For over a year there were hundreds of sightings of a bird-like man with red eyes in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. There were stories of men in black who were trying to keep the story at bay. Then the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge added a new dimension to the tale. All of these things make the Mothman as much of a legend today, as he was over fifty years ago.
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Mothman Sightings
It’s said that the first sighting of Mothman was in November 1966. One night five men were digging a grave in a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia. They claimed to see something flying low in the trees above them. They described the creature as a brown man-like figure with wings.
On its own, this report wouldn’t have generated much interest but over the next coming days, more and more sightings of a winged creature would be reported.
A few days after the first sighting, Linda and Roger Scarberry were out driving with their friends Steve and Mary Mallette when they spotted a large, grey creature with glowing red eyes on the side of the road ahead of them.
It stood around seven feet tall and had wings folded against its back. Spooked by the creature, the couples sped off in their car. When they looked back, they saw the bird-like man spread its wings and fly towards them, chasing the car for several miles.
The following night Raymond Wamsley and Marcella Bennett were visiting friends when Bennett saw a figure moving behind her car. It seemed as though the figure had been lying down and was slowly rising to its feet. She described it as being grey and bigger than a man but the most distinctive feature was its glowing eyes.
They ran back towards their friend’s house and locked themselves inside. Wamsley called the police as the creature made its way onto the porch. It began to peer at them through the window but disappeared before the authorities showed up.
Mothman statue sculpted by Bob Roach.
Located in Point Pleasant
The Men in Black
The next year would bring more and more sightings of the creature known as Mothman. However, he wasn’t the only odd thing people were seeing around Point Pleasant. Residents were also noticing strange men, dressed in black suits.
It’s said that the role of the Men In Black is to contain information regarding any supernatural occurrences from reaching the public, kind of like paranormal damage control. They had arrived in Point Pleasant to keep the story of Mothman under wraps.
Some believed that the men were asking questions about Mothman and instructing witnesses not to talk about the creature. There were even rumours that the men were threatening towards witnesses who had claimed to have seen it.
Intimidating Witnesses
Mary Hyre was a reporter for The Athens Messenger and had an office in Point Pleasant. She was reporting on the odd occurrences in the town and was helping author John Keel who was investigating the subject for his book.
Mary was relentless in her reporting and she claims to have been visited by the Men In Black in her office. This led people to believe that the men were trying to stop her from releasing newspaper reports on the strange happenings.
Mary wasn’t the only one who claimed to have been visited by the Men In Black. Linda Scarberry, whose sighting is one of the most famous, also claims to have been visited by men in black suits. In an interview, she describes the men as being like humans but their skin was somewhat transparent. The veins in their hands could be seen very clearly and their fingers were longer than normal.
Steve and Mary Mallette, who were with Linda when they saw the Mothman, also had a strange encounter. A man and a woman had tried taking photos of them before taking off in a car. The Mallettes wrote down the licence plate number but when they contacted the police they were told that the licence plate number didn’t exist.
The Mothman Prophecies
On November 19th 1967, reporter Mary Hyre told John Keel that she had a terrible nightmare. As she describes, “There were a lot of people drowning in the river and Christmas packages were floating everywhere in the water. It’s like something awful is going to happen”.
Mary wasn’t the only one being haunted by these type of dreams. Other residents of Point Pleasant were having dreams and nightmares about an upcoming disaster. Virginia Thomas, the sister of Marcella Bennett, had dreams about people dying in the water of the nearby Ohio River.
Virginia Thomas also had her own experience with Mothman on the 2nd November 1967. She was working in her kitchen when she saw a huge shadow appear on the grass. A tall, grey figure appeared that she described as gliding faster than any man could run. Thomas was left shaken and it was after this terrifying experience that she started having nightmares.
The Collapse of the Silver Bridge
On the 15th of December 1967, the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant tragically collapsed under the weight of rush hour traffic. The bridge collapsed into the water below, taking cars along with it. It resulted in the death of 46 people and left 9 injured.
A detailed investigation into the collapse found that the cause was a 2.5mm deep defect on a single eye-bar on the suspension chain that had been improperly manufactured.
The collapse happened 13 months to the day of the first Mothman sighting by the Scarberrys and the Mallettes. After the bridge collapse, there were no more sightings of the Mothman. He just seemed to vanish.
The Omen Of Doom
There were rumours of sightings of Mothman near the bridge before the incident. People started speculating that Mothman was a warning or a dark premonition.
Mary Hyre and Virginia Thomas both had dreams about a tragedy involving people dying in the water. Hyre had even described seeing Christmas presents floating. Many of the people on the bridge had been Christmas shopping that day.
The Mothman soon became known as an Omen of Doom. There have been sightings of him all over the world before tragedies have stuck and the folklore creature from the small town of Point Pleasant has become a symbol of impending doom across the world.
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