Lizard Man

In midsummer 1988 the teenager Chris Davis spotted the Lizard Man. The monster was seven feet tall with green, scaly skin, red eyes, and three toes on each foot. Then he slipped away, as lizards do. Deputy Chester Lighty, who patrolled Scape Ore Swamp, four miles south of Bishopville in Lee County, heard talk of the Lizard Man for the next three weeks. Two men described the creature chasing them away from a spring when they attempted to dip water. Tom and Mary Waye drove into the swamp, and the Lizard Man nearly chewed up their car before they escaped. By August 14 the Lizard Man was a national celebrity, having been described on the CBS Evening News on television. More than two hundred calls a day came from as far away as New Zealand and Germany. Governor Carroll Campbell said that nobody had put a handle on what it was or where it came from. A California researcher explained that South Carolina was dealing with a “skunk ape,” more commonly known as “Bigfoot.” Columbia Radio Station WCOS offered a $1 million reward for the capture of the Lizard Man, but as Governor Campbell said, “This is a very elusive sort of fellow.”

“The Legend of the Lizard Man.” Time 132 (August 15, 1988): 21.