INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL The Flatwoods UFO Monster n modern police parlance a long- tory versions of what happened next, ingly colorless, but some would later unsolved homicide or other crime but UFO writer Gray Barker was soon say it was green, and Mrs. May may be known as a "cold case," a on the scene and wrote an account for reported drape-like folds. The monster I Fate magazine based on tape-recorded was observed only momentarily, as term we might borrow for such para- normal mysteries as that suddenly it emitted a of the Flatwoods hissing sound and Monster, which was glided toward the launched on September group. Lemon re- 12, 1952, and never sponded by screaming completely explained. and dropping his About 7:15 P.M. on flashlight, whereupon that day, at Flatwoods, a everyone fled. little village in rhc hills The group had no- of West Virginia, some ticed a pungent mist youngsters were playing at die scene and football on the school afterward some were playground. Suddenly nauseated. A few locals, they saw a fiery UFO then later me sheriff and streak across the sky a deputy (who came and, apparently, land on from investigating a re- a hilltop of the nearby ported airplane crash), Bailey Fisher farm. The searched the site but youths ran to the home Figure 1. Flatwoods, West Virginia, resident Max Lockard identifies site of 1952 "saw, heard and smelled "monster" sighting. (Photo by Joe Nickell) of Mrs. Kathleen May, nothing." The following who provided a flashlight and accompa- interviews. He found that the least day A. Lee Stewart, Jr., from the Braxton nied them up the hill. In addition to emotional account was provided by Democrat discovered "skid marks" in the Mrs. May, a local beautician, the group Neil Nunley, one of two youths who roadside field, along with an "odd, included her two sons, Eddie 13, and were in the lead as the group hastened gummy deposit"—traces attributed to Freddie 14, Neil Nunley 14, Gene to the crest of the hill. Some distance the landed "saucer" (Barker 1953). Lemon 17, and Tommy Hyer and ahead was a pulsing red light. Then, In his article Barker (1953) noted Ronnie Shaver, both 10, along with suddenly. Gene Lemon saw a pair of that "numerous people in a 20-mile Lemons dog. shining, animal-like eyes, and aimed radius saw the illuminated objects in the There arc myriad, often contradic- the flashlight in their direction. sky at the same time," evidently seeing The light revealed a towering "man- different objects or a single one "making Joe Nickell is CSlCOP's Senior Research like" figure with a round, red "face" a circuit of the area." Barker believed the Fellow and author of numerous investiga- surrounded by a "pointed, hood-like Flatwoods incident was consistent with tive hooks. shape." The body was dark and seem- other reports of "flying saucers or simi- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2000 15 lar craft" and that "such a vehicle landed Bill Sumpter said that the fireball had reported that an aircraft had gone down on the hillside, either from necessity or been seen on a relatively horizontal tra- in flames on the side of a wooded hill. to make observations." (At this time in jectory in various states. In fact, accord- (That was the report the sheriff had in- UFOlogical history, the developing ing to a former local newspaper editor, vestigated, without success, before arriv- mythology had not yet involved alien "There is no doubt that a meteor of con- ing at the Flatwoods site.) "abductions.") siderable proportion flashed across the Keyhoe's sources told him that "sev- In addition to Barkers article and heavens that Friday night since it was eral astronomers" had concluded that later his book (1956), accounts of the visible in at least three states— the UFO was indeed a meteor. As well, Flatwoods incident were related by Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West a staff member of the Maryland Academy of Sciences announced that a meteor had passed over Baltimore at If the UFO was not a spaceship but a meteor, 7 P.M. on September 12, "traveling at a then how do we explain the other height of from 60 to 70 miles" (Reese 1952). It was on a trajectory toward elements—the pulsating light, the West Virginia, where the "saucer" was landing traces, the noxious smell, sighted minutes later. and, above all, the frightening creature? Spaceship Aground? If the UFO was not a spaceship but a another on-site investigator, paranormal Virginia" (Byrne 1966). The meteor meteor, then how do we explain the writer Ivan T. Sanderson (1952, 1967), explanation contrasts with the fanciful other elements—the pulsating light, the as well as the early UFOlogist Major notions of Sanderson (1967). He cites landing traces, the