; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Men In Black: Bizarre Engagements


The following narratives are a collection of bizarre MIB encounter reports. A few weeks ago, I posted a strange incident involving a postal worker in Washington, DC...which resulted in several inquiries from readers. So I decided to go back and look for a few other notable 'Men In Black' accounts, as well include some historical information of the phenomenon:

I was born, raised and continue to live in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. I have experienced various paranormal activity all through my life. This includes UFOs, alien abduction and other activity I attribute to alien beings.

The incident that was the most overwhelming was on the night when Grey aliens came to take me while I was pregnant. I simply wanted no part of this. When they approached me from across the bedroom I jumped up and grabbed one of the two beings by its lean neck. I squeezed as hard as I could until I heard a 'crack'. It dropped to the floor as its head fell back across the spine.

The other Grey seemed shocked though it was hard to read an expression. It gathered the injured companion and quickly disappeared in bright light that had originally flooded the master bathroom. I felt very bad about that incident but I had been out of sorts all day and I didn't want to be bothered.

When I was a girl we used to live beside an old cemetery. On some nights I would get the urge to look out my bedroom window. When I did I would notice a tall dark figure that seemed to be watching our house. One evening at dusk while in our yard I was approached by a tall black-cloaked being with a glow coming from its face. It stood and watched me for a few seconds then turned and disappeared.

I have noticed over the years that large dark-colored cars would follow me on occasion. This would happen on highways and mountain roads. My husband and I have also noticed black helicopters flying above us while driving and over our residence.

I saw the video and picture you posted about MIB a few days ago. When I saw the video it shocked me. In July 2006, a strange incident occurred while my daughter and I were sitting on our front porch. I never heard or saw a car, but two of these MIB appeared from around the side of the house and approached us. The pale faced 'men' were dressed in black silk suits, white shirts, black ties, and fedora dress hats. They each carried a thin brief case and walked stiffly as they approached. When they reached the steps they stood still and looked at me. My daughter quickly ran into the house. I then looked into the eyes of the MIB nearest me. The color was a vivid lavender and I felt compelled to continue looking. After a few seconds the nearest MIB spoke in a very clear low pitched voice. It asked if we had 'experienced any unusual activity that I thought that I should report.' It was an odd question but I quickly said 'no'. The being then briefly smiled, thanked me for my time. Both MIB turned and walked toward the road and were soon out of sight.

I can't say that I was scared but I have not had any type of paranormal or alien activity since the MIB visited. I was wondering if people who have had paranormal incidents throughout their life realize the activity ceases after they are visited by MIB? Do these MIB usually appear out of nowhere? I'd appreciate some information. Thanks - Cary M.

**********

MUFON witness report (edited for spelling): "I am an old lady that was startled by someone trying to open my side house door yesterday night. before this happened I have had multiple ufo sightings near my son's house in Death Valley, California. One incident was when we were driving in the interstate and saw two triangles hovering in the sky and presumed to follow us for about an hour. My son is an avid astronomer and now believes in ufos. I personally don't but yesterday night around 10:30 p.m I was startled by a door being slammed, my door being shook. I grabbed my camera and took pictures of a man near my curb. I am frighten for my life. I have called my son and he is coming to pick me up tomorrow. I did not call the police because I am afraid of something happening to me. I hear stories of men in black appearing out of nowhere but I always never believed them, as of yesterday, I do now."


**********

Chapter 14 of Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz’s book UfO-Dynamics: Psychiatric and Psychic Dimensions of the Ufo Syndrome Book 1 contains the story he was told of a very strange Man In Black (MIB) encounter described to him by a Maine physician, Dr. Herbert Hopkins. Shirley Fickett of Portland, Maine, was actually the first researcher to interview Dr. Hopkins about this mysterious and frightening sounding event. Here is her initial report:

“Call From Mrs. Hopkins”

September 12, 1976:

I received a call from Mrs. Hopkins approximately 1:00 p.m. stating that the previous evening her husband Dr. Hopkins had received a visit from an MIB. She was quite shaken and said the Doctor had been told to dispose of all his UFO material.

