You're not imagining this. You're not dreaming. You're fully awake right now.
I've missed covering hauntings and other strange occurrences in West Virginia.
I'm Mark Covey and this is State Haunts. I wanted to bring you an episode this week
because Courtney is sick and I had to tell you our next true crime case with
my detective bestie. So this week I want to tell you about the Flatwoods monster
The Flatwoods monster
It's no secret people have creative imaginations. There's always a troll in the woods, a ghost
in a hotened mansion, a monster in a closet, when in reality it's usually just a stump
in the woods, a creek of an old door, and an old jacket. However, in 1952, in Flatwoods,
West Virginia, the typical thought of it being someone's imagination was thrown out the window.
Around 7pm, right around dusk on September 12, 1952, a group of young boys were playing
football in the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia. That's when they saw a strange light
shoot through the sky. It flew straight overhead towards the nearby hills. At first,
they thought it could possibly be a meteor. It was round with a tail of fire following it.
Except it was flying low, like lower than you'd expect from a meteor. It's like it was almost
hovering. The boys started to tease each other, like it's a flying saucer. They started to get
quiet when they noticed the object tilting upwards, going over the hills, and then they watched it
suddenly drop out of sight, like it plunged straight into the ground. Based on what they
knew about the area, the boys just assumed that it landed in a flat field of a neighbor's farm,
just past the hill, especially when they see this pulsing light coming from behind the hill,
like the object was still there, waiting for something. At this point, they were curious.
A few of the boys were still joking about how it must be aliens. But 12 year old Freddie May was like,
don't you pay attention in class? It's obviously a meteorite. Another boy was like,
we should go gather fragments for the state geological foundation, because that's what a
teacher at school told him you're supposed to do now. So with kid logic to the side,
the rest of the boys decided to at least go check it out. But it was getting dark, so Freddie and
his 13 year old brother Ed led the group back to their mom's house to tell her what they were going
to be doing. Their mom, Kathleen, was a beautician who was just returning home from work. She was
about to hop in the shower when the boys ran through the door and screamed that they saw a flying
saucer. Of course Kathleen wasn't buying it. She chalked up the story to the boys wild imaginations.
But the boys insisted that they saw something. But the boys insisted that they saw something,
and they drug her out onto the porch to prove it. When Kathleen looked out into the distance,
she didn't see anything in the sky, but she did see a bright flashing light
and a strange red glow in the heel. Exactly where the boys say they saw the saucer land.
So Kathleen changed her tune a bit. She was like, okay, you can go see it, but I'm coming with you,
and we need to be careful. She grabbed a flashlight and called a local 17 year old boy named Jean
Lemon, who just so happened to be in the National Guard. A dog even tagged along. So the whole group
headed over to check out what the mysterious object was. Jean took the lead, holding the flashlight.
The boys and Kathleen followed him up a dirt path towards the top of the hill. Through all of the
brush, they can kind of see the lights from the object. Occasionally, they would dim, then get
bright again. As they keep walking, the air becomes warm and thick with the mist, and a strange
fog rolls onto the path ahead. Kathleen turned around to look back at the town of Flatwoods,
but she could no longer see the street lights. They really didn't have a choice but to keep
walking forward. But the closer they got, they started to smell a horrible smell. It was like
some sort of burning metal or possibly sulfur. Freddy, the would be meteorite scientist, says
it reminded him of when their TV tubes would burn out. The boys throat started to itch. Kathleen
has a little trouble breathing, and everyone's eyes start to burn and sting. Whatever this is,
it isn't coming from any ordinary meteor. If it was me, I probably would have got out of there.
Because who knows, it could have been a gas leak. But this was the 50s, so they coughed it up,
and just kept walking. When they reached the top of the hill, they see the object was still there.
It's about 50 feet away in the middle of a neighbor's farm. A large glowing mass that
definitely wasn't a meteor or a plane. It's still dark out, and it seems like the group
really can't see the object that well. Later, when they would describe it, their accounts all differ.
Some would say it's kind of flat on the top, or that they could hear a low thump.
Kind of like someone beating on a drum. Others would say that it hissed like a jet plane.
