"The moment I met Mrs.
Hyre's niece Connie Carpenter in 1966, I knew
she was telling the truth because her eyes were
reddened, watery, and almost swollen shut. I had
seen these symptoms many times in my treks
around the country investigating UFO reports.
Witnesses who were unlucky enough to have a
close encounter with an unidentified flying
object, usually a dazzlingly brilliant aerial
light, are exposed to actinic rays...ultraviolet
rays...which can cause 'eyeburn,' medically
known as KLIEG CONJUNCTIVITIS. These are the
same kind of rays that tan your hide at the
beach. If you lie in the bright sun without
protecting your eyes you can get conjunctivitis.
Whatever they are, UFOs radiate intense actinic
rays. There are now thousands of cases in which
witnesses suffered eye-burns and temporary eye
damage...even temporary blindness...after
viewing a strange flying light in the night sky.
"...What puzzled me about Connie's case,
however, was that she had not seen a splendid
luminous flying saucer. She had seen a giant
'winged man' in broad daylight.
"According to her story, Connie, a shy,
sensitive eighteen- year-old, was driving home
from church at 10:30 A.M. on Sunday, November
27, 1966, when, as she passed the deserted
greens of Mason County Golf Course outside New
Haven, West Virginia, she suddenly saw a huge
gray figure. It was shaped like a man, she said,
but much larger. It was at least SEVEN FEET TALL
and very broad. The thing that attracted her
attention was not its size but its eyes. IT HAD,
SHE SAID, LARGE, ROUND, FIERCELY GLOWING RED
EYES THAT FOCUSED ON HER WITH HYPNOTIC EFFECT.
"'It's a wonder I didn't run off the road and
have a wreck,' she commented later.
"As she slowed, her eyes fixed on the
apparition, a pair of wings unfolded from its
back. They seemed to have a span of about ten
feet. It was definitely not an ordinary bird but
a MAN-SHAPED THING which rose slowly off the
ground, straight up like a helicopter, silently.
Its wings did not flap in flight. It headed
straight toward Connie's car, its horrible eyes
fixed to her face, then it swooped low over her
head as she shoved the accelerator to the
floor-boards in utter hysteria.
"OVER ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE WOULD SEE THIS BIZARRE
CREATURE THAT WINTER.
"Connie's conjunctivitis lasted over two weeks,
apparently caused by those glowing red eyes. At
the time of my first visit to Point Pleasant in
1966 I did not relate the winged weirdo to
flying saucers. Later events not only proved
that a relationship existed, but that
relationship also is a vital clue to the whole
mystery.
"Max's Kansas City is a famous watering hole for
New York's hip crowd. In the summer of 1967 an
oddball character wandered into that restaurant
noted for its oddball clientele. He was tall and
awkward, dressed in an ill-fitting black suit
that seemed out of style. His chin came to a
sharp point and his eyes bulged slightly like
'thyroid eyes.' He sat down in a booth and
gestured to the waitress with his long, tapering
fingers.
"'Something to eat,' he mumbled. The waitress
handed him a menu. He stared at it
uncomprehendingly, apparently unable to read.
'Food,' he said almost pleadingly.
"'How about a steak?' she offered.
"'Good.'
"She brought him a steak with all the trimmings.
He stared at it for a long moment and then
picked up his knife and fork, glancing around at
the other diners. It was obvious he did not know
how to handle the implements! The waitress
watched him as he fumbled helplessly. Finally
she showed him how to cut the steak and spear it
with the fork. He sawed away at the meat.
Clearly he really was hungry.
"'Where are you from?' she asked gently.
"'Not from here.'
"'Where?'
"'Another world.'
"Boy, another put-on artist, she thought to
herself. The other waitresses gathered in a
corner and watched him as he fumbled with his
food, a stranger in a strange land.
"A large white car with a faulty muffler wheezed
and rattled up the back street in New Haven,
West Virginia, where Connie Carpenter lived, and
Jack Brown knocked at her door.
"'I'm a--a friend of Mary Hyre's.'
"His strange demeanor and disjointed questions
distressed her and disturbed her husband, Keith,
and her brother Larry. It quickly became obvious
that he was not particularly interested in
Connie's sighting of the man-bird the year
before. He seemed more concerned with Mrs. Hyre
and my own relationship with her (we were
professional friends, nothing more).
"'What do you think--if--what would Mary Hyre
do--if someone told her to stop writing about
UFOs?' he asked.
"'She'd probably tell them to drop dead.' Connie
replied.
"Most of the questions were stupid, even
unintelligible.
After a rambling conversation he drove off into
the night in his noisy car. Connie called her
aunt immediately, puzzled and upset by the
visit. He was such a very odd man, she noted,
and he wouldn't speak at all if you weren't
looking directly into his dark, hypnotic eyes.
