All language subtitles for The.Mothman.Legacy.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG-English

[air whooshes]

[ominous music]

[spooky ethereal music]

- Fear is a funny thing.

Where it begins and where it
ends is never a certainty.

Fear can form seemingly out of
nowhere

and then disappear just as
quickly

and we might never really know
why.

[somber violin music]

Some fears develop over
days, weeks, or years,

sown from the time we're young,

eventually bursting forth from
the seeds

that were planted when we were
children.

[footsteps patter]

[door creaks]

[birds chirp]

But where did the seeds come
from?

Who first planted them?

[calming music]

[spooky music]

Were they simply groomed over
centuries,

or are they unique to each
generation?

A story is a powerful thing,

it can move us in unexpected
ways.

It can inspire hope or
create a sense of longing.

[birds singing]

[light orchestral music]

A story can manifest
sadness or depression,

laughter or tears.

And yes, a story can instill
fear.

[light foreboding music]

[feet shuffling]

The question we might
begin to ask ourselves

is not who put the fear there orwhy,

[birds chirp]
[tense music]

but what if the stories

that instilled it to begin withare true,

not simply fables, but somethingmore,

something primal and ageless.
[water splashing]

A something whose very survivaldepends

on our telling of tales.

[soft music]

[feet shuffling]
[birds cawing]

[soft ominous music]
[birds screeching]

[thunder rumbles]

[horse neighs]

[ground rumbles]
[suspenseful music]

[animal growls]
[air whooshes]

[person gasps]

[animal caws]

[person gasps]
[water splashes]

[animal growls]
[person screams]

[ominous orchestral music]
[feet pounding]

[person gasps]

[dramatic music]

[bird caws]
[foreboding music]

[camera clicks]
[object hums]

[bird caws]

[camera clicking]
[suspenseful music]

[light bulb buzzes]

[somber music]

[object squishes]

[fan blades whapping]

[camera clicking]

[metal bangs]

[soft foreboding music]

[object squishes]

[clock chimes]

[tense music]

[spooky ethereal music]

[somber piano music]

[spooky ethereal music]

[water sloshing]

[birds cawing]

[foreboding music]
[birds chirping]

[spooky ethereal music]

[feet shuffling]

- Well, when the Silver Bridge
collapsed

in December of 1967, everybody'sattention immediately went

to the recovery effort, the
rescue effort.

People weren't really
interested in lookin' for UFOs

or Mothman, even though they
did.

[light foreboding music]

But it was such a horrible
tragedy

that the local population was
grieving

and mourning the loss of, you
know,

family members and friends
and things like that.

So the attention went from
the weird stuff in the sky

or the Mothman sightings to
recovering bodies and cars

from the Ohio River.

- You know Main Street used
to be very hustle and bustle.

And after the bridge fell in the'60s,

that kind of broke off that
connection

and so a lot of businesses
started to close

and it became kind of a ghost
town

until basically the museum
and the festival took off.

And then, you know, during
the Mothman Festival

you can't hardly move
there's so many people.

You'd bring in like eight
to 10,000 people to a town

with a population of less than
5,000.

- Between the years of 1966 and1967,

sightings of a red-eyed
monster, dubbed the Mothman,

helped put the town of Point
Pleasant, West Virginia

on the map.

However, it was the collapse ofa bridge

spanning the Ohio River
in December of 1967

that brought the town to a
tragic sort of prominence.

Since that time,

this sleepy hamlet on the
banks of the mighty Ohio

and the Kanawha Rivers
has adopted a strange fame

bolstered by their mostrenowned resident, the Mothman.

Now over 50 years

since the Silver Bridge
tumbled into the icy waters

and took with it 47 lives,

Point Pleasant has begun to
rebuild.

- Life here in Point
Pleasant is laid back.

I mean, you know, it's not yourhustle bustle of a big city

and I think that's why a lot
of people choose to stay here.

- My dad is is Jeff Wamsley,

the owner of the Mothman Museum.

So basically from my young
adulthood up,

Mothman pretty much
surrounds a lot of my life.

- You know, it's just a
little Main Street town

that just happens to have
a monster in it's history

and it's a nice calling card.

- Mothman became something
they fell in love with

and then it was the town they
really fell in love with.

And I ultimately believeMothman is what gets them here,

but it's Point Pleasant that
brings them back every time.

[dog barking]
[spooky music]

[light upbeat music]

- West Virginia is a jewel in
the rough, I always thought,

because you know the
landscape and the beauty.

You've got all kinds of
different areas

like the mountains, the
streams, the river towns,

the ski lodges, all
kinds of different things

and I think they've done a
pretty good job

as far as capitalizing
on the tourism aspect.

- West Virginia is rolling
hills and beautiful creeks

and green pastures and
football Friday night.

- Isolated, at times boring.
[laughs]

It's very beautiful.

Not much happens,

which allows being tuned
into certain things

and also noticing things maybe

that people in other areas may
not notice.

It's a quiet, placid kind of
upbringing.

Very beautiful, beautifulmountains and trees and streams.

So that part is of course,
excellent.

[birds singing]

[lively fiddle music]

- Point Pleasant sits on the
edge

of what is known as Appalachia.

The Appalachian Mountains are arange

that stretches from Canada,
all the way down to Alabama.

Rugged and rural, with a
landscape defined by jutting
rocks

and dense forestry.

The mountains are an essential
part

of the Eastern United States.

Appalachia derives its name
from the local inhabitants,

as well as the mountains.

It's a cultural statement

as much as it is a geographicalone.

A culture informed

by the people who journeyed
through these lands

and who settled these lands,

not to mention the lands
themselves,

from Scotch-Irish immigrants
to the First Nations tribes

who occasionally traveled

through what is now
known as West Virginia.

These places are still
alive with a history

that is passed down from
generation to generation.

[water splashing]

- The Scots-Irish settled West
Virginia.

So about 250,000 of them

got on a boat

and came over to the United
States.

Once they got here,

the colonies were kind
of already established

and these were sort of
outsiders,

so they started to push them
closer to the mountains,

the Appalachian Mountains.

Technically the English
didn't want anybody

moving past the mountains

because there was an
agreement with the French.

But we started chipping away atthat

and that ultimately led to
the French and Indian War.

- Well, the Natives
were kind of frightened

of West Virginia.

They thought West Virginia was
cursed

and they only used West
Virginia mostly as hunting.

So the Shawnee were here quite abit.

The Saponi were kind of
like in the mountains

is where the Blackfoot
Saponi Indians were all

in the southern part of the
state, down into Virginia.

[soft jaunty music]

- When we started pushing into
the region

across the Appalachians,

the Natives chose to fight
on the side of the French.

When the English colonists werecoming in, it was a threat,

so the Native sided with French.

Well, ultimately that did not gowell

and the French left the region,

[fighters shouting]
[weapons clanging]

leaving the Natives kind of on
their own.

