June 9, 2025 • 57 mins
The Mothman story you know is just the surface. Beneath those red eyes lies a 5-tier iceberg of terror: Men in Black with transparent skin, mysterious UFOs, and something far more sinister targeting families in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:32):
You think you know the Mothman story.
Red eyes. The bridge collapse.
But what if I told youthere were men in black, UFOs,
and something far more sinisterthan a flying creature?
This is a multi-layerediceberg of mystery,
where the deeper we go, the darkerthe story gets.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to The InBetween.
(00:59):
Many people
know about the infamous midnightride of the two couples
being chased by Mothman straightto the sheriff's office.
At least that's about the extentof my exposure to the story.
That,and what I saw from the Richard Gere movie
20 years ago,of which I remember exactly zero.
But as is usually the case, onceI started digging into this topic,
(01:21):
I've discovered it'sso much more than that.
This Mothman topic is amulti-tiered iceberg that goes way deeper
than a pair of red, shiny eyeschasing some kids down the road.
But let's start with the partfloating on top of the water.
The version that most people know.
The night of November15th, 1966, two couples,
(01:44):
Linda and Roger Scarberry,and Steve and Mary Mallette,
residents of Point Pleasant,West Virginia, are out
trying to find some fun aroundwhat the locals call the TNT area.
It's called the TNT areabecause during World War Two,
it was a site where the governmentmanufactured explosives for the war.
After the war was over,so was the TNT manufacturing,
(02:06):
and the area was pretty much abandoned
until the younger crowd decidedit was a cool place to hang out
and made it their lover's laneand their drag racing track and stuff.
The couples are outdriving around the TNT area
near the North power plant and spotthis large winged
humanoidfigure that flies straight up in the air
(02:28):
and chases them all the way into townat speeds up to 100 miles an hour.
But it disappears at the edge of town.
They drive straightto the sheriff's office to tell them
what happened, and given the shaken stateof all four kids,
the sheriff believes themand takes their statement.
After that night, multiple residentsof Point Pleasant and the surrounding area
(02:52):
witness presumably the same flyingcreature over the following months.
That is, until exactlyone year and one month later,
the night of December 15th, 1967.
The traffic light on the Ohioside of Silver Bridge,
which is the crossing point between PointPleasant on the West Virginia side,
and Gallipolis on the Ohio side,has been stuck on green all afternoon,
(03:16):
allowing an open flow of carsgoing to Point Pleasant.
Between that, rush hour,and Christmas shopping season, the bridge,
built back in 1928,is packed with cars and trucks.
At 5:04 p.m., one of the support beamsgives way, sending the bridge
and everyone on it into the freezingOhio River below.
(03:41):
46 people die in the collapse,
and Mothman, who was reportedly seen onand around the bridge before it collapsed,
is rarely seen again,giving rise to the theory
that the only reason he was everthere was as a harbinger of doom
for the coming tragedy.
The supernatural eventsthat occurred in Point Pleasant
(04:02):
that year were brought to life by writerJohn Keel,
known for his writing onGet Smart, The Monkeys,
and Lost in Space, in his bookThe Mothman Prophecies,
which was then used as the basisfor the 2002 movie starring Richard Gere.
Okay, that's the high level,what we can see,
(04:24):
what most of usalready know, version of events.
But you guessed it,we're just getting started.
Under the surface, thingsstart to get a little more interesting.
The story doesn't actually start withthe car chase to the sheriff's office.
It starts way before that.
(04:44):
Try 1914.
From 1914 through the 1940s,there are several reports around the Point
Pleasant, Ohio Rivervalley of a large bird with a man's head,
reddish feathers, a 12ft wingspan
that also have been tiedto tragedies in those years.
But things do certainly ramp upas we roll into the 60s.
(05:07):
Sometime in the early 60s, a womanand her father are in the Chief Cornstalk
Wildlife Management Area,when they see a man shaped figure
that walks onto the road,spreads its wings and takes off.
In 1965, a woman and her sonsee what they describe at the time
as an angel outside their windowalong the Ohio River.
(05:28):
Later, as word startsgetting out about this birdlike creature
hanging around town, they confirm, “Thatsounds like what we saw.”
In the summer of 66, againnear the Ohio River,
a woman sees what she describesas a giant butterfly.
And that brings us all the wayup to November of 1966,
(05:49):
when things really get rolling.
November 1st, a National Guardsmanis standing outside of the armory
when he sees a brown half bird, halfman figure perched on a tree.
And on November 12th,not far away in Clendenin,
five men are digging a cemetery gravewhen they see what they describe
(06:09):
as a brown humanbeing flying low over the trees.
That brings us back to November
15th,the night of our Speed Racer encounter.
Don't be patient. Don't be patient.
Now, the reasonwe are circling back to this encounter
in deeper waters,is that there is even more to
(06:30):
this part of the storythan just the surface level account.
So it's Tuesday, November 15th, 1966.
The Scarberry's and the Mallettesare joyriding through the TNT area
around midnight as they crest a small risenear the North power plant.
Steve spots two large red eyes
(06:51):
as the car's headlights catchsomething in the road.
It is a six foot tall gray humanoid
with wings and red eyes,
two inches wide, 6 to 8in apart.
According to Linda, ithas one of its wings caught in a guidewire
and is pulling on its wingwith its big hands, trying to free itself.
(07:14):
They stop the car and sit there kind of a
for a few seconds, but then they all startscreaming at Roger, “Go go go!”
But Roger is so mesmerizedthat he doesn’t move.
The thing frees itself from the guidewire
and runs to the abandonedNorth power plant.
Roger finally snaps out of itand slams his foot on the gas
(07:36):
and they are Audi 5000.
They race out of the TNT areaand back to route 62,
heading to town, when they notice it'sback.
“It was on the bankon the left side of the road…
when the car lights were shown on it,it moved its wings
out to its sideand went straight up in the air.”
(07:57):
Roger floors it, hitting 100
to 105 miles an hour on the straightaways.
The creature glides over the car,not flapping, just gliding.
It dives at them once or twiceand at the curve
in the road by the armory, it vanishes.
They pull into Dairyland, a local drivein, hearts racing.
(08:21):
Linda wants to call the cops,but Roger and Steve say no way.
They'll just laugh at us.
They calm down for a couple minutes,and I don't know whose bright idea it is,
but they all get back in the carto go back.
As Roger turns, headlightscatch a dead dog in the road,
and suddenly the creature comessoaring over the car
(08:43):
into a fieldon the other side of the road.
That's it. They're done.
They race to another hangout calledTiny's Drive
in, spotting some guythey know named Gary.
So they tell Gary what they saw.
Gary asks, “You guys been drinkin?” “No,we have not been drinking.”
Gary calls the police,and one Deputy Millard Halstead joins,
(09:06):
growing the party to six.
And even with two new membersto the party, common sense still does
not prevail.
They all jump in their carsand head on back.
The creature, again,dive bombs Roger's car on the way there.
But they keep goingand get back to the power
plant, park next to it,and turn their lights off.
(09:28):
After 15-20 minutes of lookingand listening for any little noise,
Linda hears a loud squeaklike a huge mouse.
Mary sees red eyes.
“All I could do was point and burstinto tears.”
Deputy Halstead whipshis spotlight over in the direction
Mary's pointing and catches dustor smoke rising, but the creature's gone.
(09:52):
And just like the Midnight Riders weren'tthe start of this particular chapter
of sightings,it also was far from the end of it.
The very next day, as if the night beforehadn't terrified them enough,
the Scarberrys and Mallettesgo back to the power plant.
They see tracks on the ground that looklike two horseshoes put together.
(10:13):
Roger climbs up on the roofwhile Steve goes inside.
Steve isn't inside longbefore he comes running back out,
white as a sheet,saying he just saw it in the boiler room.
Later that evening, Mr.
and Mrs.
Raymond Wamsley and Mrs.
Marcella Bennett and her babydaughter, Teena, head to the general area,
not to look for the monsterlike masses of other creature hunters
(10:38):
that are driving in by the hundredsafter reading about last night's
adventure in the morning newspaper,but to visit some friends, Mr.
and Mrs. Ralph Thomas.
They walk up to the Thomas house, knock,and the door is answered
by the Thomas children.Their mom and dad aren't home.
So the Wamsleys and the Bennettssay their goodbyes and head to the car,
(10:59):
when they see something rising upfrom behind the car.
“It rose up slowly from the ground.
A big gray thing, bigger than a man,with terrible glowing red eyes.”
Mrs. Bennett
totally freaked out, dropslittle Teena, (No judging.)
(11:19):
but is too hypnotized by the red eyesto pick her up again.
As the wings on the monster's backstart to slowly unfold,
Raymond Wamsley grabs the baby and Mrs.
Bennett, and all four run back intothe house, slam the door, and lock it.
They hear a sound on the porchand look out the window to see
two red eyes looking back at them.
(11:42):
The women and children freak out as Mr.
Wamsley grabsthe phone to call the police.
But, not a shocker, the thing is gonebefore the police get there.
But word spread like wildfire.
So along with the copscome a bunch of other people,
including the Scarberrysand the Mallettes.
(12:02):
Linda says she even saw it flying aroundabove the trees on the way there.
The girls stay at the Thomas housewhile the boys go looking for it.
Of course, they don't find it,so they head home, when Linda
sees it again,sitting on top of a building.
Once they get home,Linda completely loses it.
(12:22):
And Roger and her dadhave to take it to the hospital.
By the next day,so Thursday, the word is spreading fast,
and Point Pleasant is swampedwith reporters from all over.
So the Scarberrysand the Mallettes go up to the power
plant again with a group of reporters.
They spend a little time looking aroundinside the shell of a building, and Steve
(12:46):
closes an open door in the boiler roombefore they all go back outside.
Then they all hear a clatterfrom inside the building and run back in
to discovered that the door that Steve hadjust shut is now open.
And that's just during the day.
That night they go back againwith more reporters, including one Mrs.
(13:08):
Mary Hyer from the Athens Messenger.
You will hear more about her later, butfor now just know she's a local reporter.
She and Linda bothsee glowing red eyes out in the field.
And on the way home, Linda and MaryMallette see it again in some trees.
And Linda claims to have seen ita few more times after that.
(13:31):
One thing is for sure, though,the effect of seeing this creature
repeatedly has made a devastating impacton both of their lives.
“I close my eyes day or night,
and I can see those red fiery eyesstaring at me.
We are never really goingto get over our fear
until we find out for surewhat this thing is.
(13:55):
I know I'll never forget it, andI don't think anyone can who has seen it.”
And there are even more sightings.
One, the very next day. On the 18th.
Three on the 20th.
And two more on the 21st.
At the end of November,the pace slows down a little bit.
But the sightings, about 100 in total,both nighttime and daytime sightings,
(14:17):
continueall the way up to December of 1967,
when the Silver Bridgefalls into the Ohio River.
As if that insanity isn't enough,
let's go one level deeper.
Because Mothman is not the only terrifyingthing in the skies over Point Pleasant.
