STRANGE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN by Warren Smith

Our man Smith casts a wide net for his nonstop Fortean freak parade of ABSMs ranging across history and from every corner of the globe. This is an all star cast including "California's Mr. Big Foot," the Yeti, various tribes of Almasti, Almas, the Yowie (unnamed as such), Zana the Ape Girl, and an army of one-off monsters with names like THE HORROR OF SONORA and JACKO - THE FANTASTIC SASQUATCH BOY. The Patterson Film is here, as is Albert Ostman's kidnapping by a family of Sasquatch and Seraphine Long's shocking Bigfoot pregnancy as originally related to "Sasquatch" coiner and Indian Agent J.W. Burns. By the time we've arrived at the final chapter on the Minnesota Iceman we're facing Bigfoot burnout, and all in only 144 pages! In classic Fortean style, Smith doesn't source any of his chapters, leading us to suspect that many of his SCIENTIFIC and DOCUMENTED hairy monsters are really puffed up phantoms.

The Iron Curtain casts a heavy shadow over our worldwide monster mash. There's a mysterious Major Stoyanow who interviews an Ape Man captured by the Red Army, along with PLA soldiers taking pot shots at yetis. The chapter on THE CANNIBAL CREATURES OF ASIA brings to mind CIA man Edward Lansdale's psychopathic plot to fake vampire attacks against Filipino rebels:

Lansdale recalls, “A combat psywar squad was brought in. It planted stories among town residents of an asuang living on the hill where the Huks were based. Two nights later, after giving the stories time to make their way up to the hill camp, the psywar squad set up an ambush along the trail used by the Huks. When a Huk patrol came along the trail, the ambushers silently snatched the last man of the patrol, their move unseen in the dark night. They punctured his neck with two holes, vampire-fashion, held the body up by the heels, drained it of blood, and put the corpse back on the trail. When the Huks returned to look for the missing man and found their bloodless comrade, every member of the patrol believed that the asuang had got him and that one of them would be next if they remained on that hill. When daylight came, the whole Huk squadron moved out of the vicinity.” 

I was surprised to learn that the aswang psywar event was isolated to a single operation. At that time, a Huk squadron consisted of about 100-300 soldiers. Whether the rebels were scared of the aswang, or simply didn’t want to get hung up and drained of blood by the Americans isn’t completely certain – either is a pretty spooky proposition. While this psywar tactic has become one of the most famous, it certainly was not the moment that broke the Huk Rebellion.

Strange Abominable Snowmen is available to read and download at archive dot org. A postscript: the original painting used as cover art for this volume was rediscovered at a yard sale in 2014:

Table of contents:

1.  The Truth About Abominable Snowmen (5)

2.  Habits of the Hairy Monsters (10)

3.  How the Snowman Got His Name (13)

4.  Albuquerque's Amazing "Cry Baby" Monster (16)

5.  Your Guide to Yeti Watching (18)

6.  The Enigmatic Yeti of the Himalayas (20)

7.  The Sandman of the Desert (25)

8.  The Abominable Snowman Who Came to Dinner (27)

9.  The Swamp Snowman of the Midwest (29)

10. Russia's Search For the Shaggy Alamasti (31)

11. Mesopotamia's Mad Monster Invasion (38)

12. She Was Kidnapped For a Snowman's Bride (41)

13. The Hairy Thing That Came to Call (43)

14. She Lived With Canada's Sasquatch Monsters (45)

15. The Alarming Ape-Woman of Patang (47)

16. The "Thing" That Attacked a Car (49)

17. Enigma of Sumatra's Ape-Girl (51)

18. Other Animals That Didn't Exist (52)

19. Demons in the Thunderous Night (54)

20. The Creature Who Waved "Hello!" (56)

21. The Horror on the Highway (58)

22. The Snowman Who Came to Town (60)

23. The Hairy Monsters of Monteagle Mountain (62)

24. The "Demons" Who Were Stoned to Death (64)

25. Or, Are They Extinct? (65)

26. The Wild Creature of Siskiyou (66)

27. Jacko - The Fantastic Sasquatch Boy (68)

28. The Hairy Monster's Midnight Raid (72)

29. The Tibetan Snowman & The Red Chinese Army (75)

30. The Snowman Who Raided a Watermelon Patch (76)

31. The Head-Hunting Horrors of Nahanni Valley (77)

32. The Ten-Foot Monster of Costa Mesa (81)

33. The Berry-Picker's Hairy Giant (83)

34. Alamasti - Where Are You? (86)

35. British Columbia's Midget Sasquatch (88)

36. Join the Big-Foot Believers! (90)

37. The Abominable Snowman of Borrego (91)

38. The Midget Monster of Marin County (92)

39. A Visit to the Yeti's Lair (93)

40. The Girl-Grabbing Monsters of India (97)

41. The Scientist Who Prowled the Yeti Caves (98)

42. "No Human Could Run That Fast ..." (99)

43. Africa's Mysterious Little Furry Men (100)

44. Why They Go in the Snow (103)

45. He Filmed the Big Foot Monster (105)

46. Zana - The Snow Girl Who Came in From the Cold (109)

47. Marco Polo's "Monkey Men" (112)

48. The Cannibal Creatures of Asia (114)

49. Canada's Giants of the Forests (117)

50. The "Peeping-Tom" Snowman (122)

51. Guatemala's Sinister El Sisemite Monsters (123)

52. The Rock-Throwing Sandmen of Australia (125)

53. The Murdering Monster of Dead Man's Hole (127)

54. A Night Fight With Florida's Sandman (129)

55. Oregon's Fantastic Big Foot Creatures (133)

56. The Ten-Foot Horror of Sonora (135)

57. California's Big-Footed Oh-Mahs (136)

58. The Creature Who Invaded Long Island (139)

59. Mystery of the Frozen Monster (142)

Popular Library, 1970