Remembering the Beast of Bladenboro

February 26th, 2008 | webmaster | Beast of Bladenboro

By Jimmie F. Priest

How well do I remember the Bladenboro Beast? I lived on the Old Mill Village when the attacks started.

One Saturday morning, my friend, Eugene Butler and I skated from our house to my sisters house about six miles in the country. When we got back that Saturday evening, we heard about the beast that was killing dogs and goats at the New Mill Village. The next week we had TV reporters and newspaper reporters riding by our house and asking questions about the Beast.

We had some tree limbs cut from our tree in the front yard still on the ground. One night I was standing on the front porch and I heard something moving in the tree limbs that were on the ground. The first thing came to me was that it was the Beast! I went running into the house, almost breaking the door down trying to get in. Later, looking through the window, I saw our cat coming on the porch.

I remember they told us to stay inside the house at night. The Elm Theater (which is now Bladenboro Flower and Gift Shop), was playing a movie “The Cat” and it played for days!!

There was a picture of Mrs. Charles Kinlaw pointing to where she saw the Beast. It appeared in the U.S. News Magazine. I clipped it out and have it today.

When I went to Business School in Charlotte in 1954, the students heard that I was from Bladenboro. They begin asking questions about the Beast. They nicknamed me “The Beast of Bladenboro”.