Mothman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Mothman statue 2005.JPGMothman was the name given to a strange creature allegedly sighted many times in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 1966 and December 1967. The creature was also sporadically reported to be seen prior to, and after, those dates, with some sightings coming as recently as 2005. Most observers describe the creature as a man-sized beast with wings and large reflective red eyes, similar to the Garuda of Hindu lore. A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain what people reported, ranging from misidentification and coincidence to paranormal phenomena and conspiracy theories.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Mothman creature, named in parallel to the villain "Killer Moth" in the Batman TV series that was popular at the time, was reportedly first sighted November 12, 1966. A group of five men were preparing a grave in a cemetery close to Clendenin, West Virginia when what they described as a "brown human shape with wings" lifted off from behind nearby trees and flew over their heads. However, this sighting was not made public until later, and the first sighting described in the media took place three days later.
Late at night on November 15, two young married couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were out for a drive in the Scarberrys' car. They were passing a World War II TNT factory about seven miles outside of Point Pleasant, in the 2,500 acre (10 km²) McClintic Wildlife Station, when they noticed two red lights in the shadow by an old generator plant near the gate of the factory. They stopped the car and were startled to see that the lights were the glowing red eyes of a large animal, "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back," according to Roger Scarberry. Terrified, the couples drove off in their car, heading for Route 62. Going down the exit road, they saw the creature again, standing on a ridge near the road. It spread its wings and took off, following their car to the city limits. They went to the Mason County courthouse and told their story to Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said "I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously." He followed Roger Scarberry's car back to the TNT factory, but found no sign of the strange creature. According to the book Alien Animals, by Janet Board, a poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home took place later that night, in which the creature was seen several times.
The next night, November 16, local townspeople, armed, went searching the area around the old TNT plant for signs of Mothman. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley and Mrs. Marcella Bennett with her baby daughter Teena were in a car on their way to visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, who lived in a bungalow among the "igloos" (concrete dome-shaped structures erected for explosives storage during WWII) close to the TNT plant. The igloos were now empty, some owned by the county, some by companies intending to use them for storage. They were headed back to their car when a figure appeared behind their parked car. Mrs. Bennett said it seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley phoned the police, the creature walked onto the porch and peered in through the window at them.
On November 24, four people saw it flying through the air over the TNT area. On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury, who was driving along Route 62 north of the TNT, who said he saw the creature standing in a field by the road, then spread its wings and took off, following his car as he sped into Point Pleasant to report it to the sheriff.
On November 26, Mrs. Ruth Foster of Charleston, West Virginia saw Mothman standing on her front lawn, but it was gone when her brother-in-law went out to look. On the morning of November 27, it pursued a young woman near Mason, West Virginia, and was reported again in St. Albans the same night, by two children.
The Mothman was seen again January 11, 1967, and several times during 1967. Fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported after the collapse of the Silver Bridge, when 46 people died. The Silver Bridge, so named for its aluminum paint, was an eyebar chain suspension bridge that connected the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River. It was built in 1928 and collapsed on December 15, 1967; investigation of the wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small flaw when it was made.
Reports of Mothman sightings and events continue to this day. Instances of "strange flying creatures" and "winged men" have been reported in many American states as well as across the globe in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including supposed sightings in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986, shortly before the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
[edit] Analysis
There are several theories for what the Mothman phenomena involved.
A large collection of first-hand material about Mothman is found in John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies<ref>The Mothman Prophecies, by John A. Keel, Saturday Review Press, 1975 and Tor Books, (paperback) 2002 ISBN 0-7653-4197-2</ref>, in which Keel lays out the chronology of Mothman and what he claims to be related parapsychological events in the area, including UFO activity, Men in Black encounters, poltergeist activity, Bigfoot and black panther sightings, animal and human mutilations, precognitions by witnesses, and the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River.
Keel's first book was the basis of a 2002 movie of the The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Debra Messing, directed by Mark Pellington. A companion book called The Eighth Tower was also released in 1975, built on material edited from The Mothman Prophecies by the publishers.
