The Jogging Suited
Hawkmen and the Faceless Woman of Montvale
By Cole Herrold
Paranormal resources come in all shapes
and sizes; most Fortean researchers will be familiar with the classics like
Charles Fort's Book of the Damned or Bernard Heuvelman’s On the Track
of Unknown Animals, and while these epic tomes are mandatory for any Fortean
library, there is a selection of works that tend to for more mature researchers
go uncollected. As someone who has been the "library kid," I know the
importance of collecting as many resources as possible, and at times, this
truly plays out, and you can come across some cases that only appear in the
most obsolete books. A side collection of mine is children's books on Fortean
subjects; they were my gateway, and I collect them for both a nostalgic and
practical purpose. Now in some of these books, there are accounts that appear
nowhere. In a previous article on the Veggie Man (an entity similar but
different from the Vegetable Man), I described a single encounter that the
author had and included in the book this account appears nowhere else. This sort
of shows the importance of collecting resources some would define as childish
or immature as sometimes they do have important additions to already famous
cases or altogether bizarre cases that apparently have not been covered
elsewhere.
I was perusing through Jersey Devils,
Bizarre Beasts, and Other Creatures of Weird NJ for research on some other
cryptids when I came across this bizarre case that they transcribed entirely
from a children’s book on UFOs known as How to Catch a Flying Saucer by
James M. Deem. As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had a copy, but it was one
that I had not had the chance to read; but upon reading the title of the
section in Jersey Devils, I knew I had to follow up on the account. The
account was almost exactly as what was in the Weird NJ spinoff, but it
included illustrations of some of the extraterrestrials seen as well as some
other interesting cases from the area.
The account occurred one cold winter day
on January 31, 1978, when three young boys were playing on the now frozen field
of the Montvale Elementary School. The boys were brothers Eddie and Michael
Hargrove and their friend John Cummings; the group had gone out to the
ice-covered field that day to go boot skating, and the group had enjoyed the
activity for some time when they noticed something flying in the sky near the
school. The boys were confused at what this object was, for its appearance was
unlike anything they had ever seen before. The object was square in shape, but
it had a kind of rounded corners beneath the object; it seemed to glow red as
if it was on fire. As they watched the object, they soon noticed that the
object had started to slow to a stop and began to hover near where they stood;
from there, they could see that at each rounded edge was a bright yellow light
and that the red light from underneath actually projected down from the craft
like a beam.
The boys realizing that this object was nothing
contemporary, soon began to be frightened as this now stationary object stayed
in place for some five minutes. The boys talked amongst themselves, arguing as
to what this object was, and it was at that point they all agreed that this had
to be a UFO. The boys knowing some of the stories associated with such craft,
attempted to run away from the craft heading towards the dugout near the
school's baseball field. This, however, seemed to simply draw the attention of
the craft as once they began to move, the object proceeded to fly overhead of
them, ultimately disappearing from the boy's view.
The boys thinking, they were safe from
some sort of alien interaction, began to clamor out of the dugout and stand in
the baseball diamond discussing the event that just transpired. As they stood
talking to themselves, they saw a bright yellow blur in the field next to where
they stood. The boys looked and saw a person standing in the field, and they
instantly thought that it was their neighbor Mr. Johnson. They had figured that
the neighbor who had a penchant for going on long jogs around the area in the
evening had simply started early on this day. The boys wanting some
confirmation of their sighting, hollered over to the yellow man and asked,
"Mr. Johnson, did you see that UFO?".
The figure who was not facing them started
to turn around, and it was at that moment they realized that this person was
clearly not their neighbor. There standing in the field was a peculiar figure;
its head was oddly shaped with a long crease down the head that gave the head
the appearance of a hawk rather than a human's. Before the boys could react or
say anything about these falcon fiends, another ten in similar yellow jogging
suits came clamoring out to join the lone figure. The entities moved in a
military-style, and John later would say to the Ufologists who interviewed him
on this in the following "Have you heard of Hitler's army? You know how
they walked kind of stiff, with their arms straight? Well, that's . . . how
they looked”.
