Morbid - Episode 332: Cryptids: The Flatwoods Monster & The Melonheads
Episode Date: June 29, 2022You like creepy shit? You wanna hear about some cryptids? Cool, this is the episode for you then. Alaina brings us the real life experiences of those who have encountered the Flatwoods Monste...r, which resides in West Virginia. Was it extraterrestrial, was it the government, did it happen? Yes to all. Ash then dives into the legend of the Melonheads, a heartbreaking and terrifying tale all at the same time! Thank you to listeners Haley and Kristen for their stories about their experiences with these cryptids. If you want to send us a suggestion for a Cryptid to cover, or your experience with a cryptid in general send them in to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Cryptid” somewhere in the subject line :)Mysterious Universe Melonheads encountersThe Flatwoods Monster documentary by Small Town MonstersVisit the Flatwoods Monster museum!Thank you to our sponsors!!Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/morbidSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Melina.
I'm Ash and this is Morbid.
Woo!
It's a cryptid's morbid episode.
It is, and I'm so excited for this one. I feel like we've been talking.
I think we've mentioned that we're gonna do this episode
and we've been working on them for some time.
I like, I took some out of the running.
I put some back in the running.
And then I ended up just focusing on one particular cryptid.
That's exactly what happened to me because- Oh, did it really? That's exactly what happened to me because-
Oh, did it really?
That's literally what happened to me
because when you first look them up,
it always feels like, all right,
there's really not a lot on this.
I'll just cover a few and we'll get through it.
And then I started like really digging into this
and I was like, wait a second.
You were like, oh, there's a lot more on this.
Oh, shit.
So I think we're gonna be,
we're just going willy-nilly, like where these cryptids are from,
but we are going to be covering, at least I'm gonna be covering one from
Braxton County, West Virginia. Ooh!
Yeah, so you know it's gonna be good.
I was trying to think about the map in my mind. I'm really bad at geography,
so that was what that long pause of signing up was like what's happening right now?
It's everything okay
It's so fun fact
I was trying to think about if Ohio and Michigan are close to West Virginia. Okay. That's it
I yeah, I mean you're not far off. That's it. That's the thought all right. Well, I'm glad you had that thought
Yeah, my ear popped at the same time so congrats to me too because I was like should I pause recording or you
You know, are you good? No, I was thinking about the map and then I was like, should I pause recording or you'll go tap a thaw?
No, I was thinking about the map
and then I had like, my ears are all fucked right now
and I had a big burst to my ear
and I was like, ooh, I'm alive again.
I was like, oh, I can hear, okay.
Fun.
Well, that's fun.
And you know, this was brought to my attention
because we're gonna be talking about the Flatwoods monster.
Ooh, yes.
So the, or, yeah, the Flatwoods.
Sorry, I saw it.
I didn't know if it was Flatwood or flatwoods. It's flatwoods.
Oh, yeah, you said it. You said it just right. I was good. You said what you said. I said what I said and that's all that
I'll say it's not I'm gonna say more. Oh, she said and that's all that he said. That's what I always say it wrong
You always wish I said something different than what I actually said. Am I am I micro am I micro managing you? You're micro managing me. This is this hostile.
I quit.
I'm sorry.
I quit.
On air.
That's it.
Just throw your eye pat on my face.
This is it.
This is it.
I'm done.
I'm interested to hear this.
All right, so this was sent in by listener Haley.
Hi, Haley.
Haley, after reading this email that you sent, I love you.
And I want to be friends.
You just seem rad. Like you're hilarious. I want to be friends, you just seem rad,
like you're hilarious.
I want to be friends with Haley,
and I don't even know what Haley's talking about.
Haley's hilarious, and her child is really adorable.
So, this was named West Virginia,
has the best cryptids changed my mind, you can't.
Amazing.
And I won't even try to.
See, I love that energy of like,
I believe in this, it doesn't matter if you do,
but that's it.
Yeah.
So this says, hello to my most favorite weirdos.
Hi.
Insert obligatory and necessary you guys
that thing rock in your show is my favorite
and I have a creepy obsession, but don't call the popo.
I'm mostly harmless, ha ha.
Me too.
My name is Hailey.
And I live in North Central, West Virginia.
I'm always bummed when you have listener tails
and I think to myself,
why doesn't anything spooky or true crime
happen to me that I can write it about?
Okay, maybe not true crime,
but I dig a ghostly visit or an alien encounter
or something.
However, on a recent show,
you mentioned that you wanted to talk about cryptids
and I was like, yes, queen.
Legit, West Virginia has a butt load of cryptids.
She is not wrong. Yeah, I actually saw some from West Virginia has a butt load of cryptids. She is not wrong.
Yeah, I actually saw some for West Virginia
when I was looking.
Of course you did.
I grew up hearing stories about Mothman,
which we are planning to cover Mothman,
but he needs his own episode.
I wanna do that one, and I wanna do it like,
right for it.
Just go ham on it.
You know, creepy-ass giant flying black thing
with red glowing eyes that chills
in point pleasant West Virginia. It is probably the most well-known of
the West Virginia cryptid so I won't go into that one. Can I say, sorry, you paused,
but like very briefly and I just went for it. I do feel like Mothman, this is a
weird thing to say. I don't know if it's like my state of mind right now. I feel
like Mothman has zaddy energy. Okay, all right.
It was a weird thing to say.
I won't argue with it.
Do you know what I mean?
I will like sign for you, but I will.
No, you don't have to sign off.
But like, do you get the sentiment?
I get the sentiment.
Like he's just like, she's making a very,
I guess, Zaddy energy type move.
Just like he's got it.
He's big to care of it. She's big, he'll take care of it.
She's just wafting her arms back and forth,
which I don't know.
I kind of like Mothbam.
I get it.
I get it.
Sorry.
I just needed to take that super quick moment.
You had to get something off your chest.
You had to confess something deep and dark to everybody.
Yeah.
And you did that.
I would have to interrupt.
Well, Haley said you can do your badass research thing.
If you would like to cover it, sending vibes,
please cover it.
Well, there you go.
Okay.
It was Haley's vibes that made us do that.
It was.
However, Mossman isn't the only thing that brings all the cryptos
who all just to the figurative West Virginia yard,
though our monsters are better than yours.
And they're like, it's better than yours.
And they're salient. I am 33 and me and my daughter compete in pageant all over the
state. Don't judge. Mama loves a fancy dress, a shiny hat, and unreasonably high heels.
I'm also a lawyer and you know what they say. Never underestimate a woman with a shiny
hat and subpoena power. Okay, maybe I only say that, but they should. They should say
that. I'm obsessed with you also at this point.
I'm like, I want to be your friend.
Let's be friends.
Anyway, there was a point to that sidebar
as my page, my page adventures
often lead me to the beautiful town of Sutton
in Braxton County, West Virginia.
In this charming little town, there are not one,
but two separate museums,
each dedicated to a different West Virginia monster.
Oh, hell yeah.
First, there is the Flatwoods Monster Museum.
And don't worry, she's gonna describe it a little bit,
but I'll get into the details of my thing.
Okay.