Connie, Keith and Larry not only noticed his
long-fingered hands, but there was also
something very peculiar about his ears. They
couldn't say exactly what. But there was
something...
"Another kind of Man in Black haunted Brooklyn,
New York, in 1877-80. He had wings and performed
aerial acrobatics over the heads of the crowds
of sunbathers at Coney Island. A Mr. W. H. Smith
first reported these strange flights in a letter
to the NEW YORK SUN, September 18, 1877. The
creature was not a bird, but a 'winged
human(oid) form.'
"This flying 'man' became a local sensation and,
according to the NEW YORK TIMES, September 12,
1880, 'many reputable persons' saw him as he was
'engaged in flying toward New Jersey.' He
maneuvered at an altitude of about one thousand
feet, sporting 'BATS WINGS' and making
swimming-like movements. Witnesses claimed to
have seen his face clearly. He 'WORE A CRUEL AND
DETERMINED EXPRESSION.' The entire figure was
black, standing out sharply against the clear
blue sky...
"North American Indians have extensive legends
about the Thunderbird, a huge bird said to carry
off children and old people. It was accompanied
by loud noises, hums, buzzes and, apparently
rumbles from the infrasonic and ultrasonic
levels. Known as PIASA to the Indians of the
Dakotas, it was supposed to have terrifying red
eyes and a long tail... a monstrous demon
with... bat's wings, and a body closely in human
form.
"...In May 1961, a New York pilot was buzzed by
a 'damned big bird, bigger than an eagle. For a
moment I doubted my sanity because it looked
more like a pterodactyl out of the prehistoric
past.' The thing had swooped at his plane as he
cruised up the Hudson River valley.
"Far away, in the Ohio River valley, another
startled pair had an even more breathtaking
experience. A woman prominent in civic affairs
in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was driving on
Route 2 along the Ohio River with her elderly
father. As they passed through a sector on the
edge of the park known as the Chief Cornstalk
Hunting Grounds, a tall manlike figure suddenly
appeared on the road in front of them.
"'I slowed down,' she told me years later, 'and
as we got closer we could see that it was much
larger than a man. A big gray figure. It stood
in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings
unfolded from its back and they practically
filled the whole road. It almost looked like a
small airplane. Then it took off straight
up...disappeared out of sight in seconds. We
were both terrified. I stepped on the gas and
raced out of there.
"...A businessman in Arlington, Virginia, wrote
to me recently, describing an experience he and
three friends had in the winter of 1969-69. They
were at a farm near Haymarket when they heard a
strange rushing sound near a small lake.
Intrigued, they set out with flashlights and a
couple of dogs to investigate. Suddenly the dogs
howled, turned tail, and ran.
There, standing by a tree was a huge dark shadow
between eight and twelve feet tall. The quartet
scurried back to their car, turned on their
lights, and swung toward the shadow. 'All we
saw,' he reported, 'was this huge thing with
large red-orange eyeballs and winglike arms. We
couldn't get out of there fast enough.'"
Keel goes on to relate the experience of Woodrow
Derenberger, who experienced a weird encounter
on November 4th (1966?) while driving on Route 7
outside of Parkersburg "when he suddenly felt a
tingling sensation in his forehead." Then
thoughts from a being that identified itself as
Indrid Cold from the planet 'Lanulos' "began to
spring full-blown in his mind." According to
Keel:
"Two weeks later, though Woody wasn't aware of
it at the time, two salesmen visited Mineral
Wells and went from house to house with their
wares. They weren't very interested in making
sales. At one house they offered bibles. At
another, hardware. At a third they were 'Mormon
missionaries from Salem, Oregon' (a UFO wave was
taking place in Salem at that time). One man was
tall, blond, and looked like a Scandinavian. His
partner was short and slight, with pointed
features and a dark olive complexion. They asked
questions about Woody and were particularly
interested in opinions on the validity of his
alleged contact..."
"High explosives were manufactured in Point
Pleasant during World War II. Seven miles
outside of town part of the 2,500-acre McClintic
Wildlife Station, an animal preserve and bird
sanctuary, was ripped up. MILES OF UNDERGROUND
TUNNELS WERE DUG, linking camouflaged buildings
and factories. One hundred 'igloos' were
scattered across the fields and woods--huge
concrete domes with heavy steel doors where the
finished explosives could be safely stored. Dirt
and grass covered the domes so from the air the
whole area had a harmless, pastoral appearance.
A few scattered buildings linked by improvised
dirt roads with no suggestion of all the
activity going on below ground. It looked like
nothing more than what it was supposed to be, a
haven for birds and animals in the Ohio River
valley. "After the war most of the explosives
were carted away. The factories were dismantled.
