Flatwoods Monster Investigator Gray Barker,
and on his shoulder, Frank Feschino, Jr: covering 1952-2025
One of the original investigators of the Braxton County "Flatwoods Monster"... was an actual Braxton County resident! He was also the famous early paranormal author/investigator, Gray Barker.
In September of 1952, Barker went to Flatwoods and investigated the close encounter incident shortly after it occurred. He would have an in, in that community, that no others would have! He was, essentially, a neighbor and a homeboy! He was one of them.
While there, he met and worked alongside veteran cryptozoologist and author Ivan T. Sanderson, who was also in town! Sanderson was there performing his own investigation into this singular affair. In a digression, this writer bets that Barker was able to grease Sanderson’s wheels, somewhat. Central West (“By God”!) Virginia wouldn’t cotton to outsiders.
Back at Mr. Barker’s ranch, he would later write a short article about the "Flatwoods Monster" case. This was published in the January 1953 issue of "FATE Magazine." It was titled "The Monster and the Saucer." In this article, Barker would detail his research investigation into the Flatwoods case.
Then, in September of 1953, Barker self-published the first volume of his new UFO magazine, "The Saucerian." It was titled, "W.V.A. 'MONSTER' - A Full Report of the Investigation." The entire issue featured the "Flatwoods Monster," which gave additional information about his research into the Flatwoods case.
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| Only trying to be reasonable, a skirted space nixie just won't make credulity's cut in the first place, and it was described as a mechanical entity from the very beginning, in the second! |
Barker wrote,
"Was it a robot controlled mechanically...Or was it a man, or 'thing'
in a space suit?" Then, in 1956, Barker's book, "They Knew Too
Much About Flying Saucers" was published; it contained two chapters
about the "Flatwoods Monster" with even more information about his
investigation.
The opening two chapters were titled, "A hilltop, West Virginia" and "Flatwoods, West Virginia." In the book, Barker wrote this about the craft going down on the Fisher Farm that night, "If saucerian in nature, why did it land? Was it in mechanical difficulty? Or, did its pilot wish to make observations?"
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| "Funny damn meteors!" News clippings of the time... |
Gray Barker and Ivan T. Sanderson were well aware of the numerous UFO sightings occurring along the eastern coast on September 12, 1952, as well as the numerous sightings of various craft over Braxton County, including Flatwoods! Barker wrote, "The strange [Flatwoods] event had taken place simultaneously with sightings of aerial objects over several states. These, reported generally as meteorites, flashed over West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Within a 20-mile radius of Flatwoods, numerous persons saw what they described, variously, as shooting stars, flying saucers, and meteorites. Evidently, these were different objects than the one seen in Flatwoods."
Though here’s the twist? Even though Barker and Sanderson were aware of the numerous other sightings across the country, they were not able to put the big picture together at the time! He'd admit this!
See? Barker had no access to Project Bluebook files... plus he didn't have Feschino's dogged decades of quality and well-documented hindsight! Barker made the following statement, “I can only begin to cope with the mass of data and the correspondence, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle containing the answer to the entire mystery—if it could only be put together!”
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Well, reader, 40 years later (and in spades!), Frank Feschino, Jr. picked up the "Flatwoods Monster" investigation where Gray Barker and Ivan T. Sanderson had left off! Moreover, Feschino has never stopped looking into the case! From this writer’s guns, Feschino was able to take the massive amount of data he had accumulated on the UFO events of September 12, 1952, and, with all due diligence, PUT all those puzzle pieces of that abstruse jigsaw... together!
Respectfully, Feschino remains hugely grateful for being in a position where he was able to stand on such brave and capable shoulders. They'd provided a lot of the pieces, after all... even as Feschino put those pieces together...
Now, after 32 years, Feschino's ongoing investigation into the "Flatwoods Monster" incident can be more fulsomely told. There’s more to come from Frank Feschino, Jr. and from this writer, come to it, where one can hold Mr. Feschino’s coat and scabbard… spirit willin’ and the creek don’t rise! Remains… Stay tuned! UFO’s, (and with a deliberate sneer to the UAP... only a facile term of plausible deniability, flatly, where the UFO is a brick through a window!), are getting ready to pop!
Closing, Flatwoods is one of the better-documented UFO cases available (period!) and the ONLY substantive analysis of Flatwoods, at all… This is remembering, of course, that Flatwoods was the end of the story and a story providing all the justification necessary for a respectful take in the UFO’s regard.
This may be required when the reader further recalls that Flatwoods was the end result of a well-admitted if “undeclared” air war with UFO’s… Directed by the President of the United States... where men and lots of equipment just vanished into thin air… this, apart from the loss of life, crashing military aircraft, and civilian property damage occurring during that war... or so the records say.
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| 21 HOURS and Change of extreme UFO Activity with aircraft launched to shoot them down! |
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| Timestamped sightings paint a picture! |