The Flatwoods Monster affectionately called Bracksey by fans.
Cute.
Was a creature encountered by some kids
and a mother in the 1950s.
Think alien encounter, like literally,
he was said to be super tall, have red skin
and green clothes and float.
They also reported a strange, weird smell.
After running for help, others went to the scene to see only some marks on the ground,
and then the same weird smell.
It became local and national news, and lives on in West Virginia as one of our lesser-known,
yet beloved cryptids.
There are various monster-themed things all over the county, including several braxi chairs
that you're supposed to find and take pictures with.
I've only found three so far.
Three's a pretty great find, I would say.
Three is my lucky number, so I think it's great.
There you go.
I'm attaching a few photos I took at the museum,
including one of a sign with a very stern directive
that there are to be absolutely no sciences.
Oh, shit.
I need to know why.
The last time I went, I asked the employee
why the stern warning.
And though she did not know, she suspected, as I do,
that there is some great story behind that warning.
There has to be.
She said she would find out.
And I thanked her.
Well, simultaneously threatening to come back next time
with my own Ouija board if I didn't know why I couldn't.
I'm really curious. I'm really curious.
I love you.
I'm really curious if the rule would be enforced,
as it would definitely be the most metal thing
to get banned from a business for.
It definitely would be, I think.
I love that.
The second museum is the Bigfoot Museum.
West Virginia is pretty much just a giant, beautiful forest,
so it's no surprise that there are many, many big foot sightings across the state.
Big foot feet, big feet.
The museum features big foot-based art,
accounts of sightings, casts of big foot footprints
found all over the state,
and many more big foot-themed things.
I'm attaching a couple of pictures from that museum as well.
In fact, next week is the big foot festival in Sutton.
Let's go.
Which I am told will pay homage
to all of West Virginia's cryptids.
Wow.
That sounds awesome.
That sounds like it would be so much fun to go to.
There, these are just a couple of,
the West Virginia cryptids, but there are many more,
including that boy.
Yeah, like the musical.
Ha ha.
There are also many ghostly and haunted places.
Look into the green briar ghost,
who's, oh, I love that one, Who's hauntings made it into a court transcript and helped
prove the ghost had been murdered. It's a great story. That may be what I
cover next, actually, because you just inspired me so hard. And you, because now I
need to know, I don't think I've heard of that. We got to. The- or the
Mountsville Prison and the Trans Alleghenius Island, which we covered in one of
our live shows. Oh, yeah.
Both are haunted AF.
And of course, there's the site where the West Virginia University Coids bodies were
found, Sans Heads.
Hella close to my house, by the way.
Oh, sure.
Y'all should just come to West Virginia and do a whole damn spooky at Weird Ash Show.
I'll even treat you to a pepperoni roll and some local Blackberry wine.
Yes, please.
Blackberry wine, say no more. Yes.
Anyways, thanks for reading.
If you did, and I hope that you enjoyed my photos,
keep it weird.
I very much enjoyed your photos.
Shut up.
They're the cutest.
Shut up.
It literally has a sign at the museum
that says absolutely no sayances.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Oh my god, I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
It's got big foot. Oh my god, your love it. I love it. I love it. It's got big foot.
Oh my god, your child is the cutest.
She's so cute.
This is just awesome.
She was that big tiara.
How yeah, she did.
She brought home the bacon.
Yeah, she did.
Good for you, man.
Go, baby, go.
So now that we have a little bit of a, you know, a local's perspective on the whole
face.
Let's go into the Flatwoods monster, A.C.A.K.A. the Green Monster,
A.K.A. Braxie,
or Braxie County Monster,
or the Phantom of Flatwoods.
I do just need to point out that there is only one
Green Monster.
Thank you because I was thinking that the entire time
I will never refer to it as the Green Monster
because there is only one home of the Green Monster
and that is Fenway,
Motherfuckin Park.
Motherfuckers. That's where I am. I was Monster, and that is Fenway, Motherfuckin Park. Motherfuckers.
That's where I am.
I was waiting for you to say Fenway Park
because then I was gonna say Motherfuckers.
Say it is.
We did it twice.
We did it twice because Boston.
So, we are in Flatwoods, West Virginia,
in Braxton County.
So, Twas Dusk on September 12th, 1952,
when Ed and Fred May, a doorbell.
Ed and Fred shot on others. 13 and 12th, 1952, when Ed and Fred may, Ed and Fred shut off.
Brothers.
13 and 12 respectively were outside on the front lawn
of Flatwood's elementary school.
They were playing with their pals, Neil Nunley,
and Teddy Neal, and Tommy Heiler.
Adorable.
They were all between the ages of like 10
and I think like 16, all of them altogether.
Suddenly, they saw something in the sky
that appeared to be either on fire
or just pulsating red,
but they all say they believe it was on fire.
Oh wow.
Like a fireball.
And they all described it as a fireball
that was at least the size of a house.
Jesus. Like a small house.
Oh my goodness.
So they're all like, what the fuck?
So they watch it and it looks like
this flaming space object lands on a hillside
on or near G Bailey Fisher's farm
So it stopped it like it kind of just like went it wasn't going like crazy fast like an asteroid
So they said it went and then it stopped its forward motion
Hovered for a split second on a hillside and then went down like it was landing
Weird so it like stopped its forward trajectory very quickly and like it knew like it was landing. So it stopped its forward trajectory very quickly.
And it knew where it was going.
It was exactly, it was intentional.
So they said the red light was still visible
behind the hills where it landed.
So they could just see this red pulsating light
coming from the hillside.
Now the maze later said, again, that this was not an asteroid,
not a shooting star, not some kind of space thing.
Not a UFL. That they believe space thing. Not a UFL.
That you could, they believe it might have been a UFL,
but they believe it wasn't something
that could be explained away like, oh, I saw a meteor.
Yes.
Because they said it wasn't super fast.
It just floated down and intentionally landed.
So they immediately run towards it,
but they stop on the way to grab the mom
of the maize brothers, Kathleen May.
And they wanted her to come with them,
which was really responsible for 1952, I think,
because I feel like back then, kids would just like,
run off into the wild blue yonder.
And they never tell anyone, so good for these boys.
Good job.
Yeah, you've seen stand by me.
Respectable.
So Kathleen was like, wow, that sounds very safe.
And like something I want to take you to boys.
Like, thank you for grabbing me for this.
I love it.
But Kathleen was described as super playful, like very kind, but a very feisty woman.
That's what everyone said.
Fiery.
She sounds great.
She was also fiercely independent after she had divorced from the boy's father in recent
years.
And she was motivated only by caring for her family.
And she did it on her own.
And she did it really well according to everybody.
I love that.
But so when her boys came running
and were like, I saw a spacecraft crash into that hillside,
she was like, let's fucking go.
Let's go, let's go girls.
Which one of us?
But boys.
And she, that's a mom right there.
That's a cool mom to be like, all right,
let's go into the woods and find this fucking spacecraft.
Also, is this a movie?
Right, it sounds like it, but it's real.
There's no night, but has a movie been made?
