Lake Worth Goatman

A seven-foot silhouette hurls a tire across the night, a Mustang’s hood crumples under a sudden weight, and Fort Worth holds its breath. We return to the summer of 1969, when the Lake Worth Monster—dubbed the Goatman—turned an overgrown shoreline into a nightly pilgrimage and a metro-wide obsession. From the first panicked teen report to the photo that reignited the frenzy, we follow how a single lakeside encounter swelled into a legend that still haunts North Texas lore.

We paint the physical world that made belief feel possible: a neglected lake ringed with brush right to the water, a handful of dim roads, and a city that had largely turned its back on the shoreline. That setting, plus a media ecosystem of live radio cut-ins and eager TV crews, created a perfect feedback loop. Testimony from a calm, convincing teen witness drove thousands to the woods with flashlights (and too many guns), while reporters captured the chaos as much as the creature. When a grainy photograph surfaced—rare and hard to fake in 1969—the story surged again. And just as doubt settled, a Ford Mustang bore fresh scars and a shaken driver swore something dropped from the trees.

Along the way, we unpack why legends like Goatman endure: how ambiguous evidence gains power when it’s physical, how a place’s geography can trick the senses at night, and how shared fear becomes a social event. We connect the Goatman to a broader North Texas map of mystery—from the Lady of White Rock Lake to haunted depots and decades of UFO chatter—showing how these tales stitch a sprawling city into a community of listeners, drivers, and late-night searchers. With first-hand memories of KLIF’s on-the-ground reports, we trace the emotional arc of a city that couldn’t look away.

If you love cryptids, local history, and the strange chemistry between rumor and reality, press play and decide where you land: hoax, hysteria, or something that still prowls the tree line. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves a good scare, and leave a review to tell us your verdict.