noxious smell, and, Donald E. Keyhoe (1953). More recent several persons who each saw a single above all, the frightening creature? Let accounts have garbled details, with glowing object. Although observing that us consider each in turn. Brookesmith (1995), for example, "All of the objects were traveling in the As the group had proceeded up the incorrectly reporting five of the children same direction and apparently at the roadway that led to the hilltop, they saw as belonging to Mrs. May, and Ritchie same speed and at exactly the same "a reddish light pulsating from dim to (1994) referring to the monsters hood- time," he fails to draw the obvious con- bright." It was described as a "globe" like feature as a "halo," which he com- clusion: that there was one object, albeit and as "a big ball of fire" (Barker 1953), pared with those in Japanese Buddhist variously described. (For example, one but Sanderson (1967) says they "dis- art. However, Jerome Clark's The UFO report said the object landed on a agreed violently on their interpretation Encyclopedia (1998) has a generally fac- nearby knoll, while another described it of this object." We should keep in mind tual, sensible account of the affair, as "disintegrating in the air with a rain that it was an unknown distance away— appropriately termed "one of the most of ashes.") Instead of suspecting that and that there was no trustworthy frame bizarre UFO encounters of all time." people were mistaken or that they saw a of reference from which to estimate size meteor that broke apart, Sanderson (reported to Sanderson as over twenty The UFO asserts that "to be logical" we should feet across). On June 1, 2000, while on a trip that believe that "a flight of aerial machines" Significantly, at the time of the inci- took me through Flatwoods, I was were "maneuvering in formation." For dent, a local school teacher called atten- able to stop off for an afternoon of some reason die craft went out of con- tion to "the light from a nearby plane on-site investigating. I was amused to trol, with one landing, rather than crash- beacon," and Sanderson (1952) con- be greeted by a sign announcing, ing, at Flatwoods, and its pilot emerged ceded that there were three such beacons "Welcome to/Flatwoods/Home of/the "in a space suit." Observed, it headed "in sight all the time on the hilltop." Green Monster." Although the village back to the spaceship which—like two However, he dismissed the obvious pos- has no local library, I found some- others that "crashed"—soon "vaporized" sibility that one of diese was the source thing even better: a real-estate busi- (Sanderson 1967). of the pulsing light because he was advo- ness. Country Properties, whose co- Such airy speculations aside, accord- cating an extraterrestrial explanation. owners Betty Hallman and Laura ing to Major Keyhoe (1953), Air Force But if a UFO had not landed at the Green generously photocopied arti- Intelligence reportedly sent two men in site, how do we explain the supposed cles for me and telephoned residents civilian clothes to Flatwoods, posing as landing traces? They were found at to set up interviews. magazine writers, and they determined 7 o'clock the morning after the incident Johnny Lockard, 95, told me that that the UFO had been a meteor that by A. Lee Stewart, Jr., editor of The virtually everyone who had seen the "merely appeared to be landing when it Braxton Democrat, who had visited the alleged flying saucer in 1952 recognized disappeared over the hill." That illusion site the night before. Stewart discovered it for what it was: a meteor. He, his also deceived a man approximately ten two parallel "skid marks" in the tall daughter Betty Jean, and her husband miles southwest of Flatwoods, who meadow grass, between the spot where 1 6 November/December SKEPTICAL INQUIRER die monster was seen and the area where (figure 1) in his modern pickup. A scarcely a militant skeptic, also noticed the red pulsating light was sighted. He locked gate across the road prompted the "strange smell in the grass" but also saw traces of "oil" or "an odd, him to shift into four-wheel drive and stated that it was "almost surely gummy deposit" (Barker 1953). take us on a cross-country shortcut derived from a kind of grass that Johnny Lockard's son, Max, through a field, much as he had done abounds in the area." He added, "We describes Stewart in a word: "windy." in his search for the reported UFO and found this grass growing all over the Max had tried to explain to him and monster nearly a half century before. county and it always smelt the same, others the nature of the unidentified He has convinced me that he indeed though not perhaps as strongly." object that left the skid marks and left the supposedly unexplained traces.