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Saturday, February 11, 2023

Jennings Frederick: The Unsung Fortean Legend

 Jennings Frederick: The Unsung Fortean Legend

By Cole Herrold

There are many stories that make up the collective whole of Forteana. Some of these have made a major impact on the culture of the world and the believers and skeptics that dot the shores and surf the waters of the subject. Some of these stories at the time were nothing more than flukes of fancy. Encounters were so strange and surreal that there was much debate about whether the entities or accounts even occurred. Added to this there were many hoaxers and jokesters who would create stories for their own profit or glory. Yet still, these stories hold weight and affect the future generations of those wishing to uncover the mysteries or spread the stories. One such account was the infamous Vegetable Man this entity was featured as a brief blurb in the old paperbacks of Brad Steiger or an even briefer mention in the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown book series. Yet the story has now captured the imagination of the Fortean community both the researchers and the fans. Toys and short films, podcasts, and children’s books have now been made depicting the vegetable varmint the creature has become a sudden celebrity in a world where Bigfoot and Nessie have become old hat. Yet while this creature has garnered the world’s attention what about; as my friend and host of Tracing Owls Podcast Vuk titled in the episode we did on the subject, the man behind the vegetable? It was while analyzing the Vegetable Man case and finding out that Jennings Frederick was indeed a real person and finding that he had more encounters and experiences. This was all added to when one of the hosts of the Mothboys Podcast Mike Strayer, who is also the author of a children's book on the Vegetable Man, while doing his own incredible independent research at the Gray Barker Archive found and proceeded to send me a stack of letters, artwork, newspaper clippings, cards, and documents that were sent from Jennings Frederick and in them was a literal gold mine of information that showed how important and underappreciated Jennings Frederick truly is.

Drawing of Space Devil by Gene Duplantier for Gray Barker's Newsletter No. 5 March 1976

The Story of Jennings Frederick began on May 28,1949 in Fairmont, West Virginia. His father and mother Jennings Charles and Iva Jean Toothman Frederick had lived in the area for some time and while currently not much is known about his upbringing in the early parts of his life we know that his engagement to the strange and unusual would start early. During the 60s Project Blue Book was in full swing investigating and deliberately ruling out countless UFO cases and contact cases. Rivesville a town close to Fairmont was no stranger to such reports As UFOs were occasionally seen in the area. The Fredericks First interaction with the otherworldly occurred on April 23, 1965, at their home near Rivesville, Royal Route #2 when Jennings and his brother had already left for Rivesville High School and his mother was left to tend to the dishes from breakfast as her husband had gone off to work in the mine. It was about 8-8:30 and as she glanced out the kitchen window she saw something moving in the fields above where the house was nestled. Upon peering out she had seen what she at first thought was a small child playing unwatched and feeling motherly concern due to the fact that there was an electric cattle fence in the vicinity she ran out the door to stop the child from possibly harming itself. As Iva walked out onto the porch however she was shocked as what she had thought was a small child was not something so normal. Instead, she saw a strange creature that was approximately 3.5-4ft tall and black or dark green in color. She later however in a letter would express that perhaps the creature might have been wearing a kind of flight suit as she was looking at the creature from 200 yards away. The creature bore had three to four-finger-clawed hands and feet yet also had features that would appear to the young woman as satanic in description as it had pointed ears and a long tail. She could not make out however any mouth or other facial features, but this could have been due to the distance upon which she witnessed the entity. As she looked closer at the scene she noticed that coming down from the sky was a cream and silver colored saucer-shaped craft that hovered off the ground she watched as the craft landed that an elevator-type doorway descended and touched the ground. Iva would describe the craft as being similar to two plates on top of each other and was about 5ft tall in the center without the little shaft that extended down and about 8-10ft long. The shaft was approximately 3ft long. All of this placing the overall diameter of the craft at about 15-25 ft and about a story and a half high. The craft had both windows and a dome or “Crystal Canopy” that seemed to sparkle in the early morning light and also seemed to be illuminated on the inside of the craft as it seemed to give off a bright yellow light from those areas. The craft also made a buzzing or humming sound. As she looked at the craft she noticed a chord coming from the elevator-like shaft of the object and followed it down to where she noticed that the being was seemingly connected to this craft by its midsection. This strange chord they later estimated was about 15ft long. She watched as this entity began to hop around and make jerky motions as it proceeded to collect clumps of dirt, rock, and grass and place them in a small bag it had in its hand. The woman watched this scene for some 15 minutes until finally succumbing to fear and proceeded to run back to her bed and pulled the covers over her head wishing for the object and creature to go away. She stayed there for another 15 minutes until eventually gained enough composure and walked to the kitchen window where she saw that the craft and creature were still there. As she watched however she soon saw that the creature suddenly turned and headed back to the craft. It stepped on a small platform that extended from the step and entered the stool or mushroom stalk-like shaft. She watched and could see that inside this shaft was a ladder that extended into the disc-like craft and watched as the creature climbed into it ultimately disappearing from sight. The craft then began to spin faster, and the buzzing humming sound picked up in tone when suddenly it rose “like a feather” straight up into the sky and disappeared from sight. The woman was deeply disturbed by this and as soon as Jennings got home she told him the tale. Jennings was already deeply interested in the UFO phenomenon and proceeded to head out to the hills to investigate. Upon searching the area, he had found several pieces of evidence in regard to his mother’s experience. He had found a large depression in the ground seemingly made by the shaft/stem that the craft was resting upon. By taking measurements he was able to deduce that the craft had to of weighed more than a ton. Searching the area, he also found footprints of the creature these strange footprints were four-toed with a long heel with based on his sketches a break down the middle that possibly could have been from some sort of strap. Aside from these he also found in the area of the toes and heel brown hair some 2-3 inches in length. These prints were approximately 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch deep which helped give Jennings the approximate weight of the creature being about 30-45lbs. Luckily for Jennings when the sighting occurred the mud was still soft so the prints were clean and by the time he was able to check the area he noticed that the ground had hardened. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to preserve the sighting Jennings ran back inside and grabbed some Plaster of Paris and proceeded to cast the footprints as well as the marking where the shaft had been and take photographs of the area. Searching for some validation and further scientific study of the evidence he proceeded to send the prints and photos to the Airforce. The Airforce however responded through a letter ultimately disregarding the evidence and calling the entire sighting a misidentification of a weather balloon, the planet Venus, or the workings of her wild imagination. Yet the Airforce never returned any of his casted footprints, marks, or his photos. This left a noticeable bad taste in his mouth and would later affect his life in other research he would conduct. While heavily involved in his mother’s sighting Jennings did not directly observe the craft or its occupant however in a few years it would seem that these visitors would seek him out instead and this sighting would merely be the seed to an increasing path into the world of the Fortean.

