Kids have vivid imaginations, there's always a monster under the bed, a ghost in the closet, a which, in the woods most of the time that monster is just a blanket or forgotten toy. The ghost is a billowing hurt in the which is a branch or a squirrel. As soon as the parents come in to take a look, the fear is gone, but in nineteen, fifty two in flat, woods, West Virginia, that typical story was flipped on its head, because when two brothers brought their mother to see a spooky looking creature in the woods she saw too

This is supernatural Spotify, a from our cast. I'm your host Ashley flowers ever. Wednesday I'll be taking a deep dive into a real unexplained occurrence to try and figure out the truth. You can find all episodes of supernatural and all other Spotify originals from forecast for free unspotted this week, I'm talking about the flat woodsman, in nineteen. Fifty two, a group of children saw a mysterious like flying across the sky and land in a nearby feel when they went to investigate these spotted this tune. Foot tall humanly figure a monster, so strange it can only be from outer space have more on the flat woods monster. After this, This episode is brought to you by eighty. Eighty two

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it's about seven p, DOT M right around dusk on September 12th, one thousand nine hundred and fifty two a group of young. boys are playing football in the tiny town of Flat Woods West Virginia, when they see a strange light shoot through the sky, it flies straight overhead towards the nearby hills. At first glance, could be a meteor its round and has what looks like a tale of fire following it, except it's fine low, like lower than you would expect from a meteor, its most hovering the boys start teasing each other. It's a flying, saucer or watch out a man from Mars will jump up and get your big down when the object tilts upward goes over the oil and then suddenly drops out of sight as if it plunged to the ground, based on what

know about the area. The boys assume that it landed in this flat field at the neighbors form just passed the hill, especially once they see this pulsing light from behind the hell, like the object, is still there waiting at this point, there obviously very curious. A view of the kids are still joking about how it must be aliens, but twelve year old, Freddy may is like. Do you pay any attention in class? It's obvious a meteorite. Another boy says they should do other fragments for this day geological foundation, because that's what a teacher at school told him you're supposed to do now kid logic aside, the rest of the group decides to at least go check it out, but it's getting dark out. So Freddy. In his thirteen year old Brother Ed led the group back to their moms house warn her, that their heading out there mom Kathleen, is a mutation whose just returning home from work she's about to hop infer a shower when her boys

run through the door and scream that they saw flying saucer. Of course, cat leans not buying it. She talks the store up to her boys. Wild imaginations with the boys insist that they saw something and they drag her out onto the porch to prove it. When Kathleen looks out into the distance, she doesn't see anything in the sky but she does spot a bright flashing light and a strange had glow on the hill, exactly where boy say the saucer landed, so Kathleen changes. Her tuna bet she's like ok, you can go see it, but I'm coming too and we need to be cautious. She grabbed a flashlight in called a local said. Eighteen year old by the name of gene lemon who happened to be in the National Guard, someone's dog tags along too, and the whole group heads over to check out this mysterious object. Jean leads huh.

the flashlight the boys in Kathleen, follow him up a dirt path and towards the top of the hill through the brush. They can sort of sea the lights from the object? occasionally they dim and then Brighton again as they keep walking. The air becomes warm and thick with mist and a strange bog roles into the path ahead. Kathleen turns and to look back at the town, but she can no longer see the street lights. They don't really have a choice but to keep walking forward, but ass they get closer. Suddenly, there's this horrible smell It's like some sort of burning metal or me Sulphur, Freddy, the would be meteorite. Scientists says it reminds him and when their tv tubes would burn out the boys throats begin to each Catholic. Has a little trouble breathing and every

his eyes are burning and stinging whenever, this is it isn't coming from any ordinary meteor probably going to get my kids out of there in case there's like a toxic gas leak or something, but who knows me as two hundred and fifty so they just coughed it off and keep moving when they reach the top of the hill. They see that the object is still it's about fifty feet away in the middle of a neighbours. Far alarm glowing mass that definitely isn't a meteor or a plane. It still pretty dark out and it seems like the group can't see the object clearly because when they describe it later. Their accounts all differ, some say it's kind of flat on top or that they hear or low thump. Like someone beating on a drum some say it hisses, like a jet plain

and while the size also varies from witness to witness a few boys say it as big as a house. Neil a fourteen year old describes it as a big ball of fire. It doesn't make any noise and, while he's standing at the edge of the hill, looking he's so fascinated that he doesn't noticed something creeping up to his left. Until Jean looks over and screams the boys all turn around fifteen feet away just in front of a massive oak tree. There's this tall dark and towering figure, just floating its human shaped, but maybe twice as tall as a person with something dark and pointy. On top, almost like a hood, it's got around reddish face.

