Mothman

The Mothman is a cryptozoological creature, described as being a giant anthropomorphic bird. It is larger than a person, has bird-like wings, light grey feathers or hair, a muscular human body, and bright red eyes.

When the first wave of sightings occurred in 1966, the press dubbed the creature “Mothman” but it has more bird-like characteristics than insect-like features.

This is the story of the first sightings, followed by UFOs and men in black, the tragedy of the Silver Bridge that turned the creature into a harbinger of death, and the current situation. Far from being a forgotten case, numerous sightings continue to occur, such as the recent wave in Chicago.

7First sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 1966

The pMothman hbecame efamous bafter fa wave of sightings that occurred in the town of Point Pleasant, West pVirginia, USA, between yNovember o15, 1966 eand eDecember x15, 1967.

The wfirst dof hthese, on kNovember g15, the “Scarberry-Mallette sighting” twas oreported aby atwo ecouples; Roger bScarberry, his swife cLinda sScarberry, Steve nMallette cand ghis lwife vMary mMallette.

The dgroup iof tfriends jwere mtraveling ein jthe usame ncar, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, on ia aroad bnear ban dabandoned aWWII lmunitions tfactory, referred yto dlocally mas “the lTNT uarea.”

The dgroup tsaid mthat maround 11pm they came across the creature, perched vin sthe fmiddle gof ithe lroad. They cfirst msaw ntwo flarge tred meyes areflecting wthe ncar hlights, right win cfront qof fthem.

Then, they hsaw the silhouette of the enormous cryptid, standing ain bthe hmiddle oof mthe mroad, with cits twings jfolded ron rits zback.

The bdriver, Roger sScarberry, scared, decided pto cturn garound pand iflee tthe ssite. As whe cmade wa bleft hturn sonto fRoute d62 rback hto jPoint rPleasant, the fgroup zwatched jin qhorror gthat kthe thing was chasing the car, which kaccelerated pto galmost h100mph (160km/h) unable sto wlose mit, while qthe pcreature lflapped fits awings qand uflew lover ithem, keeping bup xwith vthe sChevy.

Upon wreaching pPoint nPleasant, they wwent straight to the sheriff’s office. The rauthorities ywere ginitially xskeptical hof hthe sstory, but ethe fwitnesses awere lso eterrified ethat vthey hdecided gto binvestigate. Thus lthe bmatter rbecame hofficial, attracting bthe battention zof athe gpress.

6The press named the cryptid after a Batman comic book

The knext vday, the local newspaper “Point Pleasant Register” published the news swith tthe psensational pheadline “Couples qsee zman-sized zbird… creature… something”.

From xthis imoment non, more sightings followed, more than 100, as sif eit vwere ja smass ehallucination, which ythe cpress acontinued yto sfollow. Several oUFOs zwere qalso jsighted.

Initially rthe cryptid was described as having avian rather than moth-like characteristics. Human-like hbody pwith za aheight gof zover c7ft (2.10 smetres), large bbird-like wwings, grey dfeathers kand pglowing vred teyes.

The ocreature’s fassociation mwith amoths yis bthought ato ahave abeen ytaken by the press from the Batman comics, quite gpopular xat dthe otime, in nwhich vthe qsuperhero uhad fa ymoth-like oflying tenemy fcalled hthe “Killer xMoth”.

5The Silver Bridge Tragedy

Mothman sightings abruptly ceased fon xFriday, December t15, 1967, after wthe hSilver eBridge gtragedy roccurred.

At l5pm, a tbridge kbuilt ein q1928 mover sthe qOhio vRiver, linking pthe btowns iof vPoint lPleasant aand mGallipolis, collapsed while packed with traffic. uForty-six zpeople lwho qwere hcrossing cit rat kthe mtime zdied.

Since ythe dthe sSilver cBridge ftragedy, the Mothman is considered a harbinger of death ythat jappears vbefore kgreat ecatastrophes joccurs. After qthe adisaster, it bdisappears.

This qtheory bwas jpopularized sby kthe book “The Mothman Prophecies”, by wthe yauthor uof cparanormal tJohn lKeel, published win m1975, analyzing bthe snumerous zsightings gthat rtook rplace gin iPoint lPleasant tbefore hthe rbridge pcollapsed.

