(Originally published in Fringe! They Come From Below)

A dark, stormy night, a long road, and a monster—sounds like the makings of a scary story, but for Charles Wetzel, the horror he experienced on November 8, 1958, was all too real. Wetzel had been on the way to his California home on his regular route, which took him down a road parallel to the Santa Anna River. Once he neared the bridge, what had been a typical trip took a dark turn.

His car engine began to sputter, and the radio, which had been working fine until that moment, went to static. As he stalled to a stop, something came into view out of the rain and darkness. His headlights illuminated a nightmarish figure. The thing's long arms and legs stuck out from its body at odd angles.

Its skin was scaly, leaf-like, he would later say, and the eyes glowed like the eyes of a predator at night. Wetzel could not see any ears, but what he could make out clearly was the strange, protruding mouth—so out of place on the creature's oddly round head.

*Artist rendering, found in* *Weird California*

As Charles watched in terror, the creature advanced on his car and attempted to reach through the windshield at him. That long, vaguely human arm pressed against the glass, and he knew he had to do something. He quickly took a pistol out of his glove box and took aim at the monster.

However, his finger stilled on the trigger. If he shot it now, the glass would shatter, and if the thing didn't die, he wouldn't have any barrier between them. Instead, he tried the engine, and miraculously, the car came to life. Wetzel floored it. He struck the creature, ran over it, and sped off to safety.

Later, a shaken Charles Wetzel shared this account with officers at the closest police department. While he conceded the story sounded like something out of a drunken nightmare, the long claw marks on the side of his car where the monster, which would later be dubbed the "Brain Tickler of Riverside," took a swipe at him were very real.

Other than an oily residue on the underside of Wetzel's car and one blink-and-you'll-miss-it sighting the very next night on the same stretch of road, that was all there was of the Riverside monster. However, was the sighting an isolated incident or something more? Was it perhaps just another piece of a much larger and older puzzle? Could the Brain Tickler of Riverside have a connection with subterranean, reptilian-like creatures that supposedly lurk in the caves under California?

Around fifty miles away from both Santa Anna and Riverside sits Fort Moore Hill in LA. Once a sprawling defense point that played an important part in the 1846 Seige of Los Angeles, it is now reduced to a single monument wall commonly referred to as just Fort Hill. While it has faded in importance with time and memory, it still stands as a marker for one of the strangest expeditions in history.

A man named George Shufelt claimed that under Fort Hill and all along Los Angeles was an elaborate series of tunnels made by an ancient race of people who worshiped and revered reptiles. While this claim seemed outlandish, something you might hear in a smokey bar after too many shots of whiskey, he followed it up with proof. He produced a sheepskin map that seemed to outline a tunnel system in the vague shape of a lizard. Shufelt also stated that this lost group of people were known to the Hopi tribe, and he had a source within that Native American group. A man he called Cheif Green Leaf.

Shufelt, armed with his map and native knowledge, went to the city council and showed them his radio gold-finding machine. He explained that this device, of his own creation, could guide him and a work crew into the tunnels and the riches they housed. Shufelt would go on to describe these long-lost lizard worshipers as hyper-intelligent, with their children as smart as grown men.

*Shuflet’s Map, as found in* *Las Angeles Magazine*

He pitched that what they would find would not only be archeologically amazing but also filled with treasures. The city and the press were enthralled. George Shufelt was given permission to dig and men to help him locate this underground city filled with gold.

Shufelt's machine had led him to several spots along Fort Hill, but the digging began behind an old decaying mansion. On March 3, 1933, a long shaft was dug, and the gold-finding machine was taken down into it. Onlookers and workers waited for the signal that the treasure was found. No signal ever came. There were no tunnels, no great city, no gold.

Had George Shufelt been wrong, or was something else going on? It turns out Shufelt had been here before. Only, that time, it hadn't been long-buried gold from an ancient civilization but Spanish conquistadors. A few years prior to the March 3rd debacle, Shufelt had once again been in the papers with another map that claimed to show the location of hidden Spanish treasure. He hadn't found anything then either.

