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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

MICHAEL NEWTON: What's Eating You? Florida's Hungry Sea-serpent Revisited

Images:
TOP: The sea monster sketched by Edward McCleary for Tim Dinsdale in 1965
MIDDLE: The sinking of the USS Massachusetts in 1921
BOTTOM: An exhibit from the Creation Museum, wherein a child plays with a dinosaur in the Garden of Eden!



In May 1965 readers of Fate magazine were treated to a remarkable tale, penned by then 19-year-old Edward Brian McCleary. Titled 'My Escape from a Sea Monster,' the story has achieved near-legendary status in cryptozoological circles, and forty years after the fact inspired a bizarre Internet parody.

The facts of the case—if facts they are—may be simply summarized. On Saturday, 24th March 1962, McCleary and four young companions left their homes in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, for a diving expedition offshore from Pensacola. Their target was the USS Massachusetts, a decommissioned battleship deliberately sunk by naval gunfire in January 1921, still popular today with scuba divers who enjoy exploring wrecks. Joining McCleary on that fateful day were 17-year-old Warren Salley Jr, 16-year-old Eric Ruyle, 15-year-old Larry Bill, and 14-year-old Bradford Rice.

Aboard an rubber raft, the five companions paddled toward the Massachusetts, but they ran afoul of unexpected currents, gale-force winds, and fog that left them stranded on a buoy anchored to the sunken hulk. At nightfall, according to McCleary, a long-necked and foul-smelling sea monster approached the buoy, prompting all five boys to swim in panic through the fog. McCleary saw the beast grab Eric Ruyle and drag him underwater, followed shortly by the sound of Salley shouting, "It's got Brad!" Moments later, a scream signaled Salley's fate, while McCleary lost sight of Larry Bill in the mist. McCleary alone reached the shore, spending the night in World War II-era gun emplacement near Fort McRae, where a helicopter crew from Pensacola's Naval Air Station found him at 7:45 A.M. on Sunday.

Writing three years after the supposed event, McCleary claimed that he immediately shared his monster tale with personnel at Pensacola's naval hospital, where he was treated for shock and exposure to the elements. E. E. McGovern, a verified member of the Escambia County Search and Rescue Unit, allegedly listened in awe, then said, "The sea has a lot of secrets. I believe you, but there's not much else I can do."

Two months after Fate published his story, McCleary sent an abbreviated and amended version to Loch Ness researcher Tim Dinsdale, who apparently accepted the tale at face value and remarked on "the potential danger faced by those who swim in waters inhabited by these animals, which must be fish-eating carnivores." As for the fate of McCleary's friends, Dinsdale wrote, "I feel Mr. McCleary has been right to omit the details in his letter, because the facts cannot be proven."

Indeed.

Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans briefly recapped McCleary's story in 1968, suggesting a possible hoax but leaving room for speculation. Sensationalist author Warren Smith presented the tale as fact eight years later, suggesting that
"a storm, unfamiliar waters, or other factors affecting behavior could trigger a vicious attack by these beasts." In 2007 researcher Matt Bille told Internet readers: "As so often happens in cryptozoology, we are left with a story with no corroborating evidence. That story, as unbelievable as it sounds, still could be true. But we don't know. Until and unless we get a specimen of a creature that matches McCleary's beast, the death of four young men will remain a mystery of the sea."

Or will it?

While researching Florida's Unexpected Wildlife in 2005, I attempted to locate any available corroboration of McCleary's tale. Fate had referred to stories published in the "Pensacola Journal" (actually the News Journal) and the Playground News of Fort Walton Beach, but I struck a dead-end on that front. Archivists at the News Journal denied any record of the case in their paper (incorrectly, as I later learned), while the Playground News eluded me, having changed titles during 1988. Strangely, despite published descriptions of a full-scale search for the five young divers, my inquiries to local law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard likewise proved fruitless. No one, it seemed, had any record of the case.

Enter Kent Hovind, a Christian evangelist who once styled himself "Dr. Dino" while promoting a doctrine of creationism, including tales of l
iving dinosaurs cited to prove that Earth is only 6,000 years old. Presently incarcerated at Jesup Federal Correctional Institution in Georgia, serving a term for tax evasion that will keep him caged until August 2015, Hovind formerly referred skeptics to Val Bill, stepmother of alleged monster victim Larry Bill, as a corroborating witness.

According to Hovind, Mrs. Bill approached him following a sermon he delivered in 1998, relating the tale of her son's grisly fate.
"You can write her a letter," said Hovind, providing an address in Fort Walton Beach. I did so, and received no answer.

Enter Dusty Ricketts, a reporter with the Northwest Florida Daily News (formerly the Playground News). Armed with a copy of my book, Ricketts launched his own investigation of McCleary's story and phoned to get my take on the events. He had unearthed copies of four newspaper articles about the case, published between 26 March and 2 April 1962, providing me with photocopies that shed more light on McCleary's article in Fate and his letter to Tim Dinsdale. (He had also located McCleary, hoping for an interview, apparently in vain.)