There's no knows or mouth, but it does have eyes, or at least what they think are eyes there more like holes, projecting beams of greenish orange light, genes. National guard training apparently kicks in. He pulls out the flashlight turns it on and points it at the creature only to see that its translucent it looks like a light glowing inside the monster. A few boys C4, old of clothing around its body and strange clawlike, hands Kathleen things it's encased in metal and says the hands. Look like antennas. One of the boys thinks the eyes look like portholes, almost like its part, east part machine from the boys position, they can't quite see below its torso, but it doesn't appear to have legs

be moving at all. It's just floating perfectly. Still until the monsters squirts out some sort of whale and move towards them, gene is so shocked that he collapses to the ground and robs the flashlight. The dog takes off running out of sight, Jean gets up and they all sprint away so vast that when they reached the wooden fence, they don't even bother to open the gate. They just jump over and run home when they get back defined the dog trembling under the porch group gathers together no living room trying to regroup but its absolute chaos. The boys all have trouble. Reading from the oder on the hill there still coughing guy being and tearing up. I mean gene is so sick that he run to the bathroom and bonnets, the other boys, throat or so woman. They have trouble drinking water summer, brew,

or bleeding, and the monsters oil got on a field their faces. Kathleen is trying to hold it together, but she is convinced that what ever they saw was not normal. The only thing she can thing to do is call the sheriff sometime. Around eight fifteen Kathleen gets hold of the station and reports a mysterious flying object in the else. She, as the group of boys, need immediate medical help, but the office says that the sheriff isn't available he's actually in nearby Frayne Town investigating the sight of a different crash where a plain had just disappeared without a trace coming up, unidentified objects, light up the West Virginia skies. Since the beginning of time, people have wanted to believe in an afterlife hylas

I shall be Scott in mediums a new Spotify original from park. Hast I take a closer look at the mortal lives of spiritualist, who claim to communicate with the dead and the scientists who tried to debunk them. This aid so series looks at paranormal events proven to be hoaxes and those which have mystified even the world's greatest sceptics, mixing history, mystery and social psychology mediums ass. How these self proclaimed psychic, pulled off the illusion of interacting with the dead, even under a her scope of criticism, where they all simply peddling parlor tricks, was there something truly paranormal going on I got your wage aboard dust off your crystal ball or light some candles, because PAR cast is ready to reveal. What's really known, but the unknown follow the but if I original from Parkhurst Mediums summoned

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at almost the the exact same time as the UFO O, citing in flat woods. Resting county share of Robert Car gets a pretty serious phone call it from a local, hitchhiker and historic goes like this he's getting arrived when he spots. What he thinks is a piper come in the sky and that's one of those small to cedar. Planes usually painted bright, yellow all of a sudden it burns up and crashes into a hill near Elk River. He asked the driver to pay over the nearest telephone calls it in and continue on his way, but by the time car arrives at the site. There is no evidence of any sort of play crash at all. No metal, no flames, no smoke, nothing. So car is I. This was a waste, my time, probably a hoax. He heads back to the share office where they're still trying to find someone to head over to the May house. Since everyone else is out there

eventually ask photojournalist in in airforce veteran Ainly Stuart to step. In now, Stuart is no stranger to accidents and crime scenes the West Virginia State police actually call him pretty often and it might seem weird but remember this is a very small towns. I guess it's not unusual for journalists to help the police, so Stewart arrives at the May house, roughly a half hour after the siting, and at this time it's still chaos, gene and two other boys are throwing up everyone's coughing Kathleen. Has that mysterious oil splattered all over her uniform but what's worse, all the boys and even Kathleen are scared out of their minds so much so that- Can barely tell Stuart what or even worse, The monster was it takes some coaxing, but eventually Stuart convinces. The

