with a pronounced forward pointing muzzle, filled with prominent fangs, and behind the muzzle is an almost human looking face and pointed ears near the top of the head, the head at least seems more canine than apelike. but thats open to interpretation. The body is covered in long, dark-black scraggly fur. no tail is shown or at least wasnt seen by Mark Shackleman. the claws droop downward in the illustration, as if ready to claw something.

Joe remebers having many conversations with his father about the event and the creature. joe remembers asking mark if he thought it was an animal or supernatural. his father said, "that damn thing came straight out of hell" he smiled then and added, "maybe my prayer sent it back to hell" his smile faded and said "i bet it didnt stay in hell"

Was there a religious meaning to Mark Shackleman's frightening experience? Animals called "Hellhounds" are found in ancient European literature. Bob Trubshaw published an article on the website www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/bdogs.htm called "Black dogs and gaurdians of the corpse ways" Trubshaw also calls to mind the growling "Gaddarah" spoken by the St. Colleta's creature when he says, "The growl of the hellhound....
is a halfway station between articulate speech and silence. It is a speech filled with emotion and power, but utterly lacking in reason...."

He also noted "Few myths have such world-wide parallels. We are left with the impression that dogs have been protecting the ways to the Otherworld back into the origins of human beleifs."

I guess a burial mound such as the one knelt upon by the creature could be a pathway to the Otherworld.

There is another aspect of the creatures utterance, im no biblical scholar, nor am i even christian, but "Gadarrah" is the place in ancient Judea were Jesus exorcised a demon-possesed man "coming from the tombs" causing the mans demons to go into a herd of pigs that then threw themselves down an embankment into the sea of Galilee. (Loren Coleman also pointed out the same biblical signifigance of "Gadarrah" in his book Mothman and other curious encounters) This possesed man Identified Jesus as "Son of the most high god" and then told jesus, "Our name is Legion, for we are many"

Although there may be no connection, i see it as an interesting and cosiderable observation that the one "word" uttered by the Creature was the place of Legion's exorcisism by Jesus

And giving credit to the witnesses own observations, Mark Shackleman felt that the creature before him was "Straight out of hell"

A hellhound with the power of speech found on a supposed portal to the Otherworld and showing sentient, human behaviour in eye contact and the facial expression of a sneer. consider this story i have told you and please post back with comments


Credit for this information is to be given to Linda S. Godfrey, who conducted the interveiws and wrote it in her book The Beast of Bray Road. Trailing Wisconson's Werewolf

*Whew* that was hard research on my part but i felt that the story had to be told and i feel that it has very signifigant insights into the subject of christianity, native american spirituality, hellhounds and dog spirit gaurdians, and that this certain encounter and anything like it should be more seriously studied, hell put bigfoot on the side for a while, i feel that this encounter is a lead to something big. please post back, i wanna know what you think of my work.

Big brother will know if you dont post! WE KNOW WERE YOU LIVE MAN! YES IM TALKING TO YOU!

Ooh I like the name Gadarrah.

If the man Mark Shackelman was religious, and I think he was because he prayed to God, then of course he would relate the creature as being something from Hell. The creature relates to many descriptions of demons so why wouldn't he think it was evil?

I appreciate your research, the article was very interesting. Maybe the creature smelled the Native American carcass and was digging it up for food?

Goatsucking Goodenss, did you mean to spell your name like that? It would suck if you messed up on it.

Sadly yes, i meant it to be goodness, not goodenss, i was just typing too fast and didnt bother to spell check, well all i can do is live with it and hope people get the point of the name and not take my error seriously

First, you get a a cookie for your reaserch. Second, this could be a new species.

YAY! *Munch Munch* got any more cookies?

Actualy, i beleive more in the spiritual aspect of the creature, i dont necicarily beleive that it came from hell and that Shackleman was just overly religious like Qarra said. i do beleive that it was a spirit creature from no religion but still may be classified with hellhounds, im not religious, but if im anything, im more shamanistic in my beliefs. i beleive that it was a creature from this "Otherworld" and that it was a gaurdian or such of this portal to the otherworld (The Burial Mound) or it may have been a creature of pure molevalence from this Otherworld-spirit dimension-etheral plain.

