Mothman - Part I

on December 15, 1967 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia - the entire 1460-foot suspended portion of the Silver Bridge collapsed into the river, taking with it 32 vehicles and 46 victims. However, something happened in Point Pleasant not long before the bridge collapsed. Something that - to some - was the most terrifying and strange series of events they have ever experienced and - to others - was a really fun hoax with real world explanations. These strange events due to their proximity in time and location were forever linked to the Silver Bridge tragedy - were the strange events a prophetic warning or possibly a harbinger of the doom yet to come from the mysterious, Mothman?

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Stephanie Kemmerer, researcher & writer for Even the Podcast is Afraid, conducted all the writing and research for this series on Mothman.

Created, produced, & hosted by Jared Ordis

Co-hosted by Nick Porchetta & Samantha Vazquez

Even the Podcast is Afraid is an original Ordis Studios Production

Copyright © 2022 by Ordis Studios

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We ain't understand the past is Afraid. Welcome to even the podcast as Afraid.

(00:22):
I'm Jared and I'm here with Nickand the returning Sam. As we
startle, she did she got herbest, No, just in time for
Mothman paid off the guard with Mothadidn't there? Well, that exactly what
you're saying. We are starting ourseries on the mysterious and creepy crisis cryptod

(00:44):
Mothman. Nice. Yes, thiswill be a three part series for everyone
who is listening or watching us onthe Crime and Conspiracy Network, which is
where you can watch new episodes ofour TV show for free. You just
need to download the Crime in ConspiracyNetwork app on iOS, Android, Google
Play, Roku, Visio, TVs, and the Amazon app Store. Plus

(01:07):
it's located on several other platforms.Just go search on your smart device.
And obviously there are old episodes ontheir on demand just like Netflix, or
you can find some of our oldepisodes on YouTube is where you're continuously uploading
those. At the time of thisrecording, the newest episode on YouTube is

(01:30):
Sidecrime, Serial Offender, Side SameSide Crime. A bit of a cough,
so that doesn't come out as goodas it normally does. It's okay,
the cough will be edited out.Yes, not that one. We'll
leave that one in. We'll leavethat one in. But everybody's here for

(01:51):
month man and Sam. We justwanted to say we told everybody that you
were in jail. Okay, youwere in there from lath Okay, well
that's an unlicited so yeah, thatmakes sense. Now, we did tell
everybody that you had obligations with petsitting and I had to watch the puppers.

(02:12):
Guys, I'm sorry, it's okay, it's okay. It was just
a side crime story when you getin the meth so yeah, exactly.
So it's all at the end ofthe day. But all right, are
y'all ready to go into some month? Man, let's do it. Let's
do it. We're actually gonna startnot at the very beginning, because you

(02:34):
know, we gotta recap everything.This is like that movie Memento. There
you go at five PM in themiddle of rush hour pre holiday traffic on
December fifteenth, nineteen sixty seven,Eye witnessed his recall. There was a
loud gunshot like noise and folding likea deck of cards, and less than
twenty seconds the entire one thousand,four hundred and sixty foot spended portion of

(03:00):
the Silver Bridge collapsed into the river, taking with it thirty two vehicles and
forty six victims, including two whosebodies were never found. Someone got fun,
had too much fun with the disasterbutton in sim City. Oh,
sim City, Yes, yes,of course, yes, But maybe there's

(03:21):
another explanation. It was the mothMan spoilers. He thirty one vehicles plunged
into the water, taking sixty fourpeople with them. In the end,
forty six victims lost their lives onthat fateful day. Tragically, two of
the bodies were never found and nineother people were left injured. Did you

(03:44):
imagine how scary that would be?I'm sure it was terrifying, I'm sure.
Wasn't There like a bridge collapse inthe States, and like the early
eighties, there was one here inFlorida. I don't remember where, I
know it was in the States,but it was like an overpass collapse.
Y'all worry about drowning when I driveover a bridge. I'm like, is
this going to collapse today? Yeah? Well, okay, but that goes

(04:08):
hand in hand with the bridges overhere. I'm worried more about the falling
of the v kick. I'm not. I don't care about the water.
I can survive that. I've beenaround water my whole life. Of course,
it's the point of falling off thebridge. No, see, No,
The scariest part to me is hittingthe water and then not being able
to like get out your car.Yes enough and you just sink to the

(04:30):
bottom of the ocean and then youdie. Nope, no thanks, was
it done? The The Apple Watchhad like a commercial and they were advertising
how they will automatically call nine oneone if it you know senses you're in
danger, like you can call nineone one easily, And they played like
a real nine one one recording ofsomeone who's car flipped into water and the

(04:53):
water was rising. I was like, oh, no, thanks, nope,
nope. My anxiety that would bethrough the roof. The Silver Bridge
connected point Pleasant, West Virginia tookGallapolis, Ohio or Gallopolis, Ohio.
I probably fudged it. It wasdesigned by J. E. Griner Company

(05:16):
and built by Goliah County, OhioRiver Bridge Company. That's a mouthful right
there. Later, West Virginia,Ohio Bridge Company and its subcontractor us Steele's
American Bridge Company, a two lane, one thousand and seven hundred and sixty
foot long eyebar suspension bridge with aseven hundred foot main span of one hundred

(05:36):
and two feet above the bottom ofthe Ohio River Channel and two three hundred
and eighty foot anchor spans. Itwas completed in one year, opening to
traffic on Memorial Day nineteen twenty eight. When I got married on a cruise
ship, we went under the GoldenGate Bridge. I literally thought you were
gonna be like we got married innineteen twenty eight on Memorial Day on top