Sketch by Jennings Frederick of the creature's footprint with location of the hairs found

High School and College life is a difficult point in anybody’s life. For many, it is the point where we begin to become the people we are for the rest of our lives. We discover our passions or our passions reach to a crescendo. It's also an awkward time of growth and development and bizarre interactions. A liminal space between adulthood and childhood. During this hectic and stressful point in people’s lives, the last thing they would even want to think about is interactions with entities and beings from other worlds, but for Jennings, this is exactly what happened. It was in June of 1967 when an 18-year-old Jennings had just graduated from High School. Arose one night in a semi-waking state' and walked in his intimates to a field l/4 mile from his house. Upon reaching the area he woke from this strange state and saw "a huge object about the size of a football field" and about 2-2.5 stories tall and at about 300 ft altitude. The craft was white and luminous with flashing red and blue lights. Frightened Jennings proceeded to run for home, but as he did so he soon heard a voice saying that it would soon return. This voice seemed to be a telepathic transmission generated by the craft or by one of the entities aboard and as he watched the craft began to buzz loudly and moved away rapidly. The telepathic message continued to speak to Jennings and claimed that the UFO occupants "were tired, seeking peace, keeping an eye on us, and would soon communicate again." The voice also said that Jennings “would remember very little about the encounter until just before the second contact." Jennings for the longest time thought that all he saw was just a UFO and received a telepathic message and he continued to go about his life not thinking too much about it. He soon would have experiences with other strange anomalies, but he soon would remember more about what happened that night in the field.

