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Demon Leaper
Demon Leaper
An artist's depiction
Background
Type Cryptid
Continent North America
Country United States
One-Time? No
Theories  · Cryptid
 · Demonic entity

The Demon Leaper was a winged cryptid reportedly sighted repeatedly in Louisville, Kentucky, on the roof of the gothic Walnut Street Baptist Church. There are many winged monsters. There are vampires, gargoyles and one you may have never heard of, Kentucky's own Demon Leaper. In the early 1900s the nation got a taste of this Kentucky Legend as it made its way into the New York Times. Here in Kentucky Historian and Author David Dominé explained, "People looking up to the Spires for a number of generations now have reported sightings of a strange gargoyle like creature." A gargoyle like creature, one of the most bizarre stories the Bluegrass has to offer. "Some people thought it was one of the Gargoyles on the spires that came to life," explained Dominé. Gargoyles perched on the side of the Victorian gothic Walnut Street Baptist Church built around 1902 seemed to peer over the sidewalks keeping watch over the parishioners and the neighborhood. The Demon Leaper seems to have attributes much like these same gargoyles perched along the churches roof top.

It's a bat like creature with leathery skin, wings and claws and talons and it's been seen to hop along the roof," Dominé creatively described. The creature was often seen on the roof top of Walnut Street Baptist Church but its wings gave it the ability to travel, to fly. It's been seen on other structures roof tops as well. They call it the Demon Leaper. It's perhaps our most famous legend in Old Louisville, Dominé stressed. Louisville's Demon Leaper was famous enough that on Sept. 12, 1880, the accounts of the creature made its way into the headlines of the New York Times. "An Aerial Mystery," it read. The Courier Journal and the Madisonville Times also kept tracked of the wing creature.

Appearance[]

Kentucky Author David Dominé told Wave 3 News, "It’s a bat-like creature with leathery skin, wings and claws and talons". The Courier Journal reported that people downtown were terrorized by what they called an agile monkey. Some people say he was wearing a kind of shiny suit. Other people say it was his skin that was shining. A lot of people refer to him as Kentucky's Moth Man," Dominé further explained.

The so-called Moth Man was first sighted in West Virginia 1966. He was described as a man with wings. The eerie figure was close to seven feet tall with bright fiery eyes. For some, sightings of the Moth Man coincide with reports of disaster or strange events. Kentucky's winged creature seems to bring fear wherever he appeared, but no doom or disaster.

Dominé smiled as he explained, "For the most part he's pretty harmless from what I can tell. He's never really hurt anyone. He would poke people and scratch people." Tales of strange winged creatures in this part of the country go back to Native American Legend and possibly half way around the world.

"This ties into something across the pond in Great Britain that was known as Spring Hill Jack. It was a capped figure. People didn't know if it was a man or a best that would terrorize people in London. When he started to fade out in London all of the sudden we started getting reports of him in the United States," Dominé said. In London he first appeared in 1837 but years later a similar winged creature appeared in Old Louisville. If you love Kentucky's Monsters, Myths and Legends you might want to put this on your calendar, in the fall you are invited to the 10th Annual Victorian Ghost Walk in Old Louisville - on October 17, 18, & 19 with groups departing every 15 minutes from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $25 and are available from the Old Louisville Information Center in Central Park (502) 635-5244.

Every night, year round, at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Louisville Information Center in Central Park, the public is invited to join "America's Most Haunted Neighborhood" walking tours. The tours last 90 minutes and cost $20 per person. For more information on the tours, click here. You can also check out America's Most Haunted Neighborhood on facebook by clicking here.

Possible Explanations[]

There are several explanations as to what the creature could be. Theories include:

  • An undiscovered species (a Cryptid)
  • A demonic entity

Trivia[]

