This Paranormal Life - #407 The Mystery of The Metal Man

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

In 1973, a young Falkville Chief of Police, Jeff Greenhaw was called out to investigate a strange figure who'd been spotted standing alone in a field. Jeff didn't know it at the time, but he was about to encounter an otherworldly being that's appeared on earth for over 200 years... the Metal Man.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can a priest become possessed by a demon? What happens if I drink the blue water you can only find at mini golf courses? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello Commune and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week myself, Rory Powers, and my associate Kit Grier-Molvena investigate a brand new paranormal tale and decide by the end of the podcast once and for all whether or not it is Paranormal. Konbanwa.

We are so excited to be back with you on a Tuesday diving into a brand new Paranormal story. Kit, are you feeling ready for the day? Are you ready to enter the jungle? Oh shit. Yeah. yeah, I am. Well too bad, because we ain't in the jungle today. Oh. Yeah. Can I have a clue of, because I kind of need to pack for where we're going mentally.

It's one of those mystery holidays. Oh, hard. You don't know where you're going. Hard, well hard to be ready then, as soon as you ask if I'm ready or not. Look, I've got a hot cup of mint tea. Okay. Which is, yeah, so I'm good, I'm anybody's frankly.

I'm good to go. Yeah, it's quite chill vibes in the studio today because we're recording this one just after lunch. Yeah, we had a little bit of a team lunch. Yeah, we have. Editor Phil and I have been experimenting with kind of a new concept that we invented just last week, which is this little thing called double lunch.

Okay. Not leaving tons of the imagination there, but I'm going to go ahead and guess you eat two lunches. Yeah. Yeah. That's more or less, but here's the twist. In one lunch break. Yeah. So it's not like two lunches in two days. You eat a lunch and then you eat a second lunch right after the first one. Right. How's that going for you?

Really bad. My heart rate has slowed by several BPMs. Uh, and it's sort of, whenever I get back from double lunch, I don't have single dinner. So you're actually really just advancing dinner to the point where it's minutes after lunch. Yeah, I can't even look at food after double lunch or I'll be sick.

Yeah, weren't you last when I spoke to you on the warrior diet? What's, no, I don't know what that is. Eating once a day. Oh, no, sometimes that's just how I live my life. That wasn't by conscious choice. I just accidentally end up eating triple lunch and then I don't need any food for the rest of the day.

And lunch is like, lunch is fine. I don't know who's that passionate about lunch. Yeah, it's really one of the worst meals of the day. I think you're just trying to not work, I think is what it is. I come in, put my bag down, lunch, three times, and then go home, I reckon.

That sounds like a busy day. Yeah, I'm kinda into biohacking. Look, let's dive right into it, but first, a quick word from today's sponsors and a reminder that you can get every episode of this podcast ad-free over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Okay, kit, the year is 1973, and we're in Falkville, Alabama.

F***ville. Falk! Alright, hey, I thought you'd have to buy a girl dinner before you start talking like this to me, but you know what? I'm done. I'm DTF. Done to go to F***ville. Falkville.

F-A-L-K. Alright, so you're saying it with a European accent, that's fine. Now I have to double check it's not Foxville. F***ville. F-A-L-K. Alright, so you're saying it with a European accent, that's fine. Now I have to double check it's not Foxville. I'm pretty sure it's F***ville. Yeah, F***ville. It's a real place. That's a good start. The place is real. Where is F***ville, Roy? It's in Alabama. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. Of course. It was late at night, and Chief of Police Jeff Greenhaw was home with his wife off duty, getting ready to wind down for the evening. Well, he was home with his wife when the phone started to ring. Is this the Chief of Police? That's right.

Jeff Greenhaw speaking. I need help. There's something weird floating about in the sky around the back of my field. And my lord, if it's not careful, it's gonna hit the power lines! Something... in the sky? Hurry! You gotta get down here!

Jeff grabbed his coat and headed out to investigate the field where the object had reportedly been seen. Now, when Jeff arrived at the location, he didn't expect to find anything suspicious. I mean, to be honest, this whole call reeked of a prank. Someone call in after hours talking about something flying in the sky, but as he pulled up to the field, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Out there in the open was a mysterious figure around six foot tall made entirely of metal. Jeff said, At first I thought I was dealing with an idiot, but he quickly realized this was no joke. He said

the figure was wearing reflective material that he couldn't identify. It looked like aluminum foil, but it was all just one big sheet, no gaps or creases. The creature's head and neck seemed to be joined together, and the metal suit changed colour depending on the angle of the light. Good God, man. Have we ever heard of anything like this before? Not really. Really bizarre.

As you say, as well, you know, this thing could have been a prank. I'm surprised back then he didn't just, uh just lay down the law with that woman and say, look, you said it was in the sky. That's not my domain. Right. We've said it before. The police mostly only deal with things on the ground. And we should have a separate sky police for things that are in the sky. I've been saying this for years.

That's why whenever I commit crimes, like just stealing money from people on the streets, I always jump right when I do it. Yeah. And so I'll like go up to someone, I'll jump and go, give me your money. And they're like, what? And I like jump again, give me your money. Yeah. Cause I'm definitely not committing the crime on the ground.

Yeah. So the police have no jurisdiction of me. It's the sky, but it's an air marshal that needs to come and arrest me. They see you jump and they're like, where the f**k you go? Where do you go? Oh, he's back. Where'd he go? He's back. I'm so out of breath by the time the robbery's done, I can't even escape. If you, not everyone knows that, if you commit the crime in the air, that was technically like, it's almost like international waters. It wasn't their jurisdiction. Well, Jeff is now stuck out in the field looking at this thing.

