The Beast of Bladenboro

(For more on the spooky swamps of the Cape Fear region, click HERE)

Every year around this time people in North Carolina start to tell the southeast's many spooky stories.  One of the legends that has had many incarnations is the legend of the Big Cat that terrorizes farm communities. Some legends even say the beast is a vampire, sucking all the blood from pets or livestock. The most popular of these big cat legends is the famous Beast of Bladenboro. 

In the mid 1950's there was a series of attacks in the area around Bladenboro. Bladenboro is on the two lane country road that is highway 211 in Bladen County. The town is just southeast of the city of Lumberton, northwest of Lake Waccamaw. It is an area of geological transition from Piedmont to Coastal Plain, home to sandhills, swamps, and dense forests as well as farmland on the coastal plain. In the areas where farmland meets the hundreds of miles of wilderness pets and livestock are vulnerable to predatory wildlife. In NC predatory wildlife has historically included big cats. Our NFL team is even called the Carolina Panthers.

However, the Carolina panther which once ruled the food chain in the southeast is now considered functionally extinct. Today, the only big cat left in the area is the Bobcat. Though there have been unconfirmed sightings of panthers, mountain lions, and catamounts.  In 1953–54, the animal attacker's identity was never officially confirmed, but it was most likely a Bobcat.

 According to witnesses and trackers the animal commonly crushed or decapitated its victims, witnesses described a creature that was "sleek, black, about 5 feet long". After a series of dog deaths, a pet rabbit, and a goat, the community came together to hunt the killer.

The first night more than 500 people hunted through the woods and swamps. The second night more than 800 people turned out to hunt for the beast in the swamps. The third night, another 800 to 1,000 people gathered to hunt. A bobcat was trapped and killed and the Mayor told the newspapers that the beast had been caught and posed with the dead animal. Many speculated that the cat they killed was no where big enough to be the Beast. And of course the next year there were more deaths and cat sightings. 

Today, there is an annual festival called the Beast Feast, with a human in a wild cat suit as the mascot named BOB.