[Rooted in Ridicule—Raised by the Relentless]
by Alfred Lehmberg
…For half a century, the "Flatwoods
Monster" waited. ...Chill. There will be no ominous music, only the music of
the celebratory!
Still, it lurked in West Virginia's "hollers and the hills," waiting in the memory
of one warmly quiet Indian-summer September night... when, suddenly, the sky tore itself wide
open, and something wrapped in flames came down—came down with the
force of a story refusing to die… even when government
officials endeavored to bury it, cover it up, and even tried to hide
it… forever!
The people of Flatwoods remembered, oh, and how they
remembered, even when they pretended not to and had little desire to
double down on a continuing embarrassment, admitting that they remembered! The
witnesses recalled everything; however, even when they were instructed by officious
authorities that they shouldn’t… (note the upcoming link!)
...And the land remembered, too,
because land always does, somehow... some collected memory of the persons living and breathing on it... especially when the land of that one particular
farm in Flatwoods was, itself, left emotionally scarred and intellectually poisoned by an
unusual, very highly strange occurrence on September 12,
1952!
On that night, remember, a seemingly damaged UFO
(realistically conjectured to be the victim of UFO shootdown orders very publicly in effect at
the time!), a UFO witnessed to be on fire from these conjectured attacks, went down on the “mountaintop” of the
Fisher Farm at 7:25 pm! That's the history!
Shortly thereafter, a 12-foot-tall metal-clad
occupant departed its, thought crippled, ship! It would encounter a group of
curious folks witnessing the event who had gone in search of the downed object that they’d seen land!
Abruptly, it put in its startling appearance! Enter, the
"Flatwoods Monster."
...Also entering almost at the same time? Official, unending, and focused ridicule! It was the government's standard operating procedure... SOP.
We observe that memory, itself, becomes a fragile thing when the ridicule
of it is weaponized. Ridicule, linked just above, came fast, and it came
quickly.
The newspapers mocked it. The broadcasters
sarcastically smirked. The official voices—the ones wearing
suits and carrying clipboards—dismissed, deflated, and denied
it, as our “anxious agency mavens of duplicity” will... we can observe! The eyewitnesses were
treated as curiosities, then as embarrassments… and then as subjects of
mockery.
Moreover, this thing, this so-called "Monster," once seen in the raw terror of its huge and towering
stature? Well, it became a skirt-wearing punchline! A cartoon. A
hallucination. A thing to be forgotten and pushed away into the
shadows of cryptid woo-woo history that only the non-serious may write about.
As a result, the small town
of Flatwoods fell silent! That silence deafened for decades!
No. There were no festivals, no guest speakers... no bric-a-brac sales after 1952. No
commemorations. No civic pride demonstrations. No annual retellings. …Just
crickets from the State-provoked hush of a beleaguered town, a town that had been taught to doubt its own
eyes… and be quiet!
The "Monster" became, then, an unfocused ghost... not because
it was unreal, but because our immutable culture, and its official
abandonment of the story, demanded it! The story was not just erased—it
was shamed into non-being! By design! The government had
quickly stepped in and executed a well-rehearsed job of covering up this UFO
incident and “tamping it down.” Not the link above.
Flash forward forty years! Children grew up hearing
only errant fragments of an old folklore tale. Adults grew old and died
remembering only the fear and embarrassment they had lived through when
curious visitors, vapid lookie-loos, and predatory “reporters” periodically trampled their
town!
The witnesses aged, carrying a truth that they were too intimidated to
talk about for fear of being ridiculed again …And the "Monster"?
Well, whatever it had been, wherever it came from, and whatever it symbolized
or wanted? It became a diminishing myth… a myth without a keeper.
Then... one day? One day, a young man arrived in Braxton County, a
man who was visiting some family members for a short weekend trip in September
of 1991! ...And Lo! He would be a man totally unaware of what he was going to stumble
into... this... "Flatwoods Monster" affair!
This very sober and focused young man was not a “believer,”
nor was he a “debunker”...but his opinion on "such that provokes that this
anxious polarity" would soon change! ...What WAS this damned thing!
…As time passed, he couldn’t get it out of his mind! He'd keep coming back to it!
His curiosity would
get the best of him, finally, and he began what would become an intense investigation into
the case! He visited the area more often… delved into what there was of the lore... and became, by increments, a total
believer! This writer shares that belief, as the facts are hard to ignore… It’s
hard to argue against the existence of the sun when it clears the horizon at every
dawn! The closer you look at it... the brighter it gets. Over time, brighter and brighter! Such would be the Flatwoods case!
