By Albert S. Rosales - Back in the late 60’s, 1966-67 to be exact, Point Pleasant, West Virginia had its winged humanoid, or the 'Mothman' as it was named by the great Fortean researcher John Keel (John Alva Kiehl).
The encounters of this winged anomaly were accompanied by other strange phenomena, UFOs, mutilations, MIB’s, etc. It was later said to have been an omen to the terrible tragedy in December 1967 when the Silver Bridge, which crossed the Ohio River into Point Pleasant, suddenly collapsed on December 15 1967 killing 46 people (2 of the victims were never found). However the sightings of the Mothman did not really end. There were sporadic encounters later, through the 70’s & 80’s and perhaps later.
Now in the first half of the 21st Century a winged mystery has descended on Chicago, Illinois. This historic city, sometimes called, 'Second City' (to New York) with its violent past, is no stranger to all kinds of strange phenomena, dating back to 1909 when two strange balloon-like objects were seen moving swiftly above the city, the objects carried lights and by using binoculars witnesses could see at least two men onboard the objects.
In 1954 the Air Force own “Project Blue Book” investigated the following event:
Chicago Illinois
Date: April 8 1954
Time: 1633
Mrs. Lelah H. Stoker of North Sheridan Road had returned to her apartment from the library, when she observed a very brilliant white, parachute-like object, with a suspended human form skimming over the water in all directions, level with her window, about 1km away. She called two neighbors, William Baruszak, a vice-resident of Western United Dairy, and his wife. Mr. Baruszak saw a large object floating about 100m off shore, which he took to be an experimental balloon and did not take much notice. At 16:45 Lelah called the coastguard, but as the searching seaplane neared the area, the object descended and seemed to condense in size, landing among sporadic foliage along the shoreline. From the object a small, but well-proportioned humanoid figure, dressed in a green one-piece suit, with a tight-fitting headdress alighted, walked up and down the frontage behind the low stone wall, and blended in with the grass. After the aircraft left, the object reflated and hovered over the water, and the occupant, who was now suspended in the air, re-entered the craft, which took off at high speed eastwards, without noise. During a tilt, Lelah noticed two parallel bars on the underside of the spherical umbrella. Investigated by Army Intelligence.
The Air Force never did find any explanation for it.
Of course there has been other “entity” encounters, not necessarily of the flying type. A witness sent me this fascinating encounter:
Chicago, Illinois
Date: August 1999
Time: late night
A man visiting a friend’s house and sleeping on the sofa in the bedroom suddenly woke up feeling very panicky and totally unable to move. Looking towards the front door he saw a huge humanoid figure over 7 ft tall standing by the door. The figure resembled a large “praying mantis” and was wearing something resembling a black and purple cloak. Its skin was dark gray in color. It slowly approached the witness and reached out to him with a large hand with long thin fingers and grabbed his shoulder. At this point the witness lost consciousness and does not recall anything else of the incident. He remembered also feeling very cold during the encounter.
Praying Mantis beings seemed to have become a staple in modern UFOlogy.
But our focus is the recent events so diligently chronicled by my friend and researcher Lon Strickler in his Phantoms and Monsters blog.
There were strange events and encounters before August of 2016 where in the Chicago suburb of Cicero (Al Capone’s headquarter back in Gangland Chicago) when a man saw a large winged humanoid perched on a lamp post. Events took off around February 2017 and have not stopped as of November, here are dozens of encounters all chronicled by Lon. Some witnesses called the entity a “man-bat” others a “black devil” a “winged man”, etc. Whatever it is, it has given some of those witnesses a sense of ‘evil’ or foreboding. Unlike Point Pleasant there hasn’t been too many other associated events, like UFOs, etc (that I am aware). There has been worldwide interest in these events, and Fortean and UFOs groups as far as Russia have been keeping a close watch on the incident, publishing their encounters in their own blogs and newsletters.
Lon has remained open-minded and thorough in his investigation of these bizarre events. I can only conjecture as the origin of the “man-bat”. Is it an inter-dimensional being (or beings) who has become attracted by the violent atmosphere pervading Chicago, do they thrive on this? Is it a sort of omen of an upcoming catastrophe like in Point Pleasant? We can only pray that is not.
Albert S. Rosales
November 20, 2017
Humanoid Encounters Series - Albert S. Rosales
Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts
The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story
The Mothman of Point Pleasant
