John Keel's Search For Mothman

The following list encompasses the Mothman encounter reports collected by ufologist John Keel, two years prior to the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967. The bridge connected the towns of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River. Some of these reports are not from the area of the bridge collapse but seem to describe a similar entity. As well, some of the reports are from the general area of the bridge collapse but describe entities other than a Mothman-like being. Not all of these accounts were contained in The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story

For several years I have been collecting Mothman-like and flying humanoid encounters. So...what is Mothman? Are all of the reports that were collected by Keel related to a singular being? Look over the reports...let's see what you think:

- Gallipolis, Ohio - early 1966 - night: A woman who lived in a farm had reported her cattle being mutilated by unknown assailants. One night she went out armed with a shotgun to investigate and encountered several tall men wearing white coveralls. She chased them but they ran very fast and were able to easily jump over the fences.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 1966 - daytime: A "reliable woman" said that she had observed a silver disc hovering above a Point Pleasant school. A male figure in a tight fitting silver coverall was "standing" (floating) outside the open door of the object in midair, gazing intently into the school playground. He had pointed features and shoulder-length hair. A similar object, she said, landed sometime later in the yard behind her home, and was witnessed by her teenaged children. A similar being was seen in this occasion as well.

- Salt Lake City, Utah - July 18, 1966: Residents of this Mormon community reported seeing a bird "about as big as a Piper Cub airplane" circle the area. Some people ran for cover while others ran for their telephones.

- Scott, Mississippi - September 1 1966 - 2:00pm: Mrs James Ikart reported seeing what looked like a man fluttering about the sky. Several other people also said they had seen it. No other information.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 1 1966: A national guardsman saw a large brownish man-shaped figure on the limb of a tree. No other information.

- Gallipolis, Ohio - November 2, 1966 - 8:00pm: The witness was out behind her building getting ready to go home when there was a sudden flash directly above her. A large cylinder shape object then appeared and landed on the nearby parking lot. The object was completely silent and the witness was unable to move as two men descended from the object and walked towards her. The men were normal looking but heavily tanned with pointed noses, pointed chins, and high cheekbones, they wore coverall like uniforms. They asked the witness several mundane questions using a singsong high-pitched voice; they then walked back to their craft, which took off at high speed. The witness lived in a farm and had been having problems with missing cattle around the same time.

- Near Parkersburg, West Virginia - November 2, 1966 - night: Two men traveling by car on highway 77 watched an elongated object descend from the sky directly in front of their vehicle. They stopped the car and saw a man emerged from the object and walk over to them. The man was human looking and was grinning broadly. He was wearing a black coat and kept his arms folded out of sight under his armpits. The black-garbed stranger asked them several pointless questions before returning to the dark cylinder shaped craft, which quickly rose and disappeared into the sky. This incident occurred on the same night as the Woodrow Derenberger contact-landing case in the same general area.

- Clendenin, West Virginia - November 12, 1966 - daytime: Five men were digging a grave in a cemetery near Clendenin when something that looked like "a brown human being" fluttered from some nearby trees & maneuvered low over their heads. It was in sight for about a minute.

- Salem, West Virginia - November 14, 1966 - 10:30pm: Newell Partridge was sitting at home when suddenly the TV blanked out. A real fine herringbone pattern appeared on the tube, and at the same time the set started a loud whining noise, winding up to a high pitch, peaking and breaking off, as if you were on a musical scale. It sounded like a generator winding up. Outside on the porch, his dog Bandit began wailing. Partridge picked up a flashlight and went outside to investigate. The dog was sitting at the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay barn in the bottom. Partridge shined the light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors. There was something about the eyes that was difficult to explain. The eyes were huge, plainly visible at a distance of 150 yards. As soon as the flashlight picked out the "eyes" Bandit snarled and ran toward them. A "cold chill" swept over the man and he felt a wave of fear, which kept him from following the dog. That night he slept with a loaded gun beside his bed. The next day he went looking for his dog. They found tracks. At the approximate position of the "eyes" he found a large number of dog tracks. The tracks were going in a circle, as if the dog had been chasing his tail. Then the tracks vanished, the dog was never seen again.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 16, 1966 - 9:00pm: Mr. & Mrs Raymond Wamsley & Mrs Marcella Bennett were driving to the house of Ralph Thomas, they saw a big red light maneuvering over the TNT dump area. When they arrived & gout out, a "big gray thing bigger than a man, with glowing red eyes" rose up from the ground. They ran into the house, but the creature shuffled onto the porch & peered into windows. It was gone by the time police arrived.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 16, 1966 - midnight: Mr. & Mrs Steve Mallette & Mr. & Mrs Roger Scarberry reported that their car was followed about midnight by a gray "bird like creature" 6-7 ft tall with a 10 foot wingspan. When the car headlights struck, its eyes, 2" in diameter, glowed red. It finally scurried into a field and disappeared.

