The Tombs of Munterville

     Blackmoor has made his side of the story available to the press, making the search for unbiased jurors from the community a difficult one. He claims that none of the tombs he entered were in any way harmed by him, and in fact that he was in the cemetery on a mission of defense. Third Eye procured this statement from Blackmoor:

     "Now I been living in Munterville for my whole life, that's 46 years come this July. And I always had a bad feeling about that cemetery. Sometimes I think I seen ghosts there before, but that was always when I been drinkin', so I never said much about that. But then I seen some stuff the other day that curled my toes, and I know that booze don't let you see the undead come up outta their graves.

     "I work the second shift at the packing plant here in town and after work, well, I'm just not ready to go home. Sometimes I go to the bars and hang out with the fellas, even some that's going to have to go to work for third shift soon, but other times I like to go down to the cemetery with my dog. Sally's a black lab and about the best friend a guy like me could have. So a couple of months ago, I bundle up really tight and head out there with Sally. Now, she don't bark much, an' that's good, because Harlan, he's the groundskeeper, sometimes works late at night, and he don't take to kindly to people bein' there after hours, especially with dogs. So I go in there all careful like.

     "If you never been to MacArthur cemetery, you're missin' something. It's real old with some graves going back to before the Civil War. It's crowded, too. They've had to start puttin' people in outside the old fence. Anyways, back in the old times a lot of people spent big money on headstones and even bought actual tombs. They're like stone outhouses; some have doors and some don't. If you go inside, there's a little ledge where people sometimes put flowers or cards or stuff. And just once in a while the floor inside is such that you could open the grave if you wanted to. These bodies aren't six feet under always. Sometimes they just sit in a big stone box. Pretty fancy, some of 'em.

     "Anyhow, this was a couple of months ago, and me and Sally were walkin' out by the east hill. That's when I seen something that I didn't want to believe, but boy, I had to. I wasn't drinkin', neither. There, scurryin' up one 'a the paths was a real pale naked guy, kind of short and bent over. The moon wasn't too bright that night and couldn't see him too well. I thought, hell, that there streaker's gonna freeze to death in this snow. I tried to follow out of sigh to see if Harlan was gonna find him. What a spectacle that woulda' been!

     "But then I get closer and I see that this fella's all kinds of fucked up. His legs looked really short, for one thing, and his legs bent the wrong way at the knee, like a bird. He was swingin these long arms and his flat, broad head was wagglin back and forth. And he had not one hair on his body, although he was pretty filthy. Couldn't see his face that time, though, before I lost him among the tombs and headstones. I didn't stick around too much longer. Didn't like the looks of that fella one bit, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna tell Harlan. He'd be mad at me for even bein' there!

     "Then a month ago or so I seen it again. I felt a little nervous going out to the cemetery after the first time, but Sally needs her walks and besides, I figured old Harlan woulda' already seen the naked guy and taken care of it. Well, I was wrong. That night the moon was full, but it kept disappearing behind the clouds every so often. Again I was by the east hill when I seen this guy, the same naked one, come out of one of the tombs, one that didn't have a door. I tell you, it looked right at me and Sally, and when I saw its face, I about soiled my drawers. Its flat, hairless head had two big, watery eyes spread far apart, with a wide node between. Its mouth was all wide and slobbery, and some jagged teeth poked up and down over its lips. It wasn't normal in its nether region, neither. There was this long, skinny writhing tube down there that made me myself shrivel up.

     "Poor Sally had enough and bolted away. I woulda made to do the same myself, but I was paralyzed by fright, as they say. This guy, no, this thing looks at me, right, then ducks back into that tomb. I waited to see if it'd come out again, but no, there was no sign of it. Finally I found my legs again, and went to look for Sally. And I tell you, I haven't seen her since.

     "A lot of the rest of the story you already know. All that the cops say is prob'ly true, but they never seen what I seen."

     Munterville Police Officer Maria Grigio investigated the scene of Blackmoor's crime. Blackmoor had entered five tombs on the east hill, one of which he opened with a crowbar. In two of the tombs, he had managed to slide the concrete slab floor out of the tomb, exposing the burial chamber underneath. Grigio noted in her report that in the two opened chambers, some sort of sinkhole had destroyed the cement vault. In neither instance was the tomb's corpse present. Grigio has suggested, along with Abraham Harlan, that Blackmoor's intrusion into the tomb had disturbed already unstable areas, causing collapse. Searches of Blackmoor's house have not unearthed any bodies, and Blackmoor staunchly affirms that the bodies were never there in the first place.

     In one tomb, labeled simply "Ellison", structural decay beneath the tomb was especially severe. A three foot wide hole has opened that cemetery officials say will be repaired by the end of May. Further cemetery renovations are being discussed.

     Maintaining that he is innocent, Neville Blackmoor plans to plead his case on the grounds that he was investigating the tombs to find out where his "ghoul" came from. No other or subsequent sightings of this creature have been reported.