Pittsburgh Mothman

 Pittsburgh Mothman

By Cole Herrold

On November 15, 1966, a strange anomalous entity would be reported between Ohio and West Virginia. This entity would wreak havoc throughout the area of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and would terrify the region for over a year in the area. The city was a grip with terror as a black or gray figure with glowing red eyes was seen chasing cars on large bird-like wings at speeds matching 100 miles per hour and causing conjunctivitis in some of those who had the chance to witness this flying monstrosity. Now some have stated that the tale of the Mothman as the creature has now been coined started in that November of 1966, yet further research indicated that large man-like birds most commonly resembling owls were frequently reported by earlier witnesses. Association with UFOs, however, and other anomalous lights would not be written about until the infamous Point Pleasant flap; that is until Stan Gordon, who just before Point Pleasant was in the throes of terror, began hearing about a similar creature in his hometown of Pittsburgh several months before West Virginia's infamous Fortean flap.

Not even a year after the infamous Kecksburg Crash of December 9, 1965, Stan Gordon was still on the search for mysteries, be it of the existence of Sasquatch or on the trail of UFOs; he was slowly collecting several encounters and investigating countless claims. During the Summer of 1966, he began to hear rumors around town of a bizarre, monstrous being that was dark brown in color with a small, almost unnoticeable head attached to an excessively muscular frame that hung around the local lover’s lane. This creature, however, was different from the typical Bigfoot as there was nothing noticeably mammalian about the entity; while muscular in place of arms, it had long wings which extended down almost to the ground and a featureless face with one noticeable exception a pair of large glowing red eyes. These rumors reached his eager ears, and so he began his attempt to catalog these bizarre encounters.

The first of these encounters came to his attention most appropriately for the time at a local hamburger and shake restaurant, and while one could imagine the Grease or Archie Comic-esque antics that would have gone on there on one particular night, a group of teens in a black convertible had pulled into the parking lot and as they pulled in other teens noticed that the occupants of the car were anything but calm. The teens looked panicked and seemed to be extremely upset, and as the patrons approached the vehicle, the occupants began to tell them what had happened. The driver explained that they had gone up to a dirt road that was off the beaten track. This was one of the teenager lover's lanes and hangouts; as they were traveling down this road, they heard a large thump on the back of the car; as they turned, they could see that in the window was a figure standing on the back of their car. The driver, completely terrified by this monstrous hitchhiker, proceeded in doing the only thing his mind could think of, hitting the gas and trying to shake the creature off the vehicle. The driver was successful at doing this and noted that the group could see that the creature had fallen off. When the driver pulled into the restaurant, he showed the patrons where the creature was and, upon looking, found an oily yet noticeably juicy white material that appeared in streaks along the trunk.

Rumors of their encounter soon broke out, and other strange things began to occur in the area around the creature's haunt. Perhaps the most interesting was reported by the local farmers as they were discovering their cattle being killed and that on one occasion, a steel door was bizarrely bent. Yet this, of course, was not the end of eyewitness sightings of a bizarre creature.

A few days after these dead cattle and the strange oily juicy hitchhiker encounter, another group of teenagers had gone out to the wooded area where the creature had been sighted, and having reached a certain portion, the group decided to park and, of course, wait and attempt to see if they could find any sort of creature. Two of the boys jumped out of the car and began to walk out into the woods and, in a joking and albeit misguided attempt, began to call out to the creature. Now the only members of the initial party were a boy and girl, and the two seemingly sat on the hood of the car and proceeded to listen to their foolhardy friends call out to the creature. The two proceeded to look out into the darkness with bated breath and anticipation, waiting for just some sort of bizarre interaction. Upon looking into the inky black, they saw a bizarre light in the darkness; it seemed to be like a kind of flame. The two at first thought that this was simply from the boys lighting up their cigarettes. Then almost on cue, they heard the sound of crumpling grass and weeds by something heavy coming near them from the other side. As the two looked over in the direction of the movement, they saw something incredibly tall and dark standing right next to their car. Peering over, they saw a dark figure that towered over the vehicle next to them, which they could tell from this made the creature some 8ft tall. As they stared at the figure, they noticed some other features about the figure, the first being that the being had a noticeably small head on a huge, massive muscle-bound body that seemed covered in short feathers. Where the creature's arms should have been, the witnesses noticed that in place were large, colossal wings that seemed to nearly touch the ground and as the creature stood there. The couple proceeded to jump off the hood of the car and maneuver over as quickly as possible to the safety of the vehicle, and as they watched, the creature just as quickly began to shuffle off into the nearby woods. The girl was hysterical at the sight of the creature and was crying and cowering in the back of the seat. The friends were seemingly oblivious of the large creature that came very close to them as they proceeded to return nonchalantly back to the vehicle. Once the fellows came to the car, their friend proceeded to tell them of the anomaly they had just witnessed in quick, barely unintelligible sentences, but through the stuttering and breathing, they were able to decipher that they had seen the creature near the car. At first, they thought he was playing some sort of prank or joking, but then they looked at the girl and could tell that he clearly was not joking.

