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On this episode of Expedition X

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Oh, I got something! Right there, right there!

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My team and I investigate sightings of a gigantic winged creature

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said to be terrorizing the Midwest

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Everybody sort of described a large, at-like creature

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I just thought, well, you know, I'm gonna die

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Hang on!

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According to witnesses

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You're not the only one who has seen something strange

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The Mothman

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Oh, wow!

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That's huge!

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It's back

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Holy...

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What is that?

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My name is Josh Gates

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In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic

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and made me question everything

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Oh my God!

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Now, I've put together a team to investigate the stranger side of the unknown

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Let's go!

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Phil Torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations

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This is a call for actually found stationery

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Jessica Chobot's paranormal research has made her a true believer

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There is a monster living in this forest

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Phil, Phil, Phil, I just saw something right across

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Together, we're searching for answers

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What is that?

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To the world's most extraordinary mysteries

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This is Expedition X

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Alright, Phil and Jess, the case that we're dealing with today

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is something that has actually been frightening a lot of people

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It's a strange case, and frankly, it's pretty unsettling stuff

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Well, you had me at frightening

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Yeah, what are we dealing with here?

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Well, it's not exactly an unidentified flying object

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This case involves an unidentified flying creature

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Now, before you run out of the room, Phil

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I want to show you a video

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Check this out

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Whoa!

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Maybe a bird?

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Almost like a bat?

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What is that?

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Looks like a dragon

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Right?

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I mean, those wings are huge

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Wow

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It's a dragon

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So whatever this is has not been identified

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But it's one of a number of reports that people have come forward

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with seeing flying, often humanoid looking creatures

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And most of the people who see this stuff are terrified by it

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Well, that makes sense

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I think there's something very primal in us

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about being afraid of giant predators in the sky

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And there's also something just naturally menacing about

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a dark, webbed winged, humanoid object flying through the sky

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It's scary

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Well, that brings us to the case in question

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People in two different parts of the country

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are recently reporting encounters with

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not just a flying creature

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but the most famous flying cryptid of all time

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Mothman

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Yes!

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I was hoping you were going to say that

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You love Mothman

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I love Mothman

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Phil?

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I don't know about this one

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This is next level, Phil

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Let's bring it to speed

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It's a story that begins in Point Pleasant, West Virginia

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November 1966

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That's when two young couples driving home after a double date

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reported seeing a menacing winged, humanoid creature

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on the edge of town

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They said it had glowing red eyes

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and it attacked them from the air

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scratching the roof of their car as they tried to escape

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Mothman sightings around Point Pleasant

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continued for the next year

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culminating with the creature being reported

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on Point Pleasant's Silver Bridge

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shortly before it collapsed

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on December 15, 1967

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46 people died

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and many blamed Mothman

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According to reports, he was spotted in Ohio in 1975

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twice in 1981 in Pennsylvania

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He was reportedly seen in Kentucky in 1986

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then three more times in 1994

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back in West Virginia

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After that, things were relatively quiet

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until now

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Over the last two years

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there have been 87 sightings of Mothman

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in and around Chicago

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and in the Point Pleasant area

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in the last three months alone

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there have been nearly a dozen sightings

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So Jess, what do you make of this?

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He's back, baby!

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Yes, Mothman is back, I'm into it

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I'm stoked for this

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Jess, why are you so into Mothman?

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Well, I think it stems from when I was little

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and I'd go to the library

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and I'd sit there and read all these books

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on the supernatural

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and for some reason, you know, Mothman

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as the cryptid really spoke to me

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I found him super scary with the glowing red eyes

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the fact that he was chasing these teenagers down

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and he was still being seen today

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I think he was kind of a harbinger of doom

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they affected this entire town

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and everybody said they saw something

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Okay, so clearly you're in the believer column here

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I'm in the believer column

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Now, Phil, I can guess that you're a little bit more skeptical here

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and I think you and I are in the same column

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this is a really wild story, right?

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But what we can't deny

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is the sheer number of sightings

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It is a lot of sightings

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and I can agree that these people are seeing something

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but seeing what?

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I mean, there's more drones flying around us now

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than there are planes in the sky

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But planes and drones don't flap their wings

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and have glowing red eyes

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and chase you

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That is true

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She's got you there, Phil

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And look, this really is the heart of this mystery

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you know, could so many people

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that are so adamant about what they're seeing

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be wrong?

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Is it a case of an unidentified creature?

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Is it misidentification? Is it hysteria?