I visited the home of the Doctor on the above date and stated here is what he related to me.

His wife Madeline had gone to the outdoor movie with an elder son and his wife. Also, without knowing it the Doctor’s younger son and his girlfriend were also at the same outdoor movie. This left the Doctor alone in the house, an occurrence that hadn’t happened for some time.

The Doctor, a spiritualist minister, had just called Etna, Me (spiritual convention is held there). It was about 8:00 p.m. After his call the phone rang. Answering it, a man at the other end stated that he was the Vice President of “N.J. UFO Research Foundation.” He gave no name but said he was a personal friend of Betty and Barney Hill. He had read about the Stephens case in “Official UFO” and wanted to talk to the Doctor about the case. The Doctor invited the man over, giving directions on how to get there to which the man replied he already knew where the Doctor was.

The Doctor put the phone on the hook and went to put the porch light on and the visitor was there immediately. He had asked if he was phoning from the area and he had said yes. (There is no public phone that could deliver him there that fast!)

The Doctor’s thought was “He looks like an undertaker” observing his attire. The derby, black suit, black tie, black shoes, but white shirt. The suit fit the MIB like a dummy in a store. The Doctor noticed particularly the crease in the pants, not a wrinkle!

After greeting the MIB, the Doctor invited him in and the “Man” removed his hat with the Doctor observing that he had no hair, no eye lashes, no eyebrows! His skin was a pure white, his mouth was bright red in contrast. The Doctor asked him to sit down, which he did. “The crease in his trousers intrigued me,” the Doctor stated. “The crease in the knee stood up and looked most artificial.” The MIB spoke in monotone voice. Very articulate, as if he had learned our language but not mastered it! His face was without any wrinkles, nose was small and ears were small and set low.

The MIB asked the Doctor to tell him about the Stephens case and the Doctor complied stating that he had done some hypnosis and learned things that David had no knowledge of. “You made tape recordings,” the MIB said. The Doctor affirmed that this was true.

The MIB then said, “You have two coins in your pocket!” This was correct, the Doctor pulled out a dime and a penny. The MIB (said) “Take one of those and place it in your outstretched palm.” The Doctor complied and looked at the MIB, who told him to “Look at the coin and not me and don’t take your eyes off it!” It was the penny the Doctor held. As he watched, it turned from copper to silver, then to a metallic blue. The Doctor then had difficulty at focusing his eyes upon the coin for there was a fuzzyness about it. The next thing the coin disappeared by fading away. The Doctor says he felt no sensation as this was happening, no vibrations, no tingling, nothing, but his arm did drop down and mustering up strength, he managed to bring it back up and placed it in his lap. Panic then began to build up within him.

While they were talking, the Doctor made an observation. The MIB at one point put his hand to his mouth and when he took it down there was a red stain on his fingertips (as though he were wearing lipstick or something painted on).

After the coin disappeared the Doctor said, “That’s a neat trick, now make it come back!” to which the MIB replied, “Neither you or anyone else on this plane will ever see that coin again.”

The visitor then asked if the Doctor knew why Barney Hill died and the Doctor answered that he understood that he was ill, he was then told it was because Barney knew too much! The Doctor said he understood that Barney died of a heart attack. The MIB speaks, “That is not correct. He did not die of a heart attack. He died because he lost his heart. "just like you lost your coin!” He continued, “If you don’t do as I say, you will die like Barney Hill!”

The Doctor was then told to destroy tape recordings and all correspondence relating to UFOs, to put them out of his mind and not think of them again and the MIB stated that he would know when he did these things.

The visitor asked if the Doctor had recently had problems with the phone and the answer was “yes.” To this he was told, “Well, just think about it.”

The Doctor says that his son recently tried to call four times and it was like the line was dead. Also a patient had said the same after trying 3 times. This sort of thing had been going on.

The MIB said, “You received a letter from Shirley Fickett....destroy it!” The Doctor did this. Also told not to answer it!

Towards the last part of the conversation, the Doctor noticed the MIB’s speech was slowing down, and he terminated the whole thing by saying, “My energy is getting low, must go now, Good bye!” With this, he got up and went to the door with the Doctor observing him going down the stairs with caution, slowly as if he might fall.

