Episode 50: It’s a bird, It’s a plane, It’s: Mothman!

Today we are heading out for a drive in the west virginian countryside where we might get tailgated not by a semi but by a man sized moth creature with glowing red eyes and a high pitched shriek. Today on The Odder, we are talking about The Mothman. Is he just a misidentified local fauna? An alien? A Native American Curse? Or is he actually a harbinger of bad things to come? Kneel down before the almighty metal mothman statue and let’s go!

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Music Credit
"Anamalie" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Sardana" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Main Theme:
"Dream Catcher" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hello and welcome to The Odder Podcast. I’m your host Madison Paige and today we are heading out for a drive in the west virginian countryside where we might get tailgated not by a semi but by a man sized moth creature with glowing red eyes and a high pitched shriek. Today on The Odder, we are talking about The Mothman. Is he just a misidentified local fauna? An alien? A Native American Curse? Or is he actually a harbinger of bad things to come? Kneel down before the almighty metal mothman statue and let’s go!
Hello again My Odders, how is everyone doing today? Did we all enjoy the last episode on haunted and cursed paintings? Did any of your household artwork decide to leave its frame? Hopefully, great aunt ethel is still sitting in her portrait. If you really enjoyed it or if you didn’t, please leave a rating and review, they really do help! For the returning listeners, welcome back, for the new listeners, welcome welcome to The Odder podcast where we are a trail mix of all things unknown, unsolved, and just plain odd. If you have an idea for an episode you think would be fun, good news! I do listener requests so if you want your own personalized episode, you can send me an email at theodderpod@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you and know what you want to hear from me! Moving right along, we are back in our Cryptid corner today where we are going to talk about the well known and well loved Mothman. While this particular cryptid has been covered by several different investigators, shows, podcasts and while I usually like to avoid the overtly popular subjects, I honestly just really like Mothman so dealers choice. I am honestly dying to take a trip to point pleasant to visit the town and see all the touristy crap that is dedicated to it so when I finally get that together, you’ll probably get a little update. But without further gabbing, look high and to the sky and keep your eyes open for something flying past that may be coming to warn us about things to come.
Subscribers to the Point Pleasant Register woke to a strange headline on the morning of November 16th, 1966. Titled “Couples see Man-Sized Bird…Creature…Something” sent many people chattering away over their breakfast. The story caused such a sensation that it was soon picked up by national media and spread across papers around the US as people speculated about how fantastic the tale was.
It started on November 15th, 1966 when Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Marry Malette were out for a drive together along State Route 62 late at night. They were passing near the abandoned National Guard Armory building and power plant. This area was a former World War 2 munition plant. Suddenly the headlights of the car caught on a figure on the side of the road. Linda would later describe it as slender and muscular. It stood like a man but was six to seven feet tall and looked out at them with giant eyes that shone bright red. Terrified, Roger Scarberry, the driver of the car, slammed on the gas and sped away.
However, the creature followed.
They couples stated that the creature revealed two large wings and took off in a clumsy run before gliding into the air like a helicopter. Even though Roger pushed the car to 100 miles an hour, the creature easily caught up and kept pace. It floated back and forth over the top of the vehicle, hitting it occasionally with its wings. Mary claimed to hear the creature emitting a high-pitched noise. Squeaking in a way she likened to a “big mouse”.
The creature kept pace with the car and continued to terrify the couple until they made it to the outskirts of Point Pleasant where it suddenly veered off into a field. The couples quickly headed straight to the police department to report the encounter. After listening to the unbelievable story, the Sheriff and Deputies did head out to the Armoury to see if they could find the mysterious creature. While they did not locate the mothman themselves, one of the officers reported seeing strange shadows circling in the area and the police radios had an unexpected static interference. A cloud of dust was kicked up in a nearby coalyard which some of those present believe was the mothman taking off away from the police.
Following the newspaper's report of the story, sightings began to spring up with one of the best known being that of a Contractor named Neell Patridge who came across the creature standing in a nearby field. When he turned a flashlight on it, he stated that its eyes glowed like bike reflectors. Later he would blame the creature for odd buzzing noises and the disappearance of his German Shepherd, Bandit who he claimed chased after the creature into the woods and was never found.