THE ENTRANCES AND EXITS OF THE TUNNELS WERE
PLUGGED WITH THICK CONCRETE SLABS. Some of the
igloos were given to the Mason County government
as possible storage vaults. They still stand
empty. Others were sold to the Trojan-U.S.
Powder Co. and the LFC Chemical Co. Some were
leased to American Cyanamid.
"...At 11:30 P.M. on the night of November 15,
1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Mr.
and Mrs. Roger Scarberry and Mr. and Mrs. Steve
Mallette, were driving through the TNT area in
the Scarberry's 1957 Chevy. They were looking
for friends but no one seemed to be out that
night. All of the twisting back roads were
deserted. The few homes scattered among the
igloos were dark.
"Roger, then a strapping blond
eighteen-year-old, was driving. They aimlessly
made the circuit of the roads around the igloos,
returning to the old generator plant near the
unlocked gate. As they pulled alongside the
plant, Linda Scarberry gasped. They all looked
into the blackness and saw two bright red
circles. They were about two inches in diameter
and six inches apart. Roger slammed on his
brakes.
"'What is it?' Mary Mallette, a strikingly
attractive brunette, cried from the back seat.
"The lights bobbed away from the building and
the startled foursome saw they were attached to
some huge animal.
"'IT WAS SHAPED LIKE A MAN BUT BIGGER,' Roger
said later.
'MAYBE SIX AND A HALF OR SEVEN FEET TALL. AND IT
HAD BIG WINGS FOLDED AGAINST ITS BACK.'
"'But it was those eyes that got us,' Linda
declared. 'It had two big eyes like automobile
reflectors.'
"'They were hypnotic,' Roger continued. 'For a
minute we could only stare at it. I couldn't
take my eyes off it.'
"It was grayish in color and walked on sturdy
manlike legs. IT TURNED SLOWLY AND SHUFFLED
TOWARD THE DOOR OF THE GENERATOR PLANT WHICH WAS
AJAR AND HANGING ON ITS HINGES.
"'Let's get out of here!' Steve yelled.
"Roger stepped on the gas and they shot through
the gates, spun onto the exit road, and headed
for Route 62..."
"At 7:15 A.M. on November 25, a young shoe
salesman named Thomas Ury was driving along
Route 62 just north of the TNT area when he
noticed a tall, gray manlike figure standing in
a field by the road. 'Suddenly it spread a pair
of wings,' Ury said, 'and took off straight up,
like a helicopter.
"'It veered over my convertible and began going
in circles three telephone poles high.'
"He stepped on the gas as the creature zoomed
down over his vehicle. 'It kept flying right
over my car even though I was doing
seventy-five.'
"Mr. Ury sped into Point Pleasant and went
straight to the sheriff's office thoroughly
panicked. 'I never saw anything like it,' he
confided to Mrs. Hyre later. 'I was so scared I
just couldn't go to work that day. The thing had
a wingspan every bit of ten feet. It could be a
bird, but I certainly never saw one like it. I
was afraid it was going to come right down right
on top of me.'
"The old familiar symptom, unreasonable terror,
took hold of him. 'I've never had that feeling
before. A weird kind of fear,' he said. 'That
fear gripped you and held you. Somehow, be best
way to explain it would be to say that the whole
thing just wasn't right. I know that may not
make sense, but that's the only way I can put
into words what I felt.'
John Keel related still other incidents of
encounters with these fearful pterodactylin
hominoids...
"'Look at that crazy character coming downwind
in that plane,' Eddie Adkins commented. He and
four other men were standing on the field of the
Gallipolis, Ohio, airport, just across the river
from Point Pleasant on Sunday, December 4, 1966.
"At 3 P.M. that afternoon a large winged form
came cruising majestically along the Ohio River,
just behind the airport. The pilots later
estimated that it was about three hundred feet
in the air and was traveling about seventy miles
an hour. As it drew closer they realized it was
not a plane but was some kind of enormous bird
with an unusually long neck. It seemed to be
turning its head from side to side as if it were
taking in the scenery (Note: Scientists believe
that saurian-reptilian pterodactyls used their
heads and neck as a 'rudder' while in flight,
moving them from side to side, constantly
readjusting in order to remain aloft - Branton).
The wings were not flapping. "'MY GOD! IT'S
SOMETHING PREHISTORIC!' one of the men cried.
"Everett Wedge grabbed his camera and sprinted
to his small plane. By the time he was airborne
the giant creature had vanished somewhere down
river."
