Flatwoods Monster: The Mysterious Green Cloaked Figure That HAUNTED West Virginia

What happens when you mix UFO sightings, strange lights in the sky, and rumors of reptilian robots hiding in the woods of rural America? You get one of American folklore’s most eerie and intriguing cryptids—the Flatwoods Monster. But be warned. They don’t call West Virginia “wild and weird” for nothing. 

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An Unexpected Crash Landing in Flatwoods: The Original Flatwoods Monster Sighting

As the two youngest May boys, Ed and Freddie and their childhood friends, Tommy Hyer, and Neil Nunley, were out playing tag at the end of the street, they began to notice a pulsing red light streak across the sky. And after a few mesmerizing moments, the red light suddenly fell from the sky and crashed on a neighboring farm. Terrified, they all ran inside to tell Mrs. Kathleen May what they had just witnessed. Yelling over each other, the boys described the blinking light, and believed it to be a flying saucer. With this, Mrs. Kathleen May instantly alerted National Guardsmen, Eugene Lemon, grabbed the boys, as well as their family dog, Richie, and made their way toward the hillside on G. Bailey Fisher’s farm where the object had supposedly landed.

Of course, they had no idea what to expect. A bit scared? Maybe a little curious? And I’m sure a little bit of doubtful that a UFO had actually crash landed nearby. I mean, what were the odds? But as they walked closer up the hill, the glowing “ball of fire” was all the confirmation they needed. 

Eugene Lemon had been the first to see it. 

According to his firsthand account, as he was leading Kathleen and the group of boys up near the crash site, he saw “what appeared to be a pair of bright eyes in a tree.” Pointing his flashlight toward the tree, he took a step the closer, and instantly got a better look at the thing staring back at him. With its loud hissing screech, Eugene screamed in terror, dropped his flashlight, and fell backward at the terrible sight. With this, he, Kathleen, and the rest of the children took off running as the monster started floating towards them. 

Eugene would later describe it as “a 10-foot monster with a blood-red body and a green face that seemed to glow”. He noted that it’s head was shaped like a spade and was wearing what appeared be a dark, metal dress. He also stated that its hands were twisted and it may have had claws but he wasn’t completely sure as there had been a dense mist clouding around it. 

According to Kathleen, she would later describe it as a “Fire-breathing monster, 10 feet tall with a bright green body and a blood red face” as it bounced and levitated toward them. With this, she also stated that there was a strange mist around the figure and an overwhelming metallic odor. As they tried to run from the figure, a few of them suffered from throat irritation, vomitting that for several hours and nausea that lingered for days after. In her words, “it looked worse than Frankenstein. It couldn’t have been human.” 

As soon as they got home, Kathleen contacted the authorities and pleaded that they come check out the scene. And a few moments later, a sheriff and his deputy, as well as a local news reporter conducted a numerous interviews with Eugene, Kathleen, the children, and even G. Bailey Fisher himself. Upon arriving C.B. Fisher’s farm, the news reporter even described the crash site as having a “sickening, burnt, metallic order still prevailing”. 

When the sheriff and his deputy finished their two separate sweeps of the area, neither of them had noticed anything out of the ordinary. But it’s worth mentioning, that next morning, the same news reporter made his way back out to the crash site and had discovered two tracks in the mud as well as trail of a thick, black liquid he couldn’t quite make out. In his opinion, “this area hadn’t been subjected to traffic for at least a year”. But of course that wouldn’t necessarily be accurate as it was later revealed that the mysterious tracks were likely to have been from a Chevrolet pickup truck driven by a local who may have also witnessed the strange glowing lights after the initial investigation lead by the sheriff and his deputy. But, we can’t know for sure. 

What we do know is that this strange sighting on September 12th, 1952 wouldn’t be the last of its kind. And that mass hysteria would only follow in its footsteps. 

Various Encounters from West Virginia Residents

It was only a matter of time before witnesses started coming forward with their stories. 

One story includes a mother and her 21 year-old-daughter who claimed to have come face to face with a strange figure, describing it as having a shiny body, with a “cowl” around its red round head in the shape of an ace of spaces, complete with glowing green-orangish eyes that were described as “portholes” the size of half-dollars. According the the two women, this encounter, though had been a week prior to original sighting with Eugene, Kathleen May, and the several children.

And according to this eye-witness statement, the sickening metallic odor the creature had emitted had been so intoxicating that the woman’s daughter had been admitted to the hospital where she spent a total of 3 weeks trying to regain back her health. 

But that’s just one encounter that happened before the infamous sighting that originally made headlines. According the statement from the mother of the local farmer, C.B. Fisher, at the approximate time of the crash, her house had been violently shaken and her radio had been cut out for 45 minutes.

And then you have the sightings that supposedly happened the very next day after this crash landing. According to the director of the local board of education, he had claimed to see a flying saucer take off around 6:30 that next morning. 