Jesus Christ, what is that thing? Howdy stranger, who are you? What are you doing out there? The figure began to move slowly in strange jerky movements that didn't resemble any human Jeff had ever seen. Jeff wanted to see just how reflective the metal material really was,

so he decided to turn on the patrol car's blue lights. But as soon as they came on, the metal man started running. Kachoo, kachoo, kachoo. Oh no. His body almost immediately exceeding superhuman speeds. Oh, whoa. Jeff said the metal man moved so quickly, it was almost as if he was bouncing on

springs. Interesting. That could have been the end of the story, but Jeff wasn't about to let this thing get away. He jumped into his cop car and immediately gave chase, quickly reaching 35 miles per hour in hot pursuit of the metal man. Not that fast. All units, this is Greenhaw in pursuit of a metal man. Need backup ASAP. Later in an interview, Jeff said, I decided to chase it down and if I had to, run it over. Bad police work. This is before presumably a lot of reforms in the police world.

Right. Run it over, run the suspect over. It's a metal man, they don't have feelings. We don't know that. The leading, the first thing he said was it looked like it was a man in aluminium foil. So a man. And also even if it were a metal man,

the key word in that phrase is man. Right, there's still an ounce of human there. Yeah. Can you imagine if Jeff just absolutely hammered into this thing at 90 miles per hour and he was like, it's okay everyone, it doesn't have feelings. And the metal man is under the car like, ow, ow, ow, why was I programmed to feel? Tell my wife and children what happened to me. Losing Me. Leasing battery. Wow. 35 miles per hour. My name is Peacebot 3000.

I was here to learn about humans, not to feel their wrath. Hard drive failing, memories fading. Cure to cancer, gone forever. Pain receptors working 1000%. They program me to feel extra so I can relate to humans. Why do doves cry? Why do- Is that a song?

Is that lyrics? Shut up. Shut up. I'm dying. Respect metal man's final words. Cured a cancer. Wiping. Jeff blasted down the road. Heading through a panic now! Trying to... Oh! Oh God, no!

The chase was too much for Jeff, and before he knew it, his cruiser had crashed on the side of the road. What Jeff Greenhaw had seen that night would go on to become known as the Falkville Metal Man. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's right. Welcome to today's Story Kit. We are investigating and the Metal Man. You can't see it if you're just listening to the podcast, but I'm doing the robot. Yeah. Pretty well too, if I do say so myself.

It's the first time you've ever attempted that. That much is clear. Yeah, I would have thought that the metal man of Fockville was maybe an adult entertainer or something. A sex robot, for sure. For sure. Very interesting. Yeah, this is crossing a lot of paranormal lines,

a lot of taboos. We've never really seen anything like this, I don't think. of paranormal lines, a lot of taboos. We've never really seen anything like this, I don't think. Well, Kit, you are currently this Paranormal Life's resident UFO expert. Does this ring any bells for any other stories that you've covered before? A metal man?

I do feel put on the spot now because I think we almost certainly have come across at least one story before, which involved some entity that is cybernetic, some kind of cybernetic organism. You know, it's one of the leading, I suppose, sci-fi theories of life in this universe is that if life becomes advanced enough to actually create spacecrafts and if we're talking about life from other planets, then the first thing they would do is create pretty much intelligent robots life.

Right. Much safer, we've already done it as humans, much safer to send robots out to the world. So it is entirely possible that robots that are more sophisticated than ours, listen, ever since being a small child, I'd say me and you were both lads of the 90s, since small boys obsessed with robots.

And we said it before, we thought robot butlers were just around the corner. I mean, you had a robot butler. I did have a robot butler, Scooter 2000. But like better butlers than... Like Scooter 2000 was... He tried his best, but I mean like actually good robot butlers. Watch your mouth. You're actually on thin ice for that one. Right, but he could...

Scooter 2000, sure, he could barely carry a cup of orange juice into the living room. Yeah, you had to load the orange juice onto his little tray. And yeah, his wheels very often got caught in the carpet and he couldn't make it back. And yeah, the only way he could talk is if I talked through the remote. And you had to remote control him. Yeah, I had to control him. So he had no autonomy at all. But now he's a free bot.

I think, I don't know what happened to him. He's done. He's in landfill. I think he, I enjoy that. I think it was a few years back. The Daily Mail was running a headline saying, uh, we'll have sex bots by 2025. She had a woman sleeping next to a big handsome robot. Um, and so ever since then, people on the internet have been like in the run up to 2025,

they're like, guys, two weeks left. So the sex bots, uh, so far as I know, I haven't, can't say I've spent a lot of time Googling it. Um, but I haven't, I haven't seen evidence of that. We were doing the podcast for free for a long time when we first started, and then I saw that article and I was like, we need to make a Patreon. I heard they're right around the corner, brother.

I'm going to need CzechsNotes six grand, real quick. Scooter 2000 comes in the room. What are you looking at, master? Nothing, get out. Close, shut up. Go get me an orange juice and an Oreo. It's just Scooter 2000 comes in the room. What are you looking at master? Nothing. Get out. Close. Shut up. Go get me an orange juice and an Oreo. Scooter 2000 wearing a bra.

