Mothman Death Curse and Firewall
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 10th, 2006
Let’s take a walk on the wild side, for a moment.
It is the weekend, and tonight you may be looking for a new movie to go out and see. Perhaps you’ll go to Firewall, the new flick with Harrison Ford. Ford took the last three years to create it, and there’s lots of buzz about the movie already.
One of the things you will see creeping into some of the news about Firewall is the unusual mentioning of "Mothman." But why? For those that never knew, the media is reminding people that during the meandering director’s search for Firewall, if you wish to think in this direction, the film was touched by the "Mothman Death Curse."
The Mothman curse appears to bring bad luck to some people that had anything to do with Mothman, or so the urban legend goes. Ford had initially begun the Firewall project with Mark Pellington (director, Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies). But right before shooting was to begin, Pellington’s wife died of a rare infection. Pellington held a news conference and withdrew from directing Firewall.
On July 30, 2004, Jennifer Barrett-Pellington, 42, died, in Los Angeles, and was buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles Times reported "Ms. Barrett-Pellington was the wife of director Mark Pellington who directed Arlington Road. Her husband included a ‘Special Thanks’ credit in his film The Mothman Prophecies to his wife for her support of him on that film. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends, especially her young daughter."
In Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (NY: Paraview, 2002), I mention some of the other deaths associated with Mothman, the events at the time of the 1966-1967 flap and during the recent movie’s release.
The detailed "Mothman Death Curse" list can be seen online here.
All kinds of different people associated with Mothman are on the list. One is Ron Bonds, the publisher of John Keel’s 1991 reprint of The Mothman Prophecies book that was the one discovered by those that eventually produced The Mothman Prophecies movie. Ron Bonds, IllumiNet Press, died under strange circumstances, at 48, on April 8, 2001. He expired enroute to the hospital, after apparently contracting food poisoning at the Mexican restaurant, El Azteca, Ponce de Leon in Atlanta.
Jim Keith
Bonds was also the publisher of most of Jim Keith’s books. Conspiracy author Jim Keith (Black Helicopters Over America), at the age of 50, died mysteriously, on September 7, 1999, during routine knee surgery, after falling off the stage at the annual Burning Man pagan arts festival in Nevada. Jim Keith was responsible for first writing about a CIA-Men-in-Black connection to the initial Mothman events. He wrote that Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was being used as a "test tube."
Weird links continue. Along eastbound I-80 at Sparks, Nevada, near the railroad tracks, the partially clad body of Sherry Marie Yearsley, 47, was found on June 21, 2002. Passengers on a passing Amtrak train spotted the body and notified authorities. Police said Yearsley was a murder victim and her body had been dumped the previous day. Yearsley and author Jim Keith were partners for several years in the 1980s, and parented two daughters, Verity and Aerika.
Jim Keith and Jerry Smith
Now this week comes word from one of Keith’s daughters that their lives were stalked by weird deaths even earlier. Aerika tells me that another person should be added to the list, Donna Brown. Aerika Keith writes:
Donna Brown was found February 2, 1994, in Fallon, Nevada; she was the daughter of a family my dad was very close with, and also knew Jerry E. Smith [another conspiracy researcher]. She was found dead in a field by their house, with wounds that appeared to be from a suicide (wrists slit and gunshot wound to the head). However, Donna’s sister said that there was no fresh blood coming from the wrists, it was definitely a murder [made to appear to be] a suicide. The other details suggest there is no other possible cause. Also according to her sister, she may have seen some sort of drug deal carried out by the CIA. Her diary was missing after her death. When I knew her, she was VERY paranoid. She was 16 years old.
It’s time to update the Mothman Death List.
Chance, coincidence, or enemy action? Urban legend or conspiracy reality? You be the judge.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Hmm. Probably unrelated, but still creepy enough… Back in 2001 I went to Pt. Pleasant with three friends for quick tour around the TNT area. Found the igloos and walked about in the woods and generally had a good time.
On the way back, I talked my friends into stopping by another friend’s house in Ravenswood. I hadn’t heard from her for about a week or so and was getting concerned.
Good cause, it turned out. She’d committed suicide since the last time I’d talked to her. Got to fill out the police report.
Mind you, the death occurred well before the TNT road trip. But in my mind I can’t help but link the two events and I’ve stayed away from Pt. Pleasant ever since out of frank and unashamed superstitious dread.
Pity, I really love the town and I’ve missed the Mothman festivals, which I know I would’ve enjoyed immensely.
Bottom line, myth or monster or hoax or whatever, I just do NOT mess with the Mothman. No sir. Ain’t gonna do it!
from what i’ve seen a mothman only shows up to people who are ether sick with something rare or going to die of an unusial cause not saying thats the only reason they show up but thats they only i’ve seen people they’ve shown up to or heard about them showing up to. but the question i want to ask is do they show up to tell people of there unfortinet fates to try to help them or to give them there unforinuet fate I mean from what i’ve seen the stuff they show up for is usaly very rare and i’ve seen a few cases where the person who has seen the mothman have been driving crashed and because of that they found out they had a cancer or even this one who was camping with his girlfreind and when he saw the mothman he ran outinto the woods and wasn’t found for a week and when they found him he was extreamly sick due to an infection he had gotin during the camping trip wich was not even supose to be acceptibale to humans the question is did he get the infection because he was scared into he forest by a mothman or did the mothman learn of his infection and try to warn him but he just didn’t understand the warning.
Or is there a possibility that they are always here standing next to you watching you and when you are near death you can see them like when your a child you are more intune with the emotins of others and even some supernatural events (monsters in the close = goast of gandfather) and i’ve even seen the children of a victem draw mothmen along with the parent trying to describ what they saw and the children even claim that it’s standing by there parents bed or looking threw the floor of the story above it’s realy awkward that the children usaly won’t even enter the room of the dyeing because there scared that what hurt thre parent will come after them next. realy intrested is that they usaly live for a long time like about another 40 to 60 years so this berings me to another question are they good or bad
I beleive that the mothman is a creature that kills people with government made chemicals using itself to end the lives of those who are to close to the mothman secret. Explaining the men in black of the original mothman stories.
Huh?