And while the size does vary from witness to witness, a few of the boys say it's as big as a house.
However, Neil, a 14 year old boy, described it as a big ball of fire that didn't make any noise.
And while he's standing out on the edge of the hill looking at it, he's so fascinated that he
didn't even notice something creeping up to his left. That is, until Jean looked over and screams.
The boys all turned around. 15 feet away, just in front of a massive oak tree, there's a tall,
dark towering figure just floating. It was human shaped, but maybe twice as tall as a normal person
with something dark and pointy on top, almost like it had a hood. It's got a round, reddish face.
There's no nose or mouth, but it did have eyes, or at least what they thought were eyes. They were
more like holes projecting beams of greenish orange light. Jean's National Guard training
kicked in. He pulled out the flashlight and turned it on. He pointed it at the creature,
only to see that it was translucent. It looked like there was a light glowing inside the monster.
A few of the boys saw folds of clothing around its body and strange claw-like hands.
Kathleen thinks it's encased in metal and said the hands almost look like antennas.
One of the boys thought the eyes looked like portholes, almost like it's part beast, part machine.
From the boys' position, they can't see below the torso, but it didn't appear to have legs or feet,
or to honestly be moving at all. It seemed like it was just floating there, perfectly steel,
until the monster squirted out some sort of oil and started to move towards them.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries, West Virginia's true crime podcast that digs
into the missing persons, homicide cases, survival stories, and the mysteries of the Mountain State
and beyond. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show,
download, and rate it on your favorite podcast platform.
It helps others find good West Virginia true crime podcasts.
Gene was so shocked that he collapsed to the ground and dropped the flashlight.
The dog took off running out of sight. Gene got up and they all sprinted away so fast
that when they reached the wooden fence, they didn't even open the gate. They just jumped over it
and ran home. When they got back, they found the dog shaking under the porch. The group gathers in
the living room to regroup, but it's complete chaos. The boys all have trouble breathing from
the odor on the heel. They're coughing, gagging, and tearing up. Gene was so sick that he ran to
the bathroom to vomit. The other boys' throats are so swollen that they are having trouble drinking
water. Some were bruised or bleeding and the monster's oil got on a few of their faces.
Kathleen was trying her best to hold it together, but she is convinced that whatever they saw was
not normal. The only thing she can think to do is to call the sheriff. Around 815, Kathleen got a hold
of the station and reported a mysterious flying object in the heels. She added that a group of
boys needed immediate medical help, but the station said that the sheriff isn't available. He was
actually nearby a frame town investigating the site of a different crash where a plane had just
disappeared without a trace. On September 12, 1952, at almost the exact same time, as the UFO
siding in Flatwoods Braxton County Sheriff Robert Carr got a pretty serious phone call.
It's from a local hitchhiker and his story went like this. He was getting a ride when he spotted
what he thought was a piper club in the sky. That's one of those small two-seater planes
that are usually painted bright yellow. When all of a sudden, it burns up and crashed into the hill
near Elk River. He asked the driver to pull over at the nearest telephone, calls it in,
and continued on his way. By the time Carr arrived to the site, there was no evidence of
any sort of plane crash at all. No metal, no flames, no smoke, absolutely nothing.
So Carr was like, well, this is a waste of my time and thought it was just a hoax. He headed
back to the sheriff's office where they're still trying to find someone to head over to the May House.
Since everyone was out, they asked a photojournalist, an Air Force veteran,
A. Lee Stewart to step in. Stewart was no stranger to accidents and crime scenes.
The West Virginia State Police actually called him often, and I know what you're thinking.
This seems weird, but you need to remember this is a very small town, so I guess in the 50s,
this wasn't that odd. Stewart arrived at the May House about half an hour after the sighting, and
at the time it was still pure chaos. Gene and two other boys were throwing up. Everyone was coughing.
Kathleen had that mysterious oil splattered all over her still, but what's worse is that all of
the boys in Kathleen are scared out of their minds, so much so that they can barely even tell Stewart
what or even where the monster was. It took some time and well some coaxing, but eventually
Stewart convinces the two oldest boys, Gene and Neil, to take him up to the hill. He grabbed a
shotgun just in case, but when they got to the spot, Stewart doesn't see anything. The craft
and the flashing lights are gone, and well the monster was gone too. It's like the boys made
everything up, that is, until he smells the ground. There are still traces of that sickening odor.
