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The "Mothman"

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About

Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled “Couples See Man-Sized Bird…Creature…Something”. Mothman has also been a Subject to Movies, Television,and Video Games, along with a higher reputation than The Slenderman or The Rake.

The first sighting of the supposed Mothman occurred on November 12, 1966. A group of gravediggers working in a cemetery in Clendenin, West Virginia saw the figure fly through the air, right over their heads. Other people began seeing the same creature, which they described as looking like a man with wings.

On November 15 two different couples in Point Pleasant had their own firsthand encounters with the Mothman. They claimed it was at least six foot tall, and closer to seven feet tall. They also described its bright eyes, and the huge wings on its back. The four saw the creature fly through the air after first unfolding its large wings. They also claimed the creature flew at speeds of at least 100 miles per hour.

Police began receiving reports from all over. People kept calling with reports of a strange bird seen in the area. One man in the area, Newell Partridge saw his television screen turn fuzzy with colors he had never seen before. At the same time his dog began howling loudly, and a loud screeching sound came from outside. When he walked outside, he saw two glowing red eyes just before whatever it was flew off into the night. Almost immediately his dog raced after it, and didn't return.

The popularity of the creature continued to grow, as news stations and papers around the world caught on. Dozens of locals continued to tell the stories of what they saw, and everyone clamored for even the smallest piece of information. In the end the press dubbed the creature the Mothman, partly based on the hit television show Batman running at the time.

Many of the stories of the Mothman centered on a former TNT plant that sat empty and abandoned on the edge of town. The building sat in the middle of a wooded area, where few people tended to venture. Nearby was an animal preserve, and some believed the Mothman could find food there and blend in with the other animals in the area. There were also stories that the creature had hid there for years before finally being seen.

On November 16 a new report of the Mothman surfaced, only this one came from a home near the TNT plant. Ralph Thomas and his family spotted a strange red light in the area. At first they thought it might be some kind of plane, but the small light continued to circle the plant before dipping closer to the roof of the building.

A friend stopped by for a visit, and claimed to see the Mothman next to her car. The creature slowly climbed to its feet, giving her a clear look into its glowing red eyes. The woman and her daughter ran inside, where they watched the Mothman walk onto the porch and look in the windows before flying away.

For some, the sightings of the Mothman coincided with reports of other strange things in the area. There were reports of UFO's in the area, and stories of strange men in black stopping locals on the road. One weekend over 500 reports came in regarding strange lights and things spotted in the skies above Point Pleasant. The Mothman was the real story though, with over 100 reports occurring in a single year.

One thing the people thought might be connected to the Mothman was an odd man who visited a local reporter. The man had strange eyes and an odd voice. The reporter claimed to feel extremely uncomfortable in his presence, and found herself wishing he would just leave. The man acted oddly, and seemed amazed by ordinary things in her office. She saw him once again, but when he noticed her staring at him, he climbed into a black car and ran off.

The real story of the Mothman came on December 15, 1967. Cars were passing over the 700 foot bridge that connected Point Pleasant and Ohio when the bridge suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed. The rush hour traffic crossing the bridge was caught in the middle. Cars were sent into the icy river, and 46 people were killed. Only 44 of those bodies were found, and they were all buried in the same cemetery in Gallipolis, Ohio.

The night the bridge collapsed, people in the area spotted strange lights above Point Pleasant. Others in the area saw a man who appeared on their doorstep, asking questions about the mysterious lights they saw in the sky over previous months. He seemed nice, though most people reported that he made them feel uneasy or uncomfortable. By all indications, that was the last time the Mothman was seen.

The story of the Mothman has fascinated people for decades now. What was that creature that people spotted in the sky? Was it related to the UFO sightings, or was it foretelling the tragedy about to come?

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"Mothman" sightings have also occurred around the world and have been reported just prior to major disasters or tragic events.

• The Chernobyl disaster

• Tsunami in India

• Afghanistan & Iraq

• September 11th, 2001

And more...

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Legend of the New Jersey Devil

Most tellers of the legend of the Jersey Devil trace the devil back to Deborah Smith who emigrated from England in the 1700s to marry a Mr. Leeds. The Leeds family lived in the area of the NJ Pine Barrens (Leeds Point, Galloway Township, Atlantic County). Mrs. Leeds had given birth to 12 children and was about to give birth to her 13th. The story goes that Mrs. Leeds invoked the devil during a very difficult and painful labor and that when the baby was born, it either immediately, or very soon afterwards, (depending on the version of the story), grew into a full-grown devil and escaped from the house.