There is movies that have been made about this,
but she got seven, so she was like, all right, let's go.
But on the way, she got 17 year old family friend
in distant cousin of theirs,
and who was like visiting the family.
And he happened to also be a member of the National Guard.
His name was Eugene Lemon, known as Gene. They also got what they described as the community dog. Like it was
a dog that was like everybody's dog, Richie, to come with them too. He just kind of like
wandered with them and they were like, cool Richie, come on. So this squad hikes on over
there. And immediately when they arrive in the vicinity, they start to smell rotten
eggs. Like they start to smell sulfur. And it gets worse and worse and worse. Their eyes
began burning, they said. And it felt like the air was heavy.
Is it, when you smell sulfur, that's supposed to be like, um, like, signify like a demon,
isn't it? Yeah, that's definitely, um, it definitely is like associated with demonic activity,
activity, which has been brought up in this scenario. But mostly they it definitely is like associated with demonic activity, which
has been brought up in this scenario, but mostly they believe this is like some kind of alien
encounter.
I think.
What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times or fell in love with a vampire
or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed.
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They said it was almost like this gas was surrounding them.
Ooh, yeah. And it was still red and pulsating, and it was definitely as they got closer to it,
the size of a small house. There was a ground mist that leaked from the area
of the landing site, and it was surrounding them as well.
Strangerthings.com.
Truly stranger things.
Guys, stranger things are so good.
I can't get over anything.
It's too close.
It's so close to coming back.
I'm ready for it.
OK.
I got to start.
You got to start.
I know.
I'm busy.
So I'm busy.
I'm booked and busy.
It's worth it.
So Richie, now this is really sad. Oh no, just
warning. Great. Richie the dog ran towards the mist and toward the egg-shaped craft that was
pulsating in the center of the site. When he got close to it, he suddenly stopped and started to
howl and then ran back down into town away from the site, like just pieced out of there. Okay.
He was found later by people in the village and he was vomiting uncontrollably.
Oh no!
He was taken to a vet and he died unexplainably.
Do you think it was like radiation?
Well, that's what, as we'll see,
this something was leaking out of here, for sure.
Oh shit.
So suddenly, when Eugene Lemmon
shown his flashlight towards a sound
that was emitting from behind them,
because they're all staring at this craft
being like, what the fuck is this?
They hear some weird sound behind them.
So he flicks his flashlight over there
and there was an old wooden gate.
And when they turned, they saw it.
It was floating above some of the tree branches
and seemed to be searching the horizon for something
or just surveying it.
It was a 10 foot tall creature with a red colored head
that was the shape of a spade.
What?
And it was pointed at the top like a spade.
It had glowing eyes, like glowing green eyes.
And gnarled arms and hands, or at least things
that they were like protrusions,
that looked like arms or hands,
but they were all gnarled up and they looked kind
of like stringy claws.
That's kind of thing.
Even stranger, it was wearing what was described as green, metal, armor, like a dress, almost.
What?
It almost looked like it was wearing like a metal dress.
It was floating above the ground and it was shrieking.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
For a second there, it was giving me like my life as a teenage robot vibes, but that thing's changed.
It changed very quick.
You're like, I don't know what that is.
And now it's just shrieking above the trees.
Well later in an interview about this incident, Kathleen May the mom said when Jean's flashlight
beam hit the creature, it lit up like a Christmas tree.
What?
Now it saw them.
Like when they flashed the light over and it started hissing.
No. Now it saw them, like when they flash the light over and it started hissing.
No.
And Kathleen described the hiss as frying, like frying bacon
in a pan.
Yeah.
And he tried to hover over to them.
No, so it was coming towards them.
They all ran the fuck out of there.
It's 10 feet tall, how do you run away from that?
They just got the hell out of there.
In fact, one of the maze brothers said there was a six foot
tall fence down the hill where they were running and it had a gate, but he was laughing during an interview later
talking about this one like now.
Like when he was a whirlser.
He was doing an interview with small town monsters, which is like a documentary crew
that I'm going to talk about there, documentary in this too.
It's really interesting and I tell I'm going to recommend you check it out because it's
very interesting. They really talk to a lot of people involved in this and I loved I'm gonna recommend you check it out because it's very interesting.
They really talk to a lot of people involved in this
and I loved it.
And it's called the Flatwoods Monster documentary.
Why?
I don't know that why they chose that,
but I guess maybe find out in the documentary.
Cool.
But they're great.
And in this, so in this, one of the maize brothers said,
he read in the paper that his mom jumped
that six-foot tall fence.
And in the duck, he's like, she was an athletic type, but I don't know if she was that athletic.
It was like so funny how like amazing these stories were.
Oh yeah, they turned so crazy.
Now, they swore that this poisonous gas was leaking out of this thing.
They were like, something was leaking out of it.
Something happened to that, Puppo.
Yeah, and a newspaper actually described it as oozing evil.
Oh.
Now, Gene Lemmon dropped his flashlight screaming and ran the fuck back, which made them
all lose it and run back to.
Like, this thing was coming at them, they were gone.
Kathleen later said in an interview, quote, it was a hideous sight, and I wished I had not seen it. Oh, now the
maze boys believe it was a mechanical thing. They don't believe it was a living
organic thing that they saw. And they said it came off very mechanical and
even described it as having almost like port holes that had lights behind
them. So they believe they were like like it seemed like it was something that
was sent out of this craft to like survey the area and maybe had something organic inside of it,
but that it was like an armored kind of outside. It was invaders in. That's what it was, I bet.
You remember that? Yeah, I do remember that. It was that. But they said to this day, they believed
this was a mechanical thing that maybe had something
organic inside of it because it was pretty like sentient and detected them when they were
there.
So they felt like there was something inside of it controlling it maybe.
And that...
Well, the government gets involved.
So the government always gets involved.
Of course they do.
So once they had got back home, they summoned Sheriff Robert Carr, and one of the co-owners
of the Braxton Democrat, which was a local newspaper.
His name was A. Lee Stewart.
So Stewart said at the site, because they went back to the site, to go check this out.
So Stewart said that at the site, there was a quote, sickening burnt metallic odor still
prevailing. So they still smelled this thing.
You get your mask on.
Yeah.
The sheriff and some deputies said there was also a sickening smell, but that's it.
They didn't see anything.
They just smelled it.
Now, according to Braxton, West Virginia website, for days, a few of them were sick with
nausea and vomiting and sore throats.
What?
Well, Gene Lemon had vomiting and convulsions the entire evening
after returning home and he had throat irritation for weeks
and this family confirmed this.
This is definitely something extra terrestrial
because it's giving me,
um, remember when we did the black-eyed children?
Yeah.
All the after effects of that,
and the woman and her husband
developed all these crazy symptoms.
Yeah, and this tends to be a thing
with like extra terrestrial things. They developed all these crazy symptoms. Yeah, and this tends to be a thing with like extra terrestrial things.
These can be like lingering symptoms.
And in fact, a doctor who treated a lot of them
said that their symptoms actually
resembled people who experienced
or were exposed to mustard gas.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
Now, Stuart also published in the newspaper, quote,
those people were the most scared people I've ever seen.