As the MIB walked towards the driveway, the Doctor noticed a bright light (as if a car was waiting for him) but he heard no sound, motor, no cars going by, etc. The Doctor then rushed to the kitchen to observe but saw no light except the porch light. The man was no longer visible. Upon this the Doctor then rushed to the front porch and knew the man would have to pass this window to get out of the yard. Still nothing! Upon going immediately outside and observing up and down the street there still was no one to be seen. Nor were there any cars anywhere at that time.

This statement was made to me by a person who was very much in control of himself, very definite on just what occurred and he wanted to relate it in the exact order of its happening. He said he did not have any fear of telling me this, but there was a fright within him about the threat itself.

The Doctor did not notice anything peculiar about the eyes of the MIB. It was the voice. It did not sound mechanical for all of its monotone quality, yet the Doctor stated, “What visited me here was not of this earth!”

He did not call police about threat for he knew what their response would be. He couldn’t understand why he should receive the visit from the MIB for he was skeptical of their existence in the first place and even skeptical about UFOs.

After the man left the Doctor was very shaken and began to pace the floor. That was when he observed the light in the parking lot out in the yard. It was a light that kept shifting around and going off and on. About 4-5 feet off the ground and as large as 10 inches in diameter. It flashed in different places upon coming on, then would go off, etc. In all it must have appeared 6-7-8 times. He did not count it.

While at the movies in one car, the Doctor’s wife (with the elder son and wife) looked out the window to the heavens and observed what she felt might be a UFO hovering. She at the same time felt an anxiety for her husband back home with the desire to return. They stayed for the entire movie although she expressed this desire to her son.

In the other car, at the outside movie, sat the younger son and his girlfriend. For some unknown reason, [son’s girlfriend] was also picking up anxious feelings about the Doctor during their time at the movies.

Upon returning home they found a badly shaken man who had encountered the MIB. The young men suggested they go out to observe the yard for any marks that might have been left. They observed both cars tire marks there. Also there was a strange mark for about 4-5 feet in the middle of the driveway. They didn’t feel this was done by a car since the other wheel would have had to have been too far to one side.

**********

MUFON witness report - Idaho 1952 (unedited): One winter night as I was fast asleep in the west bedroom near the stairs, I was awaken by a strange pulsating hum. Sitting straight up, I turned to the left to see three ghostly figures materialize in the next room as they were approaching my bedside. Please remember that we had no electric and I had never been to a movie or heard a radio show to that point. Two of the creatures looked just like the gray aliens you see in the movies and the one in the center was much taller and looked different. As they got closer they told me to relax and go back to sleep telepathically. The floating sensation I felt helped stop my nervous shaking as I blacked out. The next morning my grandmother met me half way to the kitchen and asks if I was all right. She said that I had sunburn on the left side of my face and looked very tired. in the back seat of the new Buick on our way to the farm I felt compelled to lay down on the floor with my back to the front seat. The telepathic message was like the one I received from the three ghosts. Moments after laying down we t-boned another car on route 13 near Blackbird. Everyone except I was seriously injured and taken to the hospital. The year I believe was 1959 while at the park I noticed about 12 flying saucers to the west of the park. To my great surprise I had a visit the next day while at my friends home that lived around the corner from my grandparents home at 806 Brown St. John's father answered the door to find two Air Force people in uniform asking to speak with me in private. My mother stood with the Air Force officer to my left and the sergeant stood in front as another man entered the room dressed in black wearing a hat and dark sunglasses. I was asked to tell what I saw as follows: I saw bright round objects mostly in triangular groups of three flying in a manner not like any aircraft known.

They were able to stop and turn on a dime and when they departed to an altitude near space they took off so fast that they appeared To vanish at about a 30 degree angle into space. For the next hour the Air Force guys tried to get me to change my story and I was growing tired of repeating myself. I then parroted back one of the officer's stories as a way to make them leave. I noticed the officer look up at the guy in black for approval, as I could see the guy in black shake his head left and right. Now I knew I had to convince the guy in black and realized that the officer was taking his orders from him. So I came up with a better idea that got the approval from the big boss in black. The man in black never said a word to me even after asking him direct questions. He then folded his notebook and left followed by my mother and the officer. There are many other strange stories about hard to believe events, but either you believe or not will make no difference.

