The Green Clawed Beast of the Ohio River, Dogtown, Indiana

Dogtown sits on the Indiana bank of the Ohio River, west of Evansville. Its formal name is Cypress, an unincorporated community in Union Township, Vanderburgh County. By 1891 the community and its saloon, the Dogtown Tavern, were both known as Dogtown. In the summer of 1955, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature were recent hits.

The most likely date is Sunday, August 14, 1955. Mrs. Darwin Johnson, 35, of 1304 Fountain in Evansville, went to the river with her friend Mrs. Chris Lamble. Later accounts name them Naomi Johnson and Louise Lamble. Johnson's three children came along. Her son watched from the shore.

The two women swam about 15 or 16 feet from shore, in waves created by a towboat and barges. Lamble held a black rubber inner tube. Then, as the Evansville Press told it, "suddenly something came up behind her and grabbed her left leg. She felt large claws and a furry palm gripping her knee."

She screamed. It pulled her under once. She kicked and fought. It pulled her under again.

She lunged for the inner tube. "I hit the innertube and made a loud, hollow thump," she said. "And whatever was around my leg loosened its grip." Later she added: "Whatever this thing was, it had a strong grip. And it was very furry."

On shore the women put alcohol on the scratches and blue marks. Later accounts describe finger-shaped bruises, a grip about ten inches wide and a green, palm-shaped stain below the knee that could not be removed for several days. One source has Johnson describing "blunt nails, almost claws." No photograph of the marks has surfaced. Johnson was clear: "All I know is that I will never go swimming in the river again."

On the night of August 21 to 22 came the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter in Kentucky. On August 23 a UP wire story reported that "An Evansville mother decided today that a something-or-other which grabbed her leg while swimming was 'one of those little green men from a space ship'". Johnson said: "I know it must have been one of those little green men." Both women also said they had seen a strange aircraft over the river minutes before the attack, and joked that it looked like a flying saucer. The first stories left that detail out, but Lamble insisted: "They can think I'm a maniac, but I saw the thing in the sky."

Then came the visitor. A man calling himself an Air Force colonel took extensive notes and admonished the couple to talk no further about the incident. A family friend's letter, cited in the Center for UFO Studies book by Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, says he "subtly implied that ridicule would result from too much printed exposure." His name and unit were never recorded.

No one has ever claimed or proved a hoax. Johnson and her family never wavered. Patrick Gross concluded: "Possible confusion, fish," pointing to the alligator gar. Others suggest a large catfish, an otter, driftwood or sharp river debris, or the pull of those monster films on the imagination. Jon Webb noted that the Kentucky creatures were not described as furry, which weakens the link.

The case sits in HUMCAT and in Albert Rosales's catalogue. Decades later Johnson's son spoke about it on Monsters and Mysteries in America. Radio sites, podcasts and blogs still call it the Green Clawed Beast.