Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The Frametown Monster

Frametown Monster
Drawing by Frank Feschino



Just one day after Kathleen May, Gene Lemon, and five young boys encountered what would become known as the Flatwoods Monster, the Snitowsky Family had a similar experience. On September 13, 1952, George Snitowsky, along with his wife Edith and their 18-month-old son were traveling along Route 4 between Frametown and Sutton (about 17 miles south of Flatwoods). 

The family, who lived in Queens, New York, was returning from visiting family in Cincinnati. It was around 8pm when their car suddenly stopped on that lonely stretch of highway. After a few attempts at restarting it, George got out of the car to check under the hood, but he couldn't detect what the problem was. The air was filled with a foul odor of sulphur, and as the stench worsened, George got back into the car and rolled up the windows. Edith grabbed the baby from the backseat, as he woke up and began crying. 

The smell was worsening, and George was at a loss as to what to do. According to their map, it appeared that Frametown was the closest town to them, and it was a twelve-mile walk. George didn't want to leave his wife and baby alone for that long at night, so they decided to stay put and hope a vehicle would come by. A vehicle would come by...but it wouldn't be a local citizen driving past in their car!

Noticing a bright light coming from a wooded area nearby, George rolled down the window for a better look. The area had a hazy, purplish tint to it, and as George opened the window, that cloudy haze flooded into the car, making the family gag. The stench was sickening. However, George, overcome with curiosity, followed the light source. The ground sloped downward off the road towards the woods, and George could see a large sphere-shaped object behind the trees, only about 200-300 feet away. The glowing object seemed to be floating, and the closer he got to it, the heat and the stench increased dramatically. He also experienced what felt like small, electrical shocks or vibrations.

Still sick to his stomach, and having vomited a few times, George stumbled back to the car. When he was almost there, he stopped to catch his breath, leaning against a tree. He then heard Edith let out a horrific scream. He turned to look and saw that a strange creature was behind him. Off to the right of the road and illuminated by the glowing sphere, stood a humanoid creature, 8-9 feet tall. The creature had what appeared to be a bloated, reptilian upper body and a solid metallic lower half. 

George ran and jumped in the car. He pushed Edith and baby onto the floorboard and threw himself on top of them, but not before grabbing a large knife out of the glove compartment. The creature approached the car and touched the hood with one of its creepy, forked claw-like hands. It then moved back towards the woods. After a few minutes, George noticed the sphere slowly rise, stopping a few times on its ascent. At around 3000 feet, it swung back and forth like a pendulum and then shot out of sight. The smell and the fog started to dissipate, and the family was able to get the car started.

They headed to Sutton and made a stop at a local truck stop/diner before finding a hotel for the night. As they were leaving the next morning, they noticed the car had a V-shape singed into the paint down to the primer where the creature had touched their car. 

The Snitowsky's decided to keep quiet about the incident and made it back to New York without further ado. However, several years later, George decided to tell his story to Paul Lieb, president of the Flying Saucer Research Institute. Paul wrote a story about the incident, which was published in the July 1955 edition of Male magazine. 

So, what was it that the Snitowsky's saw that night? It is theorized that they saw THE Flatwoods Monster. The area where the strange creature was sighted was an area near Strange Creek known as James Knob. It is believed that after making an emergency landing (after potentially being shot down by our government) in Flatwoods, the monster made its way south. The reason why the creature appeared without its trademark spade-shaped head and was reported as being shorter than the previous witnesses claimed, was that it had taken off the top part of its spacesuit/spacecraft vehicle!

In both incidents, the bottom half of the creature was described similarly, and was accompanied by the same noxious gas that made the witnesses vomit. Personally, I think that the Snitowsky's DID witness the same creature (or a different creature of the same species) as the Flatwoods Monster seen the previous night. Over the course of a few days in mid-September, a strange set of phenomena involving suspected meteors, UFOs, and even a few alien entities were reported in and around West Virginia. Fank Feschino, in his ground-breaking book, The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed (2004), goes over the entire conspiracy of just what was going on that late summer day of 1952. I highly recommend checking out his book for a more comprehensive account of how the 'Frametown Monster' would become an integral part of the Flatwoods Monster lore.


Hinton Daily News
13 September 1952


No comments:

Post a Comment