Manuel Blanco Romasanta has been made famous in Spain due to two successful films about him, but his fame was already great in the 19th century. He is regarded as Spain’s first documented serial killer, criminal psychopath… and werewolf!

Romasant was born on 18 November 1989 in the small village of Regueiro, Orense province, in Spain’s most north-westerly Galicia region. According to documentation of the time, he was quite educated and well-off for his station in society. Unusual for the time, he could both read and write.

He started off as a tailor, but following the death of his wife when he was just 24, he gave up tailoring and decided to become a travelling salesman. According to legend, he became famous for the high quality fat and lard and travelled widely through Galicia, Portugal and Castile. Little did his customers know where this commodity came from.

The first murder case came on his travels outside Galicia, for the murder of Vicente Fernández, the constable of León.

The constable was charged with recovering a debt of 600 reales which Romasanta owed to a Ponferrada supplier where he bought the merchandise for his mobile shop. Fernández was found dead and Romasanta was judged by default (for failing to appear). He was sentenced to 10 years in 1844. He had escaped to the mountains of Orense and used the village of Rebordechao, in Vilar de Barrio, as his base for his peddling operations.

It wasn’t long before a number of women and children started disappearing. In total 7 women and 2 children who had known Romasanta had vanished after being in his company. In many cases he had offered to act as a guide around the city. He even passed on their news to family in other towns, telling them of how happy the victims were in their new life.

Read more of this fascinating story at our sister site: Strange News Daily Blog

Short tales of monsters, scary footprints, disappearing monks, voices from beyond the grave, and women in lakes may be incredible, but they are TRUE!!!

In all cultures and countries, there is a belief that certain men can transform themselves into wild animals.

Witness the strange case of Captain Short and the elusive Hyena.

Click on the link in the side bar to subscribe for free to the podcast.

Stay tuned for other shows and clips.

Read more on this subject here:

Google Books: Unexplained Phenomena By John Michell, Bob Rickard, Robert J. M. Rickard

Charles Hoy Fort’s Book: Wild Talents (site 2)

Mythical Realm: Werewolves and Lycanthropy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Down in the Province of Entre Rios, Argentina, a strange creature is lurking. Is this just a large Chupacabra, or is it something else entirely.

This strange creature appears in smallholdings and fields, slaying farm animals, as well as calves and sheep. The people became so scared that this creature caught the attention of the Argentinian national news.

The entity started its reign of terror around September last year when a local family found a dead chicken. Near the body was a large footprint in the dust and strange marks were all around the body.

The family, who know the area and it’s animals very well, did not recognize the marks, much less the footprints. It did not belong to any animal that they know in the area.

The following night, early in the morning, the heard noises and their son, Matias saw a bizarre figure scrambling away into the vegetation behind their house. He described the figure as at least 1.7 meters tall and extremely quick moving.
(more…)

Bray Road is a quiet country road near the community of Elkhirm, Wisconsin. Nothing much ever happened there, that is until the late 1980′s and early 1990′s. Reports of strange encounters with a unknown beast began to emerge.

The story received media attention when Linda Godfrey, a writer and cartoonist for a weekly newspaper called The Week, started collecting eyewitness testimonies and writing about them. Articles also appeared in Strange magazine. Sightings have been reported in a much wider geographical area, even as far away as Milwaukee.

Godfrey has written a book on the sightings, The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin’s Werewolf, published by Prairie Oak Press in 2003.

However the story of the beast goes back much further. One of the earliest recorded encounters happened in 1936. Mark Schackelman was a night watchman at a Catholic convent, St. Colleta, near Jefferson, Wisconsin.

One night, about midnight, while doing his rounds, he noticed something standing on top of a Native American burial mound.Looking closer he saw that the creature was clawing at the burial mound, as if it wanted to get in. He shouted out and started to move towards it. The creature looked at him startled and turned and fled into the darkness.

The following night at about the same time, Mark was againnear the mound. Once more he saw the creature clawing at the gravesite. This time he crept closer, making sure to keep quiet. Suddenly the creature stopped what it was doing and looked around. Seeing Mark, it stood up and faced him.
(more…)