Ep. 63: The Mothman - Terror in Point Pleasant

In November of 1966, a small town in West Virginia became the center of one of the most infamous paranormal legends in American history.

Witnesses described a towering winged figure with glowing red eyes lurking near the abandoned TNT area outside Point Pleasant. Some believed it was a bird. Others believed it was something far more sinister.

But after the devastating collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967 claimed the lives of 46 people, the sightings took on a darker meaning. Many began to wonder if the creature wasn’t just being seen…

but warning them.

In this episode of Veil of Echoes, we explore the original sightings, eyewitness encounters, theories surrounding the creature, the connection to the Silver Bridge disaster, and why the legend of the Mothman continues to haunt people nearly sixty years later.

Was it folklore?
 Mass hysteria?
 A misidentified animal?

Or something watching from the darkness long before tragedy struck?

🎧 Listener discretion is advised.

SHOW NOTES

Sources

•  The Point Pleasant Register archives 
•  “The Mothman Prophecies” by John Keel 
•  Smithsonian Magazine 
•  History.com 
•  West Virginia Encyclopedia 
•  Small Town Monsters documentaries 
•  WOWK 13 News coverage 
•  Interviews and eyewitness accounts from Point Pleasant witnesses 

Audio Credits

•  WOWK 13 News segment covering the Mothman Festival 
•  Eyewitness interview clip featuring Faye DeWitt Leport recounting her childhood Mothman encounter 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Beneath the ordinary world lies a veil, and behind it, the voices of the lost still whisper.

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We are your guides into the shadows, where true crime meets the paranormal.

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From chilling crimes to haunted histories, we uncover the stories that refuse to rest. This is Vale of Echoes.

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It's late, cold enough that the fog hangs low across the road. You're driving through Point Pleasant, West Virginia. No cars behind you, no headlights ahead. Just the sound of your tires. And the occasional flicker of dying streetlights. At first, you don't notice it. Because it's standing perfectly still. Near the trees. Too tall to be a person. Too dark to fully make out. And for one second, your brain tries to convince you it's nothing.

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Until the eyes open.

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Two glowing red eyes. Reflecting back at you from the dark. Not animal eyes. Something else.

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And then it moves. Not running. Not stumbling out of the woods.

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Its wings stretch outward, far too large, far too unnatural. Before it lifts into the air without a sound.

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And somehow, even before it gets close, you already know you shouldn't be seeing it.

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Because the stories always begin the same way. A lonely road. And two red eyes waiting in the dark. An omen.

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A creature.

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Or something far worse. And not long after the sightings began, people started dying.

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This is episode 63. The Mothman.

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Welcome to Vale of Echoes, a cinematic immersive experience where true crime and the unexplained collide. Because not everything can be explained. And not everything stays buried. Some stories don't end, but they linger, they watch, and they echo.

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Every legend starts somewhere. A sighting, a whisper, a story people try to explain away. Until more people see it too.

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And sometimes the fear doesn't come from what people saw. It comes from what happened afterward.

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Because for over fifty years, people have asked the same question. Was the Mothman just an urban legend? Or was it a warning? We're your host, I'm Lindsay.

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I'm Zach.

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And I'm Bria. Before we begin, this episode contains themes of death, disaster, and unsettling encounters. Listener discretion is advised.

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If you enjoy immersive true crime and paranormal storytelling, make sure you're following Veil of Echoes on your favorite podcast platform.

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Leaving a rating or a written review really helps our stories reach more listeners. And we truly appreciate all of your support.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

And as we move through May, we're officially preparing for our very first monthly giveaway.

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At the end of this month, we'll be choosing our first winners.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

The giveaway packages should be shipping during the first part of June, and we honestly cannot wait for you guys to see everything we've been putting together.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yeah, that's really cool. And I'm I'm jealous. Yeah. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Like I would love to receive something like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

I mean, you should just keep a little bit of each of them.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Well, I know, but still it's probably put together. It's pretty cool. Like if I was someone who just ran, I'd be like, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

It stays with the aesthetic too. It's a it's a f it'll feel like a Veil of Echoes box.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yes, like a seance.

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And pretty much be able to have one.

unknown 4:41

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

And by the end of this month, we'll also officially be choosing our listener name.