People don't make up that kind of story that quickly.
No.
Because they called them immediately over.
And they were like, all of them had the same story,
and they were all freaking the fuck out.
Yeah, and it's like, well, look at this giant thing.
Yeah, like we didn't just create this.
Exactly.
Mustard gas around it to ooze.
Exactly.
So there was another report of this
that came out later the same night.
Oh. So Edith and George Snatowski, they were a couple and they were driving through the same night of the incident.
They were driving through the area and they were reporting something wild. So they were from New York and they were driving through the scenic route on their way through West Virginia on a trip.
I think they were like going to Ohio or something.
They drove through a road that went between the towns of Frametown and Gasway, which are
two incorporated towns in Braxton County. They reported their cars suddenly stalled,
even though it had just had the battery replaced in preparation for this trip. Then their
baby, who was with them in the car, started to gag. Oh, no. And a smell that was putrid like sulfur, was overpowering all around them.
Oh, shit.
So George gets out and he opens the hood because he's wearing like the eat if it's taking
care of the baby.
And he's worried there's something in the car that's like burning or something.
He's like something's going on.
But he said then he saw a huge flash of light from the woods to the side of him.
And he looked towards it,
and he said he suddenly started becoming lightheaded
and he started vomiting from the smell.
And so he stumbled back to the car,
and as he's coming towards the car,
he hears his wife screaming.
Oh my God.
And he's like, what is going on?
And she's saying, turn around this something behind you.
Oh, I just got chills out of my back.
He turned behind him inside giant creature,
eight to nine feet tall.
He said it was floating with no legs that he could see.
What?
It had a bloated body and oversized head
with spindly arm-like protrusions.
But he said he didn't get, like, details were hard to make out.
And it was gliding rapidly towards him.
Oh, my God, what the fuck?
So he jumped in the car and he put Edith
and their child on the floor of the car
and they just hid and coward together.
He just like put himself over them
and it floated past their car and into the woods.
Do you imagine if it floated by and just knocked on them?
No, I do.
Like nanananana boobies.
Hey bitches.
And then just went up into the,
that would be kind of iconic.
I'd be like, I love this thing.
Serving extra terrestrial realness.
I love it.
But it went by and when it floated past the car,
he said it seemed to run.
It's like spindly arm thing against the hood.
The next morning, because they were like
not getting out of that car.
Never.
The next morning they got out,
there was a brown burnt spot on the hood
where he had touched it.
When you know what that sounded like, too.
Yeah, it's gross.
Now, another report of this was there was another farmer
in the county who gave a story from the same night,
said he saw a big craft, like aircraft,
and he watched it pulse red and orange
for 10 to 15 minutes in the hillside.
Yeah. He said it looked like it was getting weaker and weaker and after 20 minutes, it was only a
pinpoint of light and then eventually when he looked again, it was gone. Yeah, because it went
back to outer space. It left. Now another guy said he saw it come land in that hillside and he said
he watched it leave. So a lot of other residents said they had also seen it go
across the sky at the same time that all the maze kids had seen it.
The sheriff, Robert Carr conducted interviews in the area,
which is how they got some of these reports.
And Jean Lemmon's mother said when the whole thing occurred,
their house shook violently and the radio cut out for 45 minutes.
Oh, I love how spooky it is.
Isn't this super spooky?
I was like, damn, this is like intense.
And the director of the local board of education
filed a report saying he saw a strange aircraft
take off from the area at 6.30 a.m.
the next morning.
And this was after the whole incident had occurred.
Weird.
So the next day, September 13th,
the West Virginia National Guard from Gasway was activated
and sent out to the site by the United States Air Force.
Shut up.
The Special Forces Operation was led by Captain Levitt.
Apparently they did find evidence that something was there, and they were ordered to send it
to the Pentagon.
Oh, shit.
There was a 20-foot impression in the ground like a crop circle almost where everything was flattened. There was greasy stuff on the
grass in this impression and it smelled like burnt sulfur. And did they ever
determine what it actually was? Well, he was promoted to Colonel Levit years
later. So you know this is like a guy who's like doing shit. And he still
maintained that all this was true. He said I was was there, I smelled it, I touched it,
and he said the government never released the result
of the testing that they were doing on that substance.
That is not fair.
Secrets, secrets are no fun.
Secrets, secrets hurt someone.
And in this case, they hurt everybody, okay?
Now later that year, Kathleen May and Gene Lemmon spoke
with a TV show, We The People.
Then all this episode, they revealed a sketch
of the monster done from their descriptions.
And you can see it in Google, if you Google this.
And it's like a very weird-looking monster.
Now, according to a really fun and creepy documentary
that I mentioned earlier called The Flatwoods Monster
by Smaltown Monsters, some people think
that if The Flatwoods Monster ever returns,
then it would spell disaster. They believe it would if the flat woods monster ever returns, then it would
spell disaster. They believe it would be like a really bad omen, and that this would, that
would mean like the end of everything. This thing is so creepy. Isn't it weird looking?
And if it means the end of everything, then I'm scared. Yeah. Now, Ed and Fred May are
featured in the documentary, I mentioned, which I'm going to link the doc so you guys can
get it if you want to.
And they both say they are totally fine
with people being skeptical about what they saw
in experience, they're like, we don't care.
We know what we saw.
But they said, and from what I've seen,
a lot of people believed them.
Like, this is not something that was just brushed off
as like, oh, these people are crazy.
Well, because it would be one thing,
if like, they were the only people that had this experience.
It's a big group of people.
Yeah, it seems like people across the town
saw something at least.
And had very similar descriptions, that's the thing.
Not even, they were all pretty much the same.
Well, then Kathleen May later claimed
she received a letter from the Pentagon.
Fuck yeah.
Assuring her that the evening everyone had experienced the whole thing
was they had experienced seeing experimental rockets that were government sanctioned and there
was nothing else to speak about and that she should stop telling the story that she's And she was like, bitch, make me. And then she was like, I'm saying it.
Because she was like, those were not experimental rockets.
How do you describe, she was like,
are these experimental rockets?
Do they have aliens on them?
And are they also equipped with like a mustard gas type
substance that you're poisoning people with?
Like what?
Do you want to explain any of that?
The damage control you tried to do here,
like good effort. Now, what's cool about Brexton County, West Virginia,
is they really embrace this cryptid.
Yeah.
I love it.
The sign for the town says, welcome to Flatwood's
home of the Green Monster, which like, lie.
Let's change it to the Flatwood's Monster.
Well, he doesn't live there.
Because Wally does not live there.
Our Boston heads know.
Thank you.
But you don't love it. Love that they're embracing it. Love that Our Boston heads know. Thank you. But, you know, love it, love that they're embracing it.
Love that for you.
Yeah, thank you for the blood there, Tis.
Would you?
Apparently.
Oh, we got an influx of messages that that is not always.
It's not always a mean.
It's not always snarky.
Oh, okay.
Hey, we learned something new every day.
As you just say it however the fuck you want.
Yeah, say whatever the fuck you want.
I was gonna say much like everything else,
just do it however you want to.
