Hello, and welcome to Blurry Photos. I am David Flora and I'm David
Stecko, and this week we will be discussing some cryptozoology for you. Maybe
maybe it's crypto zoology. I don't know. It could be the real yeah,
yeah, it could be a UFO, could be an interdimensional being whose
exact motives we don't understand. Who knows. Man, Let's let's jump right
into this. At this point, everyone's already figured out there's only one thing
we're talking about, the moth man, some breem off. That's all right,
Spanish from off, all right, stecco. So let's say just imagine
you are a woman. I was already doing it, all right. This
is the early sixties, Okay, you're driving down Route two, West Virginia,
absolutely all right, just outside a point pleasant, just outside somewhere near
there. These the early ones were a little ways away, not not exactly
in, but we'll go to that. So you're driving down Route two.
I'm driving in the sixties, and I'm a woman. You're a woman.
Oh this besides fake shed so far. So there's this. You see this
large man shaped figure that steps onto the road in front of you. So
you what do you do. I swerve to avoid him. I applied the
parke the brakes or the prakes, the prakes and the brakes and the Jonathan
frakes. Yeah thanks, so yeah you you you slow down and then all
of a sudden, you see these two huge wings spread from behind this thing,
and it ups it up and flies away. What do you do?
Woman in the sixties, I go immediately to the police and file report of
what I have seen on this day. But you don't, oh, come
because you would be labeled as crazy. That's true, but this is West
Virginia. If I ran into town screaming, lordy, lordy, I just
done seeing the devil, local hero, you would have cops swarming local hero
hero. So okay, let's fast forward to nineteen sixty six. Okay,
all right, imagine that you are a woman. Thank god, you're married
to a doctor. I'm not the same woman though. This isn't like this
is a new woman. Okay, you're married to a doctor and you see
you see some six foot thing. It resembles a giant butterfly. That's the
only way you can describe it. That's the best I can come up with.
That's the best you can come up. I'm married to a doctor.
You don't have to make the decisions. I'm sorry, this this episode is
about sexism, is not about my man at all. We'll get out of
bait and switch so on down the road, not the literal oat, but
the road of time. Yeah, I've been telling everyone. The best I
can say is it was like a giant butterfly. But you don't exactly report
this either, right different. I don't even tell my husband because I've already
taken so much value because I'm a woman in the late sixties in the South,
description like nothing. So November twelfth, nineteen sixty six, steckup.
You are a grave digger, a female grave digger. Yes, sure,
for arguments you are. There are There are five grave diggers in total.
They never said whether they were male or female. I'm serving male. But
let's just say, let's let's make the rule of three happen. Here in
my mind, I've already written a musical, and all these women are the
same women. They're same woman, and this is about a woman's journey through
West Virginia and the things and the graves and the crypto yes, is that
she comes across you. You look up in the in the wee hours of
grave digging, you see a brown human being fly out of the trees near
the town of Clinton. I mean, am I just being really racist?
Is that what's happening right now? Nope, I'm describing it as best I
can exactly. That's that's the best you can do. It's it's a human
being with wings that flew its kind of brownish that flew out of the trees,
out of the trees. All right, Who do I tell this too?
Who do you tell it too? I tell you, well, I'm
a grave digger, so I mean, assuming that most people consider to me
to be to be drunk full time, or at least enough, probably we
were being not only sexist, but occupationist. At this point that is not
a word. And everyone knows that painters and grave diggers are drunks. This
is fact fact check it, all right. So let's say you don't say
anything about this, or you're going to get around to it. Yeah,
well, my quarterly Grave Diggers Review union rules. I get one of those.
It's too bad, though, because the next day somebody, somebody one
helps you. We got two couples driving out near an abandoned T and T
plant, right, Because when you're in West Virginia and you want to take
a lady out on a special ride, we's going out to the TMT plant
exactly. That's where they go to neck nice and park. Explosion, puns,
explosion and puns. So you're driving, you're driving through this TNT area.
You see a tall figure by the road. Sounds sounds familiar to us,
not to them, though. It's a little bit bigger than a man,
has some folded wings behind it attached to it. Then it turns around
in the headlights and its eyes glow red as if I reflect or on a
bike or a car. Now, I'd like to point out right now,
I don't know what I've done, how I react to this just yet,
but already we've established a culture of silence and non reporting that is going to
severely impact my ability to make this decision because people who have been seeing this
for years and since no one talks, I don't know what to do.
People, This is what you should take from this story. You see a
cryptod, just shut up, no, no, tell a grave digger to
tell your doctor. Husband tells so. So these kids, these these two
couples see this thing. Boom. They're like, we're out of here.
They take off. They they're they're flying down the road that they're they say
they're going at speeds quote better than a hundred miles per hour. Now they
turn around and look back, and this winged humanoid thing leaps into the air,
stretches its wings out, and takes off after them in pursuit, not
really flapping its wings, just sort of gliding along behind them, but keeping
up with them exactly m at speeds maybe better than one hundred miles per hour,
which I find fotes bad, but you know at first I would,
but you are in Leondshire country whom it's a good point where that star was
born, right born. So they we're doing everything we can to discuss everything,
but them off it Y's this is a rich, rich tapestry here.
