Chilluminati Podcast - Episode 28 - The Mothman Part 1 - He Just Loves You That's All

Episode Date: June 23, 2019

Soundcloud - @chilluminatipodcast  Jesse Cox - www.youtube.com/jessecox  Alex Faciane - www.youtube.com/user/superbeardbros Art Commissioned by - mollyheadycarroll.com Theme - Matt Proft Video - http://www.twitter.com/digitalmuppet

SimplySafe was named best home security of 2023 by U.S. News and World Report, but we don't do what we do for the Acolytes. We do it to protect you and everything you love. Our advanced sensors, indoor and outdoor HD cameras, and hazard detectors are powered by live 24-7 professional monitoring, so you get emergency help fast. Get 20% off any new system with fast protect monitoring at simplysafe.com slash Spotify. There's no safe, like SimplySafe. It's good to be back, boys, and welcome, everybody, all the listeners who have returned

to episode 28 of the Chilubanati podcast. We have had a busy friggin' June. Very busy. It's not gonna end anytime soon. No, we are. It's still just gonna be busy forever. It's literally busy until August when con season officially comes to an end, I think. Are you ready for all three of us to fly to London in like one week's time?

I'm so ready. Two weeks' time to like do Chilubanati UK, Coxcon UK, got biz.tickets.tickets.coxcon.co.uk. You can go there, buy tickets, come see us. You should. We're gonna do a dope show live for everybody. It'll probably be the biggest show I personally have ever done just in front of anybody at any cost. It'll probably be the biggest show ever done.

Ever recorded. By anyone. In the history of the world. We're gonna live stream it, right? Online? Yes, it'll be live streamed online. It'll also, more importantly, be live streamed at your local theater. What?

At the Mavents. At the Mavents. Rave 18. Yeah. It won't. No. All right, boys. We're gonna be diving into a fun topic today.

It's okay. I don't even say this is not necessarily a tin foil hat episode, but this is an episode people have been asking for since, like, week one of us doing this. This is a classic, classic cryptid that exists here in the United States supposedly. Who could it be? Who could it be? It's none other than the Chupacabra. No, the Mothman.

It is the Mothman. I'm excited about the Mothman. I'm excited about the Chupacabra. Mothman. The Chupamothman. It's like high Don Draper's greatest fear is like the Mothman. Really? This is like the old school, like, USA 1960s, middle of the country kind of stuff.

I love this. This is what happens when you live in the flyover states and nothing interesting happens. Except for Mothman. Except for the Mothman. So out of curiosity, what do the two of you know about the Mothman? Just like passing out. I know a lot. I'm not even gonna lie.

Really? You know a lot. So you just know a lot about the Mothman. So you just know a lot about the Mothman. I don't have it like committed to my memory, but I've seen the movie. I've like gone down the rabbit hole. Are we going to talk about what's his name? The dude?

What's the dude's name? The guy who like calls on the phone. I can't remember his name, but he has a weird name that's like Mr. Cold or something like that. We may get to that in the second episode. Spoilers are going to be at least a two parter. Yeah. Mr. Ice-Crisis.

I'm Mr. Mothman. I'm Mr. Bridge Disaster. How much of our audience gets that reference, gents? Just hopefully all of them. You think so? That is a timeless classic. If we're doing it, if we're doing it. Is it still shot on TV during the holidays?

That's still something that's aired? Yeah. Every year. Every year. Is it a year without a Santa Claus? Yeah, it's absolutely. Is that the one? You know, Rudolph and all that.

Oh god. Heat Mizer Boy. You know, it's a good time. Is it still legally allowed to show claymation on TV or is it too scary? Claymation is not scary in your bitch if you think it is. I think I'm the only person on planet Earth to own the actual Claymation Christmas special and it's great. That's my favorite.

I will watch that every Christmas. Hell yeah. That's what we used to watch every Christmas as well. Here we go. A wassaling, a wassaling, we go. It's great. I just make wassaling get wasted instead and that's my Claymation Christmas. I know a lot about Mothman.

Okay. Well, we'll see. We'll have to test your knowledge as we'll go. We don't want to spoil anything too much. I know where the name Mothman comes from, too. That's my one little tidbit that I know about. You want to spoil that now? No.

I'm going to wait until we get to the Mothman. Is it because he looks like a moth? No. What do you mean? It's actually funny. It's actually funny. All right. All right.

We're going to dive into the Mothman though, but before we do a big thank you to Deanna. She is the researcher who spent two months diving into the Mothman. She loves the Mothman and it is clear there's a passion here. Have you guys ever seen the Mothman's shiny chrome ass? The stache? Yeah. The statue with the perfect ass. Jesse, go ahead and Google Mothman ass.

What? Go ahead and do it. Isn't there a, isn't there, didn't somebody on the forums just go there on the Reddit? He has got a finally crafted rear end. Didn't somebody? That is a butt out of Overwatch as an Overwatch butt. Listeners, please go do the very same. Go ahead and Google Mothman butt.

There's a statue that is out in the Midwest that has, he has a finally crafted figure. Let's put it that way. It does. Didn't somebody just visit it? Am I crazy? I think it's one of our researchers visited it while they're researching it. I think it was Deanna actually. Shout outs to Emerald Gordiant who posted a picture of my best friend came to visit me

from Mississippi to Maryland and we rode trip to the Mothman Museum. He's literally, they're both holding hands with the Mothman in their Chilluminati shirts. That's awesome. That's awesome. Oh man. The Chilluminati hoodies look great by the way. Thank you for everybody who sent us pictures of you wearing them. I got mine in the mail.

I look tight. I look like I'm about to do graffiti or something somewhere. It feels good. Hell yeah. Legal in LA. Yes. CBD and graffiti, baby. Hell yeah.

Well, if you don't know the listener, if you guys don't know who the Mothman is, a quick description is kind of simple. The Mothman is a very large somewhere between six and 10 feet typically described humanoid creature with red eyes that are reflective in nature. He has giant wings, but an important note never is he ever seen with his wings flapping when he flies, but he has big wings. So we're talking like a Japanese like daytime like robot fighting TV show. Absolutely.

He's got the wings out, but he hovers. Yes. He's a very much of a hover. Nailed it. I couldn't figure out what you're going for. And I realized you weren't talking about anything Japanese. You weren't talking about anything specific from the show. You just met the fact that in those old shitty shows, the wings never moved.

I was like, what are you talking about? He just caught up. He's just gonna move in. It's like, imagine you just hang an action figure from a string and you kind of like, yeah, dangle it. Yeah. Makes sense now. Now.

Hashtag, dangle it. Hashtag, let it dangle, baby. Dangle it out. Dangle it out. The dangle man prophecies. He is a man shaped. So people believe him to be at least the body of a man, though the faces never truly ever really seen beyond the glowing red eyes.

That's what people say about me. They are man shaped. I'm vaguely man shaped. Yeah. vaguely man shaped. He flies at incredibly high speeds, apparently, keeping pace with cars on the road. This moth man with wings is really fast and he has a very high pitched shriek that he'll let out.

Most notably, the moth man, within the legends at least, typically ends up being seen or around during times, right before, right during or right after tragic events. It's gonna be loss of lives or buildings collapsing or even as far as the stories of the 9 of 9 11 that he was around, apparently right. Moth man was at 9 11. There are. Well, we'll get to that. We'll get to that.

But yes, there are reports that he was at 9 11. I can't. Guys. I know. I know. No one on the. Yes. You can see our faces, but Alex, it wasn't like Alex was goofing Alex was genuinely

like, he was thrilled. He got the answer. How did 9 11 happen? The moth. I leaned in. What a smile on his face. I thought he was playing, but it wasn't like sometimes sometimes you just become very present. Like you you suddenly realize what's what you're doing, what you're talking about, where

you are, what your life is, and you just got to sometimes you just got to step back and enjoy the show. You know what I mean? Sometimes you just got to repeat back things like moth man was at 9 11. You are so into that theory. I just wanted to hear more. I. We will.

I prop. I can't wait. A solemn. I can't wait to hear about that. Talk about that. It may be this episode was literally on the edge of his. Take me to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, Mathis. Let's go.

