Posted by: Craig Woolheater on May 23rd, 2014
This tale is told by a good friend of mine. I have no reason to doubt his sincerity. I feel that this tale was a real life Bigfoot encounter.
The events of this incident were told to me in the early 80’s by my ex-mother-in-law, now deceased. To the best of my recollection, the incident itself took place sometime in the early 70’s.
To preface a bit, I was raised in a Baptist church, but started going to a small, backwoods Pentecostal church when I met my first wife. The church itself was outside of New Diana, TX, and was extremely small. It was located on an old blacktop road that had few houses around – the closest being the home of the Pastor, Sister Minlue (sp.), and her son, Frank and his family.
Across the road were woods and fields that led down into bottom land. This new church environment was like nothing I’d experienced before. During every service people convulsed and cried and waved their hands back and forth in the air. They shouted and spoke in ways that I’d never heard; I was told in different languages under the momentary influence of God. People that could barely walk danced around in a trance-like glee.
The sermons were filled with the austere, but limitless glory of embracing God and His love, and the horrific consequences of straying from the righteous path. These people believed! And though they often had a terrifying intensity to their beliefs, they were good and loving people. They were my family for a time. But, being in a family doesn’t always mean fitting in. I had trouble truly believing in the way the others did. It seemed too fantastic and I had lots of questions.
One day, I was talking with my mother-in-law, at the time, about what kind of supernatural events she had witnessed in the church. She told me this story:
During a night service, one of the young ladies snuck outside to smoke a cigarette – a sin in the eyes of the congregation. She opened her families car door and sat down with her feet on the ground and lit her cigarette. As she sat there smoking, a large hairy demon walked up to the car. The young lady screamed and ran inside the church and down the center aisle, where she collapsed at the small alter and began praying for forgiveness in an hysterical voice. As the tiny congregation looked at each other in bewilderment, the front doors of the church opened and the hairy demon walked into the church. The people in the church instantly galvanized and, led by Sister Minlue, began shouting prayers to expel the demon from the church. The demon turned around and walked out.
I was amazed at this tale. I asked my mother-in-law what the demon looked like and she said the devil had transformed a bear so that it was like a man. I asked her if it ever went down on all four legs and she said no, it stayed on two legs the whole time. I asked her exactly what did it do? She responded that it stood at the back of the church, looked around at everybody, turned around and walked out of the church. S
he also said that when it left, the congregation poured out of the church and into the small gravel parking lot and that they could hear its feet slapping against the blacktop as it ran away down the road.
I told her that I didn’t think it was demon that had come into the church that night; I told her I believed it was a Bigfoot.
We never talked about it again, but I don’t think she dismissed my theory.
Years later, in another lifetime, I spoke with Sister Minlue about the incident. She was in her late 80’s and told me my voice sounded like a girl’s, but she remembered that night. She remembered the hairy demon that came into her church so many years ago. A demon that, in a pitiless and damned voice, demanded the soul of a scarred girl crying at the alter. She remembered how she called on the power of the Lord and met the demon in righteous battle. She remembered the power of God blazing through her until it drove the demon from her church!
Two very different tales.
To be honest, I was disappointed that I’d followed up with Sister Minlue all those years later. That story my mother-in-law told me had always been a crystal clear bigfoot encounter from an impeccable source that wasn’t telling me about a Cryptid, but was just the same. It was a flicker of truth I was a little protective of.
So, I guess if you were to believe one or the other it might depend on the power of your beliefs. I knew both women. Both were righteous and fearful of God. Neither were liars – I’d stake my life on that. I do know one thing though; I don’t sound like a girl.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005. I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films: OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.