Interesting topic, I don't think anyone has mentioned this creature before. The description of it doesn't match any other sighting I've seen. The pictures on the site make it almost look mechanical (robotic). In that case I would have to vote alien rather than cryptozoological (even though you could theoretically put aliens under CZ).

I can't even begin to formulate a theory as to what this thing is. I'll read over the site(s) more carefully and report back if I think of anything.

One person who witnessed the Flatwoods Monster said it was in fact a machine and speculated that it could have been some form of suit with an alien inside of it. Here is a report from another site which supports the idea that it was mechanical and gives a more detailed description of the Monster.

"At the top of the hill, the witnesses saw a glowing ball and saw the creature. It was vaguely humanoid, with a blood-red face, greenish-orange eyes that glowed (some say its eyes projected beams of light), and what looked like a hooded robe, dark green in color."

The only discrepancy between sightings is that some say the creature had arms and others claim they were simply antenae sticking out of the monster.

"They fled, terrified. Later, Lemon returned with a reporter. The site was also visited by local law enforcement and later still, a reporter from Fate magazine.Skid marks were found near the hill, and a depressed circle in the grass, entirely like the marking that might be made if a large object had "parked" there. The skid marks contained a greasy substance which was never properly tested."

Here is another quote that may show that the creature did have an intent to harm those who witnessed it.

"The eye witnesses described it as having, “a bright red face, bright green clothing, a head which resembled the ace of spades, and clothing which, from the waist down, hung in great folds”. Shortly after the creature realized it had been sited, it began to hover towards the witnesses. The group then retreated. "

My gradfather is actually from sutton, which is a town directly next to flatwoods. he was in elementary school at the time, and his father was friends with the officer that saw it. my grandfather recounts that his father said there was no reason to not believe it, because the deputy was definantly not lying.

ID,

Thanks for this post. You've brought-up an interesting UFO case from history that I'd totally forgotten about... So, please forgive me if you thought one of my replies to one of your earlier threads seemed to imply that I thought you weren't interested in historical research....

As for the 'monster'... I tend to agree with the notion that it was a robot of some kind. It almost reminds me of one of the 'imperial probes' from The Empire Strikes Back... A self-reliant machine that could defend the area of a UFO crash site for awhile. And, for those of you who think that idea is too science fictiony to be real.. keep in mind that PackBot, Predator, GlobalHawk, and other robots have been used, recently, in Gulf War 2 and Afghanistan.

As the 'monster' seemed to be defending a specific perimeter, my guess is that it was not out to explore, though, but to hide the ship it came in on.. which may have housed ETs. In this regard, the 'smell' near it may have been a type of non-lethal chemical weapon (the line from one of the newspapers which began, "A monster with B.O. ..." was hilarious).

But was it a prank/hoax? Well, a problem with the story is that it was reported by a single woman and a bunch of teenage boys. Though, in and of itself, there is no problem with this, I detected a tone in the newspaper articles which seemed to 'wink' an implied judgement about a woman who spends her time with a group of 17 year olds. Though I have no problem with these witnesses, I sensed that the writers of the articles were trying to imply something, here... If I am grossly misreading this, please correct me. Otherwise, I also noticed that, though the articles talk of government 'knowledge' of the UFO inflight, no mention is made of radar returns or air defense fighters having spotted it.

So, I'm not sure if it's real or not.

So, please forgive me if you thought one of my replies to one of your earlier threads seemed to imply that I thought you weren't interested in historical research....

I am quite taken aback by this statement. I was not aware of any post were you and I quarreled. Believe you me I did not think that as I am only now being informed of it. Please if you can inform me of were this happened as I honestly have no recollection of this.

Now, that being said on to the Monster. I really do like your hypothesis of a droid and feel this provides answers for a lot of loose ends. The witnesses claim the monster came after them when it was spotted. If it had beams for eyes and could hover then how did they escape? The only explanation I can think of is that the monster had no intent on killing the witnesses and only cared about them as they had breached the monsters perimeter around the crashed ship. Once the humans fled and were out of the perimeter the monster no longer cared about them or what they had seen as it's job was to protect the craft.

As for the smell the monster is said to produce, I like your theory of a non-leathal weapon. This also fits with the "droid" theory as the smell would deter humans from the crash. I do however have another theory in which this smell was in no way intentional. One article mentioned a strange greasy substance that was never properly tested. Perhaps the monster was damaged during the crash. The smell could have been parts in the monster malfunctioning (similar examples would be the smell of electrical fires or burning rubber) this would also attribute for the greasy substance. I believe that the droid had to be damaged as I can see no other reason for the greasy substance left by the monster.

I am not sure they mentioned in any article what happened to the crash itself. I mean each one claims that they went back with cops and reporters and the Monster was gone but does that mean the ship was as well? Could the ship have been hastily repaired and then piloted away? Perhaps the craft was not severally damaged. Even if this is true there should still be a crash crater or some evidence that something crashed near the sighting of the Monster. If the crash did happen and if what ever piloted the craft was able to repair it and lift off again then I would say the Flatwoods Monster served it's purpose perfectly.