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Is it some sort of folklore

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just working on their imaginations

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and that's what I want the two of you to find out

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I think you've got to go to Chicago

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but you've got to start in Point Pleasant

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You've got to go to where the Mothman story began

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and see if you can find some correlation

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between those sightings

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and the ones happening in Chicago

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Sound good? Sounds good

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Sounds like a plan

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The team is traveling 540 miles southwest

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to Point Pleasant, West Virginia

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This place, I love it

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It's fantastic

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It is super crazy

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It's really a weird vibe

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It is steeped in Mothman lore

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Point Pleasant is the epicenter

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of Mothman mythology

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While thousands come from all over the world

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for the annual Mothman Festival

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Many locals see the creature

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as a genuine threat

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and that's why they're obsessed with Mothman

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and I do mean

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obsessed

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Jeff Wamsley is a researcher

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who has spent decades gathering evidence

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about the Mothman phenomena

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These are probably some of the rarest archives

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we have in the museum

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These are the handwritten police reports

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of those original four witnesses

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After they saw this thing

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they went immediately to the Sheriff's Department

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We're trying to wrap our heads around

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that first incident and how it connects to all the other ones

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even in Chicago

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So can you break down the events of that evening for us?

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Sure

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In November 15th, 1966

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we had the two young couples

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They were just riding around

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They were driving along a road that bordered

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the southern edge of the West Virginia Ordinance Works

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A former TNT plant

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on the outskirts of town

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That's where they encountered what they thought

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was a man

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But as they drove closer

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they saw its 10-foot wingspan

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and glowing red eyes

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Suddenly, it took off

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flying over the top of the car

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Terrified

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the driver tried to outrun the creature

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but even at 75 miles an hour

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he couldn't shake the talents

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that were clawing at the top of the car

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Once they got to the city limits

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that veered off into a field

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that was the first official local sighting here

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Minutes after they came into town

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they were scared enough to go to the police department

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They didn't want to, but they did

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Did they sequester them all in different rooms?

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Yes, they did

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Got it

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I have three of those four people's original reports right here

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I saw, you know, this big

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bird-looking thing

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go over the top of my car

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I could see it wasn't a man

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that it looked more like a bird

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Instead of arms, they were like wings

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I had a huge wingspan

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that was at least 10 feet

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I was paralyzed

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I just thought, well, you know, I'm gonna die

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I had a huge wingspan

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I was paralyzed

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I was paralyzed

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I was paralyzed

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I'm gonna die

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And how long did that activity

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as far as the sightings go on for

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before the Silver Bridge collapsed?

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13 months to the day

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that that original sighting

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It's the worst bridge disaster in U.S. history

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Wow

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46 people perished

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I've talked to people who said they saw, you know,

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a creature or a bird on top of the bridge

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It has long been rumored that Mothman

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was sighted atop the Silver Bridge

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before it collapsed and killed 46 people

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This event cemented Mothman's

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sinister reputation

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where he appears, tragedy follows

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People claim that Mothman

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popped up before the Chernobyl disaster

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in 1986

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and in Mexico during the swine flu epidemic

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of 2009

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and many say he's often

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trailed by other mysterious figures

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So I've often heard that when the Mothman

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would show up that you would get some

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men in black activity too

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people coming in and knocking on doors

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and asking questions

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Did you see something like that?

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Yeah

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The men in black were notorious for

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just showing up unexpectedly

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My own mother, she saw the men in black

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Point-pleasant residents who claim to have seen Mothman

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reportedly received a visit from federal agents

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It's unknown what the agents said

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but after those visits

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the witnesses never spoke of Mothman again

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If the reports are true

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what drew these so-called men in black

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to this small West Virginia town?

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Were they trying to cover up

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a top-secret military project

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or were they attempting to silence any talk

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about a real life cryptid?

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So is it possible for us to go there

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to where it all began?

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Sure, yeah, the area is still accessible

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Hearing about where the sightings happened

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is one thing

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but we want to see it for ourselves

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Ground Zero for Mothman phenomena

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The former West Virginia ordinance works

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This is the area where there is a huge cluster of sights

282
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,000
and it's like sighting, sighting, sighting, sighting

283
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,000
all the way around the perimeter

284
00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000
so I figured this is the perfect place for us to poke around a little bit

285
00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,000
Over the years there have been dozens of credible witnesses

286
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,000
who describe seeing a winged human-like figure

287
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,000
either coming out of or disappearing into this area

288
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:45,000
and those sightings continue to this day

289
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:49,000
Retired Air Force veteran and military police officer Dave Spinks

290
00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,000
has investigated the Mothman phenomenon

291
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,000
for more than two decades

292
00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:56,000
He has a unique theory about what these people are seeing

293
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,000
So it looks like an abandoned city

294
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000
It was pretty much what it was

295
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,000
You were standing in the heart of the West Virginia ordinance works

296
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,000
here in Point Pleasant, West Virginia

297
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000
So when you say ordinance you mean explosives?

298
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,000
Yes, exactly

299
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:12,000
This eerie tract of land just outside of Point Pleasant

300
00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:18,000
was an 8,000 acre facility that manufactured TNT during World War II

301
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,000
and stored it in 100 concrete bunkers

302
00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,000
But rumors have swirled for decades

303
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,000
that there was more going on here than the military was admitting

304
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,000
They actually manufactured the explosives for the atomic bomb here

305
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:34,000
Wow!

