The Dover Demon
No one is quite sure what the Dover Demon is, or what it wanted, but one thing is for sure: it was astonishing. In April 1977 it terrorized the lovely town of Dover, Massachusetts and, just as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared. The Dover Demon, though, has remained in the minds of many paranormal researchers due to the hold this small creature had over the town of Dover.
The Dover Demon is quite small, less than four feet tall. Although it is humanoid, it is also often compared to a small monkey with a large head and a seemingly emaciated body. Its skin is largely hairless and its skin is tinted a light pink or orange. Although it may not sound all that scary, this creature also has a pair of glowing red or green eyes that bore into you.
It all began on April 21st, 1977 at 10:32pm. Three 17-year-old friends, Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzocca, and Andy Brodie were all driving together north on Farm Street. Bartlett was driving noticed something crawling along on the street. He continued to look at it, as he couldn’t quite tell what it was. It was then he realized it was something he had never before witnessed. Bartlet said it stared directly into the car lights and had “two large, round, glassy lidless eye shining brightly like two orange marbles.” The creature quickly ran off and before he can alert his friends in the car, the creature scampers off. Disturbed at what he had seen, he dropped his friends off and headed home. His dad noticed he was upset when he came in the house, asked what was wrong, and Bartlett relayed his strange sighting.
Just a few hours later, the Dover Demon made another appearance to another teenager. Around midnight, John Baxter, 15, was leaving his girlfriend, Cathy Cornin’s house. He was walking up the street on his way home. About a half an hour into his walker, he noticed that there was a figure in the distance approaching him. It was a small figure so he initially believed it was one of his neighbors with a similar stature. John called out him but got no response. Confused and perhaps a little scared, John asks “Who is that?” The creature scurried down the slope and into a small gully. That’s when John got a good look at it - he said the body was monkey-like “except for the figure-eight shaped head.” He was frightened at this strange creature and flagged down a car and hitched a ride home.
The final sighting was again witnessed by teenagers. Will Taintor, 18, was driving his girlfriend, Abby Brabham, 15, home around midnight the next night. Abby was the one who noticed and she claimed, I looked at the head and the head was very big and it was a very weird head… It had bright green eyes and the eyes just glowed like, they were just looking exactly at me.” Will saw it for only a moment, but both confirmed it was about the size of a goat.
Bill Bartlett hadn’t forgotten his own experience and decided to draw what he had seen and make copies of them to share around his town to corroborate his story. Several local papers picked up the story and the drawings. As the story traveled, both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe ran stories on the Dover Demon.
But what was it? And, even more interesting, why did all of the major sightings feature teenagers?
Some people believe the Dover Demon is some kind of alien or alien-related creature. The body type and physical description (minus size) has often been compared to Greys. Others believe that it might be a new species or mutation of an existing species. Or, perhaps it was an unfortunate animal that was born with a genetic disorder.
Thanks to Reynolds m for the Blogstonishing topic!
The above image is of Dover, MA by Ian Lee and licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).