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5  Explanation of the 1977 Lawndale, Illinois Incident.

Explanation of the 1977 Lawndale, Illinois Incident.

In the summer of 1977, Ruth Lowe of Lawndale, Illinois reported to the authorities that her son, Marlon, age 10, had been attacked by a bird, from a pair each having estimated wingspans of ten feet, which managed to displace him some 35 feet before releasing him.  What followed was a feverish pursuit by interested parties to find these giants and reinforce the claim.  In the days following July 25, an amateur video was produced which was presented as evidence of the birds, but all this revealed was two Turkey Vultures.

It was downhill from there.  The lack of substantiating evidence on the sighting reduced Lawndale’s “thunderbird” to the annals of offbeat scientific literature.  Proper evidence in this and similar cases would readily determine the credibility of the witnesses and also verify their respective judgments in what they claimed.  If one believes that the Lowes were telling the truth, then either the presence of these giant birds as they were described and the demonstration by one of them of attacking a human being was or was not a singular instance and, likewise, would not or would perpetuate.  In their habits living things generally pull towards consistency, not singularity, thus mandating a motivation for the birds’ appearance as well as the prospect of further demonstrations of this behavior.  That is why this case was easy to dismiss.

Yet, all along, its dismissal was unwarranted.  What the Lowes claimed did happen.

As many will be incredulous to it, the Lowes and other witnesses that evening were sincere in relaying their experience, and they remained consistent in their respective testimonies; there were yet some important discrepancies, as I will explain.  What happened has also much to do with where it happened and why.  This obscure, unincorporated community is well-situated for the type of incident that took place 38 years ago, and as my findings will show in forthcoming presentations, precedent is known for similar sightings of giant birds in the state and is great for consideration of related cases elsewhere.

The Lowes

Marlon Lowe                  Ruth Lowe

I write this evaluation with the admission that I, too, was for a long time a skeptic of the particulars of this story.  It first came to my attention in Extinct Birds (revised edition, 2001) by Errol Fuller.

“And while on the subject of truly legendary creatures, what is to be made of the North American ‘thunderbird’?  Rumours of the existence of a monstrous bird with an astonishing wingspan–perhaps some kind of gigantic New World vulture–have filtered down through the centuries to the present time.  Many claim to have seen a nineteenth century photograph of a ‘thunderbird,’ though no-one has yet been able to produce it.  Was this the creature that famously tried to carry off young Marlon Lowe from his garden in Lawndale, Illinois on July 25, 1977?  Is it extinct, is it entirely mythical, or do some individuals still lurk here and there somehow unnoticed by civilized man?”

Becoming familiar with the descriptions of the birds in question, I was skeptical then due to the singularity of this case, the possibility of a misconception in the birds’ identification, and, later, to the understanding from the historic records of known cases of human abductions by birds. 

The Lawndale incident has been expounded repeatedly; a detailed source is in a book I also cited in UAC3:  Hall, Thunderbirds:  America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds (1988, 2004 editions).  That summer evening, eight people would witness the occurrence of two gigantic birds—four adults and three children at the Lowe residence, and, belatedly, an anonymous “Mr. Cox,” also of Lawndale, who would actually be the first to witness them.  The pair flew over the Lowe’s home, and one bird attempted to mob one of the children, who successfully avoided it.  In that moment, either this bird (or the other) then attacked ten-year-old Marlon Lowe.

“One bird picked him up by the straps of his sleeveless shirt and lifted him about 2 feet (60 centimeters) off the ground.  As the bird carried the boy’s 65-pound (30-kilogram) weight, Marlon screamed for his mother and punched at the bird.  The bird dropped him to the ground after flying 35 or 40 feet (10.6 or 12 meters) from the backyard to the frontyard.”

Marlon Lowe called out for his mother, Ruth, who arrived on the scene, in addition to her husband, Jake Lowe, and their guests, James and Betty Daniels.  With Lowe’s release, the bird and its companion flew towards Kickapoo Creek, which runs north of this Logan County community.  Recalling the incident three decades later, Lowe, about age 40, described their movements in the 2007 documenty film Monsterquest:  Birdzilla.