John Keel personally investigated the TNT area
and claimed that in one area an irrational
"fear" gripped him. He would step out of the
large circle and the sensation would cease. He
again entered it and soon the induced atmosphere
of fear and terror would almost overcome him
until he was forced to leave it. Could this have
been the site of an underground lair? Remember,
the entire area is honeycombed with tunnels
which have for years been sealed off to the
public. Keel related other accounts of
encounters where witnesses saw these
pterodactylin 'mothmen', one of which entered
one of the old buildings that led to the
tunnels. Investigators followed the creature
into the dome but the winged reptile seemed to
have vanished. Keel related other incidents
involving the 'Men In Black' (who seemed to have
a definite connection with the so-called
'mothmen') Referring to the investigations of a
fellow researcher by the name of Dan Drisin, he
reveals:
"...During his second visit to Point Pleasant
Dan uncovered some Mothmen witnesses I had
missed. And he also came across some more
baffling Men-In-Black-type reports. People up in
the back hills has been seeing mysterious
unmarked panel trucks which sometimes parked for
hours in remote spots. There seemed to be
several of these trucks in the area and the
rumor was that they belonged to the air force.
Men in neat coveralls were seen monkeying with
telephone and power lines but no one questioned
them.
"A woman living alone on an isolated island
north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
had two curious encounters with the same kind of
beings. She had moved to a tiny one-room cabin
on Keats Island in October 1967 and was soon
seeing UFO lights nightly. On January 29, 1968,
following a close sighting of 'a long dark body
with dim red and yellow lights at both ends,'
she was surprised by two visitors. Both wore
'neat, dark coveralls' and claimed to be
employees of the hydroelectric company. They
offered to help her put up a stovepipe. The
younger of the two climbed on the roof of her
cabin while the other handed him the pipes. 'I
could hear the man on the ground directing him
and the one on the roof would answer, "Yes,
Master".'
"After the pipe was installed, the pair joined
her for tea. They seemed 'a little stiff.' When
they left she wondered how they had known she
was there because 'the cabin couldn't be seen
from the road (and) the stove was out when they
arrived, so there was no smoke from the
chimney.'
"On May 2, she again encountered two men. 'One
was the 'boss' Hydro man in his neat coveralls,'
she reported (CANADIAN UFO REPORT, #13,
1972-73). 'The other was different, younger and
about 19-20. As I entered the path, the boss man
indicated with his hand for the young man to get
behind him. They got well off the path and
waited for me, the young man a little behind his
boss. The fellow stared at me as if I were some
kind of freak...'
"This time she didn't invite them for tea. One
odd thing she noticed during both meetings was
their slow, careful way of walking. They looked
at their feet and stepped uncertainly. "The next
day a jeep came along the road, containing four
men inspecting lines... 'carelessly dressed,
workaday men, none in coveralls. The boss wasn't
obviously so. They expressed no surprise at
seeing me there, no concern or any particular
interest. I told them two of their men had
already been around the day before, inspecting
the lines. They assured me yesterday's men
weren't Hydro men, that somebody had been
"pulling my leg."'
"Somebody was also pulling a lot of legs in
cosmopolitan Long Island. In West Virginia I had
heard some stories about three men who looked
'like Indians' and were accompanied by a fourth
man, more normal-looking and very shabbily
dressed in contrast to the other three. So I was
nonplused when I heard identical descriptions
from people on Long Island.
"An elderly woman who lived alone in a house
near the summit of Mount Misery, the highest
point on Long Island, had received a visit from
this quartet in early April 1967, immediately
after a severe rainstorm.
"'They had high cheekbones and very red faces,
like a bad sunburn,' she told me. 'They were
very polite but they said my land belonged to
their tribe and they were going to get it back.
What frightened me was their feet. They didn't
have a car...they must have walked up that muddy
hill...but their shoes were spotlessly clean.
There was no trace of mud or water where they
walked in my house.'
"That same week another visitor came to Mount
Misery. This was a woman with striking white
hair who claimed to represent a local newspaper.
She carried a book 'like a big ledger' and asked
the witness a number of personal questions about
her family background. When I later checked with
the newspaper I found they employed no one of
that description.
"The local Mount Misery expert was Miss Jane P.
Paro, a radio personality then with station WBAB
in Babylon, New York. Miss Paro is a
dark-haired, dark-eyed young lady with a soft,
haunting voice. At that time she conducted an
interview show, largely devoted to the
historical psychic lore of the region. Soon
after she reported some UFO sightings around
Mount Misery she began to receive all manner of
crank calls, both at the station and on her
UNLISTED home phone. METALLIC VOICES ordered her
to meet them on 'the Mount' (she didn't go).
"...Mount Misery is a heavily wooded hill with a
few narrow dirt roads slicing through it and a
number of large mansions set back among the
trees. The late Henry Stimson, secretary of war
during World War II, maintained a lavish estate
on the summit. For decades the Mount was known
as a haunted place, THE SITE OF A NUMBER OF
MYSTERIOUS DEATHS AND DISAPPEARANCES. In the
spring of 1967, young couples necking on the
back roads began to see low- flying UFOs,
particularly around a field that was used as a
junkyard for old cars. Others claimed to see a
giant hairy monster with gleaming red eyes..."
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