Author Jeff Wamsley has compiled two books on the Point Pleasant Mothman phenomenon. In his 2002 book Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend (with Donnie Sergent, Jr.), Wamsley presents old press clippings, local history, and eyewitness interviews. In his second book, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes (2005), Wamsley interviews nearly a dozen eyewitnesses, allowing them to describe what they saw. Wamsley is also the owner of the Mothman Museum and a key organizing figure in the Mothman Festival each year in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
A.B. Colvin, a local photojournalist and documentary film maker who claims to have seen the creature in 1967 and 1973, has produced a book and 32-hour DVD news series on Mothman called The Mothman's Photographer, with over 40 eyewitnesses and experts. Colvin's sister took a snapshot of him in 1973 that allegedly shows a Garuda or Thunderbird in the background. Colvin took a picture of an anomalous figure in a crop circle in 1979 that he alleges could be either his deceased father (who Colvin reports was at the suppoesed Philadelphia Experiment in 1943) or Indrid Cold, a 'spaceman' who reportedly contacted local resident Woody Derenberger. While researching various forms of Buddhist philosophy and various Native tribes, Colvin seems to have reached the conclusion that both the Garuda of the Far East and the Thunderbird of the Native Americans are synonymous with Mothman, and that the Mothman was fulfilling a pre-ordained, archetypal role that involves stopping heinous crimes at pivotal moments in mankind's cyclical existence by sending visions, dreams, and messages to ordinary humans. Colvin presents some evidence that Charleston witnesses separately saw Mothman, the Dover Demon, the Virgin Mary, plasma figures, "intelligent" globes of light, and the Flatwoods monster in the same spot, lending credence to his Mothman "shape-shifting" theory.
Cryptozoologist and author Loren Coleman, in the 2002 book Mothman and Other Curious Encounters<ref>Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren Coleman, Paraview Press, 2002, ISBN 1-931044-34-1</ref> focuses on news stories he alleges undermine Keel's "ultraterrestrial" approach. As Coleman likes to point out, the word "Mothman" was coined by a copyeditor in Ohio who was a fan of the television "Batman" series. Coleman alleges that the "Indrid Cold" story told by Woodrow Derenberger has little or nothing to do with the core Mothman reports. He claims that over eighty people have died because they have seen, researched, or had some connection to Mothman (such as the wife of the director of the 2002 motion picture, who also worked on a Mothman film). Coleman feels that the influence of Keel has heightened the cryptozoological realities that underlie the initial reports. He claims he does not consider mundane natural history explanations as the final answer.
Sceptics such as a college professor in 1966 and members of CSICOP in 2002 have argued that the most likely explanation of the sightings is excited eyewitnesses mistaking a barn owl for a winged monster. Another possibility is the misidentification of a sandhill crane.
[edit] First Sightings
On the night of November 15, 1966, two couples drove out of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and headed for an area known as the T.N.T. It was here that the Mothman made its debut. The car stopped outside of the old abandoned building, then one of the women saw a flash of red. Frightened, the two couples fled in a panic. Even though the car approached 100 miles per hour, but it became apparent that they had not escaped. The creature flew behind them, sometimes hitting the top of the car. It flew over and to the sides, but never got in front of it. As the car approached the city lights, the Mothman backed off.
But the sighting was only the beginning. The next day, a woman was leaving her brother's house after a short visit. As she got to her car, a large figure towered over her. She fled back into her brother's house and he turned off the lights and tried to close the curtains. Yet the curtains flung open, and they saw the monster. According to the eyewitnesses, it was about eight feet tall, had very large wings, hypnotic red eyes, and a horrific screech. But as quickly as the Mothman appeared, it vanished.
A few days later, a man was driving near the T.N.T. area. He's one of the few people who claims to have seen the Mothman in the clear light of day. He caught something out of the corner of his eye and thought it was a helicopter. But it kept circling his car and got closer to it every time. After several seconds, it flew out of sight and the man continued on.