The fact of this creature making potential biblical references, facial gestures. and digging at the Burial mound must have some significant meaning to its spiritual connections. but Qarra, sorry but i dont think it was digging for native american carcasses, all the meat would have decomposed away. the only reason i can see is that it had some connection to this burial mound as a portal to the Otherworld

Well, the word 'Gadarrah' is only Mark's interpretaion of what the creature 'said'. And as for the sneering expression on the creature's face, that again is only Mark's interpretation. I'm not trying to belittle his impressions, only to point out that 1) we only have Joe's telling of his father Mark's experience (the friend of a friend sort of thing), and 2) it's impossible to know exactly what this creature was actually feeling/ saying. So all we are really left with is a strange story of an odd encounter between a creature of unknown origin, and a human. Interesting, none the less.

Why didn't Mark take a camera along with him the second night, and a buddy, instead of just a heavy flashlight?

Yea, i would have taken a buddie with me for a second opinion, but i dont think he brought anybody cuz he was afraid to tell anybody but his wife and son for fear of public ridicule.
And i doubt that they had the covenient Camcorders of today back in the 40's. so i guess unless someone else sees this thing, all we have to go off on is mark's account through his son.

i still find it astounding that even though it may have been nothing, the creature was articulate enough to form three syllable growls using reconizable letters to us.
the only other canine ive ever heard of that could "talk" or even form syllables was a chiuaua that could say "hamburger".

They may not have had camcorders, but there were many quality still cameras around. I inherited one from my uncle, and it's been coveted by a professional cameraman. Of course, in the 40's, it would have been black and white film, but still, that's better than nothing!

true, true, doesnt it seem that alot of these witnesses dont have enough presence of mind to film something? why dont the sensible beleivers like us see these things more often?

either way, with or without footage, it is a report to be considered, because Mark Shackleman was a very credible man. he had no drinking, drug, or mental history.

Just some input here on this story:
-I believe the Native American burial site to be significant here.
-I don't believe there is a satanic or evil presence to this. A terrifing one, yes. A potentially dangerous one, yes, but a neutral one just the same. I think people(especially die-hard Christians) may have a hard time internalizing or accepting a sighting of this nature...and rightfully so. Afterall, these things have been described as promortaly and intensly fearsome. Even today many people by 'belief default', will affix a label of "evil" or "satanic" to somthing in a personal struggle for answers in this long wake of christianity.
-The "Gadarrah" utterings I believe to be just that. An unintelligible hybrid vocalization attempt.
Again, just my personal, condensed input here w/out writing the novella!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Naaaa just pm Saruman and he can fix it for you.........

PS..That was one wild story you told....I'm not so sure i buy into it......But it was cool anyway.....

For the "Gadarrah" thing, I think it's also what he thought/wanted to hear in part. Y'know like you can take really vauge sounds and suddenly coin together "Satan." I've seen a dog(on Ripley's) that could howl and sound like it was speaking.

*EDIT*

There are many of us here that are NA and that was a very rude remark,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There are many of us who are white as a sheet and still found that remark rude.

It's part of who I am. I don't care what race you are. I will still make jokes about it with all the uncaring that I take jokes about white people. Black, White, Asian, Indian, Amerindian, I don't care. Jew or Gentile, I don't care. Gay or straight, I don't care.

Also, it looks like blunt fact to me. US has: Guns, US Army, Manifest Destiny. That basically translates to: Guns, people who know how to use guns, desire to use guns. There. Now I've gone and made the white people look like complete donkeyholes. Is history satisfied?

Thank you coldethyl. I guess it just goes to show that some people have no class!!!!

well, "opininated" is certainly living up to his screen name.

And I'm sure that he won't care that people think he is the southernmost end of a northbound horse for his offensive behavior.

