The Flatwoods Monster 

Here is an astonishing tale of an object that falls from the heavens one dark September night, prompting a group of townsfolk to trek up to it's drop zone to investigate. There, along with many other witnesses they experience something that frightens them to their core, many flee in panic. The thing that frightened them was said to be a ten-foot tall being with a “blood red” face and glowing eyes – It became known as “The Flatwood Monster”

The Beginning

The year is 1952, the place is Flatwoods, West Virginia/ It was September 12th and the early autumn nights were already drawing in. Sherriff Robert Carr, and Deputy Burnell long took a call from a concerned witness who had seen a ball of fire fall to earth towards the river Elk, to the south of Gassaway. It was presumed that this must be a crashing aircraft.

A group of schoolboys from Flatwoods school were playing football in the failing evening light when they saw an object “like a meteor” land on a hill. Although at first frightened, as they talked about it, their fear turned to excitement, and they decided to investigate – but not alone.



Having first reported what they saw to a neighbour, Kathleen May, they then set off up the hill in the company of the neighbour, her two sons and National Guardsman Gene Lemon. Mrs. May recalled that the night was foggy with a mist in the air.

As they approached the site, they could detect a “metallic” smell which burned their nose and eyes. Some found the odour so overpowering that it made them vomit or faint. After regaining their composure they pushed on. As they crested the hill, all the witnessed claimed that they saw a “glowing hissing” object, as large as a house, emitting a throbbing hissing sound.

Reporters Investigate

Word spread like wild-fire, and by the time the Sherrif arrived, the hill-side was crowded with locals who had come to investigate the area for themselves.

Braxton Democrat reporter A.Lee Stewart, was sent to cover the event and arrived at the May household and noticed that every witness had been extremely frightened by their experience, commenting that "those people were the most scared people I've ever seen".

National Guardsman Gene Lemon and one of Kathleen May's sons agreed to escort the reporter back to the scene of the incident. They took shotguns with them for protection. Returning to the hillside, nothing unusual could be discerned in the enveloping darkness, but the overwhelming odour remained. Stewart decided to call it a night, he would return the following day and examine the scene in daylight

The Monster Disappears

On returning the next day, the hill grassy side revealed a parallel set of lines “skid marks” , leading to a large circle of flattened grass, suggesting that “something” had landed – and departed. Despite a number of investigations, the events at Flatwoods have never been satisfactorily explained and remain a mystery.

Newspaper report of the Flatwood Monster Incident

A Strange Story about My Ring...

Now I really don't know what to make of this. I consider myself a level-headed sort of a bloke. Pretty open minded without necessarily subscribing to nutty theories about ghosts and psychic whatnots, but sometimes, just sometimes, things happen that make you think...

The story I am about to tell you is true. It happened to me last week and as I said above, it makes you think...

Let me set the scene...
About two and a half years ago, I was in my bedroom getting ready to go to sleep. I was in the habit of removing my wedding ring and placing it on the bedside table each night before I got into bed, but on this particular night, as I was removing said ring, it slipped and I dropped it.

Both my wife and I heard it bounce on the floor and we expected several more bounces before it came to rest - but there were no more bounces - Just the one, and then... silence.  I lost sight of the ring as it fell and it was nowhere to be found on the floor. I searched on my hands and knees, emptied shoes and shook bedsheets, but it was not there. It was like it had just disappeared in mid-bounce.

The next day, with the added benefit of daylight streaming into the room, we resumed the search. The bedroom was virtually dismantled in the process - but still no ring.

Fast-forward to about a year later. We decided to change our bed. Our old Victorian cast-iron bed was dismantled and removed from the room bit by bit. The bits of bed were shaken and examined -  but no ring. Whilst the room was empty another major search was undertaken - Even the edges of the carpet were pulled up - Still no ring - We resigned ourselves to the fact that it was gone forever.

After a month of the new bed, my wife decided that she didn't like it and wanted the old bed back, so I took out the new bed, brought in the Victorian bits of the old one and bolted them together. Our old bed was back and has remained with us through the intervening year and a half up to the present day.

Last week it was our wedding anniversary, and my wife had arranged a surprise holiday way down in St.Ives in Cornwall.  Our daughter had agreed to house-sit for us while we were away.  We had wonderful weather, and as you might expect, we also had a wonderful time.

Our Anniversary actually occurred mid-week, and we were enjoying a nice bottle of wine and wishing each other "Happy Anniversary" when we received a phone call from our house-sitting daughter. She said that our six-year-old grand daughter wanted to tell us something.

My jaw hit the floor when I heard what she had to say - She wanted to sleep in our bed while we were away, and as she entered the bedroom she saw something on the floor in the middle of the room, about a foot in front of the bed - It was the wedding ring!

I'll be honest with you - It spooked me out! There is just no way it could have got there. Even if it had been somehow caught in the bedframe, and had managed to evade my many detailed examinations of it, The bed-end is a solid board of wood that extends to the floor, so there is no way it could roll out there - It seems to have just disappeared one night, in mid bounce, and then reappeared to our grand daughter two and a half years later on the night of our wedding anniversary.

Spooky - Or what?