(05:59):
of this actually a time traveler.Yes, yes, I've technically been married
for nearly one hundred years. DidI mention that this whole wedding was officiated
by moth Man? Yes? Yes, very interesting. Interesting. He was
the pastor, He was the onethat married me. I also invested in
bitcoin, but unfortunately that didn't existin nineteen twenty eight, so I lost

(06:24):
all my money. Damn. Longbefore the Silver Bridge collapse of nineteen sixty
seven, locals had been complaining aboutthe swaying structure for years. From the
very beginning the builders cut corners.The bridge was originally meant to be suspended
with traditional wire cables. However,an alternate bid for an eyebar design ended

(06:45):
up being cheaper. Plus this designwould make the bridge one of the first
structures of its kind in the UnitedStates. Now, I remember watching YouTube
video on this and like how andlike I've seen footage of like the bridge
in it, and you're just like, nope, See that's the thing.
That's a perfect example of why cheaperis not always better. Suspended bridges scare

(07:10):
the shit out of me. Ohthere's one bridge, Like when you're going
from where I live in central Alabama, when you're getting to Mobile right,
and you got this long stretch ofroad on the interstate that is built above
a swamp, okay, and it'sjust this long stretch of road. Then
you get to the end where yougot to pass over a massive amount of

(07:31):
water and this is gigantic bridge.And let me tell you, I've gone
over that bridge and a storm.And you want to talk about white knuckling
like a motherfucker, ask clenching,because ass clenching can't breathe out of your
ass type of field. You know, It's one of those moments in time
where you're like if it's gonna storm, I'm not going over this bridge again.

(07:55):
The wind was so intense I couldfeel it pushing the vehicle like I
just I was like, no,I can't do this again. I think
I think it's the Peace Bridge,so like the bridge from Niagara Falls to
Buffalo. Sorry, something just felloutside. It's windy here right now.
We have a sign outside that justfell. But yeah, I think it's

(08:15):
the Peace Bridge from Niagara Falls toBuffalo or whatever. That bridge is frightening
to look at because you're up veryhigh and you can see through the sides.
Like it's just the way it's designed, and it's like it's supposed to
look cool, and it is cool, but also kind of frightening when you
think about it. I'm so gladthat I don't have to go over many

(08:37):
bridges over here, because I justcouldn't do it my anxiety. But decades
later, it's designed failed to meetmodern standards. When the Silver Bridge was
first built in nineteen twenties, theaverage car weighed about fifteen hundred pounds.
By the nineteen sixties, most carswere weighing about three thousand pounds. That's

(09:00):
so double the weight. I meanthat, Yeah, that's from that height.
It's like that the cars were justgone obliterated. Some were up to
four thousand of these helfier vehicles madetheir way across the bridge per day,
causing stress on the eyebars. Soimagine we originally were saying, Okay,

(09:22):
yeah, cars coming by fifteen hundredpounds. Now every single car is coming
by over four thousand cars a day, double the weight. Right. Yeah.
Meanwhile, the bridge itself still lookedlargely the same as it did when
it was first constructed in the nineteentwenties. You should probably do some updates.
Just you know, I'm no constructionthat the expert, but yeah,

(09:45):
we are no engineers that you caneven figure that. This was an immense
tragedy, one that was worsened bythe proximity to the holidays, and there
were some who believe that the eventwas precluded by something e and more terrifying
and bizarre. Bitcoin yes, andmade the bridge collapse. Of course,

(10:09):
something happened in Point Pleasant not longbefore the bridge collapsed, something that to
some was the most terrifying and strangeseries of events that have ever experienced,
and to others was a really funhoax or possibly a series of strange events
that had plausible, real world explanationsbehind them, and as usual, probably

(10:33):
is one of the more boring explanations, but it's always fun to you know.
It was the wind that did it, and the way way to ruin
not at all. It was ajiant mood. Do you imagine. I
don't know which vehicles set it off, because you know, one vehicle set
that off, right, One vehiclejust set the whole thing into a vehicle.

(11:00):
You know, I can tell youwhat vehicle it was. It was
that fucking Hostess truck carrying all themhoney buns and twinkies and exactly what you're
thinking. The bridge couldn't handle it. I was gonna say it was a
tesla. The tesla is probably uhlighter, what do you think? But
it was also nice. Yeah,but the egos of it, yeah,

(11:22):
egos of the people that drive thetesla's are heavy. The whole thing exactly.
These strange events, due to theirproximity in time and location, were
forever linked to the Silver Bridge tragedy, and some say the tragedy was the
ultimate culmination of these events, thatthe strange events were either a prophetic warning

(11:46):
or possibly a Harabanger of the DoomYet to Come mat of Twitter was around
then. Hashtag mathra hashtag matha apocalypse, matha apocalyp hashtag Biden did it yea
hashtag Bots don't melt steel beams hashtagmanga problems or maga problem, Maga problems,

(12:13):
manga hanga problems. The Bridge toCollapsemember one. I was trying to
type a hashtag. Everybody was Narutorunning across the bridge, and that's what
made it color. I was.I was trying to type a hashtag,

(12:33):
and you know how like Twitter willlike give you like suggestions as to hashtag.
I forget what hashtag I was tryingto type, and I actually clicked
down and enter, so like justelect. It was like white power.
I'm like delete. There was likesomething like something like blatantly It's not wasn't
a trending one. It was justI guess the hashtag Oh yeah, yeah,
oh yeah. I'm like, Ijust want people to know, if

(12:56):
you listen to this podcast, youshould know by now that we don't give
a shit about government as far aswe're concerned. Nix and Canada. He
could give a shit less about USgovernment. Me and Sam we're just up
here laughing at Democrats Republicans. Wedon't give a shit. They're all crooked.