- Cheshire, Ohio - November 17, 1966 - night: On Route 7, a gray man shaped creature with red eyes & a 10-foot wingspread pursued a boy's car. No other information.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 18, 1966 - night: Capt. Paul Yoder & B Enochs saw a huge bird like creature, with big red eyes, in the TNT dump area. No other information.

- Campbell's Creek, West Virginia - November 20, 1966: Six teenagers saw a gray man sized creature with red eyes flying over the area. No other information.

- Charleston, West Virginia - November 21, 1966 - 10:15pm: Richard West called police to report that a "batman" was sitting on a roof next to his house. "It looks like a man 6 ft tall & has a wingspread of 6-8 ft," he said. "It had great big red eyes. It flew straight up like a helicopter.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 24, 1966 - 7:15am: Mr. Thomas Ury was driving home in daylight when the "Mothman," a bird-like creature 6 ft tall and with a 10 ft wing spread, circled over his car. He speeded up to 70-75 mph, but it kept up with him. He had been in the area of the TNT dumpsite.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 24, 1966 - night: Mary Myer, a reporter, saw the glowing red eyes of the "Mothman" when she visited an abandoned power plant in Point Pleasant, where it had been seen before.

- St. Albans, West Virginia - November 26, 1966 - evening: Mrs Ruth Foster saw the "Mothman" standing on her front lawn. It was about 6 ft tall and had a "funny little face" with "big red eyes that popped out." She screamed and ran into the house.

- New Haven, West Virginia - November 27, 1966 - 10:30am: Miss Connie Carpenter saw the "Mothman," a tall figure in gray, standing on a golf course. It unfolded 10-foot wings & flew directly at her windshield; she saw its red eyes; then it veered off & disappeared. Her eyes were red, swollen, & itchy for 2 weeks afterwards.

- St. Albans, West Virginia - November 27, 1966 - night: 13-year old Sheila Cain and her sister were walking home when they saw a being standing by the road; it was 7 ft tall, and gray & white with big red eyes. They screamed & ran home; it flew low over them.

- Gallipolis, Ohio - December 4, 1966 - 3:00pm: At the Gallipolis Airport, 5 pilots saw what at first they took for an airplane. It was a winged form about 300 ft up, traveling at 70 mph without flapping its wide wings; it had a long neck & was turning its head from side to side.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - December 6, 1966 - night: Two adults, one a high school teacher, were driving near the local TNT dump site when they saw a giant gray man like figure with glowing red eyes.

- Near Gallipolis, Ohio - December 7, 1966 - night: Four women driving on Route 33 saw a brownish silver man-shaped flying creature with glowing red eyes. No other information.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - January 11, 1967 - daytime: Mrs Park McDaniel was outside her home when she saw what she first took to be a small plane approaching; as it drew closer she saw it was man-shaped and had wings. The creature swooped low over the witness and circled above a nearby building before going out of sight.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - Spring 1967 - various: Several local residents saw three very tall, dark complexioned men in the area. These men knocked on doors late at night, purportedly selling magazines. They spoke fluent unaccented English and were described as "good-looking" with heavily tanned skin. Their height and broadness impressed the witnesses the most. These men were always on foot; apparently they did not have a car.