I was gonna do it however you want to. it however I'm gonna do whatever you want to now
They used to also have a three-day music festival that was like about the the flatwoods monster
Why did it stop they don't have it anymore? I'm not really sure why I blame
But they do a lot of things they have a really intense museum about it created in 2017 that's still there
Well, that's what the museum that our listener Haley told us about and sent us pictures from.
I wanna go, sounds great.
I wanna go too.
I'm really into it.
And I guess it's like dedicated to all the lore,
the history, the tales,
it's ton of paraphernalia from it.
Love.
It's really cool.
In 1973, the Braxton County Junior Chamber of Commerce
had lantern covers made by a local artisan that looked like Bracksey and they would put them
over like the lanterns like so they're really going for it
and it was part of a fundraiser which is cool.
Sick. They seem to be using this as like a way to like do some good
I think which is cool. And to celebrate this unique cryptid,
the Brackston County Convention and Visitors Bureau has created
what our our friend Haley
let us know about the Braxton County Monster Chair Projects.
They set up landmarks that are actually 10-foot tall chairs that look like
Braxi. You're supposed to find them and it's like a fun game. They're all painted
differently so you can make sure you see them all. You're not seeing the same one.
And apparently according to a website,
it stumbled upon called terrordaves.com,
where this guy Dave goes to these cool places.
What up Dave?
Hey Dave.
Dave went to these locations.
We're safe one there.
And he's, yeah, Dave's always going there.
He said there's also QR codes at each location
where you can scan it,
and it'll give you some history and information
about Braxie and the whole thing.
I think pretty cool.
Our codes are like fun.
Coolest thing that's happened lately.
Yeah, I think they're like relatively new.
Okay, I thought so too.
I love a good QR code.
I mean, they have to be like somewhat new
because we haven't had that technology for a while,
but that's really cool.
I'd say yeah, and you can like find out more about it.
So it's like a fun little hunt you can do with like your kids
or like something cool. Now, what I can find out more about it. So it's like a fun little hunt you can do with your kids or something cool.
Now, what I also found very interesting about this
is I guess he was featured in the Flatwoods monster
has been at least the likeness has been featured
in a couple of games, like video games.
Yeah, and one that's very interesting,
it's in the Fallout 76 video game,
which I know I've heard of Fallout before.
If you want to know where you can find it, if you happen to play or if you want to, in the Fallout 76 video game, which I know I've heard a Fallout before.
If you want to know where you can find it if you happen to play or if you want to, because
now I kind of want to play it, because I know I have some gamers listening right now,
and like, I want you to know where you can find the Flatwoods monster in it.
You can find...
Game, baby.
Well, if you're in the Fallout 76 game, you can usually find one of the flatwoods monsters at Abby's bunker
and the wire, also near the Southampton estate.
Interestingly, I saw there was also a sighting in the game, Southeast of Spruce knob channels
on a cliff.
Why I found that interesting was because during researching real life sightings of Braxi,
there was a possible sighting of one landing in the James knob area of Braxton County as well.
And I wonder if that's coincidental
or if the game did that on purpose,
like I did in a knob.
You know, a knob to the knob.
Exactly, a knob to the knob.
Also, they have been spotted in the game
in the Savage Divide region
and somewhere in the Sunnietop ski lanes in that game. Huh.
And finally, you can find one usually spawning near the converted munitions factory in the game, obviously.
Thank you for that.
I found this information at GameWatcher.com, so check out there if you want to find more information about it because they let you know about it.
Fun.
Apparently, there's a hostile and a docile version of the Flatwoods monster in the game, so like, good luck.
If you find it, yeah, some of them just chill,
like, float away, I guess,
and the other ones will attack you,
and I guess it's part of a mission.
But they're purple in the game,
like purple and misty and kind of pretty.
All of them, all good.
I think the ones I saw pictures of at least,
but go check it out if you're a gamer
and let us know how it went.
I want to know if you were able to defeat the flatwoods monster and
That is the entire story that I could find about the flatwoods monster. That's great. I've definitely seen the picture of it before
But I haven't heard the story. Yeah, that's it. Wow. I like that. I love it. I want some more of it
There you go. I want to go to West Virginia and see this museum
Well first we have to go to Ohio, Michigan and Connecticut. Let's go. Because the
melon heads are there. The melon heads. So the melon heads are like kind of
encrypted, kind of human, kind of ghosts, but all legend, baby. I love that. So
they are native, like I just said specifically to Ohio, Connecticut and Michigan.
I'm from Michigan every time. Every time to Ohio Connecticut and Michigan. I'm from Michigan every time.
Every time.
I'm from Michigan.
I'm from Michigan.
So what you need to know about melanchads, as they're like really cruelly called, is that
they now occupy the wooded area specifically around the old felt mansion and the abandoned
asylum that used to be known as junction in St. Asylum in Holland, Michigan.
Okay.
In Ohio, they are said to occupy an area of woods near,
it's either Wiesner or Wiesner.
I'm gonna say Wiesner.
Yeah, it feels right.
Yeah, near Wiesner Road in Kirtland.
Okay. And in Connecticut, they obviously occupy a road
that has become known as Dracula Drive.
Yeah.
Yep.
It's real name is Velvet Street,
and I happen to be obsessed with that.
Both of those are, they go hand in hand,
so that makes sense.
I think of Velvet and Dracula.
It should just be like Velvet Dracula Drive.
Yeah.
Name change requested.
Dracula is Velvet Drive.
Thank you.
There you go.
We got it.
Ooh, ooh. Yeah, like that better. Yeah, look at that.
Two heads, better than one.
There we go.
Now, supposedly they're a bit mischievous and some stories.
They just want to have a little fun.
They won't even hurt you.
Yeah, and other stories, they're going to rock your world.
They're going to scare the shit out of you.
Okay.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Get you a melon head that can do it all.
Not both, just at all. Yeah, just everything.
Now, so why are they called melon head?
Why?
Because I'm picturing something very terrifying.
You're correct in that.
OK, cool.
But there's a couple different theories
to go over, so buckle up.
I'm buckled.
To get into the first one, we have
to talk about this docta, doctacrow.
I don't actually think there's any evidence
that this man truly existed. But I do think like the creation or idea of him was actually inspired by another doctor who did exist and has connections to this tale that we will talk about.
Okay. So the story goes that Dr. Crow, he worked out some kind of deal with this nearby medical hospital, excuse me, the're all medical, mental hospital. And a turn, he ended up acquiring care
of some of these patients who were being treated there.
Now, the problem with that was that
he didn't actually wanna take care of these patients
himself, he wanted to perform different experiments on them.
Oh, as a good doctor should.
Yeah, specifically on their brains.
So he got to work straight away
in some kind of like,
Dr. Satan underground layer.
Dr. Satan, good call back.
You're welcome, I did that specifically for you.
For the Zombe.
Yeah.
But none of his experiments were working out like he was hoping
and all of the patients that he worked on,
they ended up suffering from the same condition
because of all this failed work.
Since he was fucking around with their brain so much,
over time, they developed hydracephalus,
which is simply a buildup of seabro spinal fluid
in the brain.
