Tag: Mothman

Paranormal West Virginia: The Flatwoods Monster

Article by Shayla Klein and Shyla Parsons                                    October 29, 2020                                     (wboy.com)

• Gray Barker is a well-known UFO conspiracy theorist from Braxton County, West Virginia. He got his start as a writer by telling the story of the ‘Flatwoods Monster’ of 1952, which led to his own series of paranormal publications.

• David Houchin maintains the ‘Gray Barker UFO Collection’ at the Clarksburg Library in Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1952, when Barker was dabbling in film distribution and booking in Clarksburg, he heard or read about the Flatwoods incident. Barker went to Braxton County to interview the people involved with the Flatwoods Monster incident. The Flatwoods encounter was prominently featured in his publication, The Saucerian, and in his book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Barker was the first to introduce the idea of the government’s “Men in Black”, and “used the Flatwoods incident as his springboard to becoming a more or less respected UFO researcher out on the fringe,” says Houchin.

• When the Flatwoods Monster story emerged in the early 1950’s, it was just after the Roswell UFO crash. The public was eager for tales of space aliens, and the Flatwoods story quickly gained traction. It put Braxton County, West Virginia on the map. Some believed that the whole thing was a made up hoax, or mass hysteria. Houchin says that he actually met the family who were at the center of the incident. They were very adamant about what they saw.

• The story begins on September 12, 1952 in Flatwoods, West Virginia. A local resident, Mrs. May, her sons, their friends, and their dog were outside when they saw a bright light in the sky circle around the hill and crash. They thought it might have been a meteor, and so they all walked up the hill to the crash site. When they got up there, there was a glowing red orb in the ground. The air was filled with acrid-smelling oil and smoke. The dog was terrified.

• As they got closer to the glowing orb, they noticed a figure standing over to the side of them. It was humanoid in shape, nearly 12 feet tall with a head shaped like the ace of spades and wearing a metal suit. Mrs. May and the children ran home, and reported it to the authorities. The US government sent some ‘Men in Black’ to their house to investigate the sighting. They took the each of Mrs. May’s family members’ witness reports – and all were consistent. Mrs. May had gotten some of the acrid oil residue from the ship on her dress that night. They took the dress and never returned it

• Today, the Flatwoods Monster is considered the second most popular monster in West Virginia next to the Mothman. The town of Flatwoods has embraced the folktale, creating a Flatwoods Monster Festival, putting up monster shaped chairs across the city, and installing a Flatwoods Monster Museum in 2018. “We’ve been really surprised as to how many people want to come and visit anything dedicated to the Flatwoods Monster. We have folks coming from all over,” said Andrew Smith, founder of the Flatwoods Monster Museum.

• A video game that features places and things in West Virginia called “Fallout 76”, has renewed interest in the Flatwoods Monster. People visit the museum as part of a “Fallout Tour,” where they visit places featured in the game.

 

 the Mays with an illustration of the monster

FLATWOODS, W.Va. – On September 12 in 1952, a family in Flatwoods said they were visited by an alien spacecraft.

That mysterious night became national–and eventually international–news that put Braxton County, West Virginia on the map.

Jason Burns, a storyteller who specializes in paranormal stories in West Virginia, told the story of what happened that night.

“Mrs. May, her sons, their friends, and a dog were outside playing when they saw this bright light in the sky. They saw it circle around the hill and crash, and they thought it might have been a meteor or something like that, and so they all walked up the hill to where the crash site was, and when they got up there, there was this glowing red orb in the ground. The air was filled with smoke. It was very acrid smelling apparently. Oily kind of air and the dog got close to it and just ran away. The dog was terrified and not wanting anything to do with whatever the ship was or whatever this object was. And as they got closer to it, they noticed that there was a figure over to the side of them,” said Burns.

       Gray Barker

According to legend, the monster was nearly 12 feet tall with a head shaped like the ace of spades. It was glowing reddish

         David Houchin

and green, but some believe that the color of the grass and the ship was reflecting off a metal suit that the alien was wearing.

“When they saw the monster or alien, Mrs. May and the children all ran off to their home, and they reported it to the authorities. Apparently, the US government sent some men—‘men in black’ to their house who investigated the sighting, took down their witness reports–which apparently all of them were the same. Mrs. May got some of the oil on her dress that night from the ship, and they took the dress. They said that they would return it, and they never did,” said Burns.

Conspiracy theories on what the monster was began to pop up as the story gained traction. Some theories suggest that it was just a kid pulling a prank or an owl.

