A book review: Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore . By Benjamin Radford, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
The legend was started in Puerto Rico (where there is a long history of vampire belief) by a woman named Madelyne Tolentino. As the Chupacabra legend spread to Mexico and northward into the United States the beast changed from a bipedal being with spikes down its back to a quadruped, something along the lines of a dog, wolf, or coyote. Radford tracked down and interviewed Tolentino, after which everything falls into place. Reviewer Matt Crowley sums it up: "Though modestly titled, this book is arguably the greatest cryptozoological book ever written."