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Right now, Veil Walkers has definitely been one of the favorites.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

But we'll be putting up polls on TikTok and Instagram soon, so you guys can help decide what officially becomes part of the Veil of Echoes universe. That's so cool. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

So cool. And this summer we'll also be launching something new. A place for your stories. And we're calling it Echoes from the Veil.

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If you've experienced something unexplainable, paranormal, or something that stayed with you.

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We want to hear it. You can send your experiences to us through our socials or email us directly at Veil of Echoes Podcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

We'll be featuring some of your stories in future episodes.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah, it's exciting. And tonight's story is one of the most infamous paranormal legends in American history.

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A creature with glowing red eyes.

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Sightings that terrified an entire town.

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And a disaster that made people wonder if it was trying to warn them all along. Long before the Mothman became part of American folklore, before the documentaries, the books, the festivals, there was just a small town in West Virginia. Point Pleasant. A quiet river town near the Ohio border.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

And in November of 1966, something there began terrifying people. Not all at once. At first, just whispers. A strange figure near the old TNT area. Red eyes in the dark. Something moving through the trees at night.

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The sighting centered around an abandoned World War II munition site. Known locally as the TNT area. A remote stretch of land filled with old storage bunkers. Overgrown roads and dense woods.

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The kind of place that already feels unsettling during the day, but at night completely isolated.

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And on November 15th, 1966, that's where the first major sighting happened.

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Two young couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Millette were driving near the TNT area late that night when they noticed something standing near the road. At first, they thought it was a man until it moved.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

According to their reports, the creature was massive. Roughly seven feet tall, dark in color, but with glowing red eyes.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Linda Scarberry later described it as a slender, muscular figure with wings folded behind it. But she said the eyes were what disturbed her the most. Almost hypnotic. Like she couldn't fully look away.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Panicked, the couple sped away. But according to them, the creature followed.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

I'm just either seeing Jeepers creepers in my mind or like a huge ass fly. I'm seeing Jeepers Creepers. The red eyes is like gr the what Jeepers Creepers. Courage the Cowardly Dog, wouldn't they? The fly villain on there. Maybe that's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah, he is pretty gross.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

I love that show. Courage the Cowardly Dog. Courage the Fly is a season two episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. Where D-Lung turns courage into a fly. Courage as a small fly must save the farmhouse from a falling top secret government satellite that he overhears is targeting their home.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

See, or maybe it was a different bug. There is a bug.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

No, it's Was it the fly? There is a different episode. It's a giant fly, and he like sucks Eustace and Muriel pretty much to like skeletons because he feeds off of them.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Yes. That how can you remember the name of that one?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I don't know the name of the episodes, but I just remember the case.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

I love courage. I want to watch that now.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Cause I mean, that one time I had sleep paralysis, all I could see is a fucking butcher from there's a haircutting guy from the Fred. Yeah, and it gave me nightmares for days.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Ha ha ha ha found it. What was it? What is it? The gentleman bug. Ew, let me see it.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah, because he was like trying to cure them of they thought they had a sickness.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

That's what I think of. That's what I'm thinking of. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Just give that bigger moth wings.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

The gentleman bug encouraged a cowardly dog is named Jeevus Weevil. A refined British accented human-sized bull weevil.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

He was always so polite when he didn't. Yeah. And he was still crabbing. For no reason.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

And when I'm just thinking of that episode, the butt the not the butcher, he was the hairdresser. Close enough.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

But yeah, that was my bad. Didn't mean to call him a butcher. I said meant to say barber.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Close enough, though. But uh, because Eustace just locks him in there.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, and then he has to go to the store to get fucking tools, and he's like out eating at the beach, watching a movie. Curr just stuck in there with a psychopath, and he's just like, heh.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Wasn't Muriel's uh nephew?

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

That's what he said, didn't we? I think Muriel and Eustace just had dementia, and all these people were taking advantage of him.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Especially that one guy that came and slapped him with a fish and used to call him Uncle Twinkle Toes.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

That show's so bizarre, man.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Very bizarre.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Or the the banana town.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah, that was weird. They like ended up in the future.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

And it was just a bunch of apes eating these fucking banana people. And it's pretty much just a symbiote of fish. Just symbolism of how our government's treating us.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Return the slab.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

That I have no idea the message behind that one. I ain't gonna. You can't have it.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Money.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

He was always talking about his brother. He's like, he's not getting it. His mom was just as bald as him and just as mean.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Yeah. They treated courage so wrong. I know, besides poor Muriel.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

