Creatures Aplenty..
CHAPTER 5
A Case Study: The Dover Demon
People often ask me what happens when I investigate a sighting; how do I hear about it, what steps do I take to verify the status of the witnesses in the community, and several other related questions. All accounts are different, of course, and require a variety of investigative methods, but in essence, Fortean fieldwork is a form of investigative reporting and scientific inquiry.
To get an insider’s look at one such examination of an outbreak of sightings, I asked Walter Webb, then the Assistant Director of the Hayden Planetarium at Boston’s Science Museum, for his kind permission to publish his sterling report on the systematic investigation of the Dover Demon.
Walter Webb, the first researcher to hear about and examine the details of the Barney and Betty Hill UFO abduction case, completed the Dover Demon report in September of 1977. I follow Webb’s remarks with some of my own observations, given here, for the first time, almost a quarter of a century after the sightings.
Introduction and Background
In April of 1977 the town of Dover, Massachusetts, provided the setting for one of the most baffling creature episodes ever reported. Generally recorded as the wealthiest town in Massachusetts, Dover (pop. 5000) is a heavily wooded community situated just 15 miles southwest of Boston.
During a 25½-hour period on April 21-22, four teenagers claimed to have made three independent sightings of a small gnome-like entity with an enormous head, large round glowing eyes, and long spindly limbs.
In all three circumstances the bizarre creature-tagged the “Dover Demon” by investigator Loren Coleman—was allegedly spotted within a two-mile-long zone along narrow paved roads.
The vegetation in this rural-suburban area alternates between wooded land and pasture, and houses generally are spaced several hundred feet apart. No UFO was reported by the witnesses.
On April 28, one week after the sightings, Loren Coleman happened to be at the Dover Country Store when a store employee, Melody Fryer, told him about William Bartlett’s sighting and his sketch of the creature. Mrs. Fryer promised to get Coleman the sketch.
Two days later the investigator obtained two of Bartlett’s drawings. The following day, May 1, Loren interviewed Bartlett, and on the 3rd he questioned John Baxter and Abby Brabham (Will Taintor was quizzed about two days after that). Also on the 1st Coleman gave the Dover Police Department a copy of one of Bartlett’s sketches in case other witnesses should come forth. On the 4th Loren contacted The Real Paper in Cambridge. The newspaper interviewed Coleman as well as Bartlett, Baxter, and Dover Police Chief Carl Sheridan on the 7th.
It was on May 12 that the Framingham radio station WKOX, searching for local news stories, happened to call the Dover police station and thereupon was informed about the creature sightings.
WKOX/WCVF-FM aired the story the next day. On the 14th the Associated Press and the South Middlesex News (Framingham), having heard the WKOX report, also called Coleman for more information.
Finally, the first newspaper accounts appearedthe South Middlesex News and The Real Paper on the 15th and the Boston Globe, Boston Herald American, Patriot Ledger (Quincy), and other New England newspapers on the 16th. Local and national television picked up the story.
I actually was aware of the Dover affair on May 14. My informant, a Needham resident, only made brief mention of it, and I passed it off as a probable hoax. Three days later, however, my administrative assistant (at Boston’s Charles Hayden Planetarium) and a visitor (a witness in another UFO case) almost simultaneously brought my attention to the newspaper stories.
Since there appeared to be several observers of the creature and the sightings occurred as close as four (air) miles from my home in neighboring Westwood, I could hardly pass this one up. I visited the Dover police station on the evening of the 17th and obtained the addresses and telephone numbers of Bill Bartlett and Loren Coleman. When I called Loren, he suggested I join him and two other local UFO investigators in sort of a “pool coverage” operation.
The four of us represented five UFO/Fortean organizations, and we happened to be from four different towns surrounding Dover.
The team consisted of Coleman, who is consulting editor of INFO (International Fortean Society), an honorary member of SITU (Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained), and co-author of The Unidentified (Warner Books, 1975); Joseph Nyman of Medfield (MUFON/APRO); Ed Fogg of Foxboro (New England UFO Study Group); and myself (APRO).
Loren proved especially valuable to our joint effort not only because of his initial investigation into the Dover sightings but also because of his knowledge of and rapport with young people. He is a social worker at a school for emotionally disturbed boys.
Together, on May 21, we interrogated witnesses Baxter, Brabham, and Taintor as well as Baxter’s mother and Taintor’s parents (Bartlett was confined in a hospital with mononucleosis).
Afterward Loren led us to the three sites where the “demon” was alleged to have been seen. At these places we took photographs and measurements. On June 11 we finally questioned Bartlett and his parents.
Additional information concerning the youths’ reliability was obtained from the police, teachers, and the principal of the school. I concluded my own investigation on August 7, with interviews of Bartlett’s two companions (non-witnesses in his car at the time of his sightings) and with a telephone call to one of the teachers.
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