In the latter part of 1976, Jennings "suddenly recalled the entire encounter." He had remembered being in the field and being taken aboard the UFO by being floated in and given a physical examination. Unlike other abductees, this examination was seemingly not violent or intrusive and during the experience, he had been fully clothed. Inside the UFO "everything seemed to emit light, there were no light fittings", but the floor was metallic. After this examination, he proceeded to meet the captain of the ship and entity who said that his name was "Zarcon". Zarcon was about 7-10ft tall and was white in color with a huge head, and no noticeable nose, but did have slits for nostrils, pointed ears, large “wrap around” eyes, and a slit-like mouth. Jennings would state that Zarcon had long arms that ended in four-fingered hands and wore a long robe that covered his feet. Jennings would also say that Zarcon was “fluctuating in size” and that he floated some 2ft off the floor. Zarcon communicated by telepathy and as he did so it made a mumbling kind of sound. Zarcon stated that he and his people "were not physical in the sense of -things we consider as being solid in nature." He also said that he was from a planet "in the sector of Triangus Terri Elipson", and that his people have been watching ours for 20,000 years. During their conversation, Zarcon showed off some of his abilities as he opened a window in the UFO by thought alone. Yet this was not the strangest aspect of their interaction for "At one point during our conversation his body disappeared and only his head remained, which enlarged to about the size of a washing machine or stove." Jennings was on the craft for a decent amount of time and when the time for him to leave came he was floated out of the craft and was told the final messages and that he would forget the experience. This experience would affect him later on in his personal life yet it would be less so than the next few experiences he would have.

Jennings Frederick Sketch of Zarcon UFO from Into the Unknown Book by Reader's Digest

It was mid-July 1968 and Jennings was about to enter the air force. Jennings decided to take the last little bit of time that he had to go bow hunting groundhogs on his father’s property in between Rivesville and Fairmount. Jennings was noticeably unsuccessful in his pursuit of the ground rodent and seeing that the day was getting long and the sun was setting he decided to head toward his home. He stopped and rested for a moment and upon doing so he removed his arrow from his 45 lb. bow and transferred both to his left arm to rest. As he did so he suddenly heard a high-pitched whining noise not too dissimilar to a record being played at an incredibly fast speed. As he listened he soon " You need not fear me. I wish to communicate. I come as a friend. We know of you all. I come in peace. I wish medical assistance. I need your help!" Jennings proceeded to reach down into his pocket for a handkerchief because during this whole excursion, he had become rather sweaty, and as he reached down, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his hand, and as he looked over to see if his hand had been caught in a brier brush, he saw that there was a strange green form grabbing onto him by the wrist. Following the green form up, he noticed that this was not a typical brier brush but instead a colossal creature that defied explanation. There standing exceptionally close to him, was a 7ft tall creature bright green in color with features that were eerily human in its face. The most noticeable feature of this creature's face, however, was its bright, piercing yellow eyes and its long ears. As he scanned the creature's body, he noticed it was carrot-shaped but was green, almost like a plant stalk. The body had noticeable shoulders and arms, but these arms were only about as thick as a quarter. The arm's eerie thinness was not the most disturbing feature of this portion of the body; however, for, the creature's hands stretched down into three incredibly long fingers with 7" needle-like protrusions that were enveloped by a kind of suction cup. It was the right arm of this peculiar creature that had encapsulated his arm, and as he watched, the creature seemed to grip even tighter, and he noticed that through this, the creature punctured one of his blood vessels. As the creature continued to do this, he could hear a sound almost akin to sucking that instantly told him that this creature was draining his blood. Pain from this motion shot up his arm, and as he continued to stare at the creature, a peculiar thing began to occur; the creature's yellow eyes suddenly began to swirl with red creating almost a spiral-type effect and where the two colors would meet in the center orange circles appeared. This sudden change in eye color and motion had a hypnotizing effect on Jennings, and he soon realized that he no longer felt any pain from the creature's grasp as it did this. As the creature did this, it once more released its message that Jennings had heard before, but he was unsure if the creature was communicating telepathically or whether the creature was speaking it audibly. During this point, the being breathed as Jennings noticed that the creature’s sides and chest expanded and contracted but Jennings had the impression that the creature had some trouble with this as it seemed to “wheeze” like someone with some sort of respiratory problem. Jennings was unsure as to just how this creature breathed as it did not seem to do either through its nose or mouth. This otherworldly transfusion lasted at least to Frederick's for only a minute, but the drainage could very well have lasted much longer. After the creature seemed to have its fill, it suddenly released him extremely quickly. Jennings watched as the creature ran off seemingly towards where Jennings felt a craft was landed and watched as the creature took long strides and bounds which seemed effortlessly and extremely fast as though it was built for this kind of environment. The being seemingly covered some 300-350 yards in about 10 seconds and had at one point cleared a 5ft fence with three feet left to spare. and watched as the creature ran how it seemed to dematerialize before his eyes. He would describe this dematerialization almost like it was evaporating in a letter on February 13th, 1976. The creature finally disappeared altogether as it reached the opposing woodland. as he stared in the direction of where the creature left, the pain in his arm suddenly returned, and as he stood there holding his arm in pain, he then heard a high humming and whistling sound which he instantly felt was the creature's UFO coming back to pick it back up. Jennings, after no longer hearing the sound, began to work his way home and, after washing his wound and bandaging it, decided to not speak a word about his encounter or go to a doctor for fear that no one would believe him. Jennings always felt that this entity was some sort of extraterrestrial however he did stipulate that he never saw any sort of antenna from the creature or a breathing device or even for that matter a ship however he did hear a strange whirring sound that had been associated with other high strangeness cases such as the Grafton Monster.

