The story goes that two prospectors returning to Tombstone actually shot and killed either a
Pterodactyl or a Pterodon, even retrieving the carcass and returning with it to the town. Keel
reports that the beast was nailed to a barn wall and a photograph taken with six prospectors
standing beneath it with their arms outstretched and fingers touching. The creature is said to have
had a wingspan of about 36 feet. Keel also claims to have seen the photograph himself and says
that at least 20 other people who claim to have also seen it have written to him about it but
unfortunately no-one seems to know where it maybe located now. Apparently there where two
photographs at a place called Hamersley Fork, one of which is said to have burnt in a house fire,
while the other was reported to have been ‘taken away by strangers.’ It’s is debatable whether this
event actually occurred or whether the photograph actually exists, but it’s and intriguing tale none
the less. I have searched high and low for a copy of the photograph and have had no luck as yet,
but I’ll keep you posted...
However not all sightings of flying creatures are from events that were reported so long ago, in
fact there are some very unusual instances that have happened quite recently.
As documented again by Hatcher-Childress in ‘Lost Cities...’ There was an extremely bizarre
series of events involving a number of different people that occurred in 1975 and 1976 in the
town of Raymondville, Texas.
Firstly, on December 24th in 1975 a man, by the name of Joe Suarez, woke up to find his
tethered goat had been ripped to shreds and partial devoured yet strangely, no tracks could be
found that led either led to or from the carcass. What had killed the animal was a total mystery to
the man. Local police were called but could also find no trace of tracks or footprints to identify
the unknown assailant. Then, 21 days later, at 10.30 in the evening, on January 14th 1976, and in
the same town a young man called Armando Grimaldo was sitting with his Mother in their
backyard when he was suddenly attacked viciously by a ‘strange winged creature.’ Armando
apparently told the Raymondville press that as he walked around to the far side of the house, he
felt something with big claws grab him from behind and that he looked back to see what it was
then began running for his life, claiming it to be the most scared he has ever been. Armando kept
running to reach the cover of his Mothers house, stumbling and sprawling as the beast kept
clutching at his clothes and trying to get hold of him as he ran. Unable to reach the house, he was
forced to dive under a low bush to escape the creature, his clothes now all but torn to shreds. The
beast hovered about the bush a little and then flew off panting as if tired from the exertion.
Eventually the boy collapsed through the door of his Mothers house and onto the floor, his
clothes torn and bloodied muttering ‘bird’ over and over again in Spanish. He was taken to
hospital and treated for minor wounds and shock before being later released. Armando Grimaldo
describes his attacker as being about 6 feet tall, blackish-brown leathery skin, a wingspan of 10 to
12 feet and large red eyes. (I don’t suppose there’s much use trying to identikit that one huh?)
A short time later, on that very same night, on the outskirts of the nearby town of Brownsville,
which is also on the Rio Grande, a creature exactly matching its description crashed into the side
of a mobile-home owned by a Mr. Alverico Guajardo. He quickly went outside to investigate the
incident and noticed a large creature of some kind on the ground next to his wall. So he got inside
his station-wagon and flicked on his headlights for a better look. Guajardo described what as saw
as looking like ‘a creature from hell.’ The beast was apparently startled by the lights because,
according to Guajardo, as soon as his headlights struck the creature it rose up from the ground
turning to glare at him with huge red eyes and began making ‘a horrible sounding noise in its
throat.” He reports that the creature then continued regarding him menacingly for 2 or 3 minutes
with its wings drawn up and ‘wrapped around its shoulders’ before slowly backing out of the light
and disappearing into the night. He says that the beast was truly terrifying and at the time, he was
almost paralysed with fear at the sight of it.
In January of 1976, another bizarre incident was reported by two sisters named Deany and
Libby Ford who saw what they described as a “Huge and strange, big black bird” at a pond just
outside of Brownsville, Texas. The sisters say that the creature was as tall as they were and had a
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