You're like mother of pearl. She's beautiful. Fun fact. I do now have, I don't have a Roomba, but I have a cheaper non-name brand robot vacuum cleaner that goes around my apartment, and I called him Scooter 3000. That's cool. He's like the legacy version of my original robot button.

Scooter 3000 would kill himself if he heard that that he'd been replaced. He would pour the orange juice into his circuits. Into his own eyes, kill himself. Like most paranormal witnesses, Jeff spent a brief period of the aftermath retelling his encounter to reporters and local news who were all obviously very skeptical of his claims and once again like in too many of our

stories a man's life was ruined by a paranormal experience. He said after telling the police he was fired from his job and not long after that his wife left him after not believing his story. Wow, Jesus. In later years, Jeff said, I withdrew myself from the public for years. The only thing I found out is that I really couldn't trust anyone. I turned out to be a person I never dreamed I would be because of what happened. I came close to losing my sanity. I'm still a believer in life after death, and at one point, I didn't believe there was any other life source in the universe.

But that really changed. Jesus, all out from seeing a metal man running away. How metal was this man? I mean, okay, but let's try and... This is just to highlight how dramatic and traumatic this experience was. Well, sure, but I'm just saying, I feel like he's reading into this scenario understandably, because it happened to him more than I am. So tell me, what does he make of it? Clearly, he thinks that this is, yeah, he thinks that it's from another planet or something,

which is why he believes in a creative force in the universe. Yeah. Even though he said he didn't see a UFO that night, other people did. His description of the metal man about like the metal changing colour, the way the light hit. I think at one point he maybe said it was like almost a little see-through. It's like, I think we're laughing at the idea of it being a robot in a field, but I believe the experience was a bit more paranormal and weird. Yeah, sure.

But maybe the craziest part about this story isn't the metal man showing up in 1973. It's the fact that he's been showing up for over 200 years. Really? Jeff Greenhaw's sighting was the most recent, but we're about to discover today that people have been seeing the Metal Man throughout history. He doesn't have a heart.

He lives forever. He lives for longer than 80 years, guys. It's time to dive back into the past. 172 years. While investigating a diary from the late 18th century, this is how deep we're going today. You didn't see this one coming, did you? Researchers discovered a bizarre entry. The diary belonged to Henry Albert Brand, a bookbinder who lived and worked in Hampshire

in Portsmouth here in the UK. And the diary started like any other. It documented Henry's various trips in and around the country, as well as personal history and local stories of interest. But on September 6th, 1798, there was an entry in the diary unlike any other, one that left researchers speechless. It's a good thing that this diary entry was found from, you said, the 18th century, because if we had to look through people's diaries today for paranormal information, it would

be horrible. It would just be unreadable. It would be like Hustle Bros being like, 5 a. up, infrared sauna, 510, ice bath, 515, eat first portion of gruel infused with 5-HTP. Then I do 600 squats before 6am. It would just be like, bro, get to the point. We get it. Whereas the old timey diaries is just like, woke up, don to the point. We get it. You're a douchebag. Whereas the old-timey diaries is just like,

woke up, don't know when. The cat... It was, woke up, light outside. Breakfast was bread and soup. Might have that later for double lunch. Ha ha ha. Roy's like, so the stories are true. It really is an ancient belief.

Well, there you go. This makes it... No indication as to where this story is going right now, but that makes it extra more dramatic when the everyday life is that tame. If you turn to one page and the headline is METAL MAN, I SAW HIM RIGHT BETWEEN FIRST SOUP AND DINNER SOUP. The entry stated that on the 6th of September 1798, a local vicar had run into town screaming, Everyone gather round! I don't know how to tell you this, but I've just seen a metal man!

That's right! The vicar claimed that while walking along the county lanes near Farrington, he had seen a four-foot tall, metalloid man with a sturdy muscular body and a large, bulky head. His eyes were described as being like bright, polished shillings glistening in the midday sun. Maybe most bizarre of all, the metal man had no mouth, no nose, and no ears. Makes sense, he doesn't need a mouth. He doesn't eat anything.

He also had no clothes. That's fine. Did he have a metal... you know? A metal wang? Yeah. Uh, I don't know. The vicar did not go into extreme detail. I wouldn't have asked that, but you just said he has no clothes and you looked at me as

if it was like, you know what that means. I don't, I don't know asked that, but you just said he has no clothes and you looked at me as if it was like, you know what that means. I don't, I don't know what that means. Well, as you said, he's part man. He's running around in public. This was back in the time where showing an ankle could land you in prison. Yeah. You know, that was a little too sexy for the vicar. So if you show up down at the streets with your little metal dick out, four foot tall,

yeah, you're going to prison, buddy. You could think you have no neck because they try and hang you day one. the streets with your little metal dick out, four foot tall. Yeah, you're going to prison, buddy. You're good thing you have no neck because they try and hang you day one. I'm picturing Bender from Futurama at this point. Honestly, people have theorized that Bender was based off of the stories of the metal man, the Fogville metal man.

Very kind of similar that, yeah, no neck, just kind of a robot body, but like a really chunky bulky head. The diary went on to detail the panic that this caused in the town and a reminder that this is 1798. This is before even the Victoria era in Britain. That's how long ago this is. Right. I also love that the person who saw this just happened to be a vicar. Like, that must have been really hard for him to run into town and whip everyone up and be like, everyone gather round, gather round. I've witnessed a miraculous event.

Spontaneously appear before me. Someone from the cloud is like, was it Jesus? No, no, it wasn't Jesus. But it was, someone appeared in front of me. Was it the Virgin Mary? That would make sense. That would make sense given our beliefs that it would be the Virgin Mary. Was he from heaven?

