Face to Face with the White Thing
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 3rd, 2007
Cryptomundo reader tlrogers commented to the post about the White Thing of Alabama about a white thing he/she had encountered in Illinois.
It was apparently not about the same White Thing, which was reported to be a Bigfoot creature of some sorts, whereas tlrogers’ account sounds like some kind of feral human.
Following is tlrogers’ account:
I came face to face to the white thing. He is human like we are but I believe he is a race of human that lives within the earth. He called me by my name. I didn’t believe it at first and told my younger brother I would bring the dog home to show him it was nothing to worry about. I didn’t he was very human like we are. The screams are high pitch. He had no eyes and only holes where the ears should be. He was crawling on his hands and knees when I first saw him and stopped to look at him. The second time I saw him he was running like a human but he wasn’t moving his arms while running. I know they are out there. I found out my grandfather and his brothers seen it also when they were young but that is another story. Their farm where they were raised is under a man made lake for some reason.
tlrogers followed up this initial account with the following:
I am writing a book on the White Thing that I saw in Southern Illinois. So I continually searching for articles on the same creature I saw.
He spoke my name so I know it can speak our language. He was very thin and white with no hair. I stood there the first time to see what kind of dog it was to take it to my brother and show him it wasn’t nothing to be afraid of but he was too human and crawled on his hands and knees as fast as I ran. I looked into trying to find out what it was at the time but it became to stressful for me and I asked it to leave until I could accept him without any fear.
I believe there are many of these creatures after my great uncle told me the story about when my grandfather and his seven brothers seen the same kind of creature.
There has been no response from tlrogers to my email inquiries regarding his/her encounters with this creature.
Update
Cryptomundo reader tomdee27 has apparently found another account of tlrogers’ encounter.
On a website called Mystical Universe, there is a report submitted by a Terry R of an encounter with the ‘white thing’ in Illinois. No mention there however of the ‘white thing’ calling anyone by name. I would think that this would be a significant part of the story to be left out though.
Reported by: Terry R – Kenton, TN – May 31, 2000 – 3:16 PM EST
Subject: See explanation below – Location: du quoin, IL. – County: Perry – Date: spring 1967 – Time: almost dark
Event Description:
It was almost dark in the Spring of 1967. I had heard about the ‘white thing’ by some other kids around the neighborhood and had promised them I would bring the dog to them when I caught it.
My girlfriend had just let me off of my fender of my bike and I told her to ride my bike back to my house and I would go to the gas station and be back here, in front of the park before her. My house was two houses down and we were behind the storage building behind the gas station.
I took off running along the fence that separated the park and gas station. There was an opening at the end that I could get through to the gas station. While I was running I noticed something white. I thought here is that dog so I stopped. It stopped also. I saw it turn its head toward me. Its head was shaped like a human and as he turned its head I saw it had no eyes, no ears except for holes, very small close nose to the face and a slit for a mouth. I looked to see what kind of animal it could be. I followed the arms and saw the hands and the long slender body with no tail and its legs bent at the knees and the feet just like a human. Then I realized this thing was tall and crawled as fast as I could run so I took off running to my girlfriend and jumping on the bike. I never told anyone what I saw then. It also ran like a man after my sister, girlfriend, and me one night right before dark.
There are other things about this story so I am writing a book about this time in my life. If you were there at that time, you can help me with my story.
If not, but have seen a thing like, this let me know. There has to be more because later at a family reunion I found out my grandfather and his brothers had seen the same thing. I want to have this information for a second book.
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.
Wow! It sounds interesting, but how can a human like bipedal creature crawl faster than a man runs? It’s a great thing that these “white things” can speak, but how is possible that this creature was knowing your name?
Vague description, poor details, bad grammar. If this person is planning on writing a book on his/her experience, they may want to sign up for English 101 first.
Hmmm strange.. a spirit or something?
