Broward Palm Beach Blog

star-telegram.com

A blood-chilling... boulder?

​Near the city of Fort Worth, Texas, there's a Lake Worth -- a city that's next to an actual lake, not a lagoon like Florida's Lake Worth. And according to the Star-Telegram, this summer marks an anniversary of a ghoulish sighting that has earned a place in local legend.

The Lake Worth Monster -- aka Goat-Man -- hasn't been seen regularly at the Fort Worth Nature Center since a very memorable summer 40 years ago when all of Texas seemed to buzz with the news that a hairy, scaly 7-foot man-goat-beast was terrorizing the good citizens of Tarrant County.

As you can see, that's the lamest photo of a monster in monster-sighting history. After the jump, let's round up a few suspects and see if anyone in Lake Worth, Florida, has Goat-Man potential.

From Sports Illustrated for Kids

Gheorghe Muresan

​The hardest part of the description to pin down -- besides the "scaly" part -- is the height. There just aren't that many 7-footers, much less those with the aspect of a goat-beast. Although, Gheorghe Muresan, former center for the Washington Bullets, springs to mind. As you can see (click pic to enlarge), he wears a goatee, which is mighty suspicious. But he's actually 7-foot-7 and was born in 1971 -- two years after the sighting. In Romania. All of which could be an X-Files government cover-up, but a real Goat-Beast would have made a more dominant NBA player. Scratch him from the list.

Of course, there's also Goat Boy, a brief sensation on Saturday Night Live. But the actor who played him (perhaps too convincingly?) was Jim Breuer, who is barely half of seven feet. Possibly, he's the aptly named offspring of Goat-Man, but let's rule him out as the original.

Not sure where else to look for this creature. As for our own Lake Worth, the closest known resident to meet the height requirement is retired Houston Rockets forward Otis Thorpe, who stands about 6-foot-10 and who, according to his bio, enjoys swimming and fishing. Which means that even if he isn't hairy, scaly or goat-looking, a drunkard who spots Thorpe thrashing about in the water might get a monster story out of it.