I know, and he's still Sabusis. That would have been a good one.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

I know, he still did it because Muriel loved him. Anyways, Marie.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

They later claimed it made a screeching sound. And chased them all the way to Point Pleasant city limits. I really want to know. Like, when they say screeching sound, do they mean like I mean I'd be driving away to kinda like the sounds that I make to scare your children. Oh my god, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Um, it'd be Oh shit. All the different creatures I came across in the nighttime, you just you'd be like, so many different things can make better.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

The creeper didn't really make sounds, did he? He just made I thought he made There's fucking frogs out there that screech weird, and you're like, where he was sniffing, and he however many notes holding it. It was the paper's papers too.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

He was chasing down the football team on the bus and he flew up to the window and he's like licking the window. I'm like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

The first one was sick.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

They should have used the second one was good too.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

The third one I can't really I don't really recall much from.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

They should have just stopped after the second one. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Wrong turn four was brutal.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Yeah, but if you didn't watch that one where they were doing each other well, well, good. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 13:15

I don't need to watch no fucking hillbilly incest shit going on. I already watched them eat people, that's enough.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

That's one of the reasons why I didn't care for the Hills have I've got to be.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

I remember we the first night we watched Wrong Turn Four. I think I just got done eating Fazolis, and we were watching a part where he was like chopping them up and then fucking I was like, I just threw up.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

I was like, was it it all came up at once?

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It's like I probably should have waited a little bit. The next day, local newspapers published the story, and almost immediately, more sightings started coming in.

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Volunteer firemen described a giant bird with glowing red eyes. Other witnesses reported strange noises, large wings, and the feeling that something was watching them from the trees.

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And suddenly, what sounded impossible was no longer just one story. It was becoming a pattern.

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Because once people heard about it, they started seeing it too.

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And over the next thirteen months, uh the sightings would only get stranger.

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After the first reports hit the newspapers, fear spread quickly through Point Pleasant. People started locking their doors earlier, avoiding the TNT area at night, and paying closer attention to what might be standing just beyond the tree line.

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Because the more stories came in, the harder it became to dismiss them all as a coincidence. Witnesses who had never met each other were describing almost the exact same thing. But an owl?

SPEAKER_02 14:53

There's your mothman.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

An owl.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

That's an almost four foot owl.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

That most of them are blacker than that at night. He's a little more brown, but they usually come in that very Well, like look at that picture to you right to your right.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Which one? Um All these ones, like that one that you just had your finger on, he's pretty dark, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Especially at night time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

And his eyes are like, look at that.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Oh, yeah, they are red.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah, like they're not.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Who, motherfuckers?

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Day or night, those bitches are red.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

But the only issue is I don't think they're in point place. Pleasant.

SPEAKER_04 15:32

Well, it's kind of like the owl that I was holding when I worked at Family Pet. This thing fucking looked at me with like fire orange eyes, and I'm just like, if I saw that in the fucking middle of the night, I'd be fucking gone. Ugh. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

See, I think Vale should be an owl and Echo should be Echo should be the crow.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Mascots. I mean, right now I think Siri for that same reason.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

I think Vale because they can see better.

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

And then Echo because they mimic more.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

But do Alright, I'll give my permit to own some exotics. Do crows get along with other birds though?

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Would they get along with an owl? I mean, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

They're not gonna be in the same like cage or anything.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

I would that's why I love Gemma off of um, she had pet crows, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Ravens off of Sudden Man or Riddin through this world.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

She had pet No. Gemma, she had a cockatiel. She had ravens though.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Was that her or was that Clay? Clay. Maybe Clay they had Because one of them had I think it was in his room that he had the birds.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

So I remember that she had the cockatiel because they would talk about how when they were going to Belfast.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yeah. In later seasons, Gemma Moro keeps cage crows, symbolizing her need for control manipulation and the dark ominous nature of the clock.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

I don't remember the crows. Is that before she got with uh the Spanish guy that drove the blue row rider?

