; Phantoms and Monsters - Real Cryptid Encounter Reports - Fortean Researcher Lon Strickler

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Large Winged Cryptids / Thunderbirds


Texas Thunderbirds

Julian in Texas called in to tell of his Thunderbird sightings:

“I've had five sightings of the Thunderbird. This happened after the Hurricanes came through in 2005 in October. They're huge. First one I saw, I was out in the boat. I thought it was a plane coming over. Next day I was sitting out at the swing with my mom and my brother and I was telling the story and one flew over the trees and landed in a tree by the lake about 20... less than 20 yards away. I've seen the eyeballs and this bird, I can tell you, it's got a hook beak and it's between 12 and 15 foot and they're amazing. The one I saw, there was was a juvenile with it. A smaller one. It's feathered, a beautiful hawkish looking bird. My brother stood up and said what the F is that? It was just sitting there with the juvenile. The juvenile landed and the big bird came over the trees. There's about a section about 30 yards wide between the trees and the lake. I don't know. I mean it's the most unusual... I've been wanting to tell this story for so long. And then when it flew away, it's the most amazing thing I've never heard anyone say this before but the wings almost touched tip to tip and it made a circle is it flew away. I could see it fly across the lake. It didn't make a sound. I couldn't hear it. I could see it's eyeballs though. That's what was amazing. The thing saw us and just took off, you know. I was within 20 yards of it.”

Source: Coast to Coast October 26

JLB - Beyond Creepy


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Gargantuan Cryptid Bird Encounter

Sir - this is my written statement that you requested after our telephone conversation.

On Monday Dec 15th at 6:45 PM (dark) I is was traveling on the Airport Rd near the New Kent Co. Airport. This section of road went by the New Kent trash collection center. The road is bordered by woods on both sides.

As I approached this location, I noticed something large and dark on the road very near the trash collection lot. I hit my brakes and came within 50 ft of what appeared to be a huge bird. Like I told you on the telephone, when I say huge, I mean something of unbelievable size. First of all, it had the overall shape of an eagle. It definitely had talons which were lighter in color. It also had beak which seemed too large and long for it's face. The overall color was dark, I'd say black. The height was at least 8 ft, probably more as it bobbed up and down. It may have been eating something when I approached it.

It's head moved toward the direction of my car and made a grunting sound. It turned away from me and the long tail with feathers swung around in my direction. The wings, which extended across the road, unfurled as it lifted off the surface. The wings were massive, but like I said reached past the width of the road. I told you 25 ft on the telephone, I still believe that is a correct estimate.

I searched 'monster birds' and found your telephone number and email. I looked at different images of eagles and hawks online but there was nothing that closely resembled this bird. Thanks for talking to me. JD

NOTE: I received the phone call from JD early this afternoon, then I requested he write a report and forward. After I finished talking to JD I went to Google in order to find the location. I then realized that the location was within a few miles of a large bird sighting in May 2013 - Huge Bird Sighting - New Kent Co., Virginia. The descriptions were different in most respects...but both were of birds of enormous size. The entire area seems to have a lot of wetlands & swamps.

During our phone conversation, JD mentioned that the bird had something in it's talons. He said he got a brief look as it started to fly away, but mentioned that 'legs were dangling from one side.' He didn't say human and didn't want to include it in the written report. I'm only mentioning it since it was in his original statement.

I brought up the subject of Pterosaurs to JD, but he said it definitely had feathers. Could this have been a Thunderbird? I was somewhat taken aback by the size description...8+ ft high and wingspan of 25 ft. This is bigger than any other Thunderbird-type sighting I've ever received. Lon


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Large Bird-Like Creature

I received this report of an incident that occurred on Monday, October 31, 2010:

“I was driving on RT 11 in Factoryville, Pa today around 2:45 pm. It was sunny out almost 50 degrees (41.56951, -75.79923) heading west.

I looked to the southwest in the sky, about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile away, I notice something in the sky, I thought it was a hand glider. It was shaped strange like a "V" flying backwards, and it had like a head and a neck sticking out.

Then I saw it turning really tight and was thinking how cool it looked. Then it started flapping its wings and it freaked me out.

I never saw a bird that big especially from that distance before.

I was trying to slow down but there were cars behind me and I would have to go down the road and turn around and really nowhere to pull over to see it again.

The shape while it was gliding was very strange; it seemed the wings tapered all the way down to nothing, not to a tail.