Looking at the title, I thought it was about albino Bigfoot! 😉
Sounds like the creatures from the film, The Descent.
Not cryptozoology.
Sounds like someone’s been watching too many X-Files episodes.
Hi, cryptoreaders. I’ve been lurking for a few days, this is my first post.
I definitely think this is more a Supernatural episode than cryptozoology.
Sounds somewhat reminiscent of the Dover Demon.
Not BF whatever it is.
Loren, I would be interested to read your opinion on the boundary of cryptozoology and the supernatural. While I agree that this story seems extremely odd, (to say the least), it is no more so than many stories of supposed “bigfoot” encounters I have heard over the years. What is your basis for saying that the creature recalled by this frightened child, if found, would not be cryptozoological in nature? Or am I misunderstanding you?
Dover Demon or David Bowie c: Thin White Duke period.
I’d love to believe there is some credibility to this account, but this is just too poorly communicated to take seriously. What dog? The farm is now under a man-made lake? What does this have to do with anything? This is nothing but a bunch of thought-fragments strung together into a very murky story. If the book is written anything like this, you can be sure it won’t be published by any professional publishing house.
Loren – you’re definitely right here. It’s not cryptozoology because there is no reason to lend it credibility. Until then, it’s just a story.
hey everyone this is a very interesting new article about the white thing. thanks bill. i agree with the above replys as well.
This sounds really similar to the movie Descent. Strange blind white humanoidish things crawling very quickly around in a cave. Seems a little too coincidental to me.
Not zoology.
Having read this story I can’t help thinking it might be a human, and not necessarily albino. Poor lighting can make a wrong assassment of colour. Especially if you’re in a stressed situation.
It didn’t say anything about fur, did it?
The part about the running might be a miscalculation of speed, a common error. Let’s not underestimate the human body either.
I think they need a priest, not a wildlife biologist.
sschaper says “I think they need a priest, not a wildlife biologist” A priest or someone from SETI.
All this fuss over a morlock.
I agree the white thing is very similar to the strange looking creatures in the movie THE DESCENT. Did anyone happen to take a photo of this human like creature ?
Maybe it’s Gollum.
So, let me see if I can translate this. This guy seems to claim that at some point in his childhood there was a story being circulated among local kids about a “white thing” they were seeing and he was the skeptic who decided it was just a dog. Only after seeing for himself that the entity was not a dog did he become a believer. After that he learned that the entity could also walk on its legs along and after that the entire situation turns into a rehashing of the Mary Green story with multiple generations of his family having had contact with the entity (entities) that supposedly live inside the earth.
Anybody else puzzle something similar out of this mish-mash of various fortean elements? We’ve got the multi-generational interaction of abductees, the hollow-earth theory, and just a DASH of relict hominid/evolutionary divergence if not true cryptozoology.)
Were the delivery not so incoherent, you might have all the elements of a nice sci-fi/fantasy novel there, but I gotta agree that it isn’t cryptozoology.
Still, it’s intriguing as an amalgam of modern myths.
When did this story start surfacing? I don’t mean the 1967 part, but when did this come to your attention? There is a movie coming out called Pan’s Labyrinth, and there is a creature in there that has no eyes, just slits for nostrils and a mouth, ears and it’s skinny and white. Could someone just be playing along with this new movie?
Interesting story though.
I have an uncle that used to tell a similar story of the Brookside White Thing to me and my cousins. We all grew up in Brookside, Alabama and he told the story that he saw the White Thing as a yong boy. And coincidentally, that would have been in the 1960’s too. He told the story a bit differently, or at least the creature was different in his story. In my uncle’s story it was a ferocious 4-legged creature with white hair and long teeth, he described it as a cross between a bigfoot and a werewolf. That was a very scary story to hear as a young child. I was amazed to see the post in here of the White Thing, I haven’t heard anything about that in years, and only ever heard the story in back in my hometown Brookside, never heard the story out of any of the neighboring cities or towns.