(13:16):
They can all go to hell.Yep. So let's now have some
fun with everyone's favorite creepy crisis cryptidmoth Man. The most comprehensive account of
the events that took place about oneyear prior to the bridge collapse was the
Mothman prophecies written by ufologists and cryptozoologistsJohn A. Keel. That's a lot

(13:41):
of words for saying you're unemployed.But if you remember, we've talked about
John Kill before it is mentioned lateron in this episode. We have talked
about John Kill. If you listento our Men in Black series, we
talked all about John Kill ye,and a lot of words for saying unemployed.

(14:03):
What a crypto all zoologists, you'venever heard of that? That isn't
I've heard of it, but it'snot real. It's not a thing.
That's not a thing. You getit certified at community college. It's like
it's like being a professional TikToker,although at least they make money, not
much, not much, but morethan a crypto zoologist. YouTube pays more

(14:24):
than TikTok probably. Yeah, nowthat's the truth. Oh well, there
you go. The book was latermade into a terrifying film in two thousand
and two, starring Richard Gere.One of the characters in the film is
named Leak, which is Kiel spelledbackwards. Many of Keuel's books were out
of print until the release of thefilm. It's like how Metallica is becoming

(14:46):
popular again because of Stranger Things.Yes, oh yeah, yes, because
the character is a huge Metallica fan, I can do. I can do
no spoilers because I haven't. Ihaven't given the spoilers I have and watched
it at all. I just seeall the trends because everyone's like, oh
metallicatacis everyone talking about Metallica. Icould be a dick right now and really

(15:07):
spoil that, but I'm not sofor don't for all of their younger listeners
out there that aren't into Metallica,I will say that if you're looking to
start into becoming a Metallica fan,I highly recommend their best album, Saint
Anger. Yeah, I can geton that. That was a Joke's actually

(15:28):
their worst album. It's not thatI don't like hard Listen. I'm not
really like a huge Metallica person,I'm really not. I actually like most
of their albums, And what's funnyis a lot of their popular stuff,
I I like it. But thestuff that people usually don't like I do

(15:50):
like. But I'm like that inlife with a lot of shit. Like
a lot of my favorite movies areship People hate them, You're right,
but I love them. See.I appreciate hit movies because I can laugh
at like they're still entertaining and they'rejust funny to make fun of, right.
See. I love Metallica, Ilove Leonard Skynyard. You know,

(16:11):
I love Black Sabbath. I meanthere's a lot of See, I'd like
Black Sabbath more than I like Metallic. Oh no, no, to be
honest, no, I mean,hey, that's just I just I just
like CCR. I love creas ThroughWater Revival Here is fantastic. I'm sure
if you've watched your TV show,I've wore that CCR shirt. Don't know
how many times I'm wearing it out. It's this fancy shirt, it is.

(16:36):
I love that shirt. Kiel hadwritten many books on strange occurrences throughout
the years. It is difficult todiscuss Kiel without discussing Charles fort Fort was
a collector of all things strange andunusual. He recorded reports of bizarre phenomena
from around the world. There wasa magazine dedicated to continuing his work called
fourteen Times Nice, which, ifyou remember, we talked about that in

(17:00):
the Minute Black series as well.It was discussed. Metallica was discussed in
this episode. Yes, yes,it was where basically Nick trashed on a
one of their albums. I haven'theard Saint Anger. I just know,
like everyone, regardless their worst album, I have no idea it's not that
bad. You heard it. Youhaven't even I don't know. I don't

(17:22):
like, I like, I appreciateMetallica, but I don't have their discography,
you know. I mean, ifanybody, okay, any any person
that really doesn't know Metallica, orthey're gonna if you say, okay,
what is the best Metallica song,what do you think most people are going
to tell you enter Sandman exactly.Don't do it. Don't do it because

(17:44):
that's literally about the only song mostpeople a puppet now is like the new
you know is the trending one becausethat's yeah, plays m I like Sanitarium.
The song Sanitarium It's kind of likethe song Running Up the Hill.
Right now it's popular again. Ithit number one on Spotify because of Stranger
Things. Yeah, I'm shocked thatLars Alric isn't suing Stranger Things. Why

(18:11):
oh God, here are you thatyoung Sam Larz. Alric sued people for
downloading Metallica music off Napster back inthe day. Oh shit, Oh I'm
sorry. I didn't. I would. I would assume that they probably bought
the lives of course. Yeah,yeah. Kill exhibited a similar style of
collection, but also had a bitof a Hunter s. Thompson edge to

(18:33):
his topics, and that in theprocess of investigating certain accounts he found himself
a part of them as well.Oftentimes, Keile goes off the rails with
his desire to connect these events toothers or to prove them as having absolutely
paranormal origins. Of course, soundslike to me, he's kind of in
the mix, like he's sounds likehe's an average Twitter as a skeptic,

(18:56):
but he's also a believer, sohe likes to debunk a little bit.
I guess, well, yeah,I guess. There is also a distinct
element of conspiratorial thinking in his writing. Although he claimed to have been scientific
in his research and writings, heis almost always ready to jump to a
paranormal conclusion. Okay, I'm neverit was but it's aliens. I'm not

(19:22):
saying it was alien, but itwas ghosts. It was probing aliens the
best kind. I'm not saying itwas ghosts. I'm saying it was paranormal
ghost I think you're gonna say probing, probing ghosts, saying it's reptilian people.
But it's probing reptilian people. OhGod, let me tell you right

(19:44):
now, you're turning the frogs gay. His books are creepy, and we'll
surely raise goose bumps. Shout outto Sam goose bumps. Yes, I
love I know you there for thereader. Depending on the reader's level of

(20:06):
skepticism. Even if one were toapproach his books, especially Mothman, as
they would a Stephen King novel,they are fun and terrifying to read.
If you read it as like thisguy is serious terrifying. If you read
it as like this guy isn't serious, funny, I don't know. I
haven't read the books. I'm justyeah, I haven't. I haven't read

