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