But later that night? One couple witnessed the creature firsthand. Apparently, they had been driving through the mountains of Frametown, West Virginia the night after the initial crash when they, too, stumbled upon something unearthly. 

Reptilian Humanoid Spotted?

According to George and Edith Snitowsky, they had been driving with their 18-month-old boy in tow, through the rural area between Clay and Braxton County on Route 4. During this time, the sun was just starting to set when their car had suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.

Thinking maybe they had ran out of gas or some other vehicle malfunction, the husband kept trying to turn the key in hopes that it would kick the engine back on but to no avail. After a few minutes, the couple had been growing frustrated. Not to mention, the sun had been setting and it was beginning to darken outside and the road was completely deserted. 

With their car parked in the middle of the road and their baby crying, they had no idea what to do next. Should they wait for another car to pass to ask for help? Should they abandon their car and try walking to town?

As they were deciding on their next steps, that’s when they both noticed a strange flash of bright light filling the darkness, followed by a sulfuric odor wafting around their car. With the fog surrounding their car, they thought they could see a tall figure had been hovering over their windshield. But when the smoke cleared, what they weren’t expecting to see was the terrifying creature levitating in front of them. 

As they would later describe, the figure from the waist down had eerily similar features from the creature Eugene, Kathleen and the children described the night before, with its blood-red body and glowing skin. 

But from the waist up? It’s green face resembled more of a “reptilian humanoid”. It had a bony body and lizard-like claws that they claimed to have dragged across the hood of their car before drifting away into the woods. Once the creature had disappeared, their car, as if by magic, restarted back up as if nothing had happened. 

The creature in question would later be coined the Frametown Monster. Or more widely known as the Flatwoods Monster. But in this case, the Flatwoods Monster seemed to be missing the top half of its shiny, red metallic suit. 

Variations of the Flatwoods Monster Description

The description of the Flatwoods Monster has a few different variations to it. While most would agree that it has a green body and a blood-red face with glowing eyes that looked like portholes, a few alternative descriptors include a black body, or even a silver body like a robotic space suit. 

Others disagree on its appendages. Some say it has more “toy-like arms” like a toy robot. Or, if you remember Eugene Lemon, the National Guardsmen who suggested that it had claws at the end of its arms. And then, there are others who say it has no arms at all. 

And although most people agree its stature is rather large, even the size of it varies with some suggesting it being 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide while others argue it being up to 17 feet tall. And that cowl around its head in the shape of a spade? Many compare that to the face of a barn owl. 

Meteors & Owls & UFOS & Cryptids & Government Aircraft, oh my!

So, what exactly is the Flatwoods Monster? Is it a reptile from outer space? A misidentified screeching owl? Or an unknown cryptid we’ve yet to discover?

If we’re going to find the answers to this unknown species, we’ve got to do some digging and investigate every idea we can think of. 

Say it’s just an owl. I happen to know that at night, owls can be an absolutely frightening sight when you’re least expecting them. Coupled that with their terrifying screeches that literally sound like a witch cackling, and no I’m not kidding you, I’ve had firsthand experience with a screeching barn owl that I literally thought that something as coming for me. 

So when you see a strange blinking light in the sky and then suddenly you’re met with a large, dark bird flying around you with glowing eyes that feel as though their boring into your soul? Yeah, you’d think a monster was coming for you too. And yes, I am a big fan of owls but no matter how cute they can look in the light, you’ve gotta agree that owls at night are something else entirely.

But this still doesn’t explain the red flash of light those May boys claimed to have seen before the large crash a few miles away. 

If you ask Joe Nickell, a senior researcher of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, about his investigations into the 1952 Flatwoods Monster encounters in 2000? He concluded that the Flatwoods Monster was no monster at all and certainly not an owl, but merely a meteor passing through. And the pulsating red light in the sky? Most likely “an aircraft navigation or hazard beacon.” 

But if the encounters could be boiled down to a simple explanation, then why such frenzy from those who claimed to have seen it? Joe Nickell has a simple explanation for that as well: heightened anxiety. 

But then what were families so anxious about?

Real Terror: Could the Flatwoods Monster Be an Object of War?

Well, for one, LIFE magazine had recently published an article, titled,”Have We Visitors from Outerspace?” a few months earlier. This particular article highly favored the notion that flying saucers may be “the product of extraterrestrials” when several UFOs had been spotted throughout the month of July in and around Washington D.C. 

With this, numerous sightings had grown widespread, coining the term, “the 1952 UFO Flap” due to all the media attention. And according to Project Blue Book director, Edward J. Ruppelt, he later recalled that “during a six-month period in 1952, 148 of the nation’s leading newspapers carried a total of over 16,000 items about flying saucers.”