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yeah, she had peppers. When does she have the crows? Later seasons.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

I'm about to say it was like the last two or three seasons. She didn't have them the whole time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Yeah, they were in later seasons.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I just remember in the It was getting closer to when her and Clay were starting to split, and Clay was getting his tats blacked out. His tattooed.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

And in her room, there was a scene where she had.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

She was covered in the map or something.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

I'm gonna have to rewatch the list. Because I don't remember the crows, I remember the cockatiel. Yeah. Only because I remember when they were going to Belfast, Clay handed the cage over to Filthy Field.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

The other guy in the later season.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

Uh what was his name?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

I don't remember his name either, but it was it wasn't too long before Jax walked her out to the fucking garden.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Yeah, this guy, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Yep. I forgot what else he played in, I liked him in. There's a few other things he was in. But yeah, he kinda came out of nowhere because he didn't show up till like season four season five.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Nero, that's right. Nero.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Yeah, because of that name. That's the same guy off of fucking Devil May Cry four.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

But yeah, she had um Yeah. In the later seasons.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

No, I just thought it was really sad though that Uncer went to protect her and Jax was like, ha! Fuck you.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Yep, everybody got it.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

I mean, seriously, everybody like You crossed the wrong sun. Which reminds me. On our way in, when we were going to Feloney's yesterday, we got on 67. We're in the right-hand lane, and here comes this motorcycle coming up next to us. And the guy's got a cut on. And I thought it was an Anvet cut, and I looked at it again. It was a Hells Angels cut. Oh. I looked at Caleb, I said, stay away. I said, because you can you could veer into their lane and they could think that it's they couldn't be impersonating a Hells Angels. If if they're impersonating a Hells Angel, they're they better watch the fuck out. They better make sure that they know their shit if they're impersonating, because them motherfuckers, they don't they don't joke around. No, they don't. Like, I don't think just like if you label an MC as a gang, no, they're not a gang. They are strictly an MC. It is never considered a gang.

unknown 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, all their legal activities aren't considered gang activities.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

Motorcycle clubs scare the shit out of me. Oh yeah. Especially after learning that a lot of the the crew on Sons of Anarchy would hang out with a lot of the Hells Angels and they described, you know, some stuff that they were told. Them motherfuckers are fucking.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Well, I mean, isn't that depicted of real motorcycle gang? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

Like everything they did in there. So I I mean seriously. If you if you were kicked out of the club, you only had so long to get your tattoos blacked out. And they they showed it in the first season with that um guy that ratted on Opie. If you don't have that stuff blacked out, they burn it off, they cut it off, or they use acid on you. Them people are nothing to fuck around with.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

No, I agree. Hell no.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

But Sons of Anarchy is a very good show.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

No, it is. It's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Most sightings described a creature between six and seven feet tall, with massive wings stretching outward from its back. Some witnesses said that its wingspan was close to ten feet.

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Its body was usually described as dark grey or completely black. Humanoid, but not fully human.

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And almost every account focused on the ice. Bright red, reflective, glowing in the darkness like bicycle reflectors caught in the headlights.

SPEAKER_05 21:07

It was a red like you've never seen before. It was like lit up, but it wasn't lit up by any light or anything. You never forgot those eyes, and that that's why I remember most of all those eyes that were slanted.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Over the next several days, more and more reports surfaced. Two volunteer firemen claimed they saw a giant bird with red eyes.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

A local contractor named Newell Petridge reported strange buzzing sounds coming from his television before spotting glowing eyes in a nearby field.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

Shortly afterward, his German shepherd disappeared. Okay. What? That's depressing. Stop. Sorry, Lindsay, I cut you off, but that's depressing. And he believed the creature was responsible. You're gonna die. You gonna die. Poor German Shepherd. You gonna die. I'm gonna find me I'm I'm gonna find me a fully automatic rifle and I'm gonna I'm coming for you, bitch. You better watch out.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

I remember my first interaction with a German Shepherd was Ron's sister's dog. And his name was Lucifer. Of course. And he only liked two people.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Yeah, because they probably taught him that. One of the girls I went to high school, well, elementary, middle school, and high school with. Her dad used to be a police officer, I think for DeSoto, and he had a canine German Shepherd, and that thing had to be kept out in its cage in their garage to ease. Because he was so mean. You would walk by his cage and he would try to jump through the c like he was mean. I remember walking by him, but I was always like, hi, buddy! But he's like over here showing his fucking teeth, and like you got that cocaine.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

One of the pit bulls we ended up with was the same way. I don't know what it was, but the first owner that had him always kept him chained up outside. And when we played at that guy's house, they would always get to the end of the chain to try to get us. So I don't know what made mom and Ron be like, oh yeah, this is good. We brought that dog home. But then that is the only dog that didn't fucking try to do anything to us after we got him home.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Yeah, who knows what that owner did to him.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Neither did OJ. I had a big black dog named OJ. He was a lab.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

