Beast of Bladenboro

In January 1954, a wave of livestock and dog killings swept Bladenboro — animals were found with crushed skulls, drained of blood, and with no flesh eaten. Witnesses described a large cat-like creature that moved silently through town. Hunters from across the Southeast flooded in, the governor dispatched state investigators, and national press descended on this small North Carolina town. Over 1,000 men participated in a hunt that turned up nothing. Similar livestock deaths have recurred in the region every decade since, and no conventional predator has ever been conclusively identified.