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by Charles Lear

Much has been written about the 1952 Flatwoods Monster encounter in Braxton County, West Virginia. It is a bizarre tale that received national press coverage at the time and it is still celebrated today as part of West Virginia’s weird history. You can have your picture taken in one of five giant Flatwoods Monster chairs located in various areas around Braxton County and you can visit the Flatwoods Monster Museum in the town of Sutton. With all of the focus on the monster itself, certain aspects of the case tend to be overlooked. For one thing, this was the very first report of a creature associated with a U.F.O. For another, the case was looked into by some of UFOlogy’s very first private investigators.

On Sept. 12, 1952, reports of fireballs flying through the air came into newspaper offices and police stations from all over the southeastern United States. Searches were made for the most likely suspects, downed planes and fallen meteors, and none were found. Then, in Braxton County, West Virginia, in the town of Flatwoods, a group consisting of six boys ranging in age from 10 to 17, were playing football in the fading hours of daylight. One of the younger boys caught sight of a fiery object in the sky and alerted the others.

They watched as it flew over them and then seemed to land in a nearby farmer’s field. They were eager to investigate and ran to the home of Kathleen May, mother to two of the boys, Eddie, 13, and Freddie, 12. The group of boys excitedly told her what they had seen and one of them, 17 year-old Eugene Lemon, found a flashlight. Mrs. May joined them as they went up the hill that led to the farm.

The following account comes mostly from one witness, 14 year-old Neil Nunley. According to Nunley, he and Lemon were ahead of the others. As they went up the hill, they saw a reddish, pulsating light. They passed through a gate in the fence around the field and dutifully closed it behind them. As they got closer, they encountered a fog that had a “pungent, irritating odor.” The fog became thicker as they approached the light. Nunley described the light saying, “It was just like a big ball of fire.” He said he couldn’t estimate the size of the light, but others described that it was “as big as a house.”

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By Charles Lear

The very first flying saucer flap occurred during the summer of 1947. It began with the reported sighting of nine mysterious objects by pilot Kenneth Arnold on June 24 and hit its peak that July. This was the first, “summer of the saucers.” Much has been written about Arnold’s sighting but the sightings after that have been largely ignored. For the interested student of this period in U.F.O. history, there is a document available online that is well-worth reading. It provides a comprehensive account of the flap, citing a large number of newspaper articles that appeared during that time.

Housed at the University of Iowa is a thesis paper written in 1948 titled, “The ‘Flying Saucers’ Episode.” It was submitted by State University of Iowa journalism graduate student, Emil Earl Wennergren, as part of the requirements for his Master of Arts Degree. It is also available on the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena website. Besides providing insight into the fervor of the time and the effect it had on Arnold, there is an early look at the events at Roswell. Most amusing is the conclusion by Wennergren that Roswell marked the end of what was just a passing fascination.

In the introduction, Wennergren notes that many articles refer to “disks” and “discs.” The reader is informed that, according to Webster’s International Dictionary, “disk” refers to an inanimate object, whereas “disc” is the preferred spelling in zoology and botany. He then describes Arnold’s sighting of “nine shiny objects” near Mt. Rainier in Washington State. Arnold told reporters that they flew with a motion “like a fish flipping in the sun.” The story was on page 1 of the June 26, edition of the Portland Oregonian and spread to papers throughout the United States that same day.

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By Charles Lear

In 1966, there was a flap over Michigan that got the attention of the press and the Air Force.  There was a great deal of excitement and Project Blue Book’s scientific consultant, J. Allen Hynek, was sent in to help calm things down. At a press conference, he offered some possible explanations.  Due to sightings over a marsh, he speculated that people had seen ignited balls of swamp gas, some going out and others igniting and that this created the illusion of movement.  The swamp gas explanation made the headlines, outraged many Michigan residents, including then-Governor Gerald Ford, and became forever associated with Hynek in the history books.  Fortunately for Hynek, he had a sense of humor and was able to turn his gaffe into an entertaining talk at a celebration of the Michigan events, ten years later.

On March 14, 1966, in the early morning hours, police officers in Washtenaw County saw lights in the sky flying at extremely high speed over Lima Township.  Officers across the border in Sylvania, Ohio reported seeing the same lights, as did observers at Selfridge Air Force Base located in Harrison Township, Michigan.  This is in the area of Ann Arbor, 40 miles west of Detroit in southeast Michigan. The lights were seen a few days later, around the same time, by sheriff’s deputies at various locations around the area.  One deputy described seeing a red, green, and yellow object, shaped like a top.

On March 20, police went to investigate reports of a U.F.O. landing, coming from residents around a swamp in Dexter Township.  One witness, truck driver Frank Mannor, went to investigate with his son.  He told the police the following:

(sic)  “We got to about 500 yards of the thing.  It was sort of shaped like a pyramid, with a blue-green light on the right-hand side and on the left, a white light. I didn’t see no antenna or porthole. The body was like a yellowish coral rock and looked like it had holes in it—sort of like if you took a piece of cardboard box and split it open. You couldn’t see it too good because it was surrounded with heat waves, like you see on the desert. The white light turned to a blood red as we got close to it and Ron said, ‘Look at that horrible thing.'” Read more →

By Charles Lear

In 1955, UFO investigation methods that could provide data appropriate for scientific scrutiny were still being developed and refined.  The U.S. Air Force investigators for Project Blue Book had made major progress in terms of gathering data and organizing it thanks to the efforts of Captain Edward J. Ruppelt during his oversight in 1952 and investigators from private organizations would later have a model they could follow thanks to Donald Keyhoe and his group, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, formed in 1956.  The Air Force and N.I.C.A.P. focused on witness accounts backed up by photos, films, trace evidence and radar confirmations of tangible objects in an attempt to prove or disprove the extraterrestrial hypothesis.  Because the Kelly-Hopkinsville case (described in part 1 of this blog) only had witness testimony of a very bizarre nature, neither organization saw fit to undertake a detailed investigation.

There were, at least, three serving members of the Air Force, from nearby Fort Campbell, who visited the Kelly farm in an unofficial capacity.   One of them, Major John E. Albert, issued a report to Project Blue Book, more than two years after the events, in response to a written request from CWO William T. Thomas USAF at Air Technical Intelligence Center.  The request is dated August 29, 1957 and, in paragraph 2, Thomas expressed concern that there was a magazine article about the case soon to be published and that the Air Force would be asked to comment.  Thomas emphasized, in paragraph 3, that “no credence can be given this almost fantastic report” and that it was never officially reported to the Air Force.  N.I.C.A.P. received a report from Albert Andre of Green Briar, Tennessee, but it was based on an interview with Glennie Lankford that he conducted in 1959.  If future researchers only had the above sources to reference, many details of the case might have never come to light.  Fortunately, a local man with an interest in the Kelly happenings, took it upon himself to interview the witnesses with an inspired approach on August 22, 1955, the morning after their reported encounter.

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