Let's go to Point Pleasant. So that's the general physical description of the Mothman. But where does the Mothman come from? You might be asking, where did the legend originate? Well, we have that answer. Point Pleasant, as Alex said, is where it all started, specifically with a man by the name of Kenneth Duncan. You see, Kenneth and four of his buddies were in the cemetery near Clinton, West Virginia

on November 12th, 1966. He and these four other men were digging Duncan's brother-in-law's grave when something that, quote, looked like a brown human being buzzed by the other. The four other men digging the grave, however, did not see this figure. So you can imagine, put yourself in Kenneth's mind. You dig in your brother-in-law's grave with four of your buddies drinking some beers like you always do. Because what the hell else are you going to do out in West Virginia?

Right? And all of a sudden this man with wings and glowing red eyes, clearly visible in the sky. Just like. He swings. He's how fast are we talking? Well he lingers for about a minute, according to Kenneth. So give or take somewhere around there, he's moving around, hovering above them, watching them dig their brother's grave, probably saying, you know, it's not deep enough, go a little

deeper for about a minute. Kenneth's the only one that sees him, and then he ends up taking off. Quote from another quote from Kenneth is, it was gliding through the trees and was in sight for about a minute. So this wasn't like, whoa, did you see that? What was that? This was like, there was a thing that they were like, what the hell is that? What is that?

Kenneth alone was like, I see that thing, but the other four men did not. Kenneth was the sole witness of that happening. So what do you mean? So he didn't say anything, he just kept it to himself? Yeah, they didn't say anything, whether he pointed it out or not, it's not made clear, but the only thing that we do know as a fact is Kenneth's the only one who saw it. Interesting. The other four when asked were, did not see this thing.

Like they were like, I don't know what you're talking about, this guy said shit? I mean, I mean, maybe, maybe he was, he did a little, he had a, you know, throw a couple back before he went out to the grave and he could have seen something that way. But if that was the only case of seeing this creature around this time, then we could write it off, right? Kenneth just was smoking some dude, drank some, some beers and dug a grave and he was using it. That's what I always do.

I like, I like to light up on a Friday, go out to the graveyard, just dig my brother a grave. Brother in law, you can't be, you don't want to be blood. Right, right, right, right. But then two days later, on November 14th, 1966, roughly 90 minutes before the Scarbury and Millet sighting, which is a little bit later, Merle Partridge ended up seeing it outside in a field outside of his home. This is just two days after the first sighting.

Also in Point Pleasant. Also in Point Pleasant, Merle Partridge, also known as Newell Partridge in some books and papers, depending on where you read, a contractor said his television began acting like a generator. So I imagine loud buzzing, maybe even like staticking, causing electricity. I imagine what he means is like, it sounds like a generator. Like shaking and then moving. Maybe shaking, yeah. Like maybe kind of noise.

Like a portable generator. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And his dog, a $350 German Shepherd. I like that that detail is weirdly specified. It was a $350 German Shepherd. It's like in the police report, they were like, just in case anything fucking weird happens to this dog, you better know it cost me $350.

His name was Bandit. He started carrying on something terrible, which is a quote. Carrying on something terrible means, I imagine, like growling. He was carrying on. He was barking. He was raising a ruckus. So what did Merle do? Well, he shined his flashlight to the field near his home and he saw with eyes like red

reflectors, which fits the Mothman description and Bandit's hair immediately stood on end. So you know, when a dog ruffles up and gets all pissed off and the dog went into the field to chase after it and then Bandit never returned and there was no sign of him the next morning. He's just gone forever. He ran into the field. The dog chased after the thing. He got all ruffled up and pissed and chased it and then he never, never came back after that.

Damn. That sucks. It was about 1030 that night and suddenly the TV blanked out a real fine herringbone pattern appeared on the tube. And at the same time, the set started a loud whining noise, winding up too high to a high pitch, peaking and breaking off as if you were on a musical scale and you went as high as you could and came back down and repeated it. It sounded like a generator winding up.

It reminded me of a hand field generator that one might use for portable radio transmissions in emergency. Very, very specific, but I guess in 1966, when you live on a field, maybe you just have those things lying around. It's probably like from his military or something. It's wild that like I know what it is because I played a World War two video game. Hey man, video games are educational and they can teach you things. All right.

Yes, but let's be clear. They're not the same thing as going to war. That's not what I'm saying. No, no, no. God, no. I don't need to go to war. I play Call of Duty. I am good on that.

I danced warfare actually, so, you know, it's all good. But that's the end of his sighting. Literally that's it. But his sighting, which is important to note before we get into the next one, is 100 miles away from the sighting we're about to get into, which was one day later. I got to say so far, the barn owl thing, it makes sense. It's like everything that has been described so far would fit a barn owl. Like well, I mean, I don't know that much about barn owls.

I don't know how. They're huge, dude. Owls are what? What are we talking about though? Huge. Like a man? Huge. If maybe with the wings out, I like it could be like, yeah.

It's dark out. The wings are out. That perception might not be great and this giant thing with reflecting, reflecting eyes which is probably just catching the light of your flashlights or whatever is flying over. I imagine that would be horrifying to see if you don't know what the hell you're looking at. Also the very first image of what the mothman, like the first drawing of what the mothman

looks like. If you go look at it, it looks very much like a bird sort of hunched over with its wings and like neck like sort of down. It's like that thing from Looney Tunes. The red thing. Yeah. Except this, instead of being just one, you know, big monster, it is clearly, it looks like the shape of a bird that has wings like up and like it sort of perched there and it

has eyes sort of in the middle of its chest because you know birds can like do that head sink thing. Right. And it seems to like, okay, I can see how that could be an owl. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But if it's active, it can also be the guy from Looney Tunes who's just fur in hands.

Agreed. And like my initial impression is usually the same. And I think for the most part, you could probably attribute most of these sightings, but my goal is to present some evidence or some sightings that may leave you wondering if there's a little more to it than we first believe, but let's get to the Scarberry and Millet sighting. Again, this is the next day, a hundred miles away from the, from the sighting from the previous night, November 15th, 1966, just after midnight.

Police called at 2am. So the police were called for this. So this is the third sighting in three days in like a pretty close area. Four days. So the 12th, then two days later. Oh, there's a day skipped. I see. Yeah, exactly.

There was a day that was skipped in between. Not necessarily that matters all that much, but it's important. This happened in the TNT area. The TNT area is the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, again, another area where you'd probably see a lot of owls, right, located in Mason County, about five miles north of Point Pleasant. It sits on 3,655 acres, of which 1775 is mixed hardwood forest, 1,100 is brushland, and 600 is farmland, and 180 is wetland, containing about 26 or so ponds. It's called the TNT area because during World War II, more than 8,000 acres in the area

were devoted to an ammunition manufacturing facility. The explosives were housed in bunkers called igloos scattered throughout the area covered in a layer of earth. It was largely abandoned after the war, as most things are, and converted into a wildlife management area and landfill. Now this is going to be important to just lock that into your head that this was once a military area. In the 1980s, it was discovered that the land was severely contaminated by explosive products

and was added to a list of federal sites eligible for cleanup. In May 2010, just to fast forward, one of the igloos containing 20,000 pounds of unstable material exploded and, luckily, nobody was injured. So, the scarberries and the molettes. Linda and Roger Scarberry were married couple aged 19 and 18 respectively. Sometime after the events in Point Pleasant incidents, Linda and Roger divorced, and Linda remained the only one of the four willing to talk about the events until her death in 2011 and appeared in many of the interviews and documentaries that you could see about the

Mothman to this day. Friends with the Scarberry, Steve and Mary Millette were another married couple, so that rounds out the four. So you've got Linda, Roger, Steve, and Mary all in the same place when this happens. Isn't that what the, isn't that the characters from the movie are based on? I have never seen the movie. Oh, Mathis, he got a Mothman movie. Have you not seen Mathis?

Cause it came out at a time, when did it come out, 90s, mid 90s? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like 98, 97. So I was like 12, 13, I was in... Mathis. I just, I'm surprised, I'm surprised because you're like totally the guy who I think would have seen the Mothman movie. Yeah, I never saw it. Cause the weird thing about that movie is it's not like a horror movie, it's like a telling

of the events. And I know it's, I know it's, I know it's fictionalized, but I think it like this, this encounter might have something to do with it. Well, it's basically a book that was written in 75, I believe. Yes. Which is also kind of exaggerated from my understanding. Yeah. It's definitely been like blockbuster, movied.

Oh, of course. Yeah. I remember, cause my parents went to go see it and I remember them talking about it to the point where I, like I was cognitively, cognitively aware of what Mothman was at that age. Oh, it was spooky, but that was it. So, on to the sighting. The Scarberries and the Millets were out joyriding in Roger's 1957 Chevy, riding around in style.