Locals began to arm themselves with shotguns in fear that the creature meant to attack them and officials rushed to explain its appearance away.
Two volunteer firemen who saw it claimed it was nothing more than a large bird with red eyes. This seemed to be the explanation most latched on to. Mason County Sheriff George Johnson claimed it was most likely a large heron which he called a “Shitepoke ''. Wildlife biologist Robert L. Smith from West Virginia University stated it was probably actually a sandhill crane which can grow as large as a man and have a seven foot wingspan. They also are notable for the circles of reddish coloring around their eyes. However, sandhill cranes are not native to this area so for one to have landed here, it would have had to have accidentally been knocked out of its migration route.
All this makes me think of is a big ass bird above the car going “Stop screaming and tell me where the hell I am”
However, while this comforted some, many were still left to wonder about what Mothman was and what he wanted.
Theory #1: Mothman serves as prophetic warnings. A big “Bad Things A-Coming” sign when seen. Kind of like how when you see your doppelganger, it means something bad is about to happen, some people believe that seeing mothman is a warning of an impending disaster. This belief was illustrated by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies where he explained the correlation between the sighting of the Cryptid and the collapse of the Silver Bridge.
On December 15th, 1967, 46 people were killed when the Silver Bridge which connected Point Pleasant to Gallipolis Ohio suddenly collapsed at 5pm in the middle of Rush hour. The tragedy was later blamed on a defect in a single link that led to stress corrosion cracking and the bridge collapsing under the weight of all the cars on it at that time.
Now the initial sighting of Mothman had happened almost an entire year earlier but on the same day of the bridge collapse some locals claim to have seen Mothman flying over or landing on top of the suspension bridge with the collapse having happened shortly after. Now whether this sighting is real is hotly debated but one thing for sure is that following the bridge collapse the reports of sightings of the creature abruptly stopped in Point Pleasant, Virginia. While there had been a scattering of sightings since the initial incident with the couple in the car, it seems that following the collapse of Silver Bridge, Mothman packed his bags and moved.
And reports of the big winged bad omen began to come in in association with some of the worst natural and manmade disasters we know.
On September 10th, 1978, Mothman appeared to a group of miners in Germany. They reported seeing a creature with piercing red eyes was at the entrance to the mine they were working on. Stunned at what they were witnessing, they fled in terror as the creature let out a ghoulish howl. An hour later, the mine they would have been in collapsed. The encounter is known as the “Freiburg Shrieker” and the creature is credited with saving the lives of many who would otherwise have been buried alive.
Next the Mothman was spotted at the Chernobyl power plant meltdown. Reports of a large, black bird-like creature with the body of a man flying around the area were made shortly before the disaster. On April 26th, 1986 the same creature was spotted flying around the smoke immediately after the meltdown. Those in the nearby town of Pripyat also reported sightings of what they would later call the “Blackbird of Chernobyl.”
In 1999, a Georgian Newspaper would print a story in which a Russian Ufologist would claim that prior to the 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings in which 307 people were killed, sightings of a mothman-like creature had been made in the area.
Mothman was even credited with a sighting at 9/11. Following the terrorist attack in which two planes were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers in New York City, witnesses came forward to claim that a creature bearing a resemblance to Mothman had been seen flying near the site of the attack. Some even stated they saw the cryptid flying parallel to the 2nd plane before impact. A strange man in black, like Men in Black style, apparently showed up to threaten these witnesses into silence shortly after.
A man named Marcus Pules claimed to have witnessed a Mothman like creature perched on top of one of the buildings shortly before the 2011 Fukushima Power Plant disaster following an Earthquake. According to Pules, it unfurled its wings, and circled the plant several times. He stated that he noticed the creature's huge red glowing eyes and felt such a sense of dread that he had to leave the area immediately.
The tendency of Mr. Moth’s to show up right before disaster has led to a divide in opinion as to whether he is responsible for these incidents or whether he is trying to warn us about them.
Theory #2: Mothman is an alien
Some witnesses have claimed correlations between sightings of Mothman and UFO’s. This theory also stands on the interactions some mothman witnesses have had with supposed men in black like the 9/11 incident we talked about earlier.
