Loup Carou

(Lou CA-roo)

Variations: Letiche ("carnivorous, aquatic humanoid")

In the Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana, United States, there is a bipedal, hairy, vampiric creature known as the loup carou (see HAIR). Said to stand over seven feet tall and thought to weigh in excess of 400 pounds, it smells of death and has piercing, sickly yellow eyes that are set wide apart on its head. The loup carou was once a child that was either lost in the swamp or abandoned there, but in either event was saved and rescued by a mother alligator that raised it as one of her own. The loup carou lives in an area that is only accessible by boat, but routinely finds its way to civilization where it feeds on humans and livestock.

Source: Dickinson, Haunted City, 184 ­87; Holyfield, Encounters, 10­15; Nickell, Mystery Chronicles, 165­75; Simpson, Loup Garou, 219­22; Summers, The Werewolf, 12