The different tribes tried to
get together

to form alliances to fightagainst the English if need be.

- The Confederacy's made
up of many, many tribes

and they were all in
and out of West Virginia

throughout the years.

The Shawnee were big here,
the Cherokee were here,

Lenape, Ojibwe.

There were many, 31 tribes.

There were villages, there werefamilies.

- Once the French left,

they were really kind of left ontheir own

and it ultimately was not
something

that they could withstand

and so they slowly got
pushed out of the area.

- The traditions were extremelyimportant to pass down.

Our elders' pasts

were lost.

It was extremely important to
listen and to pay attention

and to follow the traditions.

- We do hold onto our stories.

You know it might be genetic aswell

because if you look into the
Celts,

West Virginia is mostly Celtic.

We do have some Pennsylvania
Dutch Germans here as well,

but that's like a natural
thing with the Celts

and I think it's passed down
that way.

Plus, that little bit of
Native American ancestry.

- Well I mean there's, again
a love of music and singing

and passing stories through thatway.

It's more of a human
characteristic
to want to tell stories

and make sure that your
legacy is passed on

in one way or another.

- As Appalachia began to
see more and more settlers,

traditions and stories started
to merge,

just as the remaining
Natives begin to exist

alongside the Scotch-Irish
settlers inhabiting a land

they once called their own.

So too, did stories and
cultures begin to meld

and what was born of this blendwas something wholly unique,

Appalachian culture.

Folktales and lore were
absorbed and transmitted

from one generation to the next.

Now the region was defined
as much by tales of ghosts,

witches and red-eyed banshees

as it was the rugged wildernessbackdrop

where they were told.
[haunting pipe music]

When 1966 saw the rise of the
Mothman,

it was strangely familiar
despite its unique appearance.

After all, it was simply
one more tale to be told

as if a new face had been
put on an old legend.

[soft foreboding music]

[animal hoots]
[object thuds]

- I grew up in Southeastern Ohio

and during the original
sightings of the Mothman,

I was about 10 years old.

[ethereal music]

Whenever I first heard about
Mothman

was through my older male
cousins.

One night they came over to
visit my dad

and wanted to have a private
conversation with him.

And they seemed very concerned,

so of course I needed to know
what they were talking about.

My cousins were concerned
about going night fishing

and they were afraid that if
they did,

that they might see or
be taken by Mothman.

So I listened in on the
conversation

and that's how I first
heard about Mothman.

[haunting music]
[frogs croaking]

Later in the summer,

I was asleep one night,

I heard something outside.

I woke up.
[wings fluttering]

[animal screeches]
I went over to the window,

looked out and I saw red eyes inthe yard.

Whatever it was could
have been, I don't know,

maybe six feet or more in
height.

And so I ran to my parents'
bedroom.

My dad, I told him, I
thought Mothman was outside

and he tried to tell me he
didn't think

that that was probably Mothman.

Now, you know, like sometimes
they'll say

that Mothman's there to
either mourn you or whatever.

Like just a few months
after I saw those red eyes,

my dad was in an airplane
accident.

[film reel clicks]

He was one of 16 people that
survived.

It happened in Cincinnati.

It was like TWA 128.

It was a flight coming
from San Diego, California

going to Boston, but it
stopped in Cincinnati

and there wasn't enough
runway for the jet.

And so it went on and went intoa orchard and caught on fire

and just like threw
people out of the plane

all over the place.

My dad, the seat that he was in,

the seat right beside him was onfire

and there was a husband
and wife behind him.

The wife was killed and
my dad turned around

and grabbed this guy by the hand

and said, "If you want
to live, come with me."

[somber music]
[film reel clicks]

- Flight TWA 128 crashed on
approach

to the Cincinnati airport
on November 20th, 1967,

just shy of one month prior

to the collapse of the Silver
Bridge

in nearby Point Pleasant, West
Virginia.

If there was one overwhelming
takeaway

from the activity running
rampant

around Point Pleasant
during 1966 and 1967,

it was the feeling that
everything was accelerating,

heading towards some inevitableconclusion

that couldn't be avoided.

When the Silver Bridge collapsedon December 15th, 1967,

it seemed that the unavoidable
collision had been reached

and with it, the story
of the Mothman had ended.

The book had closed.

For the next few months,

stories of encounters with
the creature were absent.

It seemed that the bridge
collapse had led

to the departure of the being.

However, nothing could have
been further from the truth.

The book had never closed

and in some ways the Mothman
story was just beginning.

- I've read and collected
several newspaper articles

from the late '60s, early '70s.

I've talked to people
that were still seeing

whatever this thing was in the
TNT Area

and it was well after 1966, '67.

A lot of the people that I've
talked to,

I will specifically ask
them what the timeframe was

and you know, '71, '73, '75.
[film reel clicks]

- The Mothman frenzy
went from 1966 into 1967,

but the activity continued.

We lived close to the
Scarberrys.

I grew up on a hillside in WestUnion called Shannon's Knob

and late at night,

it would sound like someonehad jumped out of a helicopter.

[dark tense music]

The roof would go, boom, just
like that.

[animal screeching]

There would be a pause
and then these footsteps,

somebody was walking on our
roof.

[feet stomping]
[roof creaking]

[foreboding music]

[feet stomping]
[roof creaking]

And they might be up
there at 10, 15 minutes

and the footsteps would stopas if something had flown away.

And of course my parents
did not believe me,

you know, [laughs] when
I kept telling them

about these footsteps.

Until I woke up early one
morning

and I heard them talking to eachother,

saying, "Wonder what those
footsteps are on the roof?"

And I was pretty small, Iwasn't even quite in school yet

and I was thinking, "I want to
go outside.

I want to go outside and,
you know, and hide the bushes

and see if I can see the
Mothman."

But I never developed
the courage to do that.

[dark violin music]

- I talked to one lady,

and she specifically mentioned
early '70s,

who had a morning paper
route in the Gallipolis area.

She'd deliver papers
about five in the morning

and she told me that as she
was coming down the street,

on the other side of the
street was like a guard rail,

right beside the Ohio River.

There's a little island that's
right off of that guard rail

that goes out into the Ohio
River

and she said she looked up

and saw the biggest bird that
she'd ever seen in her life,

sittin' there starin' at her.

And she said it scared
her and she turned to run

and she said, the bird
raised up, flew across

and landed in the trees
over on this island.

She said it was enormous.

She was very detailed about it.

And I asked her specifically,
you know, when this happened

and she said, it was the
late '60s, early '70s era.

- In the 1970s, I met my
husband and married him

and he is from Point Pleasant.

He and his dad were
actually out in their car,

driving around and looking for
Mothman.

And he was camping out in his
backyard

hoping to find Mothman,
where I was, you know,

40 miles away, terrified at thesame time.

- You know there were sightingsin Ohio,

there were sightings in West
Virginia,

Pennsylvania, Kentucky.

