#sackabilly

[terrorbone]

Sackabilly:

I don’t remember anything very specific about Sackabilly. Dio and Julia say Sackabilly would get you if you got in Mae’s flowerbeds. I imagine if his name was Sackabilly that he probably had a sack, too. Anybody remember anything else?

Added later: Whoa, I found a reference to Sackabilly outside of our family lore. In 2007, some guys named Gary Hilton and Tom Ramsey had a cigar store in Clarksdale, Mississippi where they named their cigars for Mississippi blues legends. One of the guys had a father with a hunting camp in Mississippi when he was growing up, and he told a story about the camp’s cook, Ernestine, who told *them* about Sackabilly.

Ernestine thought it wasn’t appropriate for children to be hanging around the camp. If the boys started acting too “mannish” — too big for their britches or too grown, trying to act like men — she’d tell them this:

“There’s three bad haints that are gonna get after you. These two bad haints live in this bayou. One of their names is Rawhead. The other one’s name is Bloody Bones. If you act mannish, they’ll come up and get you out of your bed and they’ll tote you off in the woods and give you to Sackabilly. He puts you in that big sack with all the other mannish children.”

Mae’s Lore, Sayings, and Stories

Mae had a wicked sense of humor, a vast collection of local legends (many of which she made up herself), and a trove of sayings that rivaled

[terrorbone]

“ Mae was intentionally vague when it came to describing the Sackabilly. She liked misbehaving children to provide their own horrific details. Someone bad moving around in the night with a sack was a good start. “

Of Myths and Legends

[terrorbone]

Lafayette, Louisiana (KMDL-FM) - Louisiana is full of creepy tales, lore, and cryptids.

From Lafayette to New Orleans, Houma to Shreveport, you'll find eerie tales of creatures that go bump in the night.

Obviously we all know about the Rougarou, The Honey Island Swamp Monster, and Madame Grand Doigt to name a few, there's one lesser known Louisiana legend that you may have never heard of.

Louisiana's Sackabilly is somewhat similar to the Hungarian tale of Krampus.

The Sackabilly is also commonly referred to as The Louisiana Boogeyman.

The Louisiana Sackabilly is one of those lesser-known regional cryptid tales that blends Cajun folklore and old campfire stories.

Unlike more well known Louisiana cryptids like the Rougarou or Honey Island Swamp Monster, the Sackabilly lives in a smaller circle of oral tradition, usually told in bayou and rural communities.

The story seems to come from old boogeyman warnings Cajun parents used to keep kids from wandering at night or getting too close to the woods or the water.

Some versions of the legend say that parents throw their disappointing children into the Sackabilly's sack for him to take away...and eat.

Some say the Sackabilly legend may have been out of Depression-era tales about hobos or drifters carrying burlap sacks, mixed with Cajun superstition about spirits.

The creature is usually described as a small, wiry, goblin-like creature with long arms and scraggly hair.

The Sackabilly is said to snatch up children or drunks who stay out too late, stuffing them in its sack.

While the Sackabilly isn't a cryptid you’ll find written about in very many books, it pops up throughout Louisiana folklore and sometimes in local ghost tours or campfire storytelling.

Have you ever heard of the Louisiana Sackabilly? Let us know!