Steve was the first person to see the supposed creature. Its eyes reflected in the headlights and pointed it out to the others. They described the creature as a gray man, a gray man-like figure with wings that wobbled as though it couldn't keep its balance. Now, first of all, this is a gray, possible alien, but we'll talk about that later. You think that because it was gray? I'm just saying if it had gray skin. Okay.

All right. If it had gray skin, potential gray experiment. That is the same color as some of the aliens that we've heard of. Specifically, the gray. Yeah. Seeing the creature, the couples drove off on Route 62. They saw the creature next on a billboard where it spread its wings and flew straight up.

It began to follow them gliding back and forth across the back of the car. Imagine how creepy is that? Even if it's just a freaking owl. You see this thing on the road. It's wobbling. You're like, F this. They get off the road. They drive in and then the billboard that comes up, God, maybe 15 minutes later, there's

that same thing they believe on the billboard. They drive by it and they look in the rear view mirror and they can see in the window the thing following them and just sweeping back and forth, back and forth. Dude, somebody did that to me in a car one time when I was like in the middle of the night. They hit me on the five freeway. They didn't hit me, but they came up behind me on the five freeway in a car with no lights on and they were weaving back and forth behind me.

Then all of a sudden, they turn their lights on full high and just sped off at 120 miles an hour. It was so crazy. That would scare the hell out of me. Yeah. That would scare the hell out of me. As it began to follow them, they said they were driving around as they were just trying to get away from this thing, super scared.

They said they were driving around 100 miles per hour. Wild. But the creature was easily keeping up, even reportedly scratching the top of the car. So not only was this thing able to keep up going 100 miles an hour, it was literally clawing at the car. It's like right out of a horror movie. You're just driving in this winged creature just scraping at you. That's the worst.

That is wild. Mary Millet specifically said it squeaked like a big mouse. That makes it like a lot less intimidating, but still, I mean, I bet you would sound awful at the time, like like big old like monster, like, I would be like, no. What? What? It doesn't matter. The fact that it's not like, you know, like the fact that it's like like fucked up, like

weird squeak is like, it's like more upsetting because like you wouldn't expect it to be like outside the car, like scratching at you and stuff mouse makes a noise. OK, OK, OK, OK. I know that sounds stupid, but if you imagine just like a magical no, no, just just OK. Just think about what happens when a person gets big, right? They're like, yo, what's up, dude? And so if a mouse gets big, right, it goes from being like to being like. Jesse's losing his mind right now.

It's just a matter of it's just it's just facts. It's just facts, man. Oh, first I was like, where are you going with this? But now now that you explained it, it makes perfect sense. Everything I do is based in fact. All right, let's get back into the game. All right, these guys are driving 100 miles an hour, scratching, following them. Terrifying.

And then the group considered going to the police after this happened. Eventually, the thing ended up veering off and they got away from it. They eventually just left. I would have driven directly to the fucking police station. Are you kidding me? It's that problem where all people who encounter something haunted or paranormal is what they always do. They just go home.

That's the time that you need the cops. That's the time not that something's chasing you and flying and scratching your car. That's the time to go. Not for them, not for them. Anyway, they considered going to the police, but feared they would be laughed at if there was if there was no proof as they were heading back into town. They reportedly saw a large dead dog on the side of the road. And the creature once again flew over them and glided into the field

on the other side of the road. Now, their speculation that this particular dog on the side of the road. Oh, then it's bandit. That it's bandit. Oh, my gosh. Dog is bandit. That's like movie level exposition, though. That can't be. That's like when the goat leg lands on the car in Jurassic Park.

That's like that level of like cinematic storytelling. No way. It's important to know that there was going to be they their body was gone before an inspection could take place. So when they eventually went back to that area, the dog's body was gone. But that could just be wildlife running up, taking a free meal and just taking off with it. Right. Any of that stuff. But I mean, it's interesting to think about if the night before dog

disappeared the night after this thing's back and now there's a dead dog on the side of the road. No doubt. Who knows? Once back in town, however, the group told their story to the two deputy Millard Halstead, who, seeing their terror, decided to investigate. So the couples drove back to the TNT area with the deputy in tow, who shined a spotlight around. Afterwards, the couples went to the Skarsbury's trailer and stayed up all night with the lights on. Clearly, the deputy didn't see anything.

There was nothing to be seen. And so they ended up going home. That I can understand. I probably wouldn't be able to sleep that night either. I'd be too terrified, flip the lights on, be done with it. Though the deputy did not see the creature. He did report strange static disturbances on his radio with no explanation, which fits with the first story or the the earlier story with the TV

situation and all that stuff. So interference. Yeah, to see common threads running through physically and supernaturally with electrical components. During the day, the couples went back out to the TNT area and described footprints that they found like, quote, two horseshoes put together, but smooth. Steve says he saw something fly up inside a boiler when he kicked a door open, but he was the only one to do to see anything before they all fled the area.

A boiler. Yeah, I'm assuming they were checking out an area, clicked open a boiler to see if there's anything in there and whatever was in there flew up and out. Are they like, am I supposed to imagine that in the TNT area, they're like going in and out of like military buildings that are abandoned? I imagine so. Everything's abandoned. They're probably exploring. Maybe it's a plate.

They're teenagers or 18, 19 years old. I bet you this place back in 66, this is where you go drink and make out. Right. Right. This is where you go to have a good time and get irradiated and get irradiated by 20,000 pounds of unstable explosives. Two horseshoes put together, but smooth sounds like a like a dance step, like a little thing you flop out on the floor. You know what I'm talking about?

Sounds like a cartoon, like goofy shaped footprint. Like a peanut. Yeah, yeah, I guess. Yeah, that makes sense. But that, you know, that's like a that doesn't even fit anything like that. That footprint that they suppose is I don't even fit anything. It's like not consistent with any other story. Yeah. I mean, well, no, that that's that's consistent with other stories.

I'm just thinking wildlife wise. Like what would that match? I don't know. That's true. Like a dude with shoes on like a dude with like super round shoes on maybe. So those are our initial foresightings that really lay out and kind of gave us as Americans and just people in this country and an idea of what this is the first time the Mothman ever really made himself known, at least in this fashion.

Now we get to the disaster that followed his appearance. Well, well, well, well, before we start this, though. All right, we haven't even mentioned where the Mothman comes from. Would you like to, Jesse? I would love to back in the 60s. When Point Pleasant and all that stuff was like, you know, being creepy. People were like, Hey, there's this thing out there. We don't know what this is.

Something's out there. They have a drawing of it. The newspaper originally wanted to refer to him as the Batman. But during this time, there was like the Batman hype over the TV stuff and all that. And so they didn't want to name him Batman. So the next best thing they come up with was my man. They were like, he kind of looks like a Moth.

Yeah, honestly, they were like, honestly, he's going to be Batman. I think the reason that he's so famous now is because that's like a fucking scary name. Right. It has alliteration. Alliteration is the scariest thing on earth. It's just a fucked up name. I'm just saying, like, it's it's a it makes you like whatever you hear when you hear the math, the Mothman, the math man, whatever you hear, whatever you hear, the horrifying.

Yeah, I don't want to meet the math man, the number devil. No, but, you know, like immediately you hear Mothman, you're going to think of something scary, like no matter what. So it's a great like PR move for for this creature, for this cryptid. Well, we're actually, you know, that the newspaper article on us if we're actually going to get into that because these disasters are what end up kicking this whole thing in the gear and really creating a national awareness of what this particular creature is.

And, you know, maybe it's even possible that the collective consciousness of all these people just thinking that the Mothman is real is the reason that we're even starting to see the Mothman around the world in the first place. Perception, reality, they're a twine, baby. The Silver Bridge disaster. The Silver Bridge, which which opened on May 30th, 1928 and connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Galapalus, Ohio

over the Ohio River was officially named the Point Pleasant Bridge. But people began to call it the Silver Bridge because of its aluminum paint. It was the brainchild of a one Dr. Charles Holzer, physician and surgeon who felt that getting two patients without the bridge was too difficult, which I mean, I imagine swimming through that frickin river to attend to your patients would be obnoxious. There's a million reasons to put a bridge

across the river between two cities. But this particular doctor was the one who did it. He got it done and that's all that matters. I'd be like, yeah, sounds good. I'll vote on this. And in fact, in the book, the Silver Bridge Disaster of 1967, said some patients actually died waiting for help simply because the doctor could not reach them in time.

