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Mothman is a winged, manlike creature with red glowing eyes, a creature that reportedly haunted Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in the 1960s. The
Mothman story was later immortalized by John Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies. More recently, the book was made into a movie starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney. The X-Files TV series makes several passing references to Mothman—in fact, the show was highly influenced by The Mothman Prophecies.
Over a thirteen-month period, from November 1966 until December 1967, the town of Point Pleasant plunged into a state of chaos. Multiple reports of sightings came from hundreds of witnesses; they told of Mothman, UFOs, poltergeists, Men in Black driving impeccable old cars, and fake service workers—with dark, sharp features, and wearing thick-soled rubber shoes. Cattle cadavers were found strewn about the surrounding fields. Mothman made appearances at the disused North Power Plant, part of the dormant West Virginia Ordnance Works complex. The area was a shooting range and local lovers' lane, and a kind of unofficial common.
Some members of Point Pleasant's population claimed contact with various nonhuman intelligences that some people thought were extraterrestrial entities—Keel suggested the less specific term of "ultra-terrestrials."
Keel arrived on the scene from New York to investigate, and became the victim of a parade of disconcerting synchronicities—with many of his contactee friends knowing of his future actions before he himself had decided on them. His phone line became almost unusable due to untraceable electronic interference, wiretapping, line cutting, crossed lines, harassments, hoax phone calls, and dark photographers trailing him around Manhattan . . . "Between the IRS, the phone company . . . and flying saucers, I was fast becoming a candidate for the funny farm."
During the 13-month period, Keel received constant, precise predictions about world affairs, presumably channelled by the various contactees. These "Mothman prophecies" had a nasty habit of being almost right—but not right enough. The predicted assassination attempt on the pope—followed by "days of darkness" did not happen; instead, the pontiff escaped death in the Philippines three years later.
Things finally came to a head during rush hour on Point Pleasant's Silver Bridge, which spanned the Ohio River. Keel's contactees warned of a nation-wide power outage for December 15th. Instead, the Silver Bridge crumpled into the river, taking 31 vehicles and 67 people with it. There were 46 deaths.
Conferences
2007 Mothman Festival
See Also
External Links
Mothman Lives
Mothman Online
A Mothman Retrospective
The Mothman Death List
Richard Gere: Future Victim of "Mothman" Curse?
The Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV
To see specific information, such as individual books and documentaries, please click the Mothman category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Mothman, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page.
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