AP Magazine

Encounters of the Unknown—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2015

A Halloween with Mothman?

by: Brent Raynes

In the March 1976 issue of FATE magazine, a Virginia Miller of Elma, New York, wrote a letter to the editor stating that after reading a book review of John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies, she was reminded of an experience that her father had had, of all times, on Halloween night in 1974. She explained that they had never heard of Mothman until nearly a year after her father’s own encounter.

Her father, outside the house that night watching for overzealous trick or treaters, felt a compulsion to go to the backyard where his daughter Virginia had recently had a miniature replica of Stonehenge constructed with cement blocks. Stumbling over a low garden fence he fell to his knees, got up and approached the circle. Then over nearby trees Mr. Miller was startled to see a human-like figure with a 9-10 foot wingspan and a “large grotesque head,” come gliding down towards him. It was very close and then suddenly it veered off back towards the woods.

Virginia felt that her father had been protected from the “gargoyle” because a friend trained in the ancient Celtic traditions had placed upon the site an old and protective Celtic blessing. She also reported that like the people chronicled by Keel, she and her parents were “plagued by various misfortunes for months” after the incident.

A personal correspondent of mine wrote to Virginia Miller and later visited her and her father. The creature, my friend was told, had had “leathery skin,” plus “glowing eyes” with a “turtle like face” and a “long neck.” Also, like so many of the Mothman witnesses, my friend found that the Miller’s too had had a history of various kinds of psychic experiences too.