(20:27):
the books either, I've done.I haven't read all of Mothman Um.
I've heard the audible basically, thereis audible version of it. Did they
do the voices? I don't remember, it's been a while. Kil introduces

(20:48):
the Mothman prophecies when an anecdotal storyand states this, those of us who
somewhat sheepishly spend our time chasing dinosaurs, sea serpents and little agreement in space
suits, are painfully aware that thingsare often are not what they seem.
That sincere eyewitnesses can and do grosslymisinterpret what they have seen, that many

(21:11):
extraordinary events can have disappointingly mundane explanations. It's an interesting tactic to disarm the
reader. He has already implanted theidea in the reader that he too is
skeptical. But a few pages intothe book and that quote means nothing or
bullshit? So why put that quoteinto the readers to be like, look,

(21:34):
I'm not crazy, right, Basicallywhat he's saying he's saying Sam that
I'm not a believer. So therefore, you know I've done all this research.
I know everything I know about theprobing aliens and why the frogs are
turning. Everybody care tweet something aboutit on Twitter. I'm an expert,

(21:55):
Yes, think of it. Um, I would say, you can think
of some people in modern times whodo this as well. Your uncle government,
Yeah, I mean like, yeah, that your specific uncle. But
if you're looking at it in thisway, basically, what he's trying to

(22:18):
do sam as he's trying to getthe reader to look and say, Okay,
he is a skeptical, but afterhis research, they started really to
believe in this stuffs, So maybethere's something really behind this. So therefore,
and then your reader gets hooked andsays, oh, well, maybe
it is rebel because this person wasa skeptical but now he's a believer because
he's done all this fucking research rightright. Aside from telling the story of

(22:41):
moth Man, he discusses a fourteenlike slew of other bizarre events unconnected to
the main story. He uses theseas a method of presenting and adopting a
strong men type of evidence for theevents related to moth Man. Moths exist,
men exist, therefore Bobman has toexist, merge together, They've become

(23:03):
Man of Moth. One such storyinvolved a man driving a car and crashing
into an invisible barrier. Another discussespeople who have received phone calls or messages
filled with massive amounts of numbers.There are shortwave radio stations called number stations,
which you can listen to online today. Okay, but what does this

(23:26):
happen? Everything saying, because don'tyou know moth Man is a goddamn mathematician.
Yes, and he loves numbers.So not only so, not only
he can make invisible barriers, he'salso scampolling you at like two am.
That's trying to get you to learnalgebra and calculus and remember Albert Einstein and

(23:48):
the Pythagrean theorem. Wonderful, Andhe calls you on Priday to wish you
a happy Pie Day. PI Dayis pretty good. Oh well, that's
unrelated. There's a store in themall. I guess it's like a restaurant
or whatever. It's called Pie Squaredand they sell square shaped pie. Yeah.
Anyways, let's start to bring thatup. I've never had it,

(24:10):
but I've always been intrigued. There'sI like Pie Day because you get to
nobody. I mean, I couldeat pie any other time, but on
Pie Day it's like I need toget a pie because typically you can go
somewhere and you get a free sliceof pie, so you have no excuse
of eating a goddamn pie on thatday. Yeah. Absolutely. These number

(24:32):
stations are said to be remnants ofspy messaging. A number station is a
short wave radio station characterized by broadcastsof formatted numbers, which are believed to
be addressed to intelligence officers operating inforeign countries. Most identified stations use speech
synthesis to vocalize numbers, although digitalmodes such as phase shift king and frequency

(24:53):
shift king, as well as morsecode transmissions are not uncommon. For eight
fifteen, sixteen, twenty three,forty two, I need scissors sixty one
lost no, no one gets thelost reference. Yes, I got the
lost reference, and you didn't getmy metal gear solids sixty nine. That

(25:17):
is a common reference for play showat the same time. Most stations have
set time schedules or schedule patterns.Other stations appear to have no discriminable pattern
and broadcast at random times. Stationsmay or may not have set frequencies in

(25:37):
the high frequency band sixty nine,so basically you would hear sixty nine nine
nine sixty nine and then just someonelaughing at the background. That'd be creepy.
Hell no. The most famous ofthese stations was called the Lincolnshire Poach,

(26:00):
a powerful British shortwave number station thattransmitted from Cyprus from the mid nineteen
sixties to June two. The stationgained its commonly known name as it uses
bars from the English folk song TheLincolnshire Poacher as an interval signal. The
radio station was believed to be operatedby their British secret intelligence service. That's

(26:22):
how they told James Bond, youknow where to find Octopussy. Bond,
do not drink the type of martini. What is the codes for that?
Again? Eight nine four sixty nineNo. Sixty nine was the code word

(26:45):
for when he got to the Falaciothe Bond Girl. Yes, of course.
But you know what's weird about that. They could have been used by
the British intelligence It could have justbeen to joke. I mean, I
don't know, because they were usedeverywhere, so it's used for something lottery

(27:07):
numbers. Lottery numbers, you know, that would be the key right now.
They were just pushing out lottery numbers, I know, because nobody would
think of that. No one wouldthink to like check some some like secret
agency to come to my house andit's like he knows too much and I'm
just gonna be disappeared. Yeah,that's it. I've discovered the secret of
the number station. It's really themoth It has to do with the lottery

(27:32):
and Mothman. The man with theinvisible barrier or car crash is obviously just
obviously just a tall tale or awayfor a drunk driver to excuse his actions.
Could you imagine that being drunk itwas invisible. I don't know what
happened, and you know what,I feel like someone probably has used that