He was a monster, and he was him and Muttley were best friends. As panic grew, people began looking for logical explanations. One theory came from wildlife experts who believe witnesses may have seen a sandhill crane.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

A large bird with a wingspan reaching nearly seven feet and reddish coloring around its eyes.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Others suggested it could have been a heron, or even a large owl misidentified in the dark.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

And maybe some sightings were misidentified birds. But witnesses insisted that wasn't all they saw.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Because birds don't usually keep pace with moving cars.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

They don't hover near roads watching people.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

And they definitely don't leave entire towns afraid to go outside after dark. Because whatever people were seeing, it wasn't behaving like an animal. Like it wasn't just being seen.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Um, kind of both, because like today on my way here, um, when I left Somerset, there was um it looked like a dead cat on the road, but it wasn't a dead cat, so I had to like second guess myself and look back at it, and it was a stuffed animal, like a kid's stuffed animal. Yeah. So like I can see that. But at the same time when there's a lot of people who don't even know each other that are kind of saying the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

I feel like a lot of this was happening back at because Betty and Barney Hill, wasn't that the alien encounter? Well, ever since we got it, that wasn't the technology.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Most of our cryptid videos are 30, 40 years old.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Release the files!

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

UFO files. Well, and the Epstein files. At first, the Mothman sightings felt like isolated encounters. Strange, unsettling, and unexplainable. But over time, people in Point Pleasant started noticing something else.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

The sightings seemed to happen right before tragedy.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

And that's when the fear changed. Because suddenly, the question wasn't what is that thing? It became why is it here?

SPEAKER_03 26:28

On December 15th, 1967, just over a year after the first Mothman sightings, the Silver Bridge collapsed during rush hour traffic. Forty-six people died.

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Cars plunged into the icy Ohio River as the bridge tore apart without warning.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

And almost immediately, people began connecting the disaster to the sightings.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

Some believe the creature had been trying to warn them, but appearing before disaster, watching, waiting, not causing tragedy, but predicting it.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

And over time, that idea became one of the most enduring parts of the Mothman legend. Not simply a monster, but an omen.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

I like that theory. I do too. Author John Keel would help popularize the story through his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Keel believed the sightings were connected to larger paranormal events, including UFO reports, premonitions, and encounters with mysterious men in black.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

And oh yeah, I've seen that movie. And in 2002, the story reached an even wider audience through the Mothman Prophecies film starring Richard Gere.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

And even after the bridge collapse, the legend didn't disappear.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Chicago, West Virginia, remote highways.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Always the same general description.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

And the feeling that something terrible might happen next. Maybe the Mothman was never meant to be understood.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Maybe it was only meant to appear.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

Right before everything falls apart.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

And maybe that's what makes it so terrifying. Not that people saw it, but that something awful always seemed to follow.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Do you think some tragedies can lead behind warnings? Or do you believe people simply search for meaning after disaster strikes?

SPEAKER_04 28:53

I think so. I definitely think they can lead behind warnings.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

Yeah. Wasn't there another what was another isn't there another cryptid like you saw him and that meant something bad was gonna happen too? Or maybe I'm just thinking of the Mothman.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

I think it's mainly the Mothman where disaster or tragedy, because most everything is.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Maybe I'm thinking about um like if you see what in those uh like if you see a bird outside your window or an owl what was it? You see them outside your window, that meant someone was gonna die. Oh, the owl? Yes. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. Yeah. Hmm. But yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Well, if you see the yolk cat, we're all fucked.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

That was no fucking, you better have a brand new shirt on. You better just bought that bitch and pull the tags off of it.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

That's fucked up still.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Poor kids can't be broke no more. It's not even their fault.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Like, oh, your parents don't work hard to get you better clothes? Snatch. Holy shit, I would have been murdered.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

You what was you you you Grayla.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Grayla and the Grayla.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Grayla. Grayla.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Oh, witchy bitch in her saggy tits. Stop. Come here, boy. I'll tungle your dong while you suck on my teets.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

As the legend grew, so did the need to explain it. Because for some people, the idea of a giant-winged creature watching a small town from the darkness was simply impossible.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

And over the years, researchers, skeptics, wildlife experts have all tried to answer the same question. What were people actually seeing?