It's just that that rash
of sightings didn't last

nearly as long as it did
here in Point Pleasant.

- Major players in the Mothman
story

during the 1960s and
'70s included the likes

of West Virginia UFO author
and investigator, Gray Barker

and a newspaper reporter

and Point Pleasant local, Mary
Hyre.

Hyre chronicled the ongoing
activity taking place

following the collapse
of the Silver Bridge,

relaying sightings of Mothman,
UFOs

and the infamous Men in Black

in her "Athens Messenger" columntitled,

"Where the Waters Mingle."

Hyre herself had a run-in
with a Man in Black

in her Point Pleasant office
following the collapse

of the Silver Bridge in Decemberof 1967.

However, in February of 1970,

Hyre would pass away
after an extended illness.

Around Point Pleasant,

the Mothman became less
of a talking point,

although the UFO activity,

which accompanied the
initial wave of strangeness,

continued unabated.

While Hyre was tracking ongoingreports

during the late '60s and early
'70s,

New York based author, John
Keel,

was laboring over his own
recounting

of the 13-month-winged-creaturesiege.

Keel would release his book,

"The Mothman Prophecies" in
1975.

The nonfiction saga
would become a bestseller

and reignite an interest in thetopic.

Keel continue to write about theMothman,

but no longer made
trips to Point Pleasant.

And with Mary Hyre no longer
around

to update Keel on the Mothman,

no one was keeping tabs on the
creature,

who was now making its presencefelt

around much of Appalachia.

- I think the planets kind of
aligned

with the sightings in Point
Pleasant

because number one, you had
all these people seeing UFOs,

the Men in Black, the Mothman,
the Silver Bridge collapse.

John Keel comes to town

and it isolated the
Point Pleasant sightings.

- I came across "The Mothman
Prophecies," the book,

in the mid-'90s and it
immediately got my attention

'cause it sort of was my sweet
spot

in terms of my interest in the
paranormal,

which is, well it had
tons of phenomenon in it,

UFOs, poltergeists, the Mothman.

And at the same time,

the story was told from the
point of view of John Keel,

the guy who was there
investigating it,

and it focused so much on his
interaction

with the phenomenon and theway it affected him personally,

which I found fascinating.

- Well "The Mothman Prophecies"book didn't come together

until about 10 years after the
events.

He did do some, there was an
article

in "The Flying Saucer Review"
and I think "Saga Magazine"

where he did talk about it

and he talked about
certain elements of it.

Apparently his publisher told
him, he said, "Hey, look,

it's time we put together
a book on the Mothman."

So Keel talks about how he
got his tattered briefcase out

and went through all his notes
and articles and so forth

and kind of pieced together a
book.

- What was happening in Point
Pleasant

felt extremely personal.

And what was interesting to me

was this sort of interactive
nature

of his experience with the
phenomenon.

The more he studied it

and the more he tried
to really nail it down

and be totally objective,

the more the phenomenon seemed
to want to bring him on stage

as it were and make his
experience less objective

and more subjective and
that's exactly what happened.

[rain patters]
[foreboding music]

[bird calls]
[thunder crashes]

- In November of 1966,

Roger and Linda Scarberry
and Steve and Mary Mallette

had the first
regionally-reported encounter

with the Mothman.

The incident took place in an
area

frequently tied to Mothman lore,

an abandoned munitions facility

just outside of Point Pleasant.

The area was known as the
McClintic Wildlife Management
Area

or as locals referred to it, theTNT Area.

While the bizarre entity would
become known as the Mothman

a short time later,

it was initially referred to
as the Bird or the Birdman.

[entity laughs]

Its association with a known
avian animal

was based in part on the
creature's wings,

its ability to fly

and its occasional
comparison to a large owl.

In other words, many
encounters detailed a being

that looked and behaved like a
bird.

[entity caws]

Despite stranger features

described in later Mothman
reports,

the ID of a man-sized winged
creature

that descends from the sky

to terrify people when
they least expect it

is an ancient one and one foundworldwide.

- John Keel, his original title,

which never made it to press
obviously,

was the "Year of the Garuda."

He saw sort of a connection

with the Hindu mythology ofthe Garuda, this winged entity.

Of course he was knocked
down by the publisher.

- But the Garuda is in
multiple traditions.

In Hinduism, the Garuda
is a massive sun bird

that ultimately becomes
the vehicle, the mount,

for the god Vishnu.

It is depicted as some human
features,

sometimes two arms, sometimes
four arms,

but the body of an eagle,
massive wings as well.

- And you know,

when you read some aspects
of "The Mothman Prophecies,"

"The year of the Garuda was at
hand.

A shadow was passing over a
little town

I had never even heard of,Point Pleasant, West Virginia."

This winged apparition,
sometimes
winged-demon or whatever,

I think it just lends it to theidea

that whatever Mothman was,
it is kind of an archetype.

[haunting violin music]

- I remember back,

and it started out they
didn't even call it Mothman.

There for several months,
they called him Birdman.

I do remember that.

And then something went around

that it was a sandhill
crane, the rather large crane

that had red feathers around itseyes.

- The kind of explanations
that get talked about a lot,

one of them is a sandhill crane.

A friend of mine, Forrest
Burgess,

once said that, "The
sandhill crane is to Mothman

what swamp gas is to UFOs."

You know, it's the go-to
explanation

that makes absolutely no sense.

- Other people thought, youknow, well, maybe it was a bird,

but it was a mutated bird.

You know, the TNT Area,
the waste in the TNT Area

and the chemicals used in WorldWar II

contaminated the ground.

Which makes a perfect scenario
for a Boris Karloff movie.

- I know that back in the
'80s, that they came in

and it was an EPA disaster site

and they had to shave two or
three inches of top soil off

within an eight mile radius
just to clean the place up.

- But that was maybe a way
for a lot of those people

to validate, "Hey, yeah, it
was some sort of a monster

because it got into this toxic
waste

and it resembled a monster."

It scared people, you know,

and it's no secret that the
TNT Area was contaminated

with a lot of stuff.

[light haunting music]

- It's not a natural
creature to this area.

There wouldn't be anything
that would match that.

There's no birds that would
have wings anywhere close

to the size of Mothman,
you know, his wings.

- Yes, there are many
researchers

that look at the giant birds
as something very tangible.

There have been a sightings

that look like they were just
giant owls.

and the Mothman, it's seen
in the dark sometimes,

did look quite like kind of a
giant owl.

[owl hoots]

- It's common in folklore
for a screech owl.

In Welsh there's the Corpse
Bird.

It's a screech owl that
comes banging at the window

of someone who's ill or sick.

And then that motif follows
its way into Appalachia, too.

If you see or hear an owl

outside of your window
at night making a call,

it's a sign that someone's goingto die.

Likewise, if a bird flies in
your house,

that's really bad news.

