Borillas

Last year, I reported here of the Bigfoot-type reports called “Cohomo.” Does a child’s old 1960s’ notebooks have clues that relate to those sightings of the 1970s? Or was there just a cultural sense in the air that imaginations and reality merged in the Midwest of a few decades ago?

Michael Isenberg, a musician living in Hollywood, California, has made claims in emails to Cryptomundo that he created, in 1965, a story that may have influenced the reports of “Cohomo,” also called the “Cole Hollow Monster,” reported in 1972, in Pekin, Illinois. Here’s what Isenberg writes:

It began in the mid 60’s, all of us kids in the neighborhood were into the huge resurgence in the popularity of monster movies. Famous Monsters of Filmland was every monster fans favorite magazine and all of those classic Universal monsters and Samuel Z. Arkoff sci-fi films were introduced to us through a local late night horror broadcast on CBS affiliate channel 31 called Nightmare with it’s legendary host ( and the all time KING of horror hosts ) Milton Budd, a genuinely terrifying guy when the lights went out.

Famous Monster of Filmland spawned a number of offshoot magazines including a scary comic magazine called Creepy, with it’s ‘host’ Uncle Creepy. I had read a story in issue number 4 called ‘The Damned Thing!’ by Archie Goodwin and Gray Morrow, from a story by Ambrose Bierce. The story was about a creature much like what we would refer to as a “Bigfoot” that could only sometimes be seen. If I remember correctly, it had a sort of camouflage like a chameleon, but when it changed from it’s visible color to another color, the other color was one the human eye could not see. So it had the ability to become invisible. With that ability, the monster could roam undetected.

The beast I created began in that neighborhood in Pekin, Illinois in 1965 in the forest that existed behind the house on Coolidge street.

The story is true. Every bit of it will remain in my autobiography, backed up by many eyewitness accounts. And if I’m successful at seeing my book become a movie, the public will judge whether or not I’m telling the truth.

Back in Pekin, Illinois and nationally, I’ve had every bit as much newspaper coverage as any celebrity could hope for. On a national level I’ve appeared in many magazines, newspapers (The Pekin Daily Times has referred to me as a genuine living legend because of my musical career) and hard cover books. The latest being Phil Doubet’s ‘My Pryor Year – A 333 Soul Anthology’ where he has a chapter on me.

The story, as I said, stands as the truth. And many in Pekin, Illinois know it’s the truth.

The beast was my creation. I had all kinds of people believing in it, scared to go out into the woods. No one dressed up in any costume to scare anyone in that area (Pekin, Illinois) ever. That would have been a foolish mistake and could easily have been disproved (I had that figured out as a 12 year old).

It would also have been easy for any hunter to figure out in a heartbeat. I come from a family of hunters, plus my dad was a city inspector, I knew full well what kind of scrutiny any hoax would be under, and how easily certain things could be debunked. But you cannot debunk a beast that everyone claims to see but cannot find, with no hair evidence, no costume (that would have been ridiculous considering what was available at the time to make one, even Hollywood couldn’t have made anything plausible then. Ever see King Kong Verses Godzilla?). Michael Isenberg

Loren Coleman 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.

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