Original Vegetable Man Eyewitness Sketch by Jennings Frederick 

A brief note on a possible hoax. So the Veggieman story has become the most famous experience associated with Jennings. Its weird and wild and for many there are those who feel that on those terms alone it is authentic or was the creation of Gray Barker. Yet while we can confirm Jennings was a real person there is indeed at least with this story to suspect a possible hoax. About four months prior before Jennings would claim to have a run in with the Vegetable Man the hit show Lost in Space would release an episode entitled “the Great Vegetable Rebellion”. In the episode Dr. Smith goes to a planet where plants are the dominant species and they are ruled over by a colossal carrot figure known as Tybo. Dr. Smith cuts some flowers which whine and make other noises to allude that he has killed these sentient vegetation. Tybo in turn originally want to kill Dr. Smith but then changes his mind deciding to change him into a plant instead. Halfway through the episode Dr. Smith transforms into a celery man which interestingly enough looks very similar to Veggieman. There are several moments in the episode that are similar to events Jennings experienced in the woods such as how in the show Dr. Smith  being cured by being dried out cries out for water and jumps around. This could be compared to Veggieman needing blood before sprinting off. It also could explain why Jennings uses the phrase Vegetable for the creature as opposed to calling it a ghoul, goblin, elf, troll, or green man. In my previous article on Vegetable Man I entertained the hoax possibility and said that the idea of what Veggieman was described loosely matched the alien from the Thing From Another World which while Frankenstein like in form had hooks on its hands (granted the area of its knuckles) was a plant like organism according to the scientists and even called a carrot by one and fed on blood. There’s a scene where all the dogs in the base were put above the rafters in the bases’s green house so that the blood could feed the plants. The spirally hypno eyes Jennings reported could have been pulled from The Batman Tv Show which was common at the time. Now with all that said there are some problems with dismissing this as an outright hoax Jennings was very specific in how he described Veggieman’s arms and behavior and even the message theres elements to the account that seem to indicate he did have some sort of experience as well as the marks on his arms which did seem to be noticed by his mother and noted in the correspondences between Barker and Fredericks. Yet these similarities between the account and the show that occurred 4 months prior needs to be mentioned. 

Dr. Smith From the Lost in Space Episode looking very Veggie Man like 

Jennings upon joining the military chose to join the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War wherein he was a plane technician and also for a brief stint a member of the U.S. Army. Near the end of his Air Force enlistment, Jennings was assigned to a temporary job working for NASA and was given a high-end security clearance. While working for NASA he encountered evidence of a secret project that dealt with UFOs. This possibly was not intentional as he would state that those who had leaked the information were promptly sacked. He was honorably discharged shortly thereafter yet this would seemingly open the floodgates to one of the most terrifying and dangerous Fortean fallouts namely encounters with the Men in Black.

