Why would the antagonist lie? I don't know, that would be speculation... though many were I offer, encouraged by "officiality," and from the start... lying outright facilitating the fatuous debunker who would later be grasping at these desperate and ludicrous straws. There's your speculation.
No, the proverbial serving "fork" does seem called for. A demonstrated fraud, Steorts is done. The fat lady has sung and left the building.
See, remaining, Flatwoods may be the last act in an undeclared and secret air-war prosecuted during the biggest US UFO flap ever, a war with strict orders to shoot those UFOs down. "There were other and more lurid duels of death..." Edward Ruppelt, a Blue Book chief, reminds us from his book. What was going on?
Feschino expanded on a background. He would inform that the name of the Sutton newspaper co-owner and photojournalist is actually: A. Lee Stewart, Jr.
Stewart's full name was "Asa Lee Stewart, Jr." He went by his middle name, "Lee." Lee was co-owner of the Braxton Democrat with his father.
In 1996 Feschino stayed at Stewart's house for nearly four days. Yes, he did show Stewart the 3-ring binder with the compiled contrary newspaper articles. In that binder was the newspaper article containing the Steorts hoax story where Steorts fraudulently claimed that they'd concocted the Flatwoods tale, together.
On that first morning after arriving at Lee's house, Feschino awoke, walked into the living room, and found Stewart reading that self-same research binder in his big recliner chair. Frank approached him affably and remarked about the incident in question and the collection of other newspaper articles in the binder. Contained in that binder, remember, was the article with Steort's interview claiming the hoax and Stewart as a shiftless charlatan. Tense.
Feschino writes in his book, "As I looked at Lee, he raised his head, shaking it in sad disgust with regard to how the incident had been portrayed through the years. Moreover, he did not like the fact that he'd been grossly misquoted and badly portrayed, himself, not just by Steorts, but by fellow reporters, writers, and even some of the Flatwoods locals." One portion of their conversation was edited from Feschino's book manuscript: the segment when he asked Stewart about Bill Steorts' claim that they had both hoaxed the story.
Feschino told me that Stewart shouted, call them incensed expletives in a huge agitation! "He [Steorts] is a God-damn liar," he'd exhorted among other more colorful criticisms.
Frank explained, "Stewart was hugely pissed off and upset about that article where Steorts reported it was a hoax." Yes, Reader, Lee knew that it was not, as had been proffered in the perennial and ever-present misinformation, a hoax. Frank said to me, "I will never forget that look of revulsion on his face!"
This is the reason Stewart opened up his video interview saying, "...A lot of material that he [Feschino] has picked up and has given me and... we have gone over this... is NOT true."
Lee continued, "A lot of tongue-in-cheek, a lot of disclaimer material that has no bearing whatsoever on what actually happened at that particular time." You can hear him for yourself.
On page 28, Stewart states, "On the road out to Flatwoods, I passed Steorts' store and Bill Steorts was working at the store with his father ... I picked him up."
See, at about 9:00 PM that night Stewart got a call at his newspaper office in Sutton from the WV State Police (WVSP). Trooper Corporal Tribett asked Lee to go to the May house in Flatwoods and investigate... because a "Monster" was seen nearby on a farm!
The local Sheriff was unable to respond to the call (an "odd" story in itself!) and called the WVSP. These were also unable to respond... another peculiar tale... briefly all the police were officially out investigating sightings and downed aircraft reports! True!
Stewart, a photojournalist, had worked at crime scenes and accident sites with the WVSP. He had taken countless photos and covered hundreds of news stories with the police, so he knew them.
Stewart left the Braxton Democrat in Sutton and drove to Flatwoods. Steorts General store was in Upper Flatwoods and just across the town line when driving in. Stewart did not know the exact location of the May house so he stopped by the market to get directions. Bill Steorts got in Stewart's car and they left the store.
Stewart stated, "He [Steorts] directed me to the house and, IN FACT, was there when I talked to the people. He also went up on top of the mountain with me that night."