“They tied it in with other stories around the country about the same time,” explained Burns, “This was the age of the space race, so there was a lot of interest in interstellar crafts. This was the time of Roswell. This was the time of Sputnik and things like that that were getting ready to take off, so it was very forefront in people’s minds. So people were thinking maybe it was just mass hysteria,

                        Andrew Smith

maybe it was fake, maybe it was just made up, but I actually have met the Mays at one point years ago. A long time ago, in Flatwoods at one event, and they are very adamant, they saw what they saw. And I believe they believe—you know, I believe them. What they say they saw. Now what it was, I don’t know.”

Gray Barker, a well-known UFO conspiracy theorist from West Virginia, had a part in boosted the national popularity of the monster story by telling the story in several of his publications.

“Barker was from rural Braxton county. He was born on a farm at Riffle, and he was one of the only two kids in his family to get a high school diploma and only one to go on to college. I think he had ambitions to be a writer, but that doesn’t work out for everyone, and in the end he became a writer courtesy of the space brothers and the men in black,” explained David Houchin, the Special Collections Librarian at the Clarksburg Library who maintains the Gray Barker UFO Collection. “In 1952, he was living in Clarksburg, and working in businesses that had to do with film distribution, film booking—that kind of thing, and he heard about the Flatwoods incident. I imagine that he read about it in the newspaper. It was treated pretty confidently as a serious mystery for a short time, and he was familiar with Braxton county and he was fond of the preternatural. The spooky.”

Gray Barker went to Braxton County to interview people who knew about the Flatwoods Monster incident, and the following year, he began his own publication called The Saucerian. The first issue was devoted to the Flatwoods Monster. In 1956, he wrote up the story again in his book “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers,” which arguably introduced the idea of the “men in black” to alien conspiracy stories and became popular amongst UFO conspiracy theorists across the nation.

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W.Va. Ground-Zero For UFO Research, Encounters

Listen to “e170 W.Va. Ground-Zero For UFO Research, Encounters” on Spreaker.

Article by David Sibray                             November 13, 2019                             (wvexplorer.com)

• Dave Spinks, a top paranormal and UFO investigator and author who has appeared on the Travel Channel, the History Channel, and Destination America, says you can’t beat West Virginia when it comes to UFO lore. Spinks will speak on these matters at the Flatwoods Monster Museum in Sutton, WV on Saturday, November 23rd, and will sign copies of his new book, “Real West Virginia UFOs”.

• Spinks says West Virginia has a long association with UFO activity because of its role in the search for extraterrestrial life and because it is the location of many early UFO encounters. “Two of the earliest and most famous encounters in the U.S. were reported here,” Spinks says, referring to legendary encounters involving Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster.

• A former federal law-enforcement officer, Spinks began to collect notes about encounters with UFOs and the paranormal in the 1990s. He left law enforcement in 2011 and became a full-time paranormal investigator, appearing in nationally televised shows and in thousands of news articles and podcasts. Spinks grew up nearby near Birch River and some of the members of his family had attended school with some of the witnesses from Flatwoods. “That’s what started me thinking.”

• In 1952, people reported seeing a spacecraft crashing in the hills south of the town of Flatwoods, WV. On investigation, they encountered its apparent occupant, a super-human being called the Flatwoods Monster, which chased them from the crash site. Spinks also heard tales of Mothman, a winged creature said to haunt the Ohio Valley in the 1960s.

• West Virginia is also the home to the Green Bank Observatory where Frank Drake established the first telescopes used in the SETI program—the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Says Spinks, “Here he met with Carl Sagan” to speculate about the possibilities of intelligent (extraterrestrial) life.

 

A top paranormal investigator says West Virginia has a long association with UFO activity, because of its role in the search for extraterrestrial life and because it is the location of many early alleged UFO encounters.

                          David Spinks

Dave Spinks, perhaps best known for his appearances on the Travel Channel, the History

                       Flatwoods Monster

Channel, and Destination America, says you can’t beat the Mountain State when it comes to UFO lore.

“Two of the earliest and most famous encounters in the U.S. were reported here,” Spinks says, referring to legendary encounters involving Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster.

“But it was here, too, at Green Bank Observatory that Frank Drake established the first telescopes used in the SETI program—the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.”

                          Mothman

“Here he met with Carl Sagan,” Spinks said, referring to the collaboration with scientists who met with the proponent of the Drake Equation, an argument used to speculate about the possibilities of intelligent life off the planet.

A former federal law-enforcement officer, Spinks began to collect notes about encounters with UFOs and the paranormal in the 1990s. However, his inspiration came from his youth spent in the hills near Flatwoods, the site of one of the state’s first encounters.

In 1952, a group of Flatwoods residents reported seeing what they believed was a spacecraft crashing in the hills south of the town. On investigation, they encountered its apparent occupant, a super-human, the Flatwoods Monster, a being that chased them from the alleged crash site.