  • The creature is also seen on neighboring roofs.
v · e · d
Cryptids
North American Cryptids
Airborne Frogman · Batsquatch · Beast of Bray Road · Belled Buzzards · Bigfoot · Black Demon · Black Star Penguins · Blue Birdman · Boston Lemur · Buena Vista Giant Spider · Campfire Creature · Carmel Creature · Champ · Charles Mill Lake Monster · Chupacabra · Coonigator · Copenhagen Devil · Crawfordsville Monster · Crocodingo · Deer Man · Demon Leaper · Deridder Roadkill · Dos Palmas Winged Snake · Dublin Lake Monsters · East River Monster · El Verde Creature · Enfield Horror · Flannel Shirt Sasquatch · Flying Horse of Mexico · Flying Horse of Virginia · Flying Rays · Giant Penguin · Giant Shrimp in the Laundry Room · Gow-Row · Green Clawed Beast · Green Eyes · Grunch Road Monster · Herring Cove Sea Serpent · Highway Beast · Jackson Dragon · Killer Cactus · Kinderhook Blob · Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp · Lusca · Manor Road Pig-Dog · Mantis Man · Melrose Creep · Metepec Creature · Michigan Dogman · Montauk Monster · Moss Man · Mothman · Mountain Boomers · Mud Mermaids · Mutant Canine · Nightcrawler · Octoman · Oil Pit Squid · Oklahoma Octopus · Panama Creature · Pennsylvanian Albino Bigfoot · Red Devil-Bat of Chester · Ripley Ostrich-Horse · River Lizards · Riverside Monster · Rochester Rat-Dog · Sewer Blob · Sheepsquatch · Skunk Ape · Snallygaster · Sugar Bundle · Sun Birds · Swift Peter · Texas Big Bird · Texas Stiltwalkers · The Awful · Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit · Tumor Seal · Whatzit · Wood Devils
South American Cryptids
Arica Monster · Atlantic Ocean Winged Abomination · Beast of Macachín Airport · Brazilian Werewolf · Calama Creature · El Cuero · Gargantuan Globulous · Huallepen · Kap-Dwa · Manta Man · Mapinguari · Minhocão · Parana Creature · Sawtooth Dolphin · Telepathic Football
Asian Cryptids
Ahool · Buru · Con Rit · Ebu Gogo · Gilled Antelope · Inflatable Hedgehog · Iranian Toothed Bird · Jodhpur Baby · Kting Voar · Maltese Tiger · Man Dragon · Masbate Monster · Rock Apes · Sakhalin Island Sea Wolf · Sukotyro · Wuhnan Toads
European Cryptids
Awd Goggie · Beast of Bosnia · Beast of Bodmin Moor · Beast Of Tenby · Black Bird of Chernobyl · Boneless · Canvey Island Monster · Catalonia Fallen Angel · Chudinov Organisms · Crimean War Monstrosities · Flying Worm of Prague · Freiburg Shrieker · Gnome of Girona · Grampus · Grass Monster · Grecian Dolphin · Highway Humanoid · Hollingworth Lake Monster · Kovahsi Creature · Loch Ness Monster · Octosquatch · Owlman · Pennine Pterodactyl · River Thames Monster · Sea Monk · Sewer Humanoid · Shug Monkey · Singing Spiders of Paris · Sussex Serpent · Vampire Caterpillar · Wolfie · 1856 French Pterodactyl
African Cryptids
Ambize · Dingonek · Emela-ntouka · Ennedi Tiger · J'ba Fofi · Kongamato · Manatee of Helena · Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu · Mokele-Mbembe · Mutant Muppet · Ngoubou · Spiny-backed Chimpanzee · Trunko
Australian Cryptids
Burrunjor · Elephantman · Hairy Lizard · Hook Island Sea Monster · Kabagon · Landsborough Gangle · Moha Moha · Pukehina Predator · Queensland Tiger · Tusked Yowie
Miscellaneous Cryptids
Antarctic Godzilla · Bermuda Beast · Ningen · Qupqugiaq · Rhinoceros Dolphin · Sky Jellyfish · Sky Serpents
v · e · d
North America
North American Cryptids
Airborne Frogman · Batsquatch · Beast of Bladenboro · Beast of Bray Road · Belled Buzzards · Bigfoot · Black Demon · Black Star Penguins · Blue Birdman · Boston Lemur · Buena Vista Giant Spider · Campfire Creature · Carmel Creature · Charles Mill Lake Monster · Chupacabra · Coonigator · Crawfordsville Monster · Crocodingo · Deer Man · Demon Leaper · Deridder Roadkill · Dos Palmas Winged Snake · Dublin Lake Monsters · East River Monster · El Verde Creature · Enfield Horror · Farmer City Monster · Flannel Shirt Sasquatch · Flying Horse of Mexico · Flying Horse of Virginia · Flying Rays · Giant Penguin · Giant Shrimp in the Laundry Room · Gow-Row · Grampus · Green Clawed Beast · Green Eyes · Grunch Road Monster · Herrington Lake Monster · Herring Cove Sea Serpent · Highway Beast · Jackson Dragon · Killer Cactus · Kinderhook Blob · Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp · Manor Road Pig-Dog · Man in the Plastic Bag · Mantis Man · Melrose Creep · Metepec Creature · Michigan Dogman · Montauk Monster · Moss Man · Mothman · Mountain Boomers · Mud Mermaids · Mutant Canine · Nightcrawler · Octoman · Ogopogo · Oil Pit Squid · Oklahoma Octopus · Panama Creature · Pennsylvanian Albino Bigfoot · Red Devil-Bat of Chester · Riverside Monster · Rochester Rat-Dog · Sewer Blob · Sheepsquatch · Snallygaster · Sugar Bundle · Sun Birds · Swift Peter · Texas Big Bird · The Awful · Thetis Lake Monster · Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit · Tumor Seal · Werewolf of Defiance · Whatzit · Wood Devils