(27:57):
out of nowhere, sir, thisis not grand theft auto. Oh obviously
you know what's funny though, Youknow how like off subject here before I
finished us. You know how Ilike in video games how they have like
when you're leaving the barrier zone wherelike nothing's loading anymore and it does something
to stop you. There are somegames out there that have done some very

(28:19):
interesting ways of instead of just puttingup a wall that you can't go,
like the invisible barrier. One ofthem, well, in GTA is it
the Shark one scarface had just agreat White sor g T A five If
you fly too high, your planealstop working. GTA five and I think
does the same thing. Yeah,like in Scarface, the world is yours

(28:44):
PlayStation two, in PC game OriginalXbox um, if you went past where
the barrier was, all of asudden cut to a cut scene and a
great white shark h you. We'llsee in GTA that happens too. If
you go all the way out intothe ocean, you keep going and going
and going, eventually a fucking shark. Yeah. I know. In Pokemon

(29:06):
Legends Archies which are currently playing,if you go out of bounds, it
becomes foggy and it's just like youcannot move any further and then you have
to turn around. Yeah, yeah, I do remember that. Yeah,
but those receiving the number messages arecreepier by kills account. The number messages
seem quite terrifying, but could beif real interference from radio frequencies. More

(29:30):
on that later we will discuss orsymptoms of just fucking mental illness. Sixty
nine yep. Some people do havemental illness where all they hear is sixty
nine yep. That's me, damnat it. That would be so weird.
I hear the word or the numbersixty nine constantly. Nice, I

(29:53):
have a problem with Felicio. Placein time, as we always say,
are integral to the understanding of anyevents. This was West Virginia in the
late nineteen sixties. Kill was discussingthese bizarre events to a discussion with his
friend. According to Kill, thefriend told him this seven or eight years

(30:17):
ago. He said, I wastaking a vacation trip with four friends through
the New England States. We wereriding in a high powered car along a
deserted country road somewhere in New Hampshire. I believe we were going quite fast
when suddenly we hit something. Thiswas in broad daylight, and it was
if we were suddenly crashed into aninvisible brick wall. The whole front of

(30:38):
the car was smashed in. Luckilynone of us were hurt, but we
were a bit stunned. We gotout and looked around. There was absolutely
nothing on the road. We nevercould figure out what had happened. This
is like the schoolyard tales when youhave like the rumors of video game.
He didn't see an animal run.You know what this is? This is

(30:59):
your theory simulation. The simulation.They got to the next area hadn't loaded
yet glitched gledged. He discusses thephenomenon by saying, at eight am on
March twenty fourth, nineteen sixty one, two women in Prospect, Oregon,
a town of about three hundred people. We're talking together on the phone,

(31:22):
when suddenly a strange band's voice brokeinto the line and snapped, wake up
down there, up a little guys, wait for up? Have you checked
your frog yet? Are they gay? They're in your water supply. One
of the ladies regarded this as anaffront, and she proceeded to express a

(31:45):
very strong opinion. The boys startedto rattle in a rapid fire language that
sounded like Spanish, but the lineseemed to be dead. The two women
could not hear each other. Afterthe man suddenly stopped, the line became
live again. Wasn't crossed wires athing back when people used landlines? You're
correct? Yeah, ARFA was likea party line. Yeah, so like

(32:08):
you could hear other people. It'slike conversations and ship How do you know
somebody just wasn't ordering Mexican? Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm sure they
were terrified by that. Look,what's really funny about that? And the
reason I bring this up is becausewe found a cookbook that belonged to my
wife's great are. My wife's grandmotherpossibly great grandmother had some stuff in there

(32:34):
as well. You can tell it'sgot some racism in the book, But
it's why does a cookbook need tobe racist? I don't like what the
It was published somewhere between nineteen twentyeight nineteen forty one. It does not
have any con could you imagine,like you're baking a cake and then suddenly
it believed me it is a Southerncookbook. You do the math now,

(33:01):
But what's funny about that is whatwe're talking about here with this. There
was a newspaper clipping because they savedeverything. They wrote stuff down, different
recipes, newspaper stuff because back inthe grocery stores they used to give you
little pamphlets like companies like Campbells andstuff like that would actually give you.
You could get a pamphlet at thegrocery store with recipes. It was like

(33:22):
a little recipe book. They hadlike ten fifteen recipes in it. Well,
anyway, one of these in therehad exotic exotic food to cook at
home. What the first one wasfucking barbecue spare ribs. No, that
was exotic. Oh that was alittle imagine if the spare so think of

(33:50):
this, say this is imagine theyheard the word case idea over this operate
Like what is he speaking? Speakto you, nick night. It's just
somebody literally just trying to order likeMexican, like, hey, I'll have
two crispy tacos. I had tacobelting today. I had t lunch today.

(34:10):
I didn't. Oh yeah, Iremember one time. I might have
told the story on the podcast before. But um, you know the old
um iPod transmitters. You know youplug them into like the cigarette lighter in
your car and you plug it intoYeah, yeah, so I had one,
but it would brandomly pick up satelliteradio signals once in a while.
So I remember one time, solike if a car near me was listening

(34:32):
to satellite radio, I'd pick uptheir signal. I remember one time I
was stuck in traffic and I wasstuck nextra car listening to NASCAR radio,
which was weird because I don't thinkthere's a NASCAR race going on, and
also who listens to Nascar on theradio. Alabama, they're turning left,
he's turning left. He's still goingleft. It's just like listening to radio.