306
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,000
What's your personal take on the Mothman sightings in this area?

307
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000
I believe it could be some type of military clandestine project

308
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,000
Though a military Mothman might sound like science fiction

309
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,000
it's a fact that during the Cold War

310
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:50,000
the United States funded a number of highly unusual top secret programs

311
00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,000
many with animals

312
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,000
Project Pigeon deployed bombs

313
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,000
with pigeons acting as guidance mechanisms

314
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000
and Project Acoustic Kitty

315
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,000
intended to use cats to spy on the Kremlin

316
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,000
The Bat Bomb was a plan to use bats

317
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,000
to deliver explosive devices into enemy cities

318
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000
Some have suggested Mothman is actually the biological product

319
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,000
of similar top secret experiments

320
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,000
a genetically modified bird

321
00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,000
or perhaps even a human

322
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,000
It's a wild theory

323
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:26,000
But what can't be ignored is that people have been seeing something lurking in these woods

324
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:27,000
Check this out

325
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:32,000
Dave has uncovered a once classified 1940s sight map for the ordnance works

326
00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:34,000
So right out here what we have

327
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:39,000
is 300 acres of war department land other than the TNT area

328
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:45,000
My contacts told me that there was definitely clandestine activity going on out here

329
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,000
So out of those 8,000 acres

330
00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,000
300 of them are this war department

331
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,000
Don't go in there, no trespassing

332
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:52,000
Absolutely

333
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,000
It does seem possible that during the time of the original Mothman sightings

334
00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000
there could have been top secret military activity at this plant

335
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,000
We're following Dave's map to see if we can find any evidence

336
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,000
to support this theory

337
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,000
To get there we'll have to navigate a river of toxic sludge

338
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,000
that surrounds the entire abandoned facility

339
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000
Some say it's a man made barrier meant to keep people out

340
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,000
Have you ever brought a boat down this way before?

341
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:19,000
No we haven't

342
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,000
What do you think about this water? Special stuff?

343
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,000
Yes

344
00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,000
On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst

345
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,000
How crazy are we for doing this?

346
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:28,000
Probably a 10

347
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,000
Oh it's good, I always wanted to be an overachiever

348
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,000
After securing a boat to navigate the swamp

349
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,000
we travel down to the water's edge

350
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:38,000
Ready?

351
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:39,000
Yeah

352
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:40,000
Okay, going in

353
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,000
I mean this area out here, this is next to the level habitat

354
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,000
This is where a lot of the sightings happened

355
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,000
This is where the government was active

356
00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,000
This was his like default go to spot

357
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,000
This is where it all went down

358
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:05,000
There we go

359
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,000
After paddling through the muck

360
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,000
we eventually come ashore and set out on foot

361
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,000
Finally we make it to the area on the map

362
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,000
where some believe the government conducted

363
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,000
a secret military project that can explain the Mothman sightings

364
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,000
I think I see something

365
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000
Here we go

366
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,000
This thing is completely covered by earth

367
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,000
Look at this

368
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:31,000
Yeah

369
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000
It is like part of the landscape here

370
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000
This thing hasn't been opened in decades

371
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:42,000
Okay, ready?

372
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,000
Alright, one more, ready?

373
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:52,000
Set

374
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:57,000
Oh, what is that?

375
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:01,000
Okay

376
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,000
Our Mothman investigation has led to the innermost area

377
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,000
of the West Virginia Ordinance Plant

378
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:13,000
Wow

379
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,000
Phil and Jess are tracking a controversial theory

380
00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,000
that top secret military experiments with animals

381
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:19,000
or even people

382
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,000
conducted out of these bunkers

383
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,000
could be responsible for the Mothman sightings

384
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,000
Either way, people have been seeing something

385
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,000
hiding amidst these ruins

386
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,000
The question is, what?

387
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:34,000
Ready? Set

388
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,000
Holy

389
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,000
What is that?

390
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,000
A barrel of diesel oil?

391
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:57,000
What is this?

392
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,000
And a sprocket

393
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,000
Let's go look at this

394
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:08,000
Look

395
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,000
Why would you just leave all this stuff behind?

396
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:15,000
No, why does it look like something was cheered up here?

397
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:19,000
That does look like kind of like a wrist-pun or something

398
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,000
That's kind of creepy

399
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:27,000
Oh, what's that?

400
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,000
A lot of old fire extinguisher

401
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000
Dayton fire extinguisher

402
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,000
Dayton, Ohio

403
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,000
Is there a date on here?