As they were just about to leave, they noticed another car coming towards them from the opposite side of the road. The driver slowed just a bit to yell to the car's occupants in an excited and terrified tone that they, too, had seen the creature. It was at that moment that they sped away, leaving the woods and the anomalous entity behind them. During this same night, a group of teens proceeded to head to the local police department to file a report about the same creature, and they were so noticeably shaken that the police believed them and revealed to them that they had been receiving reports and hearing tales of monsters and UFOs in the area for weeks now.

Perhaps the most bizarre encounter with this being occurred sometime later when a group of would-be monster hunters were searching the area for the creature. The group had heard a strange sound of commotion that broke the uneasy silence of the woods and that the noise seemed to be coming some 25-30 yards away from the party. Upon turning and focusing their beams on the area of the motion, they caught in their beams a bizarre creature which at first had its colossal muscley back facing them. The figure had noticeably chiseled, almost Atlas-like shoulders that were 5-6 ft wide, and the creature's total height was a noticeable 8ft tall. The creature was covered from top to bottom in a dark black or brown feathers, and in place of arms once again were seen incredibly long wings. The group noticed that the creature's legs were closer together than the rest of the body, which seemed much further apart, and Gordon notes that the witnesses claimed the creature was seemingly odorless. As the group watched this seemingly avian anomaly for some time, they soon noted that the creature began to move but how it moved was seemingly contradictory to any familiar locomotion they were aware of. The creature using its seemingly talon or extended toed feet, began to grip the trees some two feet off the ground and began to fling itself from tree to tree. The group watched in disbelief as the creature slowly began to disappear from sight, but the group had followed the creature's movements with their flashlights for at least another 60 feet as it worked its way uphill in this fashion. After the creatures tree oriented parkour was no longer visible, the witnesses began to run away from the area.

Over the course, others would claim to encounter this anomalous apparition, but further attempts to investigate were halted. During a rather short period of time, several of the roads, especially the ones where the creature was frequently reported, were blocked. These blockades were not from some natural source like downed trees but, interestingly enough, bright blue blockades with the US. Air Force logo attached. However, as far as been reported, there had been no official reason for them to be there, nor were there any reported members in the area.

Now, this flap ended as abruptly as it started, yet sightings of this creature, especially during this time, still occasionally come to light. One of the most recent cases that came to light from that time was given to Stan Gordon during April of 2010 by mystery book author C. William Davis III. During the BORU Paranormal Conference in Butler County, Davis came up to Gordon and told him about how a friend had encountered the creature during that 66' flap. Now his friend had been up in late Fall to a local lover's lane with a girl he had been dating at the time for a night of "parking ."This particular area was on a dark, desolate wooded area on top of a hill that looked over a small town southwest of Pittsburgh. There were no homes in the area, so it was frequently used by many for such purposes. The pair had only been there for about 10 minutes, conceivably still time for some action to of been made but not enough for a lot to of gone on, but as they were engaging, they noted that the car was suddenly bathed in an ominous red light. At first, Davis's friend had thought this glowing light may have been from the lights of a police car that happened to discover them, but as he looked in the back window, he could see there was no car around. It was as he was beginning to look around more thoroughly that he noted that the light was seemingly moving to the driver's side of the car, and as his eyes followed the moving light, he soon saw that there was some strange figure standing outside of the car door. The figure was exceptionally tall, some 8ft tall, and was standing at the car door looking in at the couple with a pair of glaring glowing red eyes. Davis's friend noted that as he stared at the paranormal peeping tom, he could feel an intense heat, almost as if the globular cells which were the being's eyes were made of some intense fire. He could feel this heat intensify on his face, and he was so terrified by this monstrous mutant that he could only barely hear the screams of his girlfriend. He, during this, wanted to reach for the keys still in the ignition to start the car but was so terrified that he felt that he couldn't move. The being continued to stare there, and as he did, so he continued to feel the heat intensify, and after a time, the creature finally began to move; the creature began to open its arms wide, which the witness said was almost like wings and lifted off the ground and over the trees in front of them. It was at that moment that the bright red light and was gone, and his girlfriend stopped screaming. Sometime after this, he managed to turn the car on and drive the girl home; however, he would state he never remembered driving the girl home. As he pulled up to the girl's home, she screamed at him while he halted the car to a stop, her hand on the door handle, "I will never go out with you again."