After a particularly dangerous crossing, Dr. Holzer decided the action needed to be taken. So people were actually losing their lives because their doctor just couldn't cross a river to get to them. This bridge was hugely, hugely important. A little bit about the construction, the history of this bridge. In the in the book to forgive, design, understanding, failure, Dr. Henry Petrowski, the Alexander S.

Visic Professor of Civil Engineering at Duke University, relates the construction of the bridge, which began in 1926. It was to be built with a familiar combination of steel wire and cables and distinct stiffening troughs. But the American Bridge Company proposed a less expensive alternative of chains of iBars. Now, this is all going to be sound really boring, but I promise these minute details are very important.

The iBars, 50 feet long, one foot wide and two inches thick would be, quote, linked together, bicycle chain style with steel pins to form the main part of the suspension system. This is a big ass bridge. This is like a fully big ass, like not like a bridge over a stream. That's like over troubled waters. Yeah, this has like many, many. This is like a long, big, heavy bridge.

It is a big boy bridge. Yeah. The suspension chains also doubled in some places at the top as the, quote, top cord of trusses that stiffened the roadway, a system that had not previously been used in the United States. All together, one thousand four hundred and sixty of common links served as a top cord of trusses in suspension chains. The bridge was the first in the country to use heat treated steel, which had a strength of unprecedented at the time, 120,000 PSI.

So this is not even this is not a shitty bridge either. This thing has been this is well, well, well made. Dr. Petrowski explained because links of such steel could carry more load relative to their their own weight, the bridge itself would be lighter and thus less costly, less costly structure. Since the bridge towers were not rigidly fixed on their peers, but rocked back and forth in response to slight changes in cable pole, the bridge tended to sway a little bit.

The bridge was two thousand two hundred and thirty feet long with a seven hundred foot mainspan and two three hundred and eighty foot wide two three hundred and eighty foot sidespans. Tracy Brown, the bridge engineer for District One of West Virginia Department of Transportation, said the system was, quote, so over designed, unquote, that the engineers probably thought that it would never fail. Sounds a little like the Titanic in kind of my mind when they say the mothman

was on the Titanic, the mothman caused the Titanic. Was it even the Titanic, though? Everything about that. Everything about maybe the mothman, the mothmanic. Maybe the mothman didn't even show up. So it about that. Maybe. Maybe. Look at that. Do you think he shows up at fake disasters?

Fake disasters. Is he the reason he's a disaster? Yeah. You ever think about that? Hmm. Now, most sources reported that the bridge cost a whopping one point two million. But in nineteen twenty eight, financial report of the American Bridge Company elicited the expenses closer to nine hundred thousand. It's still pretty expensive, though, especially for nineteen twenty eight.

If anybody wants to do the quick conversion math and let me know how much that is in modern money, let me know. In nineteen twenty eight, it was almost a million nine hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, it's a lot. Despite this, it was an economic boon for Point Pleasant. And during its opening year, six hundred and eighty five people crossed the bridge each day. By nineteen sixty seven, the year of the collapse,

vehicle crossings had risen to nine thousand four hundred. It's like like thirteen and a half million dollars. Yeah, that's insane. That's a lot of money. And in nineteen forty one, the bridge was renovated. Its original wooden plank roadway was stripped away and replaced with a steel grid filled in with concrete. That seems like it would be way heavier, right?

Ten years later, the bridge was inspected. But according to Dr. Petrowski, subsequent inspections were of, quote, varying thoroughness, unquote, varying thoroughness is like something a company tells you when they don't want to admit they fucked up. Yeah, they're just like they're supposed to send a team of twelve, but they send one dude. And it's just Charlie, who's sixty five years old and drunk on the job every single time. Varying thoroughness. Yeah, that's not a good quote.

That's not something you want to hear about your bridge. Never read. Never read inspection logs on your elevators, guys. It'll freak you the fuck out. Oh, God, don't do that. No, please, God, don't. I hate elevators enough as it is. They scare me. Tracy Brown added the inspections were often conducted by people with other primary jobs done at a distance with binoculars and did not focus on structural integrity.

Whoa. So these guys show up in town like you, the inspectors, like I actually like I just clean shit, but they needed somebody. So they gave me some binoculars and I'm just going to look at it. I feel like 15 people should have went to jail for this, at least. At least. So the collapse itself, the Silver Bridge collapsed officially on Friday, December 15th, 1967, at military time, 1658,

which is 30, 40, 15, four, almost five o'clock in the afternoon. Damn, that's like rush hour on a Friday at Christmas time. Damn, bursting, bursting with end of the work week traffic, as well as people shopping for the holiday season with Christmas less than two weeks away. Because it fell only nine minutes before sunset, rescue efforts were further stymied. One witness described the event by saying it just dropped out of the sky. Good Lord. People are driving around and then the bridge without warning just was, boom,

crashed, just gone. That would be awful. I can't even I would like fall apart if I saw that happen. Dude, I again, I was in LA, you know, seeing you guys not too long ago and just driving on the highways that are so freaking high up scares the hell out of me. Yeah, it's wild. That shit collapsed. It would just be worse nightmare. Yeah, I bet you just like cars got bigger, too.

Like over over the years, like cars got bigger, heavier. The bridge was being expected by just schlubs sent over to inspect it with binoculars. They're replaced like wood with like concrete and steel filled with concrete. Yeah, it's just a general mess. A total of 64 people fell into the river during the collapse. Forty six of them perished. Thirty seven, thirty seven of them drowning. Nine of trauma.

Wow, just wounds and in that kind of thing. God, I was ironically were taken to the hospital named after Charles Holzer. The man, the bridge was done, was made because thirty eight vehicles were on the bridge when it fell. Twenty four of them fell into the river, seven onto the bank and seven remained safe on the bridge on the bridge approaches, which did not end up collapsing. So it's just whoa.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine sitting there on that heading your way over? I got to go see the dock. You know, I got a cold and you just and the bridge and just honey, do you? Do you feel that the whole thing? The bridge is just gone. Oh, my God. Horrifying.

Survivor Charlene Wood was one of the lucky few who remained on the bridge approaches and who counted her experience in the in the book, The Silver Bridge Disaster. Quote, she says it was like someone had lined up dominoes in a row and gave them a push and there was a great big splash of water. I could see car car lights flashing as they tumbled into the water. The car in front of me went in. Then there was silence.

The car in front of me went in. That is that. Can you I I'm like thinking about this too hard. This is like freaking me out like in you're like in the moment. All right. Well, here's the thing. Little little known fact about me. I fucking hate suspension bridges. I do. Oh, I did not know that actually.

I can't. I cannot. I don't like being on them. I don't like doing anything. Fuck. What about them scares you? I it's it's like it's irrational fear. It's just like the just the visual of being on the bridge fucks me up because you can't see anything. It just seems like you're like flying, basically.

Do planes scare you, Alex? No, no, not like this. I don't get the same feeling. What? I don't get it. I don't get the same feeling from a plane. It's not like a height thing. It's like a vertigo type thing. Like it feels not right only on suspension bridge.

Yeah, like if it's like a little bridge, it's fine. And I, you know, I don't like really being on any bridge, but the suspension bridges are the worst because they're usually the biggest and longest of the bridges. So going into San Francisco by car freaks throughout that. The Bay Bridge sucks and it's even worse now. It's like even scarier because it's like all futuristic now. And the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the worst.

Like it's so beautiful. It's like so picturesque. But for me, I because I'm always the guy who's driving to. It's just like I get all quiet and stuff. I hate I hate driving over bridges. This is like my worst nightmare. Well, as far as I can tell, you're qualified to inspect them, at least. So I have a pair of binoculars.

I do own a pair. So I can look at the bridge with them if that's what the job is. Jesse's like, I'm learning so much about you today. Yeah, just like my bridge fear. I mean, like I still do it. Like I still go over the bridges. I just like don't enjoy being on bridges. Does anybody really enjoy driving over a bridge?

I don't. I genuinely don't. I don't really have a paralyzing fear of them, but it's definitely an uncomfortable feeling. So how I also inflate afraid of flying. I hate flying. So how soon? So how how soon after the sightings? So this the sightings took place in November, mid November, 1966.