Stewart said it was something like mustard gas, but possibly different. Nothing like
he's ever encountered, even when he was in the war. But Stewart is a reasonable man with journalistic
integrity. He doesn't want to publish anything until he's examined the site in broad daylight,
so he visits the scene again first thing in the morning.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries, West Virginia's true crime podcast that digs
into the missing persons, homicide cases, survival stories, and the mysteries of the Mountain State
and beyond. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show,
download, and rate it on your favorite podcast platform. It helps others find good West Virginia
true crime podcasts. Sure enough, right there where the monster stood the night before, there are
skid marks about eight feet apart. Stewart traces the marks from the oak tree all the way down to
where the flying saucer allegedly landed. It's as if the monster got on a set of skis and slid
down the hill to get back in a craft. While there's still no trace of any sort of flying saucer,
there is oil residue on a huge patch of grass that's been flattened down. Since the spot where the UFO
was spotted was farmland, it could have been assumed that it was from a vehicle or a tractor,
and a few people did admit they were in the area that night. One person with a tractor,
another with their pickup truck, but they actually didn't go down the hill. The slope was too steep
and rough, so it's highly unlikely these marks came from anything men made. The same day,
Kathleen got a knock on her door from an odd pair of visitors. It was two men claiming to be
journalists from the town of Clarksburg, which is about 55 minutes away from Flatwoods.
They told her that they heard about the monster and wanted to check out the field where it was
spotted. Now, Kathleen was a little suspicious. They were both wearing nice suits, apparently way
too nice to be too random journalist at her door, but she's willing to take them up to the hill.
They see the skid marks in the oil. They actually touched the oil so much that it got all over
their suits, and they kept saying something to each other like, what do you think Ed's going to
think of this? Kathleen was baffled, but they just thanked her and left covered in the oil.
But the next day, the two men came back. Only this time, they freely admitted that they aren't
from Clarksburg, and they even aren't reporters. They're officials from Washington, D.C. Of course,
Kathleen is like, why didn't you tell me this like yesterday? The two men said they were worried
that if they did, she wouldn't tell them anything. Then they started to ask her all sorts of questions
about the oil, like what was it, how much did it spray? And most importantly, what did she do with
her uniform? Luckily, Kathleen hasn't washed it yet, so she hands it over to the men. They take a
sample, and that's it. About a month later, she received a letter from the Pentagon. It contains
a five by seven picture of something that looks exactly like the monster and an explanation.
They said on the night of the sightings, they sent out four experimental rocket ships,
one of which went missing, and that was probably the flying saucer the boys and Kathleen saw.
It had been having oil trouble and had two men in it. The letter doesn't make it clear what
actually happened to the passengers. I assume that the Pentagon just thinks one of the men
in the ship was the supposed Flatwoods monster, or maybe both of them just died in the crash.
However, something about the response just didn't sit right with Kathleen. They even allegedly asked
Kathleen to keep this all a secret. And well, she did. She didn't tell anyone about the letter for
many years, mostly because she doesn't believe it. Like, there are so many things about the Pentagon
story that seems off to her. But really, it wouldn't matter if she did talk about it or not,
because word got out about the monster and it had already spread far and wide.
Do you remember how the Sheriff's Office sent a journalist to the house instead of an officer?
Well, you shouldn't be shocked that local newspapers, TV, radio stations reported on
the sightings immediately. Pretty soon, a writer from a Pittsburgh paper came to Flatwoods to cover
the story. A minister in Brooklyn, New York called Kathleen thinking the monster was similar
to one he saw in a dream. A scientist from Newfoundland called for a description. It's enough
to attract the attention of a famous paranormal investigator named Ivan Sanderson. Within a few
days of the incident, him and his colleagues arrived in Flatwoods and interviewed the boys.