He said he was from f***ville. I think that's what he said. You know what? This is going to go way quicker if I just introduce him. Here he is. Hey, what's up everybody? Ah! Everyone just starts screaming and panicking. I mean, it is funny as well because, like you say, Christians of all faith are also some of the only people, in theory, hanging around waiting for a guy to appear. That's kind of their whole thing. That's their whole thing.

And they kind of sell you the idea that he's coming any second now. Yeah. So you gotta be ready too. So there's something funny about the maker chilling and just someone comes into his peripheral vision. And he's like, oh hell no.

Get back in the river mother. Hell no. Yeah. It's like, I hell no. Get back in the river, mother******. Yeah. It's like, I've been waiting my whole life for the sacred man to appear. Not you. Not you.

I'm gonna pretend like I didn't see that. What does that angelic voice I hear in the distance? Hello. Not what I was expecting him to sound like. Vicar, it's me. The man you've been waiting for. I've been receiving your prayers from Garkon IV. Yeah. I came from the clouds.

That's where my prayers have been going? Affirmative. Imagine that's how we communicated with aliens. They were receiving all our prayers. They come down to ship, stop praying! We hear it every night, it's so annoying. The Broncos aren't gonna win the Super Bowl, you don't have to pray about it. We don't even know who they are.

And no, bigger dick is not an option. We don't have the power to do that, anyone does. You're not getting a bigger dick, Vicar. His head's down. I think the prayers got scrambled, because there's no other way that was me. The metal man's like, we don't even have dicks. How could we make this work? Um, not you back in the river.

I don't imagine that. We have been collecting prayers for 900 years. Most of them were about penises. So we spent a lot of time perfecting that technology. It's like, surely not. Surely people prayed about other stuff. We've been collecting them for a thousand years. We're finally ready to start helping.

First up, Jeremiah wanted a good harvest. Where are you Jeremiah? It's like, we die. Humans don't live that long. Ah shit. Oh well Prayer to Moses wanted a boat Moses come forward, please We've got you a dinghy. It is metal, but durable prayer three Doing it in order the first three prayers Yeah, I love three Ezekiel wanted bread Ezekiel come forward. They're all gone

You must know! That's prayer four. I love that. Prayer four, Moses asked us to deliver the Jews from Egypt. He kind of did that one himself. Very good. Prayer five, Ezekiel the second wanted more bread. Look it's funny to laugh about the metal man or metal men but what we're seeing here is a pattern of paranormal activity not just him appearing in a diary hundreds of years ago but also in the future and guess what that wasn't even the only time he was spotted because we have even more sightings of the metal man and it's detailed in the same diary. Right.

Let's dive right in. That's right, if he wasn't terrifying enough the first time he showed up, the metal man showed up again. Later in Henry's diary, he detailed a second encounter by a young farmer's maid. The woman claimed that she was working out by Tipnor Lake, enjoying a relaxing evening, when all of a sudden she saw with her own eyes, quote, a man of metal flesh rise out of the waters of the bay. Okay, metal flesh feels a lot different to covered in aluminium foil, I'll say. Yeah, there's a lot of different interesting terms being thrown about to describe what

this thing is. This is now giving T2000 liquid metal robot from the future. Yeah. And I want to point out, some people call him the metal man. Some people call him a man with metal flesh. Other people call him the copper man, because I think depending on where he is and the way the light hits him, it gives a different... Yeah, you know, you know, I don't have to explain it.

Kit, not only did the Metal Man emerge from the lake, but this woman claimed she saw him walk several meters on the surface of the water before sinking back into the lake. What? He is the second coming. He's walking on water. Hey, Vicar, check this out. Now, at this point, the researchers who discovered this diary obviously came to the conclusion that Henry Albert Brand was insane. Which is a valid thought. I guess if this is happening in a diary,

you're like, oh, the person who is writing this was losing his mind. Sure. We have an unreliable narrator, essentially. And also we've talked a bit before about how like, paranormal experiences when they happen through the ages, they get filtered through the cultural context of the time. That's a wordy way of saying, depending what you believe, it's going to shape what you see.

Yeah. And I don't know at this time whether England was Protestant at this time, but... Yeah, 1798. I guess so. 1800s, yeah, would have been. Because we know that in the Catholic faith, there is, at least in modern times, there's a different attitude towards strange occurrences. It feels like, there is, at least in modern times, there's a different attitude towards strange occurrences. It feels like, you know, if the Catholic church and the Protestant church are like two different

animes, the Catholic church is the one that just let, they, they'd make every spin-off event canon. Right. Everything. You know what? No matter how incongruous they all are, everything legit happened. They're like, oh, you saw a bug with the face of Macaulay Culkin? That's a miracle. That's a saint. Let's write it in.