Jennings was living with his parents once more in their family home where his previous encounters had occurred. One morning sometime between one and four in the morning, he was awakened by a bright flash of red light. Jennings was able to see this as his cot was near the window. At first, he believed the source may have been caused by the gas furnace catching fire and so lifted his head up from bed and looked through the open doorway into the living room where he saw his younger brother Bill sleeping on the couch.. Yet suddenly, a small canister about the size of an apple dropped to the ground and began to bounce around the living room floor. The canister was releasing a bright red gas and Suddenly as he was watching this strange device, he felt a hand grab him as well as the prick of a needle in his left arm. Looking he saw several men enter the room through the window. As he looked he was confronted by three bizarre men wearing black ski masks, turtleneck sweaters, and slacks. Jennings felt that there may have been a fourth which was the one who had pricked him with the needle. As he laid there they began to talk amongst themselves, saying, "the dogs have been darted, and everybody gassed!" "what about this one?" "he's going out soon- he's half asleep" "don't worry about the needle; it'll make his arm sore for a day or two, that's all." Just as the canister was about to reach Jennings, the strange men proceeded to put on gas masks, and the last thing Jennings remembered seeing was that one of the men put the jumping canister into his pocket.  Jennings was groggy from the strange smoke and serum and because of this was unable to get to the gun out from under his pillow. The men then began to put something over Jennings' head and began to ask him about UFOs and exactly what they were. The men also asked what time it was and also what he had thought of the future, but after that point, Jennings remembered nothing and was sure he had passed out. As the MIB left his home he was sure one of the men let out the name “john”. Jennings remembered nothing after that and slept soundly until the next morning and no one else the following morning seemed to remember or comment on anything strange.  After his nocturnal invasion and interrogation by three men in black. Jennings would continue to be accosted and stalked by these dark-clothed deviants. He would constantly hear phone noises, buzzings, whistlings, and hummings in areas where they shouldn’t be and would see the strange men in several locations. On at least one occasion these men proved violent as they had possibly intended to kill him and a coworker/assistant researcher in aerodynamics and rocketry from Rivesville Mr. Larney D. Fry. On this occasion Fry’s Volkswagen auto lost lug bolts on the rear wheel; these bolts were just put on recently and with an automatic impact tool. This had occurred several times afterward and was clearly deliberate. On another occasion, his alternator belt was cut and on another occasion, something was put down inside Mr. Fry’s car engine. While in the air force in 74 some of his best lifelong friends were seemingly under some control of the MIB as they had tried to shoot him in the back. His last sighting of the beings was in late 74- early 75 yet there was always that dread that they would return.

On December 26th, 1975, Jennings would enter the wider world of Ufology by sending a letter to West Virginia native and Ufologist Gray Barker. Jennings had just read John Keel’s Mothman Prophecies and was seeking information on the Mothman since he knew that he and Keel were friends and peers. He had talked to Linda Scarberry over the phone about a MIB sighting she had in her room two weeks before writing the letter and that he too has encountered the MIB. He had been trying to reach Gray apparently for some 2 months prior but knew about how busy he had been. In the letter, he sent he also talked about how he had been an investigator into the phenomenon now for about 15 years and had mentioned his encounter with Vegetable Man. He also had asked to join Saucers of Clarksburg and even included his telephone number for him to contact him. Yet a lot of their conversations were through letters. Barker and Jennings had engaged in a few phone calls and letters and Barker was interested in his encounters. In a letter written on January 13th, 1976, Jennings was still on a Mothman kick but also had talked more about the effect the Veggieman encounter had on him. He would write that at times he would experience nightmares about the being but also would suddenly experience dreams of a beautiful world filled with large flowers where flying saucers were assembled on a sort of assembly line by robots. He felt that these dreams were not some fanciful dreams, but instead some actual view of another world.

On February 11th, 1976, Jennings sent statements from his mother and a Mr. Larney D. Fry about incidents involving her sighting and sightings of the MIB and other sinister experiences Jennings and Fry had experienced. On February 9th Mr. Fry had sent in an affidavit confirming that he worked with Jennings Frederick and that he too had experienced and seen the MIB including an experience that almost ended their lives. Iva Frederick would later send a signed affidavit confirming that everything she had written was true on February 18th and asked only that if Barker wrote about the encounter that he would not include her name or address however he did include her name in his March 1976 Newsletter which detailed her and Jennings encounters.

