#176 More Panther and Bigfoot Sightings

In the past month, I have collected three black panther sightings from the same area, coincidentally. The sightings took place in the Taylor village which is inside the Osceola Forest (a swamp). One was by Jim Lawrence who saw a black panther crossing a road, and the other two sightings were made by Robert Winn who saw the black cats while hog hunting with his buddies about eight years ago. The dogs were not running the cats, the cats were simply trying to get out of the way. This supports my hypothesis that if you want to find a panther or a bigfoot, find out where the wild hogs are, and the panthers and swamp apes will be there too.
Last week, on my way to Tampa, I went through some bigfoot country and saw three deer, three turkeys, and a Sherman fox squirrel. On the return trip, I saw only a deer at 10 p.m. Nevertheless, it was good to be in country where there have been bigfoot sightings.
Author Otis Mathews claims that Bigfoot has several names in Florida: skunkman, swamp skunk, swamp monster, and swamp ape (page 7A). He also wrote that recently in Ohio a family had a great, white, shaggy beast who came onto its porch, rattled the doorknob, and then went to a pen where he helped himself to a rooster. A family member fired at him with a .22 pistol, and the creature ran off with a limp.
Mathews also talks about a UFO picture taken in Rock Hill, South Carolina and how recent bigfoot sightings seem to be in conjunction with reports of bigfoot in the area (page 11A).
The author cites a friend who is in the Fortean Society and thus believes that there is a column or "spear" of electromagnetic energy that passes through the planet. That energy is sometimes influenced by the magnetic forces in the earth's core. When that happens, it brings the earth in touch with another dimension, at which time beasts such as the bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster are seen (page 5B).
Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.

#175 Bigfoot Running 55 mph Alongside A Car?

I have asked my friend how she knew Otis Mathews, and her reply was, "He was my friend!" She knew him when they were on some island in South Florida. I will try to talk to her privately to find out if he was pursuing Bigfoot at that time or just her. Continuing with my reading of Otis Mathews' "The Genesis Of Belief," I find that he claims that hundreds of cattle were killed in 1955 in Paraguay, Columbia, and Venezuela with no visible wound beyond having their tongues pulled out. Internal organs were missing too, though there was no mention of how they came out without a visible wound. Surely, they weren't just pulled out through the throat. All this was thought to be the work of "mono grande," the term for bigfoot in those countries (page 6A).
Mathews also claims that in the Guaianas, Sir Walter Raleigh named the bigfoot there "manimals." and that in Florida, bigfoot has several names including skunkman, swamp skunk, swamp monster, and swamp ape (7A).
Mathews tells the story of two men seeing a "horse" lying in a field. When they approach, the horse gets up and reveals himself to be a bigfoot. The men dash for their car with the bigfoot pursuing them on a parallel course. They get into the car and roar away as fast as possible. To their horror, they see the bigfoot running next to their car with the speedometer showing 55 mph. Apparently, they accelerated more and left the beast behind.
If anyone knows Otis Mathews, please ask him to call me, Pete Nickerson, at 352-359-0850. I'd like to interview him and see if he's continued any bigfoot research in the past twenty years since he published his book and find out why if he hasn't. Did he get visited by the men in black suits?

#174 More About Bigfoot

A friend loaned me her book, "Genesis Of Belief: A Personal Journal" by Otis Matthews, 1983, Zeus Publications. The author was working as a carpenter as a nature museum near Fort Mill, South Carolina. One of other workers at the museum went to Fort Mill after a lady saw a Bigfoot in her garden there and returned with a plaster of Paris footprint 18 inches long. The museum's taxidermist said it was of a human foot. Eighteen inches long? Bigfoot sightings were being made so Matthews began walking at night, three or four nights a week, along dirt roads. One night he was sitting at a small campfire with his dog, Sherman (surely a popular name in the South), a Shepherd-collie mix, when the dog gave a low growl. Matthews hushed him. In the distance, he heard what he thought was a fox hunter whistling for his hounds. This, he found later was a Bigfoot's all-clear signal. It is used by the Yeti who are often heard whistling to each other. No known primate below man displays this practice (page 5A). Then Matthew heard something heavy, like a cow, running, but it had the footbeat of a man. Then he observed, "It was hollering in pure joy, 'yow, yahoo!'" The creature got within 25 feet before he seemed to notice Matthew, fell silent, and disappeared.
At the same time, hundreds of bigfoot footprints were being found on the nearby Saluda River next to dog and cat kills, thus establishing that bigfoot is omnivorous.
Matthew's book concerns the happenings around Brown Mountain, North Carolina and York County, South Carolina. At Riverbend in York County, a man and his friend were standing only ten feet apart when something sounding like a bull ran between them. He was snorting and kicking up dust. They saw nothing but the dust. This parralels the sighting I covered of the bigfoot walking, bushes moving, but the observer could only see the outline of the bigfoot by what looked like thermal waves the creature was apparently emitting.
Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com

