Halloween is right around the corner, bringing out all of the old ghost stories and tales of monsters roaming the streets and inducing fear in the minds of many.
Of course, they are nothing more than stories, but in the spirit of the season, allow me to share some of Mississippi’s many monsters and myths.
The Three-Legged Woman of Nash Road
According to legends, if one travels down Nash Road in Columbus, Mississippi, turns off their car lights and honks three times, a woman with a spare leg sewn to her body will appear and race them to the end of the road, attacking the car the entire way.
Who is this woman? Some say she is the ghost of a murdered bride; others claim she is the result of a satanic cult. My theory is that the leg is a fashion statement.
Naturally, curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to try it out. Unfortunately, she neglected to accept my challenge to a race, although she did appear in my nightmares one night later and bashed my head in with the extra leg.
The Witch of Yazoo
There was once a woman who lived on the Yazoo River and would seduce fishermen and lead them to a watery grave. Eventually, the local sheriff found out that she had literal skeletons in her closet and rounded up his deputies to capture the witch.
Their chase eventually led to the witch falling into quicksand. Rather than trying to escape, the witch spent her last moments swearing to return in 20 years to burn the town to the ground. She died on May 25, 1884, 20 years before the 1904 fire that destroyed 200 homes and almost every business in the city of Yazoo.
The fire also destroyed the town record hall, destroying all traces of the witch’s existence. How convenient.
Taylor County Dogmen
The only thing worse than a werewolf is a pack of werewolves, and according to the legends of YouTube videos and questionable quality Facebook posts, that is the exact epidemic that plagues the town of Taylor, Mississippi.
It is believed that these redneck Rougarous are responsible for the dead animal carcasses that show up in town, but other than that, there is not much else I can find on this creature.
The Chatawa Monster
As the story goes, a circus train once derailed in the Tangipahoa Swamps near Chatawa, Mississippi. The only survivors were a pack of monkeys and a temperamental ape-man who was part of the freak show. A couple of weeks later, America’s Tarzan was spotted near the now abandoned St. Mary of the Pines Catholic Church spying on some of the girls.
Fearing that their students would either be frightened or tempted by the call of the wild, the nuns contacted the locals to round up a posse and hunt him down.
Sadly, the posse turned up empty-handed, and the ape-man’s son was never seen again. The best guess is that not even Bigfoot wants to face the wrath of a nun.
The Moon Man of Kilgore Hills
One night in 1883, Big Springs Saloon proprietor Gus Goode and his neighbor Byron Thompson saw something glowing in a nearby valley. Upon investigating, they found a small, cylindrical spaceship with little grey men circling it.
Naturally, like the civilized southern boys they were, they loaded their rifles and opened fire on the moon men, killing one of them.
As the others fled the planet, the two men took the alien back to Goode’s saloon, where they paid people to see their moon man. As his body decayed, they eventually buried him in a private graveyard.
It was the least they could do after killing him and desecrating his corpse.
Honorary mentions
If you were a hairy ape-man in the woods, would you care for something as trivial as state lines?
I face this dilemma when I mention the Florida Skunk Ape and Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp Monster on this list.
Both are Bigfoots known for their peculiar stenches and strong beliefs in sticking to their hunting grounds, which makes it all the more noticeable when people claim to see them in Mississippi.
However, how people can tell Sasquatches apart is beyond me. Sure, The Skunk Ape and Cajun Bigfoot are known for their noxious odors, but I think it is fair to say that no Bigfoot is going to smell like lavender and bath salts.
In Conclusion
As I said, these are nothing more than legends, but as Irish author Michael Scott once said, “At the heart of every legend, there is a grain of truth.”
They may be warped beyond reality, but each legend has an element of realism that has become exaggerated as time goes by and the stories pass from person to person.
So, as you go out on Halloween night, enjoy yourself, but be careful. Watch your step, stay with your friends and be aware of your surroundings, or you might end up in your own ghost story.
