Serious Skeptical Lessons from an Apparently Silly Story

BY DANIEL LOXTON

Believe it or not, there have been times in history when strange and inexplicable tales have emerged from the state of Florida. Today we will dig into one of the oddest and silliest of Florida legends, and tell this story not once, but twice—despite the fact that it was revealed as a hoax decades ago. I give you: the curious case of Florida’s 15-foot mystery penguin!

Once upon a time, back in February of 1948, early morning, Clearwater, Florida beachgoers stood gawking at an unexpected sight. All along the beach stretched a trail of gigantic three-toed footprints, looking for all the world like a theropod dinosaur had stalked past in the night. Police and local press were alerted and rushed to the scene. In the weeks that followed, similar giant footprints appeared on other beaches in the region. Headlines hailed each new development in the mystery. Thousands flocked to the beaches to see for themselves. The police were flooded with inquiries.

“I saw those tracks leading from the water, then returning to the water, and I thought that I was going crazy,” marveled one witness. “I think that people should be told what it is. If it is anything dangerous, then we should be warned. I’ve never seen anything like it.”1

The “Clearwater monster” was born.

Now, before we go any further, let me say again that the Clearwater monster is a known hoax. When I set out to write about it, however, the mythical giant penguin story quickly turned into one of the most intense research projects of my career. I’m now convinced that the true implications of this story have never been fully understood. I’m reminded of a remark by noted skeptic, science writer, and parapsychology researcher Susan Blackmore, who in writing in great depth about one obscure astral projection story, exclaimed, “I want to scream!”

I fear I may bore people by going into such elaborate detail and becoming so obsessed with this ancient case, but that is what you have to do if you want to get to the bottom of psychic and paranormal claims. Time after time they appear compelling at first sight and crumble on closer inspection.2

Why do fringe claims follow this infuriating pattern? The trail of the giant penguin may lead us to one answer.

Illustration by Jim W.W. Smith

Ivan Sanderson in 1953. Photo by Fred Palumbo. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).

The “Official” Story

Headlines such as “Huge Three-Toed Tracks Are Found On Clearwater Beach” soon caught the attention of a colorful radio host in far off New York City. Ivan Sanderson was a Scottish-born naturalist and popular science writer who had recently become a broadcast media personality. He was also keenly interested in speculative “scientific” mysteries such as flying saucers and rumored creatures (not yet known as “cryptids”). In fact, he had just published an article in the immensely popular Saturday Evening Post asking, “could there be a few dinosaurs still living in the remoter corners of the earth?” Sanderson thought there might be—and the Clearwater tracks suggested the tantalizing prospect of proof.

Yet more tracks appeared in October that year, further inland, along the shore of the Suwannee River. Sanderson seized the opportunity to go to Florida himself, investigate these new tracks, and record episodes of his regular daily WNBC radio program on site. The radio station covered Sanderson’s expenses and sent along an audio technician and a news director. The expedition was joined by New York Herald Tribune science reporter John O’Reilly and, later, skeptical local Florida reporter Dick Bothwell and some local hosts and guides.

Sanderson published a detailed, chapter-length account of the case in his 1969 book More “Things” (alongside chapters on Bigfoot, giant skulls, “vile vortexes,” and other paranormal fare).3 This is effectively the “official” version of the story; all sources refer to it. More “Things” covered the initial beach footprints, described at length the Suwannee River trackway examined by his team, and cited several eyewitness reports of large unidentified creatures in the area— including Sanderson’s extraordinary claim that he and a pilot spotted the creature from the air.

Sanderson then infamously concluded that the 13-inch tracks were made by a giant “penguin, fifteen feet long,” haunting the coast of Florida!

Why a penguin, of all things? What happened to the “relict dinosaur” idea? Sanderson argued that other three-toed tracks found elsewhere in the world were left by theropod dinosaurs, but surprisingly claimed the Florida tracks weren’t. His reasoning seems to have been that “no three-toed dinosaur is known to have been marine in habitat,” while all of the Florida tracks emerged from and then returned to the water. Well, penguins are three-toed animals that go in and out of the water. Ergo: giant penguin!

Hoaxers Al Williams (left) and Tony Signorini (right) socializing at the Auto Electric garage in 1949. Image used with permission, courtesy of Jeff Signorini.

The Hoax Revealed

Sanderson described his Clearwater monster investigation as “one of the most convincing cases of monsterhunting that I know of.” According to his book, the strength of the evidence made the very notion of a hoax “frankly incredible.” He claimed it simply was not possible to make tracks of such depth and “uncanny accuracy in every detail” using artificial feet. People just couldn’t carry enough weight to make such deep impressions. Besides, what about the witnesses?

Nevertheless, the Clearwater monster slipped into cryptozoological obscurity after Sanderson passed away (just four years after the publication of More “Things”). He never knew that the mystery would once again make headlines in 1988, when there was a huge and unexpected new break in the case.

For decades, a Clearwater local named Tony Signorini had lived with a poorly kept but hilarious secret: he personally was the monster! And, he had the fake feet to prove it. Encouraged by friends, Signorini decided to come clean to Jan Kirby, a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times.4

The Clearwater footprint hoax was masterminded by Al Williams, Signorini’s friend and boss at the Auto Electric garage. (Tony later took over the business after Williams’ death). Williams was a notorious local prankster. Indeed, the garage had a long-running gag war with the local police and the boys down at the fire station. “That’s the way it was back then,” Signorini recalled later to another reporter. “Everybody had fun with everybody.”5 Small town life in the 40s!

Williams apparently cooked up the fake footprints gag after seeing dinosaur tracks in National Geographic magazine. The two pranksters made cast iron prop feet attached to high top sneakers. Signorini was in his 20s at the time, and strong enough to wear the weighty contraptions. The pranksters would simply row up to the beach in a boat after dark. Signorini would strap on the feet, hop out in shallow water, and wade laboriously up onto the sand. “I would just swing my leg back and forth like this and then give a big hop, and the weight of the feet would carry me that far,” Signorini recalled. “The shoes were heavy enough to sink down in the sand.”