SPEAKER_04 30:37

One of the most common explanations was the sandhill crane, a large bird with a wingspan that can reach nearly seven feet, and a reddish coloring around its eyes.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Wildlife experts believe the crane may have wandered off its normal migration path, making it unfamiliar to many residents in Point Pleasant.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Others suggest a heron, or even a barred owl, could explain the sightings.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

And then there were the eyes. The detail that almost every witness remembered.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Skeptics argued the glow could simply be eye shine, light reflecting off animals' eyes at night.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Something common in owls, deer, and other nocturnal animals.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

But fear has a way of changing perception, especially in isolated places. Especially after dark.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

One terrifying story becomes another. And another.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

And once people expect to see something, sometimes they do.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Folklorists have pointed out that stories like The Mothman aren't new. Legends about leading to creatures, omens, and watchers in the dark have existed for centuries.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Which raises another possibility. Maybe the Mothman legend wasn't created entirely from scratch. Maybe fear, urban legend, and real sightings all became tangled together.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

A mixture of truth, misidentification, but and human imagination.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

But even with all the theories, there's still one detail people struggle to explain.

SPEAKER_04 32:34

The feeling witnesses described their overwhelming sense that they weren't alone.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

That whatever they saw was aware of them. Watching. And maybe that's why the legend never really dies.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Because deep down, most people can't accept seeing something strange.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

But it's much harder to accept something seeing you back.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

Especially when it follows you home.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Do you think the Mothman was ever truly a creature? Or do you think fear itself created the legend?

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Well, again, go back to Bigfoot. I think it's true creature. The Loch Ness monster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:22

But that's just me because I like to believe that every encrypted is real.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Exactly. Like sirens and shit.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

That's my theory. I just don't believe people, humans that are that creative to come up with these things without basing it off of something.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Like there's nothing in my mind that says, yeah, this guy sat down and just wrote this. Like, no, they've seen something. They might have changed the name, changed the image a little bit, but like, what's that word I'm looking for? They kind of uh Evolve? No, you know. Pretty much lie, you know, they add on to the story to make it fabricate, yeah. Exaggerate. Exaggerate. Yeah, they exaggerate the story to make it like he could have been 6'8 back at that time. Like most of the guys I work with are 6'3 to 6'7. They're tall dudes. So back then that could have been fucking huge. They could have saw one of these guys that coming out of the mountains that don't shave well, you know. Just looks like fucking uh, pretty much, you know. Just a guy who has long hair and a beard, he's a hairy man, and they're like, Oh man, I bet he was nine foot tall, and to them it could have been because they only stand five six. Exactly. It gets exaggerated and passed on, and by the time it finally gets published, it's a supernatural being.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Yep. Yeah. I I think I mean, I like to think these are real.

SPEAKER_04 34:39

I I firmly believe they're real because not I again, how many people are gonna sit down at night and think, hmm, I'm gonna make a story up about this winged creature. Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

The government.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

Like, you d really have to sit and think on it what you want it to look like. Like, what creature would I come up with?

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Now you just throw that shit in the chat.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

By the end of the week, you got a whole story.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Yeah. After the Silver Bridge collapse, many people assumed the sightings would stop. That whatever had terrified Point Pleasant had disappeared.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

But according to witnesses, it never truly went away.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Over the years, reports continued surfacing across the United States, and eventually across the world.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

In recent years, Chicago became one of the most one of the strangest hotspots for modern Mothman sightings. Witnesses described a dark humanoid figure, often seen near rooftops, bridges, but or flying silently through the night sky.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

And once again, the description sounded familiar. Massive wings, red or glowing eyes, a creature that seemed almost human, but not entirely.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Some reports were likely hoaxes, others misidentified birds. And some sightings probably fueled by the legend itself. But not every witness believed that explanation.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Unlike 1966, modern sightings spread instantly. Photos, videos, forum posts. A single encounter can reach millions of people overnight.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

And the more people hear the story, the more they start looking for it.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Which creates a strange cycle. Because once a legend becomes a part of culture, people begin seeing it everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

But in Point Pleasant, the Mothman has become more than fear. It's become part of the town itself.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

Every year, thousands of people travel there for the annual Mothman Festival.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 36:54

I've seen videos and stuff of it. It looks like a lot of fun. It's just kind of like where they have like the Krampus one. Nice. We should go.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