Shortly after this Gray Barker decided to drive the 30 miles from his home passing Grant Town home of the infamous Grant Town Goon and looked at the frozen scenery around him until he reached Jennings's home at Route #1, Box 126, Rivesville. Barker’s first impressions of Jennings when meeting him were the following “Frederick was a young, husky, good looking man in his early 30’s. his language, precise, and clear like the notes he had sent me, hardly gave hint of his rural upbringing, never employing the localisms and brogue which often crept into my own speech. He certainly wasn’t a kook or dildate for the nuthouse—though deep beneath the surface of his calm demeanor I could sense something else, maybe a controlled urgency, or maybe pangs of suppressed terror”. Barker conducted the interview in Jennings's living room as Jennings's two-year-old daughter wandered around, cooing, playing, and searching through the files and papers, and old UFO books that Barker had brought for reference as he listened to Jennings's encounters. Barker could tell that as Jennings spoke of his encounters that he was one of only a few who he had told the tale to and knew that he would not laugh at him or ridicule him. Yet about halfway through the interview, Barker had the feeling that Frederick was interviewing him he discovered that Jennings was concerned and worried about some of the things he had in read in some of John Keel’s books and articles and from this Barker discovered that he was “getting to the controlled terror that boiled just beneath his seemingly calm exterior”. He asked Barker about his thoughts on the pattern Keel noticed between contactees and other UFO experiences. Barker confirmed upon this that there often was a continuation of the phenomenon that would occur after a UFO sighting or abduction. Yet Barker played this post-continuation of experiences down so as not to worry him. It was from here that questioned Barker about what he knew of the AVRO saucer and then got into his MIB encounter. Upon driving home to Clarksburg Barker had wondered whether Jennings was actually a member of the MIB but soon dismissed this saying that Jennings was “a man possessed, not by insanity, not by Christian Devils, but by the pattern. And he must exorcise this Fiend with a fighting spirit any mountain man carries in his brave heart. Frederick had himself become a UFO investigator. Perhaps he could prove that Keel’s pattern didn’t always come true. Perhaps all marriages didn’t break up; perhaps not all participants did not enter a mad world of unreality where hoarse voices croaked, “we are one”” Barker though forgot all of this and instead thought about visiting him again and laughed thinking about his little girl playing with his files and even thought of the next time visiting giving her a picture book. This was the start of the two having an incredibly long friendship. Over the course of several years, the two would call each other and write several letters. From these correspondences, we could tell that Jennings was very much an admirer of Barker and would constantly try to help him or convince him to join him in different lectures as well as sending him cases he had worked on.


Home Made and Illustrated Christmas Card from Jennings Frederick to Gray Barker (UNDATED)

On September 2, 1976, Jennings sent a letter to Barker knowing that he had sent his abduction experience which had yet to be published, and some of his other experiences to the True UFOs Magazine. He also discussed both the Richard Taylor situation as well as planning an interview for Gray with his mother. On September 20, 1976, Jennings Frederick wrote an article entitled “Who Builds the Flying Saucers” in it he describes how there have been attempts by countries and world leaders in constructing and creating crafts similar to UFOs. He writes about the programs that the Nazis were working on during WWII and even dips his toes into the conspiracies of Hitler and Eva Braun faking their deaths. Yet he also mentions a program he was possibly involved with or bore witness to during his time in the military this of course was the extended research based on the AVRO saucer. It's from his possible exposure to this research that he became under the MIB’s radar.

About a week before December 16, 1976, Jennings would interview a man by the name of Dominic Fan at the West Virginia University Medical Center in Morgantown. Fan took 20 Black and White photos of a UFO over Morgantown and Jennings had managed to get 17 of them from him. During the interview, his recorder did not function as it should have but he had no trouble with the device beforehand. Fan’s medical section was also interested in having someone conduct a speech on UFOs sometime after New Year's and Jennings had asked Gray if he would want to come help him out with the project.

On February 11th, 1977 Jennings had sent Barker several xeroxed files from UFO cases he had investigated. One particular case involved a UFO that seemed to rotate and bore no sound yet unlike the classic UFOs he had investigated previously this UFO was only about the size of a coffee cup and that the witness had seen it at a mere arm’s reach. The witness claimed that he took about 20 shots of the object with a telephoto lens and at different closure rates. As Jennings spoke with the witness again he had problems with his recorder as there were portions of the interview that went unrecorded and of course, these were involving some of the most important parts of the case. Jennings would again note that he had no problems prior to the interview, and this was not the only problem Jennings was facing in his research and life. Jennings would soon discover that his mail was being opened and that this was occurring so frequently that he had to put a lock on his mailbox. After doing this the problem seemed to of been solved. During this point, he was talking to Jim Moseley and Hayden Hewes as well and Hewes was particularly interested in his Zarcon abduction. However, at this point in his life, Jennings was not divulging the story as he was currently working on a book about his own encounters which he titled “Flying Saucer Omens” and even drew a mock cover for the book featuring Zarcon, one of the MIB, Vegetable Man, the Space Devil with its UFO, and a strange hairy creature which had been mentioned by Jennings in some sources but further info not seemingly available. In the February 77' letter, he also mentions that in 76 he had sent some possible angel hair to Hayden Hewes for further analysis however he apparently never heard back from him except for when Hewes wanted more information from him.

