A podcast featuring an interview with Brandy Snyder and her experiences with Dogmen or werewolves in Brooklyn, Illinois. Transcript with light editing below.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
This is Dr. Michael Lorenzen, Western Illinois University Special Collections and Archives. And today is the 17th of October. And with me today is…
[Bruce Ackers]
Bruce Ackers from the Archives, assisting Dr. Lorenzen.
[Brandy Snyder]
Brandy Snyder, age 34. This is the property I live on.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Okay, and just go ahead and tell me what you’ve been experiencing out here in Brooklyn, Illinois.
[Brandy Snyder]
Okay, well, I guess it all started from the pictures that we’ve got of this day in May of 2020. But I believe it started before then. We were noticing, like, just weird sounds at first.
It started out as whistling from one side of our trailer to the back of our trailer to the other side of our trailer. And it was almost like one whistle and then there was another whistle. But all of them were different.
And that’s how it started. And then one night we were sitting watching TV and there was a big bang on the trailer to where it shook the trailer. And we all jumped up and ran out.
And then I seen something drop down on all four and run towards our woods, which is at the back of our trailer. And that’s what kind of got me a little intrigued on what was going on. It made me wonder, like, what the hell was that?
Then there was a night, like two nights later, I had come over here to Russ’ camper. And, of course, it’s like 20 feet from my door, obviously. And we had stepped outside his door and off back over here, I want to say maybe not even 100 yards from us, there was one leaning, something leaning against the tree with its claws out like a human hand.
But you could literally see like the nails. And then it was all muscle bound, black, furry. And all I could see were like orange-ish color eyes.
And it looked like there was pointed ears on it. And it had like the form of a human, like it was standing up like a human. But it had to be at least eight to nine feet tall.
I have never seen a human that big in my life. He runs in to grab a flashlight. And by the time he ran in to get a flashlight and come back out, it had moved.
We didn’t know where it went, but we went down looking and trying to find whatever it was. And that’s what got me intrigued on trying to figure out what it is that we have out here. But ever since then, we’ve been having, like, weird incidences.
Like the last time we had a podcast come out, because we had thrown out a couch. Because we got a new one. It was just sitting out here.
And the arms on the couch were all shredded. None of our dogs are strong enough to shred it within a couple hours, literally. And they weren’t shredded before we tossed it out.
And then we come out and inspect more. And the cushions that were on the couch, there was one in our ditch by the mailbox. There was one across the street at the neighbor’s yard.
But there was also one that had been shredded going around our deck for where the pool is. Going back into the woods and even further back into the woods. The rest of the cushion was shredded.
None of my dogs go in the woods. Excuse me, none of my dogs go in the woods. So I honestly, I was like, I don’t know what else to think of.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Could have been a raccoon?
[Brandy Snyder]
No. Not after it rained. The cushions would have been too heavy for the raccoon to drag like that and shred.
But I couldn’t explain it. I really couldn’t. But there’s been several times, we’ve had several different instances.
We had a bonfire one night and we had a bunch of people out here. And I was sitting in a chair right here. We had heard some noises coming from the other trailer that’s down here.
It’s like a storage trailer. So everybody takes off and goes with machetes and lights and all that kind of stuff going down that way trying to figure out what it is. I stayed up here.
I’m like, I’m not chasing these things. They’re not bothering us. We had a little bonfire going.
I was sitting up here and if you look back here by the end of Russ’ camper, there’s a pool. But it was up a little bit to like half shape. And back then the grass was at least, I want to say like two or three feet tall.
And you can hear them moving around in the grass because we hadn’t mowed it down. And while they were out there, I was sitting up here and there was one literally playing peekaboo with me. Every time I turned around, it dug down.
And then I turned back around. Nothing, nothing. Then I’d hear it moving again and I’d turn around and it’d drop back down.
It was kind of scary, but at the same time they weren’t messing with nobody. They were just like observing. It was, I don’t know.