Yeah, bug face. He's a saint from now on. Whereas I think in Protestantism, it's more of like, oh, you saw a bug with the face of someone? You're a witch. Right, we're gonna kill you and the bug. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration,

but I don't think they're as keen into like writing it into the history books as like a miraculous event. Yeah, yeah. I'm surprised that the metal man wasn't made a saint at some point. But does that help today's case, knowing how deeply religious the population was at this time,

that they would probably try and twist anything into having some sort of biblical implications. They have literally no choice but to write in their diaries, I wish it was Jesus, yeah I wish it was the Virgin Mary, it was a metal man. Yeah, Virgin Mary was piloting a mech. She had a Gundam, it was insane. Yeah, I think it is. I think it is compelling. I think it feels alien enough, pun not intended, to their way of life that it feels more believable. Yeah. Well, hey, if we are worried potentially that this diary of accounts is unreliable, imagine researchers' shock when they discovered it wasn't just Brandt who had written

about the metal man. Only years later they found a letter written in 1801 by a man named Dr. Jeffrey Bramwell who lived in the same area where the metal man had been spotted three years prior. According to this letter in 1801 local villagers were gathered near Portsmouth City Center for an open market, where farmers could come to trade goods and produce, when all of a sudden, a deafening shriek cut through the crowd! Villagers turned to see what all the commotion was about, and standing amongst them all was a grim ghoul with skin made of shiny copper. Before locals could figure out what the f*** this thing was, the letter says the ghoul launched itself into the sky like a golden bird and then he disappeared into the sky.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. He jumped away is what you said? He took off like an eagle. He's a rocket. He's a living rocket. In my mind at this point, he's Iron Man. He kind of just palms down, shot up into the sky. What the?

Fockville? I do love the fact that he keeps trying to make friends. It keeps going so wrong for him. But then he's like, you know what? I'll give it a couple of years. Things will calm down. But then he's like, you know what, I'll give it a couple years. Things will calm down. And then instead of again, just like showing himself in front of one person, he just walks into the busiest marketplace he can find. And sorry, what was that? I assumed the ghastly piercing shriek was him, not someone who'd seen him.

Yeah, I like that. He's like, Human civilization is too rudimentary. I will time travel to the future, 1801, when humans have accepted robots amongst them. He's like, no, but you're way off. He goes into a crowd, it's the same vicar from earlier. He's back! Hello, friends. Ah!

Yeah, he's like, Let me tell you, man, you launched down in Times Square today, looking like this guy, people just think it's a jackass skit. Yeah, they're ready for you now, Metal Man. They're ready for you now. Yeah, because he kind of, yeah, you're right. He's kind of all over the place. He showed up a couple of times, they hated him. He was like, I will wait for generations until they're ready.

He waited three years, came back again. It clearly went very wrong. And then the next time he showed up was 1980s or whenever the sighting was in Foxville. Right. So he did wait a long time and we still weren't ready for him then. It ruined a man's life. These accounts of the metallic creature cause widespread panic and confusion amongst the town people, leaving them wondering if these sightings were the

result of mass hysteria or if there was something truly otherworldly happening among them. Kit, we now have three detailed reports of a metal man all within a three-year span and all within the same area. A great thing that you want to see in a paranormal case. It's true, it's true. I mean we started off in Alabama and then we found our second home, seemingly a more permanent one, in Britain. Yeah. And that seems to be where he's been most cited. I originally, when I wrote this, it was very chronological. I started with the diaries, worked our way up through the sightings, went to the current

day one. But it was much more exciting to start with the more substantial recent sighting, which is I believe the most famous version of the Metal Man. All the artistic depictions you see of him online. He's kind of got like, similar to Mothman. He kind of has like a bit of a cult following. Really? People think he's kind of cute and like

silly and goofy, even though he's very scary. Like people have done doodle versions of him, or he is kind of just a goofy robot that like, I guess, maybe even crash landed, he doesn't even know what he's doing. Yeah. Which is, I get it. That's kind of adorable. Um, but yeah, we have seen him multiple times throughout history. Sometimes he's referred to as the metal man. Others

call him the copper man. He comes in many forms with many names. Yeah. Never really knew what to make, I'll say, of a case which spans such a long time period. Yeah. Like it's not really good or bad. With cryptids it's sometimes bad. Yeah, this is maybe one of the only cases where it's kind of fine because the implication is he's not biological. Yeah. He's made of metal. There's also, you know, there's an argument here to be made where this isn't even the same dude. This is just a phenomenon that has happened over hundreds of years. The same way when people say,

hey, there was a UFO spotted in New Jersey this weekend. And did you know someone spotted a UFO in the middle ages? The implication is those are two different things. So we could be looking at different metal men throughout history. I mean, let's sink our teeth into that for a second, because I think something you've brought up, which you haven't actually said explicitly is that it seems people are treating this as a alien visitation.

Yes. You're saying you said otherworldly and I, from that, I thought you meant interplanetary. Right. Yeah. Well, yeah, as I said, some people claim to see a UFO the night where Jeff had his encounter. And I will say, Walt Andrus, who's the director of the mutual UFO network, him and other ufologists theorize that the metal man if it was true, it could

have been a robotic probe from an extraterrestrial landing vessel. So maybe there was a bigger craft, but this thing was kind of sent down to do the wandering, to grab the soil. Same way when we send, you know, the lunar landers or the Mars rover. We don't just send that, it's part of a ship, it's part of a craft that brought it there. To the Martians, they're telling stories about the metal dog that was spotted in the dusty mountains of Mars. Yeah. That's their equivalent. I think this is the thing, is what else would it be? Yeah. Paranormal-wise, that's kind of the only options we're looking at, unless it is an organic creature and that's just what it looks like. Yeah. We do also have the

other option which is the current sighting was a hoax. And in the olden days, I don't know what it was. Maybe these aren't reliable witnesses. Maybe these were looking for a pattern that isn't really there. Yeah, I'm assuming even Jeff didn't. I don't think he even knows now about that. I don't think he explained to everybody else,

well, you see in this small village in Hampshire. I think some people even consider these to be different things. The Copper Man of Portsmouth and the Metal Man of Foxville. They make a distinction between them. But I was like, you know what? This seems like a concept, Metal Men coming to earth. We're doing a catchall today.