Transcript

Setting The Scene: Lake Worth

First Sighting And Tire Throw

Media Frenzy And Public Panic

The Photo Rekindles The Hype

The Mustang Attack And Aftermath

Broader North Texas Legends

Subscribe And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Creep Radio, where we dive deep into the dark, the bizarre and the unexplained. Dim the lights and lock your doors. Prepare to get creeped out. Because the unknown is calling, and we're about to answer. I'm your host, the Master of Creep. Well, we meet again. My little creepies, I hope you're doing well. I'm the Master of Creep. And tonight I want to talk to you about Lake Worth Monster, the Goatman sightings. Now this happened in my hometown in the Dallas of Fort Worth area, and it was way back in 1969. But guess what? I'm older than that, and I remember this happening. In fact, in 1969, I was 15 years old. Now this happened over by Fort Worth, Texas. It's a lake called Lake Worth. Now this particular lake is on the northwest side of Fort Worth, and out of all of the lakes in the area, Lake Worth seems to be the most undeveloped. Well there's lots of woods and thick brush surrounding the lake, all the way up to the water's edge. You see, Lake Worth was built in 1914 by creating a dam on the Trinity River. This idea was to build the lake mainly for recreation. The city of Fort Worth purchased the land and built the lake. However, they didn't follow through very well, and the lake was mostly abandoned. Now, when the city of Fort Worth built the lake, there was almost nothing around it. The lake was created well north of the city. The city of Fort Worth stopped putting money and effort into the lake and nature took over. Trees and thick brush covered most of the area. There were a few attempts to keep the parks cleaned up, but even that got neglected. For the next forty years the lake was mostly used by teenagers as a place to hang out. And since the lake was mostly abandoned, very few boaters got on the lake, probably because there weren't very many boat ramps. Now for the first fifty years, the lake was pretty uneventful. It was just another lake. Nothing special about it. But in nineteen sixty nine, Lakeworth was in the headlines. A small group of teens was at the lake at one of the parks at the north end. It was June of nineteen sixty nine, and they saw something that looked like a large man, but it was covered in white fur. It stood over seven feet tall. This creature picked up an old tire and threw it at them. The tire actually sailed over their heads, landing more than a hundred feet away. No man could throw a tire that far. This thing had super strength. Then it let out a yell that scattered the group into a frenzied panic. There was really no place to run because the monster had them trapped. They would have to go toward the beast in order to get to their cars. Of course the teens contacted the police, and that got the TV and radio and newspapers all involved. In June of 1969 you couldn't pick up a newspaper or turn on a TV or a radio without hearing about the goat man as described by one of the boys who saw the beast. After all of the local publicity, tens of thousands of people flocked to the abandoned lake to search for the goat man. The local authorities were in a panic because many of these people brought guns with them. Someone is going to get shot or killed before this all blows over. I mean anytime you have a lot of people with guns and they were drinking alcohol, that just can't end very well. Some of the local people were scared, but most were just simply skeptical. After all, it was only witnessed by one group of teenagers who were drinking beer. And the only evidence was the story itself which seemed to have a life of its own. But one of the reasons that the story had so much interest is because one of the teen boys did a TV interview, and he was very believable. If this was a lie, we are looking at a future Oscar winner. TV, radio crews, and reporters would go out to the lake and spend the night, but what they were really reporting on was the intense crowds that were growing every day. Every time a radio story would air, more and more people would visit the lake. Everyone wanted to find the goat man. It took months for this story to die down. I personally remember when this story broke. Yes, I remember listening to KLIF Radio. It was the most popular top 40 radio stations at the time. And they had a live stream reporter stationed at the lake for several nights. And I was 15 years old at the time living in Dallas, Texas. Lake Worth was about 35 miles from my house. And I know that if I had a driver's license or a car, I would probably have been one of those who would have gone out to the lake to look for the goat man. I remember the radio announcer talking to several people at the lake, and you could hear a lot of chaos in the background. Yes, I would have loved to be in the middle of all of that. The goat man was dominating the minds of most Dallas Fort Worth citizens for an entire summer. In fact, it is still in my mind fifty-four years later, I can say that it had an impact on me. Just as soon as the story started to lose its steam, a girl from the original group of witnesses produced a picture of Goatman. Now keep in mind, this was back in 1969, back when people didn't carry cameras around with them all the time. Plus back then it was almost impossible to alter a picture. We didn't have computers at home. The picture shows a large white furry looking man who looks like a Bigfoot more than anything else. I'm still not sure where he got the name Goat Man because clearly he isn't a goat. Maybe it's because of the color, I don't know. So once the picture gets published, the interest is sparked again, and again, thousands of people flock to Lake Worth. And as far as I know, no one actually got shot or hurt, which is a miracle in itself when you consider all of these people running around at night drinking with guns. Of course, I have the picture posted back at the website at creepy showpodcast.com. Why don't you go take a look at it? Finally, after several months, the Lakeworth monster starts to slow down, the stories start to thin out, people go about their lives, but something else happened. Something happened. Oh my gosh, now what could it be? Well, the goat man wasn't done yet. He made another appearance. This time he dropped out of a tree onto the hood of a car that was going down a dirt road next to the lake. And again it was a teenager. The teen was driving a Ford Mustang when the goat man jumped onto the hood of his car and made him turn and crash into a tree. Again, the story was believable. This time there was physical evidence because the car hood was actually damaged. And now I know what you're thinking. Some teenager was probably speeding at the lake and had an accident, so he blamed it on the goat man. Well, maybe so. But the team was very believable. And now we have a crashed car and a photo. So considering this was 1969, that was a lot of evidence. And as you can imagine, the lake got very popular once again following the car crash incident. The entire goatman era lasted for several years. But this is just one story in the Dallas Fort Worth area. You know, anytime you get millions of people together in one area, strange things are bound to happen. The Goatman is just one example, but he dominated the airwaves in 1969 and 1970. Almost as popular as The Lady of White Rock Lake, which I featured in another episode of the Creepy Show podcast. In addition to lake stories, the Dallas Fort Worth area has several older homes and restaurants that are known to be haunted. The story of Cole's Revenge is another podcast episode that took place in the Dallas Fort Worth area at the railroad yards. And in another creepy show podcast episode, I talk about the Kennedy Dollar Bill, which originated in Dallas. And we have had a lot of UFO sightings over the past 50 plus years. And of course, I'm going to bring you all of these stories in time. So make sure that you subscribe to the Creepy Show podcast. And we'll see you next time. Well now, have you had enough? Oh, don't forget to subscribe and share.