First, it should be noted that McCleary hedged his bets in Fate, claiming that Florida reporters warned him they could not publish a monster story, which was "better left unmentioned for all concerned." And in fact, the Pensacola News Journal quoted McCleary at length on 26 March 1962, including this description of the fatal incident:

"Larry, Eric and I tried to swim together. Eric suddenly developed cramps. Larry and I tried to hold him up and suddenly my legs stiffened and I wasn't able to use them to swim with. I tried to get Eric to hold onto me. He finally started shouting that he couldn't make it. I told Larry that I didn't think we were going to make it and he said, 'We're sure going to try.'"


Whatever happened next remained unstated, as McCleary jumped ahead to his arrival on the shoreline, by himself. There was no mention of a monster, or indeed any description of what befell his friends. More to the point, the Playground News of 2 April 1962 reports the funeral of Brad Rice, washed ashore on 31 March, a presumed drowning victim. Larry Bill, Eric Ruyle and Warren Salley Jr. rated no mention at all.

Which raises the question: why not? Was the disappearance and presumed death of three teenagers so routine that the local paper in their relatively small town—19,992 residents as of 2008—chose to ignore their passing entirely?

In an effort to resolve that question, I consulted the U.S. Social Security Death Index, a public resource that purports to list dates of death for any resident of the United States who has possessed a Social Security card since Congress launched the program in 1935. No resident of the U.S. may legally work without first acquiring a Social Security number, and paying mandated taxes into the system. Warren Salley and Eric Ruyle were certainly of working age in 1962, while the other alleged monster victims may also have possessed Social Security cards. (I obtained mine at age 13, for my first summer job. Child actors may be registered in infancy.)

That said, a note of caution is required, since research on other projects has shown me that some persons who should be listed are not, including both the famous and infamous. With that in mind, my search for McCleary's companions revealed the following information:

According to federal records, only one Eric Ruyle has died in the U.S. since Social Security was established. Born in August 1883, he died at Alton, Illinois, in January 1965, aged 81.

Two Warren Salleys made the government's list. One was born in 1921 and died in Panama City, Florida, at 85, in March 2007. The other was born in 1925 and died a month before his namesake, in February 2007, at Derby, Kansas.

By comparison, we have too many Larry Bills. The only one with that precise name—Larry G. Bill—died at Naples, Florida, in April 2008, age 72. Five Lawrence Bills, born between November 1898 and November 1953, died in Virginia (July 1972), Louisiana (February 1983), New York (October 1985), North Dakota (June 1996), and Ohio (July 2006). Laurence B. Bill was born in 1935 and died in Pennsylvania, in October 1996.

Seeking other avenues of verification, I checked the weather for Pensacola, Florida, and environs on 24 March 1962, through the Old Farmer's Almanac online. The day was reasonably warm, with a high of 64.9° Fahrenheit. No precipitation or fog was recorded, visibility was cited as 4.8 miles, and the stormy winds that allegedly drove McCleary's raft off-course never topped 13 miles per hour.

So, was the story a shameless hoax?

One Internet prankster obviously thought so, when he mocked Kent Hovind's recitation of the case on the FARK "not news" Web site, quoting fabricated author "MacArthur Vick's" proclamation that "Dinosaurs are Sodomites!" In that piece, we are regaled with the story of 23 teenage divers swept off-course in March 1959, while searching for a shipwreck near "Surf City, New Jersey." Lost in a "satanic" fog, they are attacked and fatally buggered by a reptilian beast, which spares only survivor " Percival Patterson." "Atheist satanic scientists" dismiss the tale, but author "Vick" proclaims that the youths "had been ravaged and eaten by the sea monster."

And there, at least for now, the matter rests. Unless McCleary someday offers evidence supporting his account, whatever that might be after the passage of nearly half a century, logic demands dismissal of his claim.

Adrenaline Given Before Snakebite Anti-Venom Treatment Reduces Allergic Reactions, Study Finds (Via Herp Digest)

Adrenaline Given Before Snakebite Anti-Venom Treatment Reduces Allergic Reactions, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (May 11, 2011) -

Giving low-dose adrenaline to patients who have been bitten by a poisonous snake before treatment with the appropriate antivenom is safe and reduces the risk of acute severe reactions to the treatment, but giving promethazine has no such effect and giving hydrocortisone may actually be harmful. These findings from a study led by Asita De Silva from the Clinical Trials Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya in Ragama, Sri Lanka, are important because in some countries where snake bites are a major health problem, acute allergic reactions to poor quality antivenoms are common and often fatal.

In a study involving more than 1000 people who were admitted to five hospitals in Sri Lanka after experiencing a snakebite, the authors randomized patients to receive low-dose adrenaline, promethazine, hydrocortisone or placebo -- alone and in all possible combinations -- immediately before treatment with an antivenom infusion. Compared with placebo, pretreatment with adrenaline reduced severe reactions to the antivenom by 43% at one hour and by 38% over 48 hours.