Even though I do want to focus today on Jeff's encounter. I think that is important today. I don't want to rule out the possibility of more episodes on Metal Men, but today let's talk about Jeff's because I'm very happy to say that yes, while Jeff's story is a little ridiculous, it is a little crazy, the encounter is pretty otherworldly. Sure. Kit, I left out one crucial part of Jeff's story. And that is that the night he arrived at the field, he had a camera.

A word? And we have photos. No way. That's right. Because I knew... This is the only police officer to not turn off their body camera when shit got real I know that recently you've been into your paranormal stories. You've been tracking the breaking UFO news Just a few days ago. You showed me a video of an egg being lowered by a helicopter

It is a UAP Described to be in the rough shape of an egg but nowhere near the same dimensions as a neck much larger than an egg be in the rough shape of an egg, but nowhere near the same dimensions as an egg, much larger than an egg. Sure it is white. So I knew I could get you on board as we talked about the concept of an alien or an extraterrestrial craft.

And I saved the evidence for last because I needed that bullet in the chamber to push you over the line. It sounds like I'm threatening you. I'm not threatening you, you know, just there's a bullet in the chamber. If you say no. Yeah.

The metaphors are getting mixed for sure. Uh, hey, uh, I'm listening. I will say this does feel like a bit of a make or break moment. Cause we are reaching the, I'm, there's nothing left for me to show you. There's very little to talk about. It really hangs on the picture, which I think the pictures are great. I want to point out this was, it was very dark. Sure.

At that night, Kit has pointed out back then, you know, cameras were limited in the amount of detail they could capture. Really weird that he had a camera. A camera? Yeah. I think film camera. The whole thing's a little weird because he was off duty when the call came in. Yeah.

But I think it's a small town. So he's like, well, I'm one of the only police officers. I got to go check it out. Yeah. So we did grab this camera. It's like I've only had three beers. I can still drive. Yeah.

Okay. Are you ready to see the picture of the Falkville Metal Man? You know, you said it's like a make or break moment. I would agree if, you know, we're fine with the fact Humpty Dumpty has already fallen off the wall and he is smashed everywhere. But you know, it is still a... It's all to play for. It's all to play for. All right, Kit, check this out. What? Okay, all right.

Um, we don't have one image. We have four. And let me tell you, this is four of about 18. Right. There are a lot of pictures that he took. Okay, you really get what it says in the tin with these. This is, yeah, look, they're very low resolution, dark, very grainy, distant images. But some of them are punched in and you can clearly see what is a metal man. I will also say, I think you kept this until the end because you knew I would have tapped out at the beginning. That's not true. That's not true.

I just thought it would be, the story is important and I wanted to tell it without bringing in the pictures because it might shape your opinion in one way or another, so I thought I'd save that for the end. I was hoping that when he said it looked like he was wrapped in aluminium foil, I was trying to use kind of my creative imagination to like, oh, you walk that mean, because he has the texture of aluminium.

It looks exactly like that. It looks like, yeah, it looks like they had to go to Walmart and get quite a few rolls of aluminium foil to make this one. Yeah, I think in description he said it had no lines or creases at all. This is a crinkly mother****. It looks like a rotisserie chicken with legs has been taken out of the oven. Look, okay, it sounds like I'm beating around the bush.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say, I don't believe this off rip. I'm just saying this does look exactly like if you wrapped your mate in aluminium foil. Like, cause it is the proportions of a bloke as well. It's not Bender for a few trial, it's a bloke. Even as like normal arms and legs and like a normal body. He doesn't have a good upright robot posture. His posture isn't even that good.

If anything, I wish he was four foot. Yeah, yeah. Because that alone would be like a little strange. Let me see if I can get you, because look, based off of the stories that people have told, you know, granted, the picture isn't great, but here's kind of an idea of what people believe the Metal Man looks like. If you saw him with good photographs... Someone made him into a Pokemon card.

They did, yeah, some artwork. You know, can you kind of see it? Like, he does have a... the head is the weird part. Yeah. The head is too big. The head is too large. That is not tinfoil wrapped around a head. It almost looks like, yeah, there is like a little antenna

or something on top. Yeah, there's a little helmet going on for sure. Even the stance is very, it's funny. Like I know we're saying- It's very defiant. Metal man, it is a man, it is defiant. There's no way this is a metal woman. It's a metal man.

It's a very, even something about the stance. You can see the outline of his legs and everything I mean that is another option if you want to go super sci-fi is is that this is just a human that's come from I don't Know another dimension the future because it clearly is like the proportions of a human being Yeah, so I don't know more theories to add As I said the images that were captured by Jeff were sent to Walt Andrus, who was the director of the mutual UFO network. And sure, after reviewing the photos, all the analysts concluded that the incident was

most likely a fabrication. Despite the fact that in some of the pictures of the Metal Man, when the flash went off, allegedly you could even see an object that looked like a UFO in the background behind the Metal Man. Okay. Even though Jeff himself says, I didn't see that, it was too dark. So I think this was really pitch black,

flash goes off, and just a burst of metal in front of you. Yeah. That's essentially what happened. I have searched and I have searched. There are some other paranormal stories that do kind of talk about metal men. I think we've had a few on the podcast before. Uh, one of my favorites being, I think it was an alien abduction in Russia. I don't know if you remember this one where like two aliens came down and one of them was a robot.

