South Carolina: The Legend of Lizard Man

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While changing a tire near Scape Ore Swamp at 2 a.m. last June, Christopher Davis was set upon by a 7-ft.-tall scaly lizard with glowing red eyes. As Davis tells it, he jumped into his Toyota just as the creature's claws grabbed the door handle. Swerving left and right, the 17-year-old boy managed to shake the beast off. He shared his story with a few friends in nearby Bishopville. Then last month Mary Way reported that her Ford LTD was scratched and clawed near the swamp. Sheriff's deputies initially tied the two events together -- and Lizard Man was born.

The monster may be the biggest thing to hit Bishopville (pop. 3,500) since Hometown Boy Felix ("Doc") Blanchard left in the 1940s and became an All- American fullback at West Point. Hunters with shotguns combed the swamp, and a local radio station offered a million-dollar reward for the creature's capture. Fourteen-inch footprints appeared on a dusty road; Sheriff Liston Truesdale intends to send plaster casts to the FBI, eventually. He may also ask Davis to take a polygraph. But no one is in much of a hurry to solve this mystery. "I hope they never catch him," said Rhonda Knight as she hawked Lizard Man T shirts ($6.50 apiece).