The Original 1952 Flatwoods Elementary School Incident Sent by Chris May son of Freddie May
From what I was told by my Dad Freddie May, and My Grandma Kathleen May the original Witnesses along with my uncle Eddie May. One September 12, 1952, my dad, Uncle Eddie and some neighborhood kids were playing at Flatwoods Elementary school which was probably about 300 – 400 yards from their house as the crow flies.
It was getting late. I think it was about 7:30 in the evening and they saw this big fireball go over them and crash on a nearby hill. As you know a group of young boys like this the first thing they’re going to do is take off running to see what it is.
On the way up they stopped and got my Grandma Kathleen May and Gene Lemon who was one of the neighbors and a National Guardsman, as well as a few others before heading up.
After thromping through the field they come up on this figure. It was hissing and there was a foul odor, whatever it was it was glowing. They said whatever it was had some type of cowl on it’s head spade shaped, it didn’t have arms, my dad said the body of it was more like metal tubs coming down instead of a cape or a dress like most people show in art or media, and was about 12ft tall. They said it was more like it was made out of metal than fabric of any kind. It did seem to have some kind of eyes or peepholes that were glowing and it was hovering.
I’m not sure what happened. They had a dog with them and I don’t know if it was them or it that got spooked but they all took off running. Once they got off the hill they contacted the authorities right away.
The authorities went back up the hill to check along with a small crowd but whatever the thing was, it was gone. It did leave some type residue at the scene. No one saw anything leave or go back over head, back in the 1950’s we didn’t have the technology for something like this to land, then take off again. There was no crash site, disturbed trees, nothing. No one knows what happened to it.
They took everyone in and into separate rooms, then took their stories. Everyone’s story came out the same. When asked to draw it, they all came up with a similar thing. Unfortunately when the state police got there though they started ridiculing the kids and telling them they were crazy. The media came out and said it was a barn owl, but if you know what a barn owl looks like or you’ve seen one up close it’s nothing close to this.
Over the years my family stuck with their story, they didn’t share it out much due to the ridicule but when they talked about it their story never changed.
The Route 4 Encounter
On the night of September 13th, 1952, around 8:00 PM, just a day after the events of our first story, George and Edith Snitowsky were driving along the remote stretch of Route 4 between Clay and Braxton County with their 18-month-old son. Out of nowhere, their car suddenly stalled. The road was empty, the night was pitch black, and an eerie silence hung in the air.
As they sat there, confused and uneasy, the couple noticed a strange glowing object hovering just beyond the roadbank near the edge of the woods. It emitted a violet-colored light, casting an otherworldly glow across the landscape. Curious, they rolled down a window for a better look only to be hit by a foul sulfur-like odor coming from the direction of the craft.
Determined to find out what was going on, George stepped out of the car and cautiously moved closer to the mysterious glow. He had barely gotten a good look when his wife suddenly screamed:
“Look out behind you!”
Spinning around, George froze. Standing before him was a towering figure, a creature estimated to be 10 to 12 feet tall. Without hesitation, George sprinted back to the car. The couple locked the doors, rolled up the windows, and ducked down into the floorboards, their hearts pounding.
The entity approached the vehicle and began circling it, as if inspecting the terrified family inside. From the glimpses they caught, the Snitowskys later described the creature as hovering above the ground, with extremely long arms and a body that seemed partially encased in a metallic suit.
After a tense few moments, the creature turned away and glided back toward the glowing craft. It climbed aboard, and then the craft silently lifted off into the night sky.
Shaken but alive, the family tried the ignition and this time, the engine roared to life. They drove straight to a 24-hour diner in Sutton, where they recounted their terrifying encounter to stunned locals.
The Audra Harper Field Sighting
Around the same time as the other reported sightings, a local resident named Audra Harper and her friend, Betsy, set out one September evening to walk to a nearby store. Their route took them across a lonely field, halfway between their home and the shop, when something unusual caught their attention—a glowing ball of fire flickering on a distant hillside.
At first, Audra dismissed it, thinking a neighbor might be out fox hunting. But when she glanced back moments later, the light had vanished. In its place stood something far more terrifying: a towering dark figure, easily three times the size of a man.
Panic set in, and the two women took off running. To their horror, the figure began to follow, keeping pace for nearly a third of a mile. Only when they crossed through a gate at the edge of a forest clearing did the strange entity finally stop, as if an unseen boundary held it back.