“And then it flew up into this tree right here and tried to land in the tree right here.  It was too–too much weight so it just took off flying on out of the tree and headed for the creek.”

Detail of the counties of Illinois, highlighting Logan County in red, Lawndale marked therein, with other counties (pink) which had similar sightings July–August, 1977.   

Also marked (blue, violet) are counties representing areas which had similar episodes of giant bird sightings–these belatedly revealed subsequent to the 1977 Lawndale series of sightings (having happened prior to that year).  These additional cases will be discussed separately, and I am now learning of other claims of observations of mysterious giant birds in Illinois; the above map is thus not comprehensive.  

Certain reports from the 1977 Lawndale series of sightings I have rejected as relevant to this study, that they could not be observations of condors, nor does the map reflect inclusion of them.  Most significant is my concurrence with the argument for Turkey Vultures Cathartes aura as the basis of the aforementioned (first paragraph) amateur video of John Huffer at Lake Shelbyville, Illinois.

DESCRIPTION

The description of the birds seems to similarly hold for both, one and the same.  Marlon Lowe in his later interview gave a concise description–

“But it looked kind of  like a condor, because it had a white ring and was black.”

This statement immediately begs consideration for the one bird species with known plumage characters that fits the description, the subject of this site.

Eric Kilby

The witnesses’ testimonies supported that comparison.  Ruth Lowe characterized their coloration as “very black.”  This may have been referring to the intensity of coloration, or it may have been an address on the prevalence of black in its plumage.  

Hall offers an inconsistent series of statements in Thunderbirds.. (see pp. 15–17 of the later edition).  He notes that “those present consistently described both birds as entirely black except for a white ring on their long necks.”  The notion of their being entirely black suggests something that is not a match for an Andean Condor, which in the adults has an upperwing with white panels on the secondaries and much of the tertial feathers.

However, not all those present ascribed the coloration this way, and just four paragraphs further Hall mentions how guest James Daniels  “noticed white fuzz around the necks and wingtips,” describing them to Dan Tackett of the Lincoln, Illinois Courier as “overgrown vultures.”  Their wingspans were estimated to be about eight to ten feet.  These were estimates based on observation.  (I can imagine that the birds were indeed large, but I stress that it is often difficult if not impossible to make a measurement  without a proper measuring technique.)

Ruth Lowe is also described as specifically identifying the birds as California Condors Gymnogyps californianus, following her own researches.  They could not have been California Condors, as these images show.

In the adult Andean Condor, the upperwing panel reveals the white feathering as mentioned.  (Notations right below the inner secondaries show where some corresponding, partially-white feathers may be found on adult Californians.)  These, and a narrow white panel on the tertials represent the limit of white on its upperwings.  In the Californian, the ruff is never white, and that species is rejected as the identity of those described from Lawndale. 

The Andean underwing is uniform blackish.  It is possible that some witnesses may have noticed the underwing and assumed that the upperwing was of the same color, but coloration of feathering is hardly ever the same in the upper/underwings of most birds; some species (Bateleur Terathopius ecaudatus) may further have separately distinct underwing patterns, one pattern for each underwing. (In the Californian, the underwing is blackish with white underwing coverts).

In an interview in the Monsterquest film, Mike Wallace of the Zoological Society of San Diego said that “it sounds like what he is describing with a white ring around its neck would not be the California Condor but an Andean Condor.”

Overall, I feel that the description of the Lawndale birds is a match for the Andean.  Though Hall first suggests an absolute in what the witnesses described, he is not quoting them, and as a major inconsistency with what witness James Daniels described in the birds showing white on their wings, the notion of entirely black deserves rejection.  From Daniels’ testimony my arguments rest for a diagnostic identification.  By default, the birds–both–were female, considering that no mention was made of either having a caruncle, a diagnostic feature of the male condor.