He would soon become a cartographer of these forgotten
things! He would become a chronicler of the unspoken… and Flatwoods would consume
him for the rest of his life.
Standing on the shoulders of persons like Ivan Sanderson,
Kathleen May, and Stanton Friedman et al… he would see farther and in greater
detail... discovering the shocking tie-in between Flatwoods and a
very obvious if undeclared air war with ET. There is data!
Yes, folks, and lots of data… In July of 1952, the Air Force
revealed it had ordered their fighter pilots to "shoot down" UFOs if
they couldn't talk them down! As we would soon come to find out, there was also an overwhelming and shocking number of fighter jets and airmen who had nebulously vanished into thin air or died under mysterious circumstances during that era! Equally nebulous records of these "losses" were just not making sense!
Moreover, many of these fighter pilots were also decorated
WWII and Korean War Aces… distinguished combat veterans who had survived
horrendous air war battles abroad only to come home and die or mysteriously
disappear in a highly strange one at home!
Wait! What? Can it not be apparent to the reader yet that an air war of
another kind was going on and being heavily covered up by the Air Force, right here at home!
Didn't the Air Force think ahead and realize that these UFO might actually
shoot back? Someone, please call the waiter for the effin' reality check! It's no stretch, reader, to suppose that UFOs ubiquitously overflying prohibited airspaces, civil and nuclear, and provoking (...excusing? We wanted one, remember.) these shootdown orders alluded to, MIGHT produce the crash of one of those air combat UFOs in Flatwoods' backyard!
We remind the reader that this new young man, aforementioned, arriving on the scene was a
college-trained artist who graduated from the "Paier School of Art"
in Hamden, Connecticut, as has been recently written. Over the course of
4-years, he majored in illustration art; he studied portraiture painting,
anatomical drawing, life drawing, was trained in various media techniques, and
specialized in pencil drawing, akin to a forensic artist. We talked about all this! This would be KEY for Flatwoods!
Moreover, he would be a credible researcher with the
stubbornness of a man who had decided that this critical truth deserved a
second chance, especially when no one else was telling
it, and no one else cared! He was just what was required:
the right man at the right time!
Later, we would come to find out that
this man's art background combined with his research skills would play that critical
role in revealing the true identity of the "Flatwoods Monster"! This intrepid young man’s name was, of course, Frank C. Feschino Jr.
At first, he
came quietly. So quiet and undetected, in fact, only a few people in the area
knew he was even there. Truly… Flatwoods residents didn’t know what to make of him,
at first… Frankly, he was treated initially as just another Carpetbagger as of old!
See, Outsiders had come before—reporters and curiosity‑seekers—but
they had always taken more than they gave... were
rude and presumptuous! Patronizing and objectifying! That was the report to Feschino!
Reporters and writers had come to extract,
not restore, and would cover the story as a joke… annually even, during the Halloween season, reporting it as a silly folklore
tale. The townsfolk hated that. Every Halloween since 1952… laughter at
Flatwoods’ expense. Ah, mirth!
At the beginning of his quest, Feschino was taunted,
scoffed at, treated unkindly, and even physically threatened by some of the
locals while asking questions in and around the Flatwoods, Sutton, and Gassaway
areas. He was told, "We don't talk about that 'monster' round' here no
more—got it!," and "Why don't you leave this story
alone, boy, and git, we've had enough of your like already!" as well as,
"We don't need your kind here—snooping around town and talking
about no monster nonsense."
…But, things began to change when the locals started seeing Feschino
more often, becoming a more familiar face. They would ask him what hotel he was staying at when coming into
Braxton County. In other words, "Where you stayin' at when you come to
these parts, boy?!"
Feschino explained that there was no need for a hotel
because he had family in Braxton County and would stay with them at their horse
and cattle farm in the mountains of nearby Frametown! That seemed the charm making a difference!
Flatwoods attitude slowly changed; then, the locals even
warmed up to Feschino! He wasn't considered so much of an outsider anymore,
once they learned he had "kin folk" here-abouts...! During the early years of his investigation, by the way, a
computer-less era... "boots-on-the-ground" investigator
Frank Feschino traveled to countless libraries and bookstores throughout West
Virginia and across many surrounding states seeking information about the
"Flatwoods Monster" incident.
Consequently, he sat at library microfilm machines for
hundreds of hours, found many articles, and then copied them for his record. He
bought every book he could get his hands on containing any bit of lore, information about the Flatwoods story, as well.
During his travels, Feschino also met several
antiquarian book-sellers along the way, and went to many major book shows.
The dealers he had met and befriended had saved him every UFO book and
publication containing the Flatwoods story... and more!