Shaken and breathless, Audra and Betsy pressed on until they reached their destination. There, they managed to find a man at a nearby bar who agreed to give them a ride home in his truck—bringing an end to a night they would never forget.
The Weston Church Encounter — September 5, 1952
This encounter happened about a week before the famous Flatwoods Monster sighting and it may be one of the most intriguing parts of the entire story.
On September 5, 1952, in or near Weston, West Virginia, a 21-year-old woman and her mother were reportedly on their way to church when they encountered something they could not explain.
According to the account later collected by UFO investigators, the two women encountered a huge humanoid figure unlike anything they had ever seen. The creature was described as having blazing eyes, appearing to be cloaked or covered in black, and seeming to glide above the ground rather than walk..The creature also reportedly gave off a terrible, foul odor.
The description of the figure—and especially the strange odor—was remarkably similar to what would be reported just days later in Flatwoods.
The encounter apparently had a profound effect on the young woman. According to the account, she became so badly affected by what she had experienced that she was eventually confined to Clarksburg Hospital for three weeks. Her mother reportedly confirmed that the two of them had encountered the strange figure while on their way to church.
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Albert Bender and the Flatwoods Connection
In 1953, Albert K. Bender was already deeply involved in the growing mystery of flying saucers. From his home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bender operated the International Flying Saucer Bureau, an organization dedicated to investigating reports of strange objects in the sky. He also published a newsletter called Space Review, where he shared information about UFO sightings and attempted to make contact with whoever—or whatever—might be behind them.
Bender had already become fascinated with the Flatwoods Monster case. In November of 1952, he began corresponding with West Virginia UFO investigator Gray Barker, who had investigated the strange encounter in Braxton County just two months earlier. Barker told Bender about the reports, and Bender became so interested that he published material about the Flatwoods Monster in Space Review.
But before long, Bender claimed that his interest in the UFO phenomenon had attracted the attention of something much stranger.
In 1953, Bender reported experiencing a series of bizarre encounters and warnings. He claimed that he received mysterious communications telling him to stop investigating flying saucers. Then, according to Bender, three strange men dressed in dark clothing appeared to him. He believed they were not ordinary men at all, but extraterrestrial beings disguised in human form.
Bender claimed that the beings warned him to stop interfering with their activities. Eventually, he was given instructions for contacting them. He was told to hold a small metal disk, turn on his radio, and repeat a strange word: “Kazik.”
Bender followed the instructions 2 nights later.
What happened next was unlike anything he had experienced before. He claimed that he underwent what he described as an out-of-body experience and believed he had been taken aboard a flying saucer. There, the beings supposedly told him about their activities on Earth and warned him that they possessed technology far beyond anything humanity had developed.
Then Bender saw something that would forever link his story to the Flatwoods Monster.
One of the beings, which had appeared to him in human form, suddenly changed. Bender described the transformation as horrifying. The figure became a monstrous entity that he said looked remarkably similar to the creature reported by witnesses in Braxton County the year before—the creature that had become known as the Flatwoods Monster.
According to Bender, the being then told him:
“You view me here on the screen in my normal appearance.”
The statement was extraordinary. Bender wasn’t simply saying that the creature reminded him of the Flatwoods Monster. He claimed that the being itself was showing him what it considered to be its normal form—and that form resembled the strange entity reported in West Virginia.
Bender’s strange experiences would eventually become one of the foundational stories behind the modern legend of the Men in Black. In 1962, he published his account in Flying Saucers and the Three Men, a book edited by Gray Barker.
The 1993 Braxton County Jail Encounter
More than forty years after the original Flatwoods Monster incident, another strange account emerged from the same area.
In 1993, according to a later account associated with Flatwoods, a witness reported seeing a massive fireball descend near some houses on the eastern edge of town. It was winter, and snow covered the ground as the strange object appeared in the darkness.
But the fireball wasn’t the strangest part.
According to the witness, the blazing object suddenly disappeared.
And where it had been, there was now a creature.
The witness described the creature resembling a giant wolf an enormous, dark animal standing in the snow. But before the witness could make sense of what they were seeing, the creature appeared to change.
The wolf-like figure transformed into something even more terrifying: a massive black humanoid.
The figure was enormous, towering over the landscape, and for a moment it seemed to stand there watching before suddenly fading from sight.
Then it was gone.
There was no creature. No fireball. No explanation for what had just happened.