My own earlier skepticism began differently when I had first read of the details of the Lawndale incident.  I had speculated that the reference to white ring was an interpretative impression of the witnesses, and it seemed more plausible that those words might also serve as an impression of whitish or pale hackles on an immature eagle (Bald Eagle), and that this individual which attacked Lowe may have had an unusually fair amount of pale mottling on its neck to allow for the description.  Various theories were presented in the wake of the incident in 1977, these incorporating into question such large birds as the Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias, Peacock Pavo cristatus, and the Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumeniferus, the latter due to the coincidence of one having escaped from Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo at the time, but none of these are without serious distinctions of plumage characters from that of the mystery birds.  (The behavior and plumage characters of the storks comparative to that of the Andean Condor, particularly those of Leptoptilos, are an unlikely discussion and will be presented in a separate, forthcoming post.) 

I had also become familiar with accounts of attacks on humans, particularly attacks on children, by raptors, among which include the notorious case of Svanhild Hansen Hartvigsen (Ørnerovet på Leka (Roestad, 2006)), who was allegedly abducted by a White-tailed Eagle Haliaaetus albicilla in Leka, Norway in 1932.  It would also seem plausible that in North America a true raptor of the Accipitridae such as a Bald Eagle Haliaaetus leucocephalus or a Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos canadensis may have capabilities of being rapacious (see link [6] below in “Explanation for..” section).  However, as my hypothesis demonstrates, it could not hold for an American vulture of the Cathartidae.

Three years ago one summer day I took an opportunity to view the Monsterquest: Birdzilla documentary.  Before I finished watching, I was completely changed, and this website is in no small way a product of my conversion.  It was not so much the singular account of the Lawndale incident, but that of a similar case the film evaluated from a region well known for its reports of rare birds–southern Texas.  I also allow credence for the species accounts and detailed maps in the Smithsonian Birds of North America (Alsop, ed., 2000) for inspiration.  I could begin to see how a pattern of accidental movement among birds could perpetuate the appearance of those seen in an unlikely place in the central U.S. such as Illinois.

Yet that did not remedy the greatest question about this particular episode, that a child was transported off the ground for a brief period.  “It would be I would have to say impossible for an Andean Condor to lift something with its feet,” Mike Wallace relayed in Monsterquest.  “Andeans, as well as the California Condor you see behind me [exhibit of the San Diego Zoo] … they have feet much like a Turkey, that can’t grasp or lift.”  

In unadorned terms Lowe described it this way in his interview–

“It picked me up.”

“Something just swooped down and grabbed me.”

One obscure particular of this account was given consideration in my construction of an argument for the attack on Marlon Lowe, and I am confident that what I am describing is the likely scenario.

EXPLANATION FOR THE INCIDENT OF THE ATTACK ON MARLON LOWE

As follows, my verbatim notes (October 29, 2012) from a draft essay, almost all of which I retain for argument, explaining what probably transpired when the bird, this being an adult female Andean Condor Vultur gryphus, attacked Lowe.

———…To begin, the various reports of the Lawndale sighting are inconsistent.  Loren Coleman’s summary of the event based on his interviews with Marlon Lowe and his mother, Ruth Lowe, are articulate [2], though bearing inconsistencies with a revised edition of a book Coleman co-authored, Thunderbirds by Mark A. Hall [29].

