The Grafton Monster
Reporter Robert Cockrell said he saw a tall, headless creature beside Route 119 near Grafton, West Virginia, late on 16 June 1964. Residents and teenagers searched for it in the following days.
The West Virginia Encyclopedia records that journalist Robert Cockrell first spotted the creature on 16 June 1964, late at night. He was near Grafton, by Route 119 and the Tygart Valley River. Two days later, in the Grafton Sentinel, Cockrell described a creature seven to nine feet tall, with skin like a seal's, that appeared to have no head. A whistle came from it too. Cockrell said it ran off.
WV Living says a brief note in that morning's paper on 18 June 1964 reported that teenagers had gone monster hunting the night before. That day dozens of residents of Grafton set off on a search. Wikipedia, summarising later researchers, says a Sentinel article of 18 June described groups of teenagers with flashlights and improvised tools searching the Riverside Drive area. A follow-up Sentinel piece dated 19 June 1964 called the episode the product of "spring fever" and imagination.
"Contemporary newspaper coverage, as summarized by later researchers, indicates the story quickly became a local sensation. A Grafton Sentinel article dated June 18, 1964, reported that groups of teenagers armed with flashlights and improvised tools were searching the Riverside Drive area for the creature.[2] A follow-up Grafton Sentinel piece dated June 19, 1964 characterized the episode as the product of "spring fever" and imagination.[2]"
- Grafton Monster, e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online, West Virginia Humanities Council
- Wild, Warped West Virginia Monsters, WV Living