On 17 March 1969, lorry driver George Wishaw was disturbed by an unexpected visitor when he went out to use his outside toilet at around 4 a.m. Opening the door, he turned back towards his house and saw a giant male figure dressed entirely in black. Although he could not make out a face, the man was clearly looking straight at him. George called out to the intruder but received no reply, and when he rushed towards it the figure vanished as soon as he came close.
Bemused, but suspecting the man to be a burglar, George ran back inside to arm himself. He later recalled, “That figure was at least half as big again as I am. In my life I have never seen a human being so big. Something must have possessed me to make me attack it.” He searched his garden, the air raid shelter, coal shed, and toilet, and even checked neighbouring gardens, but there was no sign of the man.
Although unsettled, George was a practical man and went about his day as usual, returning home in the early evening. Not long after settling down to watch television, the Wishaws’ dog began barking at the door, wanting to be let out. When George opened it, both he and the dog froze. The hulking black figure was there again, standing by a tree in the garden. George bolted the door as the dog ran back into the house. For several days afterwards the animal appeared distressed and refused to go outside.
George was similarly distressed and, a few days later, when he again rose at four o’clock to use the outside toilet, he did so with great apprehension. His fears were realised when the now familiar figure appeared once more, this time standing by the wall of a neighbour’s house. George called out to it again and, as before, received no response. When he approached to within a few feet, the figure vanished.
“I really could not believe it,” George later told the press. “The whole episode was like something you read about, or something on TV. But I want to stress that I did not dream it, nor had I imagined it. It was really terrifying.”
Returning home that evening from a distracted day’s work, George was informed that his neighbour, beside whose house the man in black had been standing, had died suddenly earlier that day. “I think it’s just too much of a coincidence to say the neighbour happened to die as this prowler was about,” he said.
