The Owlman

Those who think they have read everything there is to know about the Mothman may be surprised to discover that a very similar incident to the events in Point Pleasant occurred in Falmouth near Cornwall.  It all began in 1976 when two sisters were walking through a graveyard near Mawnan church when a creature the size of a human soared into view above the church.  Upon seeing the strange creature they sprinted back to their car where their father was waiting.  Though he saw nothing himself, he reported the sighting to Tony Shiels, a local paranormal investigator with a bad reputation for being a charlatan.  The case would only gain notoriety as time went on, but soon others were seeing the elusive “Owlman.”

As he investigated, Shiels found no evidence that the creature had been anything more than a story made up by hysterical children with an overactive imagination.  Still, he did inform the newspaper and soon more people were coming forward telling of their own encounters with the strange creature.  Two months later a group reported their own sighting to the local newspaper.  Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry had been camping when suddenly the gray figure, as big as a human and with black pincers at the end of its taloned feet soared in the air above them.  Terrified, they left their camp.  Two years later as they were camping in the area again they once again saw the creature flying in the air.  This time they reported it to newspapers along with a warning.  Their report was accompanied by drawn pictures of what they said the creature looked like.  Their description was exactly like the first.  This sighting would be followed by another almost ten years later as a couple spotted the mysterious creature lurking around the church without explanation.  As it stood staring at them they both noted that its eyes held an unearthly glow to them.  This report would be followed in 1995 with a woman who reported the same creature as she visited from Chicago.  Of the reports of the Owlman, these were the only ones that reached mainstream media attention.

Theories about what the Owlman could have been abound.  Some suggest the Owlman was essentially the same creature as the Mothman seen by a different group of people in a different context and therefore had a different description.  Still others suggest the creature was a prank pulled by a local hoaxer in order to gain attention and possibly boost tourism.  And finally there are those who suggest the creature was actually Shiels himself disguised in order to gain publicity and fame.  If this was nothing more than a case of mass hysteria, it is perplexing that it would occur as it did with several years passing between each mainstream reported incident.  If it were truly to fit the model of typical mass hysteria it would have occurred in a short period of time with several witnesses reporting it all at once.  That alone makes this case quite strange and utterly unexplainable.