If theres a pinch of a National Enquirer type of element involved in a story about our area, Im all over that like most of us on a Bobes Pizza. When I started checking into the tales of the Red Devil I was hooked. It started in early 1931 in Daviess County Indiana outside of Washington. A truck driver reported that a creature with the head of a donkey and horns like the devil had jumped on his front bumper. The creature supposedly looked in at the truck driver and told him. You are in the Valley of Death. When the trucker began to question the Red Devil it jumped onto a telephone, climbed to the wires. and disappeared into a sea of flames. This tale was being told at every bar, every coffee shop, and at every kitchen table in the area. It was the talk of the town. The story was getting bigger and better every time it was told. A few weeks later the driver of a Ford Touring car reportedly ran over a large sign board in an effort to escape from the Red Devil. The newspapers were having a field day with the story much to the dismay of the areas more rational citizens. It was reported in the paper in mid March that the Red Devil had jumped onto the running board of a moving bus east of Washington. The paper described the creature as looking hornier and more ferocious than ever, thats a direct quote. The menacing creature started going into its Valley of Death diatribe once again. The driver was reportedly in no mood for a sermon. He pulled a hand gun and shot the Devil. It rolled off the bus into the weeds and into oblivion. It seems like all good things must come to an end. A few weeks later a large monkey that had escaped from a traveling circus was captured in the exact area of the Red Devil sightings. It turned out the creature seen actually wasnt red with horns but brown with ears. The strange threatening utterings turned out to be the happy chatter of a monkey out on the spree of his life. Many people were disappointed in how the mystery was solved but the disappointment was short lived. A few weeks later strange ghost sightings were reported in the Fire Department Headquarters downtown, there was something new to talk about
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 02:46:07 +0000