I was wondering if hydracephally was a part of this?
It certainly is.
It's the biggest part of this.
It is, it is.
It is.
Now, so this led to their heads becoming swollen
and misshapen, and also led to brain damage,
which made these people completely unaware of what was really happening to them.
Oh my God, that's horrible.
But in turn, it made it easier for Dr. Crow to control them.
Yeah, of course.
But from time to time, when he was working on one person, another one would wander out of the
layer, and eventually people in the area started to become aware of the melon heads presence.
They didn't realize what was actually happening
like to these people,
and they just thought that it was some kind of monster.
Yeah.
And that's when they started becoming known
and around the area as melon heads.
Oh, okay.
Now, in another variation of the story with Dr. Crow,
he's actually like a good dude.
Oh.
And he's living in the woods with his wife. Okay, so I love that he gets like two very distinct
like stories about him. He gets three wraps. One of them is totally like whatever and then the
other two are like horrific. Cool. Okay. This one is totally whatever. All right. So he's loving
in the woods with his wife. The town comes to them with these children that have hydrocephalus
and they're not really sure like what to do and they're like doctor you must know and like with his wife, the town comes to them with these children that have hydricephalus and
they're not really sure like what to do and they're like doctor you must know and like,
you know, Mrs. Crow, you're a fine woman, can you help us? So they're like, all right,
we'll take them in like what else are we going to do? We want to treat their brain trauma
that they're having.
Yeah, of course.
You know, but it doesn't seem to work. Like they can't really do anything to change
it. So they're like, you know what, Well, let's just like take care of these kids as they are.
Usually, hydrocephalus will lead to death.
Yeah, but not in this case.
Okay.
So over that over time, the wife Mrs. Crowe
becomes like really close with all the children.
But as she's starting to look at them
as though they're her own children,
they're getting bullied by all kinds of people in town
Calling the melon hunts. Oh, that's sad. It's so sad. I mean, what does a good mama do?
Protect her young hell yeah, and Mrs. Crowe was no damn exception
She would read any mother fucker to filth if they must with her babies or if they made fun of them
Yeah, and because of that the children really started looking to her like,
like she was their mother.
And this like beautiful bond over the years happened.
I love this.
And they became incredibly close and lived happily ever after.
My goodness.
Not true.
Oh.
They didn't leave live happily ever after because Mrs. Crow already was an older woman
when the town approached him and like, hey, can you help us?
So they didn't have a lot of time with her before she passed away.
And when she did pass, they didn't really know what to do with themselves.
Like, yeah.
And they have fluid in their brain so they're not acting as if like you and I would.
Yeah.
They just become fully panicked and kind of just start running around the small cabin.
Yeah.
Panicked and just not knew what to do. Oh my God.
And the doctors trying to like wrangle them all up and calm them down, but it turns into
this full-blown frenzy.
And in the frenzy, somebody or somehow a carousine lantern got knocked over.
And the entire cabin caught fire and everyone inside died.
Oh, no.
The belief is that if you got to the woods
where all this happened,
you could run into the ghost children
that are all stuck there for eternity.
That's horrifying and I hate it.
Yeah, I don't want to run into them.
I don't either.
Especially not if they like burned in a fire.
Yeah.
Like, I'm no good.
No.
Because already they were having a lot going on.
Yeah, this is just not going to be a great thing
to come across.
It's not.
No.
So we got one more variation.
This one is horrific.
Oh, as if the other two weren't.
Yeah, I mean, the first one that was like,
started off, or the second one, excuse me,
started off like Toby.
Yeah, totally did.
Bonds and shit.
Yeah.
This one, there's no bonding.
Oh good.
There's still Dr. Crow.
I don't know where his wife is in this one. She ceases to exist anymore. Yeah. This one, there's no bonding. Oh good. There's still Dr. Crow. I don't know where his wife is in this one.
She ceases to exist anymore.
Yeah, but he still lives in that weird little cabin
in the woods.
And this one is deep dark and hella disturbing.
Oh good.
So in this one, he was performing these like super janky
operations mainly on pregnant women.
Oh, because it was such a janky operation,
a lot of the women and also their babies didn't survive.
And the babies that did survive,
he was like doing all kinds of weird shit to them.
So they got hydricephalus.
Yeah, it just became horrible.
And over time, they would pass away
and he would bury their bodies in the woods next to his home.
Now these days, people will see ghosts
of those babies
that he worked on that didn't make it,
and that they became like deformed during the process.
And people will also hear cries coming from the area.
And according to Weird US, which is like a really fun source,
like they have a ton of information,
yeah, different cryptids and creepy shit.
But now, according to them,
there's a bridge where the cabin used to be,
and it has officially been inducted into cry baby bridge for gate.
Always a cry baby bridge.
Always. I created that club. Like, the cry baby bridge for gate, not like the babies
crying.
Oh, okay. I was like, you're gonna have to explain that to me because, I don't understand
why you're making a lot of babies cry.
No, I would never. I love babies.
Who doesn't love babies? I don't know. People're making a lot of babies cry. No, I would never. I love babies.
Who doesn't love babies?
I don't know.
People that throw them off bridges, I guess.
So I think the reason why so many of the stories about the
Melon heads include the mention of like some craze doctor
is because the mansion that I mentioned in the beginning
of the story, Felt Mansion, actually was owned by a doctor
originally.
Okay.
Dr. Door felt. That's the name. Now, since there are sightings in the area around Felt felt mansion actually was owned by a doctor originally. Okay.
Dr. Doer felt.
Yeah.
And it's the name.
Now, since there are sightings in the area around felt mansion and there's also an abandoned
asylum right near the mansion, it kind of works for the story.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
You know, so felt mansion actually has quite a history.
When the felt family was done residing there, it became the St. Augustine Seminary for
Boys.
And this was around the year 1949.
Now, one boy that went to school there
told the Grand Haven Tribune
that this was when the whole Melanhead saga kind of began,
but it had nothing to do with the ghosts of children
who burned in a cabin because of some crates doctor
and actually had more of an academic meaning.
Oh, okay.
Yes, he told them.
He told them, quote, rumors start because of the unknown.
The melanchads were actually seminarians
at St. Augustine Seminary in the Felt Mansion.
The local kids called us that because it was a private school
and we were brainy.
Oh.
But what is the truth?
What's the truth?
I don't want wanna believe that.
It's just because you're like smart.
Yeah, like you guys are just melancholy.
They call them melancholy.
Cause you got big brain.
Oh, you got your big brain in your cranium?
I feel like yeah, I'm a melanched head.
What?
Yeah, bitch.
I don't know.
I like to believe that there's like actual melanchads.
I don't really like to believe that like they came about
in the way that they did, but I just wanna believe
that there's some totally like just different creature with just a big bloated head
that just walk around, scaring the shit out.
It has nothing to do with Dr. Crowe.
No kids.
No.
No, like, I just senselessly, like nothing,
I don't want any of that.
I want weird ass cryptids that have nothing to do
with real life and just wanderin' around scared in the shit out of me
with their bloated heads.