Davis’s friend continued to drive in a daze to his friend and his fiancée’s house and stood on their porch knocking on the door.

Davis and his fiancée Linda were sitting in the living room listening to records and talking when they heard his knock at the front door. Upon answering the door and seeing their friend, they knew there was something wrong as he was supposed to be out on a date this night, and so they proceeded to invite him. Yet his friend just stood there zombie-like Davis realizing there was something even more wrong, began to take him by the arm and began to help him inside, noting that his shirt was soaking wet from sweating. The two managed to get him inside and sat him down on the couch; he stared straight forward, almost oblivious to everything to all that was going on. The two tried to talk to him, but he spoke seemingly gibberish speaking and began to cry and say, "I was so scared, I was so scared," over and over again. Davis looking at his friend, noticed that aside from sweating, he had a red sunburn-type coloration that took up most of the left side of his face that was not there when last he saw him. Linda eventually got up and told Davis that he was going to get her mother and proceeded to leave the room where Davis attempted to decipher more into what happened; his first thought was that he might have been in an accident, but upon asking two times all his friend did was look at him with a stare that indicated pure terror something he had never seen on his friend's face before. When Linda and her mother came into the room, the mother took one look at their friend and instantly said, "we need to get him to the dining room and get him warm with a blanket and a hot tea''. The true cure for any ailment, to be sure. Upon doing this and leaving him to sip his teeth, he began to call his friend's parents, but there was no answer at their residence. They were so concerned about their friend that they were going to call an ambulance, but upon hearing this, their friend spoke something coherent for the first time; he said "no!" and then stated that he was beginning to feel better and simply needed to calm down and compose himself, but it was well over an hour before he was able to do so. It was during then that he began to tell of what he had experienced that night, and throughout his telling, he was trembling as if he was reliving every part of his story. Afterwards, they had called his parents again and told them simply that something had happened and that he was there safe. Once his parents came, they drove him home and left his car at Linda's house overnight. His parents then took him to the hospital the next day, yet the doctors, outside of the redness on his face, could not find anything else wrong with him. As to the redness, the doctors were perplexed as to the only thing they felt that could have caused it was something like a radiation burn. This redness disappeared some days later, and he talked to Davis about the encounter; he seemed to be more focused on what people thought of him and felt back to normal in other respects. As the years progressed before his death, his friend never discussed his encounter, but if it was ever brought up, he never denied his experience, and his story never changed.

Now, this is the reported end of the Pittsburgh Mothman, yet I would not be a true Fortean if I did not mention an interesting footnote while reports of Mothman type humanoids are still being reported, and that word Mothman is being used liberally as very few match other Flying Humanoid type reports have been reported in Allegheny County. One which occurred on August 24, 2016, involved a strange, winged humanoid that was seen in the Y of a tree by a man and his dog. Now, this report is lumped in with the Butler County Gargoyle (see entry for more information), yet the description was so ambiguous that perhaps what was seen was something more akin to the Mothman as opposed to the gargoyle type flying humanoids which seem to be becoming more common in flying humanoid reports.

Now with this report, there's a lot to decipher because, in many ways, people will immediately compare it to the Point Pleasant Mothman, which there are a TON of interesting parallels which I will get to, but for the beginning, let's start with this being a totally separate phenomenon. First off, from a skeptical standpoint, it can be said that there might have been one sighting and the rest are examples of mass hysteria or misidentifications or people simply trying to join the bandwagon. Now with this case, there’s no evidence at all; we have Stan Gordon collecting testimony, but honestly, that's the extent of it; there's no evidence in regard to feathers, tracks, photographs, or even in the Davis's friend encounter photographs of his face during the encounter, so all we have is testimony which leads to us either believing outright the encounter or that the encounter is almost entirely a hoax.

