The Beast of Bladenboro: The ‘Vampire Beast’ That Terrified a North Carolina Town

A bobcat resting on a fallen log, looking directly at the camera — the animal most often proposed as the real explanation for the Beast of Bladenboro, not the beast itself

About 6 min readIn the winter of 1953–54, something began killing dogs in Bladenboro, North Carolina — crushing them and leaving them bloodless. Hundreds of armed hunters descended on the town, the mayor declared the beast shot, and the question of what it really was has never been settled.