On the Isle of Wight in 1973, two children allegedly came face-to-face with a cryptid or entity so unique, their experience remains the only one on record. Dubbed Sam the Sandown Clown, this odd individual seems entirely harmless from the children's reported interaction, but his origin is still a complete mystery.
Perhaps Sam was an alien who found solace in the English countryside and only wanted to make friends with the children. Maybe he was a scout who found humans lacking, warning the rest of his people away from our planet. If it was a hoax, to what end?
Luckily, a detailed account of the encounter exists for amateur sleuths looking to solve the mystery.
Lake Common is a popular spot near Sandown, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, where throngs of tourists travel every year. While there, visitors enjoy the town's seaside charm through its shops, restaurants, and golf course, as well as its natural beauty.
While Sandown's history includes Romans mining salt and the military using its shores to protect it from attacks by sea, nothing compares to what happened there in May1973. A man referred to as Mr. Y and his 7-year-old daughter, known as Fay, traveled to the Isle of Wight for a holiday with friends. Fay and her unnamed playmate, a 7-year-old boy, met up there and began exploring.
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One Afternoon, Fay And Her Friend Heard a Strange Wailing Sound And Set Out To Find It
Fay and her unnamed friend decided to play near Lake Common around 4 pm when they heard a bizarre, siren-like wail that led them through Shanklin & Sandown Golf Club.
Once the children reached a swampy area between the golf course and the airport, the sound stopped. Finding nothing nearby, the pair continued over a small footbridge that spanned a small brook. That's when a mysterious hand appeared.
The Children Had Their First Encounter With Sam Up Close
According to the children, first, a hand inside a blue glove appeared from under the bridge, followed by a book of some kind being dropped in water. They then heard splashing, as if someone was trying to retrieve it. A figure appeared and hurried into a windowless metal hut nearby. Fay and her friend started to leave the area and got about 50 yards away before the being emerged from its strange lean-to.
The children described the figure's walk as “a strange hopping motion with knees raised high,” and when he appeared again, he held a microphone. The children said the creepy wailing returned with the microphone, sending the boy running until the strange figure spoke. It said, “Hello, are you still there?” Sounding friendly enough, the creature's attempt at communication drew the children back to the clearing.
Later, Fay and her companion described the individual they encountered as being seven feet tall and having no neck. The creature wore a pointed yellow hat with a round, black knob on its top and two wood-like antennae on either side. The hat connected to a red collar worn on his green tunic. Like a scarecrow, the creature had triangles for eyes, a square nose, and yellow lips. He had marks on his extremely white skin and red, fringed hair.
The Children's Conversation With Sam Grew Increasingly Confusing
The creature introduced himself by writing, “Hello and I am all colours, Sam,” in a notebook and pointing to each word in order, which Fay read aloud. She and her friend noted that Sam didn't write the words in the correct order. As they moved closer, they also realized Sam could speak without his microphone.
The speech, however, was less clear and sounded like someone speaking through closed lips. As for Sam's lips, they didn't move at all when he spoke. He asked Fay and the boy questions, and they asked about his torn clothing. Sam told the children they were his only clothes, so he had none to change into.
Sam Provided Only Vague Answers As To What He Really Was
Fay and her playmate asked if Sam, with his paper-white skin, was really a man at all. He answered, “No,” with a laugh. The children guessed next that Sam was a ghost, but he answered, “Well, not really, but I am in an odd sort of way.”
“What are you then?” was the children's next question, and Sam cryptically answered, “You know.” Although he had already introduced himself as Sam, he then told the children he didn't have a name, but there were others like him. He even drew the children a picture of another like him before sharing that he feared humans. Sam thought humans may hurt him but assured Fay and her friend he wouldn't fight back.
The Children Agreed To Follow Sam And Enter His Metal Hut
After the question-and-answer session, Sam invited the children to join him in his windowless metal hut. Fay and her friend agreed, crawling through a flap to enter the two-level building. The lower floor had blue-green wallpaper and was covered in dials like the dashboard of an airplane. Wooden furniture completed the first floor, along with an electrical heater.
The children only described the second floor as having a metal floor and less room.
Sam Showed The Children His Unconventional Method Of Eating
While in the metal shelter, Sam further enlightened the children about himself. He told them he lived off of berries he collected in the late afternoon and drank water he purified from the brook. He also referenced a camp he visited before showing the children a few tricks with a berry.
Sam took off his hat and exposed brown hair, as well as round ears as white as his face. Using one of his three-fingered hands, he popped a berry into his ear and nodded his head forward, and the fruit magically appeared by his eye. Another forceful nod took the berry to his mouth, where he ate it.
After 30 minutes with Sam, the children left and returned to their parents.
Despite The Children's Level Of Detail When Describing The Encounter, Most People Didn't Believe Them
The first adult the children found after leaving Sam's hut that day laughed at their story. Fay then waited until June 2, 1973, three weeks after she met Sam, to tell her father, Mr. Y, about the encounter.
At first, Mr. Y didn't believe his daughter but thought the amount of detail she provided was proof of her story's veracity. He also claimed Fay's companion verified her story. Mr. Y returned to the area where the children claimed to see Sam but couldn't find a hut. Workers allegedly in the area at the time of the event stated they saw no hut, either.
Mr. Y believed Sam took the children into some alien bubble that hid them from the nearby workers but allowed them to interact. This wasn't surprising, considering Mr. Y had his own strange encounter on the Isle of Wight.
Fay’s Father Had His Own Unexplained Experience On The Isle Of Wight
On October 20, 1970, Mr. Y drove across the Isle of Wight to see a friend in Ryde when he encountered something strange around 7 pm. While in the village of Brading, Mr. Y claimed a large UFO covered in lights flew low to the ground nearby. He stopped to watch the strange aircraft made up of red, turquoise, and yellow light move about.
After the UFO followed Mr. Y for a while, he exited his car and signaled for a while with his flashlight. This caused the UFO to idle, moving back and forth, before it followed Mr. Y to his destination. Once at his friend's house, the UFO bobbed and weaved through treetops before disappearing. The lights popped up a few times afterwards, still following Fay's father.
Then, on March 1, 1972, Mr. Y was allegedly traversing the Isle of Wight to another friend's house. Suddenly, the water from the nearby Compton Bay began swelling, forcing Mr. Y out of his car and over to a nearby cliff. Once there, he claimed he saw a pair of yellow lights “peering” at him from just below the water's surface. He claimed that once the yellow lights disappeared, the water retreated, and he returned to his vehicle.
People Have Many Theories About What Sam Actually Was
To this day, only Fay and her friend have ever encountered Sam, yet seekers of the unknown still have opinions on what exactly the children saw by the water.
Mr. Y seemingly believes Sam was an alien who invited his daughter into a strange bubble outside of normal human perception to share information. The fact that Fay's account was published in BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) Journal is another tally in favor of Sam being an alien.
Another explanation is that the children experienced folie à deux, or a shared hallucination, as a way to process some trauma they endured that day. Perhaps there was a Sam, but it was easier for the children to imagine him as a strange alien clown than whoever - or whatever - he actually was. It's also possible the children met a man named Sam who was under the influence or who had mental health issues, leading them to mistakenly perceive him as an otherworldly entity.
Some followers of this mystery take Sam's strange answer to the children's question of whether or not he was a ghost to mean that he was, in fact, some kind of spirit.
A far simpler explanation is that the encounter was a hoax. Children exploring during vacation often play games of make-believe, and Sam could have been nothing more than a game to pass the time.
Jodi Smith original post from https://www.ranker.com/list/sandown-clown-incident/jodi-smith