In Prince George’s County, Maryland, in a suburb just outside of Washington, D.C., there is a local legend of a half-man, half-goat creature known as the Goatman. The Goatman is known for attacking cars with an ax and also maiming and killing pets. Legend describes the Goatman as being similar to a satyr, and he stands between six and eight feet tall. He has the horns, legs, and hooves of a goat and is partially covered in fur.
Stories about the Goatman date back to the late 1950s, when people in the Forestville and Upper Marlboro areas reported seeing a horned creature scampering about in the woods. In 1957 a young couple out on a date parked along the side of Zug Road, a country road in Bowie, Maryland, when they heard the sound of something hitting the top of their car. When they looked out the window, they saw a half-man, half-goat creature equipped with a huge, shiny axe staring back at them. The Goatman then ran off into the woods.
The story of the Goatman spread and soon tales about the beast attacking cars parked at the local lover’s lane made the rounds. Teenagers reported having the taillights and windows of their cars smashed in by the axe-wielding beast, which they said had glowing red eyes. Undeterred by the possible danger, teenagers began to drive down country roads at night in search of the Goatman.
In the summer of 1962 the Goatman was blamed for the murders of fourteen people who wandered too close to his home. Since then, the Goatman has gotten the blame for a number of unsolved disappearances and mysterious deaths, including discoveries of partial remains of animals and stories about pet dogs being decapitated.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s sightings of a mysterious large creature in and around the Bowie and Upper Marlboro areas continued to be reported. People told of a large animal that was seen lurking outside their homes. And then in 1971 several pet mutilations were written up in the local newspapers. These reports frightened some residents and prompted others to hunt for the creature.
The Goatman was also blamed for the disappearance of a young boy who went out trick-or-treating on Halloween and never came home. A few years later, a twelve-year-old boy went missing while riding his bicycle. In each of these cases, the children’s personal items were found, but there was no evidence of what happened to the boys.
In 1976, at the prestigious Woodmore Country Club in Mitchellville, Maryland, a large animal was seen in the woods by a landscaper after he found some bones. In 1998 a group of Bowie teenagers said they saw a tall human-like creature in the woods. Then in 2007 a television camera crew filming a golf event at Woodmore captured a dark animal on video that many believe may have been the Goatman.
No one is sure of the origin of the Goatman, but one popular story says that he is the product of a scientific experiment gone wrong. In another version of the legend, the Goatman is an escapee from the nearby Glenn Dale Hospital, which was widely rumored to be an asylum for the criminally insane. In some versions of the legend, both of these stories are linked together and any failed attempt of researchers to discover the truth is explained away as a government cover-up.
In the scientific-experiment version of the origin of the Goatman legend, local doctor Stephen Fletcher is credited with creating the hybrid creature by using an experimental method similar to gene splicing. Fletcher had graduated from Johns Hopkins University with degrees in chemistry and medicine and was employed during the 1950s at the United States Department of Agriculture Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. The center was established during the 1930s and included more than twelve thousand acres of land and more than forty buildings and greenhouses.
In 1952 Fletcher’s wife was stricken with a mysterious illness that left her in a comatose state. Nothing seemed to revive her, and local doctors and specialists were at a loss over what to do. Fletcher became desperate to save his wife. He began conducting strange experiments at the Research Center, where he supposedly combined the DNA from a goat and his research assistant, William Lottsford, in his attempt to find a cure for his wife’s illness. Lottsford transformed into the Goatman, but it became too much for him to handle. He escaped from the research center and ran off into the woods, where he continues to roam the woods seeking revenge for what was done to him.
In yet another variation on the Goatman legend, Fletcher obtained blood samples from Glenn Dale Hospital patients, not his assistant. Glenn Dale was opened in 1934 for the treatment of tuberculosis and remained in operation as a general hospital until it was shut down in 1982, and despite widespread rumors, it was never used as an insane asylum.
The Goatman legend is also commonly associated with the Crybaby Bridge, but since there are several bridges referred to by that name, no one is sure which bridge the Goatman might be lurking under. One bridge that might be the Crybaby Bridge of the legend is Governor’s Bridge, a one-lane truss bridge that crosses the Patuxent River near Bowie. Other possible crybaby bridges include the steel Queen Anne Bridge near Queen Anne, Maryland, and another located near the Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville.
The Crybaby Bridge gets its name because people report hearing the sounds of a baby crying when they pass over the bridge. In one story, a young unwed mother threw her baby off the bridge rather than be shamed by her family. In another story, a mother and baby were killed when their car veered off the bridge. Some drivers have seen a ghost car in their rearview mirror, but say that it disappeared when they turned to look at it.
The Goatman legend has similarities to another legend: the Hook, a murderer who creeps up on cars parked at the local lovers’ lane. According to this traditional tale, a boy and girl had parked their car and the boy got out of the car to stretch his legs. The girl remained inside, but the boy was gone for a long time and she became worried. The girl heard the sound of something falling on the car’s roof. When she got out of the car to investigate, she saw the boy’s blood dripping onto the car.
While sightings of the Goatman have centered on the Bowie area, particularly along Fletchertown Road, he has also been seen along Lottsford Vista Road near Largo and along Ardwick-Ardmore Road in Landover, as well as around the Glenn Dale Hospital. More recently, the Goatman has been spotted around the towns of College Park, Hyattsville, and Riverdale.
During the 1970s, Lottsford Vista Road was a winding country lane with deep cuts and trees growing up to the road, their roots seeming to reach out at passing cars. For many teenagers, driving down the road late at night while someone in the car told the story of the Goatman was a rite of passage. Today, Lottsford Vista Road has been straightened and flattened, indistinguishable from many other suburban roads. If the Goatman still haunts the area, he has fewer trees to hide behind along this modern road.
The Goatman legend remains a popular local legend, but similar stories of a half-goat, half-man creature have appeared across America, with sightings reported in Alabama, Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and California, where he is known as “Chevo Man.”
Karen S. Garvin
See also Bigfoot or Sasquatch; Hidebehind; Hook, The; Legends
Further Reading
Burke, William. 2013. Director, Legend of the Goatman: Horrifying Monsters, Cryptids and Ghosts (2013). Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2794780/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt. Accessed July 17, 2015.
Lake, Matt. 2006. Weird Maryland. New York: Sterling.
Okonowicz, Ed. 2012. Monsters of Maryland: Mysterious Creatures in the Old Line State. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.
Opsasnick, Mark. 1994. “On the Trail of the Goatman.” Strange Magazine 14 (Fall): 18–21.
Wright, Andy. 2013. “Maryland’s Goatman Is Half Man, Half Goat, and Out for Blood.” Modern Farmer, September 16. http://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/marylands-goatman-half-man-half-goat-blood/. Accessed July 17, 2015.