oldest two boys, gene and kneel to take him up to the hill, and he grabbed a shocker just in case but when they arrive, Stuart, doesn't see anything the craft and flashing lights more, and there is certainly no monster- is if the boys made absolutely everything up. That is until he smells the ground. There are still traces of that sickening metallic odor, Stuart says it's something like mustard gas, but different, not like Anything he's ever encounter even in war but stored, is a reasonable man with journalistic integrity. He doesn't want to publish any until he's examined the site in broad daylight. So he visits the scene again. First thing in the morning and sure enough

right where the monsters stood the night before there are skid marks roughly eight feet apart, Stuart traces. The marks from the oak tree all way to wear the flying saucer, allegedly land. It is as if the monster like got on a set of skis and Eggs laid down the hill to return to its craft, and while there is still no trace of any sort of flying saucer, there is oil residue and a huge swathes of grass. That's been flattened down. Now it could be easy to assume that this is just from a car or some kind of tractor or other kind of vehicle and a few people do admit that they were in the area that night one person with a tractor another with their pick up, but they didn't actually go down. on the hill. They couldn't. The slope is too steep and rough, so it's likely bees marks came from thing, man made that same day,

Wayne gets a knock on her door from an odd pair of visitors. It's two men clay, need to be journalists from the nearby town of Clerks Burke. They ve heard about the money stir and want to check out the field where was spotted now Kathleen's a little suspicious. Their wearing nice suits apparently to nice for journalists but she's willing to take them up the hill. They see the skid marks and the oil. They actually touched the oil so much that it gets all over their suits and they keep saying something to each other like what do you think heads gonna? Think of this Kathleen is baffled, but they just think and leave covered in oil, but the next day they come back only this time. They freely admit that they aren't from Clarks Work and they are even reporters. Their officials from Washington DC, of course, Kathleen, is

like why didn't you tell me the sooner the two men claim. They were worried that if they did, she wouldn't tell them anything. Then they start asking all sorts of questions about the oil like what was it, how much did it spray and, most importantly, what did she do with her? Uniform Kathleen hasn't washed it yet. So she handed over to the two men I take a sample and that's that about a month later, she received a letter from the Pentagon. It contains a five by seven picture of something that looks exactly like the monster and an explanation. they say that on the night of the siting they sent out for experimental rocket ships One went missing and that was probably the flying. Saucer Kathleen and the boys saw it had been having oil

or an had two men in it now the letter does it make it clear what actually happened to the passenger, I assume the Pentagon things. One of the men was supposed to be the flat woods monster or that one or both of them died in the crash regardless some about the response just seems suspicious, even allegedly ass, Kathleen to keep this all a secret and she does. She doesn't tell anyone about the letter for many years afterwards, mostly because she just doesn't believe it so many things about this story that just seem off, but really it would manner. If she did talk because worded, the monster has already spread far and wide. Remember the sheriff's office and a journalist to the house and seven office, or so of course,

local newspaper and tv and radio stations report on the sightings immediately pretty soon, Pittsburgh Paper sends a rider to flat woods to cover the event. A minister in Brooklyn New York calls Kathleen thinking. The creature is similar to one he saw in a dream. There's even assigned his from Newfoundland. Calling for a description is enough to attract the attention of a famous paranormal investigator named Ivan Sandra within a few days of the incident, he and his colleagues arrive and flat woods an interview, the boys and other residents in after a number of key. Persuasions Ivan any other researchers find out that many local saw something in the sky. That night, a nearby farmer describes this giant ball of fire travelling through the sky. He says Lindsey Land, but he did watch apiece break off of it. This would be roughly

in the same area and at the same time, that the boy saw their object. A five year old girl says she was returning a bold, her grandparents when she also saw a bright Orban, the sky. She was so terrified that she sprint it in our house tripped up the stairs and broke the salad bowl on the porch, a third resident, names. He saw a large orange crack immediately after the incident it was flattened at the top with Jack a fire shooting out of the sites it circled. The hill top for about fifteen minutes then took off towards a near by airport, the sightings pile up, and not just in Braxton County there's, reports of mysterious flying objects in Maryland, Dc Pennsylvania and even one in California, not to mention that earlier plane crash, which, still

