{"it":{"id":"UFO-FLW1952","name":"Flatwoods monster","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"Flatwoods, West Virginia, USA","lat":38.7223,"lon":-80.6503,"date":"1952-09-12","rep":"Witnesses reported a pungent mist and nausea.","off":"Nickell: a meteor plus a barn owl misperceived in fear.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 12 September 1952 in Flatwoods, West Virginia, a group followed a bright object to a hilltop and saw a figure about 10 feet tall.","nsrc":1,"new":1,"qs":["A meteor crossed three states that night, and witnesses met a 10-foot figure on the hill. Owl in a tree, or something we haven't explained?","Several witnesses reported a pungent mist and nausea afterwards. Can fear alone make a group physically sick?","Imagine climbing a dark hill toward a glow and a towering shape looks back. Would you trust your size estimate, or anyone's?"],"yt":"Which witness details does the owl explain, and which not?","rel":["UFO-KH1955"],"hook":"Seven people climbed a West Virginia hill in 1952 and met a figure nearly 12 feet tall with a red face.","why":"Seven witnesses and a few physical traces turned one evening into one of America's best-known encounter stories."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-FLW1952","sum":"Near dusk on 12 September 1952, people in Flatwoods, West Virginia, saw a fireball come down beyond a hillside. Seven of them climbed the hill: May, Eugene Lemon, Teddy May, Ronald Shaver, Neal Nunley, Teddy Neal and Tommy Hyer.\n\nAt the top, the e-WV encyclopedia's account says, they met a creature nearly 12 feet tall and about four feet wide. It had a red face and green clothing, and its head was shaped like the ace of spades. A sickening metallic odour hung over the place.\n\nThose who went back later found the odour still there, two skid marks and trampled grass. That was all the physical trace the hill gave up.\n\nThe figure became the Flatwoods Monster. Buddy Griffin wrote the encyclopedia entry, and Goldenseal magazine revisited the story in 2002, the year a festival was held for it. The account most often repeated says the monster was about ten feet tall; the encyclopedia puts it at nearly 12.\n\nSeven people saw it, and each told roughly the same story. But they were frightened, it was getting dark, and they were on that hill for only a moment. What did they see?","qs":["Seven witnesses told the same story. Does fear make a group more reliable or less?","The traces were an odour, skid marks and flattened grass. What could leave all three?","Why do some towns embrace their monsters?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Flatwoods_monster.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flatwoods_monster.png","title":"Flatwoods monster.png","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","by":"Tim Bertelink","alt":"Flatwoods monster"}],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"},{"id":"VUFO-FLW1952-2","t":"e-WV, West Virginia Encyclopedia: Flatwoods Monster","u":"https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/2127"},{"id":"VUFO-FLW1952-3","t":"Goldenseal magazine archive, West Virginia Archives and History","u":"https://archive.wvculture.org/history/goldenseal/"}],"pts":[{"p":"Witnesses described a figure about 10 ft tall.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"},{"p":"A meteor was seen in three states that evening.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"},{"p":"Joe Nickell contends the \"monster\" was a barn owl.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"},{"p":"Edward and Fred May and Tommy Hyer reported a bright object at 7:15 pm.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatwoods_monster"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":null,"hs":{},"lh":{"s":"img/h/UFO-FLW1952.webp","w":1015,"h":1480,"o":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Flatwoods_monster.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original"}}