That year also usheredin a wave of UFO sightings,
(14:40):
And not just sightings of randomlights in the sky.
Don't get me wrong.
There are plenty of “Isaw a light in the sky” kind of reports.
Even Linda Scarbrough saw them.
She said, “They were so pretty.
I saw onethat looked like a blooming rose.
It was all different colors, like thepetals were coming out in all directions.
(15:01):
And the colors weren'tanything like we would have.
They were much brighter, simply beautiful.
And a large red
orb was seen bouncing above the treesby the Wamsleys and Mrs.
Bennett, while they were on their way
to see the Thomasesbefore their own run in with Mothman.
Hundreds of sightings are reportedthat year, seemingly
(15:23):
concentrated on the Ohio River valleybetween Point Pleasant and Marietta,
and along the Kanawha River from PointPleasant south to Charleston.
And keep in mindthat this is all taking place
about an hour away from Flatwoods,West Virginia,
which should ring a bellfor all of you UFO mystery aficionados.
(15:45):
That's the site of the FlatwoodsMonster encounter just 15 years earlier.
(That is a storyI will be covering in a future episode, so
remember to subscribeif you haven't done so already.)
But some residents experienced thisstrange phenomena up close and personal.
Newell Partridgelives in Salem, West Virginia.
(16:06):
On the evening of November 14th, 1966,about 10:30 at night,
his TV goes on the fritz with the picturebeing replaced with a fine herringbone
pattern, as the set startsmaking a loud whining noise,
repeating an up and down patternfrom high to low frequency and back.
Outside on the porch, Bandit,
(16:28):
Newell’sbig German Shepherd, starts to howl.
Newell gets a flashlightand goes outside to see Bandit
sitting on the edge of the porch,howling down toward
the hay barn about a football fieldaway from the house.
He shines the flashlight in that directionand sees
two red circlesthat look like bicycle reflectors.
Or maybe eyes.
(16:49):
But at the same time, they can't be eyes.
First. They're way too big.
And second of all,they're kind of spinning around.
But as soon as the flashlight picks upthe eyes,
Bandit goes nuts and takes off, runningstraight for them.
A cold chill sweeps over Newellthat instinctively tells him
(17:10):
not to follow the dog.
Bandit doesn't come back, and Newellsleeps with his gun that night.
The next day, he goes looking for Bandit,which turns out to be pretty easy.
Bandit is a big beefy dogand the ground is muddy.
He tracks him from the porch, backto where the eyes
were, and sees bandits tracksgoing around in a circle
(17:32):
like he was chasing his tail,which something the Bandit never did.
There were no other tracks of any kindleading anywhere else.
Bandit was just gone.
Newell says, “Ithink that the hardest thing
to explain is the feeling involved.
It was as if you knew something was wrong,but couldn't place
(17:54):
just what it was.”And Bandit is never seen again.
Then there's the
harrowing experience of 21 year old BeauShertzer.
On March 5th, 1967, Beau is driving a RedCross Blood Mobile
at night along route two,which runs parallel to the Ohio River,
heading back to Huntingtonafter being out all day at a blood drive.
(18:16):
It's a dark, cold nightwith very little traffic.
As he and his nurse coworker cruise
along this particularly quiet stretch,they see a flash in the woods.
A white glow rises slowly into the airand starts heading right for them.
The nurse screams, “What is it?”
Beau'sresponse is to put the pedal to the metal.
(18:38):
He rolls down his windowand looks up to see the object,
effortlessly pacing the vanjust a few feet overhead.
He sees the objectlowering some kind of arm or something,
when he hears the nurse yell, “It'strying to get us,” as she sees another arm
coming down on her side, like it'strying to grab the whole van or something.
(19:01):
Beau tries to go faster,but the glowing orb keeps pace
until they finally encountera car coming in the other direction.
As soon as that car is in sight,the flying thing pulls up its arms
and flies away.
Arguably the most bizarre experience,which
I'm not going to go into too much detailabout right now,
(19:21):
because this one also deservesa full episode on its own,
is the encounter of Woodrow,or Woody, Derenberger.
At 7 p.m.
on the cold, rainy night of November2nd, 1966,
Woody is heading home in his vanafter a long, hard day.
As he's driving along, a car passes him.
(19:42):
So Woody eases off the acceleratorto give the guy some space,
when he realizes it'snot a car in front of him.
It's a dark blobthat cuts in front of him and slows down.
This charcoal colored thinglooks like the bulbous glass
chimney of an old fashioned kerosene lamp.
(20:02):
Woody slams on his brakesand stops like 8 or 10ft
from where the object turned crossways,blocking the road.
A door on the sideslides open and a man steps out.
He's about five feet, ten inchestall, with long dark hair, combed
straight back with a dark complexion,like super tan.
(20:22):
With an unnaturally wide grin on his faceand his arms crossed
and his hands tucked under his armpits,
he starts walking over to Woody's truck.
He's wearing a dark coat withwhat looks to be a metallic green shirt
underneath.
Woody is a little surprisedto discover that he can feel
what this man is thinking.
(20:44):
“Don't be afraid.
We mean you no harm.
Roll on your window.” “What is your name?”
“Woody.” “My name is Cold”
As the two men are just chitchatting away, Mr.
Cold via telepathy, and Woodypresumably out loud,
the chimney shaped objectfloats up about 50ft over the road
(21:05):
and just hovers there as the other carscome along and past them.
In fact, once Woody'sstory lands in the newspapers,
people came forward to saythat they saw someone in a van
stopped in the roadtalking to another man.
At the end of their conversation, Mr.
Cold promisesWoody he'll be back to see him soon.
As his shipdescends, the door opens, Cold goes in,
(21:28):
and is gone in a flash into the darknight sky.
But as Woody will soon learn, Mr.
Cold is a man of his word.
He came back.
But that, my friends, is way too bigof a story to cover in this episode.
Mr. IndredCold is going to get his own episode.
(21:49):
Now, as you can imagine,as the press is picking up on all of this
strange happeningsin and around Point Pleasant,
the story starts spreading far and wide,and finally reaches
the desk of a New York authorand Ufologist by the name of John Keel.
The author of The Mothman Propheciesand arguably the reason we know
at least part of all of the thingsthat happened that fateful year.
(22:12):
I say part because even he admitsthat so much was going
on, that he couldn'tfit it all into the book.
But even he wouldn'thave been able to do it alone
in a small, close,tight knit community like Point Pleasant.
Mr. keel would have been dead on arrival
without the help of someonewho would become the truest of wingmen.
(22:33):
Or shall I say, wing women?
That would be Mary Hyer,the reporter that I mentioned earlier
that saw the red eyesof the Mothman herself at the power plant
with Lynda Scarberry and Mary Mallette.
For those of you familiarwith the Mothman story,
I'm sure you're thinking,“It's about time.”
Because even though we haven'treally talked about her until now,
(22:55):
she's actually a very big part of thiswhole story.
Mary was a writer for the AthensMessenger newspaper out of Athens, Ohio.
But the Messenger kept an office in PointPleasant that was manned,
in part, by Mary.
She had her finger on the pulse of PointPleasant
and was known by everyone in town.
(23:16):
Not only did people know her, butthey knew her integrity as a journalist.
If something was offthe record, it was off the record.
They trusted her.
So consequently, when JohnKeel came to town, she was instrumental
in getting the locals with a storyto tell to open up to him.
And while John was never ableto see the elusive Mothman for himself,
(23:38):
he and Mary, both together and separately,
have multiple UFO sightings of their own.
Mary has so many reports coming into her
that there's no way for herto report on all of them.
But she publishes what she canabout all of the area weirdness.
However, this rush of successat UFO Yahtzee
(24:00):
Yeah yeah brought more strangers to town,
not nearly as friendly as John.
Let's just sayI don't think they play Yahtzee.
It started just about the same timethat the Mothman and UFO wave did.
Strangersshowing up at homes of eyewitnesses
to both types of encounters,asking their names,
(24:22):
asking their children's names, tellingpeople not to talk about what they saw.
That's right.
Your friends and mine - the Men in Black.
And for this particularround of weirdness, they proved themselves
to be not only crafty,but more than a little dangerous.
Back in 66, when the whole partywas just getting started,
(24:44):
someone in the family of EdwardChristiansen had a UFO sighting.
Or maybe the whole family did.
I'm sorry to say thatI don't have that detail, but someone did.
Shortly after,the whole family moved to a new home
about 400 mileseast in Wildwood, New Jersey.
On the afternoon of January9th, 1967, Ed, his wife Arline,
(25:06):
and their three kids are just getting homefrom a trip to Florida.
They had just moved into their new house,so neither their address
nor phone number was listed in thethen current phonebook.
A new phone book there.
The new phone books here.
At 5:30,there's a knock on the front door.
Arline tells her oldest daughter, Connie,“If it's a salesman, don't answer.”
(25:28):
Connie takes a peekand tells her mom, “It's the strangest
looking man I've ever seen.”Arline goes to the door and opens it.
Now, it's January in New Jersey.
It is dark and cold,but Arline doesn't see any car outside.
Only a tall man on the doorstep.
He asks Arline, “Does Edward Christiansenlive here?
(25:51):
I'm from the Missing Heirs Bureau.
Mr. Christiansen might have inheriteda great deal of money.
May I come in?” Well,who's going to turn that down?
Arline steps back and invites him in
and calls to Edward, HHey,you got a visitor.” The guy says, “This
will only take 40 minutes,”as he takes off his hat and his coat.
(26:12):
Edward tells the guy right up frontthat he has to have made a mistake.
He doesn't know anybodywho would be leaving him any money.
The guy tells Edwardhe might be the guy they're looking for,
but in order to verify it,he would like to ask some questions.
And this dude is huge.
Easily 6.5fttall, ringing in at about three bills.
(26:33):
His head is big and round,but he still manages
to have an angular, sharp face.
He has close cropped black hairwith a perfectly round shaped spot
on the back of his head.
His nose and mouth are fine,but his eyes are kind of bulgy
and wide setand do not seem to totally move together.
(26:56):
Underneath his thin outer coat, (Obviouslynot dressed for a New Jersey winter.)
he's wearing a short sleeveshirt and dark pants that are a little
too short, so when he sits down,they ride high up on his calves.
Odd detail, but important,
considering that when he sits down, bothArline and Connie can see a green wire
(27:19):
coming out of his socksand running up under his pant leg.
And his skin is so pale,
the Christiansen's think he'sgotta be sick.
The man introduces himself, althoughno one can actually remember his name.
It's something common,like Smith or Jones.
But they do remember himsaying that his friends call him Tiny.
(27:40):
He speaks with a high, tinny voicethat seems super out of place
for such a big guy,and in a dull, monotone cadence
that sounds more like a computer,like he's reciting everything from memory.
Arline tells Tiny that they're all about
to sit down for dinner,and she invites him to stay.
(28:01):
Tiny says, no thanks, but I probablywill want some water in ten minutes.
Tiny takes out a small notebook and startsasking Ed
a whole bunch of questions like, doeshe have any scars or birthmarks?
