in 1966 the residents of a small town in West Virginia were stalked by an unknown creature with glowing red eyes was he real or just a figment of the imagination and does recent photographic evidence suggest he may have returned this week on bedtime stories we retell the legend of the Mothman [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Point Pleasant West Virginia a small town with a big history it's population of just over four thousand occupies an area and just three square miles one would not think of it as a city but in fact it is a city surrounded by lush green countryside bisected by the vast Ohio River and steeped in larger-than-life legend as its name suggests its character is quaint peaceful and above all Pleasant on the surface at least no one would ever suspect that it was home to one of the most unsettling ordeals of the last half-century one that still strikes fear into the hearts of many during well after half of the 1960's reports began to surface of a mysterious and horrifying creature stalking residents on the outskirts and surrounding areas of town encounters with this entity was said to be so frightening that at least one person suffered from psychological trauma for many years after their experience the first sighting of such occurred on the 12th of November 1966 when five grave diggers working in a local cemetery near Clendenen saw what they thought was a human being fly out of a group of trees nearby they watched for about a minute and it swooped low over their heads and then took off into the distance two nights later on the 14th a resident of Salem Newell Partridge was at home watching television when he saw two red objects hovering over a field at the rear of his property upon investigating he realized that the glowing objects were actually a pair of eyes which belonged to a tall dark figure this figure was standing on the branch of a tree about 100 meters away when it promptly rose up into the air and flew away over the woods letting out a blood-curdling scream as it went his dog a German shepherd named bandit took off in pursuit and was never seen again the night after on the 15th two young married couples burst into the Mason County sheriff's office in a state of panic and distress they were mr. and mrs. Roger Scarberry and mr.
and mrs. Steve mallet and they had been on their way back from a double date driving close the TNT area Point Pleasant when they saw a tall gray figure stood next to the road they reported that it looked like a man but bigger possibly seven feet tall and that it appeared to have a pair of wings folded behind its back in front of it lay the carcass of a dog the breed of which was never determined but was later assumed to be that of nool partridges German Shepherd as they passed this strange-looking figure it rose into the air and proceeded to fly out of the car mr. Scarberry who was driving sped up close to 100 miles per hour but the creature was able to keep up matching the speed of the vehicle his wife said that it emitted a high-pitched screech to the fluid and that it had huge red eyes which glowed like a pair of car reflectors as they entered the town it broke off the chase and flew back in the direction of the TNT area a press conference was held on the afternoon of the 16th where the Scarberry and Malak couples gave their accounts of the previous evening dr.
Robert Smith a wildlife expert was also in attendance and offered his explanation to the waiting media saying that what the two couples had actually seen was an abnormally large crane which had been blown out of its migration route these reports would hit the local evening papers on the 16th of November and word of the encounters spread through the town like wildfire this as with any kind of sensationalism unfortunately invited many fabricated sightings from other so-called eyewitnesses and from here on out nearly all alleged encounters are subject to a much higher scrutiny that's not to say that all of them are fictitious however one sighting in particular occurred on the evening of the 16th at around the same time as the first local evening papers were being deposited in mailboxes mr. and mrs. Raymond Worsley along with Marcella Bennett and her baby daughter Tina were on their way to visit the Thomas family who lived on the outskirts of town when they pulled up to the Thomas property the car seemed to disturb something as they were getting out of the vehicle they were shocked to see a large grey figure bigger than a man rising up from the ground nearby which they described as having terrible glowing red eyes Marcello was so alarmed that she forgot she was carrying her baby daughter and in a panic actually dropped her after collecting herself and her child she runs the Thomas home and was let in by one of their children the creature shuffled after them and continued to terrorize the household by peering in through the windows by the time the police arrived over half an hour later it had of course vanished but this wasn't the last Marcella would see of the Mothman she also lived on the outskirts of Point Pleasant near the TNT area and claimed that after her initial encounter at the Thomas residence the creature had visited her home on several other occasions and that she often heard its blood-curdling scream in the dead of night Marcella apparently suffered with nightmares and other mental health issues for many years after her ordeal the TNT area of Point Pleasant would later become heavily associated with the Mothman it is a large tracts of land dotted with small concrete igloos used during World War two to store ammunition it is also adjacent to the 2,500 acre McClintock wildlife station and the entire landscape is covered with dense forests steep hills and riddled with tunnels the press would go on to claim that the area acted as a home for the creature during his time in Point Pleasant with most of the sightings having occurred there there were many more reported encounters towards the end of 1966 peaking especially in 1967 and during November of that year the silver River bridge over the Ohio River collapsed plunging a number of vehicles into the icy depths and killing 46 people in the process immediately after this sightings of the Mothman ceased altogether leading many to believe that the creature was somehow responsible for this tragedy that it was in fact a harbinger of death so who or rather what was the motto was there any truth to the events that took place or was it all just an elaborate hoax orchestrated with the sole intention of increasing tourism to a failing backwater town ideas have been varied to say the least skeptics have largely agreed with dr.
