The Clearwater Monster

Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in
the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen
something strange at the beach. Residents woke up that morning to
find an odd set of footprints in the sand, and a rumor began
circulating that Clearwater Beach had a sea monster. The rumor
spread so wide, it caught the attention of a biologist in New York
named Ivan Sanderson. Ivan Sanderson coined the term cryptozoology
in the 1930s, meaning the search for creatures that haven’t been
found and aren’t recognized by science—like the Loch Ness monster
or Bigfoot. But even Ivan Sanderson couldn’t figure out where, or
what, the footprints were coming from. We speak with Jeff
Klinkenberg, Richard Grigonis, Jeff Signorini, and Alyssa Shimko
about Tony Signorini, Al Williams, and the Clearwater monster.
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