The bridge collapsed late December, 1967. So it's like about a year and a month, about a year or so. OK. Before it all went down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, that's still that's a decent kind of that's a decent chunk of time to pass. There's no doubt about it. Despite first responders and volunteers arriving on the scene, quickly only five survivors are pulled from the water

because the darkness and cold temperatures, because this again, this happened at night because of the right about night, five o'clock, twenty one degrees Fahrenheit with with water temperatures in the low forties. And if you want to convert it to Celsius, you're looking at minus six with water temperatures near four four degrees made recovery of any of these people very difficult. Like, you know, if it just had happened an hour earlier,

we'd be in a much better spot. That is the next day. Yes. All right, go ahead. No, that's I'm just still just talking to myself about how fucked up this is. I mean, that's like drowning in just the river in your car. It sounds awful. Poor poor poor people. Yeah. The next day, the only things that remain to the Silver Bridge were the piers, the approaches, a bit of twisted metal.

Substantial, excuse me, substantial debris on the Ohio side of the river and a dangerous underwater maze of bridge of bridge wreckage that had to be cut before it could be removed from the water. Cars crushed flat by debris were loaded onto derrick boats and coal barges to be pulled from the river. Crews managed to recover most of the bridge parts and laid them out in sequence across a 27 acre section of pasture on the Ohio side of the river.

There was an investigation thereafter, which, you know, of course, there needed to be one, and the president at the time was Lyndon Johnson. He authorized an investigation into the collapse of the bridge, as well as promising to plan a new bridge and assess bridge safety across the country. So this this one incident set a whole country's wide sweeping kind of bridge safety inspections to just happen across the US. True. But where is the moth man come in? Soon, the investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board

considered reasons such as sabotage, tower failure, vehicle collision, scour, which is bridge erosion caused by the sediment and fast moving water and wind failure. The diagnosis was it was discovered that I bar number three thirty out of fourteen fourteen hundred and sixty on the north side of the bridge had failed due to one eighth of an inch cleavage fracture caused by manufacturing and perfection that have become coated in rust as well as the growing weight of cars and trucks from the 1920s.

And to the 1960s, exactly, a little extra traffic, a little extra traffic, a little extra weight on a bridge that's not used to it. I imagine, too, like the whole thing was caused by a one eighth inch cleavage fracture. Like that's so insanely tiny. But I do wonder if they had done proper bridge inspections if if they would have caught. I mean, they probably would have found the rust at the very least. Yeah, true, true.

Three years after the collapse, the investigation final report assigned no blame to the bridge designers on the basis that, quote, stressing corrosion, fatigue were not known to occur in the classes of bridge material used under conditions of exposure normally encountered in rural areas. Dr. Petrovsky had a different opinion. The failure was rooted in a design that inadvertently made inspection all but impossible and failure all but inevitable. The book also noted that similar corrosion cracks are found on other

I bars as well, so not just one. The the effects of the tragedy was President President Johnson bowed the federal government or replace the bridge within two years and on the two year anniversary of the tragedy, the Silver Memorial Bridge was opened and the Civil Memorial Bridge was open one point five miles south of the original, so they're not in the same spot. The Mothman, however, after the famous Scarbury and Millet experience, sightings continued for years and stopped immediately after

the collapse of the Silver Bridge. So it was like a year. So they went on for like a year. The the the sightings continued on ever since and only stopped short immediately after the bridge. This, along with the 1975 release of John Kiehl's The Mothman Prophecies, correlated the sightings with the collapse. There are various points of view for this particular scenario. Some think that the Mothman caused the collapse,

bolstered by alleged sightings in the day of the collapse. OK. Some think some think the promise of tragedy attracted the Mothman, as if the creature somehow fed on the event and the loss of life in the bridge falling. Some think he was trying to warn people of the point pleasant the point pleasant disaster and the bridge collapse. All of these to say that while there are multiple different reasons for why people believe that Mothman was around, the sightings continued

and it was the the combination of the collapse of this bridge, the sightings leading up to it and then eventually the book written about it that caused the the Mothman phenomena to kind of explode across the United States, as it was. So it was like a bestselling book. The the Mothman book and the 1975 book that was written, the Mothman Prophecies, which the movies based on was hugely popular. And people just got like hype about it, huh?

They loved it. God damn. That's when we needed the internet right there, right? That moment. Yeah. So so that little package of of events, the bridge collapse, the the four sightings prior to it and the sightings intermittent kind of gives you the idea of where the Mothman comes from in the US. But we're going to rewind time even further now. What? We're going to go to the eighteen hundreds, baby.

Get out of town. Even no, because no. Are you about to tell me there's Native American Mothman sightings? Damn right, buddy. Damn right. Damn right. This is like two weeks down the whole week. We're alien humanoid sightings are not. Something that's unique to the Mothman by any stretch.

And avian humanoid sightings around tragedies is also not unique to the Mothman. What the fuck? OK, all right, let's here. We all hit some. Let's hit some. Let me bring you back. Crimean war monstrosities. Russia. What? Wait, what? Eighteen fifty four. Wait, what? Eighteen fifty six.

What? Crimean war monstrosities. Oh, baby, telling me. Time out. Oh, you're telling me that Mothman's from the old country. He moved to the he moved to the US and let's say like the 20s. Maybe he's a force of nature to get out of here. Well, yeah, the Mothman is is could be it's interesting, because the Mothman could be connected to many different things.

I'm going to get through some of those. So the Crimean war was a conflict that lasted in October from eighteen fifty three to eighteen fifty six between Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russia over Russia's expansion into the Turkish controlled Danube region, a Turkish holy region. We're not going to go massively into detail about all this. I'm sure Jesse knows all about this. The Danube.

Then I'm then I say I say Danube Danube. Yeah. Oh, I want to give us a quick lesson. I don't know. Just sounds dirty to me. I like it. Oh, it just sounds dirty. OK. After a brutal six day battle, the companies realized the next day would be March 15th, the Ides of March, which is considered unlucky and decided to enact a truce for the day. In the night, a contingent of five soldiers, the Russians asserted

they were Turkish, while the Turkish forces forces asserted that they were Russian snuck across enemy lines to initiate a surprise attack to take place after midnight, still embracing the spirit of the truce. So they were literally waiting for midnight and they were just going to slaughter the just five dudes, five dudes. We're going to sneak across the glorious bastards. Yeah, while they were crossing the battlefield, both sides report seeing large, shadowy, flying creatures,

though they differ a bit, depending on who you ask. The Turkish story is that five Russian soldiers, including two brothers, crept across enemy lines using lantern lights from their own camps as markers. Darkness descended and the soldiers looked up to see a gigantic, headless, crow-like animal flying in tight circles overhead. Transfixed by the flying creature, the group lost their bearings and tried to re-enter their own camp by mistake. The post-it guards fired on their own men, killing three instantly,

while only while one of the brothers held the other in his dying moments. After he was forced to use his brother's corpse as a shield from the hail of bullets. OK. On the Russian side, this story goes as such. The invading Turkish soldiers were Turkish and the Russian guards on duty reported seeing uniforms, including robes and turbans. The guards reported being startled by five Turkish soldiers shrieking headlong into the camp from the pitch black battlefield.

Aiming at what they thought were enemy soldiers, the Russian sentries saw a gigantic swarm of bat-like creatures pursuing the Turks as they ran. And that was the only encounter the Russians had that night. Whichever story is true or simply less untrue, as the case may be, the Turks launched an extreme retaliation the next day. Regardless, both sides saw something. The question is, what did they see?

So they both so they so they they both have these stories separately stories. They saw something slightly different, but they were both aviation in aviation creatures. Or it seems it seems like they saw something. Yes, the Turkish said they saw something and the Russian said they saw something. It's just what they saw was different. The Turkish are the ones that saw the big flying creature overhead. And then the Russians said they saw the Turks being chased off

by a swarm of bat-like creatures. That is stories differ. But point is they saw some. What's the tragedy, just like war? Well, the the tragedy is that the Turks killed their own men and a brother ended up dying in another brother's arms and then was forced to use his brother's corpse as a shield. I mean, personal, small, smaller scale.

Yeah, that's a terrible story, but it doesn't seem on par with like the worst thing I can imagine happening. Yeah, correct. Whichever, like you said, we don't know what what story is true. If any of them are true, but there are some theories. No concrete evidence exists of the sighting. And even though the day is specific, it could have taken place during one of two sieges in the Crimean War.

One, given that the original story alludes to the bloodiest battle in the war, it could be during the Siege of Sevastopol, which lasted from October 17th, 1854 to September 9th, 1855 and included the Battle of Balaklava. Balaklava, as I say that, I apologize. Balaklava. Balaklava. Yeah, Balaklava. October 25th in 1850.