Someone is probably going
to get hurt or die as well.

- The Native American of coursehave the Thunderbird legend,

which some people
associate with the Mothman,

I think maybe John Keel did
even.

- The Thunder Bird is a
Southwest tribal,

it is not Shawnee, it's
not Eastern Woodland.

So it is said that the
Mothman could be tied

to the Thunderbird, but wedidn't have a Thunderbird here.

[foreboding music]
[object crashes]

- Tom Ury, one of the Mothman
witnesses,

that's really what he
saw was a giant bird,

about a 10 to 12 foot wingspan.

I was able to talk to him one
on one about his experience.

In fact, Tom, for a while,

thought that the other
people like Linda Scarberry

and Marcella Bennett and so
forth,

saw the same thing he did,

but thought perhaps it was so
shocking

that they've maybe added the
details.

[feet stomping]

But the thing is about the
Mothman,

the Mothman was a paradox.

Some people got a pretty good
look at it,

and it was about seven feet,
tall, dark gray, or black,

about a 10 foot wingspan.

A 10 foot wingspan probably
isn't gonna lift something

that's seven foot tall.

Just biologically it didn'twork, but people kept seeing it.

[ominous music]

[birds cawing]

- While the 1980s were a dead
zone for Mothman research,

sightings of winged humanoids

and giant birds continued
around Appalachia.

In Northern Pennsylvania,

a string of reports of a
pterosaur-like creature

made regional headlines
during the early '80s.

Meanwhile, around Point
Pleasant and West Virginia,

the red-eyed creature
that dominated headlines

during the late 1960s had
faded into relative obscurity.

Despite the Mothman's lack of
popularity,

kids still warned one another

about venturing into
the TNT Area after dark.

Tales also circulated amongst
the locals,

such as one in which hunters

encountered a mysteriously largebird

in the early morning hours.

A group of teenagers even
claimed to have found a pile

of abnormally large feathers

in one of the abandoned TNT
bunkers.

As the years tick by,

the reality of what was
encountered began to fade

and was replaced by something
else,

a modern folktale in the making.

Still, an absence of evidence

doesn't necessarily indicate
evidence of absence,

as Leah Wilson discovered
in the summer of 1987.

- I was in Calhoun County, WestVirginia,

Leading Creek Road, it's
outside of Grantsville,

my aunt and uncle's old farm
house.

A few months before
that, like in the spring,

people were talkin' about,

like their chickens and
stuff coming up missing,

you know overnight.

But they would talk about weirdnoises,

but no one had ever talkedabout actually seein' anything.

The farmhouse, there's nothing
around it.

So there's no other residents
for like a half a mile

from the house that I was
stayin' in.

And it was probably 1987, '88,

somewhere around there,
summertime,

it was like two o'clock in the
morning,

I was just goin' to bed

from after watching movies and
stuff.

[voices murmuring]
[foreboding music]

And across the street from
the farmhouse is a holler

that goes up on the hill and
I started hearing this noise.

[creature screeches]

You could tell us some kind of,

I thought it was kind
of a bird-type thing.

I thought maybe it was
an owl or somethin',

but it just kept getting closerand closer

and louder and louder.

[creature screeches]

The only way I can describe
it is the Hollywood movies,

the pterodactyl noises, you
know,

that's the only way I can
describe it.

It was that loud and that
piercing and it kind of had,

I don't know, kind of a
giggling,

loud giggling noise to it, too.

I mean, it's really hard to
describe.

By the time I sat up
to look out the window,

'cause I thought whatever this
was

was gonna fly right into the
window,

the wingspan of this covered thewindows.

[spooky music]

And then when it got to
that part of the house

and went up over the house,
you actually could hear it.

You actually heard the whoosh
sound.

Again, not sure what I wasgonna do or what I'd just seen.

I turned around to the
back window of the bedroom

and you could see the shadow
of whatever this was flyin'

over the field to the back of
the house.

I've never heard anything like
that.

I have stayed at that country
house all my life, you know,

never heard it, never seen
it, anything like that again.

So not sure what it was,

but it was something that was
very large

and very loud and very fast.

'Cause that holler that it cameout

was probably about a mile long.

You know, I was the first one
on that Leading Creek Road

that actually seen somethin'.

[bird screeches]

- You know I think there
were things going on

all the way through the '80s and'90s.

It's real hard to validate
a lot of that stuff

because sometimes it
comes from other states,

but it's hard for me to pinpointand say,

that's exactly what they were
seeing here in 1966, '67.

[soft foreboding music]

- We had that other
sighting in Parkersburg

of the girl having seen it on
Quincy Hill.

She said when she was
in high school in 1987,

she and her boyfriend were
driving

to the top of Quincy Hill,

which is the highest
location in Parkersburg.

Something very similar,

they saw this huge creature
was walking across the street.

She said, it looked like
six-and-a-half-foot insect.

She said its knees were on
backwards,

you know like an insect's leg

[camera clicks]

and had these huge wings as
well.

But she said, the thing
that stood out to her was

this creature had a shuffling
gait,

like it was not used
to walking on its feet.

That told me she was tellin' thetruth

because I had read a lot
of the written accounts

down a Point Pleasant,

they all described the
Mothman as walking that way.

- In the early 1990s,

a Point Pleasant local named
Darren Hayes

encountered the Mothman in the
TNT Area.

While talking to Jeff Wamsley
in an interview for his book,

"Mothman, Behind the Red Eyes,"

Hayes recalled while
driving into the area,

a massive winged humanoid-bird
appeared above the car.

As Hayes stepped on the gas,

the creature made five or
six passes over the car

before the vehicle eventually
outran it

as the men headed back to PointPleasant.

[creature caws]
[air whooshes]

Darren's account wouldn't becomepublic

until the publication of
Wamsley's book

nearly a decade later.

The story illustrates

that the Mothman was still
making its presence felt.

Perhaps no one felt the
creature's presence more

than John Keel.

Despite living states away

and making an effort to distancehimself

from "The Mothman Prophecies,"

the author felt himself
pulled back to the story

over the years.

[birds chirping]
[somber music]

- People thought he had the
answers

because he had spent so
much time in Point Pleasant.

He stayed with Linda's family,
Linda Scarberry's family.

In "The Mothman Prophecies,"

it talks about how his
life became intertwined

with the people of the Ohio
Valley,

especially in Point Pleasant.

- Here's how it went.

When John Keel was there,

the entire town was sort of
haunted.

The people that he was
speaking to were very scared

about what was going on.

There seemed to be a general
understanding

that all of this was going
to lead to something bad,

at least that's certainly
what John Keel felt.

- He had proposed some
ideas for other books

that never came about.

He seemed to kind of move away
from it.

I remember hearing people
that interviewed him,

they want to talk about the
Mothman,

he would change the subject,

he would want to talk
about something else.

- Because he was solving his ownmystery

and he really wanted an answer.