(34:58):
We do it. Football on theradio. I can, I can,
I can handle. Um just hockey, Like, why would you want
to drive around because they drive eveninvolved? Yeah, because you don't like
sports. I listened to the baseballgame on the radio like yesterday. It's
like what I'm driving. I liketo listen to you too, but I

(35:20):
also don't want to miss the game. So if I need to drive during
the said I look, I willsay I listen to alb I'm a football
on the radio, Roll Todd uhEli Gold, the voice of Crinton Tad
football. Uh yeah, yeah,I do it. And the thing.
The thing with football is that likeit's not a lot of action because all
the action is kind of, youknow, segmented. So it's easier to

(35:43):
listen to that on the radio.Hockey's I love well, it's like different
like when you see it on theTV. Okay, yeah, I get
at least you're watching it, butyou're literally listening to it. Sometimes you
can't watch the game. It's youroption. The next day, at the
same hour, the women were onthe phone again, and again the strange

(36:04):
voice interrupted with wake up down therethis time, the women listened quietly as
the voice said something in the foreignlanguage, and then it recited the numbers
forty and twenty five over and over. No one in prospects spoke Spanish.
There was no accounting for the incident. How do they know? No one

(36:25):
spoke Spanish. Everybody was Spanish.This was the sixties, so they were
probably probably super racist. So peopleprobably did speak Spanish, but they didn't
in public. This foreign language?What is this ethnic food? Tacos delicious

(36:45):
refried beans, voices counting off meaninglessnumbers also cut in on TV reception and
UFO flat areas. Usually people whoexperience this sort of thing dismiss it as
police calls or the work of someham radio operator. They don't realize that

(37:06):
TV sound is broadcast on FM channelsreserved for the purpose, and there was
little chance that a short wave orCB, which is citizens brand transmission could
interfere. I know, especially backthen TV because everything was antenna. There
wasn't cable. Their signals were closestto radio signals, so it was and

(37:29):
even today all waves signals regardless.I don't I don't know about today,
but at least until recently because likeanalog antenna's gone, but you could listen
to some TV stations on the radiobecause like the lower FM channels were like
the higher antenna channels, so youcould. There were some that would like

(37:50):
simulcast or whatever until like two yearsago. So it's and especially um,
I mean, our listeners can correctme if I'm wrong, but pretty sure
like radios and stuff, they're supposedto accept any interference they receive. They're
not supposed to block anything out.So's their own possibility that you know,
someone on a hell, even awakie talkie could disrupt the signal, right,

(38:15):
like I said, even with mylike iPod thinging, let's picking up
satellite radio signals happens. Yeah.Yeah, but even like when you're like
messing around with a radio and stuff, you're still gonna get weird. Like
yeah, if you're in the inbetween channels, like people like talk actually
on a Yes, yeah, FMis not so much. But well now

(38:37):
all the radios are digital, soyou don't get that as much. Because
but like before when you can kindof when you had the dial and you
would turn it to like sort ofin between channels, you get like all
sorts of weird shit, here's thebest way to give an example of that
before we move on. When you'redriving somewhere right and you're losing signal for
one station, but yet you're pickingup another station and they're intermixing. There's

(39:00):
your best example right there. Yeah. However, the FCC says differently.
Interference occurs when unwanted radio frequency signalsdisrupt the use of your television, radio,
or courtless telephone. Interference may preventreception altogether, may cause only a
temporary loss of a signal, ormay affect the quality of the sound or

(39:22):
picture produced by your equipment. Thetwo most common causes of interference are transmitters
and electrical equipment. This is whythey say, like, if you have
like an Internet modem, to nothave it near any other electronic devices,
like right up near like other electronicdevices, because it you can, you
know, disrupt the Wi Fi signal. I don't know about now, because

(39:45):
everything is fucking cannot really now.Yeah, but I remember when I first
moved out the house I lived in, I was having issues with the Internet
is because the fucking box is tooclose to the cable box. So I
literally had to like move the modemslightly and then it fixed it. It
was weird. In fairness, theFCC site was last updated in January of

(40:07):
twenty twenty, and I am unableto, without embarking on many hours of
additional research, conclusively state that killsstatement about interference is completely incorrect because he
is discussing electronic devices long since outdated, and I am admittedly lacking in an
understanding of these technical topics. Seea lot of the things Now we don't

(40:28):
really use analog signals. Everything's adigital signal for the most parts, so
it's harder to interfere with For example, if when you had it. Things
are more secure now than they werethere. But like if you're before analog
antenna, if you were kind ofout of range of a channel, you
could still get it, but it'dbe kind of fuzzy. Now with digital

(40:50):
it's either you get the channel oryou don't, right, there's no one
between, and that's you know,that's just the way to So, yeah,
everything most things are sent through theinternet. Yeah, and back then,
yeah, again, there was alot of interference with the with waves
and everything. It's just things justweren't as protect. I don't want to

(41:10):
say protect, because like everything's supposedto accept interference, but things are designed.
There's like a everything's more standardized interms of how they're sending signals and
receiving signals, as opposed to youknow, sixty years ago when it was
kind of the wild West. Exceptfor Nick's punching of the mind. Yeah,
that was an accident. I'm countingthem. That was number three on

(41:30):
this episode. I don't even havethe baby here who was doing it before.
Since the number stations were definitely inuse at the time, that is
the most likely explanation. It's alsoa bit weird to categorically state that no
one in Prospects spoke Spanish, andalso demonstrates a bit of potentially subconscious racism.