So what did they do? They break the mold? They run straight to
the Sheriff's to the sheriff's office, right, They immediately reported and a deputy
goes back out there with them. Now, I'm not sure they were supposed
to be scared out of the wits at this point. If you're that scared,
why would you go back with a guy with a gun. I mean,
so I would. I would. At that point, I was like,
I was scared, and now I'm mad? Could you bring that shotgun?
And let's let's punish this thing for making me scared. PS. I
probably missed out on some hot makeouts. They might have cost me some action
and I'm mixed or mad. Those are the stages that you go through.
Yeah, it's like the stages of death. Yeah. So yeah, they
go back out there with with this deputy. They go back to the to
the spot of the deciding. As they passed the spot where they had initially
seen this thing, the radio starts emitting this high pitch almost squeal like it
just it just goes Fritzie. Almost sounds like a sped up record. At
this point, the deputy turns off the radio kind of gets freaked down.
At that point, They kind of do a little check around, look at
looking stuff, don't see anything, so they high tail it back to town
and file the report. So what do we have here? What do you
think so far? So far? So far? I don't think we have
a lot. I don't think we have a lot so far. I mean
virtually anything at night's eyes will go when you put a headlight in them.
That's true. You know, you've got two people whose minds were on other
things. I think that so far, four people. Yeah, so far.
I think you've got grounds for a fair amount of skepticism about what's going
on. I think at this point we haven't we haven't necessarily reached the critical
maths for a genuine goings on. Yeah, agreed, agreed enough for a
tiki lookie, but not enough for a goings on. I mean, yeah,
I deploy a few rubber neckers to that situation, maybe maybe like three
guys from the Lucky Louis Union. But no, this isn't a going This
isn't the doings just yet. So let's let's set up. Let's set up
what we have around us. Let's let's let's tell you about where we're at
here. This is happening in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Point Pleasant is
Point Pleasant is in western Virginia where the Ohio and Canab rivers meet. Okay,
the populations around forty five hundred, maybe a little more back back around
that time. It's currently at around forty five hundred. It was settled as
early as seventeen seventy four. I think they had some settlers out there around
then. They have a place in town where the Army Corps Engineers built the
West Virginia Your Ordinance Works in nineteen forty two, and they did that to
make just a ton of T and T for the war. So they never
let it be said that point Pleasant didn't do their best to fight the Huns
buy war bonds. So they it was stopped in nineteen forty five. They
didn't need it anymore and it was handed back over to the Army Corporate Engineers
and they basically pulled out and abandoned most of everything by nineteen forty nine,
and it was just left left to rot. Basically just a great big derelict
erotic fund park for teams in there in cars. A lot of condoms cement
left. This is the sixties. Condoms are for sailors many so so so
this this place just just sort of was left to the elements and all the
containment facilities and things like that, the little underground monkers they had to store
this T ANDT things like that. They just left it there, right,
nobody, nobody was worried about it. Hell, they were going out having
picnics and and just disposing of all their garbage on the on the on the
side of the hill, so you know, nothing, nothing's going on going
on in terms of environmentalism around them. Just fifteen years before the crying Indian
on the side of the road changed to America Forever. So exactly. So
it was in the eighties, some dudes were fishing around in there, noticed
some red, gooey crap bubbling up from from this almost almost Beverly hill Red
Gold and Texas track list are They kind of got kind of got kind of
got a little worried about it, went reported it, and turns out the
place was fastering with chemicals and all kinds of I know figure. So the
government made this a priority clean up kind of kind of place. It's now
the McClintic Wildlife Station where they kind of built a few new ponds. They've
restocked everything with you know, fish and cleaned a bunch of stuff up,
a lot of the ruins. You know, we are still there, cement
blocks, buildings, things like that still around in there, but they've actually
got a big sense there's no more bipedal deer, hooray, exactly exactly.
So that's that's where we're at we're that we're in a point pleasant again across
the Ohio from Gallipoli, Ohio. Now and now we've got a few sightings
of this winged humanoid creature with glowing red eyes. So these kids story got
published in the in the local paper and some um, some people started taking
note of this thing. Local boy gets spooked out of hand jobs. That's
that's it was under the obituary section. My chances died last time. So
they get this one journalist to come down there. Her name is Mary Higher.
She coins the name Mothman because of the description from from the kids,
saying what the what the mothman looked like? Basically a flying man with a
ten foot wingspan, glowing red eyes, gray or brown skin or fur or
something, no arms. The weird thing also about it not really ahead or
face. The wings sort of come out of the shoulders and above what should
be ahead, and the eyes are kind of set between where you would think
your shoulders would be. Kind of thing. Sketches that I've seen, you
know, in images on the Internet and stuff like that based on these descriptions
kind of make it look like the bastard son of an owl and cousin d
yeah. I mean I've screwed it up because all of my fan fiction pictures
have always included a head, So I should have done more research. Sorry,
I mean that's why we're doing this. We're trying to get some information
out there. See, I'm learning, we all are so. But even
then, Mothman seems like a weird place to go. And it comes from
Batman, the Batman comics, because there was a villain called Killer Moth and
I guess she thought this was, you know, the closest thing to that
character, to that description. So she was a comic book check and maybe.