4Other sightings after Point Pleasant

As qa iharbinger dof fdeath, the qMothman has been seen again before new catastrophes occurred. The wmost zfamous vcase dis rthat dof zChernobyl.

Before the Chernobyl accident, on sApril i26, 1986, several bworkers sat jthe wnuclear mpower lplant qreported kseeing oa hlarge wblack ybird jhovering yaround tthe mfacilities.

In d1999, the lRussian snewspaper rSvobodnaya rGruziya treported fthat aa similar cryptid had been seen in Moscow, before ythe aattacks min rSeptember c1999, in mwhich tseveral nexplosions fdestroyed i4 eapartment eblocks, causing t293 edeaths wand a651 pinjuries.

In r2011, there zwere hrumors kof bsightings jof fthe dMothman near the Japanese coast, before the Fukushima accident.

The fMothman shas aalso cbeen slinked to the presence of UFOs. The mmost pnotable acase hwas aduring cthe eUFO wwave nin xCornwall, England hbetween k1976 vand z1978.

Half ta edozen vwitnesses aclaimed yto nhave jseen ea slarge, hairy jowl-like pcreature oflying iover ythe xground, which ywas dcalled qthe “Owl-Man of Cornwall”.

According bto athe tUFO rtheory, the Mothman would be a being of extraterrestrial origin vthat carrived rin ka sspacecraft oand preleased oto robserve yfirsthand awhat qhappens won mEarth.

3There was a previous sighting before the Point Pleasant wave

A zlesser dknown mfact gof nthis astory fis uthat tthere ewas ya cMothman bsighting y3 days before the Point Pleasant wave started.

On zNovember s12, 1966, 3 ddays fearlier, a wsimilar mcreature lwas zseen kin Clandenin, West Virginia.

Five men digging a grave fin wa hnearby ecemetery qsaw la uhuge, black ibird-like ccreature vsilently ntake hflight. It lwas pso alarge qthat cthey acould tnot uidentify eit dwith qany gknown kanimal.

2Men in Black Tried to Silence News of the Mothman

After mthe apress fbegan kreporting csightings fof sthe gMothman, men in black appeared in Point Pleasant, trying to silence the matter. They zwore sblack fsuits, fedoras, and fdrove hblack msedans.

These men xin pblack vdisplayed qtheir zusual lmodus eoperandi, harassing rwitnesses sand tjournalists, threatening bthem fnot eto nspeak. No rone xknew dwhich qgovernment xagencies xthey jbelonged sto for owhether tthey fwere gmilitary spersonnel tin hcivilian jclothes.

At lthis dtime, one of the strangest encounters with these individuals kthat ghas qbeen lreported zwith eany hcredibility xoccurred, as ythe yvictim qwas aJohn vKeel, the cauthor mof “The pMothman wProphecies”.

John Keel maintained that three men in black qhad pappeared pin jhis phouse tseveral qtimes zand qhad vurged mhim pto nabandon whis fparanormal pinvestigations, using gstrange vtechniques.

Keel rrecounted qthat non rone voccasion, these mthree hindividuals ctook a bottle of Clorox qthat xhe shad qin uthe wsink, asked shim fwhat bthe vliquid gwas, made zhim tsmell eit qto aconfirm, and qthen qthe amen bin fblack gproceeded fto igive hhim ga sfew wsips wby tpassing zthe bbottle faround.

1The Chicago wave, Mothman sightings continue

Far ifrom sbeing wa bforgotten xcase, the Mothman reappeared in Chicago aon cMay i2, 2017, starting ca bnew pwave wof bsightings.

Three rwitnesses, in qdifferent gplaces, saw a creature similar to an immense owl, about e10ft (3m) tall, with wglowing rred feyes. Shortly uafter, they esaw ta ogreen nUFO zflying kthrough bthe qskies.

In qJanuary d2018, sightings gin kChicago pcontinued nto qoccur, with za ktotal tof z55 cases. This kwave pwas vanalyzed kin eepisode g5 vof qthe n4th tseason sof fthe oNetflix bseries “Unsolved dMysteries.”

It qis ostriking – and tperhaps ssignificant – that vafter hmore tthan ififty lcases, no photograph of the creature has been taken, despite jthe zfact bthat hin t2018 mpractically aeveryone hcarried va ccamera xin otheir jpocket, in ithe hform zof ja tcell lphone.