Just
this past June 2018, bartender John Amitrano was finishing his late-night shift at a local
bar in Chicago when he stepped outside for some fresh air. Hearing a plane buzzing overhead, he looked
up and was startled to find a second figure closely following the plane from beneath. "I saw a plane flying, but also something
moving really awkwardly under it," Amitrano said. "It didn't look like a bat so much as what
illustrations of pterodactyls look like, with the slenderness of its head and its wing shape.” While Amitrano's story is strange, dozens
of other Chicago area natives have reported the same figure throughout 2018. Welcome to another special episode of The
Infographics Show's Greatest Mysteries. The legend of the Mothman. Amitrano is far from alone in reporting sightings
of what has been dubbed the Chicago Mothman. To date, 55 other witnesses have come forward
in 2017 alone, with descriptions of a large flying humanoid. What exactly is stalking the nighttime skies
of Chicago, and could it be the legendary Mothman, harbinger of pending disaster? Though legends from all around the world tell
of flying humanoids that portend disaster, the entity that came to be known as Mothman
originates from the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966. On November 16th of that year, the Point Pleasant
Register ran a story with the headline “Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something”,
marking the beginning of a rash of sightings that would end in tragedy for the local community. That first sighting of Mothman occurred a
few nights prior. Steve and Mary Mallette, along with Roger
and Linda Scarberry, were driving on West Virginia Route 62. When they crested a hill, they came face-to-face
with a seven-foot-tall (2.1 m) creature with large red eyes and a 10-foot (3 m) wingspan. Swerving around the creature, they drove away,
but seconds later, the Mothman reappeared in front of their car. Hitting almost 100 mph (161 km/h), the two
couples made for town as the creature continued to chase them, soaring high up above the car
and back down again. Turning onto a farm road, the creature once
again got out ahead of them and blocked their path, lying down on the road as though hoping
one of them would step out of the car to investigate. Fearing the creature was laying a trap for
them, the couples refused to step out of their car and instead backed up onto the highway
and finally made their way to town. Later that night, the couples returned with
a sheriff only to discover a “strange lump of dust” where the creature had lain. The news article encouraged others to come
forward with their own stories. Many others also saw the creature, but remained
silent due to fear of being ridiculed. A group of grave diggers came forward, telling
the Point Pleasant Register that they too had encountered a half-man, half-moth creature
flying through the trees just above their heads. The reports continued to come in over the
next year, with residents hearing strange noises outside, and finding red glowing eyes
staring back at them from the darkness. Many skeptics have since concluded that the
Mothman sightings were nothing more than a misidentified sandhill crane or great horned
owl, yet this does not explain why the sightings suddenly stopped after the tragic collapse
of the Silver Bridge on December 15, 1967. With many of the eyewitnesses reporting that
during Mothman's yearlong visit, they felt a pending sense of doom and tragedy, it's
curious that the creature would completely disappear from the local area after the bridge
collapse. Another bridge collapse in 2007 would be linked
to the Mothman. Reports of Mothman sightings flooding in shortly
before the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minnesota. In an eerily similar manner to the Silver
Bridge collapse, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge buckled during the evening rush hour
on August 1, 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. After the collapse, eyewitnesses came forward
to state that they had seen a large flying humanoid in the area for months prior to the
collapse, but, as usual, had remained silent for fear of being ridiculed. One woman claimed to have seen the creature
while driving in the vicinity of the bridge. She stated that the creature had large red
eyes and a ten-foot (3 m) wingspan yet seemed to fly incredibly fast while hardly flapping
its wings. But the Mothman is hardly just an American
phenomenon. Sightings of what was dubbed the Freiburg
Shrieker occurred across the Atlantic in Germany. On September 10, 1978, a group of miners prepared
for a day's work in a coal mine near Freiburg, Germany. Approaching the mouth of the mine, they were
startled to discover what they thought was a tall man in a dark trench coat blocking
access. Approaching the figure to demand he move out
of the way, the men were surprised to discover that the figure was not a man at all, but
rather an entity with large, bat-like wings pinned to its sides. Without warning, the figure began to let loose
a series of shrieks that, according to the miners, sounded like 50 men screaming at once
combined with the sound of a train's emergency brakes. Terrified, the miners fled, but stayed near
the area of the mine. An hour later, the mine was rocked by an explosion
that caused its collapse, and authorities would later state that had the men been at
their posts during the explosion, they would all have died. While the Freiburg Shrieker was credited with
saving their lives, months later, nearly a third of the miners would go on to develop
serious mental disorders, a fate shared by Mothman witnesses around the world. The earthquake and resulting tsunami off the
coast of Japan in 2011 is best remembered for the subsequent Fukushima nuclear plant
disaster, but here too Mothman seemed to play a role in portending its doom. Just days after the tsunami, reports began
to spread across the internet from Japanese and foreign nationals living on the island
nation, of sightings of a Mothman-like creature near or around the area of the Fukushima plant. One report claims that while out checking
on some scientific instruments studying the effects of the nuclear power plant's waste
heat on the nearby environment, a man and his friend were startled by loud shrieking
sounds. They were similar to “a city bus' brakes
when they are in need of service, loud and ear-splitting.” Looking around, two friends and another couple
out for a walk in the area spotted a large creature sitting atop one of the nuclear power
plant's buildings, which were silhouetted against the moonlit sky. As the four witnesses watched, the creature
spread its wings out to an estimated length of ten feet (3 m) and took to the air. It began to do circles around the buildings
housing the reactors that would melt down weeks later. Suddenly and without warning, the creature
turned towards the four, flying at them at high speed about 25 feet (7.6 meters) off
the ground. The four witnesses cowered in fear as the
creature flew straight over them. One of the witnesses relayed that the creature
had two large red eyes that seemed to glow from within. As it flew over and past them, all four were
overwhelmed by a feeling of dread, a terrible fear that they shouldn't be there. Melting into the night sky, the creature was
not seen again. Just weeks later, disaster would strike the
Fukushima plant, irradiating large portions of the countryside and forcing hundreds of
thousands to flee the area permanently. Our ancestors believed that both angels and
demons inhabited our world, bringing prophecies of doom to those who didn't listen to their
warnings. Could these ancient stories of angels and
demons have been the original Mothman sightings, and could these legends be a mischaracterization
of a very real and very mysterious creature that science has yet to document? Is Mothman a good entity trying to warn us,
or is it merely a creature that feeds off human tragedy? Or is it none of these things and merely the
result of an overactive imagination, misidentified birds, and a desire to place the blame for
senseless tragedy on something other than random bad fortune? We might never know. So, do you believe in the Mothman? Have you ever seen one? Know of any other monsters or legends you'd
like to see us investigate? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
called What If You never Left The Bathtub! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don't
forget to like, share, and subscribe for more great content! See you next time!