So we've got the we got a name for it now, And of
course the name catches on spreads like, yeah, why don't you name it?
It's done, it's it's a it's a thing. Now you can control
it. Yeah, so they thought. So. Anyways, we start getting
tons of signings of this thing, just signing this left and ride all all
throughout the next year of this thing scares people just out of their minds.
Now I recall hearing. I remember when I was younger, I read a
book called America's Backyard Monsters or something. Oh, I think I've heard of
that, And there was a section about mothman, and one of those sightings,
it was pretty clear about that these people were watching TV and the mothman
was on their front porch staring in the window at them. There were a
couple of accounts of him climbing onto people's front porches looking in through the window.
There was one even a woman was visiting a friend, pulled out outside
the house, got out of the car and noticed that there was something laying
on the ground that it looks like she had disturbed. Looks like it it
was either sleeping or just you know, kind of chilling out onto the ground.
It gets up, stands up. It's the Mothman. She freaks out.
There are accounts that she's holding a baby, which she drops or falls
on it or something. Anyways, finally gets her wits, it picks the
baby up, runs into the house. The thing follows her up onto the
porch and she gets in the house, shuts the door, and they look
over and it's leaning in looking intough the window. Call the authorities. They
come out there, can't find it anywhere fuel. It's freaky, but it
never really hurt anybody. No. I had heard, I had I had
read reports that there were secondary effects of of of meeting with the Mothman,
especially with eye contact. Yeah, migraine, headaches, m nausea, people
having like almost hangover like effects, which I guess you could sort of explain
if you were already drunk and then you're on a Mothman. But but people,
people complained of problems of physiological problems immediately following a run in with the
Mothman, and even the next morning. Accounts of people having conjunctive virus.
Yeah. There, their eyes are are doing a conjunctive virus type thing.
So you get pink eye. You're one step closer to becoming a mots than
pink eye, followed up by right, so they they some people get this
conjunctive vitus. Some people reports sort of almost like sunburn or or or really
tan kind of almost radiation like burns on their forearms, things like that too.
There are a couple of reports of that. So yeah, there there
there are some some physical um distressed things that that that happen. But again
you're getting a ton of reports of sightings and things like that. So who
knows who was trying to one up the next person? You know, and
this is not exactly a hop and part of the country. This is I
mean, like I imagine once this starts happening, I mean, this is
good blue collar folk right or rural area, not you know, not minding
their own business, not trying to bother anybody, right when you're not when
you're not sitting in a cafe getting indignamat out of those those MMed hippies up
north. I mean, what's what else is there left to do with your
day but to think about the moth Man, you know, And I imagine
there at that point there was you know, reports of you know, him
being to blame for spotty gone lawns, and you know, the increase in
the tax rate. Oh man, Mothman's gonna have a hard time running for
government exactly. He's breaking everything. My car gets worst gas mileage, cheese.
So the worst thing to come out of this. People are wondering,
of course, what does what does this mean? Why is this thing here
now? Why is it terrorizing? Is is it terrorizing? Is it trying
to communicate? Is it trying to tell us something they started? Well,
let's just go to December fifteenth, nineteen sixty seven. This is thirteen months
after that first run in with the two make out couples. They at this
point, I'd quit my job as a grave digger. I have moved to
the big city in Chicago, and I'm just trying to make it as best
I can as a lounge singer. I have now left the story as a
woman in six doing doing a pretty decent job, thank you. But yeah,
this this is uh, this is not a not not not the happiest
part of the story. They there was. There are a couple of bridges
that that connect Point Pleasant to you know, other parts of the world,
Ohio being one of them. There's the Silver Bridge that connects Gallipoli to Point
Pleasant. It was rush hour, there was a ton of vehicle activity on
the bridge, and when whenever you have a ton of traffic, things get
clogged up. So there were a bunch of cars just clogging up the Silver
Bridge, and the night of the fifteenth, it just it got to be
too much for the bridge and one of the eye beings snapped and the bridge
collapses and takes down everything on on the bridge, which ends up killing forty
six people. It was it was, by all accounts, just you know,
a horrendous track. And they found out later after they you know,
got everything up from the river and stuff. They found that it just it
came from a single hairline fracture in one of the ibing pins. And it
was something that they people had come into to make sure the bridge was up
to code, you know, check things out, mixture that everything, it
was structurally sound, but this fracture was just so so small it was almost
invisible, Like there was hardly any way they could have really caught this.
Yeah, and you get cold temperatures, it's December, metals more inclined to
fracture than bend. The other thing is the bridge was built when Model ts
were were being built. It was built with those for the foot traffic and
the and the wheel traffic on there. And by the sixties cars were just
a steel boat on wheels at that time. So I almost wonder what the
average difference even between now and the sixties in way I mean that that was
that's that was the boat card days. Those are the biggest cars ever.