Now I will say from a not so skeptical standpoint these encounters are not unique cryptids looking inside vehicles or frequenting lover's lanes are not uncommon, and there are countless cases outside of the classic Mothman I could bring up, such as the Murphysboro Mud Monster, Mill Race Monster, Maryland Goatman and the fact that all of these creatures are different but seen in places removed from typical observation would aid to a place for them to remain elusive and in particular winged humanoids are frequently reported in such areas. Now I will say outside Mothman, no other reported cryptid even loosely matches aside from perhaps the Skysquatch (see entry for more information), yet the Skysquatches typically follow the traditional flying humanoid layout in arms, legs, and wings adjoined to the back. This does not seem to be the case with this creature as the arms appear to be exceptionally muscular bird-like wings without the traditional feather placement we see on birds as there are noticeable arms, just no displayed hands which would fit bird morphology if the wing feathers line up correctly.

Now in cryptozoology, there was a theory that Mark A. Hall put forward about the Bighoot, which is essentially described as the thunderbird equivalent of the owl. Now such cryptids have been reported elsewhere, such as the Owlman of Mawnan, which was described as a kind of megafaunal giant owl but with a gaping mouth that could have been attributed to a dark section of feathers. The Kikiyaon is an African creature that is important to mention is also involved heavily in the beliefs of Gambia tribes, who place a supernatural significance to it akin to La Lechuza, the owl witches of Mexican lore, but a lot of the reports seem to be akin to colossal owls similar to the Bighoot hypothesis. Another example a little closer to Pennsylvania is the Wooo-Wooo which is a colossal owl reported from New Jersey; these creatures get their name from the sound they allegedly make, sort of how the Ahool the colossal monkey-faced bat got its name. So colossal flying large-eyed bird cryptids are not unknown, and should this be a bird, it more than likely would be some sort of owl or nightjar type creature but just a megafaunal version of such a species. Needless to say, however, this is only speculation, and unlike reports of colossal vultures or condors, there's nothing in the fossil record even close to a species of giant owl-like what is reported here, let alone one capable of flight.

Now the UFO angle is something to look into a bit as similar creatures have been reported, such as the Bat Beast of Kent; however, I will say the chances of a creature with no thumbs and no noticeable supernatural abilities like telekinesis flying a craft is unlikely as an initial owner of such a craft. However, if this type of creature is some sort of pet or even some sort of biological experiment, it could be possible. Now, of course, as with all such alien pet reports, it comes down to either the owners care not for us or our world or that they truly are some of the worst pet owners ever to leash an animal since they are never seen in the same area as their fur and feathered legged addition to their family. It's from this that I think it's one of the least likely answers to this connection, especially since while craft was reported in the area, there was no direct connection with such an object.

The aspect of this creature being something paranormal really comes from, I'd argue, one account, and that would be Davis's account which I will get into a bit when I discuss Mothman in regard to this case. But should that testimony be authentic, then this creature would have to fall in some sort of supernatural gallery since nothing has naturally glowing eyes that intensify heat, nor does any organism that we know of lift off the ground without flapping its wings. Let alone the fact that staring into the face of this creature caused the face burn seen in such film classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind or the Mothman Prophecies now, this is something reported with crafts of UFOs or after an abduction, but to have that reaction from the creature itself is something practically unheard of. Now oftentimes, with reports of flying humanoids, religion is brought up as such experiencers will compare their encounters with demons or angels, and such intense experiences are often associated with facial distortion, such as when Moses returned from Mount Sinai, and his face was so disturbing from seeing the face of God that he needed to wear a veil to calm those around. Perhaps there's something about supernatural encounters that causes this effect. Yet, of course, while Davis's friend's testimony is the most supernatural, it is also the really only noticeable and, of course, the most controversial and in so needs its own breakdown.