I'm 46 yrs old - lived and hunted in Pennsylvania my whole life and have seen turkey vultures, turkeys, great horned owls, cranes, and eagles. This seemed much bigger than all. If you can find out if there were any other reports similar, can you please email me, Thanks, D.”

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Big Black Bird

“I used to live ten miles North of Lake Geneva in the East Troy WI area, and I investigated several reports of UFOs sailing over the rolling farmland and hovering low enough overhead to "hit with a rock", but never ran into any Big Black Bird (BBB) reports there.

However, my brother has had several strange encounters with weird things near his home in Providence, R.I., and one event that affected him the most was a sighting of two giant birds during a dawn fishing trip in Providence's famed Roger Williams Park.

As he was approaching one of the Park's larger interconnected lakes, walking across a tree-studded lawn surrounding a marble music temple, a pair of huge black "crows", with bodies as large as VW bugs, came swooping out of the early morning lake mist, flapping their enormous wings slowly as they swept between the treetops, curving past him thru the swirling fog, then twisting between the large shoreline oaks' intertwining branches and vanishing out over the lake!

They made no sound except the soft whoosh of air over their beating wings; their feathers were jet black, as were what he could see of their eyes; there was no odor. He froze in place as the apparitions flew past, then he rushed down thru the trees to the water's edge and scanned the lake's surface, but the creatures were nowhere to be seen, and never seen there again.

There are many other reports of paranormal activities in and around that Park over the years, including several experienced by my brother. Thanks - W.”

Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts

Admissible: The Field Manual for Investigating UFOs, Paranormal Activity, and Strange Creatures

BIG BIRD! - MODERN SIGHTINGS OF FLYING MONSTERS

Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds



Daily 2 Cents: The Quiet Guy at Work -- He Wanted to Say Goodbye -- 'Chicago Phantom' Sighting Location Videos


The Quiet Guy at Work

I recently received the following account:

Hello. This is Alex. I’d like to tell you a true story that happened to me at the workplace. Back in 1985, I briefly worked at a furniture manufacturing warehouse for about 6 months that mass produced wall units that held your TV, VCR, and stereo all in one unit. Me and about 10 other people were hired to work the 4 to 12:30 shift to cut, drill and package the particle board. The customer would then assemble the entertainment center at home.

The person that was in charge of the shift, (I forget his name) was a co-worker in his mid-20’s, that had shoulder length light brown hair, about 5 foot 8 inches tall, looked like he worked out with weights, was quiet, did his job and basically a nice guy. He kinda looked like Heath Ledger, the actor.

About three months in, of working there, I came into work like any other day. At lunchtime, I was at the work-station by myself, just finishing my lunch when the person in charge of the shift came up to me and asked me if he could talk to me.

Well, I tell you, for the next 15 minutes of him talking to me, was the most profound experience I ever had in my life. This individual that doesn’t know me from anywhere, except from work, started telling me things about myself with pinpoint accuracy. Things that nobody else, but me, could know. How could he know things about me that I have experienced in the past, that only I could know? He was not cold-reading me, like a palm reader would. He was saying exact occurrences. It was a very strange situation.

Lunch time was over by then and we all went back to work. For the next three months, he was there everyday, working as usual like nothing ever happened and then after 3 months, there was a work shortage from the company and everybody from the evening shift got laid off. Never seen him again.

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He Wanted to Say Goodbye

From Forrest in Louisiana:

“This occurred during WWII. My great grandma woke up out of a sleep one night to a knock on the door and it was her husband. He was in the war and she asked him, 'What are you doing here?' She was a little frightened by it and they made a cup of coffee and he said, 'Look, sit down, I need to talk to you' and he had explained to her that he had jumped on a grenade and saved all his friends in a little platoon that they were in. She was crying and he said, 'Let me lay you back down. I'll stay with you until you fall asleep.' Well she fell asleep. Then that morning two military officers comes knocking on a door to tell her that her husband passed away. He was killed in an action. It's something I'll never forget, you know, my grandma told me that story many years ago and it stuck with me.”

Source: Coast to Coast – October 27, 2017

JLB - Beyond Creepy


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200 North Koreans Die at Nuclear Test Site

Japanese media reports 200 North Koreans died in a tunnel collapse at their nuclear test site.

In September, North Korea tested a powerful nuclear weapon that experts say rocked the mountain and made it unstable.

If the test site is totally compromised, the hazardous radioactive material could spread across the region.

After North Korea's most powerful ever nuclear test underground at Punggye-ri in the country's northeast, Japan's TV Asahi reports that up to 200 have been killed in a tunnel collapse.

