Lyle Blackburn on ‘Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster’

Interview with Lyle Blackburn

Brought to you by Anomalist books.

1. What made you decide to pursue the Bishopville,South Carolina Lizardman for your 2nd book entitled Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster?

I was doing research on monster sightings that have occurred in various swamps locations around the southeast U.S. In the process I actually visited swamps in several different states, including Scape Ore Swamp near Bishopville, South Carolina. As I interviewed people in the area, including law officials and witnesses, I realized there was much more to the story of the Bishopville Lizard Man than had ever been made public. It seemed like a great story, so I ended up developing it into a book.

2. Could you share some of the odd going ons regarding Lizardman festivities in Bishopville?

At this point the Lizard Man is sort of a cultural icon that many people in the area recognize. There’s a few restaurants that incorporate the Lizard Man into their identity and there’s a display at the Cotton Museum in Bishopville. Bishopville also has a Cotton Festival each year and their mascot is the “Lizard Man.” It’s kind of a fun thing now, but when it started, there were some incredible and downright spooky sightings of the creature.

3. What do you think the Lizardman is exactly when it comes to cryptozoology classifications?

It’s one of those creatures that falls in a gray area. The biological possibility of a hybrid between human and reptile is very improbable, so that’s one reason researchers have had a hard time trying to figure out just what it is people might have seen. In a cryptozoological sense, it might be more logical to conclude that it was a sasquatch covered in algae, or had patchy hair or mud that made its skin appear scaly. In aparanormal sense, some researchers have proposed that the creature could be part of a race of underground reptilians or something much more otherworldly. As far as my book is concerned, I just present the facts of the story as I know them and let people decide what the creature may or may not be.

4. What did the police have to say about the incidents?

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