Unexplained Mysteries : Flatwoods Monster (Phantom of Flatwoods)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster

The Flatwoods Monster, also known as the Braxton County Monster or the Phantom of Flatwoods, is an alleged unidentified extraterrestrial or cryptid reported to be sighted in the town of Flatwoods in Braxton County, West Virginia, on September 12, 1952. Stories of the creature are an example of a purported close encounter of the third kind. Appearance There are two entities associated with the Flatwoods Monster. The first was described as being a large, pulsating, red ball of light that hovered above or rested upon the ground. Ufologists believe that it may have been a powered craft that was piloted by the second entity. Various descriptions of the second entity exist. Most agree that it was at least 10 feet tall and that it had a red face which appeared to glow from within, and a green body. Witnesses described the creature's head as having bulging, non-human eyes and as either being shaped like a heart/an Ace of Spades, or as having a large heart/Ace of Spades shaped cowling behind it. The creature's body was described as being man-shaped and clad in a dark pleated skirt; later described as being green. Some accounts record that the creature had no visible arms, while others describe it as having short, stubby arms; ending in long, claw-like fingers, which protruded from the front of its body. Reported in Flatwoods, Virginia, on the night of September 12, 1952, the Flatwoods Monster is said to have been an alien from another planet because the creature was first seen after an apparent UFO crash. Stories of the creature are an example of a purported close encounter of the third kind. A simple sighting of a UFO is called a close encounter of the first kind. A close encounter of the second kind is when a UFO physically affects the environment, such as causing a car’s engine to stall. However, what happens when UFOs land and aliens exit the craft? These cases are termed close encounters of the third kind. There have been literally thousands of reported UFO landings across the world. More than 2,000 of these cases involve physical trace evidence of the landing. The Flatwoods Monster case is only one example. Many other equally shocking cases exist. What makes landing cases so interesting is that they make the usual Air Force explanations of misperception or hallucination much harder to accept. The incident began when three boys spotted an odd sphere of light moving across the sky that appeared to landing behind a hill. When the weird glowing object stayed there, six of the children decided to get closer. They started the 15-minute hike to the landing spot. Along the way, two of the boys, Edison and Freddie May, stopped at their house and told their mother that they were going with their friends to see a landed flying saucer. Their mother, Kathleen May, was skeptical, abut also curious. She said, “You’re not going by yourself!” It was just getting dark, so she grabbed a flashlight and joined the boys. By now it was already dark. The group of six children and one adult crept towards the glowing object. As they approached, they could see that the object was sphere-shaped, and was pulsating with light. The whole area around the craft was foggy. Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. Suddenly, one of the children thought he saw something glowing in one of the trees just ahead of them. Kathleen May shined her flashlight up and everybody screamed. Floating in front of them was a 12-foot tall robotic-looking creature with glowing red eyes, a teardrop-shaped head, and a cylindrical body with antennae coming out of the sides. Says Freddie May, “It was big . . . it was scary.” Nearby, hiding behind a tree, they saw a creature that was at least 6 feet (1.8m) tall and had a head that they later described as being shaped like a spade on a playing card. Within this head, they claimed, was a round window, from which two blue beams of light shot straight ahead. The creature did not appear to have any legs, and as it moved first slightly toward and then away from the witnesses, it seemed to slide along the ground. As it began to move, the witnesses fled. They immediately reported their experience to others, who said that the witness had appeared to be badly shaken by what they had seen. After encountering the creature, several members of the September 12 group reported being overcome with similar symptoms which persisted for some time, which they attributed to having been exposed to the mist emitted by the creature. The symptoms included irritation of the nose and swelling of the throat. Lemon suffered from vomiting and convulsions throughout the night, and had difficulties with his throat for several weeks afterward. A doctor who treated several of the witnesses is reported to have described their symptoms as being similar to victims of mustard gas, though such symptoms are also commonly found in sufferers of hysteria, which can be brought on by exposure to a traumatic or shocking event. One person who heard their story, newspaper reporter A. Lee Stewart Jr. of the local newspaper, the Braxton Democrat, later went to the crash site but saw nothing, although he did smell a foul odor. However, since it was too dark to see the landscape, the next morning he returned to the site, and at that time he saw marks on the ground that indicated a large object might have hit the ground and skidded to a stop. In his subsequent story on the event, Stewart dubbed the creature the Flatwoods Monster. Interestingly, both before and after the event, there were several UFO sightings in the area. There are two entities associated with the Flatwoods Monster. The first was described as being a large, pulsating, red ball of light that hovered above or rested upon the ground. Ufologists believe that it may have been a powered craft that was piloted by the second entity. Various descriptions of the second entity exist. Most agree that it was at least 10 feet tall and that it had a red face which appeared to glow from within, and a green body. Witnesses described the creature's head as having bulging, non-human eyes and as either being shaped like a heart/an Ace of Spades, or as having a large heart/Ace of Spades shaped cowling behind it. The creature's body was described as being man-shaped and clad in a dark pleated skirt; later described as being green. Some accounts record that the creature had no visible arms, while others describe it as having short, stubby arms; ending in long, claw-like fingers, which protruded from the front of its body. Moreover, some forty years later, in the early 1990s, the mother, Kathleen May Horner, claimed that she had been visited by two men who tried to convince her that she had imagined what she saw. Around the same time, someone showed her a letter, supposedly from government officials, claiming that she and the boys had seen a spacecraft that was part of a lunar rocket experiment and that it had crashed due to “oil trouble.” Since it is highly unlikely that this was the case, some people have suggested that Horner was the victim of either a prank or an attempt to discredit her as a witness. Submit News/Videos/Links | Discuss article | Article Link | More unsolved mysteries on Unexplained Mysteries