For those that don’t know, The Men in Black, like those seen in the popular movie featuring Will Smith, are known in UFO circles and other conspiracy groups as a fraction of government agents that are used to threaten, harass and silence those that claim to see UFOs or interact with aliens. Some even claim they are capable of assassinations of these witnesses if they prove to be too troublesome.
Mary Hyre, a reporter for The Athens Messenger who worked closely on the Mothman case and had an office in Point Pleasant claimed to have her own run-in with them while trying to publish her reports on both Mothman and local sightings of UFOs.
One night, she was working late in her office in January 1967 when a short man dressed in a black suit with thick glasses came into her office. Mary was startled by him but he simply asked directions to the town of Welsh. While she instructed him on this, the man crept closer and closer, invading her personal space. He then began to question her about her articles and why she would feel the need to publish such stories.
Feeling aggressively uncomfortable, Mary called a coworker into her office and subtly tried to encourage the man to leave. At one point she had to take a phone call, and watched as the man picked up and examined a ball point pen as if he had never seen one before. Thoroughly weirded out by the man's behavior, Mary was relieved when he gave a little chuckle and suddenly ran out of the office, taking the pen with him.
Brushing off the strange incident, Mary continued her investigation into the Mothman. A few weeks later, she was walking outside her office when she suddenly spotted the same man watching her on the street. Realizing that he had been caught, the man suddenly turned and hopped into a large black car before speeding away.
Mary came to the terrifying realization that she was being watched.
She was not the only person to encounter a strange man in a black suit. Several residents encountered strange men with similar descriptions showing up at houses of witnesses to Mothman who claimed to be employees from a water or gas company needing to read the meter. The mend would go to the basement but when the homeowners would go to check on them, they would have mysteriously disappeared.
These strange men in black would usually skulk around in groups of 2 or 3. They appeared to be very strange socially, speaking in slow or sin song patterns with transparent or olive toned skin and eyes that did not blink. When they were spotted out, they appeared to struggle to interact with normal everyday objects such as utensils in restaurants and pens in offices. One story even posits that a local resident spotted one of these men at a diner where a waitress showed him how to use a knife.
The strange intermingling of the men in black appearances that coincided with the Mothman as well as their blatant questions and threats to the witnesses made many believe that the Mothman was actually an escaped Alien or government project that the MIB were sent to recover. The attempts to silence witnesses and threaten those reporting on the sightings were also part of their job as they attempted to get the cryptid back under control.
This belief is illustrated by an incident experienced by the niece of Mary, a woman named Connie Carpenter. At 10:30 am on November 27th, 1966, Connie was driving home from church when she spotted what she believed to be a man dressed all in gray standing by the Mason County Golf Course on Route 62. Suddenly, the man revealed a pair of 10 foot wings and launched himself at her car. Staring into his glowing red eyes, Connie realized she was looking at the Mothman. She described his face as something out of a science fiction movie. It flew directly at her windshield before suddenly veering off. Shaking, Connie continued home.
Connie’s boyfriend would later report that she arrived home hysterical and kept crying “Those eyes! Those eyes!”. Her eyes would become inflamed and swollen and a doctor would diagnose her with Klieg Conjunctivitis which is a condition that occurs when the eyes are exposed to ultraviolet rays for too long.
Later as Connie was on her way to school, she was suddenly approached by a gentleman in a black vehicle. He motioned her over and she approached, assuming he was looking for directions. Suddenly, the man grabbed her and attempted to drag her into the vehicle. She struggled and managed to get free but her blouse was ripped in the process. Connie’s description of the man would match those of the supposed Men in Black seen around the town at the time. Several hours after the attempted abduction, a note was pushed under the door of her house that stated “be careful girl, I can get you yet!”
Theory #3, The Mothman is the result of a Native American Curse.
This theory is actually holding hands with theory number one. The sudden flare up of sightings of the Mothman before the collapse of the silver bridge followed by the drop after has led many to believe that the cryptids existence must be tied into the incident in some way. Maybe the Mothman wasn’t sent to warn us about several impending disasters but just the one. And maybe the collapse of Silver Bridge was actually the result of a curse placed on the town by a Native American in 1774.
