In March 1995, in the town of Orocovis in the mountains of Puerto Rico, eight sheep were found dead in one morning. Each had three small puncture wounds in the chest. Each had been drained of blood. Over the next six months the island reported more than a thousand animal deaths in the same style: goats, chickens, rabbits, dogs, a few cattle, found with puncture wounds and no blood, and often with no sign of a struggle.
In August a woman named Madelyne Tolentino in Canóvanas looked out her window and saw the thing that was doing it, or so she said. Her description is the one that stuck: about four feet tall, standing upright, large dark eyes, gray skin, a row of spines down its back, and a smell of sulfur. Within weeks the island press had a name for it, chupacabra, “goat sucker,” and the mayor of Canóvanas was leading armed patrols through the hills with a caged goat as bait.
Then it crossed the water. By 1996 reports came from Mexico, Chile, and Texas. In Texas the creature became something different, a hairless dog like animal with a ridged back, and several were shot and examined. Those were coyotes with mange. The Puerto Rican original, the upright thing with spines, was never caught, never photographed, and never explained.
More than a thousand animals, drained, in six months, on an island forty miles wide. Something was killing them. What do you think?
What do you think about this? The carrier USS Hornet, docked in Alameda, lost more than 300 men in service. Her museum crew logs sailors in passageways who vanish, hatches slamming alone, and a voice from an empty compartment saying “I’m still here.” Old steel, or a crew still aboard?
What do you think about this? The wall at Sacsayhuamán above Cusco is built of stones up to 120 tons, cut with twelve angles and fitted so tight a sheet of paper will not slide in. The Inca told the Spanish an earlier people built it. Lost skill, or a civilization we have not named?
What do you think about this? Bernadette of Lourdes was buried in a damp vault in 1879. When the Church opened her coffin in 1909 her body was intact and her limbs still bent. Opened again in 1919 and 1925, same result. She lies in a glass case today. Dry crypt, or something else?
What do you think about this? In 1969 explorer Juan Moricz swore under oath that a cave in Ecuador’s jungle held thousands of stamped metal plates. In 1976 an expedition with Neil Armstrong went in and found pottery, not plates. Moricz died without giving the spot. Still down there?
What do you think about this? On October 11, 1973, two men fishing the Pascagoula River said three gray creatures with claws floated them into a craft. Deputies left them alone with a hidden recorder, expecting a confession. It caught them terrified and praying. Hoax, or the real thing?
What do you think about this? The Dropa Stones, 716 grooved stone discs said to be found in Chinese caves in 1938 beside small bodied skeletons, telling of a crash 12,000 years ago. The 1978 book that spread the story was admitted to be a hoax. Pure fiction, or a truth wrapped in lies?
Field reports, theories, and intel from the X-Files straight to your inbox. No filler, no algorithms, just the work.
Phone is optional. If you add it, we may text you tour drops, book launches, and breaking news from the X-Files up to 4 messages a month. Reply STOP anytime. Msg & data rates may apply.