Another version of the story says it was when Mrs. Leeds found out she was pregnant with her 13th, that she said that if she were to have one more child, "may it be a devil".

Another version is that the child/devil was the result of a family curse.

Another version is that Mrs. Leeds, who was a Quaker, had refused to be converted from the Quaker faith and that the clergyman who had been trying to convert her was so angry that he told her that her next child would be an offspring of Satan.

Another version is that the child was born a monster and that Mrs. Leeds cared for the child until her death. In this version the child/devil "flew off" into the swamps after Mrs. Leeds' death.

People in the 1700s still believed in witchcraft and many people of the period felt a deformed child was a child of the devil or that the deformity was a sign that the child had been cursed by God.

It may be that indeed Mrs. Leeds gave birth to a child with a birth defect and given the superstitions of the period, the legend of the Jersey Devil was born.

In any event there do not seem to be any subsequent reported encounters with the Jersey Devil in which he/it actually harmed anyone.

In the last 200 years or so, there have been a number of "sightings" and the hearing of eerie noises/wails in the forests which have been attributed to the Jersey Devil, but since these accounts are, in the main, generic descriptions, one is somewhat drawn to the conclusion that any number of "weird" things in southern Jersey are attributed to the Jersey Devil as a matter of course.

Over the years the Jersey Devil has been called by a number of names, "Hoodle-Doodle Bird", "Wozzle Bug" and the "Leeds Devil".

This is all not to say that people do not believe in the Jersey Devil. Many over the year have believed and reported sightings of the creature.

Sightings included one in 1870 by a Long Beach fisherman who said he saw the Jersey Devil serenading a mermaid.

The best known sightings however were in January 1909 when Councilman E.P. Weeden of Trenton claimed to have been awoken by flapping wings outside his bedroom window. The Councilman said he found cloven footprints in the snow and several other instances of similar footprints were reported in Trenton at the time. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other people also claimed to have seen the Devil within a week or so of the Councilman's "sighting" and news of the multiple sightings were reported in local papers. The January 1909 sightings were not limited to New Jersey...there were reported sightings across the river in Pennsylvania and some sightings in Delaware as well.

In 1978 two teenage boys were ice-skating near Chatsworth in the Barrens and smelled an odor like "dead fish" and saw two red eyes staring at them. They didn't stay around to investigate, but claimed they had encountered the Jersey Devil.

A number of people have claimed, not to have seen the Devil, but to have heard him, rampaging through woods, or emitting blood-curdling cries.

People have found "strange" tracks and attributed them to the Jersey Devil. One instance of such tracks was reported, (along with loud shrieks), near May's Landing in 1960. Also in 1960, merchants in Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil. They said they would build a private zoo to display the creature if anyone could capture it. The reward is unclaimed.

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The Apeman of the Amazon

Could these pictures dated from the 1930s of a supposed apeman found in the jungles of Brazil be proof for the much sought after missing link?

His giant lips and furrowed brow and awkward monkey-like gait appear to be simian and the Dutch magazine Het Leven which published them in 1937 certainly seemed convinced, describing the pictures as those of a mystery apeman.

However, in spite of any excitement at the zoological and anthropological find of the past one hundred years, many online observers have cast a keen eye onto the pictures and found the tell-tale signs of prosthetic make-up on the face of the apparent monkey-man.

Rather than changing the perceptions of scientists across the world, it appears that the apeman's mouth and brow are stuck into place using rudimentary make-up.

Visible in one picture is the line of the prosthetic mouth which covers the chin up to the bridge of the nose.

And other observers have pointed out that the forehead will always be covered with hair in any make-up situation to blend in the prosthesis.

Another shrewd onlooker has pointed out that for a man recently found wild in the jungles of Brazil, he is remarkably well shaven and has a particularly neat, if unfashionable haircut.

Others online have made the sad claim that this apeman is most likely an unfortunate individual born with birth defects and exploited to wear the make-up and prosthetics to pose and pretend to be a newly discovered apeman.

Indeed, throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, reports of wild and mythic ape-like beasts living in remote and far-flung locations have fascinated readers across the world.

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[American Zombie]

lol at mr apeman

[TumbleWeed]

LOL @ "missing links" and at that story. That person seems to have suffered from some sort genetic abnormality. Nothing paranormal about it.

[Forum Gawd]

LOL @ "missing links" and at that story. That person seems to have suffered from some sort genetic abnormality. Nothing paranormal about it.