404
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,000
I don't think so, but yeah, that's interesting

405
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,000
this is coming from Dayton

406
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:43,000
Yeah

407
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000
The Bunker

408
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,000
Having fully explored the bunker

409
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,000
we return to the boat and begin paddling back

410
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000
only to find another mysterious structure

411
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Look at that

412
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,000
What is this?

413
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,000
Let's see if we can get in

414
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:15,000
Let's go

415
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:29,000
Oh

416
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000
Oh my god

417
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,000
Oh

418
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:50,000
Wow

419
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,000
This is huge

420
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,000
I'm almost afraid to put my paddle in the water

421
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:05,000
It is, look at, there's

422
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:06,000
What's down there? What's down there?

423
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,000
I don't know

424
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,000
So did you see anything under the water?

425
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:19,000
What's there?

426
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,000
I don't know

427
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,000
I mean, if you're going to be a mothman

428
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000
why wouldn't you live here?

429
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,000
Oh, did you hear that?

430
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000
There was someone over there

431
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:36,000
That sounded like it was coming from outside

432
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,000
Come on, let's get out there

433
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,000
Did you hear that?

434
00:18:58,000 --> 00:18:59,000
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

435
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000
Something out there, something out there

436
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Did you see it? I heard it over here somewhere

437
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,000
Shine the flashlight up in that tree

438
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,000
Wait, I think I see it

439
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,000
What is that?

440
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:16,000
It just moved

441
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:17,000
To the left, to the left

442
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,000
It's trying to avoid the light

443
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:21,000
Yeah, there's something over there

444
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:22,000
I'm going to paddle this a little closer

445
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:23,000
Okay

446
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:32,000
I've got the thermal camera

447
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,000
If there's anything biological giving off heat

448
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,000
we'll see it on this

449
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000
It sounded like it was up in the tree tops here

450
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,000
Where? Short point your light where you think you saw it?

451
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:46,000
Yeah, right up here

452
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:47,000
Alright

453
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:49,000
I'm looking

454
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,000
Hey, I think I see something on the thermal

455
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:56,000
Oh my god

456
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000
Whoa, what do you think that is?

457
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,000
I think I lost it

458
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,000
Well, let's keep heading towards the shore

459
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,000
and see what we can find once we're on land

460
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:11,000
Alright

461
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,000
Is that the tree we saw something in?

462
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:25,000
Something in?

463
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:27,000
I'm not sure

464
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,000
It might be that one over there

465
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,000
I don't see anything

466
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000
After another hour of searching

467
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,000
we still haven't made contact with the source of the noise

468
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,000
and whatever we saw on the thermal camera

469
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,000
With the sun on the horizon

470
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000
we decide to head back

471
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,000
The items we found at the ordinance plant

472
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,000
support Dave's theory that a secret military operation

473
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,000
could have been conducted here

474
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,000
but what sort of experiment could account for the mothman?

475
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000
We check in with Josh to update him on our investigation

476
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Hello, how's West Virginia treating ya?

477
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,000
We're definitely getting into some weird stuff out here

478
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,000
Alright, so bring we up to speed

479
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
So that area where all of the original mothman sightings

480
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,000
took place, the West Virginia ordinance works

481
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,000
The TNT plant

482
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,000
Yeah, exactly

483
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000
We got the plans for the area

484
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
and right there in the center

485
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,000
has been just sectioned off as war department

486
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:31,000
with no explanation given

487
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,000
War department? Okay

488
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,000
So what are you thinking, maybe something top secret

489
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000
was going on out there?

490
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:37,000
Possibly

491
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,000
and we actually went out to that area last night

492
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,000
And is there anything in that area?

493
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,000
There were these sealed off bunkers there

494
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,000
and we went into one of them

495
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,000
and it was basically half hidden

496
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,000
kind of buried in the ground right there

497
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:51,000
What was inside?

498
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000
There was a place that was supposed to be storing TNT

499
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000
There was a lot of weird stuff in there

500
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000
We found chains, shackles, a diesel drum

501
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,000
There was a really old fire extinguisher from Dayton, Ohio

502
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000
There were tools

503
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,000
Hold on, hold on, the fire extinguisher was from Dayton?

504
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,000
It was labeled Dayton?

505
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:07,000
Yeah

506
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:11,000
Dayton, Ohio is home to Wright Patterson Air Force Base

507
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000
One of the most famous military bases in the country

508
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000
also a place where a lot of top secret military activity

509
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,000
took place, that's on record

510
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,000
If in fact there was some sort of top secret facility

511
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:22,000
in Point Pleasant

512
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,000
Wright Patterson and Dayton, that's like 150 miles away

513
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,000
that's not far at all

514
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,000
Maybe there is a relationship there

515
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,000
But that place is extremely restricted

516
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,000
You're talking about what a lot of people consider to be

517
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,000
the real area of 51

518
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,000
and I just don't know how we would ever be able to investigate that

519
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,000
Well, I might have a way

520
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:55,000
The team and I are reviewing the discoveries they made