I also want to.
Did you look at pictures, by the way?
I did.
The pictures don't give me like child vibes.
They give me like like the wrong turn vibes.
Yeah, exactly.
That's what they gave me.
I was like, okay.
If you just give me that with no back story
to why they are the way they are, I don't have that.
I don't have that.
Yeah. Well, so are the way they are, I don't have that.
Yeah.
Well, so after the seminary school ceased to exist anymore, Michigan actually bought
the property.
I think it was around the late 70s that this happened, and at that point they actually
converted the mansion into a prison.
Oh, now for some reason the prison only stuck around a little less than 20 years and was
sold to Lake Township around the late 90s,
allegedly for a dollar,
and the promise that they would preserve it.
I love that, a dollar and a promise.
We love it.
You get a whole last mansion for say,
it's a dollar value.
Yeah, there you go.
So now it is actually on the National Register
of Historic Places.
Oh, look at that.
But throughout the years and all the changing of hands,
the sightings of the melon heads,
whether they were ghosts of seminary Brainiacs or ghosts of mistreated orphan children,
they've never stopped. I want them to be ghosts of seminary briniacs now.
And side note, one of our listeners actually wrote in about the felt mansion and told us that now it's
used as a wedding venue and it's like also a museum,
but they catered at wedding there, this listener,
and they said, quote,
the wedding was going on and we were inside setting up.
I was carrying silverware and saw a reflection
of something white in the hardwood floors
coming around the corner.
I stopped and waited for whoever it was to pass,
but as I got closer, no one was there.
I got a crazy cold rush and had goosebumps everywhere.
I looked everywhere and there was nobody in that part of the house.
What?
They also said that a woman who lived in the mansion before it ended up being like a wedding venue museum.
One day this woman opened her door and this is gross and horrifying.
She found a deer leg on her doorstep, like, all chewed up.
What the fuck?
Like somebody had, like, chewed on it,
and then just left it for, and then just left it.
Like, damn.
I can't imagine that's a good sign of things to come.
I feel like a bad omen, I don't know.
I feel like it's probably part of the reason
why she no longer lives there.
Probably.
Yeah.
But people who have visited the mansion like these days,
they will see curtains moving,
even though no one's inside. They hear like footsteps as if they're being followed
and like heavy breathing, or they'll see shadows
while they're in the woods around the mansion.
Now, one of the ones I saw reported most actually,
like experiences comes from a book
that I think we've referenced before.
It's Weirdo England.
Oh yeah, Joseph Citroe.
Hell yeah.
Citroe.
So in this story, six girls from Connecticut,
Sue Kim, Deb, Karen, Megan, and Jen.
Yes.
Are driving down what road?
The Dracula Velvet Road?
Dracula Drive.
Hell yeah.
Now they're driving around.
They're telling tales of the melonheads
and all kinds of other legends that have come out of Dracula Drive over the years.
It's the 80s, they definitely have Cindy Lopper bumping, you know?
Girls just want to have a good time.
Oh yeah, they're playing Run and Up That Hill by Kate Bush.
They're on it.
Run and Up That Hill.
Yes.
But anyway, they're driving around and all of a sudden one of them has this really great idea
They're like, oh my god guys. We should just like pull aside. We should park the car and just get out and explore
It'll be so much fun. And you know what we all say shut up Jen. Yeah shut the fuck up
No one asked you Megan sit down Jennifer
So nobody said that they were like great idea mech. They all park they get out
They're at a silly goofy mood So nobody said that, they were like, great idea, Meg. They all park, they get out,
they're at a silly goofy mood, exploring,
probably just trying to scare the shit out of each other.
Yeah, it sounds fun.
And they're making their way down the path,
a little ways away from their car.
But as they're, you know, vibing, as they're vibing,
a serious vibe check occurs,
and the vibe is no longer a persuasion of vibe
that you would actually want to vibe with any longer.
It is no longer immaculate.
It is the vibe has not remained immaculate.
Has been tainted.
Yeah, and it was tainted by they hear a car door slam.
More specifically, their car door.
Oh, no.
So they look around, but all of them are accounted for.
No.
So the fuck just did that?
Well, no time to figure that out,
because as they're trying to,
the car starts driving at them
and seems to have no problem running them down
if they don't jump out of the way.
Luckily, they do.
And as the car wases by them,
they catch a glimpse of the people inside
and they would later describe these people as, quote,
child-sized humanoids dressed in ragged clothing
and with humongous heads and wide eyes
that glowed with an orange light.
What?
That's funny to you.
You're a car.
You just got cajacked.
I'm being hilarious.
So many kids with huge heads.
Big heads and Elena's eyes.
Like, that's in my eye.
Like, that's it.
I'd be like, what the fuck?
Like, why did these children just take our car?
Well, I've had a creepy, and if it is,
sure is, it's not creepy enough for you.
All the passengers inside,
they're all those little demon kids, but the heads.
They were giggling menacingly and almost immunically.
It's a joy red.
You know, they're all having a blast.
That's actually exactly what they're trying to ask.
Now, they never found their car,
but luckily they were able to haul ass out of those woods
and they lived to tell the tale.
And their melanchads just stole their car.
Straight up jacked their car.
They never found their car.
Okay, wow. Their moms must have been so mad. and their melon heads just stole their car. Straight up jacked their car. They never found their car.
Wow, their moms must have been so mad.
And when you tell, if my kid came to me,
it was like a bunch of melon heads took my car,
I'd be like, get in here right now.
Yeah, are you kidding me?
What'd you do?
I may believe my kids,
because I'd be like, well, I'm sure you want your car.
And I'd be like, that's a weird lie to tell.
Yeah, that's the thing if you went with that.
I know, but it could be like the listener tales
that's gonna come out either next week
or like next year, I don't remember.
Next year.
But yeah, I lost my eyes going with that.
COVID brain is still a thing.
What the fuck?
I don't know where you're going to go with that.
I mean, it wouldn't happen.
It makes me feel like I'm like losing my brain.
Yeah, I don't know where you were going with it.
Yeah, me either.
So we'll catch you next week.
But anyways, I found a bunch of experiences
that people have had with Melanheads on this website
called Mysterious Universe.
I'll link that article so that you guys can read
some more of them.
That one that I just told was also featured on there.
But with that, I want to get into one of our very own
weirdos experience with Melanheads.
Yes.
And this was sent in by a listener named Kristen.
All right, Kristen, bring it.
Not saying their last name
because they didn't say whether I could or not.
So they said, hi, Ash and Alina,
I have begun listening to your podcast
during quarantine working from home
and it has quickly become a dicting.
I love your relationship and it makes me wish
I had an older sister, only child here.
Anyway, I had to tell you this story for my teenage years.
It took place in Holland, Michigan, outside, in the dark,
at a place called the Bowl.
In 2010, my best friend Ashley and I
knew of a place in Holland, Michigan on the beach, called the Bowl.
Lots of teens post high school would go there to hang out
because it was secluded and on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was not marked by any, it was not a marked place by any means. You had to drive around a
too-lane twisty road to find a small pond and that's where you parked on the side of the road.