- Bogle Ridge, West Virginia - March 1967 - late night: A man and a woman were out parked in an isolated area "sky watching" when they saw a group of red, green and white lights descend from the sky and land in a nearby gully. Moments later there was a bright flash of light and the man's face began tingling. He then heard voices outside the car and there was a sudden knock on the car window. Outside they both saw a man holding a red light standing by the car. Using mental telepathy the strange figure asked the male witness several questions then told him to leave the car, the witness was then led off into the darkness. Several personal items were missing from the witness upon returning to the vehicle.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 1967 - late night: 16-year old Linda Lilly woke up one night and saw a large figure towering over her bed. "It was a man," she said. " A big man. Very broad. I couldn't see his faced very well but I could see that he was grinning at me." Linda got up from bed with a terrible scream. She cried out there was a man in her room. "He walked around the bed and stood right over me". Linda declared, "I screamed again and hid under the covers, when I looked again he was gone." She then ran into her mother's room. When asked for a full description of the man, Linda said she thought he had been wearing "a checkered shirt". Around the same time, her mother, Doris Lilly began to receive strange phone calls at home. Each evening around 1700 her phone would ring, and when she answered she heard only a bizarre metallic voice speaking in an incomprehensible language. It was guttural and rapid. These calls came only when she was alone.

- Near Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, West Virginia - April 1967 - night: On a rainy night a man was driving along Route 2 when a large black form rose from the woods and flew over his car. "It was at least ten feet wide," he claimed. He stepped on the gas but it kept right up with him at about 70 mph. It then moved ahead of him and turned toward the river.

- Near Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia - April 7, 1967 - 11:15pm: Mabel McDaniel, John Keel, and two other women went to a hill, when they spotted the usual reddish glow on a nearby hill. A second one popped up a short distance from the first. Keel flashed his light at them but nothing happened. So he climbed a fence and walked into a field to try to get a closer look. As he crossed the field he suddenly noticed a pale bluish ball of light hovering high in the trees of an orchard behind the nearby farmhouse. The light moved about from tree to tee as though it were following Keel's movements. He flashed his light at it and it flared with a dazzling brilliance, dimmed, and vanished. The lights on the southern ridge also brightened for a moment and then went out. Coming back to the car, Keel found all three women in a very frightened state. Later they related how they had seen a very tall man in the field, which climbed over a fence then crossed behind their vehicle. Terrified they locked the doors and ran the windows up.

- Near Point Pleasant, West Virginia - October 1967 - night: Three men driving along Route 2 sighted a tall broad shouldered dark caped man walking besides the road. They stopped and looked back but the figure had disappeared. There were open fields on both sides of the road.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 2, 1967 - late night: A woman working in her kitchen heard a loud squeaking sound coming from outside, she looked out and saw a huge shadow spreading across the grass, and then a figure described as tall, man-shaped, and gray in color appeared. It glided quickly across a field and disappeared into the woods.

- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - December 22, 1967 - late afternoon: Soon after the local Silver Bridge had tragically collapsed killing dozens, Mary Hyre, a local newspaper stringer sat in her office sifting through the list of casualties, when two strangers walked in the office. They seemed almost like twins, both were short, with dark complexions, & somewhat Oriental in appearance. Both wore black overcoats. They seemed only interested on the UFO activity in the area and asked several peculiar questions, including: "What would you do if someone did order you to stop writing about flying saucers?" Mrs Hyre did not see them leave. Later that afternoon another stranger walked into the office. He was slightly built, about five feet-seven inches tall, with black piercing eyes and unruly black hair. His complexion was even darker that the previous two visitors & he also looked Oriental. His hands were especially unusual, with unduly long tapering fingers. He wore a cheap looking ill-fitting suit, and his tie was knotted in an odd fashion way. He did not wear an overcoat, despite the fierce cold outside. He spoke in a peculiar stammering monotone and argued with Mrs Hyre about UFO's. He soon left and later visited the home of several local witnesses.

NOTE: Is the Conewago Phantom and other Mothman-like beings related to the Point Pleasant sightings? Lon

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