Mothman- the famous red-eyed owl-like creature who allegedly stalked the skies of Point Pleasant, Virginia in the mid-1960s- appears to have relocated… and multiplied! Vice reports that there were 55 cases of Mothman sightings in Chicago last year, and that the encounters indicate that people may be spotting at least three different winged critters!
The story starts with a quote from John Amitrano, who works security for a Logan Square restaurant called The Owl, who says he saw something unusual outside the building:
“I saw a plane flying, but also something moving really awkwardly under it. It didn’t look like a bat so much as what illustrations of pterodactyls look like, with the slenderness of its head and its wing shape. I know what birds and what bats look like. This thing didn’t have any feathers or fur, and it didn’t fly like anything I’ve ever seen.”
Amitrano further described the creature as having, “muscular legs, a jutting tailbone, and a human-like shape (which flew in a) strange swooping motion, undulating up and down.”
Vice analyzed similar Mothman sightings in Chicago in 2017, and found the following similarities in the reports:
“a large, black, bat-like being with glowing red eyes” to “a big owl” or something that resembled a “Gothic gargoyle” or a “Mothman.” Most eyewitnesses spotted the being in-flight, but some particularly disturbing reports detailed it dropping onto hoods of cars, peering in through windows, and swooping down at bystanders.”
The website spoke with Lon Strickler, who runs a cryptid website called Phantoms and Monsters and authored the book Mothman Dynasty: Chicago’s Winged Humanoids. Strickler has been interviewing people who claim to have experienced these kinds of sightings, and he has come to the following conclusion:
“This group of sightings is historical in cryptozoology terms. For one, it’s happening in an urban area for the most part and that there are so many sightings in one period.”
According to Vice, Strickler believes, “there are at least three flying humanoids around Chicago due to the varied locations, the concentration of sightings in certain neighborhoods, and the small differences in the eyewitness testimonies.”
While the Mothman sightings of Point Pleasant, Virginia ultimately culminated in the tragic collapse of Silver Bridge into the Ohio River on December 15th, 1967, Strickler does not believe that the creature sighted in Chicago is here to deliver a similar omen:
“These beings are less aggressive than the one in Point Pleasant, for the most part. I believe overall there was only one being in the Point Pleasant-area that was seen during that period… I think they’re flesh and blood beings that aren’t of this world.”
At least they’re less aggressive!
Vice’s article concludes with an interview with University of Chicago psychologist Dr. David A. Gallo, who provides a healthy dose of skepticism to the sensational story of the return of Mothman (Moth… men? There’s three of them now, right?):
“There’s a phenomenon where there’s basically some real witnessed experience, but if there are holes or gaps in that original experience, sometimes the mind is unable to fill in the gaps… If something is suggested to them subsequently as a plausible scenario—like a Mothman or whatever—that person might be inclined to fill in the gaps with that.”
But where’s the fun in that!?
Stay tuned to Horror News Network for more details on upcoming Mothman appearances, or any other famous cryptid encounters which may occur in 2018!
