November 15, 1966. Two young couples encounter a seven-foot creature with glowing red eyes and ten-foot wings at an abandoned TNT plant in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Over the next thirteen months, more than one hundred witnesses report seeing the same impossible entity. Then, on December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapses during rush hour, killing forty-six people. The sightings stop.

Was the Mothman a harbinger of disaster? A misidentified sandhill crane? Mass psychogenic illness consuming a stressed Cold War community? Or something that doesn't fit any category we have words for?

Kathryn and Gabriel investigate the original witness testimonies, the strange Men in Black who visited journalist Mary Hyre's office, the telepathic alien Indrid Cold who stopped sewing machine salesman Woodrow Derenberger on Interstate 77, and the engineering failure that brought down America's deadliest bridge collapse. They examine theories from mass hysteria to interdimensional incursion, exploring why traumatized witnesses never recanted their stories and what it means that Point Pleasant transformed their terror into a annual festival.

This episode covers the psychology of collective fear, Carl Jung's archetypal winged figures, stress corrosion cracking in eyebar suspension bridges, and why paranormal investigator John Keel arrived a skeptical journalist but left believing in ultraterrestrials. We discuss the two bodies never recovered from the Ohio River, the curse of Chief Cornstalk that never actually happened, and whether a twelve-foot stainless steel statue represents healing or exploitation of tragedy.

SOURCES:

Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. New York: Tor Books, 1975.

Sergent Jr., Donnie, and Jeff Wamsley. Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend. Point Pleasant, WV: Mothman Lives Publishing, 2002.

Derenberger, Woodrow W., and Harold W. Hubbard. Visitor from Lanulos. New York: Vantage Press, 1971.

National Transportation Safety Board. Collapse of U.S. 35 Highway Bridge, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, December 15, 1967. Highway Accident Report NTSB-HAR-71-1. Washington, DC: NTSB, 1971.

Bartholomew, Robert E., and Hilary Evans. Panic Attacks: Media Manipulation and Mass Delusion. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004.

Point Pleasant Register, November 16-December 31, 1966 (Mary Hyre columns and news coverage).

Athens Messenger, November 1966-February 1970 (Mary Hyre's "Where the Waters Mingle" column).

Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966 ("Bird, Plane, or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man'").

FBI Case Files on Point Pleasant UFO and Mothman sightings, 1966-1967.

DISCLAIMER:

This podcast discusses a bridge collapse that killed forty-six people, psychological trauma experienced by witnesses, and theories involving mass psychogenic illness. While we approach the Mothman phenomenon with both skeptical and believer perspectives, we maintain respect for the victims of the Silver Bridge disaster and the genuine fear experienced by witnesses. Content includes references to Cold War anxiety, infrastructure

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