This is my recorded statement so others like me will take some comfort in knowing that they are not alone?

NOTE: interesting early UFO/MIB account...Lon

**********


The Men in Black (MIB) are humans or humanoids who supposedly appear anywhere major UFO sightings or other strange phenomena take place. They have been known to threaten people who have claimed to have seen UFOs and alien beings into not asking about what they witnessed. They wear sunglasses and black suits...usually they have olive complexions. They drive black mint-condition vintage luxury cars or fly in black helicopters. Some say that they are government agents...others claim that they are alien agents.

The first reported occurrence of MIB was traced to Albert K. Bender, the editor of a flying saucer publication called the "Space Review". In the October 1953 issue he placed an announcement stating that he had come across information that would solve the flying saucer mystery but could not print it because he was ordered not to. He ended the announcement warning others in saucer work to be very cautious. He then stopped publication. Later in an interview Bender stated that three men wearing dark suits had ordered him to stop publishing flying saucer material, and that he had complied with the order because he had been "scared to death" of them. He later published a book called Flying Saucers and the Three Men

In his book, Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers, Timothy Beckley has attempted to provide an overview of important and representative MIB encounters. According to Beckley, MIB have been with us for many hundreds of years, speculating that such diverse characters from the history of witchcraft and folklore as the Elizabethan "Black Men", the Native American "Black Man" and late nineteenth century reports of malevolent traveling salesmen, might have been manifestations of what we now know as Men in Black.

An odd incident in the history of the Men in Black is the strange case of Mr. O. H. Krill.

Mr. Krill's writings first gained publicity some time in the late 1980's when a text file called The Krill Paperswas placed on the ParaNet B.B.S. The file told the story of shadow governments in cooperation with gray aliens, secret underground bases, exchanges of human organs for alien technologies, and the like. He offers the following information on the Men in Black:

"All things considered, UFO research has become pretty much of a circus today, and the most intriguing and controversial sideshow skirting the edges is the question of the "silencers," or the mysterious "Men in Black." There is a strong subliminal appeal in these accounts of visits by mysterious dark-suited figures (I have been visited myself, as have others I've known) attempting to silence UFO witnesses. A typical situation would be that a witness has a UFO sighting or UFO-related experience. Shortly thereafter he is visited by one or more "odd"-looking men who relate to him the minutest details of his experience, even though he has as yet told no one for fear of ridicule or other reasons.

The men warn him about spreading the story of his experience around and sometimes even threaten him personally, sometimes obliquely, sometimes directly. Any evidence, if it exists, is confiscated in one way or another. Sometimes the visit is for some totally meaningless reason and the subject of UFOs is hardly mentioned, if at all. But again, the men all seem to look alike.

We actually seem to find ourselves in close proximity to beings who obviously must be directly connected in some way with the objects themselves or the source behind them, yet they seem to be functioning unobtrusively within the framework of our own everyday existence.

The classic conception of an MIB is a man of indefinite age, medium height and dressed completely in black. He always has a black hat and often a black turtleneck sweater. They present an appearance often described as "strange" or "odd." They speak in a dull monotone voice, "like a computer," and are dark-complected with high cheekbones, thin lips, pointed chin, and eyes that are mildly slanted.

The visitors themselves are often on absurd missions. They have reportedly posed as salesmen, telephone repairmen or representatives from official or unofficial organizations. Their mode of transportation is usually large and expensive cars -- Buicks or Lincolns, sometimes Cadillacs, all black, of course.

I might note at this point that their physical appearance also has included beings that have pale-grayish skin, and that some of them have been seen to have blond hair, yet they wear the clothing and drive the cars previously described.

Their cars often operate with the headlights off, but ghostly purple or greenish glows illuminate the interior. Unusual insignia have been seen emblazoned on the doors and the license plates are always unidentifiable or untraceable.