After a number of conversations, Ivan and the other investigators find out that many locals saw
something in the sky that night. A nearby farmer said he saw a giant ball of fire traveling through
the sky. He said he didn't see it land, but he did watch a piece of it break off. This was roughly
the same area. In the same time, the boys saw their object. A five-year-old girl said she was
returning a bull to her grandparents when she also saw a bright orb in the sky. She was so terrified
that she ran to their house, dripped up the stairs, and broke the bull on the porch. A third resident
of Flatwoods claimed he saw a large orange craft immediately after the incident. It was flat on the
top with jets of fire shooting out of the sides. It circled the hilltop for about 15 minutes,
then took off towards a nearby airport. All of the sightings start to pile up and not just in
Braxton County. There are reports of mysterious flying objects in Maryland, Washington, D.C.,
Pennsylvania, and there's even one in California, not to mention the plane crash that was seen,
but has never been explained. So this got Ivan thinking. After mapping out each of the sightings,
this is the story he put together. On the evening of September 12, 1952,
there are five unidentified objects over Braxton County. One spotted by the May boys lands in Flatwoods.
Another, the plane report to the sheriff, flies into the hill of Frametown. One goes east towards
the nearby airport. A fourth flying over Sugar Creek. The fifth heads for Charleston and disintegrates
in the air. But what were they? Irvin isn't sure, but he comes up with a theory about where they
came from. The fleet of objects must have came from the Atlantic, passed over Baltimore, and then
veered towards West Virginia, where something went wrong and they all veered off in different
directions. One of the crafts managed to land in Flatwoods and its pilot, the monster,
got out just in time. But when the monster realized it had been spotted by a group of humans,
it ran back to its ship and panicked. That was a bad decision because the craft was burning up from
friction from entering the Earth's atmosphere. Once it hit the ground, it slowly disintegrated,
leaving no trace except for an awful smell. As an alternative, a few other residents of Flatwoods
put together their own more reasonable theories. A local scientist said the object was one meteor
that broke into several pieces. When a piece landed in Flatwoods, its gases created a bunch of weird
shadows in the fog, which Kathleen and the boys mistook for a monster. It's possible that they
knew their sighting wasn't totally credible, but once the story got out, they doubled down for
publicity sake. Now, decades later, Braxton County decided to market itself as home of the Flatwoods
monster. I mean, I did go to the Flatwoods Monster Museum this week, and I may have picked up a shirt
and jacket, but to me, after visiting the museum and after seeing everything, there are a few
details about this gas explanation that doesn't entirely add up. I mean, for one, if the object
was a meteor, why couldn't anyone find a trace of it? Like, there was nothing on the ground,
even a meteor pit? Second, if there was nothing unusual about this event, why did the US government
come and do their own research? Why did they even send Kathleen the letter? I know Project Bluebook
was going on at the time, but there's no documentation on the incident in the Air Force's Project
Bluebook files, which to me means the government was interested in something at Flatwoods.
Another theory is one that we've heard before. Just like Mothman, people believe the Flatwoods
monster could be just a barn owl. I mean, it kind of makes sense. Barn owls have creepy,
deep eyes, round faces, and coloring that makes it look like they have a hood on. The owl would
have looked tall perched up in a tree, and the witnesses did say the Flatwoods monster was
hovering in front of a tree. I mean, it was dark and everyone was already on edge, so this somewhat
makes sense to me. I mean owls don't squirt oil, and as far as the UFO itself, I don't see how it
could just be a meteor or something. Meteors don't have glowing with pulsing lights or a smell like
burning metal, and it doesn't disappear without a trace. And what really gets me is how all of these
theories came out, but the witnesses involved still can't get over what they saw. I mean,
it's been 72 years. The May boys honestly want to believe the Flatwoods monster was just an owl,
that it was just their imagination, but they can't. Whatever they saw that night,
terrify them for decades. The story still attracts people to this day. People come from
all over the world to visit the Flatwoods monster museum, every single week to see the evidence
with their own eyes, because seeing it is believing. Sadly, the land where this happened
is now private property, but I'm sure if you get talking to some people in Flatwoods,
you may end up there waiting for the Flatwoods monster to return. Thank you so much for joining
me for the State Horns episode. We will be back next week with a brand new episode.
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