Now, after covering all the non-Mothman possibilities, I'm going to discuss the comparisons between the Pittsburgh flap to the Point Pleasant one. Now, of course, the first outside of similar descriptions is that both encounters took place around the same general time, with the Pittsburgh sightings occurring slightly beforehand. Now from a biological standpoint, if this is a physical creature, it would need to unless its one of those rare exceptions that need to adhere to the 50-500 rule where there needs to be 50 organisms for a short term in an area or given population to avoid inbreeding and 500 in the long term so perhaps what we are seeing is an example of migration of Bighoots. Just why is simply speculation but let's say that during the years of 1966 and 1967, they were traveling along with the water sources since Point Pleasant is along the Ohio River and Pittsburgh is along both the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River that the species stopped for a short time there before ultimately ending in the Ohio/West Virginia area. Now there are a lot of accounts of sightings of these creatures on certain nights, so this does lend to more than one member of the species unless a single member can travel at speeds unheard of for normal animals, and this always seemed to indicate more than one Mothman in the area, so this adds more towards this possibility.

Now, of course, there are other possibilities like the Ufological or Ultraterrestrial angle; there was one example of a flying figure entering a UFO that was attributed to Mothman, and that several of the witnesses experienced conjunctivitis from seeing Mothman outside of Davis's friend's account there's nothing similar in the Pittsburgh Mothman sightings, in fact, the UFO sightings are rather commonplace throughout Allegheny County to the point that they’re almost mundane.

Now looking at the Davis's encounter, I will say the following he is a mystery writer by trade. The account he describes with a now-deceased friend was officially told some 40 years after the account allegedly happened, and almost 8 years after the film, the Mothman Prophecies came forward, which also, interestingly enough, was filmed in parts in Pittsburgh and throughout Pennsylvania. Now I am extremely skeptical of Davis's claim because, for one, this is a friend's account now dead, some 8 years after the films' release, which was and still is a big deal, and that the account he gives of his friend experiencing the creature is almost exactly the same as one of the couples that were featured in the film. Now that's not to say that the account did not happen, but the fact that what he described could easily have been concocted after watching the movie just once since its one of the more impactful scenes, including an example of conjunctivitis on the boyfriend, not the girlfriend it just cannot be ignored. Another noteworthy element that is pulled from the film is the fact that only the left side was burned; in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the main character Rory was also burned on his left side in the same way, so again, as a writer, it would not be hard to pull these two famous pieces of film inspired by real events together to create an encounter. So, I leave that encounter entirely up to the reader, but in doing so, it totally changes how one interprets the creature as well as there's now more chance of a biological organism as opposed to a Ufological or supernatural one since outside of the overall bizarreness of the entity there is nothing to indicate otherwise.

Looking at the overall description of the creature in comparison to Mothman, there are a lot of similarities. Mothman, for example, is often described as being devoid of a head or having an incredibly small one; this is something we see with the Pittsburgh case. The fact that this creature is dark in color with more bird-like attributes is also something associated with Mothman, which of course, is seen here even before individual's imaginations took off with the name Mothman was simply called "the Bird" because that is exactly what it bore a similarity to. The short close together legs is also something reported in classic Mothman sightings, and this feature is often seen when one looks at owls as well; again, more evidence for the Bighoot hypothesis.

Now with all that said, there's more speculation than science since, with a case like this, there's nothing to compare it to that's known. This case depending on your interpretation, is either its own case or comparable to the wider Fortean lore that is out there, and as one interprets this case, there are more possibilities that I opted to not divulge in with this article simply because, aside from it being all speculation it gets into just how wild and weird such accounts can get. With that, I leave the case at that. I let you decide just where you want to cut the chord since there's no clear answer and tons of evidence for both a biological and a supernatural origin for such a creature, and while I always tend to lean more towards the physical, perhaps this is something unknown or ethereal it's one of the great riddles of such cases since all are options are valid in their own right. And who knows, perhaps you might decipher the truth to this enigma; you might find a colossal owl in the woods or broker some treaty with the Ultraterrestrials; until then, this is just another mystery in a gaping abyss of similar cases.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Avian species, or Paranormal Entity

Location: Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Summer of 1966 to Fall of 1966

Works Cited:

Astonishing Encounters: Pennsylvania’s Unknown Creatures: Casebook Three By Stan Gordon

Creepy Cryptids and Strange UFO Encounters of Pennsylvania: Bigfoot, Thunderbirds, Mysteries of the Chestnut Ridge and More: Casebook Four By Stan Gordon