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9 Responses to “The Unexplained Files: Mothman”

1. cryptokellie responds: September 17th, 2013 at 7:14 pm

   The only unexplained aspect of the Mothman phenomenon is the fact that John Keel was able to create an entire cottage industry out of some rather dubious eyewitness sightings and cashing in on the press moniker “Mothman”, a cryptid for which there is no credible evidence of any kind and in reality has no connection with the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge, due to stress fatigue, in 1967. Anyone who has actually read “The Mothman Prophesies” must realize that the book is basically John Keel unhinged. The read contains not only the slight pile-on sightings of the Mothman but extrapolates into high strangeness with Mr. Keel’s inclusion of UFOs, sinister Men In Black, covert government agents, communication anomalies and all manner of alternate universe happenstances. Of course Mr. Keel doesn’t offer a shred of evidential proof for such goings on and ultimately chalks the entire incident up to the existence of a “Universal Mind” which he rather flippantly assumes is mad. Lost in the whole Mothman revelry are the 46 people who perished when Silver Bridge collapsed in December of that year 1967, months after the quite local Mothman hysteria ended. John Keel happened to be in West Virginia, collecting information for an article about UFOs for Playboy magazine which was ultimately rejected. Keel, never a particularly successful author, published his book in 1975 of which I bought a first edition copy with the great dust cover art/line drawing of a hulking feathered being – an aspect of Mothman not reported by eyewitnesses. A final word, if your phone rings and a voice tells you that it’s Indred Cold calling…hang up.

2. Goodfoot responds: September 18th, 2013 at 12:01 am

   You are asking for “proof” of things that do not necessarily exist in the realm of proof or disproof. I personally find your comments arrogant and wrong-headed. If you think Keel made this stuff up; if you believe these were merely sketchy reports, I would say you have condemned yourself to arrogant disbelief.

   I don’t mind it, personally, but the day may arrive when you do. Your disbelief holds to no higher standard than the beliefs of those who went through those events such a long time ago. I suppose time serves you well in this regard. You don’t actually have to deal with any of it. You must feel so satisfied; it fairly oozes from your words.

3. cryptokellie responds: September 18th, 2013 at 7:21 am

   Goodfoot;

   I’m not being trying to be arrogant but I have been around the block a few times. I have been following the crypto-unexplained world for over 55 years.

   I’m old enough to have been around for what is history to most people on this site are reading about. When you’ve been following this genre as long as I have, you begin to see patterns and determining what is likely authentic and what is likely not is more clear having been filtered through the seine of collected experience.

   Have you even read any of John Keel’s books? I have read 5 at least and they are very entertaining – if you like that mindset – and it was his own “Strange Creatures From Time and Space” that propelled my interest into a wider canvas of crypto-logical happenings and not just Loch Ness, UFOs and Bigfoot. I don’t discount the fact that those eyewitnesses believe that they saw what they saw, I dislike the fact that “Mothman”, coined not by Keel but by an Ohio copywriter, has overshadowed the real tragedy of the bridge collapse resulting in the deaths of 46 people and for Keel to have made suggestions that their innocent demise was related to his whole cloth alter-reality view of the world is to dishonor the real facts of this occurrence.

   On another note, time serves me quite well in this regard. I have dealt with more than you can imagine over the years and having raised several children, several dogs, cats and horses and now helping with grandchildren…I have come to know poop when I smell it.

4. Goodfoot responds: September 18th, 2013 at 2:42 pm

   cryptokellie:

   So, you are about my age, or a tad older. I’m 65, and perhaps I’ve been on the trail several years less than you have.

   John Keel was nearly 100% in the mold of Charles Fort, and both had the same sort of humor, very much so. Both were raising important questions about the nature of “reality”. Fort was a genius, and magnificently mocking of the “mainstream media” (which consisted solely of newspapers and spotty radio coverage); Keel was similar, but both men were true geniuses in invoking a sense of wonder in their readers. Fort’s prose was at times the most brilliant stuff I’ve read, akin to Algernon Blackwood or Ambrose Bierce in scope.

   Their points, and mine, is that science is terribly suited to study things that are beyond the scope of their limited belief systems. In a very profound way, the Scientific Method has failed us, because we are in a multi-reality world.

   I do always appreciate your comments; I wouldn’t want to you to think otherwise.

5. Goodfoot responds: September 18th, 2013 at 2:46 pm

   cryptokellie:

   I meant science was ILL-suited… I tried to correct it in the same minute I posted it, but the edit function would not allow it.

   Craig: is there something awry with the edit function? It’s supposed to be ten minutes, right?

6. cryptokellie responds: September 18th, 2013 at 6:34 pm

   Goodfoot:
   We are on the same page here more than not. I think John Keel was a Charles Fort wannabe and he didn’t experience the fame or exposure that Fort did in actually having invented the anomalous incident genre single handedly. I enjoy, and respect Fort more than Keel because Fort reported the conveniently omitted news items that weren’t being reported at those times(the twenties and thirties) and gave some really tongue-in-cheek explanations that caused readers to pause and think for themselves. Keel, I think to his detriment, tried to include himself into the anomalous proceedings which if you are not careful can make you seem unhinged. His UFO report for Playboy which was why he was in WV. in the first place was rejected for those reasons and replaced with an article by Allen J. Hynek no less. My main dislike for Keel is that he blended his UFO, Men In Black material with the Mothman material and tried for a bigger score with the inclusion of the Silver Bridge collapse which happed months after he (and Mothman) left WV. I find that move a little distasteful considering almost 50 people died in that real calamity. Since Keel waited almost eight years to bring out “‘The Mothman Prophecies” – statute of limitations? – it is my belief that he would have done much better to just write a Sci/Fi Horror novel based on the actual events which is what he did anyway while trying to pass it off as a record of actual events. I mean, Indred Cold calling him…come on, why would he of all people become the center of activity for alter-reality, other-worldly beings to confide in? Calling Whitley Strieber. At least Strieber admits that some of his experiences might be dreams/hallucinations and that he doesn’t really know what’s going on.

   Honestly, I bristle a bit at the arrogant stuff (I’m truly not) but that aside, I will give almost any report on the crypto-subjects the time of day that they deserve otherwise I wouldn’t be reading Cryptomundo but, I do know poop when I smell it. And the whole Mothman world and now celebration which I know Keel had nothing to do with, well…kinda just stinks. I cannot help but think that there are survivors and relatives that are not happy with this fete. (minor pun)…

7. corrick responds: September 19th, 2013 at 3:05 pm

   Unlike both of you, I have nothing but contempt for John Keel.

   Have done extensive research on the cryptozoological Mothman. Those sightings virtually ended an entire year before the bridge collapse. It was Keel who connected the two events.

   If you look at Keel’s entire career, it’s pretty apparent he was a marginal pulp writer with a big ego who latched onto the paranormal in his late years to make a buck. A huckster, showman all his life.

8. Goodfoot responds: September 19th, 2013 at 5:41 pm

   Thanks for sharing again, corrick.

9. corrick responds: September 21st, 2013 at 4:00 pm

   Goodfoot. I appreciate the dry humor. Anyway, not like these arguments/debates are Death Race 2000!

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