A few days ago, my brother told me about aliens in the game Zelda: Majora’s Mask and was surprised that there were extraterrestrials in a Zelda game. I looked into it and discovered that this was a reference to a monster reportedly observed in an American town. By digging a little deeper, I quickly understood what it was about.
The story involves a strange object that fell during the night into a field in Flatwoods. The unidentified object, several meters long, was seen by young children playing in a schoolyard. They decided to go take a closer look with other people. The object fell around 7 p.m., and after several hours, the group managed to see something from a hill on a winter night, on February 12, 1952.
One person in the group then pointed a flashlight toward the thing in question and stated that he briefly saw a large “man-like figure, with a round red face surrounded by a pointed shape resembling a spade.” The man then fled from the monster, which was moving slowly, slightly floating above the ground, with small claw-like hands stretched out toward him.
Later, other participants gave their descriptions. According to an article in Fate Magazine, based on tape-recorded interviews, UFO writer Gray Barker described the monster as being about 10 feet (3 meters) tall, with a blood-red, round face, a large pointed “hood-like” shape around the face, eyes emitting an orange-green light, and a black or dark green body. Eugene Lemon (the person who dropped his flashlight while screaming) described the monster as having “small claw-like hands,” clothing-like folds, and “a head shaped like a spade.” According to the story, when the creature hissed and “slid toward the group,” Lemon screamed and dropped his flashlight, causing the group to flee.
The group reported experiencing a “stinging mist” with a sharp, metallic odor, and some later said they felt nauseous. The local sheriff and a deputy investigated, believing it might have been an aircraft accident. They searched the site but saw, heard, or smelled nothing. According to Barker, the next day A. Lee Stewart Jr., from the Braxton Democrat, claimed to have discovered “skid marks” on the ground and an “oily deposit with rubbery fragments,” which UFO enthusiasts attributed to a “flying saucer landing.” It is also said that the monster had a chest plate and that other unidentified objects fell in other locations the same night.
After reading these descriptions, I immediately understood what it was: a man wearing a gas mask and a green rubber apron.
• The hissing sound likely came from breathing through the gas mask filter.
• The round lenses of a gas mask match the “large round eyes” that were described.
• The many folds of clothing hanging down to the waist resembled the folds of a rubber apron used by chemists handling dangerous chemicals.
As for the apron: the “alien” was near a beacon emitting a pulsing red light. When one of the children pointed a flashlight at him, the light from the beacon and the flashlight reflected off the mask and apron, creating a red-eye effect on the mask lenses and a shiny appearance on the apron. The apron was either green or made of polished natural rubber, giving it a wet, dark green sheen, somewhat like a new tire.
As for the alien appearing to float slightly above the ground, this could have been an illusion. Since it was dark, his boots—likely black—were hard to see and were probably hidden behind the apron. The acrid mist that irritated the eyes and caused nausea was likely a toxic gas or chemical product, which would justify the individual wearing a gas mask and chemical protection. The alien’s chest plate was also likely part of a chemical suit, as in the 1950s people sometimes wore large rubber chest protectors to prevent dangerous substances from contacting the upper body.
Regarding the spade-shaped form (or triangular hood, according to some witnesses), it was most likely an M3 / TAP chemical protective hood, a model used in the 1940s and 1950s, whose angular shape created that triangular silhouette. The claw-like arms corresponded to gloves that likely stood out from the rest of the body, giving the illusion of small clawed hands.
Finally, regarding the meteorite, it may have been a military test—possibly an ultra-silent chemical bomb. According to some sources, when the sheriff and the deputy were on site, they reportedly smelled sulfur and burned metal, which matches the odor of an explosion. This would explain the presence of chemical gas. The red beacon and the objects that fell in other places the same night suggest that multiple tests took place. The man in the protective suit was probably there to hide the bomb debris in order to erase evidence, and the beacons marked the different impact zones.
As for the skid marks, rubber fragments, and oily deposits, these were probably caused by the vehicle used to retrieve the debris, which left tire rubber and motor oil due to heavy braking at high speed. The operation had to be fast in order to remove the debris as quickly as possible.
And that’s what I think about this story. Personally, I find it to be a sloppy investigation, entrusted (by the Air Force) to incompetent investigators who concluded that the “monster” was nothing more than an owl perched on a branch, and that the nausea experienced by a group of eight people was due to overexertion. However, the entire group suffered from throat and eye irritation, and some even experienced vomiting and were unable to swallow food for many days (symptoms of Lewisite, a chemical gas), which does not make much logical sense when compared to the investigators’ theory.
The children who went looking for the alien also had oil stains on their clothes. Lewisite is a liquid, viscous chemical substance capable of easily penetrating textile fibers. Its slow evaporation can lead to persistent yellowish to brownish stains that may resemble oil. Lewisite was also widely used in chemical tests in the postwar period and had a sharp, metallic odor.
As for the sharp metallic smell and the mist, no hypothesis was proposed by the investigators.
According to some sources, Kathleen May (a mother who was present with the group that saw the monster—she was the mother of some of the children in the group and also the one who produced the most popular drawing of the Flatwoods Monster) allegedly mentioned the existence of a letter she received from the Pentagon. This letter reportedly explained that what she had seen was actually a rocket or experimental aircraft test, and that it was a failure among three other tests. She was allegedly asked to remain silent. The letter was probably intended to intimidate her. Moreover, even if she had revealed the letter, no one would have believed her, as it is not credible for the Pentagon to send such a letter. It also offered false information by mentioning rocket or aircraft tests, so that if some people believed it, they would be led down a false trail, diverting attention from the far more compromising hypothesis of a chemical bomb test. (Of course, this is only a hypothesis and remains highly controversial and imprecise information.)
And in all of this, writer Gray Barker was a fraud: he lied about the size of the alien and tried to make a lot of money from his books.
PS: There are two images from two different games—try to guess which image comes from a game and which game it is from.
Sorry to Zelda fans, I did not include the reference to Majora’s Mask.
Feel free to send your comments.
by Cautious-Middle-4915
2 Comments
The owl theory stands better than this in my opinion. I think the flatwoods monster is a real entity personally, but for alternatives I’d say this is less credible than the leading theory
Uma das imagens é do HUNK de residente evil, a outra não conheço.