The problem with this is how it is assumed that a 56-pound human being was lifted–when that may have been an apparency.  It is simply the oversight of those who have taken account of the circumstances that has perpetuated the unfair assertion that no known bird could have done it.  Lowe, rather than being lifted, was momentarily buoyed.  While running across his property, he was mobbed by one of the pair as it descended; its distended [extended] feet struck at him.  What is critical is what happened in that very moment; Coleman’s summary does not allude to it, but it is pointedly detailed in Hall as well as in Shuker [42].  The prolonged basal phalanx of the condor’s second toe prevents, as well as [in] American vultures (unlike the Old World vultures of the Accipitridae), clutching or gripping [44].  Despite the proposals of many who believe that these birds are some type of living relict of the teratorns or prehistoric vultures, the fossil record shows that this foot structure also applies to all known species in the Cathartoidea and the Neocathartoidea [14].  This, as well as the fact that the musculature of the foot is very weak.  (Also relevant are the assertions, proven to be erroneous [6, 34], from general works that raptors in general cannot carry off live prey of any weight greater than their own [38]).  What is being ignored is the type of shirt that Lowe was wearing that evening–a tank top of sleeveless design with shoulder straps.  Had he been wearing a sleeved shirt, it would not have been possible for the the condor’s inner toes to have become enmeshed in the straps, as is the probable scenario.  The condor did not clutch his person.  The pull at his shirt straps caused the shirt to act like a drawstring sack, which allowed for momentum, reinforced by the momentous force generated from the bird’s own enormous proportions as it flew at him, and in this sense the condor, acting as a ten-foot hang-glider, buoyed itself.  Its lighter weight (weighing up to 33 pounds) would have actually been to its advantage.  This much would have been inadvertent, but the bird would have had a great advantage from the accelerating velocity of its descent (being able to gain speeds up to 40 mph) to allow for transportation (a “few feet” off the ground).  If Lowe was moving along a downward incline, this may have reinforced a quick push upwards and off the ground.  An upright person, running forward in the same direction as the bird and not inert, together with the critical component of how the shirt became a facilitator, all reinforce an argument that what would otherwise have been impossible did indeed transpire.  It is difficult to just lift something, but physical momentum allows, even for an unwitting creature, for cutting corners.  Lowe may have also endured a very slight ascent, then descent, before the bird released its hold.  The distance of displacement, even if it exceeded 40 feet, is plausible, and the loss of momentum, not Lowe’s resistance, was the reason for his release.  A possible experiment, using a carcass fitted in a manner to have straps secured to it, might replicate this scenario, but only in a manner that would allow for a voluntary movement on the part of the condor (monitored by video).

There is, probably most important of all, the question of duration.  Hall wrote that Ruth Lowe did not witness the actual “chasing and grabbing” that Coleman recorded, but rather, that she “emerged” from their residence to see her son’s “feet dangling in the air.”  Even considering his displacement, it is surmised, then, that the encounter of the condor buoying Lowe off the ground was momentary.

Ruth Lowe also saw that the condor was “trying to peck at Marlon.”  Attributed to condors is their propensity for attacking live prey such as weakened or sick young of livestock or guanacos.  Condors and vultures in general will not begin tearing at a carcass until it is putrified to the point where their beaks can tear into the flesh; in their patience they can only remove the softest parts of the animal such as the eyes and tongue, and days may pass before a kettle will complete a carcass.  The Andean Condor may be removed from being a true bird of prey, but this does not exclude it from posing a potential threat in this sense.  Specifically addressing the behavior of Andean [c]ondors, Nuttall wrote of how hardly “an instance is really known of their even assaulting an infant, though some credulous naturalists, with the exaggerating privilege [sic] of travellers, have given accounts of their killing young persons 10 or 12 years of age.  Their ability for such rapine is not to be doubted, but their natural cowardice forbids the attempt.  At the same time, it is not uncommon to see them follow and hover around a young bull until they have torn out his eyes and tonge” [36].  The sightings in Naranjito, Puerto Rico and McCook, Texas coincide[d] with a spate of animal mutilations in those respective areas, but there is nothing evidentiary to show that birds were responsible.  Though the condor is typically known to roost at night in its cold, mountainous habitat of the Andes, many, if not most, of the sightings, be it either perched or flying birds, took place in the early evening or later.  In captivity, they are capable of killing and tearing the skin of a live rabbit [50].  Reintroduced California Condors, which were prone to frequent populated areas as a consequence of the methods by which they were reared in captivity, were known to enter a guest home in Pine Mountain Club, California, causing much damage and tearing apart mattresses [35].  While it is here suggested that a condor could attack an unwary human target, ironically, the odds may be slight if presumptions are made to the effect that the circumstances to which a condor could [allegedly] transport anyone or thing have potential for recurrence.  Any assumptions are inadmissible that a large bird would naturally be inclined to pull on a child’s clothing….