Times. It's bridges are probably breathing aside of relief today because it's all fiber
wized. But like it's funny and you got to wonder if if some some
of the inspections were that are going on today are kind of glossing over some
stuff because it's like, well they're handling all this all this weight now or
all these cars now, blah blah blah. But it's like, well,
you know there's still there. The cars are lighter now, but still need
to do you right. Well, they have that thing in Missouri, that
bridge failing that too long ago, and that was Andrew Minnesota was that it
was a state that started with M. So that is outside of what we
do here. You have to listen to um Bridge Inspection podcast to find that
out the news or the news, neither of which will be so yeah.
I mean the the bridge collapse basically started a government inspection program to make sure
you know, our if structure was was intact, which is going swimmingly these
days? You guys, yeah, really is really on the ball. But
anyway, is that a pun really on the ball? Swimmingly? Oh,
swimmingly? Sudden people. It wasn't long after those people started drawing a correlation
between the Mothman sightings and the Silver Bridge collapse, because no more sightings after
the fifteenth See Now that that fascinates me because I also saw that I also
saw that in the in the doing, my my personal resurch under this stuntect.
But I drew the exact opposite conclusion. I mean, I would think
that it would be more inclined to say, oh, yeah, no,
there's this thing, and then we saw a ton of mothman after that thing,
you know, like he was around in the area. You know,
this was the Mothman times. I feel like after the bridge, you know,
any community that has something traumatic and awful happen to it, you've got
better things on your mind. What used to be a fun thing to discuss,
you know, suddenly now people are dealing with very real loss, very
real issues, even if they didn't lose anyone their neighbor, did you know.
I think that that just locks that community down and and maybe makes people
less inclined. Now, maybe there was still Mothman sightings, but in that
right, in that environment, do you really you know, when people are
going to funerals and trying to arrange for all these things, you really say,
oh, I just saw the flying Mothman, probably right right, So
I need a great point, you know, and I don't. I don't
necessarily think that that that confirms or denies it, and I've read, uh,
you know, and just in the things that I've read about I've read
a book or two about it that people considered the Mothman as a harbinger,
and people have even tied him into some Native American legends yea, and in
other parts of the world as well. Um that that this Mothman, this
this dark figure is a harban of ill omens of things. Yeah, exactly,
of disaster, of bad things coming. So is that is that exactly
what was happening here? Do you think? I mean, I that's a
that's a great point. I think that, I mean, with you,
with you saying that, I just picture like people, people who are obviously
grieving and just stricken with with you know, bereavement, and then the Mothman's
like, it's horrible to say, this is what I'm picturing. The Mothman's
peeking into the window, He's like, guys, you know, I'm Mothman
here, and then like he's just turning around. He's hunching his wing shoulders
and he's like the lonely man. Thing starts. The piano music from the
hall starts, and he just has like down the road he choked. Yeah,
I'm not trying to make fun of anything. I'm just saying that's that's
with you saying that point. It's like maybe the Mothman's like, well,
you know, I'm no longer the fad here, so I'm out of town.
Yeah. I don't know if that was a mass uh not mass hysteria,
but just a thing that people were doing. And I think that there
are plenty of reasonable I mean, I don't think any of them are locked
down, but reasonable explanations. Large water fowl, for example, hearing's large
birds, especially in an area that has a toxic ecology. Birds are exceedingly
sensitive to that, to those sort of environments. This is also the silent
springtimes. You know, this is ddteeth and eggshells, and this is before
those things get really locked down. You know. Obviously, I guess it
would be a reach for me to blame DDT, But the only thing I
will ever blame DDT for is the near eradication of malaria. It was a
magnificent chemical, but that's a discussion for a future episode. But no,
I you know it was it was a toxic environment. This thing was seen
primarily in the region of and it did expand after that. But I think
that you could psychologically explain that. I don't think it's unreasonable to say this
was a large bird, perhaps somewhat deformed, maybe of an unusual coloring for
the species. Yeah, you know, there there are they They got some
experts down there to try and explain this scientifically. You know, they don't
want they don't want to hear anything about monsters and fandoms and all that junk.
They want to hear about signs from somebody who went to college. Right,
So we're gonna put aside our usual prejudice against your learning because because we
need you. They got somebody down there who explained this could be a large
sandhill crane. Sandhill cranes have a red coloring on their head right between their
eyes. Kind of thing could be who knows, you know, if if
it's hit you know, with the with the light, it could give off
some kind of glowing redness to it. But the thing about that that I
think, the I mean, the mutation thing is is great. That's that's
one of the things. You know, who who knows what's going on in
that swamp with the TNT because it's primarily seen in the T and T area
there. It could could be some kind of mutation of something, because it's,
like I said, some people describing it, it's it's kind of looking
like an owl, these cranes that grow to six feet, you know,
at sometimes you know the bigger species, you know, yeah, kind the
examples, yeah, the examples of the alpha's But who knows, man the
Santil crane. When I see pictures of it, it's got a long neck
still, and I just there were very few reports of it having a neck
at all. That's the only thing that that kind of snags that argument on
to me. Anyway, you know, there are a lot of other interesting
things. I think what bolster is the case for a genuine parent paranormal event
are actually not necessarily all the direct observations, but the indirect ones. The
static on the radio that wasn't an isolated thing that happened in several places.