How big are they?
What schools did you go to?
What cars have you owned in the past?
Tiny's face gradually growsredder and redder as he talks.
(28:25):
And after a few minutes,he asks for that glass of water,
which he gulps down with a big yellow
capsule and returns to normal.
Tiny'sinterview is done in less than an hour.
(Probably 40 minutes.) He stands backup, puts on his hat and coat, tells Ed
that he'll be notified by mailwithin ten days, and heads out the door.
(28:48):
Arline decidesto just check and see where he goes,
since there was no car out frontwhen he got there.
She steps out of the kitchen doorin time to see him reach the road
and wave at the darkness,as a black 1963 Cadillac
pulls up with its headlights off,so she can't see any driver.
Tiny climbs in the car and it drives away
(29:10):
with its headlights still off.
The next morning, the phone rings.
The woman on the other end
tells Ed, we found the Ed Christiansenwe're looking for.
It ain't you.
Ed says thanks and hangs up.
See what I mean about getting crafty?
On Sunday, November 27th, 1966,at about 10:30 in the morning,
(29:32):
18 year old Connie Carpenteris heading home from church when,
outside of New Haven, West Virginia,she suddenly sees a huge
gray figure shaped like a manbut about seven feet tall,
with large, round, glowing red eyes
that focus on her with a hypnotic effect.
(29:53):
As she slowsdown, her eyes glued to this thing,
a pair of wings unfold from its backwith a span of about ten feet.
It slowly rises up off the groundlike a helicopter
without even flapping its wings, headsstraight towards Connie's car, and swoops
low over her head as she snaps
(30:14):
out of her stupor and smashes the gaspedal.
Insanity.
But okay.
Life moves on.
A couple months later, in February,she marries her sweetheart Keith,
and the couple moves across the riverto a house in Middleport, Ohio.
They don't have a phone,and only their families
and close friends know their new address.
(30:36):
At 8:15 a.m.
on February 22nd, 1967,she heads out the door to go to school.
Keith's already at work.
As she starts walking down the street,a large black car pulls up next to her.
Connie knows her carsand says it's a 1949 Buick.
The driver’s a clean cut, very suntanned
(30:58):
young man of about 25,wearing a short sleeve shirt.
(In Ohio in February?) opens his doorand asks her for directions.
She walks over to his car,(No judging.) and notices the car,
even though it's nearly 20 yearsold, looks brand new.
When she reaches the car,the young man suddenly lunges at her,
(31:20):
grabs her armand yells at her to get in the car.
After a brief struggle,she manages to get away, runs
back to her house and locks herselfinside, completely terrified.
Keith comes home from work.
At the end of the day
to find his brand new wifecurled up in a corner, scared to death.
Connie's freaked out enough
that she decides to stay homethe next day, too.
(31:42):
At 3 p.m., she hears footstepson the porch and a loud knock on the door.
She stays out of sight for a while,then cautiously goes to the door.
No one on the porch and no car in sight.
But a note has been slipped under the doorthat says, “Be careful, girl.
I can't get you yet.”
This encounter may not soundlike your typical MIB encounter,
(32:06):
but many seem to fallinto one of two camps - either super pale,
translucent skin or darker skinthat people report as looking really tan.
It's also worth mentioning that not beingdressed appropriately for the weather,
as neither this guy nor our friend
Tiny were, is also a common detail.
(32:27):
But regardless of whatyou think of this account, our friend
Connie is not done yet.
But before I tell you that story,I have to tell you this story.
Fast forward to a weekafter the bridge collapse.
Mary Hyer has been practically living
in her office, doing anythingshe can to help rescue workers,
(32:47):
family members and anyone else in needthat walks through her door.
She's just a tad bit busy.
So she barely notices one afternoonwhen two men with dark
complexions,both short and wearing black overcoats,
look like they could be twins,walk up to her desk.
As she watches thempick up regular things from her desk,
(33:10):
her pencil, her stapler,and look at them like
they've never seen anything like itbefore, they blurt out the statement,
“We hear there's been a lot of flyingsaucer activity around here.”
Mary just stares at these guys like,
how can you be thinkingabout flying saucers at a time like this?
But she musters up some grace and tellsthe guys, “We've had a few sightings
(33:33):
here,” pulling out a huge bulging folder
filled with sighting reportsand hands it to one of the men.
He opens the file, glances through itand hands it back.
“Has anyone told you not to publishthese reports?”
Mary shakes her headand she puts the folder back.
“What would you doif someone did order you to stop
(33:54):
writing about flying saucers?” Mary triesnot to grin too much
as she tells them, “I’dtell them to go to hell.”
She watches the two men glanceat each other and goes back to work.
The next time she looks up, they're gone.
Later that same afternoon,another stranger walks into Mary's office.
This guy's slightly built,about five feet, seven inches tall,
(34:16):
with black eyes and messy black hair.
His complexion
is even darker than the last two guys,and he looks slightly East Asian.
His hands have really long,tapering fingers.
He's wearing a cheaplooking, out of fashion suit
that doesn't fit him very well,and his tie is knotted kind of funny.
And wouldn't you know it?
(34:38):
Even though it's freezing outside,he has no coat.
He says my name is La la la la la.
Dan Jack Brown.
I'm a UFO researcher.
The only response Marycan muster is, “Oh.” She is
way too tired for this.
The day is almost overand she is ready to go home
(34:59):
and get real sleepfor the first time in a week.
But his next questionbrings her back to full attention.
“What would you do if someone ordered youto stop to stop printing UFO stories?”
She asks him, “Are youthose two guys that were here earlier,”
surprised to hear the same weird, pseudothreatening question twice in one day.
(35:23):
“No. I'm alone.
I'm a friend of Gray Barker.” Gray Barker,
another legend in the UFO community,just happens to be from Clarksburg,
West Virginia and visited PointPleasant on a regular basis.
But Mary does not have the timeor patience for this and tells him, look,
I can give you the names of some ofthe people here who have seen things.
(35:45):
And you can go talk to them for yourself.
But I don't have time to escort youaround.
Jack's response?
“But I'm a friend of Gray Barker.”
Now, I know thatstory is not all that spectacular,
but I had to tell you that storyso I can tell you this story.
After her whole attempted kidnaping deal,
(36:06):
Connie Carpenter and her husband,Keith moved to New Haven, West Virginia.
One afternoon, a large, loud white
car pulls up in front ofher house, and Jack Brown up
knocks on her door,
declaring, “I'ma friend of Mary Hyre’s.” theme proper.
Well, for most people,
(36:28):
any friend of Mary's isa friend of theirs, so they invite him in.
“They” being Connie,Keith and Connie's brother, Larry.
But it takes exactly no time beforeall three of them are weirded out
by Jack's weird behaviorand disjointed questions.
It's quickly obviousthat he has no interest in Connie's
(36:49):
sighting of Mothman, like everyone elsewho comes to talk to her.
He's only concerned with the relationship
between Mary Hyre and John Keel.
Then, out of the blue.
He asks, “What would Mary Hyre doif someone told her to stop writing
about UFOs?” To which Connie replies,
“She'd probably tell him to drop dead.”Jack sticks around a little longer, asking
(37:13):
a few more stupid, rambling questionsbefore driving off in his noisy car.
After he was gone.
Connie calls her aunt to tell herwhat happened, that this guy was so weird.
He wouldn't say a wordunless you were looking
directly into his dark, hypnotic eyes.
Connie, Keith, and Larry all noticehis long fingered hands,
(37:36):
but there's also something very peculiarabout his ears.
They just couldn't say exactly what.
Another encounter of the more frighteningvariety happens to Marcella Bennett,
the woman who was so freaked outby the Mothman that she drops her baby.
(No judging.) Just a couple of weeksafter her Mothman experience,
(37:59):
she and Teena are driving along a backroad outside of town when she notices
a red Ford Galaxie driven by a big guywearing a wig following her.
She slows down trying to get it to pass,but instead
it tries to force her off the road.
She speeds up,but the other car slingshots past
(38:20):
her and disappears around the bend.
When she hits the same bend, the Ford isnow parked sideways and blocking the road.
Freaked out,she stomps on the gas pedal to the floor.
There's no way she is stopping.
The other driver,probably hearing the roar of her engine,
pulls his car to the sideand lets her pass.
(38:42):
She had never seen the man before
and she never saw him again.
Even LindaScarberry has run ins with these guys.
“They looked like human beings,but their skin was somewhat transparent.
You could see the veins in their handsvery clearly.
Their fingers were longerthan a normal person's fingers as well.
(39:02):
Daddy shook hands with them and he saidthey were awkward and shaking hands.
They seem to not know whatto do or how to shake hands.”
Now, I'm going to
ask you to indulge me for a momentwith this next story.
Think of it as a bonus story.
I read it in The Mothman Prophecies,and it's an MIB story from Minnesota.
(39:25):
I'm so excited.
This happened in 1967,so around the same time as the West
Virginia craziness, in one of the biggersmall towns in Minnesota
called Owatonna, about an hourand a half south of Minneapolis.
After a rash of UFO sightings
around Owatonna in May of 67, Mrs.
Ralph Butler gets a visit from one MajorRichard French from the U.S.
(39:49):
Air Force, who shows up at her doordriving
a white Mustang and wearingcivilian clothes. He's
about five feet,
nine inches tall, with an olive complexionand a pointed face.
He has dark hair that, in Mrs.
(40:10):
Butler's opinion, is way too longfor an officer of the Air Force.
As the two chat about recent UFOsightings, Major French mentions to Mrs.
Butlerthat her stomach doesn't feel very well.
Being the Minnesota nice womanthat she is, she offers him some Jell-O.
Maybe that will calm it down.
(40:30):
She hands him a bowl,and according to her,
“He acted like he'd never seen any before.
He picked up the bowland tried to drink it.
I had to show him how to eat itwith a spoon.” Welcome to Minnesota.
But the MIB don't just stop with friendlyJell-O visits.
In numerous cases, witnessesto either the Mothman or UFO in the area
(40:53):
reported getting phone callswith no one on the line.
They just hear this beeping sound.
John Keel talks about howthis was such a persistent phenomena
while he was trying to investigatewhat was happening in Point Pleasant.
How while he was sitting in someone'sliving room
talking about their experiences,
their phone would ringwith apparently no one on the line.
(41:15):
It happened all the time.
And evidently, listening wasn't enough.
Many of the witnesses to the strangeevents of that year report MIB
type characters knocking on their door,asking to take their picture,
or even just driving by their house,stopping the car,
grabbing a quick shot of the house,and driving away again.
(41:37):
And even creepier,taking pictures of their kids.
A young family in Belpre, Ohio,which is the same area
Indrid Cold had been stomping around,was having all kinds of issues.
The man in the family whom John Keel calls
Ben, sees a UFO over the river one night.
(41:57):
Ben had heard that if you signal oneof these things, you can get a response.
So he flashes his car spotlight at it.
The spotlight burns out instantly.
Later, he finds out that his car'swhole electrical system is fried.
But that's just the beginning.
First, his phone goes nuts.