The fabric of their clothes has been described as strangely "shiny" or thin, but not silky -- almost as if they have been cut from a new type of fabric.

Their often mechanical behavior has caused them to be described by some as being like robots or androids.

A lot of descriptions of some of these "folks" are pretty bizarre. A businessman's family in Wildwood, New Jersey, was visited by an unusually large man whose pants legs hiked up when he sat down, revealing a green wire grafted onto his skin and running up his leg.

There are other cases of MIB appearing on the other side of a wet, muddy field after a heavy rain, but having no mud whatever on their brightly shined shoes and in the bitter cold, out of nowhere, wearing only a thin coat. Their shoes and wallets all seem new and hardly broken in."

O.H. Krill's career was ended by John Lear when he made a television appearance with William Cooper.

Lear was the son of the famous aviation engineer, heir to the Learjet company. He claimed that his business connections with the military had given him access to secret Air-force documents related to U.F.O.s. He had posted to ParaNet his own U.F.O. files, which were also full of secret alien-government conspiracies.

Cooper claimed to be a high-ranking naval-intelligence officer, though records show that he was never anything more than an audio/visual technician for a Pacific fleet briefing team.

Lear heard William Cooper use the O.H Krill name, while John Lear wanted to use the show to announce that he made the "O.H. Krill" paper as a joke together with John Grace (head of the Nevada Aerial Research Organization). William Cooper went on to claim that he had first seen the Krill Papers in the early 1970's while working for the Office of Naval Intelligence.

John Lear immediately pulled William Cooper aside and quietly told him, "Bill, O.H. Krill is a joke!" Lear says that he and John Grace had used the name "Krill" from Bob Emenegger's special UFOs - It Has Begun In the T.V. special a woman claims to have channeled an entity named CRYLLL. They had posted the file on ParaNet as a prank.

William Cooper replied that Lear was mistaken. He said that Lear was a liar and continued to do so until the day he died. Cooper was known to accuse all who disagree with him of being agents working for the 'Conspiracy' (NOTE: On November 5, 2001 Cooper was fatally shot by a law enforcement officer at his Eagar, Arizona home after confronting deputies trying to arrest him and shooting one of them in the head. Authorities said the handgun-toting Cooper fled when Apache County deputies identified themselves and tried to arrest Cooper on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and endangerment stemming from earlier disputes with local residents. Federal authorities reported that Cooper spent years trying to avoid capture on a 1998 arrest warrant for tax evasion and according to a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, vowed "he would not be taken alive".)

Lear and Grace did not pull the Krill files entirely out of thin air; it was really a satire of the most extreme and bizarre UFO stories that circulated among the circles of UFO enthusiasts. If the descriptions of MIB are not directly from "real" stories from alleged witnesses, they at least bear a resemblance to some of the weirdest accounts.

And many people did believe in the Krill files for a long time. Copies of the files are still to be found on the internet. These files have had an influence on the public perception of the Men in Black legend, and have almost certainly affected popular culture.

John A. Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, is a great book regardless of your beliefs. Much of it focusses on the MIBs. They are definitely not simply agents of the government in this one. These excerpts from the Christiansen family's meeting with one will attest to that. They had just moved into a new home, and had not yet been published in the phone book. A visitor came to the door, asked for Edward Christiansen by name. The huge man, at least six foot six (two meters) tall, and very broad-shouldered, said he was from "...the Missing Heirs Bureau" - (NOTE: The Christiansen Encounter: In 1967 the Christiansen family from New Jersey, USA, had a bewildering encounter with a hovering UFO. Shortly afterwards they were visited by a strange man in black wearing a badge engraved with unusual insignia. Inviting himself inside the man proceeded to question the family for nearly an hour. They described him as massively tall wearing a long black coat, and a Russian style fur hat complete with dark visor. Most frightening of all were his ominously bulging eyes and tinny computer like voice. The family also noticed what appeared to be wires running down the inside of the mans leg. Wires that actually appeared to penetrate the skin, and were held in place by a large round spot. When the man left the house he walked to the edge of the pavement where he was picked up by a black Cadillac with dimmed headlights and tinted glass windows.):