And like most of us do
when we first get involved

in the paranormal,

we think, on a certain level,
we're gonna figure it out.

The experience typically
does not provide an answer

and it certainly didn't for JohnKeel.

- When people would ask
him, "What was the Mothman?

What was it all about?"

He'd have to be honest
and say he didn't know.

I mean, he didn't have the
answers.

He was someone that chronicled
the events.

A very important thing about
Keel,

he didn't reject stuff that
didn't fit a certain paradigm.

And that's how he became towrite books like "Trojan Horse,"

because he began to see
the interconnectedness

of all paranormal activity.

[soft brooding music]

[spooky music]

[birds cawing]

- So I grew up pretty much
right near the woodlot.

We were the last house actually,

before it turns into the woods

and you know, a very small area.

And there was a community area,

an old community area

and passed down, you
know, family to family,

one of those kind of deals.

I've been going over it in my
head

and this is pretty much how it
went.

We were comin' home, it
was either 1999 or 2000,

[engine roars]
We were comin' home

and it was late in the evening.

We're coming around the first
curve

and the first curve will be
near a graveyard actually,

it's an old family graveyard,
it's up on a hill there.

And as we go around the
curve, we slowed down

and the headlights hit
somethin' in the road.

What they hit was a form

and for a split second, I
thought, "Oh, it's a large
bird,"

and all that.

And then, we're sitting there
you know,

and this thing, whatever it was,

you notice really quickly it's
not a bird

because you can kinda
almost see through it.

It has this weird, not
translucent,

but almost like it was
phasing or shifting.

It kinda stands up a little bit

and puts out what I assume werewings,

I mean, arms somethin'

and they reached almost
to the sides of the road.

But with just one movement,
it shot straight up.

And as it's shootin'
straight up, you know,

we're sitting there and you
could hear it

and you can see it, too.

There were twigs fallin', you
know?

It made no sense.

The speed at which it
moved, I have no idea.

Now I never thought for one
second when this happened,

by the way, you know,

that was Mothman or that was
somethin'.

Nope, what I felt was
absolute, 100% fear, terror.

I hit the gas as hard as I
possibly could.

I don't think I ever got
that car to go as fast

as I did that night.

And it weird about that,

and I looked back at it to thisday,

but something said, "Get
out," and I got out.

[tires screeching]

Yeah, it was pretty scary.

[foreboding music]

But what is really weird about
the story

is not my sighting,

the part that gets me is,

where it happened is only about

just maybe a couple hundred
yards

from where my mom had a sighting

and that would have been in the'50s.

And her and four other people atthe time

had seen what they
described as a gray ghost.

They were walking along
the ridge line at the time.

They said that this gray thing
appeared near the graveyard

and

to them,

it just

went up in the air.

That was their words.
"It went up in the air."

I didn't even, you know,

we've heard that story so much
growin' up

and it's just like, you
know, it never really clicked

until that night I saw that
thing.

I'm like, "This is where they
saw it."

[spooky music]
[birds calling]

- From sandhill crane to
giant owl, to mythical birds,

during the 1960s and up until
the release

of John Keel's seminal book in
1975,

the most common theories as
to what the creature might be

all revolved around tangible
flesh and bone beings,

animals that either existed
within known science

or on its fringes.

Yet with the release of
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

something new is proposed.

Suddenly, the answers as
to what the entity might be

weren't being sought in
the pages of science,

but in the realms of physics.

As Keel put forth his own ideasabout alternate dimensions

and realities to explain the
Mothman,

similar theories were beingpresented for various phenomena.

Could the Mothman be a visitor

from another plane of existence,

one beyond our own?

If so, was there something
about Point Pleasant,

or even all of Appalachia,

that acted as a gateway
between these realities?

Legends suggest that Native
Americans

avoided much of the land
where West Virginia now sits,

leading to speculation

that the earth itself in
this place was cursed.

In later years, an unfounded
story

regarding a supposed curse
placed on Point Pleasant

began to circulate.

It involved the real life murder

of a Native chief named
Cornstalk.

Though likely having
little basis in reality,

it is possible that some kernelof truth

does exist in the story.

Perhaps the curse in question
was simply a word ascribed

to a location that seemed
to invite strangeness,

if not tragedy.

[animal whines]
[dark haunting music]

[creature calls]

[wings flapping]
[birds calling]

- What I have gathered

is that there are parts in the
Ohio Valley

that are kind of believed to becursed.

They're a land of the dead.

It was common for people
to be buried closer

to bodies of water.

That's where we find some of themounds.

It's a valley of the dead,

so I would think that
any place along a river

is kind of the same thing.

There's probably a lot of
burials there.

Different Native American
tribes believed so strongly

that they wouldn't come at
night.

They would not.

- There's a lot of people that
believed

the movement of water is
conducive

to helping to produce
some of this activity.

And yes, I find it easy to
believe

that there is something
about the confluence

of the rivers coming together.

There's even the lore
about crossroads, you know,

the Devil's Crossroads or
whatever,

and that's where Indrid Cold
was supposed to have shown up

along Route 77 there.

- That's common in a lot
of different cultures.

The idea that a river or a
confluence

of bodies of water is a
gateway somewhere, yes.

[somber ethereal music]

- Keel did not believe

that we were interacting
with extraterrestrials.

He called them
ultra-terrestrials.

In other words, something
that is earth bound,

some sort of phenomenon
that originates on earth

that we can sometimes
see and interact with.

And it might be from another
dimension,

or it might simply be a little
bit outside

our normal perceptual abilities.

- Keel used the term
ultra-terrestrial

and he revealed in later years,

he used it as a literary device.

Again, he wasn't really fixed

in his thinking about these
things.

It was really a term used to
suggest that these entities,

whatever they are, wherever
they actually come from,

may be a natural condition of
the planets,

suggesting that they're not
necessarily from off world

or are even necessarily
from another dimension.

- They're your radio
waves and ultraviolet rays

and various things that
exist and we know they exist,

but we can't see them.

But what if under somecircumstances we could see them,

what else would we see?

And I think his notion was that

what we might see is
Indrid Cold or the Mothman.

- So the idea would be

that perhaps we can't really
conceive of other dimensions

and these creatures or whatever,while they exist with us,

can hide or pass into
these other dimensions.

People will use the
term vortex or a portal

or a window area.

- I do know that in the
1980s and even before,

the TNT Area was a hub for a
lot of occult type activity,

you know, the activity in the
TNT Area for all those years.

Is it possible that maybe
somebody did something

to open up some kind of portal

to let some kind of activity in?

Why would it just choose Point
Pleasant?

Or there's all kinds of
questions

and even John Keel himself
thought

that there was some kind
of portal in the TNT Area.

And if you've ever been to the
TNT Area,

there very well could
be, you'd never know it,

if you believe in that kind
of thing because it's so vast.