People's TVs and a lot of those discussions about people seeing the Mohman on their
porch, they first their TV went out. I mean, again, this
is the sixties, this is a very nuclear family time. People are glued
to that RIFO. The TV goes out, their attention diverts and that's when
they noticed this thing on the porch, right, And I in a lot
of the things that a lot of the reports that I've read, that's kind
of the flow of it, right, So there is some sort of em
thing that's happening, not necessarily. What's interesting is that, especially in the
case of the police radio, seems to be a semi permanent effect, like
this thing can affect an area and leave the area, and that effect stays.
So that's interesting. The secondary effects on people's physiologies, that's a really
interesting thing, and that could be explained in a number of ways. And
also there was an interesting crossover the other paranormal phenomena, the involvement of men
in black. There's several documented cases of these black suited individuals in the nondescript
sedans, interviewing and in some cases intimidating witnesses of it. You know,
you get you're giving a lot of things coming together here that don't necessarily all
add up to a Sandhill crane problem. That's true, and that all stems
kind of from the research of John Keel, who was a journalist and a
ufologist who wrote the Mothman Prophecies in nineteen seventy five, which is an account
of his investigation of the Mothman, and according to him, he found that
not only were these mothman sightings happening, but there were also numerous UFO sightings
that were going on at this time as well. UFOs and aerial lights,
all kinds of phenomenon that we're going on to people's homes. The television systs
like you said that were burning out, the phones were ringing it at all
times of the night and there'd be nobody on the other line. I mean,
this is this is poltergeist kind of crap. Yeah, And it's an
important to point out that, especially at this time, late sixties, a
ringing phone is is actually a weird thing because this was the old operator time.
This is where you would speak to someone and say, I'd like klondike
two four seventh places. Are they still doing it? I think so.
I don't know. I'm I believe so. But yeah, is what you
just said it all true? I do not know. I'll believe it sure,
but yeah, I mean there there's a lot there are There are a
lot of things that are that are happening at this time that um that point
to to something something somewhat larger. Yeah, and and perhaps I mean,
and I guess to swing the pendulum back again towards them more mundane. You
have an Army Corps of Engineers site that clearly wasn't cleaned up to spec words
getting out. Yeah, there's gonna be some FEDS from some FEDS there that
are probably involved in that. Why they would choose to pursue a mothman approach,
I don't know, but maybe maybe they were they had other things that
they were doing there. I can it's conceivable that there would be like federal
agents or inspectors converging on this area, you know, pings exactly. They're
one of the freakiest things that came out of John Keel's accounts. An investigation
was the story of Woodrow Darrenburger and injured cold. Yes, this this was
This is some freaky stuff. This was in also in sixty six, actually,
right around the time the Mothman's sightings started, or just before they started,
at least, there was a man named Woodrow Darrenberger who was driving home
after after work one day. This this weird craft zooms past his truck and
stops in the road in front of him. Causing him to stop, and
a tall man gets out, walks over to the truck. He has this
incredibly tanned skin slipped back dark air. He's got this dark outfit made of
some kind of glistening green material. And the most unnerving part is he's got
this grin on his face, this just weird grin. This Woodrow Darrenburger says
that this man started communicating with him telepathically, said he could understand him,
his playing his day. His mouth never moved from that weird grin. Told
him his name was Injured Cold and said he asked him a few weird questions
things like that. And then he tells Woodrow that he's gonna he's gonna visit
him again on you know, on down the road somewhere the road of time
again and then gets back in his craft and zooms off. And Darren Burger
did come in contact with Injured Cold again, according to his accounts, quite
a few times. I think he even ended up writing a book about it.
And it got a little bit much for the family, plus an extra
murderal fur but kind of kind of the family fell apart and and Darren Burger,
I don't know that it's kind of spotted in what ended up happened to
him in the end. But yeah, there's there's some weird, weird stuff
with that. Apparently he wrote a book from it, Like I said,
that's kind of hard to find these days. And it's based on the account
of his relationship with Injured Cold and yeah, and there was and that was
a multi year up. Yeah. Yeah, that wasn't just like a once
or twice thing. There was a regular and I believe he was also getting
he was got the most of the Men in Black interaction as a result of
his interaction with Hindered Cold. Yeah, and so that was one of the
freaky things that when freakyst from from Keel's work. So and the other thing
with with John Keeled you got to wonder where how much how much he's playing
some of the stuff up, you know, coming from a UFOL just background
that that and wanting and getting a book written out of it kind of stuff.
I mean, you hear that today and it's like, well, you're
kind of you're kind of you know, aggrandizing things. So it's to promote
some of your own I think it's it's got to be exceedingly difficult to have
something like this happening in a small town because I mean, as long as
you keep asking people, they'll keep telling you things. Yeah, even long
after they've exhausted all the things that they actually knew. So I mean,
I think there's a difficulty in doing a lot of investigation in a small town
setting like that because people like to be asked questions, people like to be
interviewed or film. Yeah, so it's a hard thing to sift just what
is the truth, you know, get the information out of it without digging
so much that people are just inventing things because they're used to having someone care
and seeing it in print. And oh, if there's a book in the
works, you know, I want to make sure there's a chapter about all
the crazy experiences I've had true And that's and that's a hard thing to separate.
