Agile Giant Threatens Town at the End of Cape Cod

Agile Giant Threatens Town

at the End of Cape Cod

Source: Weekly Newspaper based in Provincetown, Massachusetts

It began on Commercial Street in Provincetown.  A huge Figure clad entirely in black, save for a yellow necktie, bounded over a picket fence and landed in front of a group of school children.  Looming menacingly over the frightened kids, it glared at them, growling savagely to reveal long white spikes of teeth.

Though it happened several times, the adults of the town did not get too concerned. It was after all, just a few weeks before Halloween.  Probably some teenager’s October prank, they thought.

But then Mary Costa saw it.  She was walking near town hall when from nowhere an impossibly tall and agile creature sprang over a nearby picket fence and landed upright some thirty feet beyond, directly in front of her.

She claimed that it was at least eight feet in height with long pointed ears and green, glowing eyes.  It growled gutturally at her and then disappeared in a flash by vaulting like an airplane over the fence from where it had come.

Soon reports began popping up all over town.  Charles Farley told the Provincetown Advocate that he had his rifle in hand when the thing accosted him.  Farley asserts that he put a bullet straight through the monster’s brain but it just laughed at him and disappeared in a flash. 

Another man told Provincetown Police that the Demon from the Dunes, all dressed in black except for a yellow necktie, sprang from the roof of a tavern and landed at his feet as he was walking home.  He said that he took a punch at the ’thing’ but it caught his fist and crushed his hand until the bones broke.

The radio networks and newspapers around the country picked up the story. By Halloween night, the whole nation was talking about the tiny land of Cape Cod and the Demon of the Dunes. 

The moon was full that night and the temperature was near 60 as young Louis Janard  got ready to take his little brother and sister out for Trick or Treat.  As soon as they left the house, the monster sprang at them.  Fourteen year old Louis turned tail and ran, leaving the children alone to face the beast.  But their brother soon returned.  He had not deserted them, but had gone in the house for a pot of boiling water which he hurled at the demon who bounded away screaming in pain and was never heard from again!

The dunes of Provincetown, a tiny Cape Cod village 64 miles by land, off the coast of Massachusetts

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(Source: 1939 documents from The Provincetown Advocate and other publications. Adapted by Bill Russo)