What? I'm at a pole? The metal pipe that he pointed at a child and the kid disappeared. Yeah, that was a weird one. Which it's like, cool. Was that, is that just another way of saying it was a gun? He pointed the pipe at the kid and the kid went away. But this feels like a very specific thing, a very unique thing, a metal man appearing,

whether it is a recon drone or whether it is a creature in itself or whether it exists at all. That's what we have to decide at the end of today's podcast. It's on the metal, man. It's actually, it feels very fifties or something, to be honest. It feels very like if, even if it were a hoax, it feels like it should belong in the era of like flying saucer mania in the fifties, late forties into sixties. Um, so weirdly the eighties feels quite late for late for, even if it is a hoax for something of this level.

Yeah. I think at one point, Jeff actually did say that it reminded it of him. Yeah. He says, he said in an interview, whenever I was a child, I used to watch the movie Lost in Space. The robot in the movie, it kind of reminded me of that to some extent. Yeah. I don't actually know the robot from Lost in Space. I think I was a little young for that. Yeah Lost in Space got... it's been made a couple times isn't it? Lost in Space

robot. Oh shit okay well I'm just this is the first one I can find. Yeah, I remember this. Yeah, bulky, it kind of moves like a Power Rangers enemy, like big chunky body. Totally. Yeah, I can see this 100%, very old school sci-fi. Yeah, and its head, yeah, instead of hands, it kind of has claws to an extent, and then its head is like a bunch of like lights and valves and things, you know, it doesn't need to be the shape of a human, but they made it a shape of a human anyway.

Well, I think this doesn't really do us any favors because the reason the robot in this movie resembles a human is because there's a human in that. So that's not actually doing us any favors at all. Uh, hopefully that's not why doing us any favors at all. Hopefully that's not why the metal man looks like a man. Yeah, we're like, yeah, the head area is a bit too big, isn't it? It's almost like there's a head underneath where the robot's head is. Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush.

We've reached the end of our story. A story which is funny on the surface, but I think actually has more paranormal history than you would be led to believe based on the name alone. I agree. If we utterly change location and time period, we can find all kinds of interesting evidence. All right, you son of a bitch. Hey, you're Mr. UFO. You said if I just say, was it an alien at the end? You're like, yeah, probably.

Anything's possible. I told you this was going to test your limits of belief in the paranormal. Kit, do you think the metal man is real? Are you the metal man? Do you think he's real? He's real. Um... No.

I think you're wise. No, you don't need to continue. Don't act surprised. You don't need to continue, you said the word. You're supposed to say a bunch of shit and then say no at the end. You just couldn't stop yourself from saying no immediately and then pretending like we're still friends. Wow.

I don't know why that would be a shock to you. I mean, I think you called it right. You said, let's only focus on Jeff's metal man. Yes, I'm not a metal man. That one hurt my human heart. Which I'm a glass man, apparently. If we're focusing on Jeff, his is the least believable probably,

just because we have the photos and they don't look real. It does look instinctually like a hoax. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to focus on Jeff's because I think if we're gonna say that this thing is real in any capacity, this is the time where it's made the most dramatic impact. And it does have, unfortunately or fortunately, the most amount of evidence.

I think you're right. I think, this is a no. This is a no. I'm literally looking at the rest of the photos of the metal man. Look how close some of these are. Yeah, it's a photo shoot. He's like doing like,

he's like inches away from me. Because some of the images, like bearing in mind, he starts off really far away. And by the end, he's incredibly up close. He's so close. He's doing like head shots. Yeah. Yeah, he's incredibly up close. He's so close. He's doing like headshots. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a bummer.

You know, in kind of preparation for this podcast, I think Jeff Greenhaw is still alive today. Starting to understand why he lost his job. Mm, yeah. He lost a lot. I think it got so dramatic that, if you wanna, I didn't have time to include this in the story, but his house burned

down and the photos were stolen. Damn. Yeah. Which some people then start going down the angle of like MIBs and government came in to take the photos. I'm not going to do that today. Um, but Jeff to this day, if he is still alive, which I think he is, swears down. He was like, look, that's what I saw. Um, it It still now is really frustrating when people make fun of me and are like mean about it. Cause he's like, it was real to me. Even if everyone else thinks this is funny, I'm just telling you exactly what I saw that night.

I mean, we have to remember that multiple things are possible, including the fact that someone was hoaxing Jeff. Yeah, these are the possibilities. It could have been a hoaxing Jeff. Yeah, these are the possibilities. It could have been a hoax and Jeff still believes it was real. Yeah. It could be a real paranormal entity. And that's just what they look like.

Yeah, yeah. He's like, look, I wish it didn't look like that. It's like the egg. You're saying the egg video. We're getting them back, guys. We're getting Kit back. We're almost running out of time. It is like the egg, right?

No, I'm just saying, I'm not saying I even believe the egg, but I'm saying there's a possibility. There's always a possibility that the first time we see a piece of real paranormal evidence, we might laugh at it. Yeah, because it just might look kind of funny. Do you think I'm happy that it was a gorilla man? I wish I saw anything else. I wish it was a little like four foot gray dude running around.