It was just kind of creepy. And then I hollered for everybody to get their butts back up here because I was not liking being alone. But like last night, for instance, I had taken my son to the emergency room because he had a spider bite and it was all icky.
But we came home at like six o’clock this morning, I think it was. And when I pulled in, my headlights shined back here, straight back. And there were four sets of eyes.
And it was like a pyramid. There was one that was extremely tall and then it kind of went down. And the smallest one, I would say maybe a foot off the ground.
But all you could see were the eyes. And it was dark back there when there’s no lights whatsoever back there. So the only light shining is the one for my headlights.
Well, I got creeped out. Everybody else got creeped out and ran inside. And later on that night, my son went and got in the shower.
And I didn’t hear it, but he heard it. It sounded like somebody scraping against the trailer. Well, come to find out, there’s the markings that weren’t there yesterday.
Because I come out every day and check because we’ve had so many incidents. And then Mom, when she was here, there were times that she was wondering if somebody was trying to get in her window. Because she would hear the scraping on the screen.
She would hear the banging against the trailer at night. And finally it got to where she wouldn’t even sleep in her room because it was getting too creepy for her. And she was afraid something was going to reach through the window and grab her.
But I can’t explain it. But from what I’ve seen, it’s kind of creepy, but they haven’t hurt nobody. Richard told me that I need to keep the dogs in at night.
But I got to let them out to use the bathroom. So they haven’t messed with the dogs either. Which I don’t understand.
Because if you look on the video on YouTube, you can see where when the dogs mess with them, the wolf retaliates. And I honestly believe that’s what they are, wolves. Well, I guess that’s what Richard would call them as dogmen.
But another gentleman that was staying here, we had had the bathroom window open several times. And he’s actually seen a face in the window in the bathroom as he was getting out of the shower and stuff. And then also he had stepped out the door and seen one drop down on all four and take off.
Which I’ve seen that several times too. But to explain it, it’s a lot harder if you don’t understand what’s going on, if you don’t see it for yourself. And then there’s nights we’ve had bonfires.
And Richard’s been out here, we did infrared and got a few pictures. But we haven’t actually gotten nothing clear, broad daylight to where it’s visible. You can actually see what it is.
And I think that’s the only problem that we’re having is trying to actually get a decent picture of it. A lot of the pictures that we have are from distance. But other than that, I don’t know what else to explain.
It’s just different. And being out here, and of course we don’t have very much traffic really at night. So nothing really spooks it.
But there were… My friend’s son that used to live across the street, he would wake up and there would be deer carcasses laying in his yard. We never had any of that.
And it’s unexplained on where the carcasses and everything come from. We have no clue. And it’s just unexplained things that need to be figured out.
But I think that’s all I have.
[Bruce Ackers]
What were the deer carcasses like?
[Brandy Snyder]
I honestly didn’t know. I didn’t see them. But he was telling us about them.
He said they were like full carcasses. Like fresh killed. They were scraped up a little bit.
But he said that they were just like in his front yard. And don’t know where they come from or nothing. But also there are some caves out back.
Not right, like right here. But if you go down here to the gravel road. It goes down towards the cemetery if you keep going on further back.
Down below there are caves that they have gone and looked at. And you can ask Rooster about it. They found a lot of evidence and stuff back there.
We don’t know what. But I really think that’s where they’re coming from. Or that’s where they’re living.
Because it smells like. Almost kind of like rotten flesh. On top of wet dog.
With a skunk smell to it. I mean it’s like putrid. It’s disgusting.
But they’ve actually gone back and looked at some of the caves. Whether or not they went in them I’m not sure. Because I’m too much of a chicken shit to go look myself.
No. I ain’t having nothing coming out at me.
[Bruce Ackers]
I think that’s all I can think of. Is there anything with like weather conditions. Certain times of the year.
Cloudy or clear nights.
[Brandy Snyder]
There has been a few nights that it’s been pretty clear. With the moon overhead that we’ve had encounters. There’s been.
It really doesn’t matter. I know on the full moon. It doesn’t usually happen much.
