A ten foot tall creature was seen in the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia, on September 12, 1952. With a face shaped like the ace of spades, what was it?
On the night of September 12, 1952, two brothers and a friend saw an object fall onto a nearby hill. Kathleen May, an adult, brought the three boys up to the hill to investigate, along with a 17-year-old and his dog. The dog ran ahead and was out of sight as it ran around the hill. Suddenly it started barking. It came running back with its tail between its legs.
The witnesses found a sphere at the top of the hill, about 10 feet in diameter, pulsating. Off to the side, they saw two lights shining. One of the boys shined his flashlight toward the lights, which were actually the eyes of an unknown creature. It was about 10 feet tall, with a red face and green clothing. Its face resembled the ace of spades. The creature made a hissing sound, and began to hover toward the witnesses. Then, it changed direction and returned to the sphere, presumably, from where it came. At this point, the witnesses fled.
Later, along with the sheriff and Mr. A. Lee Stewert, co-owner of the local newspaper, they went back up the hill. They found skid marks, flattened grass, and a thick black liquid. There was also a “sickening, burnt, metallic odor” that irritated the witnesses’ eyes, noses and throats.
More Sightings
A week before the Flatwoods event, a Weston woman and her mother encountered a similar creature with a foul odor present. The younger woman was so frightened that she was hospitalized for three weeks afterward.
More sightings of the creature and the sphere were reported. A resident of nearby Birch River sighted a “bright orange object” in the air over Flatwoods.
Some time later, writer John Keel interviewed a couple who claimed to have sighted a 10-foot-tall creature the evening after the original sighting. They had been driving about 10 miles southwest of Flatwoods when their car stalled. A 10-foot-tall creature, emitting a foul odor, approached their car. It then returned to the woods, and a pulsating sphere rose from the trees and disappered into the sky.
A Mysterious Illness
Several of the witnesses reported an illness after the encounter. Symptoms were irritation of the nose and swelling of the throat. One suffered from vomiting and convulsions. The dog also started vomiting after the sighting. It died two days later. A physician who treated some of the witnesses described the sickness as being similar mustard gas exposure.
What Was It?
Skeptics view the events as a misidentification caused by panic.
The creature was explained as a barn owl, which has a heart-shaped face. If the owl was sitting in a tree, the 10-foot height would be explained. The leaves of the underbrush may have looked like a green body or clothing, and the hissing sound was consistent with the startled call of a barn owl.
The pulsing sphere was explained as a meteor. On September 12, a meteor had been sighted in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. It had been mistakenly reported as an aircraft crashing into a hill at Elk River, located 11 miles from Flatwoods.
The sickness was explained by some as hysteria. Others have deduced that the impact of the meteor caused a vapor, which brought about the illness described by the witnesses.
Whatever was seen that night in Flatwoods, West Virginia, remains an enigma. Was it really was a barn owl and a meteor that had been mistaken for the 10-foot-tall creature and mysterious sphere, or was it something paranormal? And if so, what?
