The Fire-Breathing Monster of Flatwoods and Other Weirdness

On September 12, 1952, seven people in Flatwoods, WV would witness a sight that would not only affect their lives forever…but would become an event cemented in the study of ufology for decades.  After a group of boys playing football observed what they thought might have been a meteor or even a plane crash on a nearby farm, five of the boys, including Eddie and Freddie May, were accompanied by their mother, Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, a 17 year old National Guardsman in pursuit of the wreckage.

You know I love to share vintage newspaper articles covering strange happenings, and since I’ve already discussed the Flatwoods Monster incident a few times before (plus, there are so many other great resources on this case) I thought today would be a good day to just share the UP article that hit newspapers across the country! The clipping I chose at random comes from the Record American (Pennsylvania) of September 15th, but the same article, with differing headlines, would be published in MULTIPLE newspapers on the 15th and 16th. I’ll transcribe it below for easier reading:

The Record American (Pennsylvania) 15 September 1952

West Virginia Folks Saw Monster with Green Body, Red Face

Sutton, W.Va. (UP)—Eyewitness accounts of a tall, glowing monster with a blood-red face skulking in the hills divided Braxton County Monday into two camps—believers and skeptics.

Seven persons said they saw the unearthly being, described as “worse than Frankenstein,” in the hills above Flatwoods, W.Va. Friday night.

State police and a number of residents hooted at the reports as a product of mass hysteria. Police said the eyewitness’ guess as to the monster’s height varied from seven to 17 feet.

The excitement began when the two young sons of Kathryn May, a Flatwoods beautician, said they saw a “flying saucer” land on C.B. Fisher’s farm near here.

Mrs. May, National Guardsman Gene Lemon and five boys climbed a hill on the Fisher farm to look for the “saucer.”

Mrs. May said a “fire-breathing monster, 10 feet tall with a bright green body and a blood-red face,” bounced and floated toward them.”

“It looked worse than Frankenstein,” she said. “It couldn’t have been human.”

Lemon, 17, said he thought he saw a ‘possum or coon until he put his flashlight on “the thing.” It was then that he saw the monster with the blushing face and green body “that seemed to glow.”

Mrs. May said Lemon stared and then screamed as the monster duckwalked toward them. All of them fled, occasionally looking over their shoulders. 

The monster, Mrs. May said, had an overpowering metallic odor that nauseated them. She said they vomited for several hours. A. Lee Steward, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, received the first report from Mrs. May. The veteran newspaperman organized an armed posse and went to the scene. 

“The odor was still there,” Stewart said. “It was sort of warm and sickening. And there were two places about six to eight feet in diameter where the brush was trampled down.” 

Stewart did not know what to think. 

“I hate to say I believe it, but I hate to say I don’t believe it,” Steward said. “Those people were scared—badly scared, and I sure smelled something.” 

Authorities said they believed the “flying saucer” which Mrs. Mays’ sons saw was a meteorite. The incident occurred during a meteor shower over a three-state area. 

Theresa’s Note: On September 13, 1952 newspapers along the East Coast noted that reports of meteorites being seen in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio had flooded local law enforcement the night before. Many witnesses assumed they were witnessing planes going down in fiery crashes. A woman in McMechen, WV reported seeing a noiseless object, shooting blue and white flames out of one end. A man in West Liberty stated he saw several objects that looked like Roman candles. And, a Hinton preacher saw what he described as an “old time streetlight”. Many witnesses to these “meteorites” claimed that the objects were moving horizontally and at very low altitudes. 

I’m not an expert in astronomical matters, but it seems like these were a little more than your normal meteorites, especially when you take into consideration the incident at Flatwoods, as well as similar incidents at Frametown and Wheeling (more about those in upcoming blogs!). There was even a couple of UFO reports from Raleigh County that occurred on the 13th of September. Was there a massive invasion across the East Coast that September…or was it simply a combination of natural phenomena and mass hysteria? 

Hinton Daily News 13 September 1952

Source: http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-fire-breathing-monster-of-flatwoods.html