Flatwoods Monster

On September 12, 1952, in the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia (population 300), a small group of young boys noticed a flashing reddish-colored ball that hovered around a hill, hovered briefly, and then descended over the crest of another hill. A bright glow shone from the far side of the hill as if from a landed object.

Sheriff Robert Carr and his deputy, Barnell Long, received a disturbing phone call from worried witnesses to the unusual phenomenon. Eyewitnesses claimed that they saw a fiery object. UFO flying through the sky and suddenly fell to the ground in the area of the Elk River. The sheriff concluded that it was a plane that had fallen. But... It was later found out that no planes had fallen in this place).

However, late in the evening, another strange message was received, this time from a group of children who were playing football in the schoolyard. The children saw a falling object that disappeared over a hill on land owned by farmer Bailey Fisher. They decided to go in search of the object.

On the way, they stopped at Kathleen May's house and she and her two sons joined the group. When they reached the hill, Kathleen May noticed that the evening mist smelled strongly of metal, and the smell burned her eyes and noses.

A dog was running in front of a group of people, but it suddenly returned with a frightened look and its tail between its legs. At the top of the hill, people saw a glowing and hissing object about three meters in diameter less than a hundred meters ahead. Then the people came closer, it was already night and the group saw two small fires located next to each other.

One of the boys had a flashlight and when he turned it in the direction of the lights to get a better look, the light picked out a very large creature about three meters tall who "had a bright red face, bright green clothes, and a head like the ace of spades card symbol, his clothes hung down to the bottom and were in large folds".

Suddenly, the creature floated through the air directly towards the group of people, forcing them to run down the hill in a panic. They ran home and that's when they called the sheriff's office. By the time the sheriff and his men arrived at the scene of the call, there were already a lot of local residents who were called by the children. Reporter A. Lee Stewart of "the Braxton Democrat" also arrived with the sheriff and began interviewing witnesses about the incident. Later, he noted that everyone who saw the creature was very scared.

Stewart also visited the hill, accompanied by one of Catherine May's sons, and noticed a strange unpleasant smell himself. But he didn't notice anything unusual there. However, when Stewart returned to the hill the next morning, he saw mysterious footprints. According to Sheriff Carr, eyewitnesses saw a meteorite fall, and on the hill, everyone saw just some animal, whose eyes shone in the dark and could scare everyone. This seemingly plausible explanation does not explain many of the details in the eyewitness accounts.

Later, the researcher John Kiel found another pair that saw the monster, and the well-known researcher of anomalous phenomena Ivan Sanderson also came to the place, who carefully examined the scene, took soil samples, and also interviewed eyewitnesses. After encountering the creature on September 12, several members of the group reported experiencing symptoms similar to those they had previously experienced for some time during their time in the mist emitted by the creature. Symptoms included irritation of the nose and swelling of the throat. Eugene Lemon, 17, suffered from vomiting and convulsions throughout the night and had difficulty with his throat for several weeks afterward.

Skeptics' findings

After reviewing the case 48 years after the events, Joe Nickell, a member of the investigative team of the CSI organization, then known as CSICOP, which deals with the skeptical explanation of paranormal phenomena, concluded in 2000 that the bright light in the sky reported by witnesses on September 12 was most likely a meteorite, the pulsating red light most likely came from an airplane or a lighthouse, and the creature described by witnesses reminded him of an owl.

Nickel claims that the latter two circumstances were distorted due to a state of heightened anxiety felt by the witnesses after they noticed the first one. Nickel's findings are shared by a number of other researchers, including those from the Air Force.

On the night of September 12, a meteorite was observed in three states, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and there was also an erroneous report that a flaming plane crashed into a hillside in the Elk River, about 11 miles (18 km) southwest of the creature's supposed sighting site. From the observation area, three flashing red lights of the aircraft were also seen, possibly their pulsating red light was seen by witnesses and mistaken for the red color on the creature's face.

Nickel concluded that the shape, movements, and sounds of the creature reported by witnesses also matched the silhouette, flight pattern, and sounds of a barn owl perched on a tree branch, leading the researcher to conclude that the foliage beneath the owl may have created the illusion of the creature's lower body (described as a pleated green skirt).

The researchers also concluded that the lack of agreement among witnesses on whether the creature had a weapon, combined with Kathleen May's account of it having "small, prehensile hands" that were "stretched out in front of it," also matches the description of a barn owl with claws gripping a tree branch.

Alternative explanations put forward by local media include that the group witnessed a meteorite fall on September 12, resulting in a human-shaped cloud of steam and that they allegedly saw some kind of secret government plane.

Of course, the debate about what witnesses saw back in 1952 is still going on. However, I want to draw your attention to the fact that the image of the barn owl is not very similar to what the witnesses drew and described. The version about leaves and branches also does not stand up, in our opinion, any criticism. And the regular writing off of everything in a row on meteorites has long been the norm. Trust yourself and the facts.

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About author:

Serg Toporkov Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me

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ufo  alien  Flatwoods  Monster  1952  West Virginia  USA  encounter  witnesses