Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Land of love - and lizardmen

This column has looked into the legends of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil and the Dover Demon. But I am sure few of my readers have heard about the Loveland Lizard.
A part of the greater Cincinnati area, Loveland, Ohio today has a population of around 11,600 people. But some folks there might say that population count should include a weird two-legged creature with a face resembling a frog or lizard.
It was on cold, clear night 37 years ago this week that a police officer encountered what would become known as the Loveland Lizard.
On the night of March 3, 1972, a police officer was patrolling the streets of Loveland when he saw something lying in the middle of the road. To the officer, it looked like some kind of animal that had been hit by a car.
The officer got out of his patrol car to check it out. He intended to drag the poor animal over to the shoulder of the road until the local game warden could be called out and pick up the carcass. As he opened his car, the door made a noise that caused the creature to suddenly rise up. The officer suddenly realized that this was no deer or dog that had been hit by a car.
He later described it as a human-like creature with the face of a frog or lizard. It was about 4 feet tall and had a green leathery skin. The creature got up and took a crouched position, like that of a defensive lineman, and stared back at the officer. Its eyes were illuminated from the lights of the patrol car, according to a Web site.
Then, the creature began to hobble over to the nearby guardrail. It lifted its leg over the guardrail and while doing so, kept its lizard eyes fixed on the startled officer. As the creature went over the guardrail and down an embankment, the policeman fired a shot at it but missed. In no time, it was clean out of sight. Investigators believe it disappeared into the nearby Little Miami River.
Later that month, a farmer in Loveland also claimed to have seen the mysterious creature. Folks there remembered that these were not the first sightings of the Loveland Lizard.
The first claimed sighting happened in May 1955. At that time, a businessman said he saw three or four frog-faced creatures squatting under a bridge near Loveland. He described them as having wrinkles instead of hair on their heads and standing about 3 feet tall. He also said they had lopsided chests and wide mouths without lips, like frogs or toads. The businessman said they also left behind a strong smell of alfalfa and almonds, according to a Web site.
And just nine years ago, a tourist in Loveland happened to encounter the weird creature. In 2000, a person visiting Loveland on vacation reported seeing the Loveland Lizard on the way to his hotel. He described it as a 4-foot-tall creature that seemed to be part human and part lizard or frog. He said it had scaly skin, webbed hands and feet and was holding a wand-like stick.
The tourist tried to take a photo of the creature but he mistakenly shot off the flash from his camera, which scared it off. He then tried to call the local animal control officer but he couldn't give them a full description and location because his cellphone's battery went dead, according to a Web site.
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Last week's column about the ax murder house in Villisca, Iowa resulted in an interesting response from a filmmaker who has documented the tragic history of that site.
Kelly Rundle and his production company Fourth Wall Films created the acclaimed documentary "Villisca: Living with a Mystery."
Rundle wrote to me to let me know that my column contained a couple of errors. For one thing, Sara Moore was actually 38 when she, her family and two friends were brutally murdered on the night of June 9, 1912. My column said she was 44 and I had misspelled her name.
Also, the house is actually located at 508 East Second St. in Villisca, Iowa. The address of 323 East Fourth St. is for the museum where you can arrange for a tour of the house.
Rundle also questions whether or not the house is really haunted. In his opinion and those of others who worked on the documentary film, the answer is no.
"We spent many hours in the house at all times of the day and night and were never haunted by anything but the memory of what happened there in June of 1912," he wrote.
He added you could also visit his Web site to get more information about what happened there. You can find it at www.villiscamovie.com.

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.