Thursday, January 16, 2014

Mothman Plus Half a Century and Still More Questions Than Answers

The Mothman began capturing public attention during November of 1966 in the small community of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Before long, accounts of glowing-eyed, large flying creatures were documented in a best selling book, The Mothman Prophecies, by John Keel.

Keel claimed there was much more to the mystery than the reported sightings of the bizarre creature, interesting as such sightings may have been. High strangeness surrounding Point Pleasant included UFO sightings, ominous Men In Black lurking around and visits from Indrid Cold, a strange being indeed. By the time Keel got his book to print, circumstances reportedly included telephone conversations with the apparently telepathic Cold, who, according to Keel, claimed he did not know where he originated.  

The February, 2014 edition of Soldier of Fortune magazine contains a most interesting piece written by Harold Hutchison. The article suggests that Special Forces were conducting exercises in the Point Pleasant area during the time in question. Hutchison reported that such exercises included testing of high altitude, low opening (HALO) parachutes. Green Berets conducted the exercises at night, according to Hutchison, and wore luminous paint.

Such circumstances would obviously be extremely significant and most interesting. A number of potential avenues of research present themselves.

Unfortunately, Hutchison provided no specific references for the reported information. He offered no sources for his research and did not explain exactly how he came to know about the circumstances.

The UFO Trail subsequently emailed Hutchison twice, requesting references. No replies were received.

Several other contacts were asked if they had any knowledge of declassified documents or similar authenticated sources for the reported information. As of this post, no such sources have yet been identified.

Dennis Dufrene of Top Secret Writers published an article on Hutchison's Soldier of Fortune story. Top Secret Writers is a recommended site due to their credible reporting on fringe topics. It is particularly appreciated for the consistent attention given to providing references and sources. 


In the comments section of Dufrene's article, I inquired about any knowledge he may have of Hutchison's sources. Dufrene replied in part, "As far as the Hutchison story, his lack of citations concerns me. So much so, that I was not sure if I was going to write the story. His article is not only void of citations, but also an[y] credible witnesses (or any witnesses at all). He do[es] not even state how he came across this information. 


"Just as I am sure you have done, I have looked for documents, interviews of personnel or witnesses, etc and have yet to come across anything that states or even implies Green Berets (or any military entity) was involved."


Hutchison's lack of references for his claims is indeed concerning. Sharing such sources would be helpful in furthering research of a most interesting case. As regular readers of The UFO Trail well know, the concept is not new to this blog of intelligence community tampering in ufology and shaping public opinion. If Hutchison's research could further our understandings of such circumstances, his efforts would be most appreciated.


In the mean time, his article will remain just another footnote of a bizarre story. After nearly a half a century now, the Mothman saga still creates more questions than answers.

2 comments:

  1. As someone who has written a fairly large amount (some of which will be published in a forthcoming book) about this enduring enigma, visited Point Pleasant many times, and currently corresponds with Keel's old friend Doug Skinner, I find the Soldier of Fortune piece suspicious as hell. No sources, no response to inquiries--not good. I see the logic in thinking some HALO activity might have been mistaken for UFOs, or even "entities," but even that--military black-ops or not, would have been--would be still--very damned hard to conceal.

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    1. Mr. Hutchison's lack of citing sources in his SoF article was indeed concerning and disappointing. Thanks for your interest and comments, Mr. Grabowski, and let us know when your book is released.

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