Texas Folklore: The Devil Goes Dancing In South Texas

The state of Texas has a massive number of stories throughout its rich history.  These stories can range from the fun, happy, sad, tragic, or even flat-out untrue.  As stories get passed along as time goes on, eventually some stories can become folklore.

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The Devil In Southern Texas?

One popular story in Texas folklore comes by way of McAllen, Texas.  This particular incident is so widespread that it even has a name.  It is often referred to as The Night the Devil Danced.

The story concludes that the devil allegedly appeared in a nightclub called Boccaccio 2000 on Good Friday, April 13, 1979.  While there are several variants of the story, there are two that stand out from the rest.

Varient #1

The story says that the devil was masked as a sharply dressed, handsome man who asked a beautiful girl to dance.  She agreed, and the legend says it was then that it was noticed that the man was said to have hooves for feet.

Varient #2

This version also claims that the devil was a handsome man who had an alluring aura that was noticed by everyone in the club.  When he began to dance with a woman, it was said that they began to float in the sky until they reached the ceiling.  It was then that the devil had disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire, thus burning the woman he was dancing with.  All while leaving behind the smell of sulfur in his wake.

Debunked?

In 2024, the South Texas Ghost Stories podcast and YouTube channel had an interview with a woman who claimed to have been present on the night of the incident.  In her recollection, she says that nothing anywhere resembling the folklore had happened in real life.