And I'm certainly not saying that anyone there was or wasn't lying, but
but I know if I were in that situation, that would be a hard
call to make. You have to be careful about how you approach something like
that because you do end up with I'm sure much more misinformation than true facts.
And speaking of that, when in doing research for this and looking online
and a bunch of stuff things like that. There is just a ton of
content about supposed Mothman or sightings or stories or that's just complete crap. Oh
absolutely, there is so much just crap about Mothman out there. I mean,
go on YouTube type in moth Man and just have yourself a day of
what But it's crap. It's wretched. But and that's a hard thing because
the Mothman is a kind of nebulous concept or idea. You know. It
was it was seen for a very finite amount of time um in a very
remote area, and it has all these I don't know abilities, these weird
effects associated with it that that make it easy to be like, oh was
that I don't know, Mothman. I mean, in the Southwest, everything
gets blamed on the cheopicabra everything, you know, And if you're in West
Virginian, Mothman did it? You know, mon, It's a it's a
it's a tough thing. And I mean some of the things that I've read
have you know, theorized that the one of the things I've read had tied
everything up into one very thorough package. Oh yeah, yeah, And I
mean this definitely files far more under fan fiction than than the results of deep
investigation. But the theory was that the Mothman and others of his ilk are
are our pan dimensional travelers. They see things, say in a fifth spatial
dimension. It makes them very easy for them to see in the future in
the past, and they do their best to warn us of things that are
coming, but they can't necessarily communicate with us that well, um, and
we we for lack of it, would wither in their presence. You know,
we get hives and the we get pink Guy from them, right.
Um, you know, these things happen, and then you have the secondary
entity entities like Injured Cold, who are also tracking the Mothman entities. I'm
trying to trying to determine what it is they're doing. Uh, you know,
like I said, this files farm under our you know, fan fiction,
trying to trying to stitch it all into one narrative time thing together to
make the tapestries become one large blanket of it. And it's almost frustrating in
that they're both very interesting stories, very interesting um experiences people have had between
Injured Cold and the Mothman, and it's it's almost a tragedy that they're linked
at all. Yeah, it's it's that link that makes them both suffer credibility,
you know, all of that. Yeah. Really, I mean it's
almost like they were like, oh, Mothman's here. I remember the UFOs
like yeah, exactly, yeah, everyone, we'll save here here from Arizona,
get out of here. It's it is, it's a hard thing in
it. I guess it gets the ball rolling. And there's a part of
me that thinks that I'm almost surprised that to a degree that maybe, um,
there wasn't more sightings after the bridge incident. Yeah. The weird thing
is there there are a few reports out there that have said that that the
Mothman's been cited before major disasters that have happened. I've even found, um,
some some sources that that say Mothman was cited even back the late eighteen
hundreds, the early nineteen hundreds in Russia. UH nineteen fifties, was seen
in Brazil and Japan. Even Houston had had a Mothman or a Batman's sort
of entity, and Nebraska had one. UH and even as as recent as
two thousand and four in good old Guadalupe, Mexico, something that they actually
didn't blame the Chewo Picabrah didn't blame on the Chewo Picabray. There was an
officer of the law down there who was patrolling and sees this this shapeless black
mass kind of falling and twisting out of the sky lands on the ground.
It's it's a woman, dark hair. And he stops and it is kind
of freaked out, starts back in the car up and apparently the thing just
in the in a matter of moments is just on his windshield, looking at
him with lidless eyes and just completely black over the eyes where the white,
where the pupil, everything is black. And he faints and when he wakes
up, it's gone. This is and they're saying, oh, muff Man,
well that's the first that's the first time we've heard it's a woman that
sounds like a frigging vampire, right, Yeah, I mean, I guess,
I guess if you gotta put it, if you to put it in
a bucket, I guess, mothman, but I would put it in the
vampire bucket. I don't know, man, That that just any number of
weird CRYPTI bucket. Yeah, that one's filed under that and it is it's
hard when you have something like that that's so vague, but you do have
a lot of those those like you said, like from around the world.
I know, there's a lot of Native American references to it. And in
my research I also saw that there was a neat historical uh you know,
we talked about how how audit is that you had this Mothman and it intersects
with the men in black reference that are in early men in black reference,
maybe the earliest I don't know, historically. There was some further tie ins
between that because the colloquially the devil used to be referred to as the black
man or you know, but now they say like things like old scratch.
But in old literature and things like that, things would would go wrong and
people would say, well, I saw the black man around because he was
dressed in yeah, yeah, dressed in yeah. Not not an African American
man, like a man dressed in black shadowed face, very very difficult to
see and make out, um, but yeah, always dressed in black clothes.
And so there was a theory that that perhaps even in this Mothman scenario,
that when people were seeing as MBS was sort of a reflection of the
Mothman, that the Mothman and the historical old men in black that were seen
in some other historical accounts were actually still the same entity. Interesting, um,
I mean in the in the case of this and the injured cold,
I mean, these guys actually showed up a door at doors and ring doorbells
and said threatening things. So maybe not so much, but it was an
interesting historical tie in between the two. Yeah, yeah, that's that's weird.