As the group watched the entities, they
noticed some other bizarre features that, at the spotting, they did not pick up
on. Each of the entities was completely bald, and that as they walked, they did
so in a bizarre goose-step style, moving back and forth. This, however, was not
the most haunting feature as these entities' eyes were nonexistent. This is not
to say that they did not have some impression of eyes, but instead of a fleshy
mass of cells, they had large black square holes instead.
The boys out of the dugout watched the
militaristic Martians continue on their bizarre drill exercise and watched as
some of the entities started to work their way down the road in single file.
The entire area as they did so was beginning to permeate with a horrific sulfur
smell that smacked the boys' face's on the breeze. As they were still looking
at the collection of avian aliens, they noticed that one of the figures was
something entirely different. There standing amongst these Hawkmen was what
appeared to be a strange woman.
This woman the boys now laid eyes on they
first thought was normal; she seemed to be human-like but was wearing a very
short dress, something that seemed ill-advised in the weather they were
currently standing in. Yet as the boys looked up at her frame, they reached her
head and realized that this woman had no face. Where the eyes, mouths, lips,
and ears should have been was a fleshy blank state. The boys, in some ways,
were more terrified by her than the army of avian anomalies that accompanied her.
This female creature seemed to, even without the aid of eyes, see the boys and
turned around towards them; she walked down the road where a low fence was
placed as her cohorts continued their motions and sat down on the frozen
ground. She stared at the boys and began to point at them as if in some way to
signal to them or beckon them, and then she proceeded upwards. As she did this
and as the boys watched, the squarish craft once more began to return to the
area.
The woman, as if this signaling had summoned
an Uber, proceeded to get up and walk away towards the general area of the
craft. It was around this time and almost perfect timing that a police car had
arrived onto the scene and was beginning to drive very close to her, but the
nearer the car got to her, the more a peculiar thing began to happen to this
entity. She slowly seemed to disappear, vanishing altogether when the vehicle
was almost on her. Apparently, the officer on duty did not see her when
initially driving or simply could not comprehend the figure and felt it best to
drive on but as soon as the car was far enough away, the woman returned to
visibility.
The woman entity continued to walk away
from the boys, and as she continued to walk away, the boys would later
describe, "Parts of her, kept going away - disappearing - and coming back
again." The boys continued to watch the woman as she approached a nearby
building and, waiting for her to hit the wall or go around the building,
watched in amazement as she seemed to phase into the building and ultimately
disappear from view. The boys who were more focused on the female entity had
almost forgotten all about the eyeless Hawkmen, but when they turned towards
the direction of where they were marching, they discovered that they too had
disappeared from the area. The group then looked up into the sky, and the UFO
was also gone as if it, too, had never been there.
The boys taking in every detail of what
they had just seen and now feeling it safe to return home, began to sprint
towards the home of John Cummings and, in frantic cries and spasmatic breaths,
told the parents all about that which occurred even before the boys entered the
home. John's Brother Hilton looked out the window after hearing his brother and
friends' cries and noticed that there was a bizarre spinning object with red
and yellow lights. The parents, unable to make what had happened but feeling
that the boys were telling the truth in what they had seen, proceeded in
calling the police and retelling the account over the phone. The police, unsure
of what to make of the case, soon got ahold of UFO researchers Budd Hopkins,
Ted Bloecher, and Patrick Huyghe, who after arriving in Montvale on February 5th,
interviewed each boy independently and in this manner tried to see if this was
some elaborate prank or if the boy's stories matched. They, in this process,
determined that the boys were truthful and that all their accounts matched up.
The researchers attempting to see if possibly the boys mistook some natural
aircraft they called the local airports, specifically the New York Air Traffic
Control Center and Newark Airport, and found that no unusual craft or normal
craft was supposed to be in the area at that time and date.
