Article Winsted Wild Man
Summary: Reports of a wild man loose in Winsted, Connecticut fanned mass hysteria.
In August of 1895 New York City papers received a wire story about a naked, hairy man that was terrorizing townspeople in Winsted, Connecticut. Intrigued, the papers sent reporters up to Winsted to find out what was happening.
At first the reporters did not find much happening up in Winsted. But as they began asking local residents if they had seen an unusual creature lurking around, memories and tongues began to loosen. Soon reports of a “wild man” began to trickle in, and the trickle quickly grew into a flood.
With each new sighting the wild man grew progressively fiercer. He gained at least a foot or so in size every day, and in some accounts he sprouted tusks. Then he became a massive gorilla with thick arms that hung all the way down to the ground.
All these terrifying reports fanned a state of near hysteria in Winsted. People became afraid to leave their homes for fear of encountering the monster. A posse of over one hundred armed men was organized and sent out to hunt down and kill the creature. After days of searching, the men finally succeeded in shooting a creature that was seen lurking in the undergrowth. But the fearsome beast turned out to be nothing more than a local farmer’s stray jackass.
The Truth
In reality, there never had been a wild man in Winsted. The original wire report had sprung from the overly fertile imagination of Lou Stone, a young reporter for the Winsted Evening Citizen. From there, mass psychology had done the rest.
Over the succeeding years Stone became famous for the hundreds of stories he wrote about the strange flora and fauna surrounding Winsted, including his description of a tree that grew baked apples, a dog that talked, and a chicken that lay red, white, and blue eggs on the fourth of July. He was referred to affectionately as the “Winsted Liar.” After his death the residents of Winsted named a bridge after him. The bridge spans Sucker Creek.
References
- Fred Fedler, Media Hoaxes, Iowa State University Press, 1989: 160.
- Curtis D. MacDougall, Hoaxes, Dover Publications, 1958 (1st ed., 1940): 1.
- Andrew Mound, Heroic Hoaxes, MacDonald & Co., 1983: 75.
- David E. Philips, “The Winsted Wild Man,” in Legendary Connecticut: Traditional Tales from the Nutmeg State.
- Richard Saunders, The World’s Greatest Hoaxes, Playboy Press, 1980: 156-157.
- Gordon Stein, Encyclopedia of Hoaxes, Gale Research Inc. 1993: 132-133.
- Nick Yapp, Great Hoaxes of the World, Robson Books, 1992: 30.