Oh, no, Balaklava is very good. I know, I'm just thinking food. Agreed by most historians to be the worst battle of the conflict. The timeline also aligns with the Siege of Caliphate, an unsuccessful siege of the Ottoman outpost of Caliphate by the Russian forces. It lasted from February to May of 1854. The story could have two possible and very natural explanations as well. The large the large creature that the Turkish story speaks of

could simply be a vulture flying in circles around a battlefield the day which makes sense. Yeah. But if the Russian story holds true, it could simply be a swarm of average bats distorted by soldiers prowling in the darkness where maybe the group of them looked like one large creature instead of a bunch of other creatures. So I feel like maybe if you go with the legend then

because the legend of all of this is that the Mothman brings both ill tidings and a warning, right? Right. So like whenever the Mothman shows up, you know, something's about to go down and it's also kind of a warning. So I feel like this fits in with the legend at least that there is a Mothman during the Crimean War who warns these guys who go out in the middle of the night like, don't you be doing this? There's a peace treaty.

It could end badly for you. And then something goes wrong. Right. That's like the way this legend goes. So I think it like even for story's sake fits in with the legend. Yeah. Now we're going to shift again. Time pushes onward to the early 19, well, the mid 1920s. No longer in Russia, Crimea.

Instead, we're now in China. What? That's right. This dude is like the man dragon. Man dragon. The man dragon. Not Trogdor either. See, they don't have. See, there was no man dragon comic book character at the time. So they could go with the first cool name they thought of instead of being man

dragon, man, man, Moth, dude. On the afternoon of January 19th, 1926, the Zen, the OK, I'm going to butcher Chinese names. I apologize profusely. Jean, the Zen, T, Dom, John, John, T, Dom, John T. Damn, John T. Damn. Is that he say it's a dam, right? It's a dam.

So yeah, well, yeah, the John T. Though you say the John T. Jean, T. OK. Jean, T. Jean, T. Yeah, you can say it. She's a dope. She's a dope genie. Yeah. The Jean, T. Jean, T. Damn suffered a massive structural failure and sent over 40 million gallons of water into the farming villages below.

It's just like the bridge and the Mothman showed up and he was like, guys, you're going to move. You're going to want to go. I'm so foolish. His real voice is, hey, everyone, Mothman here. I really need you all to get out of here and move very quickly. This is going to break. But what we hear is, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, amongst amongst Mothman, he sounds like H. John Benjamin, but like two or two are untrained ears. Yeah. For perspective on how much water that is, an Olympic swimming pool holds less than a million gallons. Yo. And this was 40 million. Many of the villages were entirely destroyed. And the estimated death toll was to be around 15,000 people.

So this is a much worse disaster. This is the worst so far. Yeah. The worst so far by a long shot. But before all of that went down, according to witnesses, a shadowy winged figure was seen hovering over the dam in the days leading up to the failure. Oh, damn. Those who saw it and survived the collapsed dubbed it the man dragon.

This particular event is very difficult to find any collaborating evidence on, though, because there is no freaking articles or books or anything pertaining only to the destruction of the dam without connection to the sightings can be without a connection to the sightings of this man dragon because of this is because of like now hard evidence was destroyed in the communist regime of China, leaving us with only the eyewitness testimonies that have been passed down since. Damn.

So all all knowledge of it was destroyed in the years leading following, unfortunately. That's all we have of that story. That's like straight up like a Mothman story from China in the 20s. Yeah, that's exactly what that is. The other one. The details. The other one is like, yes, like they probably saw something because there's two corroborating stories.

But this one, it's like the Mothman was in China. Like that's why. Yes. That's exactly how it sounds. Again, eyewitnesses, you can only take it with a grain of salt, of course. But it again, it's around tragedy, water weirdly enough. Another shift this time, Cornwall. Nineteen, six and nineteen twenty six to nineteen ninety five. What the Cornwall, baby?

It's almost like the Mothman either is everywhere at once, or people see what they want to see. It's a while or he's traveling. Are you and these are like much like Jesus is missing 30 years. This is what Mothman has been doing before he came to America. This is like the like Santa Claus in the Hawaiian outfit. Situation fee. Yeah.

When Mothman's not like like pretending doom, he is traveling frequently. He's or yeah, or a tourist. There are more than one or he has wings and he flies around at night. But he doesn't flap them. He just hovers with them. Right. And teleports because he's an alien. Right. Well, don't get me started.

In nineteen twenty six, the now defunct local newspaper, the Cornish Echo. What a great name. That is a great name. Cornish Echo. I thought this got to be a joke there that I just don't see it, but it's fine. Two boys reported that they were chased by a large ferocious bird. They tried to escape it by hiding behind a steel grate, but the creature continued to try and reach them through the grid of the grating. Again, another scene just out of a horror movie. They're being chased by this thing.

They lock themselves behind the grate and this thing is clawing at them, desperately trying to get a big ass bird, big ass bird. Nineteen twenty six Cornish Echo in that newspaper. In nineteen seventy six, two witnesses and still in corn in Cornwall, two witnesses watched as a giant owl flew over the tower of a 13th century parish church of Saint Monon teenagers who were camping nearby the area reported that they heard strange hissing sounds and saw as what they described as an owl as big as a man.

According to the teenagers, the creatures had the trademark red reflective eyes as well as strange claws shaped quote like blacksmiths pincers. And if you think about it, blacksmiths pincers are two smooth horse shaped type right. That clink. If you if you looked at it, it would look like two. So are they are they touching on the? Is it a peanut shape that we're talking about? Are we talking about like like curvy H? You're looking at I'm trying to look at a like two like chromosomes.

It's like two. It's like two two circular things that are kind of diagonal like this. It could look like an eight. It could look like an eight or it could look like like. It's almost like a V. Yeah, they come together at a point. Yeah, yeah. Oh, OK. That's how it is. That's how it looks. That's all for that sighting, particularly. But two years later, 1978, a setting occurred where the witnesses were able

to describe it as having a silver gray color, which again fits the description. Just like the statue they saw in 1966. Yeah. And also like the chrome statue with the perfect ass. In 1989, a sighting gave their the rough height of the creature as around five feet tall, which doesn't fit the six to ten that it's usually reported as. But it's not that far off. The final report occurred in 1995 by an American who described the creature as having sharp claws emanating from the creature's wings.

The theories are that the sightings have been put down to repeated sightings of the Eurasian Eagle Owl. This bird is very large, up to two and a half feet with a wingspan up to six feet and a range that spans 12 million square miles across Europe and Asia. And B, this is the only reported avian humanoid sighting that did not proceed a disaster, making it unlikely to be the Mothman as we know it, though it is often listed amongst the sightings. But that's only if we see the Mothman as a big bird, very specific criteria.

If the Mothman is real and it's a cryptid of some sort or what have you, then no telling why it shows up. It could just feed. I mean, who knows. Right. Who knows what it was the reason. That's Cornwall. Now we shift to 1978 Germany to a man named Friedberg Shrieker, which I frickin this or to the creature known as the Friedberg Shrieker. It's what it's called. Wild, which is a frickin the best name out of all of them.

So a shrieker. Yeah, the Friedberg Shrieker. Yeah, early in the morning on September 10th, 1978, in Freiberg, Germany, 36 miners arrived at their work site in the Black Forest Mountains. However, when they arrived, they saw a man in a dark trench coat standing in front of the entrance, confused. A few workers went closer to investigate them, but the man flung the trench coat open to reveal that it was not a coat at all, but a large pair of wings.

Oh, the miners stood in shock and the creature began to shriek in what was described as, quote, the sound of 50 men screaming in a train's emergency breaks combined. You're right. You're totally right. It is. I'm telling you. Wow, you figured this shit out. I hate that you figured it out.

I hate that you had the scream down right away. No, but for real, all my friends back home call me Johnny, but you can call me Mothman. Johnny Mothman. Yeah, exactly. Let's get a beer, Johnny Mothman. Afraid, all of the miners fled and began to clean the work site, checking periodically to see if the creature was still there. It remained by the entrance the entire time its wings folded around it like a coat once again.

Around eight, there was a large subterranean explosion. When the miners investigated, the creature was gone and plumes of smoke were pouring from the entrance of the mine. When the flames finally died down, it was found by officials that if the miners had been at the intended posts, they would have all perished. The legend of the creature dubbed the fried bird shrieker goes on to say that six months after the event, less than a third of the people involved were no longer employed by the mine.