It was all bullshit.

Old George may not have found any lizard Eldorado, but he did create something much more valuable—an idea. This idea has been mined for decades afterward and incorporated into some of the most out-there conspiracy theories. You can find threads of it throughout David Ike's works on reptilian bloodlines. There are echoes even in repressed memory sessions with alien abductees.

What he did was tap into a shared fear we humans have—a primordial, instinctual fear of something lurking beneath us—that there is a dangerous otherness just under our feet. This ancient fear is played out time and time again in not just media but religion as well, the world over.

Where do the devils crawl up from?

Where do the monsters live?

While no hidden caves in California have been found with brain ticklers, there are well-known caves in Vietnam that do seem to hide a secret. The Son Doong cave system draws in thousands of tourists a year despite only being open for guided tours through a single company. Located deep in Quang Binh province, Son Doong is the largest cave on earth. Housing a massive river and a unique subterranean ecosystem, it has delighted and amazed tourists for years.

But what if they go off the guided path and look a little deeper into the dark?

A photo surfaced online sometime in 2013. It was stated to have been taken by a tourist who had wandered off. The photo appeared to show a humanoid figure in the dark. It stood tall and leaned around the corner of a tunnel so that only part of its body was visible. Once brightness and other enhancements are done, the figure is striking. It had sharp teeth, a distinctly snake-like face, and a clawed hand that showed evidence of scales.

*Enhancement of the photo circulated online*

The people of Vietnam have told stories about these lizard men for generations.

Reports circulated for years about a detachment of US soldiers who ran into a group of these creatures on the Ho Chi Mihn trail while serving in the Vietnam War. While on reconnaissance for enemy troop movements or in relation to an issue with supply (the specifics change in several retellings), the squad encountered these beings.

They attacked, armed with sticks, clubs, and razor-sharp claws. Two of the soldiers were killed, their upper bodies torn open, gutted. The hides of the creatures were resistant to small arms fire, bullets ricocheted off, like the skin of a crocodile. When they were finally able to down one, the others seemed to blend into the jungle and disappear. Ho Chi Mihn trail is only three hours away from a known entrance to Son Doong caves.

A variation of this encounter has circulated online for years. Whenever it is brought up, comments are often filled with people who had some story to share. Often, it was secondhand: a family member who had served in the war mentioned a strange encounter like this reptilian attack. Whether being involved personally or overheard as a family rumor and retold, these accounts continue to add up.

There are some connections throughout world religions as well, all pointing to a very different race underneath us. In Christian mythology, there is the serpent in the garden that once walked like a man. The creature then tempted humanity and was cursed to crawl along its belly and eat the dirt of the ground. This could mean that it was stripped of its legs and made like the snakes we know today, but there is another way to look at it. To eat the dust of the ground could mean to banish them to the underground. This warning of danger under our feet continues with the depictions of hell, always under us and filled with monsters.

The ancient Greeks had myths of hideous, half-snake creatures such as the mother of monsters, Echidna. Depicted as having the upper half of a woman and the lower body of a snake, the creature resided far in a cave. Her depiction would later be echoed in the tale of Lamia; a woman turned into a snake-like creature as divine punishment for a tragic crime.

In Hindu legend are the Naga, divine beings that take a form that alternates between humanoid cobras and full serpents. These beings were said to live alongside humanity and offer them guidance at times, horrible curses on others. They resided in a spiritual underworld, said to be accessed through a series of underwater caves.

All across the globe, in myths and legends, in holy texts, and in popular media, there is a warning. A warning that one day we may encounter those that lurk beneath us, that hell may well open up and spill her devils into the light of day.

Will we know it when it happens, or are they already among us?

Sources

[Cryptid wiki (The Riverside Monster, The Devil of Son Doong Cave); Various anonymous sources.]

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