The Flatwoods Monster

On the night of 12 September 1952, after a bright object fell on a hilltop near Flatwoods, West Virginia, a group of boys and a local woman climbed to look and met a towering figure with a glowing face, a spade-shaped head and a dark pleated body that hissed and drifted toward them through a foul mist. They fled, and several fell ill.

The Flatwoods Monster, or the Green Monster, became one of the classic early encounters of its kind, argued over as everything from a barn owl to a visitor. O Devil, Where Art Thou? sets that night to music.