The Charleston Gazette article from Tuesday, September 23rd 1952 titled "'Monster' Held Illusion Created By Meteor's Gas"
THE MONSTER which prowled the hills Braxton County on Friday, Sept. 12, was drawn by a New York artist from a descriptions given by Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon. Flatwoods residents who said they saw the "thing." The two witnesses, with A. Lee Stewart, Jr., Sutton publisher, told their experiences on "We The People" television show in New York Friday night. The artist's conception was featured on the program with a background of weird music. Lemon and Mrs. May hold the portrait which they say is "quite accurate." The photo was taken in Charleston at they Greyhound bus terminal.
The "Braxton County Monster" has been described by a local insurance man and amateur astronomer as an illusion created by the remains of a gaseous meteor.
He is Earl Stephens of nearby belle, whose theory is one of the best offered here on the origin of "the thing" that scared the daylights out of a Braxton County family.
His theory was advanced after Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon of Flatwoods returned from New York where they described their experience before a nation-wide television audience.
It is Stephens' opinion that the meteor, commonly called a fire ball, originated from an electrical discharge in the outer atmosphere, forming the shape of a gaseous ball.
Odor of Sulphur
The odor of the sulphur was the tip-off," declared Stephens. "It burns with a green flame accounting for the green apparition the people saw."
Stephen said one of the party apparently flashed the light on the gas ball just the instant before it disintegrated into thin air. The reflection of the light on the gases gave it the shape the people described, he said.
The "monster" story came to light a week ago after reports that Mrs. May, Lemon and four youths ran smack into the thing while researching for a strange object they saw floating into the woods near their home.
They described the monster as eight feet tall, with red eyes and a green body, topped by a strange pointed mantle.
However during a thorough search of the area by county officials the next day only the sulphurous odor remained.
Facts Support Theory
Stephens said his theory is backed up by the fact that earth entered a meteorite stream on Aug. 14. He believes the gaseous body may have been ripped from Bielas Comet which has been splitting up during recent years, showering the earth with its fragments.
During the same period several local residents observed a strange luminous body that was believed to have fallen within 50-mile radius of Charleston.
His gaseous theory is further bolstered by the stories of two residents of rural St. Albans, who declared they saw a lighted object float lazily to the ground and disappear.
A search of that area by Gazette reporters failed to turn up any
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