hasn't been explained, so this gets Ivan thinking after mapping the sightings. This is the story he puts together on the evening of September 12th, one thousand nine hundred and fifty two. There are five unidentified objects flying over in county one spot it by the May boys lands in flat woods another the plane reported to the sheriff flies into the hill at Frayne Town. One goes east towards the county airport, a fourth shores over sugar, Creek number five heads for Charleston and disintegrates in the air. But what are these things? Sanderson isn't shore, but he comes up with theory about where they came from. The fleet of objects must have come from the Atlantic, passed over Baltimore and then veered towards West Virginia

their something went wrong and the all veered off in different directions, one of the craft managed to land and flat woods and its pilot. The monster got out just in time, but when the monster realized it had been spotted by a group of humans, it sprinted back to its ship in a panic that was a bad decision, because the craft was burning up from the friction of entering the earth's atmosphere once it hit the ground it slowly disintegrated, leaving no trace, except for a gashes smell Listen I'm not exactly a stranger to out their explanations on this show, but this is pretty far fetched as an altar. It is a few other residents put together some more reasonable theories. Local scientists hypothesize is that object, was one media that broke into several pieces. When apiece landed and flat woods, its gas has created a bunch.

like weird shadows in the night fog, which the boys and Kathleen mistook for a monster, it's possible. He knew their citing wasn't totally credible, but once the story was out there, they double down for publicity sake I should know that over the next few decades, Braxton County decides to literally market itself as the home of the flatheads monster. Like me, there ways you can buy giant monster chairs to sit in for pictures even an entire, museum. But there are a few details about this gas explanation that don't entirely add up for wine, If the object was a meteor, why couldn't anyone find any trace of it? Like no particles in the ground? No rocks that art native to the area, nothing not even a meteor pit. Second, if there's nothing unusual about this. Why

did the? U S, government get involved, I mean shore. Cuddling could have been making up that story about the officials who visited her. We have no actual evidence apart from her testimony, but there, is documentation on the incident in the AIR force's project. Bluebook files, which means the government, was clearly interested in something at flat woods, not to mention all the other sightings across the east coast that same evening Maybe they guessed correctly that this wouldn't be a one time occurrence less in three years later, there's a very similar incident, just four hundred miles away in Kelly Hopkins. Well Kentucky only this time. There is not just one monster: there's an army of them coming up the little green men invade Kentucky. This episode is brought, you buy Mozilla. Nothing has better with white knight than that

disputed king of import beer with Devils than the gold did since nineteen twenty five appeals to me with only two was premium hops, giving it a Chris Golden logger taste. It's a beer that came from small beginnings in never gave up. That's the fighting spirit who makes a line which is is no surprise them. Adela was the official view of you FC, so next fight no man who's in the octagon may so you choose the beer, that's always in your corner Magellan because its brood for those with fighting spirit stuck up on the agenda for the next five nine heads Dela, USA, dot com to shop delivery and pick up drink responsibly, be reported by crony Import, Chicago Illinois. This episode is brought you by data Icu, the platform for every

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On the night of August 21st, one thousand nine hundred and fifty five, the Sutton family, gathers around the dinner table. Thinking it's going to be a normal evening around one p m one of their house gas. This guiding Billy re Taylor offers to fetch water from the well when he goes outside. He see something strange shoot through the sky, its bright silvery, an egg shaped warlike a space ship than a plain. Suddenly, it slows stops and dropped into a Billy Billy runs back into the farmhouse telling the suttons he's just seen a flying saucer court everybody laughed at him, but roughly a half hour later the dog begins to bark Billy Unlucky, Sutton outside to see. What's going on at first, they don't see anything but the door,

suddenly runs underneath the house terrified. Then this figure emerges in the distance. It looks a bit like a man, but not really it's maybe three and a half feet tall with a perfectly round head and hands that look like clause its eyes, have a strange, yellow glow and the creature looks metallic just like in flat. What's lucky and Billy run inside and grab their guns, they wait in the house as the creature approaches and when its close enough, they shoot the creature scrambles back disappearing into darkness, but a few minutes later another one appeared at the side window they fire again and this time they hit when they go outside to see what it is there. But borrowed it there's another monster in the trees more the shadows of the yard. Talons Ray

