On January 23, 1896, a man and his daughter were walking down a road near their home in Gallia County, when a large beast attacked the man. After a frighteningly long struggle, the girl hit the creature in the head with a rock, and it ran away.

A few weeks after John Wayne’s death, Hutchins discovered he was sharing The Wild Goose with the deceased actor.

In the western region of Kentucky, the Kelly and Hopkinsville region, a few years before I was born, a family was attacked by an entire group of goblin-like creatures.

Ancient folklore of Iceland includes a tale about the “sons of mountain-dwelling trolls” called the Yule Lads, and their companion, the Yule Cat who “eats children that don’t receive new clothes in time for Christmas.”

In Germanic folklore, there is a horror story about creatures that lived in the Black Forest many centuries ago.Vicious “little people” called tomtin - who might also be called dwarves or elves were said to roam the area committing vicious crimes against humanity during the harsh winter months.

I have always loved bats.Maybe my infatuation with the flying mammals has something to do with my lifelong love of vampire movies and cave exploring. Of course, I might not feel so affectionate toward them if I encountered a bat with a twelve-foot wingspan and a face like a monkey!

Cryptids, the name for the creatures studied in this field, are not only beings whose existence have not yet been proven, but is also given to creatures sighted in areas to which they are not indigenous.

The current operations manager at the prison’s museum and author of “Images of America: Folsom Prison,” James Brown, has heard many strange tales about ghosts haunting the old prison. Brown also worked at the prison for several decades.

Although I've never heard any rumors or stories about the Molly Brown House in my hometown of Hannibal, Missouri being haunted, evidently the Molly Brown House in Denver does have its share of ghostly apparitions.

The ghosts of a murderer and his wife, the victim, share a home with the Brown family in North Portland, Oregon.