Remember reader, this was a pre-eBay era, and Feschino was
still able to scour the country, gather and accumulate a massive collection of
material on the Flatwoods case… that no one even cared about or was interested
in at the time!
Subsequently, Feschino had amassed a huge collection
of material...I mean a tremendous-sized assemblage of various newspaper
articles, many original books, and other publications on the
Flatwoods case.
Though, as Feschino reviewed all of the information he had at hand, he
found something very puzzling about the story! He discovered that it had been so badly retold so many times over the years that the story had become grossly distorted,
inaccurate, and larded with absolutely overwhelming (and discrediting!) inconsistencies!
Still working low-key, Feschino eventually met and
interviewed many of the key witnesses who were involved in the incident! He sought to find the answers he had been looking for to set the record straight. He'd succeed to a degree!
During
these early years, he encountered and worked with primary "Monster"
witnesses Kathleen May and her son, also a witness, Fred May. A key point of
the case that Feschino quickly discovered while working with them was that the
so-called "Monster," was NOT a monster at all. Wait! What? Not a
monster?!
The witnesses told Feschino that the well-known drawing of
the figure, which had been seen in countless books and publications since
1952, was NOT accurate. This is a meaningful repetition of what has
been recounted previously.
This giant figure, the patient reader will recall, was illustrated as a garment-wearing
"monster" that magically floated, had a big round head covered with a
cloth hood, was wearing a long-pleated skirt and had long skinny arms tricked out with obligatory (but nonsensical!) monster claws. No.
Illustrator Frank Feschino did something that the artist
hired by the TV show did not do, nor had the time to do, or just really didn't
care to do. Feschino sat with the witnesses on different occasions, NOT
just one time… he talked with them effusively, he interviewed them
relentlessly, and he listened exhaustively, as has been said!
He accomplished something that the previous original
investigators, nor any other artist since that time in 1952, was able to do!
No one was able to get a true and accurate portrayal of the "Flatwoods
Monster," and illustrate what it actually looked like… except for Frank
Feschino.
This is key, reader, because Feschino was the one to change the skirt-wearing scary boojum monster, disconnected from any explanatory mechanism or story explaining its appearance, into a full-blown mechanism or mechanical contrivance (a weird one!) resulting from the landing of a craft associated with what was an air war of a sort ordered by the president... or maybe the reader thinks that the president wasn't read in as regards military orders to shoot UFOs down.
For several more years, Feschino continued to research and
investigate the so-called "Monster" of Flatwoods... but at a much
deeper level... and one might even say he went down “deeper into the rabbit hole”! He's go deeper if he could!
Feschino continued to go back to Flatwoods, he came with new information; new
documentation, he came with official military records, several maps to
reconstruct the storyline… and he came with a determination that bordered on
obsession!
As time passed, Feschino continued to befriend more locals,
made several new contacts, and they began to take him seriously.
They knew he had started to unravel a cover-up to reveal the truth, and
moreover, he meant honest business.
Proclaimed HERE with evidence! Frank Feschino was the very
first having the audacity to say out loud: This story matters and must
be faithfully told, or it will be lost forever!
He listened. He documented.
He respected. …He honored. He treated all the
witnesses he had come to work with—not as oddities—but
as human beings enduring something extraordinarily unfair… and being punished
for it ever since. He treated the town of Flatwoods not as a spectacle
but as a place with a deep wound that deserved healing. …And
at last, Flatwoods began to thaw. Not bad for initially being assessed as just another carpetbagger!
Now, this writer asks an important question; where were all
the people who now claim to be the “experts” and “aficionados”
on the Flatwoods case? The "writers," the "authors," the podcast "storytellers," these “documentary” makers and noisome "naysayers"; where were they
back then when Feschino was traveling thousands of miles to
document this incident before the witnesses died… but carving the story
out at all?
This writer will tell you where they all were... They were nowhere to
be found. They were nonexistent! Crickets! Some would too kindly call them
"Armchair quarterbacks," while other truer researchers call them
lazy hacks or even grasping plagiarists!
Moreover, most of them had never even set foot
on the Fisher Farm where all the events occurred that night, let alone document, photograph, and videotape the
encounter area and entire farm, for decades, now! Feschino was first… AND last!
The Fisher Farm is presently locked up tighter than a bull’s patoot in fly season!
Furthermore, the May family witnesses, Kathleen May, her two
sons, and others who had been silenced by decades of derision—found in
Feschino someone who believed their dignity mattered! They trusted
him and had even taken him in as one of their own. This writer saw evidence of
this. It was like The May family (or what remained of it when this writer got there) and the whole town of Flatwoods carried him around
on a little three-cornered cushion. Feschino would not abuse this trust.
