Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy

Investigator's Comments

John Morley

This investigation was conducted as a result of an incident that allegedly occurred near Waskom, in Harrison County, Texas in the late 1980s.

This report was originally submitted to Dr. Jeff Meldrum, who in turn forwarded it to the TBRC. I made contact with the witnesses, the son and his father, and was able to interview both of them at length. During the interviews, the men, both very experienced outdoorsmen, remained faithful to the original report. The following is my synopsis of those interviews:

The primary witness, the son, told me that he had gone deer hunting with his father on a piece of land just north of Waskom, Texas in the fall, late 1980s (probably 1988). The two men had walked a fence row for about 300 yards to their stands. The witness recalled that he stopped at his stand while his father proceeded over a small hill and down into a bottom area cane break where his stand was located.

The witness said that after getting into his stand, he saw a peculiar hair-covered figure walking on two legs parallel to the fence line and on his side of the fence. The witness believed that he had seen the subject for about 30 steps before it was out of sight. The witness’s first impression was that it was another hunter, but very quickly realized that it was not a human at all.

The witness stated that the subject had no neck to speak of and that the hair from what was apparently the top of the head flowed down and onto the shoulders. He was able to see the subject from about the waist up, which he estimated to have been about three feet above the top strand of the five-strand barbed wire fence. Such a fence is usually about four feet tall which meant that the subject was likely around seven feet in height. The subject was of a brownish color. The witness could provide no facial detail other than face was flat with no snout (unlike bears).

The witness recalled that on the other side of the fence was a pasture containing some horses. He said that as the subject passed, the horses became very nervous and began to blow and whinny. He remembered how they suddenly bolted and ran to the far side of the pasture away from the subject.

During my separate interview with the witness’s father, the father indicated that he had heard something in the cane break but he had not seen anything. He also remembered smelling a terrible, rotten odor coming from the cane break at the time that he had heard the noise.

The witnesses were cordial and cooperative; my impression was that they willingly, truthfully and accurately described the incident to me. This account is 20 or more years old, but it has historical significance as present day incident reports still originate from this area of East Texas.