Those that became unemployed stayed that way, suffering from intense mental turmoil related to the sighting. To the sighting, not the fucking mine exploding. No, not to the explosion. The fact that they saw this thing, they saw this man creature with wings that shrieked like a train engine and 50 men just fucked them up for life. So he's completely screwed them. Is there is there like like testimony or records of that? Well, that's where the story comes from.

From all the all of those miners, those miners, I see those 31 miners. So it's not even like it was one dude. I'm sorry, 36 miners, 36 people say they saw this thing. That's what that's a lot. Yeah. Right. But it fits into the idea that the mothman is there before disaster. But it also kind of throws like, OK, is he there to warn you? Is he there to feed off the weird energy? And Jesse, go ahead.

No, but there's a lot of this story that is unconfirmable, though. Of course. That's that's that's the unfortunate part. This is one of the most detailed, yet also one of the most unconfirmable stories out there. A lot of people include this as being like one of the big mothman things. This is it. This is one of the huge stories. But in the end, people can't even find records that this even happened. Yeah, it's it's it's just it's just to put it is just to put that this

this mothman tale, this avian bird, the ant man crossbreed is not just locked in United States lore. Yeah, this this the same concept of a dark winged creature showing up in a disaster is is like at least somewhat substantiated by folklore and unconfirmed stories from all around the world. Of course. Yes, which and they all fit with the theory of what the mothman like the legend of the mothman, all these stories fit into the mythos. Yeah. Yeah.

The theories for this one are that this creature is often put in lists. Well, this this particular one is often put in lists of mothman sighting, as Jesse just said, as it appeared to be an avian avian humanoid preceding a disaster. Many people many people speculate that the creature showed up to warn the miners of the impending explosion, consequently saving their lives. Though this one has no mention of the red eyes. It kind of did, though, right?

It kind of did save them. Yeah, it kind of did. It scared the shit out of them and mentally like damaged a number of but stopped them from going down into the mine at the time they were supposed to be there died right then. Right. Yeah, exactly. However, there is very little, again, as Jesse pointed out, there is very little specific evidence relating to the case. The mine company and the names of the people involved are unknown

and it is largely by word of mouth that this story is spread because of this fact. Some researchers are hesitant to believe the entire incident even happened at all, which is 100 percent fair. Right. You have to take those stories with the chain with a with a thing of salt. Now, Jesse, I think you're going to like this one a lot. We shift back 1986. Chernobyl. How very topical.

On April 26th, 1986, at one twenty three. Is this a TV show? Yeah, there isn't. Yeah, that was a twist at the end of the TV show. Yeah, was it all mothman? It was the mothman at the end. If that's like a paranormal TV show, I will shit myself. I would I would be like so blown away if like a TV show with that tone. All of a sudden, there's like somebody looks up and there's like.

OK, on April 26th, 1986, at one twenty three, an explosion took place during a routine systems check on a reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. This caused one of the worst nuclear disasters in history that everybody. I mean, like you said, it's kind of topical right now because of the series that just hit in the nearby town of Pripyat served as a as a base for the first responders until the city was evacuated because of the dangerous levels of radiation.

The explosion killed 30 people with a further 10 dying of radiation poisoning in the following days and led to the resettlement of three hundred and thirty six thousand people from the areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The plant burned for nine days before being doused. This is Chernobyl. This is the worst. We all this is this is the bad one. Yep. The workers who survived the initial blast later later to perish

of radiation poisoning described a large black bird like creature gliding through the irradiated plumes of smoke coming from the still functioning reactor. Further descriptions of the creature revealed that in the weeks leading up to the disaster, a large dark headless man with gigantic wings and fire red eyes was seen in the area of the plant. People piloting helicopters to drop over five hundred pounds of clay, sand, lead and other extinguishing chemicals to try and douse the blaze claim to have seen a twenty floor bird flying through the smoke.

Twenty floors. Twenty floors. We're talking like kaiju level. Like that is like a mothra level. I'll tell you, Ultraman is involved in this somehow. He's somewhere somewhere somewhere in there. The truth of the matter is, though, this sighting is fascinating and on brand for the Mothman, the earliest recording of this particular story is on the Internet in 2005, with a similar story surfacing in 2007.

So that immediately throws a little doubt on it because the Internet is kind of, I mean, Polybius is a great example of an Internet myth that goes back to like the eighties, even though it wasn't real. Further proof against the story is it came out after the 2002 release of the Mothman Prophecies film. John Keel gave a statement in an interview published in 2010. Quote, the Chernobyl story, the Galveston Hurricane Mothman tie-in and other examples given in the 2002 movie were pure fiction.

Right after the movie was released, various websites posted that Chernobyl Mothman reports as factual, but there is no thread of evidence that any winged weirdies were witnessed before the Chernobyl accident. It is a bit of fiction that has, unfortunately, moved into pseudo factoid cryptos. Interesting. But it is important to point out that that it's this story is important because even if we're getting stories from the eighties, that shit surfaced recently and that is not in people buy into it like that.

People willing to swallow anything left, right and center. Another great example of that is the 9-11 terrorist attack on New York in 2001. This is real. This is another one. Absolutely. I told you, we're going deep, man. There's a lot to cover here. And we're just about halfway, maybe. Allegedly, five days prior to the devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, people reported seeing a large,

crane-like figure flying around the buildings. Some even report that the creature was there on the day of the attack, flying through the smoke and debris of the crashed planes and burning buildings. Much like Chernobyl, this is though this is on brand of a sighting for something like Mothman. And there's actually a picture here. It's the only picture that exists that if you if you guys look at the outline that we've got, I remember seeing this picture back in the day, too.

Yeah, there is little to no legitimate evidence of this sighting. The evidence comes down to one photo that at best is shaky and some reports that came out after the tragedy rather than before, as in the case of Point Pleasant. You keep in mind the Point Pleasant stuff. All those sightings are bonafide prior to the bridge collapse. These are all after the terrorist attack. And if you look at the photo, it's not horribly convincing in my mind. It just doesn't.

It looks like somebody took a picture of like a bird shrunk that thing down in Photoshop and just kind of put it in. Yeah, it doesn't look. It doesn't look great. It looks it looks like it's almost like the bird is way too clear for how far away that creature is. It also is a bad looking bird. It looks like it's from like Godzilla, the movie, like.

Yes. And listen, if you're listening, this is the only photo so you can easily look up Mothman 9 11. Probably the only thing that. Yeah, you'll see what I'm saying. And finally, in more modern day stuff, one of the last things we're going to we're going to talk about here before we end up episode one with all of the sightings and the history I smell. I smell a three parter.

Am I am I crazy? I smell a three parter. It's I worked into this thinking absolutely to maybe three. Yeah, it was very Tommy Patera. And that way Tommy Patera was definitely to maybe three. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. But 2007, Minneapolis, the I-35 West Bridge collapse. On August 1st, 2007, just after 1800 hours in the midst of a post work rush,

the I-35 West Bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, sending cars, trucks and even a school bus into the waters below. Thirteen people were killed. One hundred and forty five were injured. Immediately after the disaster, the Minnesota Department of Transportation came under intense scrutiny. I remember this one's. Yeah, it was not that long ago.

It was found the Interstate Highway Bridge was classified as structurally deficient and, in fact, repair work was underway when it actually collapsed. It was rated a fracture critical, meaning the failure of just one of the components could cause the whole bridge to collapse. My question is, if something's fracture critical, why are you still in cars drive on that thing? Well, because they still do it to this day. Oh, that's horrifying.

Yeah, there's been many times since I'm sure the Mothman that bridges have collapsed and people have been like, well, you know, we should have replaced it, but we didn't have the funding for it. That's why every time someone gets into power in the government, they're like, we're going to fix the roads. We're going to fix the bridges and they never do because it's like, it keeps them dudes with binoculars to frigging inspect bridges from across the city. That's a huge problem in the United States.

Our infrastructure sucks. It does. It was just too big. Like, how could we ever have it good? Well, I mean, we did at one point in time, right? We invested a lot of money in it. Yeah, I mean, that's what you do. You just got to pump money into it. The ensuing investigation found that the gusset plates on the bridge were too thin

and couldn't hold the amount of weight the bridge is currently holding. Nine days later on George Norris AM talk show, Yo, coast to coast. Hey, people. People began to share their reports of seeing a large flying creature flapping its wings, which doesn't fit the typical rundown of the also going to say just, you know, going to give them a little bit of credit. Ninety nine point nine percent of those stories were bullshit.