521
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,000
at the West Virginia Ordinance Plant

522
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,000
and whether the Mothman sightings might be explained

523
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,000
by a top secret military program

524
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,000
The challenge now is getting access to one of the most

525
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,000
secretive military bases in existence

526
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,000
Wright Patterson Air Force Base

527
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,000
I have a contact from Wright Patterson

528
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,000
from a military investigation we did several years ago

529
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000
I'll see if I can connect all of you

530
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,000
In the meantime, we've still got these eyewitness sightings

531
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,000
in Chicago and I think you've got to head there next

532
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:27,000
Absolutely

533
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,000
Also, I've learned back here that one of the eyewitnesses there

534
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
claims that he actually has images of his encounter with Mothman

535
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,000
though he's been hesitant to show it

536
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:38,000
I want to see that

537
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,000
Alright, let's go to Chicago

538
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:40,000
Yeah, down

539
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:41,000
To Chicago, good luck

540
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000
While I work on access to Wright Patterson Air Force Base

541
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:53,000
the team travels 438 miles northwest to Chicago

542
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,000
I'll admit, it's a strange place to find Mothman

543
00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,000
but don't tell that to the people who say they've seen him here

544
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,000
So I've actually hooked us up with somebody

545
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,000
that's going to walk us through all those recent sightings

546
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,000
and we're going to have to go up, like, really high

547
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,000
What do you mean high?

548
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,000
Like, Mothman high

549
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,000
No Chicago structure is more iconic than Willis Tower

550
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,000
once known as the Sears Tower

551
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,000
it is the second tallest building in the Americas

552
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:23,000
and the place where eyewitnesses have reported seeing Mothman

553
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,000
Jessica and Phil are here to meet author and paranormal investigator

554
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:28,000
Going up?

555
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:29,000
Tobias Wayland

556
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,000
Tobias has been gathering data on the Chicago Mothman sightings

557
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000
since he first got wind of a trio of recent reports

558
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:40,000
Hey, Tobias

559
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Sorry, I'm a little late

560
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:42,000
That's a lot of stairs

561
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:44,000
Sure

562
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,000
So why did you bring us here?

563
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:47,000
Well, it wasn't me

564
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:48,000
The Mothman did

565
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,000
The Mothman

566
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,000
Over a thousand feet up chose this location

567
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:53,000
Higher, actually

568
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
The sighting that supposedly took place right here

569
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000
had the creature at the very top

570
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:00,000
Wow

571
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:01,000
There's a guy, Guillermo

572
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:02,000
and he's outside smoking

573
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,000
just after 5pm in July of 2017

574
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,000
and he sees something on top of the tower

575
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,000
and as he's standing there

576
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:16,000
this winged human jumps off of the tower

577
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,000
After that, the sightings just kept coming

578
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000
and everybody sort of described the same thing

579
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:26,000
which was a large bat-like creature

580
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:34,000
We've got probably well over 100 different reports

581
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,000
and associated phenomena

582
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,000
All within this area or just across the board

583
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Within 200 miles of Lake Michigan

584
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:43,000
Well, it's really interesting

585
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:48,000
because Mothman always, at least the reports

586
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,000
and stories that I've heard and read

587
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,000
is that it's usually in kind of rural areas

588
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,000
I've never heard of him in the middle of Chicago

589
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,000
Let me show you a map

590
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:06,000
They're almost always centered around green spaces

591
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000
I'm actually really surprised at how many are in the city too

592
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,000
A lot of people probably don't realize

593
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,000
that they are surrounded by nature

594
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,000
that there are owls here

595
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,000
there are herons here

596
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,000
there are a lot of big birds

597
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,000
and so when it's dark and they see something flying

598
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,000
and they know that Mothman has been sighted here

599
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,000
maybe that's why they're thinking it's Mothman

600
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,000
There isn't going to be as much physical evidence

601
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,000
and so the criteria I have to use to judge those sightings

602
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,000
is the credibility of the witnesses themselves

603
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,000
and there have been a good number of very frightened

604
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,000
very otherwise normal people who have come forward

605
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,000
and recounted these stories

606
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,000
and when you're dealing with a normal, credible person

607
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,000
who's telling you that they were standing

608
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,000
only several feet away from something

609
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,000
that looked like a winged humanoid

610
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,000
I feel like under those circumstances

611
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,000
it would be very difficult, if not impossible

612
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,000
to misidentify some sort of large bird

613
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000
I'm eager to speak with a Chicago eye witness

614
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000
to see if the Mothman sightings here

615
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,000
might also be explained by some kind of secret military program

616
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,000
so we head southwest from Willis Tower to the lower west side

617
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,000
that's where we're meeting Kelly Hanata

618
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000
the eye witness that has been reluctant to release his evidence

619
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,000
at least so far

620
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,000
what's your experience been? Walk us through it

621
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000
when I was on my way to work riding my bike

622
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,000
this is the route that I take pretty much daily

623
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,000
so as I'm pulling up to this intersection

624
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,000
I'm just kind of gazing out looking at the flags above the library

625
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,000
and I see another gentleman start pointing to the sky

626
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,000
and that's when you see a large flying object

627
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,000
until I immediately think in my head

628
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,000
hey, I think that's the Mothman

629
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,000
so you immediately went to Mothman?