(42:18):
And keep in mind, at this point, he hadn'ttold anybody about his encounter yet.
But right awayhe starts to get the beeping calls
and calls from metallic voicestrying to get him to go
to these random meetings,which thankfully he never did.
Then camethe strangers to the neighborhood.
That August as he'swalking down the street in Parkersburg,
(42:40):
two Asian looking mendressed in black grinned at him broadly
as if they knew him.
Ben had never heard of the MIB,but these guys so sufficiently
creeped him out that he crossedto the other side of the street.
According to Ben's wife,
a black car had stopped in frontof their house, and a man in a black suit
(43:01):
had apparently taken photoswith a large camera,
not paying any attentionto any other house on the street -
an event corroboratedby two of their neighbors.
Even Mary Hyer had issues.
One early May evening, a luminous objectappears
over her house and projectsa light beam into her backyard.
(43:23):
She's not home, but her husbandand several neighbors see it.
A few days later,Mary sees her old friend Peaches.
Peaches. Future. Peaches. Peaches.
Jack Brown again.
This time she wants to talk to this guy.
When Jack sees Mary coming,he freaks, starts running,
and jumps into a black car drivenby a very large man.
(43:46):
Maybe it's tiny?
Three days later, on May 8th, Mary's
just getting home from some townevent at about 11:30 p.m.
Just as she's opening her front door,a large black car
comes roaring up and skidsto a stop in front of her house.
As she's just standing on her porch, a man
gets out of the car,snaps her picture and drives off.
(44:09):
Now, don't think for a second
that all MIB encounters are men.
It's the late 60s, and feminismhas taken root in the ranks of the MIB.
John Keel talks about getting a heads up
about a woman running aroundpretending to be his secretary.
But he has no secretary.
(44:29):
This blond woman in her 30sis visiting people
in Ohio and West Virginiathat John had interviewed.
She just rolls on up to their doors,introduces herself as John, Keel’s
secretary, and people opentheir doors wide for her to come in,
ask them a bunch of questions from a formshe has on a clipboard,
collecting all kindsof deeply personal information
(44:52):
and some questionsabout their UFO sighting.
So he does some checking and finds outthat this woman had visited
many of the people John has visited with,most of whose stories were never printed.
How did she find out?
How creepy is that?
And that,my friends, brings us to our fifth
(45:13):
and final tierof this Mothman iceberg - fifth and final.
Who? the creepy aftermath.
Turns out that going homeafter seeing a UFO or other strange
(45:34):
phenomena is oftentimesnot the end, but just the beginning.
One woman shared her encounterfrom either November 2nd or 3rd,
so either the night of or the nightafter Woody Derenberger's
chat with Indrid Cold,that is amazingly similar.
Except her encounter took place in a cityparking lot and two men,
(45:58):
not nearly as charmingas the enigmatic Mr.
Cold, got out of the darkfloating cylinder.
They had dark skin, superchiseled features
and, among other questions,kept asking her,
“What is your time?” Finally,
they just walked back to the thingand took off.
She's thoroughly freaked,but doesn't tell anybody.
(46:21):
Until she sees the mne againwalking down the street in Gallipolis.
Freaked out all over again,she goes to the police,
who immediately treat her like a nutjob.
But it's not thatthe police just dismiss this claim.
The police dismiss herbecause of her multitude of past claims.
She and her two teenage childrenlive on a farm
(46:43):
outside of Gallipolis,where she keeps cows.
Beginning in ‘63 or ’64,she starts to have trouble with what
she can only assume are cattle rustlers,butchering her cows in the field.
But if these people are cattle rustlerslooking for some choice
steaks, they're horrible at their jobs.
(47:04):
Because these rustlersonly take the brains,
eyeballs, udders and organs.
She's even caught them in the act.
But they always get away jumping overhigh fences from a standing start.
Then her house burns down.
Then in her new house,she wakes up one night and can't move.
(47:24):
The house feels oven hotand she's looking around,
when she hears the kitchen door,which was double locked, open.
She watches a tall man walkthrough the kitchen, and apparently go out
another locked door on the other sidethat leads to a ten foot drop off.
After it leaves, she can move.
(47:47):
But let's go back to herpoor cows for a minute.
She is by far not the only one in the OhioValley having this issue.
There are several reports of dogs, cows,and horses dying suddenly
and mysteriously, usually from surgicallike incisions in their throats
with no blood, either in the body
(48:08):
or anywhere on the ground around them.
One side effect, often reported
by UFO witnesses, is called lacunaamnesia.
The inability to remembereither the entirety
of the actual encounter or certain eventsthat happened after.
Mary Hyre experiencesthis effect firsthand.
(48:28):
Being a journalist,she's got a pretty good memory.
But one night and she's driving homefrom a successful UFO watch party
with John, she sees a big blob of lightright on the river.
She doesn't know what it is,but she doesn't stop.
Instead, she takes a mental note to tellJohn the next day.
(48:49):
Weird thing is,she doesn't tell him the next day
because she just forgets all about it.
About a day later,she remembers, but then forgets again.
The next time she remembers,she calls John to tell him
not only about the UFO that she saw,
but about her memory blanking on her.
(49:09):
It's just not somethingthat she would usually forget.
Now let's go back to Connie Carpenter,the would be kidnaping victim.
Remember her visit from Jack Brown? Oh!
Well,
turns out Connie's mom, Faye,was there, too.
In fact, Faye was the one
who actually opens the doorand sees this weird guy standing there in
(49:33):
just a shirt with no jacketin the dead of West Virginia winter,
and thinks to herself, “I'mnot letting this guy in.” But she does.
And she has no idea why.
And she has zeromemories of any part of his visit,
even though she knows she was there.
The idea that some outside force
(49:54):
can barge into your head at any timeis an extremely unsettling idea for me,
but at least I'm familiar with lotsof stories of this type of effect.
However,something I really had no idea about,
or at least hadn'tconnected the dots in my own head
scares me even more.
(50:15):
The frequentsurge of poltergeist activity.
If you are familiar with Skinwalker Ranch,
a hotbed of UFO activity,
well really, every paranormal activity,
then you know about the poltergeistactivity happening there as well.
Well, turns out the same thing happensin our Point Pleasant outbreak.
(50:38):
Remember our friend Ben,who had people calling
him, telling himto go to these mysterious meetings?
Well, soonafter he has his first sighting, (He
actually had numerous sightings.)a poltergeist moves into Ben's house.
Drawers open by themselves.
Objects disappear.
A cabinet that is so heavythat it's tough for one grown man to move.
(51:02):
Somehow moves on its own.
And Ben's not the only one.
Remember Connie Carpenter? Poor Connie.
Other than Linda's Scarberry,she seems to be getting more than her
fair share of blowbackfrom this whole affair.
After heroh so exciting visit from Jack Brown,
a poltergeist takes up residencein her house, too.
(51:25):
Pictures fall off the walls.
Little things disappear from shelvesand reappear in weird places.
Thankfully,the activity only lasts about two weeks.
The Lilly family also had this problemonce they started seeing colorful
orbs of light floating over their houseon a regular basis.
Kitchen cabinet door slamming at night.
(51:46):
Their double locked living room doorstanding wide open in the morning.
Loud bangslike pots and pans being thrown around.
And even the sound of a baby crying,making Jackie Lilly search her house
even though she knowsthere are no babies in her house.
And most terrifying of allis the experience of their 16 year old
(52:08):
daughter, Linda, who wakes up one nightto see a huge man towering over her bed
wearing a checkered shirt, (Rememberthat part.) grinning at her.
Okay, all of this craziness
brings us to the bottom of tier five.
And what's at the very bottomof the iceberg?
(52:28):
The bottom tip.
In my opinion,the scariest part of this whole iceberg.
Who am I kidding?
This whole thing scaresthe crap out of me.
And that so-called honor belongsto none other than Linda Scarberry.
She had seen the MIB around,but this...this encounter
(52:48):
is on a whole new level.
She's sleepingone night with her aunt and her five month
old daughter, Dani, in the bassinetnext to her bed.
Now, I don't know what detailsled up to this event.
I have not had the chance to dig intoany of John Keel's
other booksto find out what the stems from.
But somewhere along the line, Mr.
(53:09):
Keel gives Lindathe advice that she should buy a crucifix
with gold on itand keep it close to Danny's bed.
So Linda takes his advice and hangsthis crucifix on Danny's bassinet.
Now the room that they're all sleeping inis just off the kitchen.
And they are in the habitof keeping the kitchen light on in case
Linda needs to get up with the babyduring the night.
(53:31):
So the light shinesfull on into the bedroom,
making it easy to see anythinghappening in the kitchen.
Around midnight, Lindawakes up to see a man with black hair,
wearing a black and white checkered shirt
and black pants, walk into the room.
She says he really didn't look likethe other MIB she had seen so far.
(53:54):
His skinwasn't transparent like the others.
But he just stands there
staring right at Linda, never blinking.
After a few tense minutes,
he takes out a cigarette and lights it.
The flame reflects off the gold
from the crucifix and grabs his attention.
(54:14):
The gold flash grabsLinda's attention as well,
and when she looks back, the man is gone.
“He looked at me, then the crucifix,
then was gone.” To this day,
Linda says she knows that that manwas in her room that night for a purpose,
and that if it weren't for the crucifixhanging on Dani's bassinet, they,
(54:34):
whoever they are, would have taken her.
In theyears following the Mothman insanity
and the subsequent bridge disaster,the town of Point
Pleasant triedvery hard to bury those painful memories.
But with so many people affected one way
or the other, they proved hard to forget.
(54:56):
Disagreementsas to whether witnesses were lying or not.
Whether the photos really showwhat they're supposed to show.
Was Mothmanjust a distraction to take everyone's
attention away from whatthe Men in Black were doing on the bridge.
So instead,they decide to embrace their history,
possibly prodded alongby the release of the movie The Mothman
(55:18):
Prophecies, based on the book by JohnKeel in 2002, with local residents
starting their very own Mothman Festivalthat very same year,
which now 20 years later, draws
tens of thousands of people every year.
Couple that with a Mothman museum,a Mothman statue downtown,
(55:38):
and a dedicationto all those lost on that bridge disaster,
at least we can all be assuredthat no part of this important
snapshotmoment in history will ever be forgotten.
Most of the information for thisepisode comes from the book
The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel,which is packed
(56:01):
with way more crazy storiesthan I could ever include.
It is a great read.
But I also want to give a huge shout outto Jeff Wamsley,
owner of the Mothman Museumand coauthor of the book “Mothman:
The Facts Behind the Legend”,to both thank him for his book,
which was a great resource of informationand for his generosity
(56:25):
in giving me permission to use his imagesin the making of this video.
Thank you Jeff.
So if you're traveling through the OhioRiver Valley,
make sure you stop by Point Pleasantand show some love to the Mothman Museum.
I know I'm adding it to my bucket listbecause I want my picture
taken next to that awesome statuewith the red, sparkly eyes.
(56:48):
Does that surprise anybody?