During the times of expansion, several skirmishes between settlers and Native Americans broke out along the area of the Ohio River. Where Point Pleasant is located now used to be home to several tribes of Shawnee.
Among these inhabitants was a man named Cornstalk. Now in 1774, the Battle of Point Pleasant took place where several Shawnee and Mingo tribes banded together to defend their land against the encroaching settlers. The battle was bloody and the tribes did not have the weapons to match those carried by their opponents so they were forced to retreat. Constalk, wanting to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, agreed to a truce during a second attempt which proved just as fatal. A tentative Truce formed between the settlers and the natives for the time being. In 1777, Cornstalk became aware of British officers attempting to get other Native tribes to attack the colonists. He wanted no part in the fighting and so went to the fort to alert his colonist allies. He told them that he would not stop his men from fighting but would not join himself. This angered the colonists who took him as prisoner to use as a bargaining chip.
While being held prisoner, he was visited by his son. During this time, two fort members were killed by native tribe members while out hunting as retribution, both Cornstalk and his Son were shot. Legend says that as he lay dying, he looked at his attackers and stated “I was the border man’s friend. Many times I have saved him and his people from harm. I never warred with you, but only to protect our wigwams and lands. I refused to join your paleface enemies with the red coats. I came to the fort as your friend and you murdered me. You have murdered by my side, my young son…. For this, may the curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of its people’s be paralyzed by the stain of our blood.``
Now in Point Pleasant you can find both a stunning mural depicting Native American life pre-colonist in the area as well as a large metallic statue of Chief Cornstalk on display. The story of his dying words and curse on the land is a hotly debated topic in how realistic it actually is. And would a curse uttered in the 1700’s wait so long to collapse a bridge in the modern day? And what does the Mothman have to do with the Shawnee people?
This theory honestly has a lot of holes and seems to be more in line with bad 90’s horror movies than actual possibility but I always want to present to you all the options.
Many experts point to Mothman being some kind of large bird such as barred owls, great blue herons, and sandhill cranes. However, Mothman has quite the staunch following. He is not only a local cryptid but has amassed quite an internet fan following. Point Pleasant cashed in on the mothman craze and hosted its first annual mothman festival in 2002. Today, 10-12 thousand people attend the still going festivities and most come to gawk at the 12 foot tall metallic statue created by artist Bob Roach. The statue is well noted not just for its size and glowing red eyes but for its attention to certain anatomical details that have raised several eyebrows and caused a few giggles. The Mothman Museum and REsearch Center opened in 2005. The festival is hosted on the third weekend of every September and offers souvenirs of t-shirts, cookies, and other prizes with Mr. Moth printed on the front.
The Mothman Prophecies was turned into a movie in 2002. Several investigations including shows like Buzzfeed Unsolved have gone to point pleasant and had their own poke around looking for the big winged cryptid. The Mothman has appeared on other podcasts, youtube channels, and has even been the subject of a few songs such as Cryptid (Mothman) by Ratwyfe. His fans have even taken to cosplaying the cryptid and what was once a sight to terrify couples in cars has become a beloved part of modern media. I’m a huge fan of Mothman myself and I hope to visit the festival in the coming years.
Mothman may be a cryptid. It may be an alien. It may be nothing but a big ass bird. Like most cryptids, we are likely to never know. However, it has worked to bring together a town and entertain people all over the world. Whatever Mothman is, wherever he is, and whatever he is here for, let us hope he continues to warn of us incoming disasters and outrunning the men in black.
Well, that’s all for this episode. So what do you think? Do you believe in Mothman? Where do you believe he comes from? What is your favorite part of Mothman media? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and leave a review. The Odder Pod is also on TikTok. Come follow us there! Have a suggestion for a show? Send me an email at theodderpod@gmail.com with your request and whether you’d like me to mention your name, your alias, or nothing at all. Remember this is The Odder Side so give me something cool, creepy, or confusing to deep dive for you. If you liked the show, leave us a review! They really help! Keep an eye to the sky for the Mothman! The Odder Podcast posts every other Thursday. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time on The Odder side.

The Odder

Episode 50: It’s a bird, It’s a plane, It’s: Mothman!

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