630
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:00,000
yeah, so, well certainly at the time of when I'm experiencing this

631
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,000
and viewing it, I'm almost positive that what I'm capturing on film is the Mothman

632
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,000
I had the GoPro on me and I was able to get that captured

633
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,000
is there any way we can see that footage of the Mothman?

634
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,000
yes, please

635
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,000
I kind of hesitant if you've been showing people now

636
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,000
just because it almost seems like a point of ridicule

637
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,000
just for like, people will either see one thing or the other

638
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,000
and then I look like a crazy person for coming forward with the Mothman sighting

639
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,000
so, you know, I'll tell you what, what's important here is

640
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:33,000
you're not the only one who has seen something strange

641
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,000
and what you saw still is a mystery

642
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,000
and we're here to help and see if we can get to the bottom of that mystery

643
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,000
yeah, well, I mean, so I do have it with me

644
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,000
and I have a few of the stills

645
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:46,000
a little bit of an idea

646
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,000
oh, no, that's huge

647
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,000
The Mothman

648
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,000
my team is in Chicago

649
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,000
investigating recent reports of a giant winged creature

650
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,000
Kelly Hanata was cycling to work

651
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,000
wearing a camera on his helmet

652
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:13,000
when he captured images of something large flying in the sky

653
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,000
oh yeah, there he is

654
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,000
oh wow

655
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,000
so here's where it is right here

656
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,000
it basically starts from this area

657
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:30,000
heading kind of in a southwest direction

658
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,000
almost into the wind the entire time

659
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,000
so Kelly, I gotta say, especially in this frame right here

660
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,000
as much as it would be amazing if there's a photo of Mothman

661
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,000
to me, this just looks like a really big impressive bird

662
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,000
well, it would have to be at least a 10 foot wingspan

663
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:51,000
given the size

664
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,000
yeah, but a bird is not going to attract that kind of attention

665
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:55,000
from people on the ground

666
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,000
to actually stop on their way to work

667
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,000
and point up in the sky

668
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,000
I do that if they're like a great horned owl or a giraffe falcon

669
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000
I mean, I think there's some really cool

670
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,000
a unique amazing person

671
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,000
are you going to call me a nerd?

672
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,000
no

673
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,000
you're going to call me a nerd

674
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000
Kelly's footage shows something human-sized flying above Chicago

675
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,000
given its size and shape, many have suggested

676
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,000
it might have been a person in a wingsuit

677
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,000
experts have also theorized that sightings at Willis Tower

678
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,000
could have been a base jumper illegally jumping from the roof

679
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,000
to put these theories to the test

680
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,000
we're heading to an indoor skydiving facility

681
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:35,000
to meet with expert wingsuit pilot and world record holder, Joe Riddler

682
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,000
we've actually been running around Chicago

683
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,000
investigating the Mothman sightings

684
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:42,000
interesting

685
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000
yeah, we suspect it could be any number of things

686
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,000
but one of the things we were thinking of is maybe a base jumper

687
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,000
or a guy wearing a wingsuit

688
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,000
basically somebody like you

689
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,000
because you've done a lot of jumps, yeah?

690
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,000
yeah, absolutely

691
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000
I'm just under 1500 jumps right now

692
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:56,000
wow

693
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:57,000
yeah

694
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,000
to be clear, base jumping is an extreme sport

695
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,000
where people leap and then parachute from cliffs

696
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,000
and yes, tall buildings

697
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,000
on the other hand, a wingsuit has sections of fabric

698
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,000
that inflate to allow gliding through the air

699
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,000
before deploying a shoot for landing

700
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,000
what would be a giveaway?

701
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000
a sign that that person is a base jumper

702
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000
wearing a wingsuit versus, oh hey, that's Mothman

703
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,000
when it comes to base jumping, they're all kind of ninjas of the night

704
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,000
it's not exactly a legal sport to participate in

705
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,000
so jumping in the day would be one red flag

706
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,000
another would be, you know, the height of the object that you're jumping off of

707
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,000
another is landing area

708
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:42,000
we showed Joe the schematic of where eyewitness Guillermo spotted the wing figure

709
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,000
he said he was looking up at that ledge

710
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,000
and they got jumped

711
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:51,000
he claims he saw it just kind of fly away towards the lake

712
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:52,000
is that doable?