If you'd like to do a deeper diveon Harbingers of Doom
worldwide, click right here.
Be careful out there.
And I will see youhere again, on The InBetween.
You think you know the Mothman story.
Red eyes. The bridge collapse.
But what if I told youthere were men in black, UFOs,
and something far more sinisterthan a flying creature?
This is a multi-layerediceberg of mystery,
where the deeper we go, the darkerthe story gets.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to The InBetween.
(00:59):
Many people
know about the infamous midnightride of the two couples
being chased by Mothman straightto the sheriff's office.
At least that's about the extentof my exposure to the story.
That,and what I saw from the Richard Gere movie
20 years ago,of which I remember exactly zero.
But as is usually the case, onceI started digging into this topic,
(01:21):
I've discovered it'sso much more than that.
This Mothman topic is amulti-tiered iceberg that goes way deeper
than a pair of red, shiny eyeschasing some kids down the road.
But let's start with the partfloating on top of the water.
The version that most people know.
The night of November15th, 1966, two couples,
(01:44):
Linda and Roger Scarberry,and Steve and Mary Mallette,
residents of Point Pleasant,West Virginia, are out
trying to find some fun aroundwhat the locals call the TNT area.
It's called the TNT areabecause during World War Two,
it was a site where the governmentmanufactured explosives for the war.
After the war was over,so was the TNT manufacturing,
(02:06):
and the area was pretty much abandoned
until the younger crowd decidedit was a cool place to hang out
and made it their lover's laneand their drag racing track and stuff.
The couples are outdriving around the TNT area
near the North power plant and spotthis large winged
humanoidfigure that flies straight up in the air
(02:28):
and chases them all the way into townat speeds up to 100 miles an hour.
But it disappears at the edge of town.
They drive straightto the sheriff's office to tell them
what happened, and given the shaken stateof all four kids,
the sheriff believes themand takes their statement.
After that night, multiple residentsof Point Pleasant and the surrounding area
(02:52):
witness presumably the same flyingcreature over the following months.
That is, until exactlyone year and one month later,
the night of December 15th, 1967.
The traffic light on the Ohioside of Silver Bridge,
which is the crossing point between PointPleasant on the West Virginia side,
and Gallipolis on the Ohio side,has been stuck on green all afternoon,
(03:16):
allowing an open flow of carsgoing to Point Pleasant.
Between that, rush hour,and Christmas shopping season, the bridge,
built back in 1928,is packed with cars and trucks.
At 5:04 p.m., one of the support beamsgives way, sending the bridge
and everyone on it into the freezingOhio River below.
(03:41):
46 people die in the collapse,
and Mothman, who was reportedly seen onand around the bridge before it collapsed,
is rarely seen again,giving rise to the theory
that the only reason he was everthere was as a harbinger of doom
for the coming tragedy.
The supernatural eventsthat occurred in Point Pleasant
(04:02):
that year were brought to life by writerJohn Keel,
known for his writing onGet Smart, The Monkeys,
and Lost in Space, in his bookThe Mothman Prophecies,
which was then used as the basisfor the 2002 movie starring Richard Gere.
Okay, that's the high level,what we can see,
(04:24):
what most of usalready know, version of events.
But you guessed it,we're just getting started.
Under the surface, thingsstart to get a little more interesting.
The story doesn't actually start withthe car chase to the sheriff's office.
It starts way before that.
(04:44):
Try 1914.
From 1914 through the 1940s,there are several reports around the Point
Pleasant, Ohio Rivervalley of a large bird with a man's head,
reddish feathers, a 12ft wingspan
that also have been tiedto tragedies in those years.
But things do certainly ramp upas we roll into the 60s.
(05:07):
Sometime in the early 60s, a womanand her father are in the Chief Cornstalk
Wildlife Management Area,when they see a man shaped figure
that walks onto the road,spreads its wings and takes off.
In 1965, a woman and her sonsee what they describe at the time
as an angel outside their windowalong the Ohio River.
(05:28):
Later, as word startsgetting out about this birdlike creature
hanging around town, they confirm, “Thatsounds like what we saw.”
In the summer of 66, againnear the Ohio River,
a woman sees what she describesas a giant butterfly.
And that brings us all the wayup to November of 1966,
(05:49):
when things really get rolling.
November 1st, a National Guardsmanis standing outside of the armory
when he sees a brown half bird, halfman figure perched on a tree.
And on November 12th,not far away in Clendenin,
five men are digging a cemetery gravewhen they see what they describe
(06:09):
as a brown humanbeing flying low over the trees.
That brings us back to November
15th,the night of our Speed Racer encounter.
Don't be patient. Don't be patient.
Now, the reasonwe are circling back to this encounter
in deeper waters,is that there is even more to
(06:30):
this part of the storythan just the surface level account.
So it's Tuesday, November 15th, 1966.
The Scarberry's and the Mallettesare joyriding through the TNT area
around midnight as they crest a small risenear the North power plant.
Steve spots two large red eyes
(06:51):
as the car's headlights catchsomething in the road.
It is a six foot tall gray humanoid
with wings and red eyes,
two inches wide, 6 to 8in apart.
According to Linda, ithas one of its wings caught in a guidewire
and is pulling on its wingwith its big hands, trying to free itself.
(07:14):
They stop the car and sit there kind of a
for a few seconds, but then they all startscreaming at Roger, “Go go go!”
But Roger is so mesmerizedthat he doesn’t move.
The thing frees itself from the guidewire
and runs to the abandonedNorth power plant.
Roger finally snaps out of itand slams his foot on the gas
(07:36):
and they are Audi 5000.
They race out of the TNT areaand back to route 62,
heading to town, when they notice it'sback.
“It was on the bankon the left side of the road…
when the car lights were shown on it,it moved its wings
out to its sideand went straight up in the air.”
(07:57):
Roger floors it, hitting 100
to 105 miles an hour on the straightaways.
The creature glides over the car,not flapping, just gliding.
It dives at them once or twiceand at the curve
in the road by the armory, it vanishes.
They pull into Dairyland, a local drivein, hearts racing.
(08:21):
Linda wants to call the cops,but Roger and Steve say no way.
They'll just laugh at us.
They calm down for a couple minutes,and I don't know whose bright idea it is,
but they all get back in the carto go back.
As Roger turns, headlightscatch a dead dog in the road,
and suddenly the creature comessoaring over the car
(08:43):
into a fieldon the other side of the road.
That's it. They're done.
They race to another hangout calledTiny's Drive
in, spotting some guythey know named Gary.
So they tell Gary what they saw.
Gary asks, “You guys been drinkin?” “No,we have not been drinking.”
Gary calls the police,and one Deputy Millard Halstead joins,
(09:06):
growing the party to six.
And even with two new membersto the party, common sense still does
not prevail.
They all jump in their carsand head on back.
The creature, again,dive bombs Roger's car on the way there.
But they keep goingand get back to the power
plant, park next to it,and turn their lights off.
(09:28):
After 15-20 minutes of lookingand listening for any little noise,
Linda hears a loud squeaklike a huge mouse.
Mary sees red eyes.
“All I could do was point and burstinto tears.”
Deputy Halstead whipshis spotlight over in the direction
Mary's pointing and catches dustor smoke rising, but the creature's gone.
(09:52):
And just like the Midnight Riders weren'tthe start of this particular chapter
of sightings,it also was far from the end of it.
The very next day, as if the night beforehadn't terrified them enough,
the Scarberrys and Mallettesgo back to the power plant.
They see tracks on the ground that looklike two horseshoes put together.
(10:13):
Roger climbs up on the roofwhile Steve goes inside.
Steve isn't inside longbefore he comes running back out,
white as a sheet,saying he just saw it in the boiler room.
Later that evening, Mr.
and Mrs.
Raymond Wamsley and Mrs.
Marcella Bennett and her babydaughter, Teena, head to the general area,
not to look for the monsterlike masses of other creature hunters
(10:38):
that are driving in by the hundredsafter reading about last night's
adventure in the morning newspaper,but to visit some friends, Mr.
and Mrs. Ralph Thomas.
They walk up to the Thomas house, knock,and the door is answered
by the Thomas children.Their mom and dad aren't home.
So the Wamsleys and the Bennettssay their goodbyes and head to the car,
(10:59):
when they see something rising upfrom behind the car.
“It rose up slowly from the ground.
A big gray thing, bigger than a man,with terrible glowing red eyes.”
Mrs. Bennett
totally freaked out, dropslittle Teena, (No judging.)
(11:19):
but is too hypnotized by the red eyesto pick her up again.
As the wings on the monster's backstart to slowly unfold,
Raymond Wamsley grabs the baby and Mrs.
Bennett, and all four run back intothe house, slam the door, and lock it.
They hear a sound on the porchand look out the window to see
two red eyes looking back at them.
(11:42):
The women and children freak out as Mr.
Wamsley grabsthe phone to call the police.
But, not a shocker, the thing is gonebefore the police get there.
But word spread like wildfire.
So along with the copscome a bunch of other people,
including the Scarberrysand the Mallettes.
(12:02):
Linda says she even saw it flying aroundabove the trees on the way there.
The girls stay at the Thomas housewhile the boys go looking for it.
Of course, they don't find it,so they head home, when Linda
sees it again,sitting on top of a building.
Once they get home,Linda completely loses it.
(12:22):
And Roger and her dadhave to take it to the hospital.
By the next day,so Thursday, the word is spreading fast,
and Point Pleasant is swampedwith reporters from all over.
So the Scarberrysand the Mallettes go up to the power
plant again with a group of reporters.
They spend a little time looking aroundinside the shell of a building, and Steve
(12:46):
closes an open door in the boiler roombefore they all go back outside.
Then they all hear a clatterfrom inside the building and run back in
to discovered that the door that Steve hadjust shut is now open.
And that's just during the day.
That night they go back againwith more reporters, including one Mrs.
(13:08):
Mary Hyer from the Athens Messenger.
You will hear more about her later, butfor now just know she's a local reporter.
She and Linda bothsee glowing red eyes out in the field.
And on the way home, Linda and MaryMallette see it again in some trees.
And Linda claims to have seen ita few more times after that.
(13:31):
One thing is for sure, though,the effect of seeing this creature
repeatedly has made a devastating impacton both of their lives.
“I close my eyes day or night,
and I can see those red fiery eyesstaring at me.
We are never really goingto get over our fear
until we find out for surewhat this thing is.
(13:55):
I know I'll never forget it, andI don't think anyone can who has seen it.”
And there are even more sightings.
One, the very next day. On the 18th.
Three on the 20th.
And two more on the 21st.
At the end of November,the pace slows down a little bit.
But the sightings, about 100 in total,both nighttime and daytime sightings,
(14:17):
continueall the way up to December of 1967,
when the Silver Bridgefalls into the Ohio River.
As if that insanity isn't enough,
let's go one level deeper.
Because Mothman is not the only terrifyingthing in the skies over Point Pleasant.
That year also usheredin a wave of UFO sightings,
(14:40):
And not just sightings of randomlights in the sky.
Don't get me wrong.