#173 The Mysterious Black Panther Book

I've learned that hunters and others might see a Texas mountain lion in North-Central Florida because about ten were captured by the jaguar and puma hunter Roy McBride from Texas and his carefully bred pack of cat hounds. These mountain lions were released by game biologist Chris Beldin of the Florida Game (now Fish and Wildlife) Commission in the Osceola Forest area. Some say that so many mountain lions were killed by hunters and landowners that it is true that Roy McBride and his cat hounds recovered all the survivors who were returned to Texas. What happened to them then in Texas? Other people say the mountain lion still roams Florida.
A panther can only be killed legally in Florida in defense of others or self. It has not been lawful to hunt the big cat since the sixties. If you have to kill a panther and report it to government officials, you will probably be interrogated by both state and federal government officials. Your questioning probably will be intimidating. Even if you clearly killed the panther for the protection of another human or yourself, you may be charged simply for its supposed deterrent effect on others. As one who believes in the sanctity of the individual, I abhor the idea of being cruel to any one person simply as a deterrent for others. You should not use individuals that way, but government, the enemy of individualism, does. The end does not justify the means, but government is full of ambitious, little princes. If you do kill a panther and decide to report it, I'd get an attorney first.
Panthers adjust easily to hunters and even their dogs, unless they are cat hounds. David Maehr documented this in his book, "The Florida Panther." The Florida panther has not been hunted legally for over forty years, and it shows in many of the sightings I have received. Many times they appear to be less fearful than deer.
I've noticed that the deer in Florida are generally far more wary than the deer in Virginia and attribute that to night hunting. The deer population appears to be exploding in Florida. I am seeing far more dead deer on the sides of roads than I did when I came here in 1997. I came here in June and did not see a live deer until New Year's Eve. Now I occasionally see deer when driving at night and sometimes see them during the day.

#172 The Most Fanatastic Bigfoot Story

I was very happy to hear from Deep Cover, formerly known as Blackwater. He told me that Blackwater was a dangerous name to be called since the Muslim world widely blames the organization for shooting innocent civilians. You may have noticed that Blackwater has changed its name to a letter or two, much like Gatorade has done. This fantastic bigfoot story comes from Deep Cover who got it from another bigfoot researcher who collects sightings just as I do. Here it is: A man was out in the woods when he heard heavy footsteps coming his way. He listened and watched as the steps got closer until he could see the brush moving but couldn't see anyone there. Finally, through what he described as something like heat waves, he could see the outline of a bigfoot. The creature walked right by him. You who have seen "Predator" will know what I am talking about. The only story that comes close to this one is the one I related a day or so ago. That was about fifteen people on a hill in Pennsylvania who saw a UFO land and a couple of bigfoot disembark. If you can ride UFOs, you can probably make yourself almost completely invisible to humans.
I told Deep Cover that I needed to call Christian and get the name of the bigfoot researcher who claims he has a dead bigfoot he found out in the woods.
Christian had told me that another very religious man had actually won the confidence of this bigfoot researcher and had seen the dead bigfoot. This was long before the scam the sheriff's deputy and another man ran on the world about having a bigfoot in an icebox up in Tennessee. Christian said he would try to get the religious man's phone number so I could talk to him. Lazy me never followed up on it. I must do that now.
Florida has become very hot. It was 90 degrees inside the house last night at 12:30 a.m. The oldest dog, Gator, was having trouble breathing so I put the fan he was next to and the fan in the window on high. Yesterday, I saw a dead doe deer next to where the lane hits the paved road. I hadn't seen her before because of the grass. Now she had blown up in the heat, and her belly and legs were sticking up into the air. I got out and looked for her fawns just in case they were still with her. I didn't find them, and most probably they have either starved to death by now or been ripped apart by coyotes, foxes, or dogs.
Last week, I was checking the laundry on the line to see if it was dry and happened to look over at the lane. There, where I put out the cat food for the feral cats, was the biggest gray fox I've seen. He was eating the latest can of food and didn't see me as I was behind the laundry on the line. He was gray with very little red on him with a lot of black at the end of his tail. He crossed the lane and went into the field behind the clothesline, probably to feed his kits. I wondered if the feral cats were getting any of the food, and as if to answer me, the next day I put out a can of food, I saw the orange and white cat waiting in the brush nearby. I acted like I hadn't seen her so I wouldn't scare her away.
Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com