[mysterious music]

I've talked to several people

that have seen hooded figures upthere.

When I was a kid,

there was a rumor going around

that the 13th gate to
hell was in the TNT area

and that's what I remember
about my childhood.

Kind of makes you want to stay
away.

My dad's sister, I'm gonna out
her,

but she snuck out in highschool with a bunch of friends,

went up to the TNT Area.

That's not unusual,

a lot of people used to
do that kind of thing.

Inside the igloos that are up
there,

there's like 100 of these
bunkers.

Well, there's just a few of
those that are open today,

but people like to go
up there and investigate

and all that kind of stuff.

Well, they had went into one

and said that there was all
these symbols

written all over the walls

and there was a table with a
outline

of a cat,

where somebody had sacrificed acat.

There was always stories
that, once a year,

that there was a large group ofoccultists

that would come and meet.

I know another girl that
was one of my neighbors

that lived up in that area

that said that she was
walking in the TNT Area

with her parents one day

and said that she'd looked over

and she'd seen this giant fire

and there was all these
people in these hoods

just like standing there aroundit.

And she said she freaked out andran off.

[frantic music]
[cat screaming]

- You know, some of the
people that encountered this,

you know, Mothman,
giant bird-type creature

that said it was more on a
supernatural type of basis.

They felt that what they were
seeing

was not a tangible thing they
could reach out and touch,

but it was more of a vision of
evil.

They said, you know,

"This wasn't an animal
or anything like that,

it was more of somethin'
that just popped up

and I couldn't explain it."

[ominous music]

I think there's a lot of
people that tend to think

that it was more of a
vision or a spiritual thing.

- Well I think the Mothman is
some kind

of an inter-dimensional being

and I think it's very
odd that he is described

as being a flesh and blood
creature.

Some people describe the wings
as looking like bat wings.

Some describe him as having
feathers.

He looked flesh and blood,

but yet his eyes looked
electrical.

I guess he could be from
either another planet

or another dimension that
sort of slipped through.

- There really is no
explanation as far as I know.

I don't know if there's aparticular unconscious archetype

that's being accessed.

I have a general theory of the
paranormal,

which is if it does exist,

if there is an exterior force atwork,

that it might be presenting
itself

as almost just as a sort of
incoet energy,

almost like snow on a TV.

And as people experience it,

whatever that energy is that
they're interacting with,

interacts with their mind

and as human beings we try
to unscramble the signal.

It's like a Rorschach test.

Here's this thing, but what do
you see?

Some people will see Mothman,

other people will maybe
see a dead relative,

other people will see aliens.

It's just sort of your mind
flipping through things,

trying to attach to something.

Maybe that exterior energy
is interacting with your mind

and helping you select
something that works for you

and then you move on to
phase two of the experience,

which is whatever the content
of the communication is.

- As decades passed,

the effects of the initial
events still lingered

with some of the original
witnesses.

Marcella Bennett and Linda
Scarberry were among those

who saw the Mothman for
themselves

during the 1966-67 wave of
sightings.

As time went on, their
recollections of who

or what the Mothman might have
been

couldn't have been further
apart.

[foreboding music]
[wings flapping]

Marcella Bennett encountered theMothman

outside the home of a
friend late one evening.

Her encounter took a turn for
the worst

when she dropped her infant
daughter

and fell on top of her in terror

as she claimed the Mothmanswooped toward them from above.

[baby cries]

Bennett, in later years,

would recall the creature
as looking every bit

like the devil himself.

Meanwhile, Linda Scarberry
would recount the being

in a way that painted it
in a sympathetic light,

as an entity lost in a
place it did not recognize

with no way to communicate
or relay a cry for help.

- After Linda Scarberry,

her initial sightings in '66,

you know for years after,
she told me and others that,

you know, weird things
happened in her house.

She always had this premonitionof somethin' watching her.

In later years,

she lived in the downtown
area in an apartment

above just a vacant building orwhatever.

- She said it was winter,

it was like really,
really cold, like January.

And she heard a thump
[object thumps]

and she had one of those roof
lines

like came right up to the
window, two story house.

And said she opened up
the window and she looked

and it was sittin' there.

And it was cold and it was
shivering.

and it had taken its wings
and wrapped around itself.

[wind howling]
[somber music]

- A few years after that,

I found the newspaper clipping

of a police officer in
Charleston, West Virginia,

who took a phone call from
someone

who was looking out their window

to the roof facade of their
house

and they described it the exactsame way.

And the police officer said,
you know, "What is it doing

and where's it at?"

And the person said,

"It's sitting on our roof, justright outside of our window

and I'm starin' at it."

[foreboding music]

- You know, is it possible thatLinda,

I mean she had a traumatic
experience,

is it possible some of this wasimagined?

I've spoken to Linda
Scarberry, very credible lady,

and I don't think she made up
any of this.

Even I would have to wonder,

if I had that original
experience

and then saw it again
afterwards, am I really seeing
it

or is it something, a sort of
artifact

of what happened before?

- I think even up to when she
passed away,

she was always very wary

of things around her.

You know, she seemed like she
was always on the lookout.

[ominous music]

[mysterious music]

- I would say I was
probably 10, 11 at the time

and the holler that we lived in,

like the last street light was
probably,

I'd say 100 feet away
from where the house was

that I saw the Mothman.

[crickets chirping]
[foreboding music]

I knew to be home before
dark, but I wasn't.

So when I was pushin' my
bike up to the holler,

the asphalt ended, the gravel
started,

that's where that house was.

The house was abandoned.

The guy that lived there, he
got killed in the coal mines.

And I happened to hear a noise

and I just happened to look over

and I seen somethin' standing
doorway and it had red eyes.

[creature moans]

It was really tall.

I really remember the eyes,

like the reddest red you'd eversee.

He was at least seven foot tall.

[grasses rustling]

So I started cryin' and I
felt like I stood there cryin'

and lookin' at it for
like at least 15 minutes.

And here come my brother's
friend, actually,

out of the holler and he'd seenit, too.

He picked up a rock, threw it atit

[rock whooshes]
and it just kind of vanished.

[ominous music]

I would say probably, maybe a
year later,

that me and one of my
buddies went in that house

we went in the basement part

and there was these weird
footprints.

It looked like they was
burnt into the concrete.

The best I can describe
it, they was in a Y shape

and like, they had blackaround them, like they got hot.

[foreboding music]

Yeah, I've thought about it fora lot,

I never really did go out
into the bottom by myself,

I was always home before dark
after that.

I was scared of that house

and finally, when they tore
it down, I was pretty happy.

If somebody talks about the
Mothman,

I'll tell my story, you know?

I always tell everybody,
"Hey, I've seen that thing."

[mysterious music]

- If the 1980s and '90s were
a down time regarding Mothman,

then the 2000s were to be the
creature's come-back tour.