There are plenty of “Isaw a light in the sky” kind of reports.
Even Linda Scarbrough saw them.
She said, “They were so pretty.
I saw onethat looked like a blooming rose.
It was all different colors, like thepetals were coming out in all directions.
(15:01):
And the colors weren'tanything like we would have.
They were much brighter, simply beautiful.
And a large red
orb was seen bouncing above the treesby the Wamsleys and Mrs.
Bennett, while they were on their way
to see the Thomasesbefore their own run in with Mothman.
Hundreds of sightings are reportedthat year, seemingly
(15:23):
concentrated on the Ohio River valleybetween Point Pleasant and Marietta,
and along the Kanawha River from PointPleasant south to Charleston.
And keep in mindthat this is all taking place
about an hour away from Flatwoods,West Virginia,
which should ring a bellfor all of you UFO mystery aficionados.
(15:45):
That's the site of the FlatwoodsMonster encounter just 15 years earlier.
(That is a storyI will be covering in a future episode, so
remember to subscribeif you haven't done so already.)
But some residents experienced thisstrange phenomena up close and personal.
Newell Partridgelives in Salem, West Virginia.
(16:06):
On the evening of November 14th, 1966,about 10:30 at night,
his TV goes on the fritz with the picturebeing replaced with a fine herringbone
pattern, as the set startsmaking a loud whining noise,
repeating an up and down patternfrom high to low frequency and back.
Outside on the porch, Bandit,
(16:28):
Newell’sbig German Shepherd, starts to howl.
Newell gets a flashlightand goes outside to see Bandit
sitting on the edge of the porch,howling down toward
the hay barn about a football fieldaway from the house.
He shines the flashlight in that directionand sees
two red circlesthat look like bicycle reflectors.
Or maybe eyes.
(16:49):
But at the same time, they can't be eyes.
First. They're way too big.
And second of all,they're kind of spinning around.
But as soon as the flashlight picks upthe eyes,
Bandit goes nuts and takes off, runningstraight for them.
A cold chill sweeps over Newellthat instinctively tells him
(17:10):
not to follow the dog.
Bandit doesn't come back, and Newellsleeps with his gun that night.
The next day, he goes looking for Bandit,which turns out to be pretty easy.
Bandit is a big beefy dogand the ground is muddy.
He tracks him from the porch, backto where the eyes
were, and sees bandits tracksgoing around in a circle
(17:32):
like he was chasing his tail,which something the Bandit never did.
There were no other tracks of any kindleading anywhere else.
Bandit was just gone.
Newell says, “Ithink that the hardest thing
to explain is the feeling involved.
It was as if you knew something was wrong,but couldn't place
(17:54):
just what it was.”And Bandit is never seen again.
Then there's the
harrowing experience of 21 year old BeauShertzer.
On March 5th, 1967, Beau is driving a RedCross Blood Mobile
at night along route two,which runs parallel to the Ohio River,
heading back to Huntingtonafter being out all day at a blood drive.
(18:16):
It's a dark, cold nightwith very little traffic.
As he and his nurse coworker cruise
along this particularly quiet stretch,they see a flash in the woods.
A white glow rises slowly into the airand starts heading right for them.
The nurse screams, “What is it?”
Beau'sresponse is to put the pedal to the metal.
(18:38):
He rolls down his windowand looks up to see the object,
effortlessly pacing the vanjust a few feet overhead.
He sees the objectlowering some kind of arm or something,
when he hears the nurse yell, “It'strying to get us,” as she sees another arm
coming down on her side, like it'strying to grab the whole van or something.
(19:01):
Beau tries to go faster,but the glowing orb keeps pace
until they finally encountera car coming in the other direction.
As soon as that car is in sight,the flying thing pulls up its arms
and flies away.
Arguably the most bizarre experience,which
I'm not going to go into too much detailabout right now,
(19:21):
because this one also deservesa full episode on its own,
is the encounter of Woodrow,or Woody, Derenberger.
At 7 p.m.
on the cold, rainy night of November2nd, 1966,
Woody is heading home in his vanafter a long, hard day.
As he's driving along, a car passes him.
(19:42):
So Woody eases off the acceleratorto give the guy some space,
when he realizes it'snot a car in front of him.
It's a dark blobthat cuts in front of him and slows down.
This charcoal colored thinglooks like the bulbous glass
chimney of an old fashioned kerosene lamp.
(20:02):
Woody slams on his brakesand stops like 8 or 10ft
from where the object turned crossways,blocking the road.
A door on the sideslides open and a man steps out.
He's about five feet, ten inchestall, with long dark hair, combed
straight back with a dark complexion,like super tan.
(20:22):
With an unnaturally wide grin on his faceand his arms crossed
and his hands tucked under his armpits,
he starts walking over to Woody's truck.
He's wearing a dark coat withwhat looks to be a metallic green shirt
underneath.
Woody is a little surprisedto discover that he can feel
what this man is thinking.
(20:44):
“Don't be afraid.
We mean you no harm.
Roll on your window.” “What is your name?”
“Woody.” “My name is Cold”
As the two men are just chitchatting away, Mr.
Cold via telepathy, and Woodypresumably out loud,
the chimney shaped objectfloats up about 50ft over the road
(21:05):
and just hovers there as the other carscome along and past them.
In fact, once Woody'sstory lands in the newspapers,
people came forward to saythat they saw someone in a van
stopped in the roadtalking to another man.
At the end of their conversation, Mr.
Cold promisesWoody he'll be back to see him soon.
As his shipdescends, the door opens, Cold goes in,
(21:28):
and is gone in a flash into the darknight sky.
But as Woody will soon learn, Mr.
Cold is a man of his word.
He came back.
But that, my friends, is way too bigof a story to cover in this episode.
Mr. IndredCold is going to get his own episode.
(21:49):
Now, as you can imagine,as the press is picking up on all of this
strange happeningsin and around Point Pleasant,
the story starts spreading far and wide,and finally reaches
the desk of a New York authorand Ufologist by the name of John Keel.
The author of The Mothman Propheciesand arguably the reason we know
at least part of all of the thingsthat happened that fateful year.
(22:12):
I say part because even he admitsthat so much was going
on, that he couldn'tfit it all into the book.
But even he wouldn'thave been able to do it alone
in a small, close,tight knit community like Point Pleasant.
Mr. keel would have been dead on arrival
without the help of someonewho would become the truest of wingmen.
(22:33):
Or shall I say, wing women?
That would be Mary Hyer,the reporter that I mentioned earlier
that saw the red eyesof the Mothman herself at the power plant
with Lynda Scarberry and Mary Mallette.
For those of you familiarwith the Mothman story,
I'm sure you're thinking,“It's about time.”
Because even though we haven'treally talked about her until now,
(22:55):
she's actually a very big part of thiswhole story.
Mary was a writer for the AthensMessenger newspaper out of Athens, Ohio.
But the Messenger kept an office in PointPleasant that was manned,
in part, by Mary.
She had her finger on the pulse of PointPleasant
and was known by everyone in town.
(23:16):
Not only did people know her, butthey knew her integrity as a journalist.
If something was offthe record, it was off the record.
They trusted her.
So consequently, when JohnKeel came to town, she was instrumental
in getting the locals with a storyto tell to open up to him.
And while John was never ableto see the elusive Mothman for himself,
(23:38):
he and Mary, both together and separately,
have multiple UFO sightings of their own.
Mary has so many reports coming into her
that there's no way for herto report on all of them.
But she publishes what she canabout all of the area weirdness.
However, this rush of successat UFO Yahtzee
(24:00):
Yeah yeah brought more strangers to town,
not nearly as friendly as John.
Let's just sayI don't think they play Yahtzee.
It started just about the same timethat the Mothman and UFO wave did.
Strangersshowing up at homes of eyewitnesses
to both types of encounters,asking their names,
(24:22):
asking their children's names, tellingpeople not to talk about what they saw.
That's right.
Your friends and mine - the Men in Black.
And for this particularround of weirdness, they proved themselves
to be not only crafty,but more than a little dangerous.
Back in 66, when the whole partywas just getting started,
(24:44):
someone in the family of EdwardChristiansen had a UFO sighting.
Or maybe the whole family did.
I'm sorry to say thatI don't have that detail, but someone did.
Shortly after,the whole family moved to a new home
about 400 mileseast in Wildwood, New Jersey.
On the afternoon of January9th, 1967, Ed, his wife Arline,
(25:06):
and their three kids are just getting homefrom a trip to Florida.
They had just moved into their new house,so neither their address
nor phone number was listed in thethen current phonebook.
A new phone book there.
The new phone books here.
At 5:30,there's a knock on the front door.
Arline tells her oldest daughter, Connie,“If it's a salesman, don't answer.”
(25:28):
Connie takes a peekand tells her mom, “It's the strangest
looking man I've ever seen.”Arline goes to the door and opens it.
Now, it's January in New Jersey.
It is dark and cold,but Arline doesn't see any car outside.
Only a tall man on the doorstep.
He asks Arline, “Does Edward Christiansenlive here?
(25:51):
I'm from the Missing Heirs Bureau.
Mr. Christiansen might have inheriteda great deal of money.
May I come in?” Well,who's going to turn that down?
Arline steps back and invites him in
and calls to Edward, HHey,you got a visitor.” The guy says, “This
will only take 40 minutes,”as he takes off his hat and his coat.
(26:12):
Edward tells the guy right up frontthat he has to have made a mistake.
He doesn't know anybodywho would be leaving him any money.
The guy tells Edwardhe might be the guy they're looking for,
but in order to verify it,he would like to ask some questions.
And this dude is huge.
Easily 6.5fttall, ringing in at about three bills.
(26:33):
His head is big and round,but he still manages
to have an angular, sharp face.
He has close cropped black hairwith a perfectly round shaped spot
on the back of his head.
His nose and mouth are fine,but his eyes are kind of bulgy
and wide setand do not seem to totally move together.
(26:56):
Underneath his thin outer coat, (Obviouslynot dressed for a New Jersey winter.)
he's wearing a short sleeveshirt and dark pants that are a little
too short, so when he sits down,they ride high up on his calves.
Odd detail, but important,
considering that when he sits down, bothArline and Connie can see a green wire
(27:19):
coming out of his socksand running up under his pant leg.
And his skin is so pale,
the Christiansen's think he'sgotta be sick.
The man introduces himself, althoughno one can actually remember his name.
It's something common,like Smith or Jones.
But they do remember himsaying that his friends call him Tiny.
(27:40):
He speaks with a high, tinny voicethat seems super out of place
for such a big guy,and in a dull, monotone cadence
that sounds more like a computer,like he's reciting everything from memory.
Arline tells Tiny that they're all about
to sit down for dinner,and she invites him to stay.
(28:01):
Tiny says, no thanks, but I probablywill want some water in ten minutes.
Tiny takes out a small notebook and startsasking Ed
a whole bunch of questions like, doeshe have any scars or birthmarks?
How big are they?
What schools did you go to?
What cars have you owned in the past?
Tiny's face gradually growsredder and redder as he talks.
