I have to admit, the Flatwoods case has always interested me, and by all accounts it is quite a compelling case, especially when seen in context.

The “cyborg” notion concerning the entity reminds me of how the Aztecs supposedly first viewed the Spaniards- as some sort of multi-headed, centaur-like being, owing to them riding horses, which the Aztecs had never seen. Perhaps much of what was seen of the Flatwoods entity was simply clothing. That’s always been my interpretation of the so-called “Ace-of’Spades” head.

Incidentally, Jerome Clark reports in his book “Unexplained” that the entity (Or something similar) was seen looking into a window in the early morning of November 22, 1973 in Joliette, Quebec. Oddly, a very panicked dog was present for that encounter too.

I know you like to play the name game, Loren, so my eyes were immediately drawn to the last name of one of the witnesses- the 10-year-old Ronald Shaver. Richard Shaver, of course, was the origin of the “Shaver Mystery” concerning a war between 2 subterranean civilizations- the Teros and the Deros (Detrimental Robots). Wikipedia adds this-

“Though generally confined to their caves, Shaver claimed that the Deros sometimes traveled by spaceships or rockets, and had dealings with equally evil extraterrestrial beings.”

Not so, though, as you point out, when you take one night of recorded turmoil and place it in the context of years of serious involvement by government and military, months of recorded sightings everywhere over the US (in perhaps the biggest UFO flap ever), the “shootdown” order, and the unstinting testimony of the persons involved and recorded in the media of the day, et al.

Just canted academics counting self-important beads and prosecuting the usual hubris regarding things they are not really informed about? I suspect so.

LC, as our fly on the wall, you are to be commended for pricking the nose-bubbles of these smirking academicians and returning them to reality. I suspect they hate you for it.

That said, Frank Feschino, imo, has written the definitive book on the subject:

http://flatwoodsmonster.com/

The story is more credible than an unthinking West Virginia intelligentsia will allow in ther affected hubris, and the group is singularly unmindful that a true history of the Flatwoods Monster and “Shoot Them Down” is economically fortuitous, tourist-wise, for a West Virginia dying on the federal vine!

I’m not saying they should promote crap for dollars, but promote real history for same… forsaking their uninformed hubris, institutional arrogance, and a further reason to discount a niggardly science… forsake the preceding to be intelligent, progressive and brave!

I’m a brand new whippersnapper. I’m excited to be part of this community!

One question: I’m not knowledgeable enough about the Flatwoods monster–(I know enough about it from Loren’s books and Wikipedia, though)—

Has it ever been conjectured that the monster was one of Keel’s interdimensional tricksters?

Or simply a “metallic” alien?

Seriously. Anyone?

There was no thought to proving a hoax or not, for that would be a literal, empirical reading of these events. The scholars on this panel were not dealing in that realm, although they could not help but sometimes slip into that stance, because, after all, they are only human.