The Cloaked Creature of Mexico, Missouri

The Wheeling Register seems to be an unending font of strange tales suitable for Halloween. In the December 14, 1883 edition was a reprint of a story that ran one day earlier in Mexico, Mo., about a strange creature roaming the area around Hopewell Church.

Exactly what the creature was seemed to be up for debate. At least some people thought it was a ghost, but most of the reports call it a "lean monster man, between eight and ten feet in height, wearing a long cloak, and going about with his head bowed in an abstracted way, but occasionally glaring at those it meets with small, glittering eyes said to resemble those of a cat or some wild beast."

A number of sightings happened in the fall of 1883, to the point that farmers were going armed and the school was nearly abandoned in fear. Two separate accounts of seeing the creature were related in the paper, which we will reprint here:

John Creary, a well-known old resident, declares that yesterday afternoon [Dec. 12] as he was returning from Mexico to his home he had a good view of the queer being, who was about fifty yards ahead of him, walking in a leisurely way along the middle of the big road, in mud almost a knee-deep, his head still lowered, and his long black cloak flowing in the breeze. All at once, and in the twinkling of an eye he disappeared in the thick woods as mysteriously as he came upon the scene. Mr. Creary says for the first time in his life, although a soldier under General Grant, he was frightened and it was all he could do to control the horse he was riding, so great seemed its fear of the object. 

The second encounter actually happened earlier, on November 28, to a couple on their way home:

Mr. Cyrus Hubert and his wife, who were returning from church Thanksgiving eve, were surprised by the monster peering with its rat like eyes into their buggy and leaning against it, almost crushing the vehicle. The lady has not yet, it is said, recovered from the shock. Mr. and Mrs H. both claim on this occasion a white cloak was worn. 

The article notes a search party, organized by Bob White and Jake Merkel, were out scouring the hills behind the residence of Philip Brown. Apparently the search parties found nothing in the woods and no conclusion was reached on this lean man in a cloak.

[The fur cloak], detail, by James McNeill Whistler. Courtesy the Library of Congress.

Even though this seemed to be the end of the creature sightings, paranormal activity in the area near Philip Brown's house did not decrease - if anything, it may have increased. The Mexico Weekly Ledger, August 28, 1884 provides some additional information about the searches and aftermath:

The "fatal hill" is situated two miles west of town, just in the rear of Philip Brown's residence, in what is known as the "ghost district," which latter derived its name last fall from a strange creature roaming at large, it is said, through the woods of the locality, frightening the inhabitants nearly out of their wits, and which mystery never was fathomed, although the hunting parties were out scouring the thickly wooded, sparsely settled neighborhood. A large and lonely cave, which forms a part of the hilly region, was thought to have been the abode of this strange apparition, human, or whatever it was, but a thorough search and strict watch over the aperture by farmers and others interested in the search failed to disclose the cave as its hiding place, and all at once the mysterious creature disappeared as suddenly as it came upon the scene. 

 

Detail, Home Incidents, Accidents & Co., Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, vol. 24, no. 624 (1867 Sept. 14). Courtesy The Library of Congress.

The fatal hill, detailed more fully in the article, was the scene of countless accidents for no adequately explained reason. By the writing of this article, people had stopped taking wagons on the road, preferring to ride on horseback if necessary - and even then, the horses became panicked and unmanageable at the hill. The closeness of the hill to the cave led residents to believe the accidents were the next evolution of the haunting by the cloaked figure.

While the figure was never seen again, the mystery of who or what is was remains. To the knowledge of the locals, there was no reason for a ghost to haunt the area - no murders or tales of woe were attached to the ghost district prior to 1883. The bafflement of the apparition can be seen in the September 18, 1884 Mexico Weekly Ledger. With apparently no other sightings, the case never came to a conclusion. 

The location of the road itself was also never quite delineated, but as the articles hint, it was a main road on the west side of town, possibly near the Davis Creek crossing (which is about two miles from the center of town, and features a hill in the topo maps). The recent outage of the Internet Archive curtailed research for this blog post, so if you know of some other sources that can flesh out the story of Mexico's ghost district, drop me a note!

Enjoy these posts?