{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Loreplay","title":"The Flatwoods Monster: West Virginia's Other Sky Daddy","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2462,"description":"The Flatwoods Monster: the 1952 West Virginia cryptid and UFO encounter, told campfire-style and then ripped apart.\nOn September 12, 1952, a fireball streaked across the sky over Flatwoods, West Virginia. A group of boys, a mom named Kathleen May, a teenage National Guardsman, and one very smart dog went up a hill to find where it landed. What they found was a ten-foot creature with a blood-red face, a spade-shaped hood, and a glowing green body that hissed and glided toward them. Within a week, the Braxton County Monster was national news.\nIn this episode of Loreplay, we tell the legend the way it scared a whole country, then dig into what actually happened. That includes the meteor logged in the Air Force's Project Blue Book, the red aircraft beacon, a guy named Max and his pickup truck, Joe Nickell's barn owl theory, and the lesser-known sightings from Audra Harper and George Snitowsky. We also follow the story's afterlife, from Gray Barker and the birth of the Men in Black legend to Kathleen May's claims of a government visit and Frank Feschino's theory of a secret alien dogfight over the East Coast.\nWas it an alien, a monster, or a very angry owl? Either way, Flatwoods leaned all the way in, with a Flatwoods Monster Museum, giant monster chairs, and a spot in Fallout 76 right next to Mothman. Which brings us to the big question: which West Virginia sky daddy wins Best Loreplay Cryptid? Paranormal history, folklore, cryptids, UFOs, and weird legends, with a skeptic's eye and a believer's heart.\nSources\nCharleston Gazette coverage, September 1952\nProject Blue Book case file on the Flatwoods sighting (U.S. Air Force). \nWe the People (NBC, 1952). Kathleen May and Eugene Lemon's national TV appearance.\nGeorge Snitowsky's account in Male magazine, July 1955.\nGray Barker, \"The Monster and the Saucer,\" Fate magazine, January 1953.\nGray Barker, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956).\nFrank Feschino Jr., The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/qrKRCVgS-SidSX8b9CGzZDHhnpF4bwxZyw2FLc5pukw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83MTBl/MDI3MGZkZGE0M2U0/MmJlYjhmNGQ4NjAy/NmY0Ny5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}