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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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