In early September, North Korea detonated a nuclear device under a mountain that experts assess to have been a hydrogen bomb about ten times more powerful than the first atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the close of World War II. Read more at A tunnel collapsed at a North Korean nuclear test site, reportedly killing 200 people

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'Chicago Phantom' Sighting Location Videos

Hey folks...Chicago Phantom Task Force member Allison Jornlin has painstakingly documented ALL of the sighting locations at Haunted Road Trip - Allison Jornlin. The links are also available in the incident descriptions on the Chicago Phantom Interactive Map

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TODAY'S TOP LINKS

'Superman' Remains In Benedict Canyon

The Wollaton Park 'Driving Gnomes'

Cryptid Creatures In Our Canals

Argentina: Tucumán, UFOs and the Story that Inspired Spielberg

Chile: "Patagonia is Being Visited by an Intelligence We Cannot Understand"


Invasion on Chestnut Ridge

The Mothman of Point Pleasant

Boggy Creek Monster

Beast of Whitehall

Minerva Monster: Bigfoot of Ohio



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Monday, October 30, 2017

Bayou 'Mothman'


“Okay, in 1975, a few friends and myself were sitting around a fire near a canal. Across the canal was a very wooded area and the woods were alive with sound like crickets and cicadas and what have you. All of a sudden everything just stopped. No sound. Nothing and then we heard some type of thrashing coming through the woods towards the canal on the opposite bank. So this thing emerged. It was about 85 to 200 feet away from us and what we saw was this okay (shows a picture of a red eyed creature with wings). This is an artist rendition of this, what I described it as back then, was a Mothman.

It was humanoid shape. It had red eyes and you could see a slight wing in back of it and it stood about, I guess, about six and a half to seven feet tall. Needless to say, it scared the shit out of us and we all ran and we went and got shotguns and came back and, of course, it was gone and the woods had returned to normal. Just the normal sounds and all. This was the only time we saw it. I don't really know what it was. I just know it scared me and when I describe this thing to my parents, because it looked like a Mothman and the reason why I say that... I don't know if it was the skin or the fur or whatever you want to call it. It was like a moth... rigid, like a moth's fur all over it and the thing that really stood out was the red eyes.

So when I found out recently with Richard Gere's movie The Mothman Prophecies, is the first time I actually heard anything similar to it and then I started seeing programs on TV like The Unexplained where they talked about a town up north, oh, by the way, I'm here in Louisiana, but they were talking about a town up north that had seen it also. The way they portrayed it was kind of like you really think these people are nuts but all I can tell you is this is what I saw and you can add that to all the other reports so that's it.”

Source: Youtuber blueskys411 from a video titled, mothman 1975 published on 15 Oct 2013

JLB - Beyond Creepy


Summary from video description: In 1975 three friends and myself were sitting around a campfire about 8pm near a canal in southern Louisiana. Across the canal was a heavily wooded area. As we were sitting there you could hear the sounds of crickets and many other critters loudly as we chatted. Suddenly all the sounds stopped and it was dead silent. A loud thrashing sound of something big moving thru the wood towards us could be heard as it made its way to the edge of the woods. We at first thought it must be a deer pushing its way thru to come and drink from the canal. About 85 to 100 feet away this humanoid shape emerged from the woods and made its way to the waters edge. It was covered in funny looking white fur like a moth. It had a wing that could be seen hanging from its back and glowing red eyes. I never saw it spread its wings. It scared the hell out of us and we ran to our homes to grab shot guns to go back and see what it was. I've never seen it before nor have I ever seen it again since that night. When I told my parents they made me feel foolish so I never spoke of it until now. I'm 54 yrs now. They didn't believe me and just told me it was my mind playing trick on me. A few years ago Richard Gere starred in the movie Mothman Prophecies. This was the first time I have heard anything similar to what I had experienced in 1975. I wish my parent were alive to have seen this and the reports from up north of this creature shown on Unexplained files. all I can say is believe what you want but for those that have seen it you know!


The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story

Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters

mothman casebook



Friday, October 27, 2017

Upright Canine Encounter in Rural Mississippi


The following account, recently posted on Reddit, referenced a 'werewolf' sighting in rural Mississippi. There has been an increase of upright canine sightings throughout Mississippi in 2017. Many of the reports have come to me through Facebook and other social media:

So, I NEVER believed in the supernatural, until I was like 18. Me and my friends played with a Ouija Board (story for another time). Anyways, after the ensuing craziness from that escapade, I'm a full on believer.

