Alabama

1Bigfoot in Alabama Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; Chilton, Morgan, Tuscaloosa and Cleburne counties · first reported BFRO database

Alabama's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier. The BFRO lists about 102 Alabama reports, spread fairly evenly, with Chilton, Morgan and Tuscaloosa counties at 5 each. Cleburne County on the Georgia line has produced recent Class A sightings.

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• November 2012Investigated report A Marine veteran on twelve acres near Gadsden watched something cross his lit yard with a stride he later measured at eight to ten feet. He noticed a rotten smell before incidents, found saplings pushed flat and had rocks thrown at his truck. His brother and a neighbor reported sightings too. Source: bfro.net
• February 2023Investigated report The BFRO lists a Class A daylight sighting by two witnesses outside Heflin, about ten miles from the Georgia border off I-20 in Cleburne County. A similar Class A forest-road crossing was logged in the same area near the state line in June 2020, making Cleburne the most active recent county. Source: bfro.net

2White Thang Told story

Beast · Morgan, Etowah and Jefferson counties, north Alabama · first reported Early 1900s; heaviest from the 1940s · also called White Thing

North Alabama's best-known legend is the White Thang. Most accounts make it seven or eight feet tall, covered in shaggy white or cream hair, with red eyes. It is fast on two legs or four, jumps fences and climbs trees. The one detail every account keeps is the scream, compared to a woman, a panther or a crying baby. Beyond that the descriptions fall apart. Some witnesses report an upright ape, others a white lion, a big dog, or a kangaroo with a cat's head. A few insist it changes shape. Sightings cluster in a triangle across Morgan, Etowah and Jefferson counties, at places like Walnut Grove, Moody's Chapel and Wheeler refuge. It is said to be frightening but harmless.

3Huggin' Molly Told story

Humanoid · Abbeville, Henry County · first reported Over a century of local tradition

Abbeville's bogeywoman is Huggin' Molly. She is said to be a giant woman, about seven feet tall and as big around as a bale of cotton, dressed in black and sometimes wearing a wide hat. She roams the streets after dark. If she catches you, she wraps you in a huge hug and screams in your ear. For generations Abbeville parents used her to get children indoors by nightfall. Lifelong resident Jimmy Rane recalls that if your parents did not want you out after dark, they warned that Huggin' Molly would get you. Rane later opened a retro restaurant downtown named after her. Some grown residents admit they still feel uneasy when darkness falls.

Visiting: Huggin' Molly's restaurant, 129 Kirkland Street, downtown Abbeville.

4Wolf Woman of Mobile On the record

Beast · Davis Avenue and the Plateau neighborhood, Mobile · first reported April 1, 1971

For about a week in April 1971, Mobile was on alert for a creature with the head of a woman and the body of a wolf. Calls started on April 1, which did not help its credibility. By April 8 the Mobile Press-Register had received more than fifty calls and ran a story with a sketch, giving the creature a full head of hair. Sightings centered on Davis Avenue and the Plateau neighborhood. One witness said it was both hairy and pretty. Residents later told Mobile Bay Magazine about sprinting home past wooded lots and learning to shoot. Kids stayed indoors after dark. Theories included a stray German shepherd wearing a wig or a well-groomed Afghan hound. Then the sightings stopped.

• April 8, 1971On the record The Press-Register published a story after receiving more than fifty calls about a wolf-bodied creature with a woman's face. The paper's sketch showed it with a large mane of hair. Calls tapered off soon after, and no animal was caught. Source: mobilebaymag.com

5Falkville Metal Man On the record

Humanoid · Falkville, Morgan County · first reported October 17, 1973

On the night of October 17, 1973, Falkville police chief Jeff Greenhaw answered a call about a UFO landing in a field outside town. He said he found a figure a little over six feet tall in a shiny suit. He compared the surface to mercury on nickel, smooth as glass, and said it moved stiffly, like the robot from Lost in Space. Greenhaw took four Polaroid photos and then chased it in his patrol car. He said it outran him at more than thirty-five miles an hour, and he wrecked the car. Ridicule followed. Within weeks he resigned. About ten years later his photographs were stolen in a burglary along with his guns.

