What is the scariest SC urban legend? This group has an answer and it’s not the Gray Man
Move over Gray Man and Boo Hag, the Lizard Man has been proclaimed as the scariest urban legend in South Carolina.
That’s according to It’s a Southern Thing, a group of storytellers based in Alabama who endeavor to show the good in the South and to have a little fun along the way.
They devised a list of the scariest urban legends in each Southern state, including the dead children’s playground in Alabama and the town beneath Lake Lanier in Georgia.
Of the Lizard man, the website says, “The creature, with red eyes, green skin and long black claws, was said to attack cars, ripping off mirrors, shredding roofs and ripping off fenders.”
He lives in Scape Ore Swamp near Bishopville, the legend goes, and was first seen by 17-year-old Christopher Davis going home from work at 2 a.m. on June 29, 1988.
Davis said he got out of his car to fix a flat tire in the dead of night near the swamp and heard someone running. Thump, thump, red eyes glowing, he said. It looked like a mashup of Bigfoot and a scaly swamp man.
The thing lunged at his car. Then jumped on the roof, clinging to it as Davis sped away, swerving to shake the creature off. Davis said he saw three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin.
When he got home, he saw his side-view mirror damaged and scrapes on the top.
Davis didn’t come forward at first until he heard of a family whose car was mauled as they slept inside their house on the outskirts of Bishopville.
Lyle Blackburn in his book “The Lizard Man Cometh,” wrote, “A family by the name of Waye reported that their 1985 Ford LTD had been ‘mauled’ during the night while they slept. The vehicle, which had been parked under an open metal carport, had suffered extensive damage to the molding, sidewalls, and hood.”
Blackburn said a vandal was suspected until hair and footprints on the car led authorities to think it was an animal. Tests showed the fur came from a red fox, the claw marks from a black bear.
“But what kind of animal would sink its claws and teeth into the metal skin of a car?” Blackburn wrote.
After Davis told about his encounter, other people related stories of bite marks on their cars. At least 12 people said they saw this lizard-like creature.
Somehow, someone found footprints in the swampy soil. The Sheriff’s Office made casts of two three-toed feet, 14 inches long, but thought better of sending them to the FBI.
Local scientists said no known animal matched.
Word got out. CBS Evening News featured the monster. Tourists arrived. Hunters stalked. Columbia radio station WCOS offered a million dollars to anyone who could bag him and bring him in alive.
Then he just sort of drifted away. An airman at Shaw Air Force Base made a false report that he shot the Lizard Man because he didn’t want to lose the lore.
SCETV produced a documentary in 2008. It features Davis talking about what he saw. Davis was shot to death in 2009. Two men were convicted of murder, which was believed to have been drug related.
His experience, though, has endured through generations.
The community has embraced the idea of this large scaly creature who hates cars living in their midst. The Lee County Cotton Museum has an exhibit in his honor that features the casts of his feet. They sell hats and shirts.
A Lizard Man festival has been held intermittently since 2016. Melissa Brundage, the museum’s business manager, said the biggest by far was that first year because it was paired with Comicon.
After COVID, the festival returned this past June with, among other things, a Lizard Man Stomp and Lizard Man Bog contest. A woman displayed exotic reptiles.
Next year’s festival is planned for June 24.