2 Website:  http://the-magic-bullet.tumblr.com/post/9966990207/the-1977-lawndale-illinois-thunderbird-case  Timeline of events in bird sighting by Loren Coleman.  Downloaded Sept. 21, 2012

…

29  Hall, Mark A.  Thunderbirds; 2004 edition.  Cosimo Books, 2004

…

42  Shuker, Karl.  In Search of Prehistoric Monsters[.]  Blandford, 1995

…

44  Sick, Helmut.  Birds in Brazil.  Princeton University Press, 1993  [translated from the Portuguese]

…

14  Capparella, Angelo.  Cryptozoology, Volume 9, 1990 [review of Hall, Thunderbirds (1988 edn.), 94]

…

6  Website [Video]:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xz_LI5TLTY  “Eagle Carries a Goat.”  Downloaded Sept. 25, 2012  [attachment to summary]

…

34  Johnson, Simon.  “Takeaway Meal:  golden eagle snatches lamb from hillside.”  The Telegraph [UK], Feb. 28, 2011

…

38  Perrins, Christopher & Harrison, Colin.  Birds:  Their Life, Their Ways, Their World.  Reader’s Digest Books, 1976.  (Remark on raptors unable to lift large prey [61] and image of condor in flight [174])

…

36  Nuttall, Thomas.  A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada.  The Land Birds.  Second Edition.  Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1840

…

50  Gailey, Janet & Bolwig, Niels.  “Observations on the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus).”  The Condor.  Volume 75, 1973

…

35  Nielson, John.  Condor–To the Brink and Back.  Harper, 2007…———

TYPICAL FOOT STRUCTURE OF THE AMERICAN VULTURES 

The bone structure of a typical cathartid vulture foot, based on the illustration in Birds in Brazil (Sick).  The basal phalanyx marked, this being prolonged in American vultures and which prevents them from manipulating with the toes, whereas a reduction would allow for grasping and clutching, as in the raptors of the Accipitridae.

Images to the right of this are comparative example claws representative of the vulture groups:  the smaller claw typical of the American vultures (Turkey Vulture, condors), the larger an example of that of an Old World vulture (Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus).

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

In Hall’s book Ruth Lowe offered this assertion about the release of her son from the bird:

“He was hitting at it with his fists.  If he hadn’t, it never would have dropped him.”

The author of In Search of Prehistoric Monsters.. (cited above) narrates the release of Lowe similarly:  “[D]uring this brief but terrifying journey, Marlon was frantically punching up at the bird, which seemed to be experiencing no difficulty in transporting his 65 lb weight.  Happily, however, one of his punches evidently hit home, because the bird suddenly dropped him, and continued flying towards and over the camper, accompanied by its partner.”

This much, especially the latter description, stresses that it was Lowe’s efforts, his striking at the bird, which caused it to drop him.  I beg to differ.  In Monsterquest, Lowe himself recalled,

“It dropped me, and when it dropped me I just took off running.”

From my above explanation, I believe that his release was due to the bird’s loss of momentum, and I do not readily see how his hitting at the bird would have simply nor dramatically allowed for such as the bird had both feet attached to one strap of the shirt.  The “abductor” would likely not have relinquished such a hold from both feet at once when it was being struck.  It is invoked in In Search of Prehistoric Monsters.. that the bird “suddenly” dropping him, yet that, however it is supportive to my argument, is just inference.  Lowe’s above statement, however, is the last word, and by “[I]t dropped me,..” it is plausible to see that he is implying that his efforts were not necessarily the reason, thus supporting what I tend to believe.

Overall, I tend to think that Ruth Lowe’s confidence in interpreting her son’s actions as the reason for his release are a misinterpretation and a discrepancy to her testimony.  Yet I no less feel that this witness and the witnesses overall were sincere in making the episode known.  My report should allow them the overdue vindication they deserve.  It would be expected of any layperson observer to witness what each of them did to immediately assume that this Andean Condor was attempting to carry off Marlon.  Yet that was not precisely the case.  Some misconceptions, which do not supersede the underlying premise of the appearance and behavior of the birds, emerged from this incident.

