Mysterious African Udilacus
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 2nd, 2007
The great taxidermist Araham Dee Bartlett is shown with his first gorilla, collected by Mr. Du Challu for Professor Owen, British National Museum, circa 1855. The wave of interest in the discovery of the lowland, and then the mountain gorilla caused this species to be a point of reference for many “creature” reports in America during the early 20th century.
Sometimes we have to read through the ugliest forms of racism that existed in American journalism in the 1930s to extract the essence of possible cryptozoological eyewitness evidence existing in old news articles.
Please be forewarned that descriptions in these two separate articles may offend some readers, but they are shared, as is, to keep intact the elements of the material that might be lost through extensive editing.
Distant Relative Of Mobile’s Monster Reported
ROCKHILL [sic], S.C., Feb. 5 (UP). “The Monster of Marmotte Street” which has terrorized the negro population of Mobile, Ala., was reported tonight [Saturday evening] to have a distant relative operating among the dusky folk of Rockhill.
The mysterious beast here was called the “African Udilacus,” said to resemble a gorilla.
Two frightened negro men told police that a fierce, fur-covered animal accosted them on a lonely, dimly-lit street last night. Another negro reported that the beast had attacked him and ripped off his clothing before he managed to escape its “awful” clutch.
Police, who were without a theory as to the identity of the weird animal, also received a report that the African Udilacus had killed a large calf on the edge of this small South Carolina town and eaten away much of the caucus [sic = carcass?].
A check was made at a circus wintering near here, but they reported all their animals present and accounted for in their cages.
Police at Mobile, Ala., after spending a hectic week investigating fantastic reports in the colored district, decided the “Monster of Marmotte Street” had slunk back to the swamp bordering the colored residential district.
The Mobile monster was described in various ways – all horrible. Police never were able to secure more tangible evidence concerning the beasts other than wild rumors. The same situation existed in Rockhill.
The Udilacus was first reported in a cotton mill section on the outskirts of Rockhill.
John White, a “dark town” resident, furnished the details:
“It was standing in the water. It was black and tall as a man. I threw a rock at it but it snarled and started after me.
“I ran.”
Bruce Neal, who was with White when the Udilacus appeared, said the animal ran on two legs as it chased them.
“After it chased us a little way, it dropped down on all fours,” Neal explained.
Neal also said the monster “smelled terrible.”Delta Star, Greenville, Mississippi, Sunday, February 6, 1938.
Jerome Clark adds this comment, as he passes this along:
“Rockhill” is actually spelled Rock Hill. (I was there for about a week some 20 years ago.) One wonders if “African Udilacus”– a phrase nowhere used in any actual witness quote — was in truth the reporter’s invention, a racist, ridicule-laced attempt at the sort of “darky” humor that for so long vastly amused the white folks of the Deep South. ~ J. Clark.
There is another article about the “Udilacus” that I located online. Michael Goodspeed shared the following in 2004, making the point that Bigfoot-like reports have been around a long time.
Shambling Beast Terrorizes Town
Hairy Animal Reported In South Carolina Village
Rock Hill, S.C., Feb. 7 — Reports of a huge, hairy beast called the “African udilacus” continued to spread terror among negro residents of this South Carolina town Sunday [February 6, 1938].
Constable Carl Hovis reported he saw the shambling beast in a dark back alley and shot at it twice but failed to bring it down.
Sam Watts, negro, said he was chased through a wooded area by the “varmint,” which made “grunting noises.”
Police reported the mysterious monster has a particular aversion to dogs. Two were found dead, apparently from strangulation, and a dozen were reported bitten, beaten and scratched in the Willow Brook section of town. The Daily Gleaner, Wednesday, February 9, 1938.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
If you strip away the horrible racist elements that are, of course, to be expected from the South in that day and age (and still in many parts to day, sadly) you get an account that’s not all that dissimilar from accounts of the Fouke Monster of Arkansas, MoMo of Missouri, or the Skunk Ape of Florida. They only thing that puzzles me is the part about running on four legs. That’s not something you find in many North American sightings, though not entirely unheard of.