Well you see, I don't believe in claiming everyone is equal, then honoring one race above another. Take your fake equality and shove it. I want no part of your hypocricy. I hold all races as equal, and that begins with what I call "jokes." I'm also a cynic when it comes to history. I look in my book, and it appears to me that every time the white man meets another race, we must claim that the white man is an evil outsider and the other race is great and grand and was flourishing and would have acheived Utopia and transmorgified their bodies into energy had the white man not shown up with his guns.

As for the burial grounds, let me be blunt again: if it's unmarked and the bodies have long since decayed to a skeleton, do you think they care anymore? If 200 years, do you think anyone in a graveyard is going to care if people build their space-houses on them? If you find skeletons during the construction process, bury them six feet under somewhere else. In fact, I may add this to my final wishes if I decide to get buried: Let them build on me.

i am sorry, beeing that i am from the OLD WORLD (Europe) i would like to say that YOU sir have NO idea WHAT you are talking about...
History is one subject that i will argue about till my death... and it quiet easy for anyone that knows anything about it to see that WHITE man are the worst of them all (yes this is white man speaking)

We went to africa and enslaved and killed "Millions" p.s. we still do it
We went to asia middle east and killed millions, for god sakes white man took out two whole cities, and kill middle easterns like its hunting season...
south america... entire populations whiped out...
North America... not only are populations whiped out... but left overs are put in "camps" u can call them reservations but thats not what they are
we all know that area that american indians were sent to was known as "great american desert" at that time ....

so now sir u tell me who has done worse than us (white people) ???



P.S. YOU dont care for jokes and insults but others do so please
read the rules of this forum and if u dont agree dont post...


4. No racism, threats, personal attacks, harassment or hate related posts
We have little tolerance for members who attack or harass other members. The community consists of members from all over the world, and each member's beliefs and views need to be respected. Anyone who exhibits racism, hatred or who persistently attacks or insults other members will be removed from the forum. Members are encouraged to set a good example by treating newcomers to the boards in the way that they would want to be treated themselves, respect other members and act responsibly in threads.

And you think it's ok to make people feel bad, maybe it's you who needs to look at your own history and ask why you believe you don't have to take other's feeling into concern when you post something like that, As you can see no one agree's with what you have said and i noticed they are all white... The bottom line is Rude is Rude and that remark was uncalled for..It was totally off topic and has up-set alot of people....


UN has rule's..Here's # 4... maybe you should read it please.....


4. No racism, threats, personal attacks, harassment or hate related posts
We have little tolerance for members who attack or harass other members. The community consists of members from all over the world, and each member's beliefs and views need to be respected. Anyone who exhibits racism, hatred or who persistently attacks or insults other members will be removed from the forum. Members are encouraged to set a good example by treating newcomers to the boards in the way that they would want to be treated themselves, respect other members and act responsibly in threads.

Opinionated - I'm sending you a PM, I suggest you read it very carefully

For everyone else, please don't take this thread off-topic by validating the post with a response. I know it can be hard when you have been offended, but replying only derails a thread and leads to nothing but grief. Thanks,

Hmmm....


>brain ticks and clunks for a while<

Wendigo?

Hey has anyone read any Lovecraft? I was wondering if, as Lovecraft indicates, Ithaqua and the Mi-Go do have actual basis within this particular legend or if They were completely made up and made to tie in with the Wendigo myth? I'm guessing made up, but I ain't too sure.

This thread is a half-year old...Let's leave it alone!

and because something is OLD we cant give our opinions on it ???

Wontcha go spam somewhere else .... ur comment had NOTHING to do with what was mentioned above su SHUUU

Necroposting is a crime

There is nothing in the rules against necroposting. If someone has something of relevance to add to a topic, then they can share those views. It only becomes frowned upon when the poster resurrects a thread to say something along the lines of "I agree". As far as I can tell, the one who "necroposted" had something of relevance to say about the topic. Can you say the same about your post?