Because of all this growing media attention, it’s no wonder families throughout the nation had been actively keeping their eyes to the skies. But this wasn’t the only reason for the nation’s anxiety, though. They weren’t just looking up trying to see UFOs or aliens. 

No, there had been another hot topic everyone seemed to be talking about during this time: cold war America. I mean, it had only been 3 years before the May brother’s initial Flatwoods Monster incident when the Soviet Union had successfully tested the atomic bomb in 1949.

So with the nation tense with anxiety and riddled with fear, it’s not surprising that rumors of unidentified flying objects, whether from other countries or from out of this world, kept families weary of anything strange that went bump in the night. 

What Do The Locals Say?

Of course, there are a wide variety of beliefs behind this strange entity. There are devout skeptics and casual believers. Some are rigid in their beliefs that the Flatwoods Monster is real and is either an alien or a cryptid or even a hybrid of something else we don’t yet know about.

Others offer a conventional answer that the encounters can be easily explained away by meteors or even government aircraft. And then there are those who don’t believe in the Flatwoods Monster whatsoever and view it as nothing more than a cheap thrill. 

Like most cryptid tales, there are also those, who, like myself, don’t really hold strong beliefs either way. Obviously, there are things we don’t have all the answers to but some things can easily be explained away.

Personally, I’m not saying the Flatwoods Monster encounters are impossible but I’m also not saying there highly likely. The truth is, I’m not a West Virginia native so I don’t have much say to on the matter. 

But, what do the locals say? 

Well, according to a local newspaper publisher, A. Lee Stewart, he may lean a bit toward the Flatwoods Monster being real. 

In the Hinton Daily News article, published on September 15th, 1952, a few days after the initial sighting, states that when, A. Lee Stewart, Co-Publisher of the Braxton County Democrat received the first report from Kathleen, he had organized an armed posse at the scene with his shotgun in tow. 

Upon his arrival, he shared that “the odor was still there. It was sort of warm and sickening and there were two places about 6-8 feet in diameter where the brush was trampled down. “I hate to say I believe it but I hate to say I don’t believe either. Those people were scared – badly scared, – the most scared I’ve ever seen. People don’t make up that kind of story that quickly. And I sure smelled something.”

But, some of the West Virginia State Police had other thoughts. 

To them, they just “laughed off the reports as hysteria”, in which they claimed that “the so-called monster had grown from seven to 17 feet in just 24 hours”, thus, in their opinion, invalidating the supposed events that occurred. Oh, and the strange mist the group had claimed to make them sick for hours on end? According to the police, this was nothing more than a sign of being exposed to mustard gas.

You Don’t Have to be Sold on the Idea to Sell the Idea

Then there are locals who will boast of strange green monsters, if it means cash in hand, even if they themselves don’t believe. Just ask Gibson, a West Virginia insurance agent in his 80’s who has sold over 1,000 of his 12-inch tall ceramic Green Monster figurines in the last  couple of years at $30 a piece. 

His unbelief in the Flatwoods Monster certainly doesn’t mean he’ll deny making a quick buck off of those who do believe. 

In his words, “I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny. I don’t believe in Santa. And I really don’t believe in the Flatwoods Monster. But I do want to boost our community. If you know how I could get a 26-foot tall fiberglass Green Monster statue made for Flatwoods, let me know. That would be a big draw, don’t you think.”

Why Some Skepticism is Healthy

If you’re an avid believer in cryptozoology or in the paranormal or supernatural in general, sometimes it can feel frustrating not having someone believe you. It’s easy to feel like some people just want to ruin all the fun and just poke holes into every theory that’s not entirely backed by science. 

But no matter how firm a believer, I feel as though a bit of skepticism can be healthy. Playing devil’s advocate and questioning such claims may not always mean trying to prove something supernatural doesn’t exist. Asking deeper questions about things uncertain sometimes gives us more insight into the unknown that we might think. 

And sometimes people question things simply because they love to have deep and meaningful discussions about abstract ideas. Sometimes scientific skepticism really just means getting to the core of what we believe, why believe in these things, and how this affects the world we live in. 

Like take the aforementioned Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry for example. Formerly known as “The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal”, The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, or CSI for short, was first introduced in April of 1976. 

The purpose behind this committee was to create “a program within the U.S. non-profit organization, Center for Inquiry, which sought to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation and the use of reason in exempting controversial and extraordinary claims.”

Creator of The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Paul Kurtz, a well-known American scientific skeptic and secular humanist, who was often referred as “the father of human secularism” wanted to counter the “uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both the media and society in general”. 

But don’t let the skepticism fool you. 

Earlier, when I mentioned that Joe Nickell is a current researcher for the CSI, this is true. But there’s way more than meets the eye with Joe Nickell. 

For starters, in all his years, he’s lived multiple lives – he may be known as a scientific skeptic, but that’s not the only title he claims. Some of the titles he carries but are certainly not limited to include: paranormal investigator, private detective, blackjack dealer, university instructor, author, carnival pitchman, and stage magician, to name a few. 

