The Monster Book. Nick Redfern

ridge in order to avoid the surrounding pool of water. The ridge curved backward and forward across the width of the cave like the curves of a large serpent, the suggestion being so strong we lowered our lamps in order to examine the ridge more closely. To our astonishment and delight, we found that we were in very truth walking along a perfect fossil of some huge reptile. Further inspection revealed the presence of six or eight of these enormous monsters. Having taken a few small specimens of loose portions of scale for examination in a better light, we left, to return the following morning for the purpose of measurement.

      One witness compared the head of a Chinese dragon to that of the skull of a Mosasaurus (above).

      “On our return the following morning we selected one of the largest fossils lying for a great part of its length isolated from the others, the coils of the remainder being rather entangled. The isolated portion measured seventy feet, so that is absolutely certain that the length is at least seventy feet, and as far as we could ascertain, this same specimen extended for another sixty or seventy feet. However, I admit that error is possible here, owing to the interlacing coils of the reptiles. The depth of the body seen in the foreground is two feet. The head is partially buried in the cave wall and appears to be a large, flat head similar to that of Mosasaurus comperi.

      “About twelve or fourteen feet from the head two legs are seen partially uncovered, and again to more about fifty feet from the head. The fact that several persons have penetrated this cave in former years beyond the point where the discovery was made seems to indicate the fossils have been but recently uncovered; by a heavy discharge of water through the cave. It seems probable that these reptiles were trapped by some volcanic disturbance and starved to death; the size of the bodies compared to their length would indicate this.

      “A point of peculiar interest is the resemblance to the Chinese dragon of these fossils. I believe that it has therefore been supposed that the Chinese borrowed their idea of the dragons from Western mythology. The discovery has created a great stir among the local Chinese and foreigners, who are daily flocking to view the fossils. I am attempting to interest the Chinese authorities in Peking and also the Chinese Monuments Society in order that the specimens may be preserved from damage.”

      Richard Freeman has suggested that what O’Malley examined were the fossilized remains of a huge Chinese sauropod named Mamenchisaurus. On the other hand, O’Malley’s reference to the remains having a “resemblance to the Chinese dragon” has given rise to the possibility that, just possibly, in the distant past, fire-breathing dragons really did exist.

      CIA’S SUPER-SNAKE

      While there are numerous reports of people encountering massive snakes in the jungles of our world, certainly the strangest case on record is one that involves none other than the Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA. The story is an intrigue-filled one, which is part James Bond and part Indiana Jones. And it all began—and violently ended, too—in 1956.

      CIA personnel based out of the American Embassy in Bolivia were used to dealing with unpredictable and strange events. But, even by their standards, the events that went down in August 1956 were off the scale. In the early days of the month, CIA staff received reports of a gigantic snake on the loose in a nearby, rarely explored cave that was buried deeply within the mountainous jungle environment. And when I say gigantic, we’re talking about somewhere between thirty and fifty feet long.

      Worse still, a spate of mysterious disappearances of people from a nearby tribe had just about everyone on edge. The tribespeople were sure that the culprit was the deadly beast, and there were even rumors that the monster possessed supernatural powers. Time came when something had to be done and a call was put into the CIA by local Bolivian authorities, asking for help. While hunting for a giant snake was hardly the kind of thing that CIA agents typically got involved in (to say the least!), they agreed to give it a go.

      A six-person team was put together by a man we only know as “Lee,” who led the group deep into the jungle. They were prepared to take on the man-eater, but as circumstances would demonstrate, it turned out to be a very close call. The supersized snake was not about to go down without a fight. As Lee’s team climbed the heavily wooded hill and arrived at the small entrance to the cave where the snake made its lair, one and all stayed as silent as possible and began to prepare for a potentially deadly confrontation with the massive beast.

      The tribespeople were sure that the culprit was the deadly beast, and there were even rumors that the monster possessed supernatural powers.

      Each and every man had several tear gas canisters, and they were all equipped with .45s. We are, after all, talking about secret agents! They had something else with them too: a large canvas sack with zippers at both ends that had been created by CIA employees and which, it was hoped, the snake could be enticed into and then shot and killed before it could do any harm. It sounded like a most unlikely situation and something guaranteed to fail.

      Nevertheless, each and every man strategically positioned himself at varying points around twenty feet from the cave entrance. It was then up to Lee to creep up to the shadowy opening. His first action was to encase the entrance with that large sack and, via a small space, hurl one of the canisters into the heart of the cave. He did so and then quickly retreated. It was a very wise move.

      In less than a minute as the tear gas did its thing, the huge snake came charging out of the cave. The rumors of such a monster living in the cave were suddenly, and chaotically, rumors no more. Even the agents in question were shocked by the sight of the coiling thing before them: it was around forty feet in length and had a body thicker than an oil drum. As for its fang-filled head, it was around the size of a horse’s head. To their utter consternation, in seconds it tore its way out of the sack, ripping it to shreds in the process. And then it began to move slowly forwards. One and all backed away another thirty or forty feet, as the huge creature stared malevolently at them—no doubt trying to decide which one to attack and devour first. Lee quickly realized it was a case of now or never and he fired a salvo of bullets into the snake’s head. By all accounts it took more than several bullets to bring the violent beast down.

      Stories of monstrously large snakes in the jungles of South America go back literally centuries. This 1820 illustration shows a snake attacking a horse!

      Of course, it must be said that this entire story has somewhat of an unlikely feeling to it; a sense of urban myth or of a friend-of-a-friend tale. There is, however, good evidence to suggest that the event occurred exactly as described above. All of this brings us to a man named David Atlee Phillips. A significant figure in the CIA in the 1950s, he was someone who spent a great deal of time in Mexico, Cuba, and Chile. Phillips crossed paths with Lee at a cocktail party in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1958. As the pair swapped stories of the espionage kind, the matter of the giant snake surfaced. Phillips admitted to Lee that he was dubious of the whole story. Nonplussed, Lee agreed to show him the snake’s skin, which Lee had preserved in the Embassy’s basement! Even when he was finally able to see the evidence, however, Phillips still doubted the story behind how the huge skin was obtained. He suspected Lee had gotten it from a collector and had created the story of a violent confrontation with the monster to impress a girlfriend or several. It turns out that was not the case.

      Phillips apparently developed quite an obsession with the snake saga and brought it up, some months later, with one Darwin Mervill Bell, a man who had ties to both the CIA and the Agency for International Aid in Bolivia. Over drinks, Phillips tackled Bell on the matter of the snake legend—since Lee was a friend to both Phillips and Bell. Phillips said, as he discussed the story of how