(41:52):
The events, yeah, I wasgonna say, the events kill records
in Mothman mostly took place in areascut off from bigger and more populated areas,
So there you go. Okay,Yeah, so it just means people
are bored. There's three hundred peoplein this town. They're like something weird
going on over the everards, likea Spanish ever in their life, and

(42:13):
they suddenly may not have had anybodywith Spanish in the town, right,
I mean, what what town wasthis again, fucking Prospect, West Virginia.
You probably still haven't heard Spanish there, Yeah, I mean so they're
still living in the sixties. TheNational Center for Education Statistics Report State Comparisons

(42:34):
of Education Statistics nineteen sixty nine toseventy two, nineteen ninety six, ninety
seven shows the state of West Virginia, where Mothman took place, continuously coming
in with weak numbers. The statisticsviewed were from the nineteen nineties, So
take all the regulations put in placesince the sixties, and you could logically
suggest an even lower number for thosestats. But that's a long way of

(42:59):
saying there were idiots. Yes,yes, in a statistical and nice way.
Yes, yes they're they're statistically dumb. Yeah, don't hate us,
hate the nick don't don't hate meeither. I'm just telling you what the
number said. I'm just pointing itat this point. Kill the Canadian message.

(43:21):
Listen. I'm highly educated, unlikethose people from that small town in
West Virginia. But you know what, they are educated in West Virginia,
not Spanish how to how to shoota fly off your ass? You can
run, but you can't. They'revery educated in the Mothman prophecies, Oregon

(43:45):
scored higher in the stance where thismysterious Spanish speaking incident took place. It
is reasonably safe to put forth theidea that there is likely to be a
greater level of ignorance as in lackof generalized knowledge in areas with a smaller
population. Okay, we had thiswrong. This happened in Oregon. Well,
now, who's the idiot? Well, you know what I gotta say

(44:07):
this, There's a lot of weirdshit that happens in Oregon. It's one
of those states that's, yeah,borderline, I kind of forget it exists.
Sometimes it's just one of those states. It's like, oh, we
just lost all of our Oregon listener. Well, yeah, no, I'm
so sorry. I'm so sorry.But putting all of that aside, it

(44:29):
is delightfully fun to dive into theseweird, wacky tales of strange events.
It is capital fun. If youin fun, just keep your critical thinking
skills handy. Hashtag moths can't meltsteel beams, which is a true statement.
Frightened. If moths could melt steelbeams, we would have a lot

(44:51):
of construction issues. If moths couldtake down a building. So well,
if they could melt steel beams,they could melt you. No, no,
no, the human skin isn't effectiveonly steel beams. Yeah, I
know it's weird, But he doesgo on to discuss this further without electronic
devices, but the phenomenon is notalways restricted to electrical apparatus. After I

(45:16):
published a couple of pieces about it, I received dozens of letters from people
throughout the country recounting their own experiences. To my surprise, most of these
people had heard the voices late atnight, usually waking them up with a
sharp command. This is like someonenot knowledgeable about how things work, trying
to explain why something weird with thisthing. It was I'm just I'm just

(45:39):
I'm like trying to think. Solike they're just like sleeping in the middle
of the night. They've never heardSpanish before, and they're like someone just
like I want that day and thenboom they're you know what it was?
All it was was the wife waswoken up by her husband and he was

(46:00):
whispering, and her arrant said sixtynine the first I mean, that would
be terrifying. At the end,I tend to go to a better run
from where you're going to do that? Eliza, let's go sixty nine,
and the like what did you say? Can you be like suck my dad?

(46:23):
For example, a man in theSouthwest claimed he had been jarred awake
on several different nights by the soundof a deep male voice ordering wake up
number four nine one. A womanin Ohio heard the voice while driving eight
seventy three. You are eight seventythree? Why does this sound like a
fucking farmer's commercial? I was gonnasay it sounds like a fucking um like

(46:46):
a radio station ad, like youwere listening to eighty seven three, the
flash right or here is one,the fox ball sack and the fuzz in
the morning. And another woman inKansas wrote, tell me who these people
are that keep reading numbers to me? They sound as if they are standing

(47:08):
right next to me, but thereis no one there. She needs her
head checked. This has a farsadder explanation. Auditory hallucinations or hearing voices,
is a common symptom in people livingwith schizophrenia. In fact, and
estimated seventy to eighty percent of peoplewith schizophrenia here voices, Oh there you

(47:29):
go. That explains a lot ofSam's problem. She here's sixty nine whispered
in her ear. Oh yeah,and then if it doesn't answer, it
goes ninety six. Is when youget rejected. Yes, people living with
other mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder,

(47:54):
post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD,and schizo affect of disorder may also
experience hearing voices. Most of themare on Twitter today. Basically, if
you have a mental illness, accordingto this or audio hallucinatory. Um,
I guess, I guess all ofthese fall into that audio terry hallucina.

(48:17):
That is a tough word to say. You know that, man, You
know it's any like audio hearing thingslike I know I'm not schizophrenic, but
having a baby and like trying tolisten for if he's crying. I was
watching someone's stream yesterday and I don'tlike there's a background noise in the game
they were playing that sounded like Delilahcrying. I don't know how many times
I go, huh, yeah,let's take off that book and welcome to

(48:39):
parenthood, because that that is exactlyso. It's look, it could be
a TV Cooper could be watching somethingin his room. We could be watching
something and we're like Paul's and waslike, was that Copeland crying? Like
Nope, it was a TV,but something in that TV sounded like the
child crying. Audio Tory perceptual illusionsare not as uncommon as once thought.

(49:01):
In fact, up to ten percentof the general population have had the experience
of hearing one's name called, especiallyduring the twilight times of falling asleep.
I'm gonna botch this word. Hypnogogic, hypnogogic. Actually, I think
you're at hypnogogic or hypnogogic. Yeah, I think you're right there, are
waking up hypno pomp mick hit nopomp pick hit, no pomp pick.

(49:23):
I have I have where I'm likesleeping and I've heard like nick. I'm
like, but I think I saiddah, I don't. I don't.
I don't think it's um like inthat case. I think that's just your
It's always happened to me when I'min that like weird in between sleeping,
dreaming, yaphase, so like mybrain is working, yeah, and then

(49:45):
like something and I hear my namecalled and like what but it's right it's
just yeah, I think it's justlike a weird I'm not quite asleep yet
thing. People with schizophrenia can heara variety of noises and voices, which
often get louder, meaner, andmore persuasive over time. Scant melt steel
beams, so it'd basically be likesixty nine, sixty nine, sixty nine.