No. Feschino didn’t sensationalize them. He didn’t
exploit them. He didn’t render them to props. He documented their
testimonies and gave them back their story… and when a story is returned
to its rightful owners, it begins to breathe again!
The "Monster" stirred.
Not literally—not in the woods, not in the sky, but in the cultural
consciousness of a town that had forgotten that it was allowed to
remember it, at all! Gradually, the "Monster" awakened, opened
its eyes, took a deep breath, and rose. …And metaphorically speaking, the
"Monster" looked in the mirror and saw the true reflection of itself once again... ...it had not been forgotten after all!
The "Monster" became less of a burden and
more of a symbol to the region. Less of a shame and
more of a heritage. Less of a joke and more than just a West
Virginia legend. …And a true story, when treated with respect,
demands celebration!
So, in 2001, for the first time in the history of
Flatwoods—for the first time since that fateful night
in September of 1952—the town held a festival. A FESTIVAL!
This was an event that had never existed before! A
gathering that no one had dared to propose! A festival that
would have been unthinkable in the prior decades of provoked
silence! An event that required someone to say: We are done
being ashamed… and Feschino would organize a substantiation for
his clear admonishment to the town of Flatwoods… that SHAME… was a
thing of the past!
Besides Feschino, Mayor Peggy Clise believed
in this festival idea, too, and supported him 100 percent! The witnesses
that Feschino was working with attended, stepping into public light for the
first time in half a century!
…And the "Monster"? The one that had
waited in the darkness for so long? It finally had an honored day of its
own!
The festival was not a carnival of fear. It was not a circus of mockery.
It was not a sideshow. It was a reclamation. A cultural resurrection. It was a
communal exhale after fifty years of holding its breath… And once the first
festival happened, why, the second became easier. And then the third. …And the
fourth...
Immediately after 1952 the base incident was written up in
many books and publications, but the story was fragmented, inconsistent,
and inaccurate. The story had become confusing, too puzzling, and was never told in
its entirety. Moreover? The truth behind the government cover-up was never going to be known or even revealed.
Coming up to speed, no one had ever cared about the incident!
No one bothered to put in the time nor the money required to uncover the truth
to the depth that Feschino did! After he became involved in the
incident in 1993, he’d spend decades investigating it, he’d piece the fractured story
together, he’d write his informing books, and then he’d publish them... And that truth that this writer has been belaboring... that truth was
finally revealed.
The forewords and epilogues for Feschino’s books were
written by his colleague, Mr. Stanton T. Friedman, who saw real substance in
Feschino’s assertions regarding ET air war, and he devoted many years in attention to that
project, himself, as well.
Feschino's Government cover-up story, his rendition of the
"Flatwoods Monster," his eyewitness interviews, his artwork, and
photos are all copyright-protected in his books under American copyright law,
which is standard procedure to properly publish a book and protect it, as anyone
should know. Some seem to need a reminder.
That said, after Feschino put the "Flatwoods
Monster" incident back into the productive spotlight with his books, the
publicity he garnered, and the attention his story received was overwhelming and effusive. Feschino's
works would be featured in countless newspapers, magazines, and internet
articles throughout the world!
The author has been interviewed by numerous radio talk
show hosts including personalities Whitley Strieber, George Noory, Bill Birnes,
Richard Dolan, Connie Willis, Alejandro Rojas, and Shadoe Stevens, just to
name a few. Feschino also appeared on many West Virginia television news
broadcasts, West Virginia PBS TV, and several West Virginia
radio programs. He also guest-appeared at numerous lectures and did many
book signings throughout the state of West Virginia, as well. He is, quite simply, THE subject matter expert as regards Flatwoods and its ancillaries. Accept no substitutes.
While building momentum through the media, Feschino
also caught the eye of several conference promoters and subsequently
traveled throughout the United States to spread the word about the
"Flatwoods Monster." He was also featured in the first-ever
"Flatwoods Monster" cover story with a feature article in UFO
Magazine penned by this writer.
Frank Feschino also appeared in a rather "unfocusing" episode of
"Monster Quest" on the HISTORY CHANNEL with Mr. Friedman and Fred
May, which featured the "Flatwoods Monster" and "Frametown
Monster" incidents of 1952. Feschino’s been to all the rodeos, got
the requisite shirts, and earned all the badges.
