WEBVTT - The Monster in the Igloos 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.800 Strange Arrivals is a production of iHeart Radio in grim 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:12.039 and mild from Aaron Nakey. For the best experience, listen 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:12.840 with headphones. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.560 We had a variety of strange incidents that happened over 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.680 and over again and never made any sense at all. 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:26.960 One of my favorites is the phantom meter reader. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:28.720 This is where a. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.520 Man would knock at a door of a house in 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.360 the suburbs and say he'd come to read the meter, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.519 the electric meter, the gas meter, and he would be 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.400 dressed in the proper coveralls and all, and they would 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:43.960 let him in. He'd go down into the basement. He 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.680 wouldn't come out, and these people. 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:47.479 After about an hour. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:48.600 They said, what the hell is he doing? 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:49.400 Down to my face? 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.040 And they would look and sometimes a man would be 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.200 gone all together, never to be seen again, and even 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:58.800 though there was no way out of his face at 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.680 that basement. But the found of mena readers was one 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.119 type of MiB that we had. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:22.440 I'm Toby Ball and this is Strange Rivals Episode nine. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:24.759 The monster in the. 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:34.119 Igloos what is Battleship Gray five to seven feet tall, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.800 has a pair of red eyes two inches in diameter, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.600 which blaze like two lasers, wings which extend to ten 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.760 feet when spread, and loves to chase automobiles. Give up 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.080 if it's any constellation. Nobody else seems to know what 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.200 it is either, but over one hundred people in Ohio 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.440 and West Virginia swear that they have seen such a 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.960 creature since November nineteen sixty six. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.560 These are the opening words to an article in the 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:14.000 October nineteen sixty eight edition of Saga magazine titled Mothman Monster. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.920 The subtitle was Is it a bizarre behemoth from the 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.440 bowels of the Earth or is it some winged night 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:27.320 maarish visitor from outer space? One thing is sure. It 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.920 has terrorized hundreds of people in Ohio and West Virginia, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.480 and its nocturnal visits are becoming more frequent and frightening. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:42.360 The author was an eccentric paranormal researcher named John Keel. 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.560 Although he never saw the Mothman, he is the pivotal 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.160 character in this story because, through his reporting and his 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.760 book The Mothman Prophecies, he turned the story of a 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.079 few sightings into a compelling tale that captured the public imagination. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.560 Because of Kiel's influence on how we have come to 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.400 understand the Mothman story. It's helpful to be clear about 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.240 the actual sightings around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, beginning in 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.880 late nineteen sixty six, and then the way Keel related 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.080 those events to create the popular legend we now know 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.600 the Mothman sightings really began around midnight on November fifteenth, 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.600 nineteen sixty six. Two young married couples identified in the 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:30.760 Saga article as mister and missus Roger Scarberry and mister 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.400 and missus Steve Molett. We're driving through a place known 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.840 as the TNT area, about seven miles outside of Point Pleasant, 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.960 West Virginia. This is John Keel from a fort Fest 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.320 convention in the nineteen nineties. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.080 In November of nineteen sixty six, forty young people in 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.160 a car and we're driving past this building. And he 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.760 saw what looked like a very large man six or 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:02.920 seven feet twelve next to this color plant, and for 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.080 some reason, they were all he scared to death. They 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:07.000 were all scared to death. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.520 Roger Scarberry told Kiel that quote. It was shaped like 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.720 a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.320 seven feet tall, and it had big wings folded against 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:24.360 its back. Scarberry's wife added that it was those eyes 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.359 that got us. It had two big red eyes like 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:29.360 automobile tail light reflectors. 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.360 Suddenly, boy who was driving at the accelerator and they 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.160 drove out of here in a high speed, and looking back, 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:40.000 this thing rose up in the air and followed their car. 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.960 And they were going over sixty miles an hour on 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.919 these jared roads and this thing was flying right along 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.520 with it. So they drove straight to the police station. 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.560 Roger told Keel quote, it followed us right to the 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.880 city limits. Funny thing. We noticed a dead dog by 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.320 the side of the road there, but when we came 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.080 back a few minutes later, the dog was gone. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.279 Now you have to realize in small towns, teenagers do 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.679 not go to the police station voluntarily. And the police 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:16.040 were so convinced by their behavior that they held a 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.479 press conference the next day and reporters from the local 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:24.680 newspapers from Charlotte another citizen around there, came to hear 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.400 this very bizarre story of this flying man. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:29.400 At that time, Batman was. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.360 Very popular on television, so the newspapers labeled this creature Mothman, 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.880 and that was at the beginning of the Mothman paper 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:39.880 I guess you call it. 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.559 A deputy named Millard Halstead later remarked to Keel about 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.000 the two young couples. I've known them all their lives. 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.440 They've never been in any trouble. I took them seriously. 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:58.880 They saw something. They were really scared. The TNT area 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.719 where the two cups had seen the creature consisted of 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.920 hundreds of acres of fields and forests that had been 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.159 a site for storing explosives during World War Two. The 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:14.400 explosives were housed in what they called igloos, domed concrete 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.839 bunkers covered with a thick layer of earth for camouflage. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.080 Here's John Keel again, this time from a meeting of 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.680 Saucer News in the late nineteen sixties, describing the TNT area. 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.039 I said as twenty five hundred acres. There are hundreds 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.679 of these igloes there. There are poor families living within 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.560 this area, so it's very thinly populated. If the mark 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.280 man wanted to live there not very many people with 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.200 the batherin. I also discovered that during the Second World War, 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.320 when they were building this ammunition dump, they built a 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.200 whole network of tunnels in which to transport to high 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.760 explosives from the arsenal to the various big glues. No 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.320 one in the whole region I knew the location of 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.839 these tunnels. There were no maps available. There were some 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.839 entrances to some of these tunnels, but when I went 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.520 into them, I found them full of water. But it's 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:12.840 very possible that there is a network of tunnels down 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.920 there that it is not full of water. I wanted 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.760 to explore them more fully, but the few companies that 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.360 I found I couldn't get anywhere. Perhaps it's just as 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.200 well as I didn't, because I hate to be crawling 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.480 through a tunnel. It needs something seven feet toll. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.520 It was, in many ways the perfect spot for a 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:36.800 mysterious creature, massive and creepy. It's also the perfect spot 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.800 to spook yourself if you see something unexpected. It's been 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.560 repurposed as a nature preserve. You can walk around and 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.720 into these igloes, which are of course empty. 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:48.000 Now. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.600 The next year there were over one hundred reports of 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.600 this monner. Some of the people who before saying this 0:07:55.760 --> 0:08:02.160 time were not only adults, they were responsible adults, like bankers, locals. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.680 Keel went to West Virginia to investigate, and it's here 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.480 that the distinction between sightings of the creature and Kill's 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.480 reporting on a broader paranormal context begins to complicate things. 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.520 Keel gets involved and goes down there and talks to 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.400 the witnesses and establishes a relationship with this woman. Mary Hyer, 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.960 who is a newspaper editor, reporter correspondent for the Athens, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.600 Ohio Newspaper, which is the closest major newspaper to Point Pleasant, 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:40.479 West Virginia. I am Aaron Gullias. I am a historian 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.959 and teacher and writer, and I have a podcast called 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.679 The Saucer Life. The way the story goes along is 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.080 you've got these sightings in West Virginia of the Mothman, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.520 overlaid with UFO sidings, and Keel through correspondents and visits 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.000 and phone calls, trying to keep up with the story 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.320 and seeing how it develops. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.480 Mary Hyer worked for the Athens Messenger, where she was 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.440 both a reporter and the author of a column called 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.560 Where the Waters Mingle. It became a kind of running 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.880 clearing house of Mothman and UFO reports which were apparently 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.920 happening with alarming frequency. After the initial sighting by the 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:27.559 Scarberrys and molettes. Here's an example of her column from 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:32.040 January twenty second, nineteen sixty seven, two months after the 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:33.480 initial Mothman sighting. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.600 It seems that West Virginia is seeing its share of 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.280 strange objects. The latest was by Tad Jones of Dunbar, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.320 who said he came upon the unidentified flying object on 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.360 Interstate sixty four. Its descriptions like that of many which 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.800 have been reported in many areas of the United States 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.400 and around the world. One woman in Point Pleasant reported 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.280 several weeks ago about seeing something like that, but it 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.360 was in the air several hundred feet. There are, also, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.079 of course, the sightings of the monster and unidentified objects 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.439 seen recently by people in Cheshire, Gallipolis, Eureka, and Addison. 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.280 In addition to her newspaper work, she kept up a 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.800 correspondence with Keel, keeping him informed of paranormal reports during 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.280 the times when he was not in West Virginia. The 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.240 Mothman story began to incorporate strange elements that have now 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.840 become part of our culture, but were not widely known 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.760 at the time. The story of a young woman named 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.760 Connie Carpenter is a good example of how this worked. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.960 John Keel kept a spiral notebook the size that could 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.280 fit into a shirt pocket. Under the date November twenty seventh, 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.240 nineteen sixty six were the following notes. 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:52.080 Harri Joe Carpenter, eighteen, near New Haven. Later that night, 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.640 two girls saw a UFO on Route sixty near Saint Albans, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:02.880 ran into neighbor's house. Neighbor confirmed sighting boyfriend Keith Gordon. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:09.000 In his article for Saga magazine, Keel included Connie's story 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.640 among many other stories of encounters with either the creature 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:13.800 or UFOs. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:19.720 He wrote, Miss Connie Carpenter, a shy, studious girl of 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:24.200 eighteen from new Haven, West Virginia, allegedly had an identical 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:29.200 encounter at ten thirty am Sunday, November twenty seventh. She 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.319 was driving home from church. She told me. When she 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.240 saw what she thought at first was a large man 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.800 in gray standing on the deserted links of the Mason 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:43.640 County Golf Course outside of Mason, West Virginia, those ten 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.240 foot wings suddenly unfolded. The thing took off straight up 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:50.240 and headed for her car. 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.240 The creature flew directly at her car before veering off 0:11:55.400 --> 0:12:00.360 and disappearing. Not Surprisingly, Connie was Upset by this counter, 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.640 she didn't return to school for several days, and, according 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.680 to Kiel, required medical attention. She claimed to get a 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.040 look at the mothman's face, which she described as horrible, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.840 like something out of a science fiction movie. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.720 The next morning, her eyes were reddened and swollen, shut 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.559 and itched fiercely. This condition persisted for over two weeks. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.120 In fact, her eyes were still red and watery when 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.200 I first interviewed her. I had seen this odd ailment 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.600 several times before, but only on UFO witnesses who claimed 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.079 to have gotten a close look at the luminous objects. 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.920 Cottie Carpenter was the only Mothman witness to come down 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:45.480 with this eyeburn. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.480 This was the extent of Connie's experience with the Mothman, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:55.360 but she continued to experience strange events. In February of 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.319 nineteen sixty seven, Connie married the Keith Gordon mentioned in 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.560 Kills an Ope book. The newly weds moved across the 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.079 river to a house in Middleport, Ohio. On the morning 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.160 of February twenty second, Connie left the house to walk 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.400 to school. As she walked, a large black buick pulled 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.800 up beside her. The story was written up in an 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.360 article and kills so called Mothman case book. 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.280 The occupant of the car opened the door and called 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.839 to her, Thinking that he was seeking directions, she approached him. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.079 It was a clean cut young man of about twenty five, 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.840 she told me later. It was wearing a colorful mod shirt, 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:40.000 no jacket, and had neatly combed thick black hair and 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:44.120 appeared to be sun tanned. He spoke with no noticeable accent. 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.120 When she reached the car, the driver suddenly lunged and 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.880 grabbed her arm and ordered her to get in with him. 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.120 He did not get out of the car. She fought back, 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.600 and there was a brief struggle before she finally broke away. 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.400 The implication in this story is that this incident was 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.480 connected to her Mothman sighting. He's not a kidnapper trolling 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:11.000 the streets before school begins. He's there because of Connie's experience. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.439 While he isn't in the garb that we would come 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.040 to expect, he seems to be performing the same function 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.720 as what would come to be known as the Men 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.320 in Black. While Keel was not the first to write 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.240 about the Men in Black, they play a prominent role 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.120 in both the book The Mothman Prophecies and his narrative 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.640 of the events around Point Pleasant, Connie herself would experience 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.560 the more stereotypical man in black within the year. On 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.680 December twenty second of nineteen sixty seven, Connie and Keith 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.200 were visited by a person who Keel identified as a 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.560 man in black type. This man apparently talked with them 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.000 for about two hours, but Connie was unable to remember 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.800 anything about the conversation, just the man arriving and then leaving. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.200 Kiel continues, for the past year there have been repeated 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:11.240 poltergeist manifestations in her home, strange noises, objects that have 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.000 been in one place for years, suddenly falling off of shells, etc. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:21.120 She has also been receiving many odd phone calls. Later, 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.920 he writes of Connie, like everyone in New Haven, she 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:30.560 has seen a number of UFOs in recent months. So 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.200 in Connie's case as well as others, the mothman sighting 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.760 is just one of a number of paranormal experiences that 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:42.640 Kiel believes are linked. The book The Mothman Prophecies is 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.360 full of Keel's drawing connections between different paranormal occurrences, and 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.680 at least in one instance, an event that was tragically real. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:58.880 After the break, strange arrivals will return in a moment. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.480 Why do some paranormal stories have staying power while others 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:21.200 fade from public consciousness. Sometimes events are just events until 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.520 someone spins them into a narrative. For the Mothman events, 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:30.160 there was John Keel, his book The Mothman Prophecies, and 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.240 the movie that was made from the book, starring Richard Gear. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.520 A few months, people have been coming up to me 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.440 and reporting strange things. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.800 Weird lines, strange phone calls. 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:44.040 Who is this? 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:46.800 How do you do when someone comes into your office 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:48.560 and tells you they saw this in their backyard. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.280 The Mothman Prophecies, published in nineteen seventy five, doesn't read 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.280 like most books on the paranormal. In fact, its style 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.880 is more along the lines of crime or maybe Philip K. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.960 Dick again Post of the Saucer Life Aaron Gaullias. 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.560 It's a fun book to read. It's very engaging. It's 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:16.679 written in this first person investigative journalistic feel. He's a reporter, 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.240 he's checking out the story. He's got his reporting contacts 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.680 there in Athens, Ohio with Mary Hire and other people 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.280 on the scene and the story of trying to uncover 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.280 what's going on at the heart of these sightings that 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.160 these young people and others have had of this flying 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.760 creature with the giant red eyes that gets dubbed the Mothman. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:44.480 In doing this, Keel widens the scope both geographically and 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.280 as we heard earlier in the case of Connie Carpenter, 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.760 to include other paranormal and mysterious phenomena. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.320 It's a sort of weird, sprawling story that's hard to 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.160 describe because it goes off on these little tangents. You've 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.320 got the Mothman and stuff, but then you've got Keel 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.359 talking about these men in black encounters that other people, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.600 not people in West Virginia have had, but these other 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.199 people various places have had, and how it relates to 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.960 similar encounters with strange men telling Mary Higher to stop 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.199 looking into this story or telling witnesses to stop talking 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.359 about this. So Keel is telling the story of what 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.280 happened in West Virginia, but tying in specific things that 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.399 are happening in West Virginia to the wider world of 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:32.560 UFOs and the paranormal. He's telling the story that he's 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.199 trying to tell about a certain time and place, but 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.920 giving it a lot of context. In the wider UFO scene. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.240 This said times leads the reader far from West Virginia. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.800 For instance, there's a great scene of a man in 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.159 black having difficulty figuring out how to eat at the 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:57.960 legendary New York City club Max's Kansas City. This strange 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.199 man is described as wearing an ill fitting suit and 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:07.120 having bulging eyes what Keel calls thyroid eyes. He beckons 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:12.000 the waitress over with long, tapering fingers. She offers him 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.159 a menu that he looks at helplessly and then merely 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.920 says food. The waitress thinks that perhaps he can't read, 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.040 and suggests a steak, which he then brings to his table. 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.679 She bought a mistake with all the trimmings. He stared 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.280 at it for a long moment and then picked up 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.360 his knife and fork, glancing around at the other diners. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.320 It was obvious he did not know how to handle 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:42.560 the implements. The waitress watched him as he fumbled helplessly. Vitally. 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.280 She showed him how to cut the steak and spirit 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.680 with the fork, he sawed away at the meat. Clearly 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:55.480 he really was hungry. Where are you from she asked gently. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:04.159 Not from here where world boy? Another put on artist, 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:05.600 she thought to herself. 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.760 But one of the novel's great conceits relates to an 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.159 all two real tragedy that also marks the end of 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:14.480 the Mothman sightings. 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:20.040 He crafts a narrative story that culminates in this deadly 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.840 bridge collapse right before Christmas in West Virginia between West 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:28.639 Virginia and Ohio, and he links and there's some debate 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.320 about whether or not this was a factually correct thing 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.080 to do, he links the Mothman with the bridge collapse. 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.679 Maybe not explicitly, but there's this implicit notion that the 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.360 Mothman was a warning, the Mothman was a harbinger, and 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.120 he's able to, like I said, craft this narrative. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.520 This is John Keel from his Fortfest lecture. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:56.040 In the Christmas season of nineteen sixty seven, in Point Pleasant, 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.679 West Virginia, there was a bridge called a Silver Bridge 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.320 across the High River, and on December fifteenth, nineteen sixty seven, 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.560 that bridge collapsed and it was loaded down with cars 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:12.240 people who had been Christmas shopping for forty years. 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.280 The Silver Bridge spanned the Ohio River laking Point Pleasant, 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:21.320 West Virginia, with Caanaga, Ohio, laking those two points until. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:26.240 Five oh two yesterday afternoon. The Silver Bridge, so called 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.399 because of the aluminum paint covering It was packed with 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:33.760 rush hour traffic and holiday shoppers, all sitting and waiting 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.720 on a red light. Then there was a loud cracking 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.520 sound and one of the towers began to violently twist. 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:45.280 Within minutes, three spans collapsed into the forty three degree river. 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.320 At least fifty seven automobiles and trucks were spilled into 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.960 the icy waters of the Ohio. Eyewitnesses said the bridge 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.880 seemed to shudder and then drop into the water. Some vehicles, 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.639 those in the center of the span, fell eighty feet. 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.840 The massive steel superstructure crashed down onto the automobiles. Passengers 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:05.560 were trapped on the twisted wreckage. 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.400 I think that Harbinger connection is probably the weakest thing 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.240 he does in the book. It's always has struck me 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.520 as more of a narrative device that he thought would 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:22.159 be good than anything else, Because you know, there's the 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.640 Mothman doesn't talk, you know, so we don't have any 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.000 indication from the Mothman that there's this thing coming. People 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.000 have a sense of foreboding, but they're frightened by the 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.360 Mothman things and all the other things that are going 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.080 on at the time. I think the link is tenuous. 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.840 There have been other alleged Mothman sightings since then in 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.639 various places, and people have tried to link them to 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.040 various disasters, and it always seems like a bit of 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:49.000 a stretch. 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:50.720 To me. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.560 It seems like kil is taking advantage of the proximity 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:59.000 of the Mothman flap with the bridge collapse and superimposing 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:03.200 some kind of connection. It's not surprising that people who 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.000 saw the moth Man would feel ill at ease. That 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.000 would seem more connected to the sending itself than the 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:15.240 perception of foreboding. But of course the connection does make 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:21.360 for a more compelling story. So what was the moth Man? 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.800 The fairly obvious idea that it could be a large 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:29.000 bird was put forward early on here at the Saucer 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.880 News meeting. Keel makes the case that the bird hypothesis 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:33.880 can't be right. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.359 The moths Man has pursued automobiles on a number of 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.600 occasions and has reached speeds up to one hundred miles 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:44.840 an hour, scaring the daylights out of the drivers. There 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.200 is only one bird that can go anywhere near that fast. 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.240 It's a certain ego, and it can reach seventy or 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:54.360 eighty miles in a steep dive straight down if it's 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:57.840 diving at some prey on the ground. But we don't 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:00.520 know if any bird that could do that thing is 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.520 a bird is see wordess bird. On Mothnam first appeared, 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:09.480 a number of distinguished scientists hundreds of miles away decided 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.400 that it was the sand hill crane. So I got 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:14.440 some pictures of a sand hill crane, which is a 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.400 large bird stands about this high, has very long neck. 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:20.480 I took this picture around to all the witnesses of Mothman, 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:23.200 showed it to them, and they said it wasn't a bird. 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:25.280 It wasn't a sand hill crane. 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:31.000 Despite Keel's objection, the sandhill crane has continued to be 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:34.960 a popular explanation for the Mothman, but a new theory 0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:38.040 has been proposed by a researcher who agrees that a 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.639 large bird is likely responsible for the sightings, but not 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:46.480 the sand hill crane. His story begins with an invitation 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:47.320 from a friend. 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:51.760 One day. He said, Hey, let's go to point pleasant 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:54.879 and check out the Mothman Museum. I said, sure, let's go. 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:58.560 While we were there, we decided both of us independently 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:01.480 had been to the Mothma Museum, but neither of us 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:04.639 had been to the TNT area, So why don't we 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:08.200 venture out there? And he said sure. My name's Daniel Reid. 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:10.200 I've done a lot of things in my life. I've 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.520 been interested in the strange and the utre and the 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.720 paranormal for most of my life. I've taught on the 0:25:17.760 --> 0:25:22.080 graduate and undergraduate level, psychology, sociology, different types of things. 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:24.920 So we drove out. We hoped that we were headed 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:27.080 in the right spot. I had directions pulled up on 0:25:27.119 --> 0:25:30.240 my cell. We pulled in and we got out and 0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:33.240 started walking. Well, the minute that we got there, I 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:36.560 looked up and I saw a blue heron that was 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:38.280 up in a tree, and the blue heron sort of 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:39.200 took off and flew. 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:43.520 Great blue herons can be quite big, up to four 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:46.040 and a half feet tall with a wingspan of nearly 0:25:46.160 --> 0:25:50.280