Mothman

John A. Keel: Demonologist?

Artist John Frick (below) of Cumberland, Maryland, stands under his creation, a Mothman replica that hangs from the ceiling of the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The belief system that underlies the sidetracking of 1966′s Mothman sightings from cryptozoology into the “dark side” has a lot to do with John A. Keel’s apparent framing of the case. But some folks still don’t get it. Good guy John Frick, a list moderator on the Mothman Lives email list, innocently writes: As far as Keel being a demonologist. He really isn’t as far as I know. Keel has mentioned that [...]

Update: Keel, Kolchak, and Garuda

Here is a little more news to add to what I said earlier about Keel’s health. Keel’s fictional alter-ego Kolchak makes an appearance (interesting timing that), Skinner pops in on Keel, and a winged spirit coincidentally turns up. Beware of the ides of Mothman, November 15, 2006, forty years back to the future. John A. Keel during the 1970s, in the midst of writing about Mothman. Darren McGavin in the 1970s as "Carl Kolchak". Is he searching the skies for a winged weirdie? As I mentioned when Darren McGavin died at the age of 83 on February 25, 2006, it [...]

Keel News Now & Mothman 40 Years Ago

Today is the symbolic 40th anniversary of the beginning of the modern era of Mothman sightings. On this date, I am happy to pass along the news (from Doug Skinner) that John A. Keel, 76, uncomfortable but very much alive, has been released from the rehab facility to his home. My very best wishes to Keel for a speedy recovery. Four decades ago, Keel did not know his life was going to take him down this road to Mothman. Intriguingly in 1966, a new book of his, The Fickle Finger of Fate, had just been published. Events were unfolding in [...]

Wamsley’s Mothman Interview

Let the anniversary articles begin. Let the 40th anniversary parties commence. Above: Mothman Museum director Jeff Wamsley holds his most recent book, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes. With him is museum co-worker Todd Wiseman, an Ohio University film student making a documentary about Mothman. I earlier today posted on the question of whether the 12th, not the 15th, might be more correctly the “first” date of the “first” multiple sighting of Mothman. That aside, historically, the Scarberry-Mallette encounter will be remembered as the “first,” and here’s the local media’s kickoff to the 40th year celebration. In the The Herald-Dispatch of [...]

“First” Mothman Sighting

Technically, should November 12th (or even November 1st) be the 40th anniversary of the first sighting of Mothman? Since Kenneth Duncan only came forth with his and others’ encounter after the Scarberry-Mallette-Partridge events of three days later, the sighting on the 12th is hardly ever awarded the recognition of the honors of being mentioned as “first.” No attempt was made to capture this multiple eyewitnesses event, even in a fictionalized fashion, in The Mothman Prophecies movie. It can be factually summarized, thusly: November 12, 1966 – On this date, five men (including Kenneth Duncan) digging a grave in a cemetery [...]

11/11 Winged Weirdies

Eleven years ago on the eleventh day of the eleventh month… November 11, 1995, Zacapa, Guatemala – During a spate of bizarre animal killings in the area, Alicia Fajardo encountered a strange winged creature on her property at around one o’clock in the morning. She described it as about four feet tall, with large bat-like wings, huge oval-shaped eyes, and a large mouth with huge protruding fangs. It was covered with dark hair and had a tail and claw-like feet. The creature flew away in an upward spiral emitting a strange humming sound. (Source: Albert S. Rosales, Humanoid Contact Database [...]