Hawley Him

In 1977, a Bigfoot-like creature dubbed "Hawley Him" was making headlines in Texas. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times ran an article about the creature on July 7,  1977. The following is the article printed in its entirety:

Abiline (AP) -- Neighbors, some with tongue in cheek, listened today to stories about the so-called "Hawley Him" -- described as a hairy, 7-foot tall monster -- roaming the countryside.

Three teen-agers told of dodging rocks hurled at them yesterday by the ape-like creature on a ranch outside Hawley, a community 5 miles north of Abilene in West Central Texas.

"Whatever it was, he looked like kind of an ape but was still a man," said Larry Suggs, 15. "He had huge arms -- they hung to his knees.

"You'd have to see him to believe it." One of the rocks hit Suggs' right leg, he said, and others narrowly missed his companions, Tom Roberts, 14, and Renee McFarland, 15.

Young Suggs and Roberts, who live at Abilene Boys Ranch, ran to the McFarland home after first sighting the creature. She returned with them packing a dour rifle and handed it to Suggs after the monster reappeared.

 "She handed the gun to me and said, 'You shoot it,' Suggs related. He fired from a distance of about 40 yards and apparently missed, he said, adding that the weapon's recoil knocked him off his feet.

The teenagers said the "Him” -- their name for the beast -- went crashing away through almost impenetrable brush. They led others to a spot where foot-long prints marked the passage of something.

I chronicled several cases in which hairy monsters and other strange creatures took communities across the nation by storm during the 1960s in my book Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia. I hope you'll give it a try!

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