The wampus cat appeared in the American South, seemingly out of nowhere, at the turn of the 20th century. In the newspapers of the day, the frightening figment was, for most, nothing but a name associated with feral violence. In those early days of the 1900s, “wampus cat” was an epithet for the local ne’er do well in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a mascot for an amateur baseball team outside of Houston, and the moniker of the “meanest, wildest, hardest bucking outlaw horse” ever seen in Flagstaff, Arizona. (Fifty bucks said…
