Goatman

Myth
Goatman
Games	Grand Theft Auto V
Locations	Cape Catfish Catfish View
Behaviour	PEACEFUL
Status	POSSIBLE
Maps

The Goatman is a possible myth found in Grand Theft Auto V.

Description

The Goatman appears to be a humanoid that stands upright, with hair covering its entire body, along with two horns protruding from the top of its head. Since there have been so few sightings, its behavior is unknown, as it has only been reported that the Goatman runs under the bridge towards the ocean after being spotted.

The Panic in the Woods phenomena can be considered as evidence towards the Goatman. The symptoms of Panic, such as deafening silence and paranoia, are connected to Goatman encounters in real life. The God Pan, for which Panic is named after, is a goat-like satyr just like the myth.

The existence of Goatman remains unknown based on confliction between file data and the sighting itself, however file data reveals that if Goatman was to appear in the alleged location, it would breach general ambient spawning methods, namely popgroups.ymt and scenarios.meta. A bicyclist of any kind may be seen cycling down the road towards the abandoned home between 07:00 am and 15:00 pm, and a random station wagon may drive down the road between 15:00 pm and 22:00 pm. No pedestrians are able to spawn in this location, as the only existing path is scripted for vehicles and/or pedestrians to strictly follow this path. No scenarios occur on the nearby hill, with the exception of several rabbits "eating" among the bushes north-west of the bridge.

References

The Goatman appears to be based on the real-life Goatman cryptid found within mountainous regions of the United States.

The original Goatman legend originated in the state of Maryland, where the creature was spotted on various Appalachian trails and supposedly assaulted couples and stray animals with deadly intent. As a possible reference: a hatchet, the weapon of choice used by the Maryland Goatman, was added in the next-gen version of GTA V, possibly along with the Goatman himself.

In the southern United States, there are also other rumors of Goatman. In Kentucky, there is a monster known as the Pope Lick Monster. It lives in the area around the Pope Lick Trestle bridge. It just so happens that there is another trestle found in the in-game Catfish View area. In southern Texas, there is a bridge known as the Old Alton Bridge, or colloquially known as Goatman's Bridge. Around Goatman's Bridge, there are long-standing rumors of a Goat-like satyr inhabiting the bridge. This creature is known to assault passers-by by throwing stones and breaking vehicles. Local legends persist that if one was to drive across the bridge with their headlights turned off, the Goatman would see this as a sign and make himself visible, almost mimicking the in-game behavior of this myth. This bridge is nearly identical to the bridge located in-game.

In various places across San Andreas, usually around the Chiliad Mountain State Wilderness, there are small religious shrines that feature goat skulls prominently. The inclusion of these shrines in the game are seen as a reference to the Goatman, but may just be there as part of the Altruist Cult's activities.

There have been other references pointing to Goatman in GTA V as well. A Goat's face, popularly referred to as the face of Baphomet, can be found in ocean foam not too far from the bridge's location.

A house can be found near the bridge's location that is up for sale, possibly being sold due to the fear of the Goatman. In reality, the home is foreclosed and is being sold by the bank rather than the owner of the house.

Sightings

Due to being first realized in 2016, the vast majority of Goatman sightings remain to be anecdotal evidence and eyewitness testimonies posted on forum sites and YouTube comments. There have been three notable sightings of the monster caught on camera, but all of these are believed to be misunderstandings.

July 2016 Sighting

The photo provided in the thread.

"The Pope Lick Monster" artwork, believed to have been used to hoax the Goatman image.

The inaugural sighting of the Goatman was first published on July 31, 2016, on a forum post on the GTA Myths Wiki under the name "DO NOT MARK AS READ!!! New Myth Discovered: Goatman." The story tells of the author meeting another anonymous user on GTA Online, before recounting his story of encountering the Goatman while playing as Michael in last-gen story mode. The story describes the Goatman on the dirt path at Cape Catfish before jumping down underneath the bridge and then continuing to the ocean and vanishing. The original thread attached a single image, showing the Goatman standing in front of the bridge while high beams on an unknown car shine on it.

In the time since it's posting, the thread been the source of considerable controversy. The user who originally submited the thread is infamous in the myth hunting community for previously uploading hoaxed photographs of the North Yankton Creature and The Swamp Monster. The anonymous nature of the thread, the author refusing to name the player who first witnessed the Goatman, also spreads some doubt on it's validity. When users asked for verification that the Goatman image had been posted on the Rockstar Games Social Club, the author's provided photo lacked the lightning bolt options menu seen on the Social Club and was also of lower photo fidelity than the images around it, appearing blocky and pixelated. The image was later reuploaded to fix these issues, with the author claiming that it was the result of a glitch, but this is unlikely.

Two years after the posting of the photo, an analysis by various GTA Myths Wiki users claimed that the image had been manipulated. The discovery of a Goatman artwork similar in pose and color of the Goatman in the photo, titled "The Pope Lick Monster," prompted further investigation into the photo. Analysis showed that the Goatman had extra visual noise around him, both in regular viewing and in error analysis software such as FotoForensics, pointing in the direction of a photoshop job. The color hex codes of the Goatman in the photo and the Pope Lick Monster artwork were consistent all around, with the only difference between the images being the horns, a primary piece of evidences to believers.

August 2016 Sighting

A GIF from the video.

On August 12st, 2016, a video was uploaded to YouTube that caught the attention of myth hunters for a potential Goatman sighting. The original uploader of the video never mentioned seeing anything suspicious, and it was outside analysis that first claimed the video had a sighting. At 0:59 in the video, a large black mass can be seen moving diagonally across the far right of the screen for approximately a second, before a shift in the camera renders it invisible. Early viewers of the video claimed that this was the Goatman moving below the bridge for a split second. Closer analysis shows that this was most likely the shadow of a bird flying overhead that was confused for a human figure because of it's shape.

October 2016 Sighting

The figure spotted in the video.

A recreation of the video, with a GTA Online protagonist wearing black heist armor and a light grey ski mask.

The third major sighting of the Goatman was uploaded on October 4th, 2016. The video is a regular myth hunting video, but was filmed in GTA Online rather than in singleplayer. While the player is walking on the trail, but beyond the bridge, a humanoid figure is seen on the far right of the screen starting at 3:06. The figure is all black, except for a bright gray head, and is of a muscular build. The figure sits in place for the entire video and doesn't even move to stare at the player, and it is never seen again except for that section.

It was first noted that the supposed Goatman conflicted heavily with the original in it's appearance, one was a cryptid with large horns and a brown body, while the other was a regular humanoid. Another piece of evidence against the photo was that it was filmed in GTA Online, although the author made attempts to cover this up by disabling his HUD and other on-screen elements. The HUD was most likely disabled so that viewers could not identify another player acting as the Goatman. Later analysis of the monster's idle animation definitively showed that the Goatman was actually just another player, with a muscular character, who was wearing black heist armor with a light gray ski mask.

Video Investigations

GTA 5 Myth Files - Goatman (NEW MYTH INVESTIGATION) GTA5 Myths and Legends Investigation 1

See Also

• Baphomet

Navigation

Myths and Legends in Grand Theft Auto V

Easter Eggs in Grand Theft Auto V