Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

A Texan Bigfoot?  The “Abilene Reporter News,” July 7, 1977:

HAWLEY - The forest of the Northwest has its Big Foot, the Himalayas have the Abominable Snowman, and as of Wednesday, this dusty Jones County town has the Hawley Him. The Him, a shaggy 7-foot monster with long dangling arms, reportedly attacked three youths Wednesday morning at Bob Scott's ranch. The youths, Tom Roberts, 14; Larry Suggs, 15; and Renee McFarland, 15, all reported seeing the beast and even tried to down the critter with a shot from a 30-30 rifle before the apparition made good his escape in the thick brush.

The reported attack started at approximately 10 a.m. while Roberts and Suggs were clearing brush for Scott. Both the boys live at the Abilene Boys' Ranch, of which Scott is superintendent. The boys said they were taking a break when they were startled by the breaking of tree limbs and a shower of rocks. Suggs said he was hit in the leg by one of the stony missiles and showed a bruise on his right calf in support of his claim.  Roberts said his head just barely missed being beaned by one of the projectiles. 

During the attack the boys dropped their tools and ran for the safety of the nearby home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed McFarland.

"We got three good glimpses of him," Suggs said. "I call it him--whatever it was.” 

"It was kind of an ape, but still a man," he added. "He had huge arms. They hung to his knees. You'd have to see it to believe it.” 

Roberts said one of the peculiar aspects of the attack, outside the fact a monster was heaving rocks at them, was that it made no sounds "except for the brush cracking." 

After recovering from the initial attack the boys went back to their worksite along with the McFarlands' daughter, Renee, and her 30-30. 

"It's a good gun. It's got a boom like a cannon and a kick like a horse," Renee said in praise of her armament. 

While at the site a rock was thrown at the McFarlands' van and the three youths said they saw Hawley Him approximately 40 yards away in a tangle of nettles. Suggs shot at the monster, but apparently missed his mark.

"She (Renee) was going to shoot it until she saw it. Then she crammed the gun at me and said, 'You shoot it'," Suggs said. 

The recoil from the shot floored Suggs and he never got off a second round as the Him "glided" through the brush, leaving foot-long footprints in the sandy soil. 

"That stuff (the brush) is so thick you have to know where you're going and he just glided through it," Roberts said. Roberts added that just prior to the attack he noticed a rotten smell in the area.

The area the boys were working in is near the site where Scott recently lost 21 penned goats without a trace, until several goat carcasses later were found in the brush. Scott said the Jones County Sheriff's Office said coyotes got the goats, but he is not convinced coyotes are to blame since no goat was killed in the immediate area of the pen. 

Wednesday was not the first time Hawley Him has been sighted. Renee said she and two of her girlfriends saw the monster in October during a slumber party. But when she told her parents of the strange creature creeping about the house they discounted it as a "trick of the night." 

Another area resident, Mike McQuagge, said he saw the footprint the youths claimed the monster had left, but he had never seen the creature which supposedly left the track. When asked if he believed a monster was roaming Jones County, McQuagge said he rather doubted it. Whether the Hawley Him is real or just another of the Big Country's list of imaginary monsters such as the infamous Caddo Critter and the Haskell Thang, there's little chance that Suggs and Roberts will be out there clearing brush without armed lookouts.

For some time afterwards, hunters roamed the area in search of “Him,” but as far as I can tell, the smelly rock-throwing whatsit was never identified.  In November, it was reported that a “squat, shaggy creature” had been mutilating animals in Merkel, a town about 20 miles from Hawley, but that mystery seems to have gone unresolved, as well.