Many people descended on the small town, such as the media and people hoping to catch a glimpse of the Mothman. Over the next year, the sightings increased in frequency. Some people would also go out to the field and find animals dead with the blood drained and heart removed. People also started receiving visits from strangers whose tendency to dress in black from head to toe earned them the nickname, the "Men in Black". They would simply tell them not to panic and left.
Many people wondered, was the Mothman a government experiment gone awry, a mutant bird created by the effect of chemical residue from the munitions plant on bird DNA, or simply a very large species of the sandhill crane, which stands almost as tall as a man, has large wings, and two patches of flesh that might be mistaken for eyes?
Whatever the explanation, the Mothman terrified all who saw it. And some believe that the Mothman is connected to the greatest tradegy to ever befall Point Pleasant. After nearly a year of Mothman sightings, the Silver Bridge leading out of town collapsed, killing 46 people in the process. One eyewitness claims to have seen the Mothman on the bridge just before the disaster. Today the bridge has been rebuilt, and although Mothman sightings have virtually stopped, many people still travel to Point Pleasant every year in hopes of spying the creature.
[edit] Popular culture
[edit] Movies
- The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
- The Mothman's Photographer 1-5 (2002-2006)
[edit] TV
- In an episode of The X-Files called "Detour", Agent Mulder refers to sightings of red-eyed creatures called "Mothmen" in Point Pleasant. Agent Scully sarcastically asks him if this is filed next to "The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati" (a novelty song of the 1960s).
- There is an "Unsolved Mysteries" segment that tells the true story behind the events.
[edit] Games
- The Mothman sightings were used as the basis for an interdimensional alien race in the conspiracy roleplaying game Dark•Matter, a campaign setting for TSR's Alternity SciFi RPG. They subsequently played a major role in the plot of the adventure supplement titled The Killing Jar. They also appear as a monster in the d20 Menace Manual, known as the "Mothfolk".
- A less menacing version of the Mothman appears in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne for the Playstation 2.
- In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS, Mothman is one of three hidden cryptozoology-based monsters, appearing as a furry black heart-shaped creature with wings and large eyes (mostly resembling the eyewitness sketch). Mothman only appears if the player activates a powerful spotlight using a lightning bolt, which is a play on moths' tendency to be attracted to light.
- The White Wolf storytelling game Vampire: The Masquerade included the Mothman in its sourcebook, Clanbook: Gangrel, where the Mothman was identified as a highly-deformed member of Clan Gangrel, which predicted a number of future events, including the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
[edit] Figurines/Toys/Collectibles
- The Mothmen Vinyl line has been created by renowned artist David Horvath, the co-creator of Uglydolls. He has created a line of Japanese Vinyl figurines that currently numbers at 7. The figurines include Eye Witness, TNT Area, Silver Bridge, Point Pleasant, Indrid Cold, Prophecy and Chernobyl types. The figurines were produced in editions of 50 or 100, depending on the version. They have also earned a place at the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant and a complete set will be on permanent display there.
[edit] See also
[edit] References and sources
<references/>
- 3. The Mothman's Photographer (illustrated book), by Andy Colvin, Booksurge (2006), ISBN 1-4196-5265-6
- 4. Unsolved Mysteries - Mothman (Unexplained) Aired July 22, 2002.
[edit] External links
- Mothman.us
- Mothman's Photographer documentary series
- Mothman pages at Dmoz
- Mothman Overview at WestVA.net
- Mothmanlives.com
- Mothman Central
- "The Mothman" by Frank Frazetta.
- Gray Barker
- David Horvath
- For Arabic users
- Unsolved Mysteriesde:Mothman
es:Mothman fr:Homme-papillon it:Mothman he:איש העש ja:モスマン pl:Mothman ru:Человек-мотылёк fi:Mothman tr:Kelebek Adami zh:天蛾人