713
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,000
oh no, absolutely not

714
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
so the height of this ledge

715
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,000
is high enough to do a wingsuit base jump

716
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:05,000
but given all of the complexities of the landing areas around here

717
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,000
probably not a plausible solution

718
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:13,000
we also showed Joe the images that Kelly Hanada took with his GoPro

719
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,000
which Joe also dismisses

720
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:18,000
they were in a wingsuit or base jumper either

721
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,000
if we're going to document our own encounter with the Mothman

722
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,000
we need to look for it in its natural habitat

723
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:31,000
a biological creature of this size might pass through the big city on occasion

724
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,000
but it certainly won't make its home here

725
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,000
one of the densest areas of recent sightings nearby

726
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,000
is only 15 miles northwest of the city

727
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000
in a 20 mile stretch of forest preserve

728
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,000
no humans, lots of animals, plenty of water

729
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,000
if the Mothman is real, this could be his home

730
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,000
by the way, wait to see what I got inside

731
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:56,000
what did you get?

732
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
our goal is to try to photograph whatever it is that people are seeing out here

733
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000
and to do that, we'll use several motion sensitive wildlife cameras

734
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000
so what do you think about this?

735
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,000
uh, overkill? what's the crossbow for?

736
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,000
we're going to shoot it up into the tree

737
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000
and at the end of the fishing line we'll put a trail cam

738
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,000
so if anything flies by, we'll get a photo of it

739
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,000
we're dividing the forest into quadrants and placing cameras in each corner

740
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000
we attach cameras to trees along trails

741
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,000
and use the crossbow to hoist cameras to higher positions

742
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,000
with a better view of the skies

743
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,000
we finish setting up the cameras just as day turns tonight

744
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,000
any motion, it'll trigger, it'll take a photo

745
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,000
when I think of an area like this, this is habitat at its prime

746
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,000
there's tons of sightings around this park

747
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,000
I'm sure there are all sorts of things living around here

748
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,000
so what is the weirdest thing you've ever seen with those cameras?

749
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,000
well in Central America, I've seen jaguars

750
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
sometimes we actually see the poachers in the area

751
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,000
and they come by with their guns and they can hear us

752
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,000
wait, what was that?

753
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,000
I don't know

754
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,000
it sounded like it was coming from over there

755
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,000
I got the thermal camera

756
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,000
yeah, we definitely got moving

757
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:05,000
I saw it, I saw it

758
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,000
you're definitely there

759
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,000
yeah, might open that tree

760
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:11,000
oh, I got something

761
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,000
come here, yeah, right there, right there, right there

762
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
it just moved

763
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,000
Jess and Phil are pursuing the idea that someone from right Patterson Air Force Base

764
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:35,000
may be able to provide information about a mysterious flying something

765
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,000
in the skies of West Virginia

766
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,000
now it may sound like the stuff of science fiction

767
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:40,000
but consider this

768
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,000
by the time of the original Mothman sightings in 1966

769
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000
the base had served as headquarters for three top secret programs

770
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,000
tasked with studying UFOs

771
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,000
the most comprehensive among them, Project Blue Book

772
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,000
this was the program that investigated more than 12,000 UFO sightings

773
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000
to determine whether they posed threats to national security

774
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:08,000
it was also during this time that joint Army Navy Air Force Regulation No. 146 was passed

775
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:14,000
making it a crime to discuss classified UFO reports with unauthorized persons

776
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:19,000
but decades later, Project Blue Book's existence has been officially acknowledged

777
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:23,000
and tens of thousands of documents have since been declassified

778
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:27,000
those who spent their careers at right Patterson Air Force Base

779
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,000
may now speak about some of the military's activities

780
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,000
around the time of the original Mothman sightings

781
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:47,000
Phil and Jessica are north of Chicago

782
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,000
investigating a cluster of recent Mothman sightings

783
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,000
while setting up motion-activated wildlife cameras

784
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,000
they hear something in the tree line

785
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:58,000
it's moving

786
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,000
yeah, we definitely got movement

787
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,000
oh, I got something!

788
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,000
I got something?

789
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000
yeah, yeah, right there, right there, right there

790
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:15,000
I don't see it anymore

791
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:16,000
I'll see it either

792
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,000
did you hear something?

793
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:22,000
anything, anything?