…And the "Monster"? Well, whatever it
had been, whatever it had represented—it now became a
guardian of identity rather than a specter of embarrassment. …And
no matter what anyone believes happened on that night back in 1952, the
"Flatwoods Monster" was positively thrust back into the public eye once again…
indefinitely, this time!
The "Monster," the well-recognized (if false)
original 1952 "Flatwoods Monster," had become a mascot, a tourism
icon, a symbol of local pride! Businesses adopted it. Artists painted it.
Children and adults wore it on T‑shirts. The town and local
communities embraced what had been shunned… after once being told,
ironically, to forget about it. Flatwoods became known, not for its ashamed
silence, but for its world-shaking, if difficult to accept, story!
…But the deeper truth is this:
The "Monster" did not rise on its own. It was raised!
Quite simply, it was raised (resurrected?) by a man who
refused to let ridicule be the final word! It was further raised by witnesses who found
their voices again, who weren't scared to speak out and stood steadily by
Feschino, the sole man able to substantiate and actualize their truth... give them their voice!
It was
raised by people who decided that their past was worth celebrating!
It was raised by the simple, stubborn act of remembering... and recollections are
going to be more easily recalled when presented with the facts, which Feschino
was able to iterate in documented abundance.
…And in this “remembering,”
something extraordinary happened! The "Monster" became
more than just a mythical incident. More than a sighting. More than a
headline. More than just a West Virginia legend in a crass fabulist’s dodgy “woo-woo
cryptid book.”
It became a testament to the idea that truth—even a highly
strange truth, even an uncomfortable truth—deserves its place in the
world!
It became proof that communities can reclaim what was stolen from
them. It became a reminder that stories do not die when they are mocked; they
die when they are abandoned!
After decades of ridicule and silence, Flatwoods
stopped abandoning its story. …And the "Monster," patient
as a West Virginia Blue Ridge, stepped out of the darkness and back
into the light once again. …But this time the ridicule and jokes were left
behind! This time, Feschino had pieced together the REAL story and unraveled
the cover-up with his due diligence and incisive scholarship… and his fact-supported
revelations! The Flatwoods story… and beyond, is his, by damn, in this old retired soldier's uncredulous estimation! Remember what this writer said about the sun.
Today, the festivals and events continue to carry
on with another generation of folks taking the reins and keeping the story
alive. The celebrations grow, and there is a Flatwoods Monster Museum in Sutton as
well.
The "Monster’s" image appears on signs,
souvenirs, murals, and has its own chairs! It even has hamburgers and food
items named after it.
Now, a new generation of citizens from that area thrive
because of it, only too often completely forgetting the man who helped
resurrect the story 35 years ago... when local consciousness didn't give a
rat's pa-toot about it, and who want to cast him off NOW as that carpetbagger aforementioned. ...This is as uncalled for as it is unfair! If he was a carpetbagger, he was one who ironically paid off!
Regardless, he remains woven into its fabric—not as a
mythmaker, but as a truth-teller and history-restorer. Before
him: silence. After him: legacy… legacy and profit. Yes, Frank Feschino spent
the better part of his adult life on this story so as to tell the truth and so
that future generations could learn about it. …Learn FROM it.
Its lessons are vast AND world-shaking, as has been
mentioned! So, again, this writer must ask, what were all of the
self-proclaimed current-day Flatwoods "experts, writers, authors, and armchair
podcasters" doing while Feschino was conducting his substantive and
all-encompassing investigations... for decades? Yes, the ones who ignobly profit off the
"Flatwoods Monster" case and tell the public they have, "The
Real Story of the Flatwoods Monster." Where'd they get that story?
Everybody is an “expert” now! One shakes one’s head…
The "Monster" waited fifty years for
someone to tell the full and accurate story, truthfully! It sat quietly for
five decades waiting to be resurrected. It found that someone. …And the
town, the entire county… if not the whole of West Virginia to a degree…
found itself.
Today, in the hills of Braxton County, where the night
sky still remembers what it saw, a 12-foot-tall
so-called "Monster" knows that its waiting is over. It is
home and recognized again.
Thanks, Mr. Feschino, for not giving up on this fascinating
story and for your many, many years of dedication and your SERVICE to Flatwoods
AND West Virginia… service while others are content merely to
profit… without the smallest word of appreciation or a line of credit to
the guy who made any of it happen at all!
Verily, the truth of the
Flatwoods Monster, itself, its history, the recorded data of that history, and
its documented audit trail… which Feschino spent the whole of his adult life
ferreting out, making sense of, and publishing on… can only be measured
chronologically “BF” and “AF.” …Before Feschino... and
After Feschino. Smoke THAT if you need to... or should! Read on!