On with the actual sighting. I live in a very rural part of Mississippi. I believe my town has something like 247 people in it. Everybody knows everybody. Weird things have happened before, like animals being slaughtered or going missing, that sort of thing. Naturally we chalked it up to coyotes or other critters.

I'm an avid hunter, so I was heading out to the woods with my bow, a fully decked out Matthews Creed. I got out a little earlier than usual, so it was still pretty dark. I've never minded the woods before, so all I planned on doing was relaxing in my stand for a while as I didn't feel like stalking today.

It's not too far away from daylight, so the birds and other wildlife are starting to make their morning calls. Usually pretty peaceful, right? I swear to God, in the span of a second, everything in that patch of woods shut up at the same exact time. Dead silence. It didn't even try to be subtle, that alone scared the piss out of me.

So naturally my scared self froze, and just listened for anything. My first thought was, 'Oh shit, something's out here with me', which freaked me out even more. Then I started to think maybe it was just a bear or a bobcat, which I still was terrified to meet up with, but at least it gave me a logical answer.

I figured I could hear a bear coming, but I knew big cats were renowned for stalking people without their knowing, which scared the daylights out of me. I decided to keep moving towards my stand, post up, and just point my bow down the tree. After what seemed like forever, I freaking made it. I shuffled up the stand, pulled out my knife just in case, and just listened.

Dawn was definitely breaking now, which made me feel better. Still no sounds of wildlife, which was getting more and more eerie. Now, my stand is perched on the side of a creek. The creek wasn't very deep, like maybe to the top of your ankle. About the only sound I could hear was the slight noise of the running water.Then I hear something to my right, and it is running fast. I instantly raise my bow and wait. It's getting louder and louder, closer as well.

I almost screamed when I saw this bastard. It literally looked like something out of 'Dog Soldiers', only more muscular. This thing busted through the brush, ran down the slope and through the creek, then disappeared on the other side. I have seen some shit, let me tell you, but I was shaking like a newborn babe. I didn't ease off my drawstring for like 10 minutes, which is a LONG time to hold a bow, FYI.

I mean, this thing was HUGE. Like, 6'5-7'5, 250 pounds of 'NO!' And I've seen bears and the like before, they do not run like that.
Anyways, after that, the sun really started to show and the birds started chirping. I had calmed myself down, so I got out of there in a hurry. While I was terrified at the time, it's definitely gonna be one of my coolest memories to look back on. I'm just gonna move my stand and hunt elsewhere lol - Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh1

NOTE: I believe the witness actually encountered something very unusual. In light of the recent number of upright canine sightings Mississippi, this account can't be overlooked. The witness answered a few inquiries on the thread. Lon


Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America

Phantoms & Monsters: Unexplained Encounters

Phantoms & Monsters: Mysterious Encounters

The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that can't Exist!

Dogman The Monsters Are Real



Daily 2 Cents: 'Chicago Phantom' Evidence...Odds & Ends -- Review of 'Invasion on Chestnut Ridge' -- Mothman Rap Version




'Chicago Phantom' Evidence...Odds & Ends

I've received a few images and sketches over the past few weeks. I'm looking into each submission. If anyone can offer further information, it would be appreciated. Thanks...Lon


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Review of 'Invasion on Chestnut Ridge'

Invasion on Chestnut Ridge

By Sean Forker - I'm always excited when I get the message from Seth Breedlove that he's ready to work on a new project. My first, natural response is "Here -take my money!" You can't go wrong with a Small Town Monsters production. I first backed "Minerva Monster" and realized that not only was my money well spent, but Seth had a passion for telling these stories. Each Breedlove Film gets better and better. "Invasion" is no exception.

​I didn't know how the guys would top "Mothman of Point Pleasant"; you can read my review of that film on this blog. "Mothman" had the perfect mix of music, narration, and setting that I felt was a once in a lifetime hit maker. Little did I know that "Invasion" would do the same.

​Growing up in Pennsylvania, I was all too familiar with our State's version of "The Twilight Zone". On occasion, my own boots hit the ground and I too would spend countless hours on "The Ridge", waiting to experience it's oddities. How could I expect Seth and team to draw me in more to an area that I already had history with? Well, they did.

​With all the flair of an 1980's Sci-Fi movie, Breedlove draws you in with VHS-like effects on the scenery. Brandon Dalo scores yet another win with his mysterious themes that connect you even more so to the story.

Stan Gordon is our principal of the film; which makes great sense being that for 60 years - he has been the man most synonymous with "The Chestnut Ridge". He tells us of The Kecksburg UFO Incident (12/6/1965) - which got him started into his six decades of anomalous research. The film also closes with him at the Kecksburg UFO Conference. Good framing of the story.