One time.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

There's a museum, a 12-foot metallic statue, tours of the old TNT area.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

And for many locals, the legend is no longer just terrifying. It's history.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Point Pleasant was jam-packed today with locals and visitors making the trip for the annual Mothman Festival. Thousands lined the streets eating street food, buying Mothman merchandise, and visiting the famous Mothman statue in Hartley Square. Many made offerings of baked beans and kissed the statue. People travel from all over the country to see Point Pleasant and Mothman after nearly 60 years of the first reported sighting of him in West Virginia.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Maybe the reason the Mothman legend survives is because it taps into something deeper.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

The fear that disaster can arrive without warning.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

The fear that something might be watching us before we even realize we're in danger. A creature appearing right before tragedy.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Whether it was real, misidentified, or something far stranger, people are still talking about it, nearly 60 years later. And maybe that's because some legends don't fade. They wait.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

If you were driving alone at night and saw glowing red eyes watching you from the darkness, would you stop and look closer? Or never look back at all.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

We all know my answer. I mean, I would definitely look. I'd have to look. I I I can't help it. I would have to look. Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Yeah, I would I would. I would. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah, because I mean you're not just gonna if you're driving by and notice something, it's not like let me know.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

I'm gonna tell you right now, if I had the opportunity to walk up to a lion in the wild. Right. And no, it's not Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

True. After nearly 60 years, the question still remains. What did people actually see in Point Pleasant?

SPEAKER_04 39:28

A misidentified animal? A town consumed by fear?

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Or something far stranger.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Because regardless of the theories, certain details never seemed to disappear. The glowing eyes, the massive wings, the feeling of being watched.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

And the fact that so many witnesses, people who I had never met, described the same terror.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Not confusion. Not curiosity. But fear.

SPEAKER_03 40:00

And maybe that's exactly how legends are born. One strange night, one terrifying sighting, and one story that spreads faster than anyone can stop it.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

Until eventually the story becomes larger than whatever started it.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Something woven into the identity of an entire town.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Um I wanna go here now for sure. At night. Yes, that'd be fun. But But even now, when people talk about the Mothman, they rarely focus only on the creature itself.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

They talk about what came after.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

The bridge collapse. The deaths. The feeling that something terrible was approaching long before it happened.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

And maybe that's why the story still unsettles people today. Because deep down, most of us fear the same thing. Not monsters, but warnings we failed to understand. Maybe the Mothman was never meant to be caught.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Never meant to be proven.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

Only witnessed.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

A shadow appearing in moments of fear, a pair of red eyes people still remember decades later. Waiting near dark roads, empty bridges, and places where tragedy lingers. And somewhere tonight, someone will swear they saw it again.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Do you think the Mothman was truly a warning? Or do you think some legends become real simply because enough people believe in them?

SPEAKER_04 41:48

I believe it was a warning.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Yeah. Well it makes I mean it's interesting how these, you know, fatalities happened after like these The Woman in White. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

She's apparently another omen, I don't know, good or bad, that pops up before tragedy shows. But that mainly has to do with children.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

So that's another one that's a little woo-hoo freaky.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely think.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

So we're gonna have to catch a moth man to punch a bitch in white.

unknown 42:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Definitely. And that concludes this episode of Veil of Echoes.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

If you enjoyed tonight's episode, make sure you're following Veil of Echoes on your favorite podcast platform.

SPEAKER_04 42:35

You can also follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for teaser clip, tarot style posts, weekly polls, and behind-the-scene content.

SPEAKER_03 42:43

And don't forget, our first monthly giveaway winners will be announced at the end of May.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Along with the official reveal of our listeners' name.

SPEAKER_04 42:54

So if you haven't already, keep an eye out for our upcoming polls on social media. Check 'em. Check all the buddy.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Pull it up. Vote. Please. You don't want to be called something you don't like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

Because somewhere tonight, someone is driving down an empty road.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Looking into the darkness.

SPEAKER_04 43:17

Wondering if the stories were true.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

And maybe. That's why this legend never really disappears. Because people are still searching the shadows for those red eyes.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

This Monday, we step into one of the most devastating tragedies in American history.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

A normal school morning that turned into something unimaginable.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

For years, people believed they understood the Columbine story.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

The warning signs of the fear.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Survivors and the tragedy that changed schools and America forever. Columbine. Until next time, keep your ears open.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

And the veil closed.