"...an unusual head, large and round while his face seemed angular, pointed...his eyes were large, protruding, like `thyroid eyes,' and set wide apart. One eye appeared to have a cast, like a glass eye, and did not move in unison with its companion...When he sat down they could see a long thick green wire attached to the inside of his leg. It came up out of his socks and disappeared under his trousers. At one point it seemed to be indented into his leg and was covered by a large brown spot...The Christiansens said their visitor had an unusual pallor. They assumed he was sick. His voice was also strange, with a high `tinny' voice...he spoke in clipped words and phrases, `like a computer.' Connie said he sounded as if he were reciting everything from memory." - ufoevidence.org / BUFO / APRO

Then there is the case of of Robert Richardson, of Toledo, Ohio, who in July 1967 informed the Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation (APRO) that he had collided with a UFO while driving at night. Coming round a bend, he had been confronted by a strange object blocking the road. Unable to halt in time, he had hit it, though not very hard. Immediately on impact, the UFO vanished. Police who accompanied Richardson to the scene could find only his own skid marks as evidence; but on a later visit, Richardson himself found a small lump of metal which might have come from the UFO.

Three days later, at 11 pm, two men in their twenties appeared at Richardson's home and questioned him for about 10 minutes. They did not identify themselves, and Richardson - to his own subsequent surprise - did not ask who they were. They were not unfriendly, gave no warnings, and just asked questions. He noted that they left in a black 1953 Cadillac. The number, when checked, was found not yet to have been issued.

A week later, Richardson received a second visit, from two different men, who arrived in a current model Dodge. They wore black suits and were dark-complectioned. Although one spoke perfect English, the second had an accent, and Richardson felt there was something vaguely foreign about them. At first, they seemed to be trying to persuade him that he had not hit anything at all; but then they asked for the piece of metal. When he told them it had gone for analysis, they threatened him: "If you want your wife to stay as pretty as she is, then you'd better get the metal back". The existence of the metal was known only to Richardson and his wife, and to two senior members of APRO. Seemingly, the only way the strangers could have learned of its existence would be by tapping either his or APRO's telephone. There was no clear connection between the two pairs of visitors; but what both had in common was access to information that was not freely and publicly available.

Then there is a case where a man had supposedly taken a shot at a humanoid. One inclement evening in November 1961, Paul Miller and three companions were returning home to Minot, North Dakota, after a hunting trip when what they could only describe as 'a luminous silo' landed in a nearby field. At first they thought it was a plane crashing, but had to revise their opinion when the 'plane' abruptly vanished. As the hunters drove off, the object reappeared and two humanoids emerged from it. Miller panicked and fired at one of the creatures, apparently wounding it. The other hunters immediately fled.

On their way back to Minot, all of them experienced a blackout and 'lost' three hours. Terrified, they decided not to report the incident to anyone. Yet the next morning, when Miller reported to work (in an Air Force office), three men in black arrived. They said they were government officials - but showed no credentials - and remarked unpleasantly that they hoped Miller was 'telling the truth' about the UFO. How did they know about it? 'We have a report,' they said vaguely.

'They seemed to know everything about me; where I worked, my name, everything else,' Miller said. They also asked questions about his experiences as if they already knew the answers. Miller did not dare tell his story for several years.

Chinese UFO investigator Shi Bo has uncovered a story that, while far from dramatic, raises some interesting questions concerning the exact nature of the MIB phenomenon, for while UFOs (and, to a lesser extent, MIB) have long been a part of American folklore, they have until only recently been a taboo subject in mainland China. When this set of circumstances is taken into consideration with the fact that the witness in this case was a six year old boy, we may justifiably find ourselves wondering how such an event could occur in the complete absence of a cultural point of reference (assuming, of course, that the existence of MIB is not an objective reality).