• 1983On the record Greenhaw filed a police report saying burglars had taken the four original Polaroids along with his service revolver and a shotgun. Copies of the photos still circulate, but the originals were never recovered. Greenhaw later said the experience made him hard, but also strong. Source: cullmantribune.com

6Downey Booger Told story

Beast · Old Downey community, Winston County · first reported Late 1800s

In Winston County, the Free State of Winston, people still tell of the Downey Booger. It was first met by cousins John and Joe Downey, riding home from a dance at Oscar Tittle's log house. Their horses balked at a sand bed in the road where something waited. Months later it darted from the bushes at a family coming home from church, so badly frightening the children that they slept in one bed for months. The best-known story involves Jim Jackson, hauling moonshine by moonlight. He saw something walking on two feet behind his wagon and fired twice. It screamed like a woman and limped off on three feet. A posse followed a blood trail to a distant cliff.

• Late 1800sTold story Jim Jackson said a creature that looked partly human and partly animal walked upright behind his wagon. After his two pistol shots it screamed and limped away on three legs, and searchers later traced blood from the sand bed toward a cliff. Source: freestateofwinston.org

7Sipsey Creature Told story

Beast · Bottomlands near Sipsey, Walker County · first reported Early 1940s

Walker County writer Martha Parnell Salomaa collected her own family's encounters with something in the bottomlands near Sipsey. In the early 1940s her relative Orville met it walking home along a curving road with a bluff on one side and a drop-off on the other. In October 1967 his younger relative Larry saw it from his red Chevelle on the same stretch. He said it stood above the headlights rather than in them, rose on two legs and threw its head back as if laughing. Both men first thought bear, then something more like a big cat. In 1990 a neighbor heard the same sound. All agreed on the scream, which they said sounded like somebody killing a woman.

• October 1967Told story Larry, driving a red Chevelle through the Sipsey bottomlands, said a large animal rose on two legs beyond his headlights and threw back its head. He and his older relative described it as part bear, part cat, with a terrible scream. Source: marthaparnellsalomaa.medium.com

8Coosa River Monster On the record

Water monster · Coosa River near Gadsden, Ball Play Creek and Wills Creek · first reported June 8, 1877

In June 1877 the Coosa River near Gadsden had a sea serpent, according to the Gadsden Times. On June 8 Marcus L. Foster, a respected local man, saw what he took for someone in a boat, then a woman in the water. From fifty yards he made out a serpent-like animal. It had a horse-like head and neck rising from the water, big popping eyes and a fiery red tongue. Green Rasbury and John Burgess reported a strange animal near the mouth of Wills Creek. Others described it as scaly, fifteen to twenty feet long, with large fins. The last report came from raftsmen two miles below Gadsden on June 25. In 1882 a reporter blamed a floating mass of leaves and weeds.

• June 25, 1877On the record Raftsmen reported the serpent two miles below Gadsden, the last sighting of the summer. Papers had already warned parents to keep children away from the river. Five years later a reporter suggested rafts of weeds lifted by gas from the riverbed. Source: gadsdenmessenger.com

9Crichton Leprechaun Proven hoax

Humanoid · Le Cren Street near Bay Shore Avenue, Crichton, Mobile · first reported March 14, 2006 · also called Mobile Leprechaun

On March 14, 2006, crowds gathered under a tree in Mobile's Crichton neighborhood, saying they had seen a leprechaun in its branches. NBC affiliate WPMI sent reporter Brian Johnson. His report featured a crude sketch, a man with a supposedly ancient leprechaun flute, and Johnson's own verdict that it was shadows and moss. Posted online on St. Patrick's Day, the morning version became one of the internet's first viral local news clips. It later passed 28 million views and was parodied on national comedy shows. In 2014 radio hosts tracked down a local man who said he had staged it in costume, with neighbors spreading the alert.

• 2014Proven hoax Radio personalities identified a Crichton resident who admitted the leprechaun was a prank: he had worn a costume and the sighting alert was coordinated. The confession matched the reporter's original doubt on camera, though the clip's fame had long since outgrown the facts. Source: en.wikipedia.org