The Beast of Bladenboro

In December 1953 and January 1954 dead dogs turned up around Bladenboro, and talk of a vampire-like beast spread.

Wikipedia and local newspaper columns date the start to late December 1953, with a sighting in Clarkton. On 31 December 1953, two dogs lay dead in Bladenboro, torn up, one report says, with heads pulled off and skulls crushed. On 1 January 1954 a Bladenboro farm yielded two more dead dogs, one so badly chewed that it was hardly recognisable. On the night of 2 January a farmer said one of his dogs had been killed.

Over the days after that, more mutilated dogs turned up, and police had one of the dogs autopsied. A local newspaper column says that in most accounts the animals' blood was drained. That detail comes from retold accounts.

No killer was ever confirmed. Jefferson Weaver, writing in the Bladen Journal, says the press frenzy outgrew the animal itself, whatever stalked the town.