(28:25):
And after a few minutes,he asks for that glass of water,
which he gulps down with a big yellow
capsule and returns to normal.
Tiny'sinterview is done in less than an hour.
(Probably 40 minutes.) He stands backup, puts on his hat and coat, tells Ed
that he'll be notified by mailwithin ten days, and heads out the door.
(28:48):
Arline decidesto just check and see where he goes,
since there was no car out frontwhen he got there.
She steps out of the kitchen doorin time to see him reach the road
and wave at the darkness,as a black 1963 Cadillac
pulls up with its headlights off,so she can't see any driver.
Tiny climbs in the car and it drives away
(29:10):
with its headlights still off.
The next morning, the phone rings.
The woman on the other end
tells Ed, we found the Ed Christiansenwe're looking for.
It ain't you.
Ed says thanks and hangs up.
See what I mean about getting crafty?
On Sunday, November 27th, 1966,at about 10:30 in the morning,
(29:32):
18 year old Connie Carpenteris heading home from church when,
outside of New Haven, West Virginia,she suddenly sees a huge
gray figure shaped like a manbut about seven feet tall,
with large, round, glowing red eyes
that focus on her with a hypnotic effect.
(29:53):
As she slowsdown, her eyes glued to this thing,
a pair of wings unfold from its backwith a span of about ten feet.
It slowly rises up off the groundlike a helicopter
without even flapping its wings, headsstraight towards Connie's car, and swoops
low over her head as she snaps
(30:14):
out of her stupor and smashes the gaspedal.
Insanity.
But okay.
Life moves on.
A couple months later, in February,she marries her sweetheart Keith,
and the couple moves across the riverto a house in Middleport, Ohio.
They don't have a phone,and only their families
and close friends know their new address.
(30:36):
At 8:15 a.m.
on February 22nd, 1967,she heads out the door to go to school.
Keith's already at work.
As she starts walking down the street,a large black car pulls up next to her.
Connie knows her carsand says it's a 1949 Buick.
The driver’s a clean cut, very suntanned
(30:58):
young man of about 25,wearing a short sleeve shirt.
(In Ohio in February?) opens his doorand asks her for directions.
She walks over to his car,(No judging.) and notices the car,
even though it's nearly 20 yearsold, looks brand new.
When she reaches the car,the young man suddenly lunges at her,
(31:20):
grabs her armand yells at her to get in the car.
After a brief struggle,she manages to get away, runs
back to her house and locks herselfinside, completely terrified.
Keith comes home from work.
At the end of the day
to find his brand new wifecurled up in a corner, scared to death.
Connie's freaked out enough
that she decides to stay homethe next day, too.
(31:42):
At 3 p.m., she hears footstepson the porch and a loud knock on the door.
She stays out of sight for a while,then cautiously goes to the door.
No one on the porch and no car in sight.
But a note has been slipped under the doorthat says, “Be careful, girl.
I can't get you yet.”
This encounter may not soundlike your typical MIB encounter,
(32:06):
but many seem to fallinto one of two camps - either super pale,
translucent skin or darker skinthat people report as looking really tan.
It's also worth mentioning that not beingdressed appropriately for the weather,
as neither this guy nor our friend
Tiny were, is also a common detail.
(32:27):
But regardless of whatyou think of this account, our friend
Connie is not done yet.
But before I tell you that story,I have to tell you this story.
Fast forward to a weekafter the bridge collapse.
Mary Hyer has been practically living
in her office, doing anythingshe can to help rescue workers,
(32:47):
family members and anyone else in needthat walks through her door.
She's just a tad bit busy.
So she barely notices one afternoonwhen two men with dark
complexions,both short and wearing black overcoats,
look like they could be twins,walk up to her desk.
As she watches thempick up regular things from her desk,
(33:10):
her pencil, her stapler,and look at them like
they've never seen anything like itbefore, they blurt out the statement,
“We hear there's been a lot of flyingsaucer activity around here.”
Mary just stares at these guys like,
how can you be thinkingabout flying saucers at a time like this?
But she musters up some grace and tellsthe guys, “We've had a few sightings
(33:33):
here,” pulling out a huge bulging folder
filled with sighting reportsand hands it to one of the men.
He opens the file, glances through itand hands it back.
“Has anyone told you not to publishthese reports?”
Mary shakes her headand she puts the folder back.
“What would you doif someone did order you to stop
(33:54):
writing about flying saucers?” Mary triesnot to grin too much
as she tells them, “I’dtell them to go to hell.”
She watches the two men glanceat each other and goes back to work.
The next time she looks up, they're gone.
Later that same afternoon,another stranger walks into Mary's office.
This guy's slightly built,about five feet, seven inches tall,
(34:16):
with black eyes and messy black hair.
His complexion
is even darker than the last two guys,and he looks slightly East Asian.
His hands have really long,tapering fingers.
He's wearing a cheaplooking, out of fashion suit
that doesn't fit him very well,and his tie is knotted kind of funny.
And wouldn't you know it?
(34:38):
Even though it's freezing outside,he has no coat.
He says my name is La la la la la.
Dan Jack Brown.
I'm a UFO researcher.
The only response Marycan muster is, “Oh.” She is
way too tired for this.
The day is almost overand she is ready to go home
(34:59):
and get real sleepfor the first time in a week.
But his next questionbrings her back to full attention.
“What would you do if someone ordered youto stop to stop printing UFO stories?”
She asks him, “Are youthose two guys that were here earlier,”
surprised to hear the same weird, pseudothreatening question twice in one day.
(35:23):
“No. I'm alone.
I'm a friend of Gray Barker.” Gray Barker,
another legend in the UFO community,just happens to be from Clarksburg,
West Virginia and visited PointPleasant on a regular basis.
But Mary does not have the timeor patience for this and tells him, look,
I can give you the names of some ofthe people here who have seen things.
(35:45):
And you can go talk to them for yourself.
But I don't have time to escort youaround.
Jack's response?
“But I'm a friend of Gray Barker.”
Now, I know thatstory is not all that spectacular,
but I had to tell you that storyso I can tell you this story.
After her whole attempted kidnaping deal,
(36:06):
Connie Carpenter and her husband,Keith moved to New Haven, West Virginia.
One afternoon, a large, loud white
car pulls up in front ofher house, and Jack Brown up
knocks on her door,
declaring, “I'ma friend of Mary Hyre’s.” theme proper.
Well, for most people,
(36:28):
any friend of Mary's isa friend of theirs, so they invite him in.
“They” being Connie,Keith and Connie's brother, Larry.
But it takes exactly no time beforeall three of them are weirded out
by Jack's weird behaviorand disjointed questions.
It's quickly obviousthat he has no interest in Connie's
(36:49):
sighting of Mothman, like everyone elsewho comes to talk to her.
He's only concerned with the relationship
between Mary Hyre and John Keel.
Then, out of the blue.
He asks, “What would Mary Hyre doif someone told her to stop writing
about UFOs?” To which Connie replies,
“She'd probably tell him to drop dead.”Jack sticks around a little longer, asking
(37:13):
a few more stupid, rambling questionsbefore driving off in his noisy car.
After he was gone.
Connie calls her aunt to tell herwhat happened, that this guy was so weird.
He wouldn't say a wordunless you were looking
directly into his dark, hypnotic eyes.
Connie, Keith, and Larry all noticehis long fingered hands,
(37:36):
but there's also something very peculiarabout his ears.
They just couldn't say exactly what.
Another encounter of the more frighteningvariety happens to Marcella Bennett,
the woman who was so freaked outby the Mothman that she drops her baby.
(No judging.) Just a couple of weeksafter her Mothman experience,
(37:59):
she and Teena are driving along a backroad outside of town when she notices
a red Ford Galaxie driven by a big guywearing a wig following her.
She slows down trying to get it to pass,but instead
it tries to force her off the road.
She speeds up,but the other car slingshots past
(38:20):
her and disappears around the bend.
When she hits the same bend, the Ford isnow parked sideways and blocking the road.
Freaked out,she stomps on the gas pedal to the floor.
There's no way she is stopping.
The other driver,probably hearing the roar of her engine,
pulls his car to the sideand lets her pass.
(38:42):
She had never seen the man before
and she never saw him again.
Even LindaScarberry has run ins with these guys.
“They looked like human beings,but their skin was somewhat transparent.
You could see the veins in their handsvery clearly.
Their fingers were longerthan a normal person's fingers as well.
(39:02):
Daddy shook hands with them and he saidthey were awkward and shaking hands.
They seem to not know whatto do or how to shake hands.”
Now, I'm going to
ask you to indulge me for a momentwith this next story.
Think of it as a bonus story.
I read it in The Mothman Prophecies,and it's an MIB story from Minnesota.
(39:25):
I'm so excited.
This happened in 1967,so around the same time as the West
Virginia craziness, in one of the biggersmall towns in Minnesota
called Owatonna, about an hourand a half south of Minneapolis.
After a rash of UFO sightings
around Owatonna in May of 67, Mrs.
Ralph Butler gets a visit from one MajorRichard French from the U.S.
(39:49):
Air Force, who shows up at her doordriving
a white Mustang and wearingcivilian clothes. He's
about five feet,
nine inches tall, with an olive complexionand a pointed face.
He has dark hair that, in Mrs.
(40:10):
Butler's opinion, is way too longfor an officer of the Air Force.
As the two chat about recent UFOsightings, Major French mentions to Mrs.
Butlerthat her stomach doesn't feel very well.
Being the Minnesota nice womanthat she is, she offers him some Jell-O.
Maybe that will calm it down.
(40:30):
She hands him a bowl,and according to her,
“He acted like he'd never seen any before.
He picked up the bowland tried to drink it.
I had to show him how to eat itwith a spoon.” Welcome to Minnesota.
But the MIB don't just stop with friendlyJell-O visits.
In numerous cases, witnessesto either the Mothman or UFO in the area
(40:53):
reported getting phone callswith no one on the line.
They just hear this beeping sound.
John Keel talks about howthis was such a persistent phenomena
while he was trying to investigatewhat was happening in Point Pleasant.
How while he was sitting in someone'sliving room
talking about their experiences,
their phone would ringwith apparently no one on the line.
(41:15):
It happened all the time.
And evidently, listening wasn't enough.
Many of the witnesses to the strangeevents of that year report MIB
type characters knocking on their door,asking to take their picture,
or even just driving by their house,stopping the car,
grabbing a quick shot of the house,and driving away again.
(41:37):
And even creepier,taking pictures of their kids.
A young family in Belpre, Ohio,which is the same area
Indrid Cold had been stomping around,was having all kinds of issues.
The man in the family whom John Keel calls
Ben, sees a UFO over the river one night.
(41:57):
Ben had heard that if you signal oneof these things, you can get a response.
So he flashes his car spotlight at it.
The spotlight burns out instantly.
Later, he finds out that his car'swhole electrical system is fried.
But that's just the beginning.
First, his phone goes nuts.
(42:18):
And keep in mind, at this point, he hadn'ttold anybody about his encounter yet.
