The Flatwoods Monster Case 1952 Never Solved

On September 12, 1952 Flatwood, WV
Around 7:15 p.m., in Flatwoods, West Virginia, two brothers, Edward and Fred May, and their friend Tommy Hyer (ages 13, 12, and 10 respectively) witness a bright object cross the sky, coming to rest on land belonging to local farmer G. Bailey Fisher. 

The boys go to the home of the May brothers’ mother, Kathleen May, where they tell the story of having seen a UFO crash land. From there, Mrs. May, accompanied by the three boys, local children Neil Nunley, 14, and Ronnie Shaver, 10, and West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, 17, walk to the Fisher farm. At the top of a hill, they reportedly see a large pulsating “ball of fire” about 50 feet to their right. 

They also detect a pungent mist that makes their eyes and noses burn. Lemon then notices two small lights over to the left of the object, underneath a nearby oak tree and directs his flashlight towards them, revealing a creature, which May reports as bounding towards them. Other sources describe it as emitting a shrill hissing noise before gliding towards them, changing direction and then heading off towards the red light.

The group flees in panic. Sheriff Robert L. Carr and his deputy Burnell J. Long search the area separately, but find no trace of the encounter other than the smell. Early the next morning, A. Lee Stewart, co-owner of the Braxton Democrat, visits the site of the encounter for a second time and discovers two elongated tracks in the mud, as well as traces of a thick black liquid. 

It is later revealed that the tracks are likely those of a 1942 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by local Max Lockard, who had gone to the site to look for the creature some hours prior to Stewert’s discovery. Ivan T. Sanderson interviews the witnesses several days later and concludes that a flight of “intelligently controlled UFOs flew over Flatwoods West Virginia.” 

The Air Force concludes that people have seen a meteor and that the monster was only the glowing eyes of a barn owl. Joe Nickell also concludes in 2000 that the bright light in the sky reported by the witnesses on September 12 was most likely a meteor, that the pulsating red light is likely an aircraft navigation/hazard beacon, and that the creature described by witnesses closely resembles a barn owl. 

Nickell claims that the experience was distorted by the heightened state of anxiety felt by the witnesses after having observed the original meteor. However, Frank C. Feschino has done extensive research to support his hypothesis that the Flatwoods incident was only one small part of a major UFO display involving multiple objects (many of them reported as “meteors” or “balls of fire” or “flaming planes”) passing in westerly and other directions across the eastern and southern United States between 6:50 and 7:25 p.m. 

The trajectory of one of these UFOs (moving first northwest then northeast then south) alone takes it over Baltimore, Catonsville, Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, and Garrett County, Maryland; Preston County, Morgantown, Fairmont, Wheeling, Charleston, Parkersburg, Nitro, Ward, and Chelyan, West Virginia; Selma, Columbus, Zanesville, St. Clairsville, Ohio; it is last seen moving south around Bluefield, West Virginia.

Another object is seen over Washington, D.C., heading due west towards West Virginia, apparently landing in Flatwoods. A third object travels southwest over Roanoke and Pulaski, Virginia, possibly landing near Arcadia, Tennessee. Feschino thinks that these three objects had been damaged by fire directed at them by Air Force interceptors. 

Five other objects are observed in North Carolina in that time period, and these Feschino suspects may have been attempting to look for and assist the damaged objects. He also speculates that the disappearance of an F-94 jet fighter out of Tyndall AFB in Panama City, Florida, piloted by 2Lt John A. 

Jones and radar operator 2Lt John S. DelCurto, might have involved a tragic UFO interception that began three hours earlier; the last known contact with the fighter is at 5:43 p.m. over the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles northwest of Tampa, the accident takes place under unusual circumstances, and the wreckage has never been found. 

Feschino thinks that a UFO damaged in dogfights with many interceptors over the Gulf might have triggered the second battle over the Atlantic seaboard around 7:00 p.m. Then a second wave of multiple objects is observed 8:00–8:10 p.m. in the Washington, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia region that, according to Feschino, involves a search for a second downed UFO. 

Although Feschino jumps to many conclusions and his documentation for specific incidents and conditions is somewhat confusing, he may well have grasped more truth than the meteor-and-owl explanation of the skeptics. Let's Look Back On The Lubbuck UFO Lights 1951

Sources: Jeff Knox
“Braxton Co. Residents Faint, Become Ill After Run-In With Weird 10-Foot Monster,” Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail, September 14, 1952; “‘Monster’ Held Illusion Created by Meteor’s Gas,” Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, September 23, 1952, p. 3;
Gray Barker, “The Monster and the Saucer,” Fate 6, no. 1 (January 1953): 12–17; [Reprinted in True UFO Accounts: From the Vaults of FATE Magazine]
Gray Barker, “W. Va. ‘Monster’—A Full Report.” The Saucerian 1, no. 1 (September 1953): 8–21;
“More on the ‘Green Monster’,” Civilian Saucer Investigation 1, No. 2 (Winter 1953): 4-5;
Donald Keyhoe, Flying Saucers from Outer Space, pp. 116–120;