If I were to change any part of my above explanation since writing three years ago, I would reconsider the impetus of the birds’ actions as, possibly, being something other than inadvertent.  Of recent, I came to realize the obvious:  the condor that attacked Lowe had one foot attached to a corresponding shirt strap.  I cannot remove the possibility of it being an intelligent creature–to such a degree it may have realized some advantaged in applying each foot in such a manner.  If he was not “abducted” in a strict sense, then perhaps this bird had motive for some type of attempted displacement.  Clearly this was a predatory action, and it and its partner invested in mobbing Lowe and attempting to attack another of the children present.  In perspective, I might also reconsider that the bird’s pull on Lowe’s shirt allowed any slight ascent, as I had suggested above, and rather, he was barely lifted from the ground and would be quickly released when the momentum of the bird’s own movements ended.

The type of shirt Marlon Lowe is wearing, from the above image taken from the 1977 interview, may be similar to what he was wearing during the incident.

Angelo Capparella of Illinois State University is a skeptic of the particulars of the Lawndale incident.  Speaking to the plausibility of a giant bird appearing in Illinois, a quarter-century ago he wrote that his “level of credulity would be different for reports of thunderbirds from, say, the yungas of Bolivia than for reports from central Illinois”  (Cryptozoology 10: 116).  Capparella was also opinionated in my interpretation of this account.  He wrote,

“The interpretation of the Lawndale incident in terms of explaining how a non-grasping foot could have buoyed Martin [sic] Lowe is novel.”

He also, as with numerous skeptics of such reports, drew attention to the necessity of a bird of such a size occurring in Illinois and not being previously noticed (Cryptozoology 9: 94).  My retort is simply that it is beside the point if the bird is a resident, breeding species where it is found, or if it has any capacity for continuing in a certain area for any period; it is only a question of what capacity it may have for any type of movement.

FORTHCOMING DISCUSSION

This explanation is presented with a caveat.  There is more to it.  I feel that what is relayed is sufficient as for rectifying the “abduction” argument; what happened and what was believed to have happened have been afforded deserving clarification.  

In forthcoming posts, including the next [UAC6, “Further Assessment of the Lawndale Incident,” in preparation] I will address related issues as follows–

→  Climate patterns and the movement of birds with particular evaluation of this case expounded.

→  The African Crowned Eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus as a point of topic as evaluated in Monsterquest:  Birdzilla.

→  An evaluation of related sightings in Illinois in 1977 as part of the Lawndale series.

→  Subsequent revelations from other witnesses belatedly describing mysterious giant birds in the state as a consequence of the report of the Lawndale incident.

→  Assessment of rare, accidental birds in Illinois.

→  Related accounts of attacks on human beings by birds with especial relevance to the Lawndale incident.  

→  Most importantly, a discussion on the movements of Andean Condors.

This evaluation explains the event of the attack of a bird on Lowe and the identity of the pair being Andean Condors.  Granted, the birds match the description of the Andean, it can at once be assumed that, in this singular instance, the question of their actual provenance does not reduce the veracity of what arguments are being presented.  It is a separate matter (emphasis mine) to question how they arrived where they did.  However, I believe that the condors’ appearance in Illinois was a natural phenomenon, one which will be described separately.  There is also the given possibility of the appearance of any bird not in its native habitat being an instance of an escape, and this should be kept in mind when considering these arguments, however not all points being fully evaluated here.

Mathew Louis

Written November 17, 2015.

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This entry was posted in Andean Condor, Illinois and tagged Andean Condor, Cryptozoology, Illinois, Lawndale, Mark Hall, Marlon Lowe, Monsterquest, Thunderbirds, Vulture. 

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March 29, 2016

Elvira Gascon says:

"I saw the huge bird in the summer of 1977. I was on the way home when I saw a huge bird flying over me. When I got home, no one believed me."