Welcome back to Bourbon Legends — where we pour something smooth and then go somewhere the smell is anything but.

This week, Justin, Jeff, and Kevin — Kevin is behind the camera, present and accounted for — open Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon and dig into one of the most dramatic and well-documented cryptid cases in American history: Momo, the Missouri Monster.

In the summer of 1972, a 4-foot bipedal creature covered in black matted fur, with a pumpkin-shaped head and glowing orange eyes, began terrorising the town of Louisiana, Missouri. The smell alone — described by every witness as an overwhelming rotting stench that arrived before the creature and lingered after it — sent residents scrambling. Then the fire department chief saw it in his headlights. Then a deputy fired a gunshot at it and it walked calmly to the guardrail, made eye contact, and stepped into the river. No blood trail found. Within two months a town of 4,000 people had armed posses in the woods, CBS and NBC had sent news crews, and local radio was offering a $1,000 reward. And then it stopped. Completely. No explanation. No body. Nothing.

Justin and Jeff break down 70 years of Momo sightings — from 1955 all the way through 2016 — and debate whether the iguana theory actually holds up, what the 1955 spark-emitting wand means for every conventional explanation, and why the fire department chief’s headlight sighting is the detail nobody can dismiss. Kevin is there. With the camera.

(Kevin is behind the camera. As always. We’ve stopped questioning this arrangement.)

BOURBON OF THE EPISODE
Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon | Lux Row Distillers, Bardstown, KY
An honest Kentucky sour mash bourbon that does exactly what it says. Starts with genuine Kentucky sour mash, aged the old-fashioned way, charcoal filtered, and bottled at a straightforward 90 proof. No gimmicks, no over-engineering — just a clean, approachable bourbon that holds up in the glass through a long episode.
Grains: corn, rye, and barley | Proof: 90 (45% ABV) | Charcoal filtered | Kentucky sour mash
Tasting notes: caramel and vanilla upfront with hints of spice and chocolate, finishing smooth and warm.
Awards: Platinum Medal — SIP Awards 2018, Double Gold Medal — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2018.
Learn more: ezrabrooks.com

WHAT WE COVER
• The 1955 Branch Hill encounter: three creatures, a spark-emitting wand, and a smell of almonds and alfalfa
• The 1971 Highway 79 encounter: two women, a stolen lunch, and an early independent sighting
• July 11, 1972: the Harrison children, the pumpkin-shaped head, and the creature carrying a dead dog
• The fire department chief and city councillor who saw it in his headlights
• Deputy Matthews who fired one shot — and it stepped over the guardrail and walked into the river
• CBS, NBC, armed posses, and a $1,000 unclaimed reward
• Why the wand from 1955 breaks every conventional explanation
• The iguana theory — and its significant problems
• Why the perfect, unexplained stop is one of the most suspicious details of all
• Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon: tasting notes and the sour mash tradition


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