By contrast, neither hydrocortisone nor promethazine given alone reduced the rate of adverse reactions to the antivenom and adding hydrocortisone appeared to negate the beneficial effect of adrenaline. These findings also emphasize the high rate of acute adverse reactions to antivenom and stress the importance of improving the quality of the available antivenoms in Sri Lanka and South Asia.

The authors say: "The need for concerted action by local health and regulatory authorities, the World Health Organization, and other stakeholders, including technology transfer programmes between antivenom manufacturers, to improve the quality of antivenom can not be overemphasized."







They continue: "Until these overdue improvements come about, we have shown that pretreatment with low-dose adrenaline is an effective and safe therapy to prevent acute reactions to antivenom. Meanwhile, we continue to reiterate that the need for careful observation of patients receiving antivenom and prompt treatment of acute reactions when they occur remains undiminished."







Journal Reference:

H. Asita de Silva, Arunasalam Pathmeswaran, Channa D. Ranasinha, Shaluka Jayamanne, Senarath B. Samarakoon, Ariyasena Hittharage, Ranjith Kalupahana, G. Asoka Ratnatilaka, Wimalasiri Uluwatthage, Jeffrey K. Aronson, Jane M. Armitage, David G. Lalloo, H. Janaka de Silva. Low-Dose Adrenaline, Promethazine, and Hydrocortisone in the Prevention of Acute Adverse Reactions to Antivenom following Snakebite: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. PLoS Medicine, 2011; 8 (5): e1000435 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000435

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:
APA

MLA
Public Library of Science (2011, May 11). Adrenaline given before snakebite anti-venom treatment reduces allergic reactions, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 12, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/05/110510175159.htm

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

D.R.SHOOP: From the Mufon Archives

I was digging around the Minnesota Mufon archives and found a report I had submitted back in 1996.
http://www.mnmufon.org/96-1r.htm#jun


(This report recieved via Skywatch)
Date: Monday September 16, 1996, Approx. 8:30 PM
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Witness sighted a lighted object in western sky (not the Moon, I checked with USNO) Object first appeared as almost perfect triangle. Moments later it transformed into a solid circle, or disc shape. It illuminated a bright white light with no apparent texture or variation within the light. Moments after appearing as a circle it once again changed shape into a elongated triangle, point at the bottom. Then once more it quickly shifted into a circle shape. It held this shape for only a few seconds. The object then faded away completely. I witnessed this
object from approximately 1 to 3 miles away in distance. Object was absolutely silent. Object was approximately one third the size of a full moon regardless of shape assumed. This is not my first sighting
of unusual objects. It is however my first sighting since 1994.


Click here for descriptive image.

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A HOMING SNAKE IN MACCLESFIELD?

A few days ago a friend called Joe (probably no significance in this whatsoever!) told me about a “homing snake” in Macclesfield about 10 years ago, which I must say amused me. So I have been looking through back-issues of the Macclesfield Express from January 2000 and have got as far as the beginning of September 2000 without success. I intend to go as far as the end of December 2001. The snake in question was apparently trained to go from Tytherington to Hurdsfield in this town, which is at least 2 miles across busy roads so even if it's possible to train a snake to do this I don't know how it could survive heavy traffic. Watch this space!

I also have the following story from Hulme's Natural History Lore and Legend

Burton* tells us that in Samogitia, a small province in Poland, the people nourish amongst them “ a kind of four-footed serpents, above three handfuls in length, which they worship as their household gods, and if mischance do happen to any of their family, it is imputed presently to some want of due observations of these ugly creatures.” Some old writers tell us of hairy serpents, and depict a thing something like the well-known larva of the tiger-moth, the caterpillar popularly known as the “ woolly bear”, and familiar enough to all dwellers in the country, the only difference, though that a very serious one, being that the woolly bear is barely three inches long, while the hairy serpents are stretched to any number of feet that the credulity of the narrator will permit”(1)

* I do not know who Burton is.

1. F.E. Hulme Natural History Lore and Legend (1895) pp 305-306

Correction: A short while ago I asked if anyone wanted to see back issues of the ISC newsletter or journal. What I should have said was sell!

HAUNTED SKIES: Good and bad news

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/05/good-and-bad-news.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1884 Dashiell Hammett was born. Hammett is credited with being the inventor of the hard boiled detective story.
And now the news:

White kiwi chick hatched
Bones of elephant ancestors discovered in Oman
'Deadly' spider forces Crosby family from home

He's got radioactive blood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQJg5fP0U8

RETRIEVERMAN ON THE RED WOLF

http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/the-creature-formerly-known-as-the-red-wolf/



DALE DRINNON: The waterhorse debate continues

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/reply.html

A SWARM OF BABY SPIDERS IN REDDITCH - JOHN HANSON INVESTIGATES

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/05/spiderman-little-super-heroes.html