Linda Scarberry

In late 1966, people in the little town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and the surrounding area began seeing strange things in the sky. Over a period of only a few weeks, hundreds of people reported seeing UFOs. Then on the night of November 15, two young married couples were joyriding near an abandoned munitions plant, called the TNT area, outside of town. They saw something that night they would never forget: a huge, humanlike figure with wings and glowing red eyes. At first thrilled, then terrified, they soon drove back to town and called the police.

Over the next few weeks, several more people saw the creature, which came to be known as Mothman. The creature received nationwide publicity when a freelance reporter, John Keel, wrote a series of newspaper articles and a book called The Mothman Prophecies.

Mothman disappeared just as...