Has the Mothman of legend returned to Georgia? Read the story and subsequent email message to Phantoms & Monsters below and see what possible explanations you can come up with in the comments below.
It’s been many years since the Silver bridge collapsed, claiming 46 lives during a busy Friday evening rush hour. It is said that an omen to the incident appeared in the form of an odd looking creature later named Mothman by an Ohio copy editor who had a fascination with the old Batman TV series with a similar looking villain.
As time passed I developed a fascination with the monster of Point Pleasant. I spent more time than you can imagine researching the subject over the years, but the stories and sightings were few and far between. In fact, incidents involving the winged creature with no head have become downright rare.
I often wondered why a fairly famous entity would be so lacking in coverage? Similar beasts such as Bigfoot are still going strong. Even Chupacabra gets more play than the Mothman and in my mind, that defies logic. You’d think there would at least be a steady stream of hoaxes for such an eerie specter who’s appearance is said to be a warning of coming disaster.
As I pondered this lack of coverage, it occurred to me, if something had a chance of being real, would sightings and associated stories lack attention, or is there just not enough interest? Even a feature motion picture wasn’t enough to push this cryptid into the forefront for very long.
I for one get very excited when I see a story involving a creature that can be mistaken for nothing but Mothman. I’ve seen incidents describing large winged entities and I’ve even posted on them here, but it wasn’t until today that I knew I had a bona-fide Mothman encounter….that is, if we are to believe the incident.
This story comes to us from Lon over at Phantoms & Monsters where a skittish woman who goes only by the initials EW, tells of a terrifying run in with what in my mind can only be Mothman:
The North Georgia Mothman Encounter (as told to Lon Strickler)
Last December I received an email from a woman (who I will refer to as ‘EW’) from north Georgia who thought she had encountered a Mothman. After many months of correspondence, the witness has agreed to allow me to post the event but only under strict circumstances. She has reviewed this post and has agreed to the following content being published:
“Hello – I am hoping you can shed some light on an incident I had a few years ago. I was twenty-five at the time and was driving to my friend CW’s house. It was quiet at 11:30 pm as I drove south on an old country road off of (redacted) highway near (redacted) in north Georgia. Very few people pass this way because it leads to nothing but a small group of houses. I turned on the radio but nothing came on. I figured it was a blown fuse but then I started to heard weird scratching sounds coming through the speakers. It sounded like a distant voice but I couldn’t understand what it was saying.
Suddenly, something flew in front of the car and hit the windshield with enough size and force that it totally mangled the grill and hood. I immediately stopped the car. I heard what sounded like wings flapping on the roof, but then something rolled down the back window onto the trunk then eventually on to the road. I thought I killed whatever it was. A woman in a truck had pulled up from behind and said she saw the thing hit the road. She said that it’s eyes were glaring bright red. As we looked more closely at this thing it resembled a man with large bat-like wings. The woman walked back to her truck and pulled a shotgun from the back and pointed it at this bat-like creature.
It was starting to move and we backed off. It slowly stood up on two large raptor-like claws, turned and stared directly at us with those terrible bright red eyes. The woman pumped the shotgun. It slowly levitated off the ground with wings spread until it was about 10 foot up then instantly, it let out a deafening screech as it just disappeared with a loud ‘swoosh’. The woman (who I found out later was CW’s aunt) and I just looked at each other.
This thing had the body of a well-built man. It had no feathers but charcoal gray skin like that of a bat with some hair on the shoulders and around the eyes and legs. When it spread it’s wings, it had the span of 12 foot or more. I estimate it was about 8 foot tall. It had no head however, just the eyes embedded on the shoulders that had brows. I didn’t noticed a mouth or nose. There is no way I was going to report this and CW’s aunt totally agreed. We both drove off to CW’s house. I was so shook up I stayed the night.
The next morning, I went outside to inspect the car. There was a huge crack in the windshield and the grill was mangled beyond repair. The hood also had a deep 25 inch dent. I started to walk back to the house when I noticed something laying in the grass beside the garage. It was CW’s Golden Retriever lying dead from massive lacerations up and down it’s back. I just knew that thing did it.
That was 3 years ago and I constantly dream of this creature. I was told by a friend that I had encountered a Mothman. It looked more like a Batman to be honest. I decided to look up a few of the sightings by others and saw your name and blog. Many of the images on Google were very similar to what I saw. I wrote to someone else about a year ago but they never got back to me. I have included 2 of the images I think look the most like the creature I hit with my car that night. Could you contact me at this email? Thank you for your time. EW”
For more on this subject, including Lon’s comments, head over to Phantoms & Monsters
Is this story authentic? It’s seems to hold many similarities to other winged creature encounters, such as the body slamming into the windshield and rolling off the back. Also, I was almost wondering why the other woman didn’t shoot the thing. At one point it lets out a hair raising screech and I fully expected the next sentence to describe the deafening sound of the shotgun muzzle! Yet, both women stand and watch as it floats up into the air.
Another problem that challenges the authenticity is at no time does either women scream, run or lock themselves in their vehicles. In fact, their reaction seems lacking in emotion or animation. However, those who know the Mothman story well will tell you that there are associated reports of emotional and mental manipulation. Could these ladies have been in some sort of semi-trance state?
I could just dismiss this as a hoax, but that wouldn’t be much fun, especially for someone as addicted to the Mothman saga as I am.
I’d like to give a big shout out to Lon as I enjoyed this one thoroughly.