But I'm telling you it was a gorilla man because that's what it was. I have to just deal with that. I am Jeff. It's a no from me this week. Also double no unfortunately in the case of the metal man. But I hope you guys enjoyed it. As soon as I heard this story, I could not believe we haven't covered it. This has TPL written all over it. It does. And now it's good that we have this character to keep an eye out for when we investigate more paranormal cases. Yes. As you said, it feels like this week, even in breaking Paranormal News, we keep hearing stuff where

we're like, Hey, we talked about that 200 episodes ago. Something that matches this very description. So who's to say next week, next month, there's not going to be a little metal guy running around and everyone can be like, Holy shit, this Paranormal Life were right. Well, they were wrong because we said it wasn't real. It is crazy, isn't it? When like you said it best, which is, it would be slightly arrogant to say that metal man from another planet is impossible

when we've sent a metal dog to other planets. Yeah, that's why I don't want to decide today that metal men coming from space aren't real. But Jeff's story, I think there's not enough evidence to credibly say it definitively was paranormal. Exactly. Which makes it a little bit easier today to come down on a double no. But thank you for joining everyone.

I hope like the metal man inside of a fish market, you had a blast. And if you didn't, you can kiss my shiny metal ass. Nice. Cause Futurama. Cuz Bender. Nice. Catch Frizz. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the podcast. If you did there's only one place you need to go and it's not Foxville, Alabama. It's patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life tell them why kit oh put me on the spot tell them why baby so guys it'll so during the voice for some reason and yeah don't just picture on should be easy is a place where there's episodes of so you

listen this podcast because you like it, and... there's more of those over on Patreon. Yeah. And... This is kind of stalling a little bit. What else? There's... some of them are... I'll take it from here. Okay.

Because only a robot can perfect the sale. Okay, go on. Shit. Shit, now I'm sort of stressed. Um... Um... Um... Why was I programmed to talk while I think? It sounds like doing the voice is distracting you from thinking.

Yes. Affirmative. Yes. Uh, okay. Pedro.com. It's Pedro.com. It is the home of this paranormal life, ostensibly. Where, since we started the show, as soon as we had the opportunity to, we were like, let's find a place to put extra, extra episodes of this paranormal life

where for a small amount of money, people can get access to all of them at once. Yeah. And many, many of our listeners have been incredibly supportive and loyal over the years in supporting this paranormal life, making it all possible for us to sit in this lovely air conditioned studio. So we have all the space and time that we need to make the best

paranormal investigations we can. And they've been well rewarded for their generosity over the years with hundreds of bonus episodes, after parties, behind the scenes sneak peeks, ter presale. Yes, tons of cool rewards. Physical rewards, t-shirts in the past. In recent times, it's a Knight of the Commune gold coin. Which is really cool. You've got to go over, check it out on patreon.com. As Kit says, it's the only way we've been able to keep this show going, have a studio,

have a little set where we can film all this stuff and keep all our cool paranormal artifacts. Also, as Kit said, we're getting very close to sex robots existing in the world. Yeah, well, apparently. And we are doing fundraising because also, as Kit said, Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Yeah. So are those things going to align themselves at the perfect time? I don't know. We just need to make sure that we have 35 grand in the company's bank account.

You think that's how much it's going to be? For one of them. Really? I don't know. We just need to make sure that we have 35 grand in the company's bank account. You think that's how much it's going to be? For one of them. Really? Yeah. So sorry about that. The guy who's having double lunch is going to need first dibs. Fair play. But of course, one of the other cool rewards that you can get over on

Patreon is a shout out at the end of an episode of this paranormal life. And that's what we're going to do right now. So thank you to James Trolley. James Trolley loves getting trollied at the weekend. Nice. We call him the metal man. Right. We call him the metal man because he drinks so many tins of Stella.

Just sinking him back unaffected, yeah. Also, cause he's a seven foot humanoid cybernetic organism. Oh, jeez What is he drinking pints? My name is oil I am James you guys gotta hear this really funny podcast. I was listening to they sent me a coin Do you see that girl at the bar? Do you think I should go talk to her? Yeah, yeah, bro yeah bro you got this okay thanks for believing in me ten taps around the shoulder are you from Tennessee you're the only ten James

sees and James doesn't make mistakes when he evaluates women's beauty evaluates women's beauty. Are you doing slam poetry? James doesn't make mistakes when he evaluates. I can sing to you. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo voice. Thank you also to Megan Walsh. Megan, did it hurt? Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? I would not know as I am James the Metal Man. James, stop hitting on everybody. Yeah, Megan just wants to support the show. She just wants a little shout out. She wants to support her paranormal pals. Hey, shouty. It's my birthday. I was born in the year 3000 BC on a distant planet. You're so old!

You shouldn't be at this bar, James. I set my Tinder age profile problematically low. Too much information, James. I'm sorry, Megan. We'll take him home. He's had enough oils, but we appreciate your support. Thank you to everyone who supports the podcast. Thank you also to the metal man.

I feel like he's due to come back any day now, and I just want to make him feel welcome when he comes back, because we've scared him off one too many times. Yeah, how do you think we do that? Play some metal music? I don't know. Do the robot up to him. Okay.

So he'd be like, oh cool, we walk the same. With your award winning. Do the robot, make some noises like, chh chh chh chh as you walk. You know, we've been doing some great impressions today, so I'd say kind of copy those. And we should be set. Fire.

Keep your eyes peeled, sometimes he comes out of a lake. Like Jesus. So. He was baptized. The robot was baptized. Thank you for listening. Hope you enjoyed this week's episode and we'll be back next week with another episode of This Paranormal Life. Live fast, invest, get died young!