What happened
On the evening of September 12, 1952, boys playing on a schoolyard in Flatwoods saw a luminous object streak across the sky and come down on a nearby hill. Together with Kathleen May, the mother of two of them, and 17-year-old National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, they set off for the farm where it had supposedly landed. At the top of the hill they noticed a choking, metallic smell and saw a pulsating red light. When Lemon shone his flashlight on a tree, they saw a figure about three meters (10 feet) tall, with a red, spade-shaped face, glowing eyes, and what looked like a dark hood. The figure moved toward them with a hissing sound, and the witnesses fled in panic. Several of them later complained of nausea and throat irritation.
Witnesses
Kathleen May, her sons Edward and Fred, Eugene Lemon, and several children from Flatwoods.
Explanations and hypotheses
Investigator Joe Nickell believes that the glowing object was a meteor – its passage was indeed reported that evening in several states – that the pulsating light was an aircraft warning beacon, and that the “monster” was a barn owl perched on a branch, its silhouette exaggerated by fear. Flatwoods residents still cherish the legend, and the town hosts a festival and a museum devoted to the monster.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
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