The Demon Cat

A ghost cat that lives in government buildings Washington (DC). 

The history of the demon cat dates back to the mid-1800s, when cats were brought into the basement tunnels of the building The United States Capitol to kill rats and mice.

Legend has it that the Demon Cat is one of those cats that never left, even after his death. Presumably, his home is a crypt in the basement of the Capitol building, which was originally intended for the burial of the president George Washington.

According to legend, the cat was seen before the presidential elections and tragedies in Washington

He is described as either a black cat or a tabby cat, the size of an average domestic cat. However, witnesses report that the cat swells to "the size of a giant tiger" or an elephant (somewhere 10 feet by 10 feet). Then the cat either exploded or attacked the witness, disappearing before she managed to catch her "victim".

It is said that in the 1890s, the cat inexplicably disappeared when several Capitol Hill guards opened fire on her, and another allegedly died of a heart attack after seeing her.

The last official sighting of the alleged ghost was in the last days or after World War II in the 1940s.

According to Steve Livengood, the main guide The U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Capitol Police were notorious for hiring unqualified relatives and friends of congressmen as favors, and these people often got drunk while on patrol. He believes that the legend began when a guard lying in a drunken stupor was licked by one of the cats of the Capitol building and mistook it for a giant cat. Livengood states that after reporting the incident to his supervisor, the guard would have been sent home to recover, and "eventually the other guards found out that they could get a day off if they saw the demon cat."