And there were other accounts you know of Oh, it was seen before
the hurricane in Galveston, it was seen before nine to eleven, you know,
the attacks on the towers, it was seen before Japan, you know
the tsunami. I don't know. I of course, in this day and
age, that's it just it probably is not going to get too much too
much play in in any kind of real news setting, unfortunately, you know.
And and with the exception of this happening point pleasant, you never ever
hear about it, these reports before the cataclysm, before the grand terrible thing
happens. It's always after the fact. Oh well, you know, a
long time after the fact, usually too right, right, you know.
And and again after the shock of it after people have put their lives together
and they're trying to make some sense of it. Oh, I thought I
could see something weird before. You know, there's there's that that that post,
you know, cataclysm logic that kind of feels like it maybe psychologically have
to fill that in with something or so so it might make more sense than
it actually probably should, right which which again you know and say say following
that theory that they're these pan dimensional bell weathers that try to try to help
us, they're terrible at it. They're just awful at the same time to
give it up, we're kind of tear blood of two like instead of instead
of somebody sticking around just sticking around being like, whoa, let me not
point a gun at it and let me not run in the opposite direction.
Let's see what happens. Maybe you got maybe you got a buddy in the
woods with a gun on it, just in case, But why don't you
go up to the thing and see what it's about. A lot of people
said that they felt like it was trying to communicate, and of course it's
it's only given off. You know, these these high pitched mousey sounds or
sounding like a squeaky loose fan belt or something. But it's like, who
know, you can? You can make something out of it. You can
make heads or tails somewhere or another Nighttime figures, Nighttime country Road six foot
creature with a ten foot wingspan and glowing red eyes. I'm gonna go with
a popular choice. I'm gonna run and if I have a gun, I'm
sh shooting it if it if it if it seems threatening, I mean,
of course, if if it's if it's just walking to the vehicle and all
it's got going on is glowing eyes. Are you serious? If all it
has is a hulking frame and glowing eyes, if that's all it's bringing to
the table, six seven foot is not two hulking six to seven would be
it would be like it'd be like, hey man, you would go play
basketball next week where you know we need a center. I love this book,
We host this podcast, and if this happened to us, it still
wouldn't get to communicate its message because we would be in the car arguing with
each other. You're trying to pull a gun out of my hands. Let's
just see what it has to say. You stay in the cart to have
the gun ready. I mean, it's gonna be too fast anyway. If
if, if it doesn't work, whatever, but at least a tribe and
I will make sure that your tombstone says killed by moth Man and idiocy.
We'll leave that out. We'll leave that out. Moth Man, you extended
the olive branch and it expended its pan dimensional. I don't know ordinance right
death grip. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. If if people were
telling me it feels like it's trying to communicate and all anybody was doing was
either running or trying to kill it, I think I would stop. This
would have to be in the middle of it. If I were one of
the first ones, I'm sure I would probably be scared. Crack list.
But I mean, like a drunken hobo on the CTA at two in the
morning is trying to communicate like it's not you know, there's there's plenty of
things that are trying to communicate that still have no interest in your continued function
as a person. Does the smot does the Mothman smell like a hobo on
the CTA? People's eyes are burning? I don't know. I mean,
I mean, I mean we're edging into skun Cape territory. But but no,
I mean, but you're right. See, like just this exact thing
is why. This is why as a species we can't have nice things.
That's true. Oh man, Well okay, so that's what we've decided.
If if we ever run it too the Mochman, we're just gonna we're gonna
miss our chance at anything because we're arguing about no, no, no,
no no. I think we've had the argument, and we've determined that I
will set up a defensive perimeter while you can go forth and extend the hand
of of of human friendship. Okay, I will write you a glowing eulogy.
I will explain to your family that you died trying to forward our advancement
as a civilization, as a species. I was too busy pumping buckshot into
it. Yeah, probably doesn't kill it. Probably not. We're probably both
dead here. If it's probably, if it's pandimensional, it'll it'll just the
bullets passed through it. It'll come, it'll grab you out. It'll be
like when I think the mart the Maringie and the second I don't even know
what, never mind the Phalanges it'll it'll it'll get you. It'll get it'll
get you. So your tombstone killed by Mothman, my tombstone, and with
his last breath to cast defiance in the eye of his oppressor, did he
unload his twelfth gage. That's going to cost a pretty penny to put all
that. I ain't paid for it. I'm dead. Speaking of last words,
and there some of this stems from an ancient Native American curse from one
of the Shawnee warriors that you know was around Point Pleasant at the time was
being settled. Actually was. He came to the fort at Point Pleasant in
seventeen seventy seven to negotiate peace, and some of the seventeen hundred we were
so good at negotiating with Native Americans at that time. One of the settlers,
in a in a completely different situation, was was killed by Native Americans,
and in a blind, drunken rage, some of the settlers murder this
uh this war, this Shawnee warrior named Chief Cornstalk. They murder him and
they shoot him up. And there's legend that says, in his last breath
he puts a curse on Point Pleasant for next two hundred years you know this
will be and and a lot of people like like drawing that to get some
kind of inspiration or explanation. It's it's not a parent of all event if
you cannot get a Native American burial ground or curse shoehorned in there somewhere.