I mean you’ll hear a few things but not much. Now the last time we had a blood moon. It was almost like you can actually hear the snarling.
Like literally I have a window on each side of my trailer. In the living room. That we usually have open.
And at night on the blood moon. Well I guess you would call it orange moon whatever. I call it the blood moon.
But we heard snarling out back. Well when I went and looked I couldn’t find nothing. I couldn’t see anything.
And then there was a big bang against the trailer. And then once I go out again. Something took off from the back of the trailer.
And I hadn’t seen it again within. I think it was like three or four days. And then we’d hear them.
You can hear them stomping through the woods. I don’t know if they’re stomping or walking. But it sounds like they’re stomping because it’s heavy foot.
That’s a lot of weight. We don’t have anything that big around here. Yeah we have cougars.
But. Cougars and bobcats and coyotes. But nothing heavy enough to.
Like sounds like. Like branches snapping. Like straight snapping in half.
And then there was another night that we had sat out here. And we could hear like banging. On like where something was banging on a tree.
And it sounded like knocking honestly. But to knock against a tree to make that sound. You have to have a lot of strength.
And something has got to be big to knock against a tree to sound like that. It was weird. Like every now and then you’ll hear weird noises that you can’t explain.
But I don’t know. As far as the weather wise. I don’t really think it makes a difference.
I haven’t seen them more. During pretty. Well we see them about almost every night.
And then when it gets real real cold. We had. Like during the winter.
We didn’t have any problems. We didn’t see them. We didn’t hear them.
Nothing. And that was weird. And then when spring hit.
Is when we started seeing them and hearing them again. It was really really weird. Because we went literally all winter.
Because we go out in and out. Because we do a wood stove for wood heat. And so we’d be in and out all hours all night.
Just to keep wood in the stove. Keep it heated. And we never had any problems during the winter.
And it was really weird. Because you would think that’s when they’d be most active for food. But.
Just last year we didn’t hear anything during the winter. And then when spring hit. Is when it started getting more active.
And seeing and hearing a lot more things. So. I don’t know.
It’s really weird. A lot of people would say it’s weird. But.
It just comes as natural to me anymore. You said podcast.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Do people come out from a podcast to talk to you?
[Brandy Snyder]
Yeah.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Okay. Have they put that up yet?
[Brandy Snyder]
Honestly I don’t know. I haven’t seen it. But I don’t know if Richard has or not.
Because he’s the one that sent them out for the podcast.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
That’s the Riverlands people?
[Brandy Snyder]
I think so.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Okay.
[Brandy Snyder]
I believe so yeah.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
I talked with them too.
[Brandy Snyder]
Okay.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
There’s an episode with me.
[Brandy Snyder]
Oh there is? See I don’t get on YouTube much. So I don’t get on the podcast and stuff like that.
But there was also one that I had heard from Richard. Making a podcast that involved mom and Russ and everything in it. And this property.
And then they come out and did a podcast. But I haven’t heard anything since then.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Okay.
[Bruce Ackers]
One of the things that I really enjoy that you can’t tell from just listening to the recording here. Is just the believability of what you’re saying.
[Brandy Snyder]
I know.
[Bruce Ackers]
On your face is what you have gone in and seen.
[Brandy Snyder]
A lot of it is really unexplained. But just seeing it in person. It makes you wonder if you ain’t crazy.
Yeah. Because when I first seen it I’m like nah I’m seeing stuff. I must be high.
I don’t know what it is. Well because. But.
I was stone cold sober that first night. So I’m. To this day I really can’t explain it because I haven’t really actually seen other than that one time.
A full. Like full figure. Being.
I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything before. I just can’t explain it.
[Bruce Ackers]
I’m certain there’s something going on here with what everybody’s saying.
[Brandy Snyder]
It’s weird. It’s weird. That’s about all you can do is say it’s weird.
[Dr. Michael Lorenzen]
Okay. Anything else I’ll go ahead and stop.
[Brandy Snyder]
Yeah. I don’t. I can’t think of anything else right now.
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