Dover Demon (MA)
The Dover Demon is a case involving three separate witnesses who, over the course of one week in April 1977, each reportedly encountered a small pale orange humanoid creature with large eyes in Dover, Massachesetts. The witnesses disagreed on the creature's glowing eye color (ranging from orange, green to no eye glow at all).
The name "Dover Demon" was reportedly coined by Fortean researcher Loren Coleman and the story is featured in Creatures of The Outer Edge (1978) by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark as well as Monsters of Massachusetts (2013) by Loren Coleman.
- First Sighting (April 21st 1977) - Bill Bartlett (Orange eyes)
- Second Sighting (April 21st 1977) - John Baxter (No eye glow)
- Third Sighting (April 22nd 1977) - Abby Brabham (Green eyes)
The Dover Demon's Men In Black (MIB)
The Daily Transcript, August 30th 1977 and The Needham Chronicle, August 31st 1977. Article titled “That ‘Demon’ in Dover was Real to UFO author in Needham” by Joan Wright.
"It could be coincidence, but Coleman implies it’s more. He reported that two months to the day of the first sighting, two 'men in black’ appeared at the Dover House, (similar in philosophy to the Walker House) looking for Coleman.
A woman at the school gave the men Coleman’s address but they never contacted him. However, the men told the woman not to tell anyone about the Dover Demon. Wearing black leather jackets and white motorcycle helmets, the men, according to the woman, stood perfectly erect with their arms by their sides and spoke in a monotone. They identified themselves as investigators from the National Geographic.
Coleman spoke to a friend in Ohio who, in what appears to be another coincidence, experienced the same thing. The man said that three years ago, after a sighting in Ohio, two men fitting the same description, talking the same way, and also identifying themselves as being from National Geographic, demanded of some witnesses that they not say a word about what they saw."
Source(s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Demon http://www.cryptozoonews.com/dover-mibs/ (June 16th 2016) http://www.theironskeptic.com/articles/dover/dover.htm
The NASA Gargoyle 1986 (Texas)
In 1986, Frank Shaw - a NASA archivist at Houston Texas’s Johnson Space Center - returned to his car after his shift when he was confronted by a gargoyle-like figure perched on one of the nearby buildings, staring at him.
The NASA Gargoyle
Shaw was frozen in fear at the sight of this astounding apparition, which, according to his description was a ghastly jet-black humanoid that seemed to have a large "cape" draped across its shoulders. It then unfurled its wings, making a crackling noise as it took flight in the powerful howling gust of wind. The sound of the crackling wings seemed to snap him out of stupor and he turned and sprinted towards his vehicle.
At this point, he fumbled with his keys to unlock the door, got into his car and fled home. He was too terrified to even look back to see if he was being pursued by the winged creature.
Unable to forget the encounter, Shaw eventually told his superiors, who revealed that a number of similar sightings had occurred at the center. Shaw's boss revealed that a secret file had been opened on the creature just a few months prior to Shaw's Sighting. The Supervisor stated that the file had been created in response to the gruesome death of two of the bases German shepherds. Apparently the corpses of the hideously mutilated canines had been discovered in exactly in the same area where Shaw had seen the gargoyle.
Following his unusual confession, Shaw's story made its way up the chain of command until it apparently came to the attention of some NASA officials who decided to interrogate the witness. According to Shaw's Daughter Desiree, her father was intensely grilled by what she referred to as "NASA security people who were flown in from somewhere in Arizona" who informed him that it would be in his family's best interest if he kept quiet about the encounter. The sighting was not revealed until 2004, when Desiree Shaw relayed it to author Nick Redfern.
White Things (WV)
White Things
White Things (also known as Devil Dogs or Sheepsquatch) are strange white creatures reported across numerous counties in West Virginia. Some White Things are described to have dog like features, but in different accounts, some are woolly-haired humanoid creatures like Bigfoot, demons or even prehistoric cats.
1973:
A mysterious white creature was seen in July 1973 in the TNT area of Point Pleasant (the epicenter of the Mothman sightings during the 1966-67 wave). This creature, however, looked nothing like the Mothman. A seven years old boy was riding in a car with members of his family...The witness later reported the sighting and described the thing as 'mostly white, no wings, with real thick, shaggy hair.' No face was seen, but the head was about three feet wide. The being appeared suddenly alongside the car and floated through the air, following them for a few moments at about sixty-five miles an hour.
1994:
In 1994, a former Navy seaman stated having witnessed the beast breaking through the forest, after ingesting a mound of shroom caps he found on the forest floor. The white thing breached, the brush line and knelt to drink from the creek. Here it drank for a few minutes before crossing the creek and continuing on toward the nearby road. The witness stated that they observed the animal for a while before it moved on into the surrounding brush.
The same year, Two children observed the creature while playing in their yard within Boone County. What they reported having observed looked like a large white bear yet in this case stood up on its hind legs, making it over six feet tall, presumably it did so in a manner similar to bears trying to observe as opposed to walking bipedally. Startled by the children, the beast ran off through the forest, breaking medium-sized limbs off of trees in its path.
1995:
The creature was next spotted a year later, this time involving a car. A couple driving through Boone County observed a large white beast sitting in the ditch alongside the roadway. As many curious passersby might do in such a situation, they stopped their car to get a better look at it. They described it as mostly similar to earlier descriptions, yet they added that the monster had "four eyes". In stark contrast to the last sighting where the creature fled the scene, the being leaped out of the ditch and started to attack the car. Frightened by the attack, the couple drove off quickly, and once they arrived back at home noticed large scratches on the side where the beast had attacked.
1999:
Another incident in 1999 involved a couple of campers who were in the forest at night, again in Boone County, around a bonfire. They eventually heard an animal snorting and scuffling around the camp in a manner similar to an aggravated bear, though it did not come into the light of the campfire immediately.
All of a sudden the thing suddenly charged out of the darkness at the campers. Reacting quickly, they jumped up and ran back into their house, all the while being pursued by the creature. The white thing stopped at the edge of the forest when they crossed it and let out a "terrible scream". It then turned around and headed back into the woods. The next morning, the campers returned to their campsite and the trail home, finding it to be torn up; they referred to it as "like someone had tilled it up for gardening".
2003:
At midnight on June 24th 2003, "Aaron R." embarked on his evening constitutional at Fort Ashby (Mineral County)WV, planning to complete forty laps of Frankfort Cemetery, east of town on Cemetery Road. That routine normally consumed two hours, but on this occasion he was interrupted at 1:45 a.m., by screams from the nearby woods that sounded like a female in distress. Despite his instant fear, Aaron moved towards the source of those intimidating sounds.
"I went closer to the trees to help, but it was not human and it was not hurt. It ran past me at a high rate of speed and it turned back and looked at me for four seconds. It was pure white, had pointy teeth, and had feet of a horse. It ran off, up the remote mountain. You could even hear it scream again from up there."
In retrospect, Aaron recalled "a few other times I heard noises like huge snaps of woods breaking in the woods and small hisses from the woods, but at the time I figured deer and weak tree limbs. The trees are old as it is, but now I wonder.
We may question whether Aaron in the circumstance - frightened in the dark, an apparition running past him at top speeds - was accurate in his description of the creature's feet and teeth. Fangs probably impressed him more than hooves, but in the absence of evidence, who knows? As matters stands, the thing he claims to have seen resembles nothing known to science.
2015
In Fulks Run, Virginia, the beast was spotted once again in the forests of Appalachia. The creature was spotted close to midnight by six campers, spending the night in the dense woods. The beast was reportedly 8-9 feet tall with a shoulder length of 4-5 feet. One of the campers first saw the beast at the top of the near by hill, in a crouching position. Then it stood up, and he alerted the other campers. Then it started running down the steep hill toward the campers, but they were separated by the river that was flowing through.
They look in horror as it searched for a way to cross, and with no other option, began to wade through the river. It finally came out of the water, and the campers reported that it appeared like a bipedal dog in the chest, with its fur wet from the river crossing. Then a loud gut-based screech was heard about two miles off from where they were. Then the creature looked up in shock, just high enough so the moonlight was in its face, and the campers looked on in fear as it let out a pathetic whimper, then in a sprint, ran in the opposite direction of the noise. The campers quickly packed and left, then reported it to the locals, fearing that if the authorities were informed, they would be ridiculed. The identity of the campers is unknown.
Source(s): Monsters of West Virginia by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Strange West Virginia Monsters by Michael Newton
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⦁ Flying Manta Rays 2004 (WV)
Witness(es): Unnamed Woman
Date: Saturday, December 3rd 2004, between 6PM to 7PM
Location: Ashton, West Virginia (along Rt. 2 towards Huntington WV)
Investigator(s): Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Kurt McCoy
Story/Description: On Saturday December 3rd 2004, between 6PM and 7PM, a man and woman were traveling on Route 2 from Pt Pleasant to Huntington. As they drove near Ashton WV, the woman in the passenger seat noticed movement in the sky to the right above the Ohio river. The grey shape was bigger than a car and wider than two road lanes. It glided 25ft above them and swooped down in a figure 8 towards the windshield then suddenly disappeared.
The flying manta-ray-like creature was smooth looking and translucent like a jellyfish. It had no head, eyes, feet or tail but it did have wings and moved through the air like an underwater creature swimming through the ocean.
Note 1: Another flying manta ray reportedly flew over the car of a woman and her daughter in Horton WV located in Randolph county. It was dubbed the “Horton Horror".
Note 2: Fortean researcher Kurt McCoy also received a report from a man who claimed to see a huge manta ray shaped thing with two reddish-orange eyes fly up from the road in front of him. He honked his horn and the dark form few off over a hill.
Source(s): Monsters of West Virginia (2012) by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
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The Crimean Crow - March 14th mid1850's
In the mid-1850's, during a six-day battle of the Crimean War, on March 14th, a band of five Russian soldiers crept towards the center of the battlefield, planning an ambush just after midnight. According to the sole survivor of the group, the skies suddenly blackened and a headless, crow-like creature appeared above the men. The men lost their bearings and fled back to their own camp, where the Russians, mistaking them for Turks, opened fire on them; only one man survived. According to other sources, the men actually were Turks, and the animal was a actually a swarm of bats.
Letayuschiy chelovek - July 11, 1908
Russia has a long tradition of what are called Letayuschiy chelovek or "Flying Human Beings" with one of the most famous sightings happening on July 11th 1908, when explorer V. K. Arsenyev saw one near the mouth of the River Gobilli.
Headless Angel - Summer 1915
Our next winged man was described as headless "angel". In the summer of 1915, Lucia Abobora and three other young shepherdesses were playing along a ridge near Cabeco, Portugal. They reportedly saw "a figure like a statue made of snow which the rays of the sun had turned somewhat transparent" hovering in the air.
Source(s): Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 204) (Chapter 17)
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Winged Figure -1961
Sometime in 1960-61 (the witness no longer remembers the exact date) a lady in West Virginia (who is most prominent in civic affairs and has requested anonymity) was driving on Roue 2 along the Ohio River on the West Virginia side with her elderly father. As they passed through a sector of the edge of a park known as the Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, a tall man-like figure suddenly appeared on the road in from of them.
"I slowed," she said years later, "and as we go closer we could see that it was much larger than a man. A big gray figure. It stood in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings unfolded from its back and they practically filled the whole road. It almost looked like a small airplane. Then it took off straight up...disappearing out of sight in seconds. We were both terrified. I stepped on the gas and raced out of there. We talked it over and decided not to tell anybody about it. Who would believe us anyway?"
Source(s): Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 210) (Chapter 17)
Angel - 1965
In 1965, a woman living on the Ohio River, some miles from Clendenin West Virginia, was amused when her seven year old son ran into the house one day and excitedly told her that he had seen "An angel . . . A man with wings". She assumed it was just his imagination and thought no more about it, until the next year when Mothman sightings started being reported on in Point Pleasant West Virginia.
Source(s): Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 213) (Chapter 18)
Giant Butterfly - Summer 1966
In the summer of 1966 a woman in the Ohio valley, the wife of a doctor, was in her backyard when a six foot long thing soared past her very rapidly. She thought it resembled a "giant butterfly" and she dared to mention the incident to only a few people.
Source(s): Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 213) (Chapter 18)
Flying Humanoid - September 1st 1966
At about 2:00 PM on the afternoon of Thursday, September 1st 1966, Mrs. James Ikart of Scott Mississippi was astonished to see a man flying around above the Pine Land Plantation. She telephoned the Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Mississippi and a reporter armed with cameras was rushed to the scene.
He found several people staring at the sky, all claiming that they had seen an object shaped like man maneuvering overhead. "It got down pretty low and then would go up," Mrs. Ikart told him. "I have never seen anything like this before."
[ Mississippi on September 1st 1966, a flying humanoid was seen at low altitude in the vicinity of the town of Scott. Several adults saw a man-shaped thing in the sky. ]
Source(s): Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 210) (Chapter 17)
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Grotesque Head - October 1974
In October 1974, near Elma New Youk, Fortean investigator Virginia M. Miller reported that a witness saw an "immense birdlike creature with a wingspan of about nine or ten feet, a humanlike body and large grotesque head".
Large Bird - August 1978
In August 1978, a large bird visited Oceana, Wyoming County, West Virginia. Witness Edward Cook reported three sightings of a creature near his home, on Clear Fork Road. The bird's plumage was "a silver-blue color. Its wingspread is something enormous. Maybe that wind storm earlier this summer forced it down".
Airplane Sized Bird - November 4th 2001
The Bristol Press of Connecticut reported that on Sunday, November 4th 2001, a Nicholas Drive man called police and said to have seen an object hovering near the Beals Community Center at about 1:00 AM that morning. The Bristol resident said that while he was walking his dog, he looked up to see something like a bird with flapping wings but it was the size of an ultra light airplane and produced 'a whirring, almost mechanical sound.'
Incredibly Large Crow - August
Abe and Mildred Patterson traveled with their children on US Route 19 West Virginia along the New River, to visit relatives in Fayetteville. It was a "fine August day" of an undisclosed year. Spying a picnic table at roadside, the Pattersons stopped for lunch and were still unpacking the car when young daughter Emily screamed in terror. Abe and Mildred, with son John, rushed to find the girl battling with "an incredibly large crow". The blogger writes, "She was trying to run and so kept getting further and further into the brush, away from anyone who could help her. By the time her father caught up with her, she'd lost both her eyes. Two weeks later, she died of infection.
Other References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman Mysterious Monsters By Tomson Gale Monsters of West Virginia by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Mothman and other curious encounters by Loren Coleman Eyes of The Mothman Documentary (2011) Strange West Virginia Monsters by Michael Newton
Awohali's Flying Humanoid (Man-Bat) Sighting 2006
In Wisconsin, September 2006, A local Cherokee man was being driven home by his son when they encountered a flying humanoid creature. He told the story of his sighting on the Mothman episode of the television show "Monster Quest".
"The first thing I saw were the eyes and what I thought maybe were teeth" said Awohali.
They sped up and started making sharp turns to shake the animal but the beast pursued them undeterred. The creature hovered in front of the windshield as they drove allowing the man to see the Man-bat clearly.
Awohali described it as a "Winged creature, 14 foot wingspan at least, it was huge, It almost covered half the road. It was close enough for to me to reach out and touch, it almost hit the windshield. It had a white mouth, the eyes were the size of the reflectors alongside the road. The body was attached to the wings. It had grey and brown, hair like, but not much hair, more fleshy, kind of like a bat. That's why I called it a Man-bat because it looked like a cross between a man and a bat".
Then the bat-like creature abruptly changed directions before their eyes and flew directly up, like a helicopter. he described the strange way the Man-bat flew off by saying "It was like in mid air at wind shield height. I have never seen an animal move like that. It just went straight up".
As the creature departed, the creature let out a shriek. "We heard this sound in our heads, it was kind of like vertigo, It made us sick to our stomach, real high pitch ringing and my son swerved and went off the road. He opened the drivers door and threw up and I got sick".
The man returned to location a couple days later, thinking that maybe the creature had come out of the bushes or was on the road there. He found a deer carcass laying along side the ditch and thought that this had something to do with the creature at first but further looking into it, they found the deer carcass to just be the work of a human poacher and not connected to the sighting at all.
Source(s): MonsterQuest Television Show - Episode 64 (2010)
Lamont Greer's Winged Humanoid Sighting 2009
On August of 2009 in Sacramento California, photographer Lamont Greer was taking photos of a local bridge when he spotted a winged creature. Lamont peered through the darkness and saw a shadowy figure on top of the bridge. In an interview for the television show MonsterQuest he said "Its such an eerie feeling to see something like right out of a horror movie".
Lamont Greer told about his sighting saying "I had just finished filming the backside of the bridge, so I was bent down putting my camera back in my camera bag and I just kind of felt something looking at me".
He further explained saying "When I first saw it, I didn't know what it was because it could have been anything, you know, its late at night and then my eyes kind of focused on it better and I said, you know, there's something up there. It kind of spread its wings and then it started flying off, that's when I could see the extension of the body".
Greer tried to photograph the strange creature but it was too fast, it disappeared over his head leaving him terrified and shaken. He described the creature by saying "It wasn't a man, It wasn't a bird, it was something that was absolutely strange and something unique. I mean if it wanted to come down and really hurt someone or attack, It could definitely cause damage".
Source(s): MonsterQuest Television Show - Episode 64 (2010)
Andy Colvin's Mothman Sightings
Andy Colvin was born and raised in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He was seven years old at the time of the town's strange sightings and would hear stories about The Mothman.
One night, Andy and his parents were going to a bowling alley. He was in the backseat of the station wagon and they were driving along the north side of the Kanawha river, when he witnessed the creature.
"At the time, I thought I had conjured it up in my mind" Andy Colvin said in an interview. "I saw Mothman flying behind our car". The creature veered off and flew over the smoke stacks of a nearby power plant. Colvin never forgot the image of strange winged phantom.
In 1993, he stumbled upon John Keel's Mothman Prophecies. After reading the book, he became more interested in the topic.
Around 2015, Andy and two friends went back to Point Pleasant to investigate. They went into The TNT Area at night, they immediately felt the pressure change and the crickets stopped chirping. It was a 90 degree night but they suddenly felt very cold and began to shiver.
Out of no where, a shimmering curtain of light began to form. They felt drawn into it like by a vacuum. According to Andy they "saw shimmering wispy beings in front of us in this curtain - examining us from every angle". Then from the light came a monstrous shape.
"It seemed like it was growing wings, It was this black silhouette, the same one I'd seen years before and I got the feeling that this was Mothman observing us."
"In the back of my mind I wondered, Is this how people disappear? Its the scariest thing that's ever happened to me." said Colvin. Andy's description of this strange shimmering light portal is perhaps meant to tie into John Keel's concept of "Window Areas."
Source(s): Monsters and Mysteries in America Season 3 Episode 10 The John Keel Files (2015)
November 20th 2016 Mothman Sighting
On November 20th 2016, A caller reported to WSAZ Channel 3 News in West Virginia that he had seen the Mothman while driving along Route 2 in Point Pleasant. He is said to have pulled off the road and snapped some quick pictures of what he saw jumping from tree to tree.
The local news stations reported on the story including the snapshots that the caller is said to have taken at the scene. The man declined an on-camera interview, but was adamant that the pictures had not been doctored. He said he recently moved to Point Pleasant for work and initially didn't even know about the legend.
When WCHS Channel 8 News reported on the story they asked owner of the Mothman Museum and local Mothman expert, Jeff Wamsley, what he thought about the authenticity of these photos. Jeff Wamsley said that with modern technology, it's almost impossible to know for sure if the pictures are real.
Point Pleasant locals such as Carolin Harris, owner of The Mothman Diner, believe the pictures could be real because there have been so many other sighting over the years.
Reporter Katy Andersen of WSAZ tweeted these images saying: "MOTHMAN?! Caller says he saw Mothman while driving on Rt. 2 in Point Pleasant tonight. What do you think?"
Source(s): http://wchstv.com/news/local/man-photographs-creature-that-resembles-legendary-mothman-of-point-pleasant https://twitter.com/WSAZKaty/status/800526071166799876