In my post from several weeks ago entitled The Chupacabras: A Psychological Test Come To Life?, I mentioned the Moca Vampire of Puerto Rico. Again, in my more recent post Chupacabras Thoughts the Moca Vampire was mentioned by UFOmystic reader MindEcdysiast in regards to the eyewitness description of a giant bat.
With that, this post will be the first part of a multi-part post regarding the Moca Vampire.
Hispanic ufologist/cryptozoologist Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU), shares his article about the Moca Vampire here with the readers of UFOmystic.
Dark Visitors: Puerto Rico?s Moca Vampire
?You?re looking for what??
Perhaps telling the gas station attendant that I was on a quest to find of the ancestor of Puerto Rico?s Chupacabras hadn?t been one of my better ideas. The paranormal predator had caused enough damage in its short-lived range to cause the locals not to want to hear its name mentioned in jest. Yet here was someone looking for an even shadier entity, in fact, the traditional ?scariest monster of them all? ? the one that cannot be seen or felt, but whose trail of destruction is all too real and painful.
Waving vaguely in the direction of State Highway 2, the gas station attendant muttered something about a field off the side of a back road. Putting the rented car in gear, I headed down the country road with my photographer in search of the legendary Moca Vampire.
While Chupacabras was a humorous name bestowed upon the creature by comedian Silverio P?rez, it still carried an air of menace. Could the goatsucker suddenly change diet and go for people, becoming the Chupagente? But the Moca Vampire sounded more like a Halloween bakery confection employed to delight children, not frighten them. Yet during its year and a half long reign of terror, the unknown, unseen entity caused a sensation all over the world, despite being all but forgotten almost thirty years later.
The Vampire Awakens
Coinciding with the overwhelming number of cattle mutilations occurring in the United States and in the rest of the world at that time, Puerto Ricans discovered that their livestock was being slain by a mysterious, unseen assailant. They would have been even more distressed to learn that the same situation would replay itself twenty years later, courtesy of the ubiquitous Chupacabras.
In February 1975, a Puerto Rican newspaper ran one of the very first headlines concerning the wave of mysterious animal deaths to occur in the vicinity of the small town of Moca, on the island?s western side.
The entity, dubbed ?The Moca Vampire? by the press, kicked off its killing spree in Barrio Rocha, a sector of the town of Moca, where it took the lives of a number of animals in a grisly manner never seen before. Fifteen cows, three goats, two geese and a pig were found dead with bizarre perforations on their hides, suggesting that a sharp instrument had been inserted into the hapless bovines. Autopsies showed that the animals had been thoroughly relieved of blood, as if consumed by some predator.
On March 7, 1975, a cow belonging to Rey Jim?nez was found dead in Moca?s Barrio Cruz, presenting deep, piercing wounds on its skull and a number of scratches around the wounds on its body. Jim?nez?s cow was added to the growing list of victims, which now totaled well over thirty.
As the number of victims grew, the Moca Vampire acquired an identity of its own, much in the same way that the Chupacabras would twenty years later. Speculation as to its nature was rife: many believed it was a supernatural ?bird?, like the one seen by Mar?a Acevedo, a Moca resident who noticed that a strange animal had landed on her home?s zinc rooftop in the middle of the night. According to Acevedo?s testimony, the bird pecked at the rusty rooftop and at the windows before taking flight, issuing a terrifying scream. Others more readily accepted any suggestion that it was a space alien, an occupant of the UFOs reported on an almost daily basis over Puerto Rico at the time. Some clung to the belief that a gigantic vampire bat had somehow made it from the mainland to the Caribbean, slaking its thirst on the local cattle. Only days later, farmer Cecilio Hern?ndez notified authorities that the elusive Moca Vampire had slain thirty-four chickens on his property at some point during the night. The supernatural entity was by now responsible for ninety animal deaths in a two week period.
A faint ray of hope?soon to be dissipated by harsh reality?appeared during this critical moment in the crisis: another farmer, Luis Torres, became the man of the hour after slaying two enormous snakes (Puerto Rican boas) measuring an unheard-of length of six feet. Torres had captured the snakes as they stood ready to attack a 600-pound heifer. The media hailed this act of heroism as the ?solution to the mutilation riddle?; citizens could finally issue a collective sigh of relief.
However, the Moca Vampire had its own agenda. On March 18, 1975, two goats belonging to Hector Vega, a resident of Moca?s Barrio Pueblo, were found drained of blood. Puncture marks on the goats? necks were the unmistakable sign that the strange entity causing the deaths was still at large and hungrier than ever: it returned to Vega?s farm the following night to finish off ten more goats and wound another seven. The horrified farmer also discovered that ten additional goats had gone missing.
To be continued?
http://www.ufomystic.com/the-redfern-fi ... -vampire1/
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