In the year 2000, Jeff Wamsley

and fellow Mothman
enthusiast, Donnie Sergeant,

started a website dedicated to
tracking the Mothman legend,

called "Mothman Lives."

The website served to answer
questions

regarding the initial
wave of Mothman sightings

and was as much about promotingthe town and the TNT Area

as it was the creature.

However, the Mothman's
popularity

was just beginning to grow.

In 2002, a feature film
adaptation

of "The Mothman Prophecies"
would see

a successful theatrical
launch in North America.

While the movie would bolster
the title character's stardom,

it would also serve to
enhance ongoing reports

of its presence.

- When I read the book,
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

I immediately knew that it
was addressing something

that had been brewing inside
me for a while, which was,

is there a way to write a movie

in which someone
experiences the paranormal,

but does not come away
solving a mystery or a crime?

Where they are left as
destabilized, to a certain
degree,

as real people are

when they typically
experienced the paranormal.

The arc of John Keel's
experience

and his trying to make senseof the events in Point Pleasant

and ultimately not being able
to,

and then having to
simply take a step back,

accept that there are things
he's not ever going to be able

to totally understand,

and then go on with the rest ofhis life,

which is essentially what he
did.

- When Keel first found
out about the screenplay

for the film that was actually
made, he was actually giddy.

He had held off for a long time.

He felt that finally somebody
was kind of getting the,

sort of the underlying ideas orthemes

of "The Mothman Prophecies."

- I mean it was not a huge hit
when it came out by any means

and yet I do hear from
people who have seen it

and the ones who saw it

and

"liked it,"

They had a reaction to it.

The reaction, the one
I hear most often is,

"That was so scary and
I don't even know why."

- Following the release of
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

Point Pleasant found itself at
the center

of a second wave of Mothman
sightings.

As new encounters

with Appalachia's infamous
legend came to light,

Jeff Wamsley set aboutdocumenting as much information

about the 1966 and '67
sightings as possible.

He interviewed witnesses and
unraveled long-buried accounts

for publication in two books
he would eventually publish,

"Mothman, The Facts Behind the
Legend,"

and "Behind the Red Eyes."

He also compiled physical
artifacts relating to the
Mothman

and in 2005, he opened his
collection to the public

inside the walls of what
would auspiciously become

the world's only Mothman Museum.

[haunting music]

Meanwhile, the TNT Area itself

became a hub of activity once
again,

whether through chance

or due to the new found
attention brought on

by the release of the film.

In 2001, a paramedic driving

along the Kanawha River near
Leon

sighted a large winged creature

following the path of the water.

[wind whistling]
[mysterious music]

Four years later, a structural
engineer saw a creature

he described as having no arms,

but wings that bent and folded
inward

with a gray skin stretched overthe bone.

He claimed the creature
attempted

to communicate telepathically
with him

before taking to the sky at
a speed he estimated to be

over 50 miles per hour.

Hunter Bellamy, a Point Pleasantlocal,

recalled seeing red eyes in a
tree

as he drove within the TNT Area.

Eventually, a shadowy being
could be seen

as it took to the skies.

Two reports from hunters came in

during the years of 2009 and
2013.

They both claimed to have seen
a creature in the TNT Area.

In one case, it was
spotted directly behind

one of the abandoned munitions
bunkers.

As the 2000s ticked by,

a new element was added
to the Mothman lore,

one that was as rooted in
the original 1960 sightings

as it was in the current
activity.

A piece of the legend that had
been added

by none other than John Keel.

[somber music]
[clock chimes]

[air whooshes]

[clock chimes]

- There's the idea that
Mothman was a harbinger

and that it culminated

with the collapse of the SilverBridge in December of '67.

- Over the years, you
know, the Mothman sightings

and the Mothman activity has
brought up the subject of,

was it a harbinger of doom?

Was it here to warn people of
the Silver Bridge collapse?

Honestly, a lot of the people,
you know,

when the bridge fell,

nobody really talked
about that a whole lot.

They were shocked the
bridge had collapsed,

but then, you know, the
movies were comin' out,

John Keel's book

and different little things
were poppin' up sayin',

hey, you know, every time
somethin' bad happens,

you know, there's a
sighting of this creature.

- The idea that it was a
harbinger of doom

was sort of baked into the book.

And then as I was
adapting it for the movie,

that also seemed a link I wantedto make,

that there was, you know,
I mean, obviously that

that sort of gives the story
the propulsion that it had,

the feeling that all of thisstuff was leading to something.

- Because of circumstantial
events that happened,

Mothman has been kind of labeledas this harbinger of doom.

You know, he's been allegedly
sighted

before Chernobyl happened
and I've heard 9/11,

[creature moans]
[static hisses]

you know, and of course
that here in Point Pleasant

before the bridge collapsed.

- I've talked to some of
the original witnesses

and some of them firmly
believe that that's true.

Some people believe that
it created the disaster.

Others say, no, it just
coincided with it.

- The notion that the Mothman isseen

at the site of later
disasters is something

that I'm pretty sure I made up.

But again, because it was
part of the original story,

it felt like let's
extrapolate this outward.

I almost get the feeling
that once it was suggested

in the movie that people had
seen the Mothman at Chernobyl,

I think it became sort
of part of urban legend

because then I began to hear

that story being reported
back to me from other sources.

- People will compare it to,

obviously the banshee wailing
before someone's about to die

and there are several
traditions like that.

- The banshees are part of Irishfolklore.

They're women that
appear and scream, weep,

whenever someone,

that is part of the familyline that they're connected to,

is doomed to die.

It's kind of not the thing
that you want to hear.

- A banshee is an
Irish-Scottish death fairy.

And even though she
does not cause a death,

she will announce the death

with her high-pitched wailing
cries.

And we've got a banshee
in the Parkersburg area

called the Banshee of Marrtown

and I consider that folklore ofcourse.

Something happened, it's
been added onto over time,

but it's interesting that
she does have red eyes

and she is a harbinger of doom,

they say much like the Mothman.

[wind howls]

- The key to the Mothman's
origins may be found

in the Native American or
Scotch-Irish oral traditions

of those that first inhabited
Appalachia.

Stories of banshees, enormous
owls,

and even the Garuda all
have ancient origins.

Passed from generation to
generation,

these tales bear a startling
similarity to one another.

Their central character arrives,

carried on the wind by its
wings to offer a warning,

a warning of death,
destruction and tragedy.

Behind the red eyes of a new
figure, like the Mothman,

might lie an ancient secret,

one which can still be found
today,

though seeking it might be the
last thing we should attempt.

[haunting music]

- Well, five years ago,

my dad was diagnosed with heart
disease

and was goin' through heart
failure.

Then finally, the doctors got
him stable.

It went on and then this year,
Father's Day of this year,

we all went to the mountains.

The following weekend, he callsme

and said, "Hey, I've fallin'
and I can't get back up."

So I go to his house and he
was unable to feel his legs.