794
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,000
I don't see it, I see it

795
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:28,000
we spend hours searching for the source of the noise in the trees to no avail

796
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000
with the sun about to come up, we make sure our trail cameras are still running

797
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000
to gather evidence long after we leave

798
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,000
and that's when we get word from Josh

799
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:41,000
time for a road trip

800
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
he's gotten us access to a right Patterson Insider

801
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,000
someone who can speak to whether there's any military program

802
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,000
that might help explain the point-pleasant Mothman sightings

803
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,000
so, right Patterson Air Force Base and the West Virginia Ordinance Plant

804
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
the link here, we don't quite have it down

805
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,000
and I don't know if we sound crazy right now

806
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,000
I mean, we probably do sound crazy, which is fine with me

807
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,000
here's the thing, military bases, they still talk to each other

808
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,000
so it wouldn't surprise me at all

809
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,000
if some out-of-the-way area had some sort of connection to nearby bases

810
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,000
that's true

811
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:23,000
to meet Josh's contact, we're driving 300 miles southeast from Chicago to Dayton, Ohio

812
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:30,000
Ray Shomansky is a retired engineer who worked on classified projects at Right Patterson Air Force Base

813
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,000
he's asked to meet us at an underground bunker just a few miles away

814
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:38,000
a location that once housed top-secret research programs

815
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,000
so Ray, how long did you work here?

816
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:45,000
I spent nearly four decades at Right Patterson Air Force Base

817
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:46,000
what were you doing there?

818
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,000
I was an electrical engineer in the Department of Defense's weapon systems

819
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,000
so as part of that, I worked on a number of secret programs

820
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:59,000
and in a place like this, you can imagine how easy it was to keep a secret

821
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:05,000
this abandoned facility once played host to the most secretive military research program in history

822
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,000
the Manhattan Project

823
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,000
from the late 1930s to the mid 1940s

824
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,000
more than 130,000 people worked in absolute secrecy

825
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,000
building the world's first atomic bomb

826
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,000
so the theory that we're kind of coming up with for these mothman sightings

827
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,000
is that perhaps it is an experiment by the government

828
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,000
some sort of testing they were doing or anything like that

829
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,000
you know that is possible because it's the early 60s

830
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,000
in fact the time frame is perfect for it

831
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,000
new laboratories were being built

832
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,000
new technologies were being developed

833
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:48,000
a lot of that technology would have been perfected at Right Patterson Air Force Base

834
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,000
integrated circuits and fiber optics

835
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:54,000
and new materials, tough durable materials for flight suits

836
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:58,000
or anything that they would spend off for a military application

837
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:02,000
so what you're telling us is that Right Patterson Air Force Base

838
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,000
might have engineered flight suits

839
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,000
and then that might explain the potential for some mothman sightings

840
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,000
I'm saying exactly that

841
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,000
this was the height of the Cold War

842
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,000
what was the big motivation at the time for developing new technology

843
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,000
something like a flight suit or a parachute

844
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:25,000
the military would be interested in some type of a singular soldier

845
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,000
their transportation because they could do some sabotage

846
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,000
or they could do some surveillance

847
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:35,000
with either a parafoil or a cruciform type suit that was being developed at the time

848
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,000
or even those jet packs

849
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,000
and it turns out that the wind tunnel at Right Patterson Air Force Base

850
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,000
was used to perfect the design

851
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
wow so the military was very much aware of this new technology

852
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,000
and it's possible that flight testing was being done

853
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,000
could have been done anywhere

854
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:56,000
and perhaps when somebody saw a person flying for the very first time

855
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,000
could easily have been misidentified as somebody that we now call mothman

856
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,000
it's possible that mothman may be related to an extraordinary

857
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,000
but very real top secret government program

858
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,000
this now declassified footage from 1961

859
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,000
pulled from the National Archives

860
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:19,000
shows early testing of flying soldier technology

861
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,000
work on this continued through the late 1960s

862
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,000
and by 1978 the Delta Force

863
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,000
the US military's most elite special forces troops

864
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,000
was testing combat flight suits in

865
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,000
you guessed it, West Virginia

866
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:39,000
such a program could explain the visits from men in black

867
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,000
government agents putting a lid on our latest secret technology

868
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,000
and the recent point pleasant eye witness accounts

869
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000
like many others

870
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:56,000
Phil and Jess did detect animals living in the ruins of the abandoned military plant

871
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,000
point your light where you think you saw it

872
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,000
right up here

873
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,000
I think I see something on the thermal

874
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,000
oh my god

875
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,000
but those who claim it's a monster

876
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:10,000
are probably getting caught up in 50 years of mothman mania

877
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,000
as for the Chicago sightings

878
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,000
we believe we were able to rule out the possibility

879
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,000
of a rogue base jumper or wingsuit in flight

880
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,000
is that doable

881
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:23,000
oh no absolutely not

882
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:27,000
but photos continue to come in from our remote wildlife cameras

883
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,000
and the evidence is in

884
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,000
Sandhill Crane, check

885
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,000
Golden Eagle, check

886
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,000
but no mothman

887
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,000
even Jess now supports Phil's original suspicion

888
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,000
that the recent Chicago sightings of the mothman

889
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:46,000
are nothing more than the misidentification of large winged birds

890
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,000
the Sandhill Crane and the Golden Eagle

891
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,000
have enormous wingspans at nearly 8 feet

892
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,000
imagine seeing that soaring in the windy city

893
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,000
you too might think it's a monster