(50:13):
Oh no, I didn't come herefor ninety six. So here are
a few examples of the type ofsounds that might be heard. Repetitive screeching
sounds, suggestive of rests like that, painfully loud thumping music, themes,

(50:37):
voices of people whispering or yelling meanorders or comments. People talking about you
as if you were not even present. Sam's real dick name one person that
this I feel like their voice wouldcome into your head. People talking about

(50:58):
you or what is it the yelling, mean order or comments. It's Gordon
Ramsey. Let me tell you something. If Gordon Ramsey was then my head,
I'd be okay with that. Yeah, because all I heard you fucking
idiot, sandling idiot sagebe what no, no, he We've mentioned him several

(51:22):
times on the show. I cando his voice. Alex Jones. Oh,
Alex Jones. I feel like thatthe voice he would, that would
be fucking terrified just hearing Alex Joneslike constantly whispering telling you to buy his
merch for nineteen ninety. He doesn'twhisper Sam, he yells, Oh,
yeah, that is true. Hedoesn't. I mean he yells constantly.

(51:44):
I don't understand how that motherfucker stillhas a voice box. No, I
honestly, because his voice is soraspy already. I'm yeah, I was.
I was in high school. Wehad a fair thing that was it
showed like all these like mental ottthis is or whatever. Right, it
was like an awareness thing and theyhad a I've told this before, but

(52:05):
they had like a headphones and it'slike, if you listen to it,
this is a simulation of what someonewith schizophrenia might hear. And yeah,
it's like a bunch of creepy whispers, like you know, like a horror
game when you get like the ghostlyit's like that it's at the time,
but it's like different in both ears. Yeah, it's like something. It's
like it's like ten people whispering differentthings. Yeah, it's like that's creepy.

(52:31):
I could not imagine. But thisis where we're going to end part
one of our series on Mathman.We got two more parts to go.
Yeah, yeah, a lot ofcontents on this one, the prophecies.
Oh yeah, we got a lotmore to go. Um, we hadn't
even really dived deep into moth Manyet, which we'll start diving really into

(52:52):
moth Man in part two and especiallyin part three, we were really into
moth Man. There. We wouldlike and sixty nine and more ninety six.
We would like to thank our veryon writer and researcher Stephanie Kimmemer for
all the hard work and dedications shehas put into this series on Mothman.
Now, everybody bear with me.We have a lot of resources to thank

(53:14):
for this series, because this isa long series. U n cees dot
Edu, Wikipedia, Stacker, aiptComic, Screen Bank, Observatory, YouTube,
w V Explorer, us Dadley,Events, Rational, wikifcc dot gov,
Daily, Yonder, Telcom, History, very Well Mind, Cryptids,
MPR dot Org, Insider, SkepticalInquirer, Mothman Museum, all that interesting

(53:37):
transportation dot WV dot gov, Timelinedot com, in UFO, arc dot
org, and Muffon dot com.Partridge, Mtree and the articles and books
by John Kill, The Mothman Prophecies, Disneyland of the Gods, Our Haunted
Planet, the Cape May Incident,the Great UFO Wave Interview, and the
Man who invented Flying Fucking Soul.Have just the magitty like the long list,

(54:00):
just put it on. It's likeit's like those YouTube videos that like
thank their patrons and they have andit's like you don't need to read them
all, just well, just justso you know, listeners and viewers,
you will get that again in thenext two episodes. Nice, there you

(54:22):
go. All right. Obviously wehave to toot our own horns, don't
forget. You can help support theshow and get more bonus content like our
aftershow. By visiting patreon, dotcom, slash or to studios. You
can become an Elbow Deep Club forjust five dollars a month. Like I
said, you get the bonus showafter the podcast is Afraid four episodes a

(54:45):
month of that, plus you getthese main episodes early three days early to
be exact, and add fruit,so no ads whatsoever. Um. Obviously,
go follow us on social media.We are on Instagram, TikTok and
Twitter. You can find us spysearching at podcast Afraid. You can find
all the links I just mentioned inthe show notes of this episode, or

(55:07):
if you're watching us, you canfind them on the screen. There's also
a QR code you can scan withyour phone, but being will bring up
everything as well. The two QRcodes to fit all these these sources in
there's no there's no QR codes forthe sources. Well, then there you

(55:28):
go, there you go. Allright. Well, next week obviously we'll
be back with part two of mothMan. But for our patrons on Wednesday,
you're getting a brand new episode ofthe after Show. We are going
to be doing a relaxed discussion episode. I think this is relaxed Discussion number
three. It is where we justtalk about things going on in our life.
Yes, what's been going on,what's everybody been up to? And

(55:52):
uh yeah, just a relaxed discussionand then obviously we'll move back into some
other topics on the week after.So any closing thoughts, Nick and Sam
on the first part of mothy Mothsdon't melt steel beams. They do not.
Nope, they do not. I'mexcited to get into like the meat,

(56:12):
the meat into the actual meat ofSam on the meat. Yes,
it's probably delicious. It's probably delicious. I would think he tastes like old
bay perfect. He may be goodwith old bay black, and seasoning may
be good. Some salt, pepper, garlic sounds good. Have a moth
Man barbecue exactly? Yes, thatsounds great. But listeners, viewers,

(56:37):
thank you for listening to this episode. We hope you come back for part
two, and as always, rememberthrough the rest of this week to stay
elbow do you. This podcast hasbeen made possible by listeners like you.

(57:17):
The show is part of the Ortistpodcast Network.