Spinks grew up nearby near Birch River and some of the members of his family had attended school with some of the witnesses from Flatwoods. “That’s what started me thinking.”

Spinks also heard tales of Mothman, a winged creature said to haunt the Ohio Valley near Point Pleasant in the 1960s, during which West Virginians frequently watched the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse, which some claim to have done.

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Men in Black: Not Human

by Nick Redfern                July 23, 2018                (mysteriousuniverse.org)

• Hollywood has successfully imprinted on society the idea that so-called “Men in Black” are agents of clandestine government or military programs, and therefore they must be human. In Nick Redfern’s research, most of the people who have been terrorized by MIB say that they are not human.

• In the early 1950’s, when Albert Bender began the whole MIB phenomenon with his book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men, he was confronted not by agents of the FBI, CIA, etc., but by grim-faced, shadow-like characters with shining eyes and who left behind them an odor of brimstone when they quite literally vanished.

• When John Keel was investigating sightings of the “Mothman” in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, he was flooded with accounts of encounters with both ‘Men and Women in Black’. They were often described as looking not quite human. Their skin resembled plastic. They wore wraparound sunglasses that only partially masked their oversized eyes. They were clearly unaware of our customs and manners. Some of them didn’t even know how to eat food or drink water.

• Some people who have encountered MIB have suddenly become ill. The MIB are able to place people under some form of mind-control, something which compels the targeted person to open the door and let them in, regardless of the time of day or night.

• It has also been reported that people have encountered MIB when they are on the hallucinogens mescaline and DMT. 1960’s voice-over actor Peter Beckman said that while on mescaline, MIB came into his living room. “They were dressed in square, Eisenhower-era cop-clothing, or FBI clothing – which in 1969, 1970 was not that unusual. They came in and sat on the couch. They were pale and sickly; their clothes hung real loose and they looked as though they might expire at any moment. They appeared to have either trouble breathing, or trouble being. I don’t believe they said a thing,” claimed Beckman. In another incident, people on DMT described how uninvited MIB seemed surprised that they could see them.

• MIB seemingly have the ability to invade peoples’ dreams and turn them into nightmares. There are even a few stories of MIB shapeshifting into the form of a large, black dog with glowing, red eyes.

 

Just a couple of nights ago – while I was promoting my latest book, The Black Diary – I was asked by a caller to the radio show why I “insist” on stating that the Men in Black are supernatural in nature, rather than “accepting” that they are the secret agents of a clandestine agency within government. The answer to that question is very simple: it’s the witness testimony which makes me come to the supernatural conclusion. I have always said that the most important people in the collective field of Forteana are not the writers, the researchers, the radio-hosts, or the TV producers. It’s the witnesses who are the most important. Time and time again I am approached by people who have been terrorized by the MIB. On only a small number of occasions do the witnesses describe the MIB as looking human. For the most part, they look anything but human.

I know all too well why so many people assume that the MIB are agents of governments, of military agencies, and / or of clandestine projects buried deep within the world of officialdom. It largely comes from the Men in Black movies, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Yes, the trilogy makes for fun viewing. But, by presenting the MIB as the agents of a classified organization, the makers of the movies instilled in the minds of many the image of the Men in Black being “secret agents.” But, the Hollywood portrayal is actually very different to what the witnesses tell us – and that’s a very important issue to be aware of.

It’s worth noting that the man who largely began the whole MIB phenomenon in the early 1950s – Albert Bender, of Bridgeport, Connecticut – was confronted not by agents of the FBI, CIA, etc., but by grim-faced, shadow-like characters with shining eyes and who left behind them an odor of brimstone when they quite literally vanished. Bender’s strange story – which comes across like something akin to H.P. Lovecraft meets The X-Files – is told in Gray Barker’s 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers and in Bender’s own book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men.

When, from 1966 to 1967, John Keel immersed himself in the wave of sightings of what became known as “Mothman” in the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, he was flooded with accounts of local encounters with both MIB and Women in Black. They were often described as looking not quite human. Their skin resembled plastic. They wore wraparound sunglasses that often only partially masked their huge, oversized eyes. They were clearly unaware of our customs and manners. Some of them didn’t even know how to eat food or drink water – as bizarre as it certainly sounds.

Things get even more disturbing: people who have encountered the MIB have fallen sick – and quickly, too. A kind of paranormal infection, we might say. The MIB are able to place people under some form of mind-control, something which compels the targeted person to open the door and let them in, regardless of the time of day or night. Witnesses to UFO activity who have been visited by the MIB talk of poltergeist activity occurring in the home – and in the immediate aftermaths of the MIBs’ vanishing acts.

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