Mock Cover Design by Jennings Frederick for unpublished book "Flying Saucer Omens" 

During the latter portion of 77’, Jennings proceeded to attend Fairmont State College and was taking courses in Electrical Engineering and was also further engaged in his Rocket Research Studies. At this time, he was living at Route 8, Box 406, in Fairmont, WV which was located on the east side of Fairmont just off the Fairmont interstate. On August 2nd when he was writing to Barker to tell of the move he was still in the overall process of moving but also mentioned that he had experienced another encounter similar in nature to Zarcon. He wrote “I have had another alien encounter as “Zarcon” described to me when I was abducted. This sighting or encounter I must admit took me back a little when it happened! For it was like something from one of John Keel’s best sellers on the paranormal or ultra-dimensional contact. The beings I contacted were in some ways similar to “Zarcon”, but much smaller and totally peaceful in nature”. Just what Jennings exactly means or any further information on this experience unfortunately was seemingly not recorded.

Jennings as a Ufologist while known to the likes of Barker and Jim Moseley was also featured in a newspaper article in which he discussed several of the famous cases at the time as well as some of the evidence. The article titled “Country Man Discusses Research into UFOs” which appeared in the Jennings Frederick file in the Gray Barker Archive was un-dated and did not include what the original newspaper source was, but it was a local paper from the Rivesville-Fairmont area as the point of the article was to talk to local experts.

Things for Jennings started to go slightly downhill when on July 19th, 1978, he wrote what would seem to be his final letter to Barker. In it he would describe how he was forced to quit school and start a full-time job which occupied his time from 7 in the morning to 7:30 at night. He would work on Mondays thru Thursdays and then on Fridays and Saturdays would continue his rocket patent research and UFO studies most of which were interviews with witnesses. During this time his work on the book was put aside and at the time did not work on it for about 3 months. At the end of the letter, he commented that Jim Moseley was either going to pay him a visit or give him a call while he was in town and also offered to help Barker out since Barker was having some financial troubles as well. In 1979 UFO Review was selling a series of cassettes from Ufologists, contactees, and abductees and Jennings proceeded to create one that detailed his entire story. This 60-minute cassette seemed to of replaced his work on the book as it covered every aspect of his encounters from his mother’s UFO sighting up to his MIB experiences however this cassette appears to of been very rare as a search for a copy has proven to be fruitless outside of the original ad in the magazine.

UFO Review Ad for the Jennings Frederick Cassette 

After 1979 Jennings seemingly dropped off the face of the Fortean map a lot of this may have to do with the fact that Jennings was a father and with how important family is he could have put his research and experiences to the side to help raise and be more a part of his children’s and family’s lives. This seems to be the outcome as no reference of him returning to the fold of Ufology seems to have ever occurred. Another thing that may have caused him to dwindle is that Gray Barker in 1984 had passed away and based on his correspondences the two were truly very good friends. Jennings Frederick, unfortunately, passed away on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at the age of 62 while still living in the Fairmont area. He was survived by his daughter and son and their families. He was buried at West Virginia National Cemetery at Grafton with full military honors.

