Published: May 18, 2008 10:54 pm         

Flatwoods monster meets with Mothman at UFO extravaganza

Consider the show’s title for a moment.

If you’ve lived long enough, it revives memories of those old 1950s-era sci-fi flicks, back when outrageous monsters from other planets, or long submerged in the depths of an ocean, tromped awkwardly across the silver screen to do combat with one another or any earthling that stood in their paths.

Actually, there’s to be no rivalry when the Flatwoods Monster teams up with Mothman in late summer in the Kanawha Valley.

What is happening merely is a second running of a UFO extravaganza, one that attracts the true believers from one coast to another, as well as some foreign disciples to boot.

“Everybody is going to think it’s Godzilla meets Mothra,” show promoter Larry Bailey quipped, recalling the Japanese take on American-made monster flicks popular decades ago.

In reality, the Sept. 12-13 event, planned at the new Alban Art Conference Center in St. Albans, is designed to pay homage to West Virginia’s two most famous oddities — the Flatwoods Monster that disrupted the pastoral setting of Braxton County in 1952 and the bird-like creature known as Mothman, whose eerie arrival preceded the deadly Silver Bridge collapse in 1967.

While the two were never known to compete, it’s indisputable they have been rivals for media attention for many years.

Mothman inspired a spate of books and magazine articles, not to mention a Richard Gere film titled “The Mothman Prophecies.”

Arriving on a summer night in 1952 and thought by one writer to be part of a convoy of alien spaceships engaged by the U.S. Air Force in a spirited battle off the Atlantic Coast, the Flatwoods Monster has garnered its share of notoriety. In particular, he has been the subject of three books by author-illustrator Frank Feschino.

His latest effort, titled “The Flatwoods Monster — Myth to Reality,” is the result of painstaking research the past 17 years in which the Florida resident takes a chronological view of the first sighting and a floodtide of reports and newspaper articles that followed its brief visit to the hills of West Virginia.

Feschino’s first book on the subject explored the basic facts, but in a more pointed follow-up, “Shoot Them Down,” the Floridian went to lengths to show the “monster” was in fact an extraterrestrial warrior sidelined when his ship was knocked out of combat in a savage 1952 air battle.

Now, in his third offering, Feschino is letting the full string run out on the Flatwoods incident that put the little hamlet on the map after a bizarre, robot-like entity that first mesmerized, then frightened away, a gaggle of youths playing football and three adults who accompanied them up a steep hill overlooking their playground. Witnesses remembered a sound that resembled bacon frying in a pan and a stifling, sulfur odor emanating from the “alien.”

“I go back to the very first day and I have information from the day the event took place from all the reporters, investigators and newspaper accounts from around the world in a chronological, straight order and bring the original investigators into it,” the writer explained.

“And then I bring it right up to modern times.”

Feschino left no known stone unturned in quest of the truth of a subject that has haunted since he first learned of it while attending an aunt’s funeral in the area nearly two decades ago.

“Basically, it’s like a courtroom layout,” he says.

“It’s a fun book. It’s a really good read, an easy read. It’s chock full of information that nobody has ever seen. I’ve been putting this stuff away for years. A 12-year-old kid could read this book. Every step of the story is basically a segment of the Flatwoods story in a chapter. Then I use all of the original investigators’ comments, tie them in with a section of the story, then I pull out all the reporters from the 1960s. And I have the interviews with the witnesses.”

To learn as much as possible, Feschino contacted reporters who handled the “Flatwoods Monster” phenomenon, among them Skip Johnson, formerly an outdoor columnist with The Charleston Gazette.

Feschino has come to be identified so closely with the Flatwoods Monster that Kathleen May, one of the adult witnesses, has jokingly referred to him as her third son. While back in West Virginia, he hopes to drum up support for a proposed museum housing not only UFO memorabilia but that of the space industry as well.

Joining the author at the St. Albans event will be Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist and UFO author, generally recognized as the world’s foremost authority on the subject; Jeff Wamsley, paranormal investigator and curator of the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant; Chad Lambert, author of “Return to Point Pleasant”; John Ventri, MUFON director in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and Alfred Lehmberg, UFO Magazine columnist and author.

“I told the story like I’m the ninth person there,” Feschino said of the Flatwoods incident.

St. Albans Mayor Dick Callaway takes an objective, neutral position on UFOs, but is glad to see Feschino and Friedman co-hosting the second such UFO summit in his town.

“I won’t say I believe in them,” Callaway cautioned an interviewer.

“I will say there’s a possibility, simply because they can’t prove or disprove. They have a body of evidence, but there’s no jury returning a verdict on that yet.”

Bailey worked with Wamsley, and the Mothman Museum curator agreed it would be a novel idea to have both curiosities spotlighted at the 2008 summit.

“We had a good turnout last year, considering the Marshall-WVU football game was on Saturday,” he said.

“We’re getting calls already. One man in California has called. He drives cross-country every year for something. He’s 70 years old. This year, it’s going to be our show.”

Football might not be a distraction this time around, but Bailey conceded the rising gasoline prices could affect attendance.

At least for those piloting human-made vehicles.

No one has yet ascertained how many miles per gallon one can log with a spaceship. Or just what it costs at the pumps at outer space stations.

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com