Charles Wetzel, November 1958 Riverside, California sighting

[Daniel Perez]

Yesterday I finally went to see the widow of Charles Wetzel, the man who claimed a sighting of something Bigfoot like in November 1958 in Riverside, California, but more specifically, where the Santa Ana River used to flow over North Main Street. Now there is a bridge over the river. Charles Wetzel died in 2015, according to his widow. Does anyone have any newspaper articles on this matter??, as I have a recollection in the back of my mind the late SCOTT McCLEAN  provided me with some newspaper clips on the matter and that one of them showed the vehicle that was involved. So I looked at some of my older e-mails from Scott, hoping to find it but I only found two articles on the matter that he passed along but NO PHOTOS of the car. If any of you may have a clipping that shows the car I would certainly love to see it. Thanks.

 

Daniel Perez

perez952@sbcglobal.net

[Huntster]

I remember it as quite s bit different than a Bigfoot. He said that it was covered with scales like a lizard. Clawed the windshield of the car.

[NatFoot]

23 minutes ago, Huntster said:

I remember it as quite s bit different than a Bigfoot. He said that it was covered with scales like a lizard. Clawed the windshield of the car.

 

This is the problem with Bigfootery.

 

Merry Christmas to all!

[David NC]

http://strangeco.blogspot.com/2018/07/newspaper-clipping-of-day.html

 

Some of the recount of the newspaper article.

 

 

Wetzel, 24, a resident of nearby Bloomington, reported soberly that he was driving on a street near Riverside when a frightening creature jumped in front of his car. 

"It had a round, scarecrowish head," he said, "like something out of Halloween. 

"It wasn't human. It had a longer arm than anything I'd ever seen. When it saw me in the car it reached all the way back to the windshield and began clawing at me. 

"It didn't have any ears. The face was all round. The eyes were shining like something fluorescent and it had a protuberant mouth. It was scaley, like leaves." 

Wetzel said he became terrified when the creature reached over the hood of his car and began clawing at the windshield. He said he reached for a .22 pistol he had in the car. 

"I held that pistol and stomped on the gas," he said. "The thing fell back from the car and it gurgled. 

"The noise it made didn't sound human. I think I hit it. I heard something hit the pan under the car." 

[jsydor]

22 hours ago, Daniel Perez said:

Yesterday I finally went to see the widow of Charles Wetzel, the man who claimed a sighting of something Bigfoot like in November 1958 in Riverside, California, but more specifically, where the Santa Ana River used to flow over North Main Street. Now there is a bridge over the river. Charles Wetzel died in 2015, according to his widow. Does anyone have any newspaper articles on this matter??, as I have a recollection in the back of my mind the late SCOTT McCLEAN  provided me with some newspaper clips on the matter and that one of them showed the vehicle that was involved. So I looked at some of my older e-mails from Scott, hoping to find it but I only found two articles on the matter that he passed along but NO PHOTOS of the car. If any of you may have a clipping that shows the car I would certainly love to see it. Thanks.

 

Daniel Perez

perez952@sbcglobal.net

 

Why did you venture to a spot like Riverside to investigate someone from 60 years ago? Since this report, I cannot imagine there have been many more similar sightings. 

[Huntster]

30 minutes ago, jsydor said:

........Since this report, I cannot imagine there have been many more similar sightings. 

 

LOL........the location of that bridge in 1958 was essentially out in the desert. Today, it is a damned big city with more residents than everybody in the entire state of Alaska outside of Anchorage.

[RedHawk454]

Most cryptids are misidentified Sasquatch.  Think about the moth man.  People who claimed to see the moth man are likely seeing bigfoots jumping down from trees.  Think about how their arms could look like wings as they descend.  

 

Something scaly though?  I have no idea.

Edited December 26, 2018 by RedHawk454

[Patterson-Gimlin]

It was obviously Lizard man.

Must have traveled all the way from Mississippi. 

 

[Daniel Perez]

Much more to the story than what the press wrote about. Find more information in the Bigfoot Times for January 2019. www.bigfoottimes.net

 

[Redbone]

This has no SSR report and at the moment, I don't see why it should. Here is info from the John Green database.

Quote

Available description does not establish that this was a sasquatch.

 

 

[hiflier]

I first read about this incident in 1962. My parents gave me a copy of Abominable Snowmen: Legend Comes To Life (Ivan T. Sanderson). In the original book the report was on pg. 122 and said that the source was the Los Angeles Examiner article titled "MONSTROUS! Driver Tells of Thing that Clawed at his Car" Riverside Nov. 9, (UP).