No streetlights were present. We'd grab our backpacks full of shitty beer and blankets and
set off into the woods. You walked a barely visible trail winding all around until you'd reach a
huge sand till. Side note, the shores of Lake Michigan have huge sand dunes everywhere and they're beautiful.
This hill was no joke. I swear it was almost a 90 degree angle and it was high as hell.
It took 30-ish minutes to climb and if and that's if you were non-adum smoker like lots of us were.
Once at the top you would see over the tops of the trees for miles.
You could see the downtown buildings of Grand Rap over the tops of the trees for miles.
You could see the downtown buildings
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was 32 miles away.
It was so cool.
Then the other side was a long gradual sandtail.
You could almost run down to a pit of sorts.
And then the lake was on the other side.
It made for a super secret of place to camp
or have a fire or even skinny to pop.
Oh, so I know, so sauce.
So Ashley and I went to the bowl just her and I.
It was Friday night about 11 PM by the time we got there.
I remember how dark it was and something inside of me
was telling me it was not a good idea
to start on the trail when it was already dark.
She was ticked.
We drove all the way there 30 minutes
and I was refusing to get out.
We drove home and found some other dumb shit to do.
But the next day, we decided to go back again.
We left about 5.30 pm.
We got there, walked the trail, climbed the hill, and wala.
It was awesome.
We climbed around, eyeed-drink, she smoked, we took pictures of each other with our digital
cameras, because what else do you do when you're 19?
It was about 9.30 pm when we decided to go home.
We packed our stuff, including snacks and blankets including snacks and blankets and whatever else we brought.
When you have to descend that steep ass sandu I mentioned, it was almost too hard to walk
down if that makes sense.
It was so steep, it was like your steps were jumps and when you reached the bottom, it
was so much darker because you were under the trees at this point.
It was a lot darker than I thought it was.
It's just scared.
We were walking down the trail to the car
and Ashley and I started to get quiet.
We could tell that something was following along
with our footsteps to the right of us in the woods.
That's somehow that's almost scary.
Yeah, behind you.
Yeah, I hate that.
It was very audible because there were leaves
and branches being stepped on,
though we could not see anything in the dark.
But if we stopped, the other footsteps stopped.
This was our worst nightmare.
We were in the middle of nowhere and no one would have heard us or helped if we needed it.
The footsteps continued and the sound was to my right only about six feet away.
I was both paralyzed with fear and fighting the urge to run.
Actually somehow kept your fucking cool as we were being followed and probably stared up by whatever the urge to run. Actually somehow kept your fucking cool
as we were being followed
and probably stared up by whatever the fuck this was.
For some reason, maybe for the snacks,
I had a butter knife in my bag
and I swung it around slowly while we walked
and I pulled it out.
Better than nothing I guess.
It is.
We laugh about that to this day, a butter knife.
It was obvious to the both of us
that this thing was not an animal.
It was walking with steps similar to ours. It felt like we walked for over an hour,
like, like this until we got to the road. Ashley sat off her car alarm on her key fob,
and we ran to the car. I don't know how long we sat there freaking out with the doors locked
before we drove home, but she and I have a pact. If something paranormal or other wordly happens to
one of us, the other will believe them.
So we jumped online and started looking
for anything in Holland, Michigan
to explain what could have happened and yikes.
The felt mission, excuse me, the felt mansion
is an old abandoned house very near
to where we were at the bowl and it's rumored to be haunted,
like I told ya.
It's fucking spooky, it's been used as a home,
a Catholic prep school purchased by the police department.
Well, la, la, la. There's also a building near it called Junction Insane Asylum. This place is also terrifying.
And then they went in to explain what the melanids are, but I already told ya. And they said they wrote, that's from Wikipedia, of course.
And had we known that, we would not have fucked around at night there. I was just typing this because we were so close to where this asylum was.
Here's some photos from inside the asylum right now that are spooky as fuck.
We'll try to see if we can post those.
There you go.
And then they said, with all the folklore of stories and people seeing, people seeing
slash almost seeing these feral ass creatures, I feel like this could almost be a whole episode.
I don't know, but I don't know, but this email is the tip of the iceberg, and I will find a picture of the bowl to send you
so that you can better understand it." And then they said,
forgot to include an important detail. When Ashley and I were at the bottom of the hill on the bowl
part of the dune, we left our bags and stuff at the top because we were the only ones there.
As we were walking up, Ashley swears she saw the top of several heads peaking over the side of the hill.
No, she could only see the tops of them
as we were so far below at the bottom of the hill.
We joked then that it was other people
as they were leaving us as, excuse me,
we joked then that it was other people
as they were leaving and they noticed people were already there
and didn't want to share the same space.
But it was probably the melanheads checking us out.
Yep.
Lots of people claim that they hide out in the woods and are good at being undetected
because they know the land inside and out.
Oh, it gives me such wrong turn.
It does.
That's all I can think of as wrong turn.
And I just can't imagine like obviously like not knowing anything about this whole legend
and like seeing like some people and like talking about it being like oh yeah
They probably don't want to share space with us and then being like that looking back later and being like were those fucking melanchels
Yeah, like just been and go what the fuck cuz you only saw the top of their head no the top of their melanin
And Emma and she said it was like a few people like imagine like just like looking back and being like seven melanchads
We're just like no like sizing my shit up. I hate it. It's so creepy.
I hate it so much.
It's so creepy.
Oh, yeah.
Kristen.
Kristen.
Holy shit.
Healing heads.
Flatwoods monsters.
Glor.
Remind me to both never go in these woods
where these things are and also to go in
because I want to see you.
Yeah, I want to vibe a vibe.
Is the vibe theest of vibes.
There you go.
Vibes.
Well, guys, that was the Flotwoods monster.
Yep.
And this was the melon heads of Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut.
And if you guys have any other experiences that you want to write in about this, let us
know.
Like, maybe we can share another one next time we do more cryptids.
I was going to say, because we can start the next cryptids episode
with any further ones that you guys have for these ones.
Yeah, and if you have any cryptids recommendations,
just write like cryptids recommendation
to more of a podcast at gmail.com.
Or if you have like experiences,
like we just have, send those to.
Yeah.
Because we've gotten a lot of a flesh pedestrian experiences,
so we will definitely be touching upon those at some point
But we'll let you know maybe when we talk about like a certain ranch. Yeah, a ranch
A ranch
You would definitely get to go like a ranch
But yeah, this was fun. This was I definitely want to do some more cryptids at some point because it's just it's just all fun
It's just all funny game. It is we're and game. It is. We're all mad.
Until somebody gets abducted by an alien
that's wearing a metal dress.
Yeah, that's the expression.
Yeah.
So we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird.
But that's where you get abducted by an alien
wearing a metal dress because that would really suck for you.
Not somewhere that you go hiking in the woods
and you see the melon heads
and you're not sure if they're the melon heads
but then you go home and you find out
that those might have been the melon heads. It would not sure if they're the melon heads but then you go home and you find out that uh those might
have been the melon heads. It would they were. Don't keep it that weird. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon Music.
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