The Legend of the Pigman

Join me in uncovering the truth behind the legend of Angola's Pigman. This half-man, half-beast spectre stalks Holland Road in Angola, New York. In life he was a brutal butcher responsible for murdering teens and countless others, in death he still terrorizes those who dare step foot on his property...or was he? We use archival resources to dissect this legend and discover the truth.

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Episode Transcript:

https://crimesandwitchdemeanors.com/2020/12/11/ep001-legend-of-the-pigman/

Podcast Artwork by GiAnna Ligammari: https://gialigammari.wixsite.com/portfolio

Sources:

Angola Butcher Slain; Suspect Held. (1931, July 13). Buffalo Evening News, 1, 3.

Anselmo, Francis J. WWII Draft Card (1947). WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947 (Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 49). The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Carnegie Hero Medal and $1,000 Cash Awarded Ted Miller for Saving Boy’s Life. (1919, May 1). Angola Record, 1.

Colmerauer, Catherine. (2011, October 27). Misguided man or unmerciful monster: Uncovering the legend of Pigman. The Hamburg Sun, 35–36.

Francis Joseph Anselmo (1913-1981)—Find A Grave... (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85844336/francis-joseph-anselmo

THEODORE MILLER, Angola, New York. (n.d.). Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://mychfc.org/hero.aspx?hero=18422

Theodore Miller Dies, Native Angolan. (1962, April 26). Evans Journal, 2.

Vogel, Charity (2013). The Angola Horror: The 1867 Train Wreck That Shocked the Nation and Transformed American Railroads. Cornell University Press.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Crimes and Witch-Demeanors, I am your host Joshua Spellman. On this podcast, we investigate the paranormal, historic crimes, myth, legends, and other curiosities through a critical lens. I am an academic and a skeptic, but also a practicing witch. I find many paranormal podcasts are either a little dry in their tellings or are poorly researched and a detached from reality. I am a librarian and archivist by day and have worked in museums, special libraries, and universities. I have an undergraduate degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in information science. With my professional background, I’m hoping to bring a little archival spice into the usual ghostly gab, and see if we can seek out the truth among the tall tales. I’m hoping to strike a balance between fun and facts while also looking for logical explanations of some of our favourite ghostly tales.

I want to play around with format, but the idea is that each episode will begin with a formal story time, after which we will have a ghoulish gossip sesh where we investigate the history of the locations or topics using primary sources, seeing what is fact and what is fabrication, and read first-hand accounts of the ghostly activities experienced in these locations. In today’s episode we will be covering the Legend of the Pigman. The Story? A crazed butcher with a deformed face, placed pig heads on stick s outside his home to keep away intruders and he was responsible for the brutal slayings of innocent teenagers, leaving their bodies hanging from hooks in town. He murdered his children and his wife. In death, the Pigman now roams Holland Road as a half-man half-pig hell beast summoned from the hereafter by demonic rituals and pagan sacrifice. In his new form, he continues his reign of terror confronting anyone brave enough to enter his land between the two tunnels on Holland Road. Sit back, relax, and let’s learn about the alleged history of Angola’s Pigman.

The myth of the Pigman is part of an intricate interwoven web of tales, or as I see it, a tangled mess resulting from using a common thread to attempt to weave together a number of tragic events that befell a small town. But, in order to understand the story of the Pigman, we must begin our tale with a seemingly unconnected, very real mass casualty event: The Angola Horror.

The village of Angola, in Evans, New York, is a town seemingly plagued by strife. It is located 30 miles south of Buffalo, New York and sits on the west...