#171 Bigfoot Book

Jeannie Chapman saw the Bigfoot approaching her cabin near Ruby Creek, British Columbia, gathered her children, and fled on foot to the railway station where her husband was working. Her husband's crew, all hunters, gathered their rifles and returned to the cabin. They saw where the creature had picked up a 55 gallon barrel of salted salmon, carried it out of its shed, and hurled it onto the ground. They followed the tracks to the Ruby Bluff where they lost the trail on the rocks.
Albert Ostman started looking for gold and was captured by a Bigfoot and carried to the Bigfoot family where he lived for almost a week, eating food from his pack.
In Pennsylvania, fifteen people watched a UFO descend and two tall, hairy creatures with eyes that reflected yellow-green emerged and walked away into the dark.
These are stories covered and more from Norma Gaffron's book, "Bigfoot: Opposing Viewpoints." Curiously, Gaffron claims to have never heard of Bigfoot until her son joined the Boy Scouts. Now, I must return the book to the library.
Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com. If you would like me to talk to your group about any of my topics, please call 352-359-0850.

#170 More Panthers and Bigfoot

In the last posting, I mentioned that the DEA Agent found that Bigfoot had put rocks up on fallen tree trunks. The only correlation of rocks with Bigfoot has been in Bigfoot throwing rocks at humans. Perhaps, as this was apparently the same spot as where they had been sleeping, they found rocks and put them on logs to be armed.
Over the weekend, I called Christian to thank him for the black panther picture, and to make certain he had reports of people seeing dark spots on black panthers. Roger that. He said that he was going to try to trap a black panther and have the media and other experts outside of law enforcement (and government in general, I hope) there to see the big cat. Christian said he has a trap. I wanted to tell him about the Game Commission putting out a trap for a black panther after he had followed a young black boy all the way to his house. This happened only about a mile from my house. The Game Commission came from Jacksonville and placed the trap in the woods behind the chicken, duck, and geese pens the cat had visiting. He went into the trap and then began a terrible, hugely loud struggle to get out. Thankfully, he did. I believe the Game Commission would have had him killed and denied he was a black puma.
Christian also said that a five-toed and a three-toed bigfoot were being seen frequently enough that bear hunters were trying to get their bear dogs to run them. I can't remember having read of any dog standing up to a bigfoot. They all flee, even the most courageous of them. But perhaps in a pack, the dogs would have the couarge to pursue one. Unless bigfoot had some quirk about being pursued by dogs like the panther does - he's terrified - I would anticipate bigfoot killing the dogs. Leopards and jaguars will lie in wait for the lead dog and pick off the lead dogs one by one until they are all dead or grievously wounded. Perhaps bigfoot would use his rocks for this contingency too.
Now I have two panther sightings here in Florida. The first one is a tan panther seen on Lake Orange just below Gainesville and the University of Florida. Larry Santucci, a portrait artist ,told me that the big cat walked across his yard. He lives right on the lake, and I believe this sighting was very recent. The second one from Larry Thompson who saw a black panther crossing the road near Taylor in the Osceola Forest ( a flat pinewoods swamp) in the seventies. He said "it was awesome" seeing the big cat.
One of the librarians here at the library where I post wanted to know if I had any sightings of panthers to tell her son about. He's writing a paper for school. I gave him my business card, and if he's reading this, please let me know if your government teacher makes any negative comments about my writing or penalizes you for not parroting the party line. The indoctrination is that there are no panthers except in Southwest Florida. Call me at 352-359-0850. Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.

#169 More Bigfoot Sightings

This weekend I received a call from Christian who didn't have my new phone number until Blackwater gave it to him. Blackwater wanted him to call me because he didn't want me being mad at him because Christian sent him the black panther picture. Christian had sent me the picture about a year or so ago, but I had closed that PO Box. Thanks Blackwater for giving Christian my current number and too bad it turned out that it was you who got mad at me. I was amazed at the bigfoot reports Christian gave me. I think one reason he is getting so many in his area is because he runs a hunting preserve. That means there is a large piece of land loaded with hogs and exotics. Bigfoot apparently loves hogs, and I would imagine the young ones are especially easy to catch. I have one report of a Bigfoot carrying a club so a nine hundred, eight foot tall creature with a club could probably have his pick of any creature on Christian's hunting preserve. Maybe he should rename it "The Bigfoot Hunting Preserve" and see if people would pay a modest fee just to hike it and look for prints. The mo sensational sighting is this, and I'm paraphrasing Christian: "A DEA agent saw two Bigfoot together. One was about eight feet tall and the other was smaller. The smaller one was reddish brown while the big one was dark brown. This DEA agent had seen one other Bigfoot in South Carolina. (Is this guy just extremely lucky or is there a skill to finding them that he has mastered?) The agent said to himself, 'I am now going to make myself the most famous man in the world.' With that, he leveled his gun on one of the Bigfoot and prepared to shoot. Then the second thought came: ' I may be making myself the man in the most trouble in the world!' and he decided not to shoot the creature. The agent found where the two had been lying down, and he also saw that they had been placing stones on fallen trees.( The latter obervation is the first time I have heard of such a thing. What could it be for? Communication is an obvious possibility.)"
Then Christian told me this story: " A guy was coming home one night from fishing. He was towing his boat behind his truck, and as he came into his yard, his lights swept the backyard. There was a Bigfoot standing there looking at him. His eyes shined which tells you that he is an animal. Then he ran off."
Signing off. Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW at peternickerson12@yahoo.com or much better 352-359-0850.

