Modern-day Bigfoot tales aside, the big hairy guy has actually been alive and well since the 16th century, says Legends of America, when native tribes reported seeing the great “Sasquatch.” History says there are actually Bigfoot stories from all over the world. In the American west, various newspaper stories from the 1800s, according to Cowboys & Indians, “are brimming with giant wild men, [and] wood apes” who look and sound like the Bigfoot everyone has come to know and love. Oh yeah, and they stunk back then just like they are said to today. In Spokane, Wash., says Crosscut, they actually call Bigfoot the “Bad Smelling Tree Man.”

The Oregon Encyclopedia says that ethnographer George Gibbs first started recording native stories of Bigfoot in the state as early as 1865, although the first official record of sightings was not made until 1904 when one was seen around Sixes River on the southern coast. Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) started recording sightings in each state online in 1995. As of this writing, Washington state leads with 690, followed by California with 454, and Florida with 333. Colorado has only 129 recorded sightings, but enough have been reported to merit posting a warning sign on Pikes Peak, according to Woman’s Day. If you happen to see a Bigfoot, you can report it on the BFRO site, which makes for fascinating reading.

Between 1885 and 1886, according to Austin Culture Map, eight ghastly murders in Austin, Texas, were attributed to a serial killer. Of the victims, most were “servant girls.” Only one lived but her daughter, as well as the companion of another victim, were killed. PBS notes that six of the victims were Black. So were three women who were attacked in July, August, and November, says Servant Girl Murders, but they survived. Then Mollie Smith’s axe-mutilated body was found next to an outhouse in December. The murders were quite grisly. In May 1885 another victim, Eliza Shelly, was found with her head “almost completely split.” The killer was brutal, assaulting his victims with knives, axes, rocks, and even an iron. 

The write O. Henry dubbed the murderer the “Servant Girl Annihilator,” as Austin’s Weekly Statesman commented, “The heart sickens at these repeated details of horrid, merciless crime.” Next, Irene Cross, Clara Dick, and Rebecca Ramey and 11-year-old Mary Ramey were attacked. Only Rebecca survived. The next victims, according to the Fort Worth Daily Gazette, were Gracie Vance and her paramour, Orange Washington. Two more women who were not domestics, Sue Hancock and Eula Phillips, were murdered on Christmas Eve 1885. In February 1886, police killed Nathan Elgin, who was beating a saloon girl to death. The attacks stopped, but Elgin was never proven to be the Annihilator. 

Albert Jennings Fountain, according to Findagrave, was many things — an Army Lieutenant, attorney, newspaperman, and senator. Until his disappearance he was best-known as the trial lawyer for Billy the Kid, who lost his case. In 1896, Fountain and his young son, Henry, were in Lincoln, N.M., for the rustling case against cattle baron Oliver Lee, per Socorro County Cold Cases. Desert USA says author A.M. Gibson verified Fountain had many enemies at the trial, including Lee. No wonder Fountain “had the feeling of being closely watched” while in Lincoln. And after receiving a threatening note as the trial ended, the Fountains immediately started for home 150 miles away. 

Two days later the pair disappeared, according to True West. Only Fountain’s wagon was found, along with pools of blood, bullet shells, and Henry’s handkerchief. Even famed sheriff Pat Garrett got involved, to no avail. Although Lee’s hired hands were eventually tried, they were found not guilty. Two confessions came later — one by James Gilliland in 1937, and one in 1949 when convicted outlaw Sam Ketchum claimed on his deathbed that it was he and his brother, Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum, who killed the Fountains. But the bodies weren’t where the men said they were. The Fountain case remains the most famous cold case in New Mexico history.

History buffs love debating about whether Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid really died in Bolivia. But the real mystery is what became of their companion, Etta Place. Not even Pinkerton’s Detective Agency knew her real name, although they could describe her, according to Legends of America – “classic good looks, 27 or 28 years old, 5’4″ to 5’5″ in height, weighing between 110 and 115 pounds, with a medium build and brown hair.” But that could be about any woman in the Edwardian era. Everything else about Place is purely speculation. Was she a schoolteacher? Or a harlot from a Texas bordello? Or maybe even Sundance’s cousin, according to Criminal Element? Nobody knows for sure.

It is a fact that Place loved Sundance enough to accompany he and Cassidy to South America. For a couple of glorious years, according to True West, the trio “robbed numerous banks, and intercepted one mule train after another carrying gold and paper money.” Although Place was supposedly killed along with her outlaw men by Bolivian soldiers, others point out that she was later seen back in America both with and without Sundance. Historian Anne Meadows maintains that Sundance took Place to San Francisco for a final time in 1905. She was also identified as the woman seeking “documents declaring Sundance dead” there in 1909. Whoever she was, Place took her secret to her grave.

A true wild child, Pearl Hart was a Canada native whom Annals of Crime says made it through finishing school before making a series of life mistakes. She was 17 when she was “seduced” by gambler Fred Hart, who remained in the girl’s life until 1898. Tired of supporting her and two children, according to Legends of America, Fred beat her up and split. The next man in Pearl’s life, Joe Boot, was her final undoing. The two embarked on a life of crime but were caught in 1899. Boot was sentenced to 30 years in prison (and later escaped), while Pearl got five years.

The public now took interest in the woman bandit who dressed like a man. In prison she not only signed autographs but also began spreading the gospel. Pearl was finally paroled — because she inexplicably became pregnant while in prison. Gov. Alexander Brodie pardoned her in 1902, says Spartacus Educational. What happened to her? It’s hard to say. The Vintage News says she tried performing onstage as a “Lady Bandit” before being arrested in Kansas City for buying stolen goods. She was arrested again in 1904, after which she wasn’t seen again until 1924 in Florence, Ariz. Various sources say she died in 1925, or sometime in the 1950s, or even as late as the 1960s. But nobody knows for sure.