He spent some time in the
hospital.

He didn't want nothin' else
to do with the hospital,

so we brought him home.

We had to have two people
with him at all times.

I was there most days and
I was actually sleeping

on the dining room
floor on an air mattress

and my brother was sleeping

on the couch beside the hospitalbed.

As a laid on the mattress, I'd
dozed off,

I immediately started
feeling like I was dreaming.

[wings whapping]
[ethereal music]

I had a dream that my son
was standin' beside my bed.

- Daddy.

- There beside the bed

and I remember in the
dream asking him, you know,

why he was there, who brought
him there

and how'd he get there.

And I guess I had enough
consciousness to know

he shouldn't be there.

So I immediately woke up

and when I did there was this,

the figure standing beside
the bed had long arms,

skinny, like fingers, skinny
arms,

skinny legs with kind
of bulky lookin' feet,

wings above his shoulders and
its face,

I could see like dark largecircles where its eyes would be.

I stared at it for
probably five seconds or so

and then it just,

I don't want to say walk
'cause it didn't walk,

it glided quickly across
the top of my feet

and into another room.

[mysterious music]
[object rustling]

I laid there for a second,

tryin' to figure out what I wasseein'.

I got up later that morning,

Dad was doin' pretty good.

Sat there with him with my
brother.

We got up early on the 14th,

or about nine o'clock on the
14th,

hospice called and said they
were comin'.

I said, "Okay, he's not doin' sowell.

I'll see you in a little bit."

As soon as I hung up the phone,

I noticed him gaspin' for air.

I went in, helped him lay down
on his bed,

held his hand and he passed
away.

So
[somber music]

that's when I, you know,

we called everybody and
my brothers come over.

I would draw all this,

I kept drawin' this figure thatI'd seen.

I couldn't figure out
what it was, you know,

or I was tryin' to figure out itwas

and drawin' it was kind of
helping me

trying to figure it out, I
guess.

We're sitting at the
table, my brothers and I,

and I explained to 'em what I
saw

and my middle brother looks at
me

and goes, "Do you remember whatdad told us five years ago?

You know when he was going
through heart failure

the first time?"

[pencil scratching]

And it was a dark figure
stood in a corner.

[thunder rumbling]
[foreboding music]

- The Mothman and other
strange winged creatures

are still seen around Appalachiatoday.

Jeff Wamsley's Mothman Museum
continues

to document the original
rash of sightings,

as well as the more modern day
accounts.

John Keel passed away in 2009,

but not before he finally made areturn

to the town of Point Pleasant,

where he was able to see what
had become

of one of the more prominent
pieces of his legacy.

- I think John Keel was very
pleased

with what Jeff had done.

He had seen the original
incarnation of the museum.

It's there because of him,
because of his efforts.

Something he did years ago is
finally coming to fruition.

So I think that he was very
pleased.

He warned the people of
Point Pleasant early on

about this idea that this
is folklore in the making

and this little town may
not be prepared for it.

And he gave the warning
again when the film came out,

to just a small town of
just several thousand,

and the film may be bringing
a lot more people in droves

than they're used to.

[water rushing]

- It is a very personal movie tome,

but what's odd about it

is that I have never experiencedanything.

I've never seen a UFO,
I've never seen a ghost,

I've never had a weird phone
call, I mean, none of it.

When I talk about the
supernatural,

I say, "You've got the
Mozarts and the Salieris.

You know, the guys who
actually experience it

and the guys that wish
they could, but haven't

and can only stare at those

who have seen behind the veil ofreality

and look upon them with envy."

And I used to look upon them
with envy and I used to think,

"Wow, as soon as have a
few bucks in my pocket,

I'm gonna give it all,
you know, get out of LA,

go investigate the hauntedhouses and the haunted places,"

and now I don't feel
that way anymore at all.

I say, let the Mozart's
deal with their experiences,

I'm happy to be a Salieri.

- Like Keel, Jeff Wamsley's
research continues

to keep Point Pleasant on
the international stage.

Thousands attend the
Mothman Festival each year,

making it one of the
two best attended events

in the state of West Virginia.

The museum, meanwhile,

continues to grow,
attracting scores of people

to a town they might
never have even heard of

were it not for the Mothman.

The museum acts as a sort of
living story,

part of a tradition of
storytelling come to life

that is rooted in the cultural
heritage of the region.

A tradition that stretches
back far beyond North America

and helps to highlight today,

this lone page among the
centuries of Appalachian
history.

- What Jeff did was he went back

and he interviewed some
of the original witnesses.

And the thing is that it had
been, at that point in time,

it had been 35, 40 years after
the events

and he corrected some of the
things

that were not quite right
in "The Mothman Prophecies."

That was so, so valuable.

[bright hopeful music]

- Dad's legacy, [sighs]

I just, I would say it's gotta
be Mothman.

I mean, it is bigger than that
though.

Whether locals or whatever
want to admit it or not,

Mothman has really reversed
a lot of the negative stuff

of Point Pleasant.

What I mean is lack of business,

lack of interest, lack of
opportunity.

It's kind of just blossomed overtime.

That in itself is major.

- I'm a grandfather now,
so I think, you know,

if I left a legacy, it would be,

be motivated, go out
and chase your dreams.

I mean, you know, I've
done that all my life

and some have come true
and some you know have not.

But you know, be creative
and be nice to other people.

That's probably the
bottom line is, you know,

be nice to other people.

I learned that from my parents
though.

Well, my daughter, Ashley, you
know,

from a young age was brought
up a lot differently probably

than most kids.

I always tell her, I'll say, youknow,

"I'm retirin' here in a
year, you can have all this

and take care of all the museum

and the festival and all that,"you know.

[light uplifting music]

- It's very important to hold
onto these old tales, legends.

I think Mothman has kinda movedinto the area of folklore,

where people are continuing
to add to the story.

The folktales tell us who we
are.

It helps us remember who we are.

It helps us remember those
Celtic roots,

those Native American roots,
so we know who we are.

And really, that's an importantthing for every person

is to know who you are, to
know what your talents are.

That's very important

and I think it's a good reason
to remember these stories.

[crickets chirping]

[water splashes]
[dark foreboding music]

- Fear is a funny thing.

In the end, it's part of our
life.

You can't outrun it or hide fromit.

All we can do is name it,
embrace it and learn from it.

Maybe the true power of an
event isn't fully realized

until it's retold.

Until we can put into
words our own experiences

and share them with others.

What we share might be laughteror tears, joy or sorrow.

Occasionally though,

it's something more,
something primal and ageless.

[suspenseful music]

Sometimes what we share is
nothing more than our fear,

but at least for a moment, we
are together

in the dark.

[ominous music]

[thunder crashes]

[soft haunting music]

[gentle flute music]

[somber violin music]

[soft haunting music]

[light foreboding music]

[bright hopeful music]

[somber music]

[light foreboding music]