"Whatchamacallit Hunt on in Southern Part of Ohio"



An interesting article from the Mansfield News-Journal (Ohio) of January 2, 1936, headlined "Whatchamacallit Hunt on in Southern Part of Ohio - Strange Tracks, Hog Clawed to Death Evidence of Lion, Puma or 'What You Will' at Large, Claim:"

"CINCINNATI -- (U.P.) -- Capt. Charles (Bring-'em-Back-Dead) Coddington of the Hamilton county patrol, six deputies, special deputies and an army of volunteers, set out today to hunt the Whatchamacallit.
"It may be a lion, a puma or a bobcat, depending on who saw it and how frightened he was.
"Capt. Coddington is convinced that it is something, all right, because, as he sagely points out, a hog does not commit suicide. The hog, belonging to Dr. Henry Miller, was clawed to death and partly eaten last night.
 "Further evidence that the strange beast exists outside of wild imaginations are the facts that something bigger than a dog sprang on the back of William Holtke, chief of the Anderson and Columbia township police, and that that something that didn't walk like a dog crossed a highway in front of a bus.
"Padded footprints, showing one long toe, have been discovered in a creek bed at Miami Grove and from that point Bring-'em-Back-Dead Coddington's party was to start the hunt today.
"All members of the group were armed and were under the captain's orders to shoot when they see something the likes of which they had never seen before."

That is all there is to that accounts, most likely of a mountain lion or bobcat. I thought I would share this one after I found it while working on a project concerning a different type of cryptid…. more on that later!

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