Stephen King realized that at an early age, right, and and he looked
out for him. Yeah, he's he's getting the bands paid. All right,
That's that's Mothman. Yeah, we just man, that's that's how the
Mothman gets yet. That's how that's how it works. If you see a
mothman, do the American thing and either try and talk to it or shoot
it. And you know. Coming up in September is the tenth year Mothman
Festival in Point Pleasant. Point Pleasant, I think it's starts September fifteenth,
So if you find yourself in West Virginia, check it out. I'm sure
that they'll have a Mothman booth and one Mothman booth and the no, no,
they'll have like a booth. This is how I see it. It's
a booth where a guy just blasts you with pepper spray so you got like
swollen red eyes. And you get a picture tang and says I was kicking
it with the mommn. Oh god, they have they have a Mothman museum
there too. Yeah, and you can get oh my god, injured cold
drinks. Oh I did it. That's one of my puns. Yeah,
that is a punt. We just snuck. We snuck this section in there.
I didn't mean to jump the that's right, we're there, We're there.
Injured cold drinks. Yeah. I have a I have a counterculture punk
shop who called the golf Man. Oh. I like that. I like
that at punk rock stuff, all right. I also I have a collectible
store for people who are into the paranormal and star wars called Monlothman. And
please, if that didn't make sense, don't investigate it. If it did,
high fives to you, you're great. Please send us an email saying
I got it. I'm on the executive list of listeners. But if you
didn't get it, let it go. It's just gonna piss you off more
once you do the research. It's true. And my final pun is it's
actually a real estate business called the Mothman Properties. Oh nice, I like
that too. Deal so good. Your eyes will bleed. I gotta got
a splitting headache from all these savings. And it just be a picture of
like you and the real estate asient with glowing guys looking in the window of
a home. Yea terrified family. Look how nice the kitchen is a great
idea. That's the best pun, all right. So so we actually have
a pun from one of our listeners listener puns. Let's play the listener pun
sound right now? Pretty pretty cool sound? Uh yeah, you made that
one up on the fly, I think right, you know what, it
sounded like. It sounded like it took you a really long time to come
up with a listener pun. Sound. This pun comes to us from a
listener named Annie, and Annie's pun for out the Alista Crowley episode was Alistair
Crowley's mattress store deal so good they'll drive you mad. See. I like
that because not only doesn't incorporate madness, but Alister Crowley needed a lot of
mattresses and life. Oh man, he deld in volume. That's uh,
that's great. Thank you Annie for for submitting that the rest of you guys
get on the ball. Yeah, and I don't I mean am I am?
I? Am I wrong? Here? But there was a tone to
that pun. Annie sounded pretty hot. Oh that's right, she uh.
I mean, I mean there's there's a cold in here, and there's three
exclamation points. I mean, that's right. You don't punctuate like that unless
you are very attractive. That's true. That's true. So so Annie,
keep them coming, and hopefully we didn't scare you away with her creepy the
old man. I thought I was positively reinforcing participation. But you know what
they call that sexual harassment these days. Oh, in the thirties. We're
so terrible. Anyways, thanks, thank you though, thank you for sending
the rest of you guys. Get get some puns to us. That'll be
great. Yeah. I put the bar pretty little with mon muff, so
kick yeah, please kick my ass. But yeah, you can. You
can send us a pun. We've got a nice little handy Danny form on
the website. Now. You can go to blurry photos dot org and check
out that form has a little drop down. Then you just select a pun,
shoot it in there and clicks in. Yeah, it'll it'll come right
to us, I hope. And I'll tell you what. It would be
a shame if the extent of our interaction was just you sending us puns and
we saying them. So please, you got an idea for a show you'd
like to hear us blather about. We'll blather that show, dude, We'll
blather some. We'll blathering blatherskie right, nice gizmo duck, well played,
So yeah, we if you want to, you want to leave some comments
feedback, tell us what a bunch of jackasses we are. If you have
hot we sound? How hot we sound? That that one would be appreciated.
Stories of your own. Hey, if you if you've had bleed conjunctify
his eyes from a mothman encounter, from a weird sex encounter, please please
keep the TNT area to yourself. And don't don't email us saying I'll tell
you about my moth man who I put in a little rubber dome every night.
Don't email. Don't do it. Flora just said, I don't know
what it was, but don't do it. I don't know, and do
whatever you want. At this point, there's no such thing as a bad
email. We'll let you know when people start sending as things we don't want
that. That's true. That's true. It's a that's a great point as
well. So anyways, so that's it for this episode of of Blurry Photos.
Stecco, you got anything else dead before we go? Uh No,
I don't. I feel like there's no base that we left untouched, no
stone unturned, no nice. Yeah, that's how the thorough feels. That's
what we will sleep well tonight, blowing red eyes, not kind of sleep
for three days. I am David Florida, and I have Dave Stecko,
and we will talk to you next step. Yeah,