WE THE PEOPLE!

"FLATWOODS MONSTER" 

FEATURED ON TV SHOW 

WE THE PEOPLE
64 YEARS AGO TODAY
SEPTEMBER 19, 1952 - SEPTEMBER 19, 2016



On Thursday, September 18, 1952, "Flatwoods Monster" witnesses Kathleen May and Eugene Lemon were accompanied to New York City by Braxton Democrat newspaperman, A. Lee Stewart, Jr. after being asked to appear on the very highly popular television talk show, We The People. The far-reaching Flatwoods incident, which Stewart broke to the news media, had peaked the interest of NBC television executives and they wanted the Braxton County residents on their television program.

The Braxton County trio was flown into New York late Thursday afternoon and stayed at the Belmont Hotel... scheduled to appear on the show the following night, September 19, 1952. On Friday afternoon, May, Lemon, and Stewart were driven to the TV studio and were greeted by the host of the show, Mr. Daniel Seymour. Off set, the "Flatwoods Monster" witnesses explained the "Flatwoods Monster" encounter to Seymour, while a sketch artist sat nearby and drew a sketch of the "Monster." 

May and Lemon explained some of the details to the sketch artist, who questioned them as he continued to sketch the figure during the interview. After the illustration was finished, the large drawing was handed off to a crew member to be used for the opening of the live TV broadcast show.

Mr. Seymour then finished talking with May, Lemon and Stewart off camera, and the crew prepped them for their imminent interviews. Cue the music, folks! 

Mr. Seymour strode out onto the set and took his place at center stage while the three Braxton County residents took their seats on set to begin their presentation. The live show began moments later when the camera focused on the master of ceremonies, Mr. Daniel Seymour. There was an eerie silence in the studio and the broadcast went live.

The show opened by setting the scenario with a soft narration while the nearby orchestra simultaneously performed soothing background music to set the atmosphere of a fall day in West Virginia. Mr. Seymour calmly began to tell the story, stating:

"Imagine a scene in the autumn dusk, in a lonely secluded spot, which you reach right after viewing a fiery meteor in the sky. This was easy to imagine. THIS WAS NOT SO EASY."

Suddenly, another camera cut to the big drawing of the "monster," which was flashed on the screen of unsuspecting American viewers as the orchestra music turned eerie and crescendoed to a feverish pitch. At that moment, history was made as a shocked American public gasped at the sight of the "Braxton County Monster" on their nascent television sets for the first time! Verily reader, the illustration of the "Flatwoods Monster" was "a lie telling a truth," but real tragedy on further investigation... enduring cheap-shots for the effect even in the beginning... 

Chief among them are regretted memories of the unreturned and long forgotten fighter pilots lost engaging those UFOs...through the wounded pride and sensibilities of the betrayed persons involved with the Flatwoods event, to the ongoing disgrace of a media continuing to misinform us today!  Such remains to be so.

See, the realistic portrayal of the Flatwoods figure was correctly described to Frank Feschino, Jr. by Mrs. May during his many interviews with her and was also described to reporter Stewart as well by May; it was as a hovering mechanical device! It was not a "Monster" wearing a dress. Feschino, a college-trained illustrator, worked closely with Mrs. May and her son Freddie and did police-style renderings of the figure to ensure it's accuracy. 

For example reader, in reference to the incorrect portrayal of the figure that was drawn by the 1952 TV artist, Mrs. May explained the following about the "monster's" arms and claws during an interview with Frank, "It looked something like antennae sticking out from it, between the body and head." During another interview, the following transpired when Feschino and May discussed the incorrect 1952 TV show drawing: 

Mrs. May: "They just told me they'd like to draw a sketch of it, and Gene and I together had told him what we'd seen, and he [artist] drew the sketch."

Feschino: "Why did he draw arms on it then, because you told me it had antennae?

Mrs. May: "I told him that too! But that's what he drew on it. To make it look more like a 'monster' I guess."

The disgrace of the media led to the incorrect portrayal of the mechanical figure and the folklore of the "Flatwoods Monster" was born! But wait, reader! There's more, much more.

On Monday, September 15, 1952, and, as pointed out above, and preceding the We the People interview (so they should have known), The Charleston Gazette newspaper posted an article containing this information about the accurate description of the so-called "monster." This information was actually obtained by A. Lee Stewart, Jr. during his interviews with the witnesses back in Flatwoods, immediately after the encounter happened. You see, Stewart was at the May home shortly after the encounter, then led a posse of armed men onto the farm where the encounter occurred, talked to the witnesses that night and later interviewed them in the following days.

The newspaper article of evidence explained, "Braxton Monster Left Skid Tracks Where He Landed—(Special to The Gazette)," actually precedes the incorrect portrayal of the TV show "Monster" drawing... by five days! Yes reader, five days! The witnesses gave the actual description regarding the "monster," at the start! The staff of the We the People program really can't claim an ignorance when it was this initial report crossing their interest threshold initially.

It "Wore a suit of green armor. Looked like a mechanical man. It had a blood-red face. It sported a black, spade-like cowl which extended a foot or more above its head." Yes, reporter Stewart got it right in his reportage.

Five days later in New York, Kathleen May was trying to describe the pipes to the artist and likened them to the rolling pleats of drapes! The artist drew... drapes. C'mon! Given the artist must have been provided Stewart's report... the artist could have just phoned that in! Eyewitness Freddie May told Feschino, "What mother described as the pleats of hanging drapes, were actually tubes running vertically." 

Freddie May added, "They were metal, they were actually metal pipes" and compared them to the thickness of a "fireman's hose." Freddie also told Frank, "I think those tubes were some sort of propulsion system. It was hovering about one-foot off the ground." May also said this of the figure, "It was mechanical; it was not alive. Maybe inside of the thing—there could have been something alive." May added, "what I saw was either a small spaceship or suit of some kind. ...Something it was wearing. It was mechanical." Feschino also queried Mrs. May the following about the body of the "Flatwoods Monster" and asked, "Did it look cloth-like or metallic?" She replied, "No! It looked more metallic." May added, 

"It was just kind of floating. It was about a foot to a foot and a half off the ground."

1952 was a Summer of Saucers followed by Presidential orders to the military to shoot those UFOs down.  Should we be surprised that one was shot down on the old Fisher farm, with others in a very turbulent West Virgina, right about now 64 years ago?

Something else, too.  We the people was a hugely successful program and sold a lot of "soap."  There would be just one more program after Flatwoods and then it went out like a candle.  Make of that what you will.

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