Absolutely. As a person who listens to coast to coast, everyone who calls in everyone is out of their fucking mind. If you are, you're either doing it for fun because you want to get on the radio or you're a crazy person. There is no one who calls that shows like you're right, George. Right. I'm doing this for money and or fame. I really didn't see an alien.

No, you didn't shut up. One of my favorite calls on that is the guy who who thinks he's being or claims to be being followed and listened in on. And the phone call keeps getting cut every time. I don't know when Art Bell used to host the guy who flew over Area 51. That was a great one. Yeah, that's a really good one. My favorite one is the leprechaun like, George.

George, I see a little one. I see a little is it a leprechaun? He's like, can you describe the person? He's tiny, George. Tiny. Like. Just just a really great show. It is.

People began to share their report to seeing with with George of the preceding the collapse. One Illinois caller stated that she had seen the Mothman on June 27th, two thousand and seven, as she was driving outside of Stewartville, Minnesota, and that it had, quote, a huge wingspan about the width of a fort. God damn, I'm trying to find like good, you know, you're in Minnesota when you're comparing the wingspan to a fort. I keep I keep looking for pictures of the real Mothman

and I just keep finding pictures of people in front of that fucking statue. And people love that. No, it's great. Can I tell you there's a pop vinyl Mothman figure like cryptids of like America, like I think it might be from fallout, but it literally is Mothman. It's like what you would expect Mothman to be from fallout. And fallout 76 Mothman.

I was going to say 76. Yeah. Yeah. That wonderful. I haven't played it actually, so I can't even I can't even comment. Anyway, we'll do. Let's do one more. OK, we'll save the rest and we'll next episode. We'll cover the rest of the sightings and the history across the world because we're going to go to the Mexican swine flu outbreak of Chihuahua in 2009 and the Mothman.

You damn right. What? H1N1 is the Mothman, H1N911 and H1N1. H1N1 Mothman, you name it, dude. You know, you think this is kind of like you think this is kind of like, you know, when Spider-Man goes to save the day, but they're always like, what was Spider-Man doing there to see the crime? Yeah, I think this is like Mothman. He's trying his hardest to be like, guys, please stop.

He's like, oh, we're all we hear like everybody's like, oh, my God. And then they had like something terrible happens. Yes, Bob-Man's trying his hardest. He's like, guys, this flu is going to kill a lot of people. You got to stop. People are like, holy fucking shit. Oh, God. Between March and April 2009,

the virus jumped from pigs to humans, creating the deadly H1N1 or swine flu. Flu-like illnesses were first availed by the federal district as early as March 18th, but it was put down to a, quote, late season flu, something that usually coincides with a peak in the influenza B virus. The first infected was in San Diego, California. On April 2nd, a mere 17 miles from the border, but it was misclassified as a as a form of the standard flu virus, H2N3, or the influenza A virus.

The pandemic began in Mexico with the first death occurring in. Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Oaxaca on the 13th. The late season flu theory persisted until April 21st, when the CDC issued an alert concerning two isolated H1N1 cases. A study at the end of April estimated that between one hundred and thirteen thousand and three hundred and seventy five thousand in Mexico had become infected with the virus. In response on April 24th, all schools from preschool to university,

as well as libraries, museums, concerts and any public gathering place were shut down to prevent. That's fucking scary. Remain closed until May 7th, and nightlife facilities were made to suspend business to decrease risk of infection. On April 10th, 2009, engineer Francisco Prieto Torres reported that the people of Washington, would you say La Junta, La Junta, maybe?

Yeah, maybe. And La Junta Guerrero, Guerrero, I'm sorry, had seen strange creatures in the time leading up to the pandemic. On March 6th, a student, his name was kept confidential, at the Universidad Rigenel del Norte in Chihuahua, Mexico, was driving home when he saw something when he saw something or a figure on the road in front of him. He said it looked like a man hunched over, covered in a blanket.

The figure then rose and leapt twice toward the car. The student floored the car, but the creature kept pace with it, occasionally peering into the window as he drove. I think just being in the car freaks me out in general, like driving on the bridge in the car, running into something on the road in the car that like you like open the door and get out. And it's like, yeah, like I would be so scared. Well, they didn't realize is this person who was keeping up with the car

was just a very determined Jehovah's Witness. Oh, my God, just wearing a blanket like, don't accept blood transfusions. Sir, sir, do you have a moment to speak about Jesus? Oh, two other two other named witnesses, women by the name of Angela Mendez and Viviana Ledesma. I love Angela Mendez, something just poetic about the name reported that they heard the creature squealing in an apple grove near the Minyaka cemetery.

Beyond that, that's all. Beyond that, that's all they heard. They saw nothing. They heard nothing. It was just like, oh, oh, you're going to fail your test. Oh, and on that, good Lord, that last sighting. We will pick up next. Wow, there's still so many more. There's so my God, I'm just then we're going to get into the theories. Common common areas where he shows up and.

I'll save it. I can't I can't spoil it. OK, there is so much here. You guys so there's a lot. There is so much here. Holy shit. But I hope at the very least at the end of this episode, you have a nice introduction as to who the Mothman is, how he kind of shows up, where he sends the show up

and the kinds of reports that I would consider credible. Where he tends to show up is everywhere. No one's safe. The Mothman's coming for you. You can't you can't hide under your blankets. He doesn't care. He brought his own blanket. It's the Mothman.

He's coming for you. That's the Mothman. Jesus Christ, that's so scary. I do hope that the listeners walk away with what I would consider credible, though, and not credible. Anything that comes any time there's a report of the Mothman after the event happens is when it's it's sketchy. If the reports come prior to the event,

that those are the ones that I'm willing to at least kind of lend an ear to. Because it's way too easy for something to happen that's horrible and tragic. And then like like Jesse said or in Alex said, you just call somebody looking for fame, blah, blah, blah. It's a whole it's a whole you see that in a lot of a lot of tragic things. Alien alien abductions, similar. Right.

Once an alien induction thing happened, thousands. It's like here's my like fashionable. Yeah. Yeah, fashionable, 15 minutes of fame type deal. Next week, like I said, we'll dive into some more detailed stuff about the theories to what the Mothman is, as well as again, I almost spoiled it. We'll talk about it next week.

Wild next week. OK. Thanks for listening, everybody. Yes, Alex. Do you feel more informed? Oh, I am. I'm tantalized. I like it's going to take everything not to like look this up.

Look, look through a man. Be ready, be ready for the next week. I don't want to spoil the revelations. The revelations. Well, we will be back ideally next week with Mothman part two and we'll move on to more modern day stuff and talk about what the beliefs are nowadays. But thank you guys so much for listening and thank you guys

for being patient as we took kind of June to ourselves as we were flying around doing other work and whatnot. We are excited to be back. As Jesse said, in two weeks, if you were going to be at Coxconn or if you're near Coxconn in Telford, UK, you could pick up tickets right now at coxconn.co.uk three weeks, three weeks from now. It's exactly three weeks from now. Yeah, July 12th.

Yeah, check it out. Go grab tickets. We're going to be doing Chiluminati live over there as well as a ton of other panels. It'll be super, super fun. We have to see you guys in your face. Beautiful faces there. If you want to tweet in any of us, you can do so directly to Jesse at Jesse Cox and Alex at Fosse on a A and myself at Mathis Games.

The show is at Chiluminati pod. The stories and Chiluminati pod subreddit is fantastic. And wherever you're listening to us, please, please, please drop us a review. It helps us immensely more than you know. And if you want sweet swag, we're still selling hats, t-shirts and stickers over at the Yeti link in the description below to go buy yourself some sweet Chiluminati. It looks so good, you guys.

Don't don't don't sleep on it. You want it, dude, I'm going to I'm going to have the t-shirt, the hoodie and the hat on during the podcast. I mean, during the during the show, you are decked. You're ready. Perfect. Yeah. People, dude, people on Twitter call me insane all the time now because of my alien love. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Because the alien love. I love the alien love. There's just there's something fun about it, right? Yeah, why not? Why not? Thanks for listening, everybody. We will see you next week with Mothman part two. Bye, guys. Bye. Any hour services has a team of technicians that can take care of any plumbing, electrical or air conditioning needs you might have around your house.

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