[*] The Dover Demon is a famous cryptid that has been spotted in and around Dover, Massachusetts.

[*] The demon is described as a grey or white creature having very large, glowing eyes and abnormally long “tendril like” fingers. It can walk on two feet but it prefers to run on all fours.

[*] For the cryptid being so popular, the town of Dover is actually very small with a population of about 7,000 people.

[*] The first sighting of the Dover Demon was in 1977. Dover residents William Bartlett John Baxter separately reported seeing a creature with glowing eyes and long fingers. The next night, Abby Brabham saw the beast on a different road in town. The locations of the three sightings form a straight line.

[*] William, John, and Abby drew similar sketches of the creature they saw. On his sketch William wrote, “”I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature.”

Here is William’s sketch:

[*] Here is William Bartlett’s full story of the occurence:

“The bizarre tale begins at 10:32 p.m. on April 21 as three 17-year-olds, Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzocca and Andy Brodie, are driving north on Farm Street. Bartlett, who’s behind the wheel of a Volkswagen, spots something creeping along a low wall of loose stones on the left side of the road. At first he thinks the image is a dog or a cat until his headlights shine on it and he realizes it’s nothing he’s ever seen before. The figure slowly turns its head and stares into the light, its two large, round, glassy, lidless eyes shining brightly “like two orange marbles.” Its watermelon-shaped head, resting at the top of a thin neck, is the size of the rest of its body. Except for its over sized head, the creature is thin, with long spindly arms and legs, and large hands and feet. The skin is hairless and peach-colored and appears to have a rough texture. “Like wet sandpaper,” Bartlett subsequently tells cryptozoologist Loren Coleman. Standing no more than 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall, the figure is shaped like “a baby’s body with long arms and legs.” It had been making its way along the wall, its long fingers curling around the rocks, when the car lights surprised it. Unfortunately, neither of Bartlett’s companions sees the creature. The sighting lasts only a few seconds and, before Bartlett can speak, the car leaves the scene. Then the creature is gone. Bartlett drops his friends off and goes to his Walpole Street home. Visibly upset, he walks through the door and his father asks him what’s wrong. Bartlett relates the story and later sketches what he’s seen.”

[*] Here is John Baxter’s account:

“Around midnight, 15-year-old John Baxter leaves his girlfriend Cathy Cronin’s house at the south end of Miller High Road. Then, Baxter starts walking up the street on his way home. Half an hour later, after he has walked about a mile, he observes someone approaching him. Because the figure is short, Baxter assumes it’s an acquaintance of his, M.G. Bouchard, who lives on the street. John calls out and no response. Baxter and the figure continue to approach each other until finally the latter stops. Baxter then halts as well and asks, “Who is that?” The sky is dark and overcast and he can only see a shadowy form. Trying to get a better look, Baxter takes one step forward and the figure scurries off to the left, running down a shallow wooded gully and up the opposite bank. As the figure runs, Baxter hears its footsteps on the dry leaves. He follows the figure down the slope, then stops and looks across the gully. There, he sees the creature, standing in silhouette about 30 feet away, its feet “molded” around the top of a rock several feet from a tree. The creature’s body reminds Baxter of a monkey’s, except for its dark “figure-eight”-shaped head. Its eyes, two lighter spots in the middle of the head, are looking straight at Baxter, who after a few minutes begins to feel uneasy. Realizing he has never seen such a creature before and fearing what it might do next, he backs carefully up the slope, his heart pounding. He then “walks very fast” down the road to the intersection at Farm Street. There, a couple passing in a car pick him up and drive him home.”

[*] Here is John Baxter’s sketch of the creature he saw. Notice how similar the two sketches are.

[*] Here is Abby Brabham’s account of seeing the Dover Demon:

“The next night, Abby Brabham, 15, was being driven home by Will Taintor, 18, when she spotted something in the road. Brabham, too, described a strange creature with a large, ovoid head, and long, spindly limbs; she said that the being was missing all facial features except for its eyes, which were round and glowed bright green–a color which she steadfastly insisted on to investigators, despite its idiosyncrasy. Taintor caught only a fleeting glimpse of the creature, and said he saw something with a large head and tan body crouched in the road.”

[*] Some people think the Dover Demon could be a Mannegishi, an animal in Ojibwa lore. Mannegishi are a small, gangly race of trickster half-humans.

[*] The Dover Demon was featured on an episode of Cryptid Case Files covers the Dover Demon:

[*] There was a slight hysteria about the Dover Demon after the original sightings, but modern sightings aren’t common.