Yes, Bill Steorts was actually at the May house and saw the hysterical group, which included seeing a bunch of sick and traumatized kids, Ed and Freddie May among others... and a vomiting Gene Lemon, after Ms. May, all event principals. Stewart said, "It was sheer turmoil."*
Yes, Bill Steorts was also a part of the armed posse that went up onto the mountain that night to "hunt" for the so-called "Monster."
Stewart said, "So we left, the boys [Lemon and Nunley], Bill Steorts, and I. We were armed. We had a twelve gauge automatic shotgun and a couple of handguns. Two or three other people who lived right around there came up and went with us. They were also armed."
(For the record, Mrs. May's father, "Joseph Lemon," was actually part of the armed group!)
When the two boys directed the armed posse to the "tree" area of the encounter on the farm... they all smelled the horrendous sulfur odor that made the witnesses sick. The group also saw the two large tracks in the nearby pasture when they shined their flashlights and electric lantern around.
Stewart remarked, "We just spotlighted around because not one of us was inclined to hunt for something we didn't know what it was in the dark. We decided we would go back to the Mays."
At the house, Lee talked with the witnesses and told them that he would come back in the morning... with a tape recorder. He would do just that.
Stewart states, " I left the May residence between 10:30 and 11:00 and returned to Sutton. I took Bill Steorts home at that time." Less than a week later he would be on National TV describing the event with May and Lemon.
Additionally, in the misleading Steorts article, Steorts stated the following lie about Stewart and himself as noted in red above, "We drew the artist's picture of the monster." That's preposterous!
No, once again Bill Steorts got caught with his pants decidedly ankle-puddled. It has been well-known for decades that the picture of the monster was drawn by a sketch artist in the TV studio of "We The People" in New York on September 19, 1952. Lying makes one a liar, reader.
Additionally, there is another specious lie and inconsistency in Steorts' fabricated story. He stated, "...From there it just mushroomed, Kathleen May and her children went to New York on a TV show."
Mrs. May's children did not go to New York with her for the TV show. Her two children, Freddie and Edison, stayed home in Flatwoods. Mrs. May was accompanied to New York by eyewitness Eugene Lemon and reporter A. Lee Stewart, Jr. All three of them were interviewed by the very popular "We The People" host, Daniel Seymour.
At the time of Steorts' interview in 1977, no one, including him, knew the entire "Flatwoods Monster" story. Now, today, thanks to Mr. Feschino, we have hard facts and know magnitudes more about the case...
...You know...
Someone should landmark all this—establish a museum, perhaps. Even a shrine might not be too out of line, given the times and that forgetting's a crime.
Suggested are vast horizons beyond even the limits of shadows lit by our meager, at this point sputtering, fire, reader. These horizons speak to the need of memorializing the consequent. Did a downed ET aviator at Flatwoods signify a largely unheralded air war with ET? That's what glows in the forest, reader.
Grandad's Store would be historic and apt! It was lit up by the overflying fireball, after all. Permissions secured, one can easily walk to the environs where the event took place.
This writer jests. The understanding is that one John Clise of Flatwoods is making an initiative to start a museum similar to that described above. I offer that one gives it all support. It's consequent, even highly strange, and consequence deserves memorialization. Moreover, the reader can buy the book there! [g].
"Truth's gonna come out sometime!" The reader can be in at the ground floor. Take it in, in its nascent state, and watch it grow over the years! Dare I say help it grow! Smiling broadly, and observing that on the other side of our fear are infinite horizons of instruction and reward upon graduation from our child's crib... eternity and grace if we aspire to it... this writer will say no more.
Closing, Flatwoods was NOT a hoax, reader, as our grocery clerk wanted us to believe, inexplicably... No, this was a real occurrence, a felt presence in a stark existential.
Remains, what we can make from it... if we've the courage and imagination to reject our superstition and misinformed denial... to embrace a 21st Century alive with instructive threats and beneficent wonders... and not retreat from same in cowardice. That seems key.