Oh, and the books he writes? They can be divided into 4 main topics: religion, forensics, paranormal, and mystery. And his investigative research? Joe also dives into historical, iconographic, physical, and chemical evidence of each of these different categories, including the “radiocarbon dating” process to help explain different events and strange phenomena throughout our history. 

With all this research and skepticism, it’s easy to take Joe Nickell as a staunch unbeliever. But instead, what you may find is that Joe may be more open to the ideas of things unexplained. 

As he shared on podcast, MonsterTalk, in his words, “I don’t like debunkers and I don’t like dismissers, people who are just trying to say, “Oh, humbug… Those people were probably drunk or lying or hoaxing.” I just think we shouldn’t do that. If I’m studying vampires, I don’t have to believe they exist to talk about the history of vampires, the cultural and literary history. There are many aspects, all worthy of some scholarly discussion.^”

And in another interview on the podcast, Point of Inquiry, Joe states that, quote ”I’m interested in the evidence because I want us to know what the truth is… I urge skeptics not to be as closed-minded as the other side is ridiculously open-minded.” unquote.

In the World (But Not of Ours?)

Then there are those who don’t strictly deny nor do they blindly accept the stories of strange green levitating reptilian monsters. Some of these stories, like the Flatwoods Monster, do kind of sound out of this world. But maybe that’s the point. 

Just because something seems strange and unusual doesn’t necessarily mean it’s false. When it comes to cryptids, there are those who remain open to the idea of unearthing things yet unseen. There may be things living amongst us, like UFOs, aliens, or events cryptids that aren’t of this world. 

As Joan Bias, a West Virginia news editor for the Braxton Democrat, remains hopefully curious to what’s hidden in plain sight when they say “The Universe is a mighty big place. I can’t imagine we might be alone in it – though, I’m a Baptist, so maybe I shouldn’t say that”. 

Wild and Weird West Virginia

No matter what you believe the Flatwoods Monster truly is, one thing is for certain, they don’t call West Virginia “wild and weird” for nothing. 

As someone who has recently toured West Virginia on our way to New England for our Cryptids East Coast Tour, I can attest that there is definitely some strange stuff going on there. I mean, for starters, there is so much cryptid and UFO lore in West Virginia. 

And we’ve actually covered a few of those stories here, like the episode you’re listening featuring the Flatwoods Monster, or a couple recent episodes where we’ve covered Indrid Cold, the Abbagoochie, and in an upcoming episode, we’re even discussing the long awaited take on the Mothman.

Now, before I share my take on the Flatwoods Monster being Fact, Folklore, or Fraud, I wanted to drop a quick shoutout Ron and Joe the creative minds behind “Wild and Weird West Virginia” for taking an hour out of their day to chat with us about all things cryptids and paranormal investigations. I don’t think it was a coincidence Cody and I randomly met these two guys and look forward to a future collaboration in this space. 

Is The Flatwoods Monster Fact, Folklore, or Fraud? 

With that, on a scale of Fact, Folklore, or Fraud, where do I believe the Flatwoods Monster falls? For Fact, I’m giving this one about 30%. The reason for this is because after spending a couple of days touring West Virginia, it definitely has an “air” to it that feels like something is slightly “off”. 

I can’t really explain the feeling, just like I believe a few people encountered something they couldn’t explain. Obviously, there are tons of strange encounters that have happened in West Virginia – and not just the Flatwoods Monster encounters.

And during the time of the cold war and all the speculation around UFOs in Washington DC that same year, I think it’s hard to completely dismiss something factual happened. And if that many people were hospitalized due to an intoxicating metallic odor, where they all pretty much described a similar figure? There’s got to be something to this whole idea. 

For Folklore, I’ll give this one 45%. Whether the Flatwoods Monster is a real entity or something made up entirely to drum up tourism for the area, it works. Even when the doors to the museum are closed, you can find Flatwoods Monster figurines and memorabilia everywhere.

From the large green painted Adirondack chairs to even small trinkets over in Point Pleasant, the love for this cryptid remains and continues to be passed on. And the fact that the love of the idea behind the Flatwoods Monster is what keeps the town running, means that this town will probably keep the lore going. 

This leads Fraud at a 25%. While there isn’t much evidence that this thing truly exists, there isn’t much evidence that it doesn’t. What happened in September1952 most likely stayed in September 1952. In my research, I didn’t find anyone claiming this thing still exists or any recent encounters.

And I don’t really believe there was any real reason to make up the Flatwoods Monster at the time. Though, going along with the idea behind the folklore keeping the town alive, I definitely think the “fraud” aspect lines a few people’s pockets even if they don’t themselves believe. 

A quick buck may make a believer out of just about anyone. 

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