North American Alien Sightings
Aliens in Aisle Five · Ausso One · California Fetus · Crazy Critter of Bald Mountain · Crescent · Cycloptic Aliens of Harrah · Dade City Flowers · Falkville Metal Man · Farmersville Green Man · Flatwoods Monster · Gaffney Aliens · Garson Invaders · Georgia Stalks · Gliders · Hopkinsville Goblins · Long Prairie Cans · Medford Shmoos · Newport Stumps · Nuevo Laredo Alien · Old Saybrook Blockheads · Pancake Bakers from Space · Pascagoula Creature · Prospect Monoliths · Ririe Carjackers · Sorrento Crawler · Space Brains of Palos Verdes · Space Penguins of Tuscumbia · Syracuse Giant Insects · The Purple Glob · Tripod Creature · Van Meter Visitor · Veggieman
North American UFO Sightings
4th of July UFO · Butterfly UFO · Lubbock Lights · Warren UFO
North American Hauntings
Annabelle the Doll · Arlington Attic Ghost · Avon Haunted Bridge · Bassett Ghost Cars · Bell Witch · Blue Albino Woman · Bobby Mackey's Music World · Boy Scout Lane · Demon's Road · Demon Cat · Demon of Brownsville Road · Devil Baby of Hull House · Eunice Welsh's Mausoleum · Faceless Figure of Dead Man's Curve · Fantasma Colorado · Ghost Bus of Highway 93 · Ghost Cow · Ghost Deer · Ghost Mammoth · Ghost Moose · Ghost Wolf · Ghosts of Disney · Ghosts of the Charles Haskell · Graceland Cemetery · Grant Park · Green Lady of Wahiawa · La Belle Cemetery · Mandy the Doll · Moody's Light · Old Man Weary · Old Woman in the Crawlspace · Purple Bubble · Purple Head Bridge · Ring of Children and the Banshee · Robert the Doll · Seaweed Charlie · Stiffy Green · Tall, Dark, & Gruesome · Tanaka the Drowned Ghost · Vincent Hitchcock the Doll · Waverly Hills Sanatorium · Wyoming Woman in Black
North American Phenomena
Black Aggie · Black Mist of Casa Grande Mountain · Bleeding House on Fountain Drive · Blinking Crucifix · Carnivorous Pink Cloud · Coke Mystery Vending Machine · Cursed Grave of Carl Pruitt · Dancing Underpants · Death Valley Sailing Stones · Face in the Courthouse Window · Flying Mist Mattress · Fountain Cloud · Handprint of the Carbon County Jail · Handprint of the Chicago Firehouse · John Lawson Mannequins · Kokomo Hum · Michigan Blue Hell · Moodus Noises · Polybius · Smiling Stones · St. Louis Light · Swirling Basement Thing · Taos Hum · The Black Angel
North American Beings
Axeman Of New Orléans · Bandage Man · Bunny Man · Black Flash · Butterfly People of Joplin · Cloak Man of Clifton Heights · Danbury Frog People · Dark Baby · Donkey Lady · Grinning Man · Harlequin · Houston Batman · Invisible Man of Palmetto · Mad Gasser of Mattoon · Maryland Goatman · Mauston Birdman · Melonheads · Mercy Brown Vampire · Mexican Being of Light · Muppet Clown · NASA Gargoyle · New England Faceless People · Northfield Pigman · Ohio Bridge Trolls · Pedro the Pygmy · Phantom Barber · Phantom Clowns · Phantom Sniper of Camden · Phantom Whistler of Louisiana · Pig Lady · Pope Lick Monster · Porterville Gnome · Richmond Vampire · Santa Lucias Dark Watchers · The Smiley Face Killer · Stroudsburg Rain Man · Subway Man · The Green Man · Third Eye Man · Toronto Tunnel Monster · Toxic Lady
North American Events
Battle of Los Angeles · Beaumont Blackout · Disappearance of David Lang · Disappearance of Glen and Bessie Hyde · Disappearance of Oliver Lerch · Massacre of Doc Johnson · Max Headroom Broadcast · Philadelphia Experiment
North American Locations
Anjikuni Village · Bennington Triangle · Bermuda Triangle · Blood Bowl · Bremen Troll Bridge · Bridgewater Triangle · Clown Motel · Devil's Gate Reservoir · Devil's Kettle · Devil's Tramping Ground · Disney's River Country · Doveland, Wisconsin · Helltown · House of Blue Lights · Island of the Dolls · Langville, Montana · Shirtwood Forest · Spider Gates · Stairway to Hell · Urkhammer, Iowa · Zone of Silence
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