The Flatwoods Monster

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       Seven Braxton County residents Saturday reporting seeing a 10 foot Frankenstein-like monster in the hills above Flatwood.

     They said they saw the monster Friday night when they climbed a wooded hill to investigate reports that a flying saucer had landed.

     Mrs. Kathlyn May, Flatwood, said she and six boys, including a 17-year-old member of the national guard, started to search for a bright object which her two small sons said they had seen come down.

     However, State Police laughed the reports off as hysteria.  They said the so-called monster had grown from seven to 17 feet in 24 hours.

     The National Guard member, Gene Lemon, was leading the group when he said he saw what appeared to be a pair of bright eyes in a tree.  At first he thought it was an oppossum or a raccoon but when he shone his flashlight on it, he said, he saw a 10-foot monster with a blood-red face and a green body that seemed to glow.  Mrs. May said Lemon let out a terrified scream and fell over backwards.  She said the monster started toward them with a bounding motion. 

     All of the party agreed that there was an overpowering smell that burned the nostrils and made them sick.  Several of the party fainted and vomited for several hours after returning to town.

     A. Lee Stewart, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, said he and several men armed with shotguns returned with Lemon about half-hour to an hour later, and reported a sickening odor still present.  He said there were also slight heat waved in the air.

     "Those people were the most scared people I've ever seen,"  Stewart said, "People don't make up that kind of story quickly."  Both Mrs. May and Lemon described the thing as having the shape of a man, blood-red face, bright green body, protruding eyes, and hand extended forward and appeared to give off an eerie light.  They said it had a black shield affair in the shape of an ace of spades behind it and wore what looked like a pleated metallic shirt.

     "It looked worse than Frankenstein," Mrs. May said.

Image Source:  here.

     

     Those who saw the monster:

1. Edward May - 13
2. Fred May - 12
3. Tommy Hyer - 10
4. Kathlyn May
5. Neil Nunley - 14
6. Ronnie Shaver - 10
7. Eugene 'Gene' Lemon - 17

      The "Braxton County Monster" has been described by a local insurance man and amateur astronomer as an illusion created by the remains of a gaseous meteor.
     He is Earl Stephens of nearby Belle, whose theory is one of the best offered here on the origin of "the thing" that scared the daylights out of a Braxton County family.
     His theory was advanced after Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon of Flatwoods returned from New York where they described their experience before a nation-wide television audience.
     It is Stephens' opinion that the meteor, commonly called a fire ball, originated from an electrical discharge in the outer atmosphere, forming the shape of a gaseous ball.

Odor of Sulphur

     "The odor of sulphur was the tip-off," declared Stephens.  "It burns with a green flame accounting for the apparition the people saw."
     Stephens said one of the party apparently flashed their light on the gas ball just the instant before it disintegrated into thin air.  The reflection of the light on the gases gave it the shape the people described, he said.
     The " monster" story came to light a week ago after reports that Mrs. May, Lemon and four youths ran smack into the thing while searching for a strange object they saw floating into the woods near their home.
     They described the monster as about eight feet tall, with red eyes and a green body, topped by a strange pointed mantle.
     However, during a thorough search of the area by county officials the next day only the sulphurous odor remained.
Facts Support Theory
     Stephens said his theory is backed up by the fact the earth entered a meteorite stream on Aug. 24.  He believes the gaseous body may have been ripped from Biela's Comet which has been splitting up during recent years, showering the earth with its fragments.
     During the same period several local residents observed a strange luminous body that was believed to have fallen within a 50-mile radius of Charleston.
     The gaseous theory is further bolstered by the stories of two residents of rural St. Albans, who declared they saw a lighted object float lazily to the ground and disappear.
     A search of that area by two Gazette reporters failed to turn up any....

 [Caption under the picture]   

     THE MONSTER which prowled the hills of Braxton County on Friday, Sept. 12, was drawn by a New York artist from descriptions given him by Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, Flatwoods residents who said they saw the "thing."  The two witnesses, with A. Lee Stewart, Jr., Sutton publisher, told their experience on "We The People" television show in New York Friday night.  [The artist's?] conception was featured on the program with a background of weird [music?].  Lemon and Mrs. May hold the portrait which they say is "quite accurate."  The [picture?] was taken in Charleston at the Greyhound bus terminal.