The Monster Book. Nick Redfern

of a pair of explorers, Reginald and Margurite Lloyd. While negotiating a jungle pathway in the heart of the Belgian Congo, they saw something very strange step out in front of them. Their first thoughts were: was it a small crouching person, or a similarly crouched monkey? To their eternal horror, it quickly became clear it was neither. What it actually was, was a gigantic spider, one that had legs that spanned four feet! Reginald Lloyd, realizing the enormity of the situation—never mind the enormity of the creature—quickly reached for his camera. Unfortunately, the beast raced across the track and vanished into the undergrowth before he could capture what would, most assuredly, have been a priceless picture. The pair had no doubt about what they had encountered, however: a truly giant, eight-limbed monstrosity.

      It doesn’t take a huge spider to scare many people. Arachnophobia is that creepy, eerie, terrifying feeling many get just seeing a tiny, eight-legged creature crawling toward them.

      The amazing account of the Lloyds does not stand alone: the local Baka pygmy people have longstanding stories of these goliath spiders, which are said to be far rarer today than they once were; although, reportedly, one of their tribespeople saw such a terrifying thing in 2003. As for the lairs of the beasts, the Baka maintain they create something akin to huts, which are fashioned out of leaves and vegetation. They are also skilled weavers of massive, thick webs, which they build to ensnare their prey, which can include anything up to about the size of a small antelope.

      Moving on to the United States, there is the 1948 report of William Slaydon, his wife, and grandchildren—which eerily echoes the report coming out of the Congo a decade earlier. The location was Leesville, Louisiana, and the family was walking to a nearby church for an evening of worship and prayer when their journey was suddenly interrupted—and in horrific fashion. As the Slaydons strolled along the road, to their horror, a giant spider—described as being “the size of a washtub”—surfaced out of a nearby ditch and raced across the road. Never again did the family walk that particular stretch of Louisiana road.

      Now, it’s time for a trip to Papua New Guinea. From there, we have a story told by Debbie and Peter Hynes—noted Australian cryptozoologists—and which came from the father of one of Debbie’s friends. He was a man who had a bone-chilling encounter with a massive spider while serving in Papua New Guinea with the Australian military, during the Second World War. As the Hyneses note:

      “One day he had to take himself off into the scrub in answer to a call of nature. While thus engaged he noticed he was crouched down next to a very large cobweb—not the classic ‘fishing-net’ sort but the fine, snow-white cottony stuff that spread all over the ground and tree trunk etc. His eye followed it one way and then the other—seems it was very extensive, like 10 to 15 ft. either way. Then he noticed the spider itself, only a foot or so away from his face. It was a real horror—the body, i.e. thorax + abdomen, he described as the ‘size of a small dog or puppy,’ it was colored jet black, the legs were thick and hairy but not as long as the classic ‘dinner plate tarantula’ type spider that owes its size to the spread of its legs. This thing had more body bulk than spread. Needless to say he backed out of there very slowly and carefully.”

      In this c. 1890s illustration from The Strand a spider attacks a man in the jungle (part of a short fiction story). People have long had nightmares about large spiders, and fiction writers take advantage of that fear.

      Dr. Karl Shuker says of this particularly creepy phenomenon:

      “This is not the only report of a giant mystery spider encountered in Papua New Guinea during World War II. During an interview with cryptozoologist Rob Morphy of AmericanMonsters.com on the U.S. radio show ‘Coast to Coast AM’ a couple of years ago, a telephone caller named Craig recounted how his grandfather, while serving in Papua New Guinea during WW2, encountered a monstrous spider in a web that scared him so much he hacked it to death with his machete. According to Craig’s grandfather, the spider measured an immense 3 ft. from tip to tip, and, unexpectedly, was not hairy like many big spiders are. Instead, it was shiny, and was emerald green in color. This nightmarish arachnid was encountered near Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.”

      GIGANTIC INSECTS

      Is it possible that the southwest region of the United States is home to giant-sized insects that feed upon us, the human race? Such a thing sounds not just unlikely and incredible, but just like the kind of scenario presented in the classic 1954 sci-fi movie Them! It’s a movie in which massive, radioactive ants terrorize and slaughter the people of a small New Mexico town and threaten to do likewise to not just the rest of the country, but to the entire planet, too. Which brings us to an important question: might truth be stranger than fiction? Yes, just possibly.

      Danielle B. is a woman who, for a number of years, lived in the New Mexican town of Aztec—which, just like the far more famous New Mexican town of Roswell, has a crashed UFO legend attached to it. It’s a legend that dates back to March 1948, when, reportedly, a near-intact flying saucer and its crew of diminutive dead pilots were found. But, according to Danielle, she encountered something far stranger at Aztec than deceased extraterrestrial dwarfs and a wrecked flying saucer.

      It was on one particular day in May 2004 that Danielle decided to spend a few hours hanging out in Aztec’s Hart Canyon—which, curiously enough, is exactly where the alleged UFO is said to have fallen to earth, back in the 1940s. It was also where Danielle had an encounter with something far worse than aliens. On what was a warm and sunny day, Danielle found a place to sit, where she could read a book and have her snacks and drinks at hand. It was a perfect way to spend a day off work. Or, for a while it was, at least.

      Gigantic ants menace humans in the 1954 sci-fi horror movie Them!

      All was normal for a couple of hours. That is, until Danielle noticed a small, black helicopter approaching her in the distance. Far more correctly, she assumed that it was a helicopter. Certainly, at a distance that’s what it appeared to be. But it was no normal helicopter: there was no “thud-thud” sound that one associates with the fast-moving blades of a helicopter. And, on top of that, it appeared to be carrying below it a small calf, held tightly in place by thick ropes! Most definitely not the kind of thing you see every day. When the helicopter got close to Hart Canyon, however, Danielle could see that the helicopter was actually nothing of the sort. It was a large, obscene-looking insect of around four meters in length. The presumed rotor-blades of the helicopter were actually the fast-beating wings of the monster-creature. As for those ropes, they were nothing less than powerful-looking black limbs.

      Danielle could see that the helicopter was actually nothing of the sort. It was a large, obscene-looking insect of around four meters in length.

      Danielle could only stare—in a mixture of awe, fascination, fear, and horror—as the huge creature flew overhead, dropped the poor calf on a nearby peak, and then swooped to the ground with frightening speed, pounced on the animal, and viciously tore into it. In less than half an hour the giant insect was done with its feasting and took to the skies. Danielle had been too shocked to flee the area at the time, the result of which was that the terrible event was forever embedded in her memory, even though she clearly wished this was not the case. Suspecting—probably correctly—that if she told local law enforcement officials of what she saw, she would likely be booked for wasting police time, Danielle finally made her shaky way home. She stayed silent on the matter