​Eric Altman joins us to give more meat and potatoes on the area. Eric has spent many years investigating strange phenomena; and for transparency is a man who I consider to be one of my mentors. The other also being Stan Gordon. Friend and fellow researcher Dwayne Pintoff is interviewed and shares one of his strange encounters. These familiar faces really make it seem like I'm watching a home movie!

​In my favorite part of the movie, the late Sam Sherry's personal encounter with a Neanderthal Type Sasquatch is retold. Great animated sequences bring this to life. Having one of your favorite sightings come to life added a new dimension to the encounter. Amazing work.

​Mark Matzke narrates the documentary, giving depth and emotion to a topic I didn't feel could garner any more. There is a reverence in his voice that invokes the feeling you get when you are actually THERE on the Ridge. Amazing work!

​The film relies on great animated sequences and illustrations to fully flesh out the stories. This is very well done. Other movies rely on costume effects, which at times takes you out of the movie due to the strangeness of the costuming. Matt Harris and Brandon Scalf's illustrations draw you in, and Chris Scalf's animation adds to the overall effect of the creepiness to the stories. Their work really brings the mysteries of the Ridge to life!

​My only complaint is that I wish there was more! There are so many stories from this area it would be impossible to catalog in a single movie. I hope to see more of this area in a future Small Town Monsters Production.

​This is definitely a MUST WATCH and A MUST HAVE for your collection! This is the first documentary I have watched on the Chestnut Ridge, but after viewing the movie - I don't think anyone else could do it the justice that Seth and Team have rendered.

I leave you with this amazing piece of narration:

​"There are places in the world whose mysteries call us. To come, see for ourselves - whatever the human toll might be. Places like the Chestnut Ride..."

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Mothman Rap Version

Chicago rapper and singer Rich Jones performed "Mothman," his new track about the winged humanoid that's supposedly been plaguing Chicago for much of the summer and fall, in early September at the North Coast Music Festival—or so I heard from an alleged eyewitness, Reader staff writer Leor Galil. His account of the song, like most eyewitness reports of cryptids, provided limited evidence for what he claimed to have experienced—he sent me a photograph of Jones performing in front of a red-eyed illustration that could've been the creature, but there was no audio and no video. The track hadn't been released. In short, I had only Leor's word about its existence.

I've been interested in the Chicago Mothman, which I've been calling the Lake Michigan Bat Creature, since June 30, 2017—that's when it was supposedly sighted in my neighborhood, outside Logan Square bar the Owl. In late July, a friend sent me a recap of sightings published by Riot Fest's magazine, and I was thrilled by how close together many of them were. Most supposed witnesses describe the monster as a giant humanoid bat, but some report seeing a huge owl, a creature with "jagged and insect-like" wings and the "body form of a mantis," or a cryptid resembling West Virginia's famous Mothman from 1966. Similar sightings in Chicagoland date back to 2011, but they've undergone a remarkable uptick this year.

Many of these sightings have been catalogued by Lon Strickler of the website Phantoms and Monsters, who lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania. According to a map he's created, we're now up to 58 sightings—55 of them in 2017. Most have occurred relatively close to the lakefront, though suburbs such as Tinley Park and Bolingbrook have seen one-off outliers. The majority of witnesses agree that the creature has red eyes, that it's seven to eight feet tall, and that they experienced a strong feeling of fear or foreboding when they encountered it. The Reader's own Aimee Levitt covered the flying humanoid in August, and the Tribune and Playboy have published investigations as well. Read more and listen to audio file at Rapper Rich Jones gives a verse to the Chicago Mothman

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TODAY'S TOP LINKS

Trump Allows Release of Most but Not All Remaining Kennedy Assassination Files

Alien Abductees and a Mysterious Liquid

NSA Concealed Records on JFK Assassination for Decades

Tick-Borne Illness Similar to Lyme Disease Is on the Rise

Little-Known Fact About Halloween


The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story

American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America

Beyond the Prophecies of Mothman: Selected Letters From Paranormal Witnesses and Researchers

Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts



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This newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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'Phantoms and Monsters' and 'phantomsandmonsters.com' is protected under the Lanham (Trademark) Act (Title 15, Chapter 22 of the United States Code)
'Phantoms and Monsters' was establish in September 2005 as part of PM Media
Copyright 2005-2017 Phantoms and Monsters / PM Media - All Rights Reserved