I must admit that I have always been fascinated by what has now become labeled, via the internet, as the Lawndale “Thunderbird” Incident, where little Marlon Lowe, 10, was the victim of an attempted avian abduction by a giant-sized bird. I place the term “thunderbird” in quotations in that I have never been convinced that this fascinating piece of Illinois and ornithological histoty truly belonged in the realm of cryptozoology.
However, my beliefs aside, looking at the incident from as scientific of a viewpoint as possible requires the collection and analysis of as many facts and clues on the case as possible. The majority of the facts of the case originate from the initial investigation by cryptozoological researcher and author Jerry Coleman. He is one of few researchers that actually spoke with the Lowe family. The Lowes made the following insistences on the physiology of the abducting bird:
It had a white ring around it’s half foot long neck. The rest of the body was very black. The birds bill was six inches in length and hooked at the end. The claws on the feet were arranged with three front, one in the back. Each wing, less the body, was four feet at the very least. The entire length of the birds body, from beak to tail feather was approximately four and one half feet. (From J. Coleman’s report)
The description sounds vulture/condorish, but onithologists are quick to note that the legs of these avians are buit for perching and not carrying and could not support any significant weight. It is the eagles (and others) that are capable of capturing and lifting their prey…even a very rare human prey. But no eagle species fitting the above description exists. In the annals of giant bird sitings, there are few that match the Lowes’ description…until now.
This picture was published in the Fresno Bee-Republican of Fresno, California on July 18, 1937. The caption reads:
Famous artist Dan Smith’s conception of a giant cousin of a blad eagle carrying off a child, drawn from what was declared to be an “eye-witness” story.
This is tantalyzingly vague though unfortunately as nowhere in the article does it expand upon 1) where and when the sighting occurred 2) who was the witness and 3) how Smith came to be involved in the project.
Smith was a top Americana artist in the early nineteenth century, most famous for his commissioned work for Smith & Wesson and paintings of farm animals.
You might note that the illustration of this “giant eagle” depicts a very large bird with a distinct “white ring around its half foot long neck”. The truly bald (feather-less) head of this mystery bird is also reminicent of other Illinois giant bird sightings of the 1960’s and 70’s including Joni Grawe’s (1973), John Walker’s (1972) and the Chappells of Odin IL (1977).
Could the Lawndale bird have been one and the same with this sighting? Who knows. Ok…as far as clues go, this one is somewhat reminicent of Al Capone’s Vault (for those of us old enough to remember that), but in a case that is (exactly) thirty years old, any substantial clues to the bird’s true identity may be lost to time.
Lawndale Thunderbird Abduction
Lawndale Thunderbird Abduction
