However unlike the Tucson incident there were three fatalities

Saul Chambers and his wife Mary and a farmhand named Martin were found torn to pieces on their farm on the 21st of October 1884.

At the time the deaths were blamed on a pack of wolves which was strange as these creatures had been extinct in the part of England since the early years of the sixteenth century

Also there were unexplained scorch marks found on some the farm buildings

As with the Tucson incident the whole thing was hushed up for fear of causing panic in the locality

The only reason that Du Pont was able to read an account of the dreadful events was that a local vicar recorded the events in his diary which was given to the British Museum after his death

Even though a number of years had passed since the attack in Tucson the authorities thought it important enough to commence a larger more thorough investigation into the perceived phenomena which they thought might have extra terrestrial origins

Du Pont was assisted by Dr Josephine Decker and the wheelchair bound Anthony Keith and for the next three years this small Los Angeles team made some startling discoveries.

It did not take them long to find out that the 1921 Tucson incident was not the only recorded in American and Canada

In 1870 a rancher named Smith and his unnamed son were recorded as having been killed in what was perceived to have been a bear attack on their farm in North Dakota and in the years between 1800 and 1860 there were over twenty such incidents some as far south as Florida

The main problem that the team ran into was that the accounts of the fatalities differed greatly although most accounts did note that the victims had been torn to pieces and there were strange scorch marks in the area.

These finds suggested to both Decker and Keith that UFOs might have been involved but Du Pont was more sceptical and for a six month period in late 1947 the team split so that they might continue their own independent investigations

One of the main obstacles that both sides of the team faced was that no actual likenesses of the creature (or creatures) could be found

That was until Du Pont came across an account of a bloody attack in Northern France in 1703 in which there were rather crude drawings of the incident preserved

These had been executed by a soldier who witnessed the incident and recorded what he could

This was the first time that a likeness of the creature had been captured

 And so began the legend of Le chien de l’enfer which gripped the towns and cities in Northern France for a number of years after the attack

However the creature did not return and the attack drifted slowly into superstition and folk tales

What Du Pont did note from the drawings that although the man was terrified and was in fear of his life was that he had left an important record of the creature.

Although the perspective was poor Du Pont was able to see that the creature resembled a large dog with an oversized head with flames coming out of its mouth as well as cracks in its body

It was almost like the creature was being consumed by fire whose origins were internal

Du Pont was aware of the reports of scorch marks in a number of the incidents and no matter how fantastic it seemed he appeared to be following a trail

During the Fall of 1948 Decker was contacted by a student named Raul Martinez who was studying at the University of Madrid

It appears that Martinez had been studying the final voyage of the ship Esmeralda in 1564 and had found a terrifying account of the ships last hours which had been illustrated by a geologist who had travelled on board the doomed ship

Martinez had been in correspondence with Decker without realising what research she was involved in although both had more than a passing interest in UFOs

Due to the sensitivity of the subject Du Pont and Decker decided to visit Martinez in Madrid faking a romantic attachment as not to arouse suspicion from either the Spanish or American authorities

They stayed with Martinez for a couple of days during which time he was able to secretly removed the book that was written about the ships final voyage and its destruction by fire off of the coast of Brazil

This was the final part of the story that Du Pont was seeking as the unnamed geologist had left a detailed account of the destruction of the Esmeralda on the 15th of May 1564

But more importantly the geologist (who was a fine artist) also was able to record the dreadful creature from the safety of the shore and because of this he was the only survivor

It appears that he and a couple of sailors had been put ashore that morning to collect soil samples from the base of the cliffs when at about noon three wolf like creatures appeared from the clear sky with smoke funnelling in their wake (it is likely that the creatures had jumped from the top of the cliff)

I say creatures as unlike the other recorded attacks there were three in total and they descended on the wooden ship without mercy

The actual illustrations resembled the soldiers crude drawings a great deal and showed clearly that the creatures were engulfed in flames at that the origins were internal

Some of the drawings showed sailors being consumed by fire as they were swallowed whole

Du Pont asked if the sailors that accompanied the geologist had left a record but was told by Martinez that if they has they had either been lost or destroyed in the years since

Martinez also noted that the geologist had been found half mad by another ship some six weeks after the attack

There was no mention about the sailors

This was the final piece of the jigsaw and the team felt that they were in a position to prepare a paper with their findings and in 1949 this was secretly published

However its contents alarmed the authorities so much that the team was disbanded almost immediately and the report supressed

It was either destroyed or held in a top secret location away from prying eyes

But what was not known was that both Decker and Du Pont retained copies and on a later visit to Madrid a copy was given to Raul Martinez.

This is the copy I have worked from

Raul Martinez is still alive and we have known each other since the 1970s and he went to great lengths to help me with my book

Josephine Decker and Du Pont were initially very unhappy with the closure of the department but were promised and given very senior research positions in two well known universities

Sadly Keith who had also been promised a similar position died from Polio the following year

I have always wondered why the project was closed so quickly on the publication of the report and suspect that the authorities did not want to know about mythical creatures breathing fire

In those days it was all about the Russian menace and UFOs and really I think that from Truman downwards they did not know how to deal with it

My belief is that they reasoned that if such an attack took place in the USA again (and one must remember that there were extensive time frames) then they would react at the time (quite how I do not know)

Du Pont died in 2010 and I know that he would have been very interested in the mysterious fire that consumed a house in California in 2017 which showed all the hallmarks of an attack of the Hounds of Hell

The three victims although badly burnt had been torn to pieces during the attack

This was very quickly hushed up and I know that Josephine Decker (who is now retired) was reminded of her responsibilities and I too have been investigated but as I am a Canadian citizen I am not so impacted by American laws and really the worst that can happen to me is deportation

Nevertheless my book Great American Mysteries was printed and published in Spain just to be safe