king down from the roof. The men continue shooting, but these creatures or fast, almost as if their flying in every I'm lucky and Billy drive them off even more return. This continues for nearly four hours. The men burn through four boxes of let's eventually the family manages to sneak into their car and drive to the Hopkins Bill Police station there, inside and tell the police chief, their fighting off some kind of alien invasion. Soon, there's a group of roughly twenty five reporters deputies and investigators at the sudden farm but they find absolutely no evidence that anything out of the ordinary occurred. Only the shell casings in the grass so by two, a m: the police leave and held a sudden to just go to sleep honestly bathing. The family is probably making the whole thing up, but they

promise. That, though, come back in the morning just to be on the safe side a half hour later, a two thirty another resident, The sudden house is trying to sleep when she sees a glow through an open window. She sits up and looks closer, and suddenly she sees little clause on the screen and a creature staring right into the room frozen in beer She called out to the rest of the family. Looky runs into the room and shoots at the window. The shot damage is the window frame and seems to scare the creature off temporarily, but a few minutes later, it's back again, this time with friends, the creatures return periodically and family keeps firing to drive them off until almost by thirty in the morning. It's not clear why the attackers stop at that point, but it's almost as if they don't want to be out in the sun, so the Suttons huh,

to figure that the police are bound to find some thing when they show up for a daylight investigation, but when they come back, they scouts. that area and they still can't find evidence that anything happened. The name wars and the newspapers all ridicule. The suttons they claim the story was invented for publicity or that they were drunk on moonshine tending after the event, the sun's literally have to move to escape all the gossip for decades. Nobody thinks about it again and the sons were turned to life as normal, but by two thousand and ten the situation changes. The town is desperate for money. At that point- and they remember this strange incident with this is so a group of residents create the little green men festival, which is a celebration of aliens and flying saucers. It occurs every year on August, twenty first,

the same day as the shoot out, and it brings hundreds of tourists to town. I'm not a lie. It's kind of tasteless to capitalize on this. Sixty years later, after the sons were literally driven from their home by the ridicule from their neighbours, if the festival had started right after the incident it might be different. Then we might be able to dismiss this whole story as a publicity stunt, like people often do with the flat woods monster but the sun's clearly did not embellish their story for the sake of tourism. They gained nothing from their encounter, so we have to assume the family saw something, but what was it? Apart from alien, the best answer anyone can come up with is, and I'm not kidding owls. If you think about the description of what the sudden saw then look at a picture of a barn owl, a kind of makes sense. More hours have creepy deep eyes round faces and cut

during that makes them look like their wearing some sort of hood or cake, which is partly what they saw in the flat woods monster to the owl would have looked tall perched upon a tree. the witnesses did say the flat woods monster was hovering right in front of a tree. Remember it was dark. And every one was already on edge. They were already joking flying saucers and alien invasions. Their subconscious could have turned something as simple as an hour into a terrifying monster, but there's something not entirely had a spying about this explanation. I mean owls dont, squirt oil and as far as the Euro itself, I don't see how it could just be a meteor or something meters glow with pulsing lights or smell, a burning machinery or disinterest without a trace, and what really gets me is even in the face of these more grounded explanations. The witnesses involved still can't get over what they saw. I mean it is

seventy years later the May boys want to believe the flat woods monster was just an hour. There was a a figment of their imaginations, but they can't whatever

saw that night, terrified them for decades. It was creepy enough that, even today, people from all over the world visit flat Woods Monster Museum every week to see evidence with their own eyes, because seeing is believing the hill where the creature was spotted is now on private property. But you could bet that if they could, those same people would track up sit by the tree and wait for the creature to combat things for listening I'll be back next week with another episode

You can find all episode of supernatural and all other Spotify originals from part cash for pre on Spotify Supernatural, stars, Ashley flowers and is a spot if I originally from par, cast its executive produce by MAX Cutler Sound designed by carry Murphy with production assistance by IRAN, Shapiro Trent Williamson, hardly mad. This episode of supernatural was written by Stacy Limit writing assistance into the Jorgensen include Gallagher that checking my honour. Their money in research by Mickey Taylor. To your more stories hosted by me check crimes and he and all audio chuck originals. hi, I'm shall be Scott, hosted, mediates a new Spotify original from par cast. You can join we wednesdays as I dive into the world of spiritual ism and the women that defined it will explore everything from

obvious con artists to one hundred and fifty year old, mysteries, ITALY, Fascinating journey, so be it to follow my new podcast mediums, free and only on Spotify.