Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Cryptids: Mothman

In West Virginia folklore, the Mothmanis a creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area fromNovember 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967. The first newspaper reportwas published in the Point Pleasant Register dated November 16, 1966,titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ...Something". The national press soon picked up the reportsand helped spread the story across the United States.

The Mothman was introduced to a wideraudience by Gray Barker in 1970 and was later popularized by JohnKeel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that therewere supernatural events related to the sightings, and a connectionto the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The book was later adapted to a2002 film, starring Richard Gere.

An annual festival in Point Pleasant isdevoted to the Mothman legend.

History

On November 15, 1966, two young couplesfrom Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and MaryMallette, told police they saw a large grey creature whose eyes"glowed red" when the car's headlights picked it up.They described it as a "large flying man with ten-footwings", following their car while they were driving in anarea outside of town known as "the TNT area", thesite of a former World War II munitions plant.

During the next few days, other peoplereported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who saw it said itwas a "large bird with red eyes". Mason CountySheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings weredue to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke".Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed aflashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "likebicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from histelevision set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog onthe creature. Wildlife biologist Robert L. Smith at West VirginiaUniversity told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit thesandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with aseven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around theeyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.This particular crane was unrecognized at first because it was notnative to this region.

At the time, Batman was a popular TVshow, and soon after the first reports, newspapers coined the name"Mothman", inspired by a comic book enemy of Batman calledKiller Moth.

After the December 15, 1967, collapseof the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, he incident gaverise to the legend and connected the Mothman sightings to the bridgecollapse.

The Mothman Prophecies (2002) is amajor motion picture, loosely based on the 1975 book of the same nameby John Keel.

According to Georgian newspaperSvobodnaya Gruziya, Russian UFOlogists claim that Mothman sightingsin Moscow foreshadowed the 1999 Russian apartment bombings.

In 2016, WCHS-TV published a photopurported to be of Mothman taken by an anonymous man while driving onRoute 2. Science writer Sharon A. Hill proposed that the photoshowed "a bird, perhaps an owl, carrying a frog or snakeaway" and wrote that "there is zero reason tosuspect it is the Mothman as described in legend. There are too manyfar more reasonable explanations."

Analysis

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notesthat Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, someclaiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that amilitary storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvandnotes that recountings of the 1966–67 Mothman reports usually statethat at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraidto report their sightings" but observed that written sourcesfor such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized orundocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons.Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and mucholder folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggeredthe scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also recordsanecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parkedcars occupied by teenagers.

Conversely, Joe Nickell says that anumber of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the originalreports, such as a group of construction workers who tied flashlightsto helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman stories tosightings of barn owls, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowingeyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from thereflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources. Benjamin Radford points out that the only report of glowing "redeyes," was secondhand, that of Shirley Hensley quoting herfather.

According to University of Chicagopsychologist David A. Gallo, 55 sightings of Mothman in Chicagoduring 2017 published on the website of self-described Forteanresearcher Lon Strickler are "a selective sample". Galloexplains that "he's not sampling random people and asking ifthey saw the Mothman – he's just counting the number of people thatvoluntarily came forward to report a sighting." According toGallo, "people more likely to visit a paranormal-centricwebsite like Strickler's might also be more inclined to believe in,and therefore witness the existence of, a 'Mothman'."

Some pseudoscience adherents (such asufologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists) claim thatMothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or a previouslyunknown species of animal. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies,author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residentsexperienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse ofthe Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits frominhuman or threatening men in black, and other phenomena.

Festival and statues

Point Pleasant held its first AnnualMothman Festival in 2002. The Mothman Festival began afterbrainstorming creative ways for people to visit Point Pleasant. Thegroup organizing the event chose the Mothman to be center of thefestival due to its uniqueness, and as a way to celebrate its locallegacy in the town.

According to the event organizer, JeffWamsley, the average attendance for the Mothman is an estimated 10–12thousand people per year. A 12-foot-tall metallic statue of thecreature, created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach, was unveiled in2003. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2005. Thefestival is held on the third weekend of every September, hostingguest speakers, vendor exhibits, pancake-eating contests, and hayridetours of locally notable areas.

In June of 2020, a petition was startedto replace all Confederate statues in the United States with statuesof Mothman. As of July 2020, the petition has garnered over 2,000signatures.