But right awayhe starts to get the beeping calls
and calls from metallic voicestrying to get him to go
to these random meetings,which thankfully he never did.
Then camethe strangers to the neighborhood.
That August as he'swalking down the street in Parkersburg,
(42:40):
two Asian looking mendressed in black grinned at him broadly
as if they knew him.
Ben had never heard of the MIB,but these guys so sufficiently
creeped him out that he crossedto the other side of the street.
According to Ben's wife,
a black car had stopped in frontof their house, and a man in a black suit
(43:01):
had apparently taken photoswith a large camera,
not paying any attentionto any other house on the street -
an event corroboratedby two of their neighbors.
Even Mary Hyer had issues.
One early May evening, a luminous objectappears
over her house and projectsa light beam into her backyard.
(43:23):
She's not home, but her husbandand several neighbors see it.
A few days later,Mary sees her old friend Peaches.
Peaches. Future. Peaches. Peaches.
Jack Brown again.
This time she wants to talk to this guy.
When Jack sees Mary coming,he freaks, starts running,
and jumps into a black car drivenby a very large man.
(43:46):
Maybe it's tiny?
Three days later, on May 8th, Mary's
just getting home from some townevent at about 11:30 p.m.
Just as she's opening her front door,a large black car
comes roaring up and skidsto a stop in front of her house.
As she's just standing on her porch, a man
gets out of the car,snaps her picture and drives off.
(44:09):
Now, don't think for a second
that all MIB encounters are men.
It's the late 60s, and feminismhas taken root in the ranks of the MIB.
John Keel talks about getting a heads up
about a woman running aroundpretending to be his secretary.
But he has no secretary.
(44:29):
This blond woman in her 30sis visiting people
in Ohio and West Virginiathat John had interviewed.
She just rolls on up to their doors,introduces herself as John, Keel’s
secretary, and people opentheir doors wide for her to come in,
ask them a bunch of questions from a formshe has on a clipboard,
collecting all kindsof deeply personal information
(44:52):
and some questionsabout their UFO sighting.
So he does some checking and finds outthat this woman had visited
many of the people John has visited with,most of whose stories were never printed.
How did she find out?
How creepy is that?
And that,my friends, brings us to our fifth
(45:13):
and final tierof this Mothman iceberg - fifth and final.
Who? the creepy aftermath.
Turns out that going homeafter seeing a UFO or other strange
(45:34):
phenomena is oftentimesnot the end, but just the beginning.
One woman shared her encounterfrom either November 2nd or 3rd,
so either the night of or the nightafter Woody Derenberger's
chat with Indrid Cold,that is amazingly similar.
Except her encounter took place in a cityparking lot and two men,
(45:58):
not nearly as charmingas the enigmatic Mr.
Cold, got out of the darkfloating cylinder.
They had dark skin, superchiseled features
and, among other questions,kept asking her,
“What is your time?” Finally,
they just walked back to the thingand took off.
She's thoroughly freaked,but doesn't tell anybody.
(46:21):
Until she sees the mne againwalking down the street in Gallipolis.
Freaked out all over again,she goes to the police,
who immediately treat her like a nutjob.
But it's not thatthe police just dismiss this claim.
The police dismiss herbecause of her multitude of past claims.
She and her two teenage childrenlive on a farm
(46:43):
outside of Gallipolis,where she keeps cows.
Beginning in ‘63 or ’64,she starts to have trouble with what
she can only assume are cattle rustlers,butchering her cows in the field.
But if these people are cattle rustlerslooking for some choice
steaks, they're horrible at their jobs.
(47:04):
Because these rustlersonly take the brains,
eyeballs, udders and organs.
She's even caught them in the act.
But they always get away jumping overhigh fences from a standing start.
Then her house burns down.
Then in her new house,she wakes up one night and can't move.
(47:24):
The house feels oven hotand she's looking around,
when she hears the kitchen door,which was double locked, open.
She watches a tall man walkthrough the kitchen, and apparently go out
another locked door on the other sidethat leads to a ten foot drop off.
After it leaves, she can move.
(47:47):
But let's go back to herpoor cows for a minute.
She is by far not the only one in the OhioValley having this issue.
There are several reports of dogs, cows,and horses dying suddenly
and mysteriously, usually from surgicallike incisions in their throats
with no blood, either in the body
(48:08):
or anywhere on the ground around them.
One side effect, often reported
by UFO witnesses, is called lacunaamnesia.
The inability to remembereither the entirety
of the actual encounter or certain eventsthat happened after.
Mary Hyre experiencesthis effect firsthand.
(48:28):
Being a journalist,she's got a pretty good memory.
But one night and she's driving homefrom a successful UFO watch party
with John, she sees a big blob of lightright on the river.
She doesn't know what it is,but she doesn't stop.
Instead, she takes a mental note to tellJohn the next day.
(48:49):
Weird thing is,she doesn't tell him the next day
because she just forgets all about it.
About a day later,she remembers, but then forgets again.
The next time she remembers,she calls John to tell him
not only about the UFO that she saw,
but about her memory blanking on her.
(49:09):
It's just not somethingthat she would usually forget.
Now let's go back to Connie Carpenter,the would be kidnaping victim.
Remember her visit from Jack Brown? Oh!
Well,
turns out Connie's mom, Faye,was there, too.
In fact, Faye was the one
who actually opens the doorand sees this weird guy standing there in
(49:33):
just a shirt with no jacketin the dead of West Virginia winter,
and thinks to herself, “I'mnot letting this guy in.” But she does.
And she has no idea why.
And she has zeromemories of any part of his visit,
even though she knows she was there.
The idea that some outside force
(49:54):
can barge into your head at any timeis an extremely unsettling idea for me,
but at least I'm familiar with lotsof stories of this type of effect.
However,something I really had no idea about,
or at least hadn'tconnected the dots in my own head
scares me even more.
(50:15):
The frequentsurge of poltergeist activity.
If you are familiar with Skinwalker Ranch,
a hotbed of UFO activity,
well really, every paranormal activity,
then you know about the poltergeistactivity happening there as well.
Well, turns out the same thing happensin our Point Pleasant outbreak.
(50:38):
Remember our friend Ben,who had people calling
him, telling himto go to these mysterious meetings?
Well, soonafter he has his first sighting, (He
actually had numerous sightings.)a poltergeist moves into Ben's house.
Drawers open by themselves.
Objects disappear.
A cabinet that is so heavythat it's tough for one grown man to move.
(51:02):
Somehow moves on its own.
And Ben's not the only one.
Remember Connie Carpenter? Poor Connie.
Other than Linda's Scarberry,she seems to be getting more than her
fair share of blowbackfrom this whole affair.
After heroh so exciting visit from Jack Brown,
a poltergeist takes up residencein her house, too.
(51:25):
Pictures fall off the walls.
Little things disappear from shelvesand reappear in weird places.
Thankfully,the activity only lasts about two weeks.
The Lilly family also had this problemonce they started seeing colorful
orbs of light floating over their houseon a regular basis.
Kitchen cabinet door slamming at night.
(51:46):
Their double locked living room doorstanding wide open in the morning.
Loud bangslike pots and pans being thrown around.
And even the sound of a baby crying,making Jackie Lilly search her house
even though she knowsthere are no babies in her house.
And most terrifying of allis the experience of their 16 year old
(52:08):
daughter, Linda, who wakes up one nightto see a huge man towering over her bed
wearing a checkered shirt, (Rememberthat part.) grinning at her.
Okay, all of this craziness
brings us to the bottom of tier five.
And what's at the very bottomof the iceberg?
(52:28):
The bottom tip.
In my opinion,the scariest part of this whole iceberg.
Who am I kidding?
This whole thing scaresthe crap out of me.
And that so-called honor belongsto none other than Linda Scarberry.
She had seen the MIB around,but this...this encounter
(52:48):
is on a whole new level.
She's sleepingone night with her aunt and her five month
old daughter, Dani, in the bassinetnext to her bed.
Now, I don't know what detailsled up to this event.
I have not had the chance to dig intoany of John Keel's
other booksto find out what the stems from.
But somewhere along the line, Mr.
(53:09):
Keel gives Lindathe advice that she should buy a crucifix
with gold on itand keep it close to Danny's bed.
So Linda takes his advice and hangsthis crucifix on Danny's bassinet.
Now the room that they're all sleeping inis just off the kitchen.
And they are in the habitof keeping the kitchen light on in case
Linda needs to get up with the babyduring the night.
(53:31):
So the light shinesfull on into the bedroom,
making it easy to see anythinghappening in the kitchen.
Around midnight, Lindawakes up to see a man with black hair,
wearing a black and white checkered shirt
and black pants, walk into the room.
She says he really didn't look likethe other MIB she had seen so far.
(53:54):
His skinwasn't transparent like the others.
But he just stands there
staring right at Linda, never blinking.
After a few tense minutes,
he takes out a cigarette and lights it.
The flame reflects off the gold
from the crucifix and grabs his attention.
(54:14):
The gold flash grabsLinda's attention as well,
and when she looks back, the man is gone.
“He looked at me, then the crucifix,
then was gone.” To this day,
Linda says she knows that that manwas in her room that night for a purpose,
and that if it weren't for the crucifixhanging on Dani's bassinet, they,
(54:34):
whoever they are, would have taken her.
In theyears following the Mothman insanity
and the subsequent bridge disaster,the town of Point
Pleasant triedvery hard to bury those painful memories.
But with so many people affected one way
or the other, they proved hard to forget.
(54:56):
Disagreementsas to whether witnesses were lying or not.
Whether the photos really showwhat they're supposed to show.
Was Mothmanjust a distraction to take everyone's
attention away from whatthe Men in Black were doing on the bridge.
So instead,they decide to embrace their history,
possibly prodded alongby the release of the movie The Mothman
(55:18):
Prophecies, based on the book by JohnKeel in 2002, with local residents
starting their very own Mothman Festivalthat very same year,
which now 20 years later, draws
tens of thousands of people every year.
Couple that with a Mothman museum,a Mothman statue downtown,
(55:38):
and a dedicationto all those lost on that bridge disaster,
at least we can all be assuredthat no part of this important
snapshotmoment in history will ever be forgotten.
Most of the information for thisepisode comes from the book
The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel,which is packed
(56:01):
with way more crazy storiesthan I could ever include.
It is a great read.
But I also want to give a huge shout outto Jeff Wamsley,
owner of the Mothman Museumand coauthor of the book “Mothman:
The Facts Behind the Legend”,to both thank him for his book,
which was a great resource of informationand for his generosity
(56:25):
in giving me permission to use his imagesin the making of this video.
Thank you Jeff.
So if you're traveling through the OhioRiver Valley,
make sure you stop by Point Pleasantand show some love to the Mothman Museum.
I know I'm adding it to my bucket listbecause I want my picture
taken next to that awesome statuewith the red, sparkly eyes.
(56:48):
Does that surprise anybody?
If you'd like to do a deeper diveon Harbingers of Doom
worldwide, click right here.
Be careful out there.
And I will see youhere again, on The InBetween.
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