Jennings Frederick was clearly not appreciated in his time on this earth for what he had accomplished and for his experiences. Even at the beginning of my research, the pull was Veggie Man and Gray Barker. For those who don’t know Gray Barker was a complicated figure in Ufology, he was a storyteller, a hoaxer, and a genuine researcher and because of this a lot of his cases are difficult to determine if they are legitimate or not. Some cases that he investigated like the Flatwoods Monster or the Grafton Monster had other researchers or a newspaper trail that proved that it was not some form of creative writing by Barker. Veggie Man was always one such case that remained in this limbo of credibility. While the Newsletter Barker put out included Jenning’s address and contact info most people who knew the story discovered it through Brad Steiger’s books where it was constantly recycled or through Rob Morphy’s article on his American Monsters Website and later his Cryptopia Website and later on his Cryptonaut Podcast with Marc Storrs and Chris Carnicelli. That’s how I first heard the story as a late elementary-early middle school student. Through Steiger, the personal information was removed but with it the validation that Jennings was a real person as later almost every Barker story and source came under scrutiny due to his hoaxing and creative writing. From this, some felt that the Veggieman story with its almost erotic-sounding communication and blood removal was a story of sexual expression by Barker or that this was his way of trying to create his own personal monster to be associated with in the same way John Keel had Mothman or McCloy and Miller had the Jersey Devil or even what we see today with Lyle Blackburn on the Fouke Monster or Dana Holyfield on the Honey Island Swamp Monster. A cryptid that he would be the “expert” on. Here this led on this expedition through obscure sources to validate the story and not only did I find that Jennings was a real person but that he was unappreciated and he could have been up there with John Keel or Ivan T. Sanderson and unfortunately his story is incomplete. Had other forteans known at the lengths Frederick was involved and how incredible his story was we could have had another book as impactful as Communion or the Andreasson Affair yet chock full of  even more high strangeness like Mothman Prophecies. His story needs to be told. It's one thing for us to focus on the entities seen in cases like these but with it, we tend to forget that they are a part of a person’s life and history and with it we slowly forget the people who experience the entities. Jennings Frederick had reached that point on more than one occasion and the point of this article is not just to chronicle the Fortean elements of his life but also to verify that he existed, he was a parent, a soldier, he was a ufologist, he wasn’t just some random hunter who encountered a tall green being in 1968 but a literal legend with countless stories to tell.

Epilogue: I want to thank everyone who had helped support me and helped in getting some of the resources with telling what I can say is perhaps the most complete version of Jennings Frederick’s Story. I also want to thank everyone who tells his story his story has become extremely personal to me and has been with me for years. Yet I feel more closer to it now that I’ve been researching him. Why am I so attached to this story? I have no clue. Do we ever really have a reason as to why something draws us in or why something from generations back drew our parents in? His story is like that and knowing and reading his letters it’s a weird feeling like talking to a pen pal. I wish I could have met him not even to talk about Veggie Man but just to talk about his life. There is still many blanks and more info about him personally that would help fill out his story outside the fortean aspects, but one can only find so much. Yet I am incredibly grateful for what I have been given and what I’ve been able to dig up. And so from the bottom of my heart a thank you and if anybody has any further Info on Jennings life or if any of his family would like to reach out definitely please get a hold of me so I can continue telling the complete story. Thank you all for reading!

This Article is Dedicated to the Memory and Legacy of Jennings H. "Skips" Frederick: A Legend Never to be Forgotten Again

May 28,1949-April 10, 2012

Works Cited:

Alien Meetings By Brad Steiger

Extraordinary Encounters By Jerome Clark

Humanoid Encounters: 1965-1969 By Albert S. Rosales

Into the Unknown By Reader’s Digest

Men in Black: The Secret Terror By Gray Barker

Monsters Among Us By Brad Steiger

The UFO Phenomenon by Time-Life books

Gray Barker’s Newsletter March 1976

OVNI Presence No. 40

UFO HUMCAT index 1967

UFO Review No. 03 April 1979

UFOCUS #2 Fall 1977

Who Builds the Flying Saucers By Jennings Frederick

Letters From Jennings Frederick to Gray Barker Dated: December 26th 1975, January 13, 1976, February 9, 1976, February 11, 1976, February 18th 1976, September 2, 1976, December 16th 1976 , February 11th 1977, August 2nd 1977, July 19th 1978

“Country Man Discusses Research into UFOs” Untitled Newspaper from Gray Barker Archive, Clarksburg.

Tracing Owls Podcast: Jennings Frederick: The Man Behind the Vegetable-With Cole Herrold.  October 13, 2022.

https://podcasts.google.com/u/1/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81ODQwYjhiOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/ZDYwZWJhNDEtYzc3NS00NjdkLTkyODktOWRiMWIxM2MzYmNi?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiwl8mtuY_9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQZg

Cryptonaut Podcast #13. Vegetable Man. March 5, 2018.

 https://podcasts.google.com/u/1/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9jcnlwdG9uYXV0LmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz/episode/Yjk0Zjc3ZTZiYmI2NjA3YzEyY2Q4ZmI2ODNlZmIxYjE?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwiwl8mtuY_9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ1QE

Curious Creatures: The Vegetable Man- Children's Book By Michael Strayer

https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/shop/curious-creatures-the-vegetable-man

https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Creatures-Vegetable-Michael-Strayer/dp/B0B6XJHPNL

THE JENNINGS  FREDERICK PHOTO ARCHIVE

























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