In the quiet pinewoods and rolling pastures of South Central Alabama, something stirs — ancient, elusive, and terrifying. Over the last fifteen years, our paranormal research team has been quietly compiling reports of a creature seen in and around the Hope Hull, Fort Deposit, and Dallas County regions. These are not isolated whispers or wild drunken campfire tales. Some come from respected members of the community, even law enforcement. Others come from those close to us. What they describe is consistent, chilling, and eerily familiar: a towering, man-like figure with the head of a wolf.
Welcome to the legend of the Wolfman of Central Alabama.
The first credible report came in April of 2010. A rancher, connected to my colleague David Humphrey through a local pawn shop, shared an unnerving account. While walking his pasture early one morning, the man discovered three of his cattle dead — mutilated in a grotesque, surgical fashion. Their hindquarters had been stripped near to the bone, their throats slashed, but curiously, there was almost no blood.
As he approached one of the carcasses, he noticed movement in the tree line. There, standing upright and holding a limp deer in one bloodied hand, was a massive figure — 7 to 8 feet tall, humanoid in form but unmistakably wolf-headed.
When the creature realized it had been seen, it growled — deep and guttural — and snapped viciously toward the man. Fearing for his life, the rancher fired four rounds from his .357 Magnum. He was sure he hit the creature. But it didn’t flinch. It simply grunted, turned, and ran back into the woods.
His family later confirmed they had also seen similar shapes moving along the same stretch of land. And as strange as that account was, it wasn’t the first time the land had produced such rumors…
An old woman, living in a remote cabin not far from the ranch, once awoke to the sound of scratching — slow and deliberate at first, then increasing in urgency. Whatever was outside her door wanted in. She prayed as the heavy oak door trembled, certain it would shatter. It didn’t. But in the morning, she found claw marks gouged deep into the wood… and several of her goats missing.
So convinced was she that she had survived a werewolf attack, she melted down family silver and had it fashioned into bullets.
Another strange account came from the Bogue Chitto Boat Landing near Selma, Alabama. A man pole-fishing with his dog described a tall, wolf-headed figure emerging from the woods. His dog barked — the creature barked back. The man emptied his pistol, sure he’d hit it, but just like the earlier incident, the creature remained unfazed and calmly disappeared into the trees.
Our own teammate Jake shared a chilling memory relayed by his father, Derris Bell. One hot August afternoon in 2003, while sitting on a backyard swing near a cow pasture in Hope Hull, Derris saw a four-foot-tall, upright figure with the head of a dog darting along the fence line. It moved unnaturally fast — faster than any human — and vanished into a nearby thicket.
A year after the first sighting, another of David’s pawn shop contacts told of a night filled with unexplainable dread. His dogs were going berserk — barking, growling, refusing to approach the edge of the property. Something was watching from the woods, he felt it. The next morning, he found two of his dogs decapitated — their heads stripped clean to the bone.
Once again, when we asked to investigate the property, we were politely declined.
Months later, following a speaking event, we were approached by a state trooper. Late one night while on patrol in Dallas County, he saw a dark figure crouched by the road. As his headlights neared, the figure rose to a towering height — then swiftly vanished into the treeline.
“It wasn’t a deer,” he said. “And I don’t think it was a man.”
The most recent confirmed sighting occurred in January of this year. A hunter in the Fort Deposit area climbed into his tree stand before dawn. After just a few minutes, a wave of dread hit him. Looking through the scope of his rifle, he saw the creature — standing upright, covered in thick brown fur, its eyes locked onto his through the lens.
Frozen, he lowered his rifle. When he looked again, the creature had vanished.
He stayed in that tree stand for over an hour before building the courage to leave.
The description — humanoid body, wolf-like head, extreme speed, and resistance to bullets — calls to mind the classic European werewolf. But this isn’t a fairy tale, and these sightings don’t fit the Hollywood mold. Some theories we’ve considered include:
- Native American legends of skinwalkers or shape-shifters — beings who exist between worlds.
- Interdimensional or ultraterrestrial entities — as proposed by John Keel and others — that mimic folkloric creatures to interact with us through fear.
- Government experiments gone wrong — with nearby military bases in Alabama, it’s not hard to imagine black projects venturing into genetic manipulation.
- Occult manifestations — tied to ritual activity, ley lines, or something much older buried in Alabama’s history.
Whether it’s a cryptid, a relic of forgotten folklore, or something more metaphysical, the Wolfman of Central Alabama continues to defy easy explanation. The consistency of reports — the physical description, the location clustering, the eerie resistance to bullets — demands our attention.
So next time you’re driving backroads near Fort Deposit… or walking a trail near Hope Hull… or sitting by the Alabama River as twilight falls — listen carefully. Watch the shadows. And remember:
Sometimes legends growl back.
Have you seen the Wolfman? Have a story of your own?
Contact us at shawnsellerstcb.com/contact or reach out via social media @shawnsellerstcb. We’d love to hear your tale.