I dont believe it buddy lol! I just post it Lol! I dont believe in no missing link! Who knows some of these creatures might be animals that were born abnormal.

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For centuries, strange reports of a large, underwater creature have come from people living near the remote Lake Labynkyr in Siberia.

Now, a team of scientists from the Russian Geographical Society report they've found the skeletal remains of an animal that fits the description of the "Devil" of Lake Labynkyr, according to the Siberian Times, though skeptics have yet to be convinced of the legendary creature's existence.

"There have been all sorts of hypotheses about what kind of creature it could be: a giant pike, a … reptile or an amphibian," said research team geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov, as quoted in the Siberian Times. "We didn't manage to prove or to disprove these versions … [but] we managed to find remains of jaws and skeleton of some animal."

The Russian research team — which included divers from the Russian Emergencies Ministry, camera people from the Sakha National Broadcasting Company and scientists from Yakutsk State University — was exploring the lake bottom to gather samples of water, plants and animals.

And on the bottom of the lake, using an underwater scanner, they discovered the large jawbone and skeleton, the Voice of Russia reports. Despite their claims, the team brought no physical evidence of their purported find to the surface. [Loch Ness, Chupacabra & More: Our 10 Favorite Monsters]

A mysterious lake that never freezes

The lake itself has been a source of scientific mystery for generations. Though other lakes in the region freeze solid during the long Siberian winter, Lake Labynkyr doesn't — it maintains a near-constant surface temperature of 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), according to the Daily Mail.

This has led some to speculate that an underground hot spring may warm the lake. This scenario is plausible, as much of the rock in the Lake Labynkyr area is volcanic, and scientists know most of the eastern Siberia area is seismically active, according to the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System.

The large lake measures roughly 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) in area and has an average depth of 171 feet (52 meters), though a large underwater trench runs as deep as 263 feet (80 m), the Daily Mail reports.

This is not the first time some evidence of Lake Labynkyr's "Devil" has surfaced. In addition to local folklore, some scientists have reported seeing a strange creature in the lake (and in nearby Lake Vorota).

In 1953, a team of geologists from the Soviet Academy of Sciences led by Viktor Tverdokhlebov visited Lake Vorota. Tverdokhlebov reported seeing a large, underwater animal the size of an orca swimming near the surface of the lake, according to a report in the Siberia Times.

And in 2012, an associate professor of biogeography at Moscow State University Ludmila Emeliyanova claimed that she used sonar readings to record several large, underwater objects in Lake Labynkyr.

"I can't say we literally found and touched something unusual there, but we did register with our echo-sounding device several seriously big, underwater objects, bigger than a fish, bigger than even a group of fish," Emeliyanova said, as quoted in the Siberia Times.

Skeptics weigh in

Of course, considerable skepticism surrounds rumors of the Labynkyr "Devil" and any Vorota "monster," especially given the lack of any verifiable photographs, video or physical evidence.

Yury Gerasimov, of the Institute of Freshwater Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, casts doubt on any such cryptozoological reports, according to the Siberian Times. He questioned claims regarding the creature's size.

"If we trust the stories about this 'Devil,' there must be about 1.5 meters [5 feet] between its eyes. It means the length of its body must be about 7 to 8 meters [23 to 26 feet]," Gerasimov told the Siberia Times.

It's often supposed that the creature is a large fish such as a pike. However, "pike do not live so long in order to reach such a big size," Gerasimov said. "There are two factors that help fish to grow: nutrition and comfortable water temperatures. Even if nutrition is perfect there, surely the temperatures are not that high. So, in my opinion, the view about a huge pike is a fantastic one," Gerasimov said.

Video Here...

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This is supposed to be a picture of a Chupacabra supposedly that was captured.

Driving through the park in an open top jeep, and something strange pokes its head out of a bush to our astonishment, so we stop and continue to observe it. At that point we weren't too far away from it, and it looked like a dog or something casual, but it proceeded to rise onto two feet and move forward a bit, and out of being startled, it was shot. Long story short, We contacted the park ranger, and he came and retrieved it and while talking about it, called it chupacabra multiple
times, and it got spooky when he told us that we better not say anything or tell the news or he would have us arrested, that no one is to know about it and that they've been trying to find it for a while now. We snapped a picture when he wasn't looking and then he proceeded to take it away. I just wanted this picture to get around and circulate because this is strange and It feels as if they try to keep it hidden. ( email was received from JL on March 29, 2012)

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