The researchers then investigated the
possibility that what the boys saw was nothing more than a bunch of joggers;
they proceeded in talking to Officer Pelsang of the Montvale Police Department,
who had been on duty the evening the event took place but stated that no
joggers were seen. He stated that joggers were rare in Montvale, stating that
he had never seen more than two people ever jogging at a time, and stated,
"No one jogs after dark. They'd have to be crazy." The officer,
however, did feel something of note did occur that day, stating, "Twelve-year
old boys don't call the police unless they're really upset about something."
The researchers then felt that perhaps it
was not joggers the boy had seen but perhaps neon-colored workers from the
Department of Public Works, but when talking to Lewis Bradley of the DPW, he claimed
that on that night all workers had gone home around 4:30 that evening and that
none were in the yellow uniform the boys claimed to see. The interview
apparently struck a nerve with Bradley, who would later wrap up their
inquisition with "there are only six men who work here, and I'm the boss.
I just finished handing in their time sheets.". Thus, the researchers
concluded their investigation. They left Montvale scratching their heads and
wondering just what happened in this borough. Budd Hopkins would later write, "It
became clear to all three of us by the end of the day that the boys were not
perpetrating a hoax” and “The story is interesting but, alas, the amount of
value from a case of this kind . . . is doubtful”.
This case is extremely interesting for
just how bizarre it is; this account features two kinds of entities, one that
seems intent on communicating the others that seem to be engaged in some
bizarre military display, interpretive dance, or extraterrestrial exercise.
This case reminds me of several others where there is a high concentration of
high strangeness of phenomenon that maybe connected/ most certainly is that
seems to just come from nowhere and is just downright insane. This case, much
like the various others, is a one and done as these ostensibly extraterrestrial
entities have never been seen again, at least in connection to UFO-related
phenomenon. The faceless woman entity is something that has been reported on
occasion but almost always in demonic or haunting-related phenomena.
The overall feel of this case is just like
that, as though these entities are some spectral force briefly unleashed and
the faceless entities flickeringly disappearing form is something that almost
smacks of a non-physical paranormal entity. Yet while it may seem to be this is
the case, there are tons of cases, such as the Voronezh aliens, who seem to
have some ability either naturally or through technology to be able to
disappear at will. So, there is the chance that the faceless female might have
had some sort of phasing tech or disappearing tech to help in some way or
another.
This account is incredibly bizarre, and
very little is written on it, so when it comes to the purpose of the entities
seen, all we have to go on is the small bits written and speculation. The
entities don't seem to be doing anything meaningful, just some sort of bizarre
walking. These aliens are not collecting soil samples or performing some sort
of cattle mutilation for scientific purposes; they almost seem to be
sightseers, or maybe they simply stopped to stretch their legs on what could be
viewed as a universal pit stop. Again, all this is speculation and something we
will perhaps never know the true answer to.
This case is incredibly bizarre for how
brief it is. There is nothing truly like it and the entities reported are ones
that seem indicative of other phenomena rather than the typical
extraterrestrial varieties said to visit earth. I think that this case which
has several huge researchers attached to it, is more interesting when one
thinks of how this case did not become as famous as some of the other weird
cases out there like the Pascagoula abductors or the Brooklyn and Long Island
Cases. This case could easily be up there with the Hopkinsville Goblins or the
Zanfretta Reptilians in range of both infamy or bizarreness, but due to the
lack of publication and wide attention, it seemed to of been added to the
ever-growing stack of extremely interesting yet hidden cases that only with
time seem to be unearthed.
Quick Facts:
Species: Extraterrestrials
Location: Montvale, New Jersey
Sighted: January 31, 1978
Works Cited:
How to Catch a Flying Saucer By James M. Deem
Jersey Devils, Bizarre Beasts, and Other
Creatures of Weird NJ By Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran
Deem, James M. “A UFO Possibility in
Montvale, New Jersey” James M. Deem. https://jamesmdeem.com/stories.ufo.montvale.html.
Accessed September 21, 2021.
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