In Shi's 1983 book, China and Extraterrestrials, he relates the story of Li Jing-yang who, as a six-year-old boy in Yangguan, Shansi province in May, 1963, had an encounter with a UFO. The day after Li had seen " a shining, silvery disc" hanging in the sky while at play with his friends, he was stopped in the street by "a very tall man dressed entirely in black." The man, while pointing to the exact spot where Li had seen the disc, inquired as to whether the boy had seen anything unusual in the sky recently. Li responded that indeed he had, which elicited from the strange man a warning "never to tell anyone else" what he had seen. The MIB then went around a corner and seemingly disappeared. Li claims that this encounter was witnessed by several others who all noted and discussed the stranger's odd, mechanical movements, his automated-sounding voice, and the fact that his lips did not move when he spoke. Thus, in its effort to keep the disc-sighting of Li Jing-yang a secret, this MIB succeeded only in making a spectacle of itself.

MIB AND THE MOTHMAN

The first encounter of the Mothman took place on November 15, 1966, by David and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette. The two couples were traveling late at night in the Scarberry car. They passed the West Virginia Ordnance Works, an old abandoned World War II TNT factory. They noticed two red lights in the shadows by an old generator plant. After stopping the car, they realized the lights were the glowing eyes of a large creature, “shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back,” according to Roger Scarberry. The couples were terrified. They fled and reported what they saw to the police.

They were not the only ones who encountered this creature. On the 16th Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley and Mrs. Marcella Bennett were going to see some friends who lived near the TNT plant. When Mrs. Bennett got out of the car she realized there was a figure lurking behind them. “It seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes.” Mrs. Wamsley ran inside and phoned the police as the creature walked onto the porch and peered in at the couples through the window. The entity fled before the police arrived.

During these strange encounters, something terrible happened to the town of Point Pleasant. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, which connected Point Pleasant to Ohio, collapsed. It plummeted to the depths of the river, killing 46 people. The event was heavily investigated, and the only consensus of the collapse was a small manufacturing flaw in the single eye-bar suspension chain. The believers in the Mothman sightings would say that the two events are connected. Witnesses and believers even claim that the Mothman appears before upcoming disasters.

Between 1966 and 1977 there were over a hundred eyewitness encounters with the creature. Jeff Wamsley was among the few people willing to discuss his personal knowledge of the events. Mr. Wamsley has lived in Point Pleasant his entire life. “I actually live in nearby Gallipolis, Ohio, now...I was born and raised in Point Pleasant West Virginia...right down the street from where those original witnesses lived back in 1966,” said Wamsley. “I grew up hearing about the Mothman sightings...I was always interested in the story because it took place literally in my hometown...I was lucky enough to launch two book projects that contained exclusive interviews with many of those original witnesses. I have collected archives for years and run the worlds only Mothman museum...I ran my own chain of record stores for about fifteen years.” Mr. Wamsley now teaches graphic design in Point Pleasant at the career center and high school.

But the Mothman was only one of the mysterious things that occurred in Point Pleasant during this time. UFO’s were often reported, including eerie encounters with the MIB (Men in Black). The Grinning Man, as many refer to him, was supposedly in Point Pleasant as well. The best known Grinning Man was Indrid Cold, who appeared during the Mothman sightings. The first encounter was on November 2nd of 1966. A man by the name of Woodrow Derenberger was driving home after work when he heard a sudden crash behind him. A strange vehicle shaped like an old furnace firing soot and embers at both ends sped by him and stopped, blocking off the road ahead. A tall thin man stepped out of the car and approached Mr. Derenberger. He approached with a broad grin on his face and said his name was Indrid Cold. The two men had a brief conversation about the Mothman sightings, and then Mr. Cold left.

There were a number of other encounters with a Mr. Indrid Cold after this night all descriptions matched, but no explanations. Jeff Wamsley briefly mentioned such strange things that he remembered during his childhood. “The UFO’s were here before the Mothman stuff started occurring…the MIB were here asking witnesses and others a lot of questions…some witnesses were too scared to talk to anyone about what they saw.” So there have been other strange occurrences in Point Pleasant? “Actually the Mothman sightings are just a small part of all that was going on here.” It seems that while Point Pleasant is known only for the story of the Mothman, there is obviously much more to uncover in this small town. - appindie.org / unexplained-mysteries.com / The Mothman Prophecies

The Real Men In Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenomena

Men in Black: The Secret Terror Among Us