Stories of monsters lurking in the depths of caves, forests, and swamps have captured the imaginations of people for centuries. One contemporary monster tale is the legend of a man-eating alligator named Two-Toed Tom. This legend continues to excite the minds of residents of northern Florida, some of whom claim to have witnessed the appearance of Two-Toed Tom as recently as the 1980s. These residents say they believe the alligator is still alive and is hiding in his home in Boynton Island, which is located near the forks of Holmes Creek and the Choctawhatchee River and is not far from the towns of Esto and Noma. Two-Toed Tom even has his own festival celebrated as a part of the fall festivities of Esto.
The story of Two-Toed Tom first appeared in press as a part of Stars Fell on Alabama (1934), a book by Carl Carmer, a professor at the University of Alabama. Carmer recorded the story while traveling in rural areas along the Alabama-Florida border in the 1920s. Carmer described the alligator as a fourteen-foot-long “red-eyed hell-demon,” who terrified local residents and ate their cattle. The second, more contemporary recorder of the Two-Toed Tom story was historian E. W. Carswell. Carswell composed his work in the 1980s from interviews of northern Florida residents, some of whom claimed to be eyewitnesses of the legendary alligator. Carswell’s story was published as a part of Homesteading (1989), an anthology of Holmes County history and cultural traditions.
According to Carmer, Two-Toed Tom was first spotted in the 1920s in the swamps of the Florida border, near Florala. Two-Toed Tom was named “Two-Toed” because of his unusual footprints: his left foot had only two toes as the result of stepping into a steel trap. Local residents prescribed an amazing power to Two-Toed Tom: nothing could harm the monster, and he survived numerous shootings. Carmer recorded the most terrifying evidence of the alligator’s monstrosity in the story of a local farmer, Pap Haines. For more than twenty years Haines engaged in a war with the monster. One day, after Two-Toed Tom ate Haines’s mule, the farmer decided to attack the alligator with as much firepower as possible. He and his son filled fifteen syrup buckets with sticks of dynamite, lit the fuses, and threw them into the swamp where they thought Two-Toed Tom lived. Many local residents gathered to witness the end of the gluttonous monster. After the huge explosion that destroyed most of the living things in the swamp, the observing crowd heard splashing noises from a neighboring pond. The noises were followed by the scream of a girl. The crowd ran to the area only to find the half-eaten remains of Haines’s granddaughter.
Years went by before Two-Toed Tom appeared again, this time in northern Florida. In the early 1980s, he was spotted in Sand Hammock Lake, not far from the towns of Esto and Noma. The residents reported that a monstrous alligator hollered at the northern end of the lake in a loud, deep low tone. Some thought this was a sign to mark the lake as his territory. Although some people doubted that this was actually Two-Toed Tom, many feared he had returned. The residents named him Old Tom after they found a two-toed track on the shore of the lake. The size of the alligator was reported to be close to twenty-four feet. As the summer went on, the alligator’s bellowing stopped. Many thought he had headed south to hunt.
The rumors remained unsolved until one day Mrs. Jay Toole and her four-year-old daughter, Mary, met Old Tom face to face. That day, Mrs. Toole had taken Mary to her garden to get some vegetables. On the way back, Mrs. Toole went ahead and left little Mary some forty steps behind. Having crossed the dirt road, Mrs. Toole looked back and saw Mary on the other side of the road with a huge alligator between them. Mrs. Toole screamed. The alligator raised himself on his four feet and hissed at the woman. Continuing to scream, Mrs. Toole was able to reach for her daughter, who was stunned yet safe. Nearby residents rushed over, and some brought their shotguns. The bullets did no damage to the alligator’s hide, until a man named Harmon Holland got his Winchester war rifle and shot the monster until he thought it was dead. A close inspection of the alligator revealed that it had all its toes intact. In addition it was much shorter than the famous Two-Toed Tom, leading some to think that it might have been one of Two-Toed Tom’s largest sons. When one man tried to cut off part of the alligator’s tail for meat, the monster suddenly awoke and swung his tail at the man and knocked him away. The alligator then ran off, never to be seen again. In a short time, however, the residents discovered an alligator path of an incredible size near the fork of Holmes Creek and Choctawhatchee River. The path went up the muddy riverbank toward Boynton Island. A close look at the path revealed that the alligator had only two toes on one of its feet.
Since the late 1980s Two-Toed Tom has remained hidden. Memories of him keep the monster alive, till the day when he appears again to terrify and amuse those fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to see him.
Louis Gosart and Ulia Popova
See also Alligators in the Sewers; Big Water Snake of the Blackfoot; Champ; Chessie; Hudson River Monster; Whitey
Further Reading
Brown, Alan. 2013. Haunted Big Bend, Florida. Charleston, SC: Haunted America.
Carswell, E. W. 1998. “The Legend of Two-Toed Tom.” In Alligator Tales, edited by Kevin M. McCarthy, 22–28. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press.
Cox, Dale. 2007. Two Egg, Florida: A Collection of Ghost Stories, Legends and Unusual Facts. Fort Smith, AR: Dale Cox.
Mercatante, Anthony S., and James R. Dow. 2008. Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. New York: Facts on File.