Maybe I’m being dense here, but what the heck is ‘udilacus’? If it’s a purely invented word by a reporter, then how is it ‘ridicule laced’? Is it just the vague similarity to the word ‘ridiculous’? I hate to seem obtuse, but I must be missing something that’s supposed to be obvious.
The accounts presented here seem pretty similar to other Biggie/Skunkape encounters. This creature seemed to be a bit more ornery than your average ‘Squatch, but not that unusaul otherwise. Like D2K4 said, a Biggie dropping down to all fours is unusual, but not unheard of. Thanks for sharing this with us, Loren.
It looks like ET and a gorilla made something horrible, to horrible to imagine.
Re: udilacus:
I can’t find this word in an any dictionary, encyclopedia or reference book. It has a classical feel to it but thee is nothing in any of my Latin dictionaries. Maybe it’s a nonce word, coined to capture the moment.
Isn’t it strange, and unnerving, to find a person’s ethnicity quoted when reporting their story as if it is somehow relevant to the veracity of the tale? I agree with Jerome Clark, this is stereotyping of the basest type. Repugnant
John Holmes, Cockney (“cor, strike a light, Guv, up the apples and pears …etc…ad nauseam…”
sausage1, that’s about what I thought. It has a vaguely latin flavor, but seems to be an invention of the person writing the original article.
Small world. lol. I have lived in Rock Hill for the past 10 years. I know of 2 old mills on the outskirts of town (one on each end). I’ll have to ask some local friends as where this “Darktown” is/was/whatever…. what’s funny is there are local stories I’ve heard up to a couple years back of sightings in western York county and the Dark corner in Chester county( no, no, no. It refers to the heavily forested corner of Sumter Natl. Forest) it butts up to our county.
Thanks for sharing that story.
Whatever the meaning, the word certainly sticks in the mind.
I agree that the description is similar to a “Fouke”-type creature.
I’m hazarding a guess here. There was a lot of pidgin English and local vernacular phrases spoken by black and white Southerners, especially in rural areas. If I’m correct, then the readers in the 1930s probably understood what “Udilicus” meant and the fact that “African” was tagged to it, probably was a further indication of who the comments were about. I’m not a linguist, but historical examples I’ve seen include using the word “vittles” in place of “food” or “finna” meaning “fixing to do” or “edumacation” meaning “education” or “skeedaddle” meaning to flee, etc. I almost wonder if “udilicus” was some corruption or play on the word “ridiculous” since it has a similar flow?
I live in Mobile and have never heard of the Monster of Marmotte Street. I figure it could be filed under Skunk Ape rather than Bigfoot because Mobile is so close to Florida.
I would hazard a guess that Udilicus is an example of the 19th/early 20th century tendency of ascribing a vaguely Latin-sounding word to an otherwise improbable animal in order to lend weight to its purported existence. Other examples would be the Guyuscutus/Guyanoosa, Hunkus, Wumpus, Agropelter, and perhaps Cadborosaurus. The Jersey Devil was called an Auropocladiuseta and an Asertoraskidimundiakins along with a Pterodactyl and a Peleosaurus cattelleya, an apparently real Dinosaur (Although the name no longer seems to be used, so perhaps it was apocryphal, or named previously elsewhere). I can find no evidence that the other 2 names are real, but perhaps others may know more. My suspicions are that they were made up.
Mynanmes, I think you just hit the nail on the head. Made up “Latin” names. That makes sense.
I can’t believe my Uncle Bob’s hoax of 1938 is still floating around! We’ve heard this story all our lives: Bob Ward was a young reporter for a small newspaper in Rock Hill, SC. One day, not really having any news to write about, he invented a story about an “African Udilacus” seen wandering the farms. Eventually the story got picked up by new services, and grew! Finally he ‘fessed up and said he made it all up to state his opinion of FDR’s New Deal. The word meant “New Deal I Cuss.” He later became an attorney, and was known for his wonderful sense of humor, and for founding the “Indignant Brotherhood,” whose only membership requirement was to say, “Damn!” at least once a day.