#168 Is The Sex Good?

Before we go to sex, Jack Brown, the director of the teaching zoo at Santa Fe College did call Liz Newton at the History Channel's MonsterQuest and was told the go-to person would not be Blackwater but someone in New York who is seeing black cats. James expressed relief that our black pumas would not be endangered, but I am not so sure. Will these black cats in New York be identified as black leopards or black pumas? If they are portrayed as dangerous, black leopards, then any Floridians watching the show, would be more likely to shoot the black pumas we have here in the Sunshine State.
I told Jack Brown where Blackwater got the idea that black leopards roamed America - from being released from slave ships after they had served to keep the Africans docile on the voyage from Africa. He had never seen that in print, and I couldn't recall where I had once seen it. I went through my index cards and found it: Gerry Parker, author of "The Eastern Panther" mentions it on page 185. He doesn't relate it to anyone or anything, and there is no footnote. Now to sex!
Rick told me this: "I've been bothered by this for some time. I talked to my sister. Loopy. about writing my daughter, Pit. Loopy cautioned me that if I just had to write a letter to say as little as possible about the incident and to emphasize how much I value my relationship with Pit and her little son, Webster. Loopy is the kind of person who can drink it up and yuk it up with her mortal enemy. That's why she's Loopy. But I take what people say seriously. Character is everything for me. The rock in my shoe came at the end of Webster's birthday party when her husband and the thirty-some members of his family had left. Just our family was there, about four or five people. Pit brought up the "fact" that I had asked her husband's mother if the sex was good with her boyfriend. Maria had started talking about her boyfriend on Christmas, trying to explain why he wasn't there. She said he was recluse, never went anywhere, never attended the frequent family gatherings, and resluted in some of the family wondering if she wasn't making up his existence. My tongue was a little loosened by Evan Williams, and I asked, 'Is this a sexual relationship?" Maria laughed and replied, "There's not much of that." Then we pointedly went to another subject. Now Pit was saying I asked her " Is the sex good?"
I have never asked anyone if the sex was good, and can't see myself asking it. It's a woman's question, a woman who loves "Sex And The City," which is Pit's favorite TV show. Pit pointed out that I had drunk half the bottle of Evan Williams, and of course her brother, Fisher, had to say, 'I've seen Dad when he's had two drinks out fishing, and he will say anything!' Well no, Fisher, that's not true either because if it were, I'd be telling you that you drink too much and smoking is only for stupid people. There's other self-destructive behavior I'd address too. It's not like me to sit there and take this from anyone. I like to be right in their faces when people start something, particularly my family members, because I particularly want them to be honest and therefore strong. But I didn't want to do it at my grandson's first birthday party. I didn't want his birthday to be ruined by a confrontation. It also galled me how Pit claimed I had drunk half a bottle of bourbon on Christmas day, because only a few weeks before, she had claimed that I had drunk two-thirds of the bottle on Christmas Day. She was absolutely sure that no one else had touched the bottle. Then she turns around and says I drank half a bottle because her husband and a buddy had a drink. Now she's absolutely sure that I drank half a bottle. It must be nice to be so certain. First she's certain of X, then she's certain of non-X. One thing I am sure of is that if I had asked "Is Sex Good?" Pit would have been the first to say something to me about being out of line.
We don't call her Pit for nothing. I named her that when I saw her brother, Drifty, asking her to beat up a kid who was throwing rocks at him. Pit was five, and Drifty was nine. She confronted the kid and made him stop throwing rocks at Drifty, her big brother. Some time after the birthday party, Calamity said, "Maria has been dating this man for a long, long time. He's got a lot of money."
"Then it's a financial relationship."
"He's good to her, and he's got a lot of money," she repeated carefully.
Being careful with Pit and her husband, Smooth, might be the bedrock of my discontent. Every time we visit them, Calamity gives me instructions on what I am not to say. I am a John Wayne type of person not a tippy-toer. I was raised in a dog culture, beagle hounds, and I like being like beagles on the chase, wide-open, rocking and rolling. Tippy-toeing is not my forte. Do you understand, Two-Guns? You're a dog man yourself."
"Absolutely, Bill. I love to rock and roll and be wide-open too. I've got nothing to hide. I only regret that I didn't jack up a few rock and rollers who got too far out of line.
Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW.