Mary Sutherland
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FLATBUSH SIGHTINGS
« Thread started on: Oct 4th, 2003, 4:10pm » |
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This post was started by UFO Harry and Responded by Sky Concerning a Sighting in the Flatbush Area.
It could actually be cross-reference to Paranormal Activities and Cryptozoology.
What ever catagory you do put this in...it is never-the-less an 'UNSOLVED' Mystery
Below is the copies of posts from the General Board that I re-submitted here for Investigation.
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FLATWOODS,WEST VIRGINIA
« Reply #1 on: Today at 2:31pm »
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The Flatwoods Monster
It's not as well known as Roswell and it doesn't attract as many tourists as the Loch Ness Monster, but this creature variously known as the Green Phantom, The Phantom of Flatwood, and the Flatwoods Monster has become the model for local souvenir and toys and a popular guest at hometown events in Flatwoods, West Virginia. All of this makes people lose track at just how terrified witnesses were in September, 1952, when they first sighted what many believe is an alien visitor.
Multiple witnesses in the Flatwoods area saw a UFO that night; some of them tracked the glowing light to a local hill. These included Kathleen May and her teenage sons, a pair of ten- year-old boys, and Eugene Lemon, a National Guardsman. Lemon was accompanied by a dog, which ran ahead, and then retreated. The group reported a foul-smelling fog that stung their eyes and noses. Many other witnesses who later came to the site reported the same unidentified odour.
At the top of the hill, the witnesses saw a glowing ball and saw the creature. It was vaguely humanoid, with a blood-red face, greenish-orange eyes that glowed (some say its eyes projected beams of light), and what looked like a hooded robe, dark green in color.
They fled, terrified. Later, Lemon returned with a reporter. The site was also visited by local law enforcement and later still, a reporter from Fate magazine. (Years later, Project Blue Book also interviewed witnesses and residents).
Skid marks were found near the hill, and a depressed circle in the grass, entirely like the marking that might be made if a large object had "parked" there. The skid marks contained a greasy substance which was never properly tested.
That something flew overhead is beyond question. Many, many people saw it. Most, however, expressed the belief, at the time and later on, that it was a meteor. Project Blue Book drew exactly that conclusion, and perhaps they are correct.
The other elements, then, become random events which no one would have made much of had the meteor not been seen. The skid marks, skeptics argue, were made by the tires of a truck driven by a local investigating the apparent crash. Various explanations have been put for the flattened grass, and the smell has been blamed on natural odours.
The Flatwoods Monster? Since the range of witnesses and their genuine terror leads even the most skeptical investigators to discount the possibility of a hoax, it has been suggested that they saw an animal in the dark, and imagined the rest. The possibility that the meteor was a flying saucer took hold of their imaginations, and so they turned an encounter with a surprised animal that just happened to be near the apparent crash site of the meteor which no one subsequently found into an unearthly monster. The Skeptical Reporter is fairly confident they saw a large owl.
At this point, I start to wonder if the attempts to explain the sighting in rational and familiar terms don't stretch the imagination more than the possibility of an extra-terrestrial. Granted, if many people say they believe and believed that the UFO was a meteor, it seems reasonable to assume that's what it was. And one resident of Flatwoods claims he had taken his truck to investigate the site, so he might be responsible for the skid marks.
But no one has come forth with a really good explanation for the reeking mist. A few people might misidentify an animal in the darkness, but six very different witnesses turned in fairly consistent descriptions of a creature that doesn't sound like any earthly animal. The Skeptical Reporter's insistence that it was an owl seems far-fetched.
So, perhaps a series of odd but earthly events, not all of which have been clearly explained, but some of which are explainable, may have coincided to produce this story. But maybe, the witnesses weren't spooked into seeing an "alien" or a "phantom" because of the meteor had taken their imaginations. Maybe, people rationalized a meteor rather than face the possibility that an extra-terrestrial visited Flatwoods that night in 1952.
http://www.geocities.com/etencounters/flatwoods.html
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