Waco Cat-Witch Legend

In the Waco legend summarized by the Texas State Historical Association, a cotton-gin worker decapitates a cat during an attack. When he returns home, he finds his wife decapitated. The matching injuries imply that the animal and the woman were supernaturally connected.

The Texas State Historical Association includes the story as an example of witchcraft within localized legend. Its horror depends on recognition after the encounter: what seemed to be an animal attack becomes a revelation about someone the man knew.

• Elton Miles, “Folk Narrative,” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association.