Customer Reviews

The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed

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The "Flatwoods Monster" is one of the mainline classic UFO cases from the early fifties and can be found referenced in many UFO books and magazine articles. Frank Feschino has taken it upon himself to re-investigate this old case and to a very good effect. His ability to find significant witnesses and participants is nothing short of amazing and through many visits and careful interviewing he gained the respect and trust of a number of local residents who learned that outsiders made little attempt to understand what they claimed to have seen. If you think you know something about this case just check out the interviews and be amazed. I was impressed with the care of the investigation regarding local eyewitnesses.

Unfortunately the author did not leave it alone and allowed himself to be sucked into some highly speculative material which began by confusing eyewitness testimony of what surely was a classic "fireball" meteor that swept over eastern mid-America on the same night. He did a yeoman job of searching local newspapers over many states and found references to a fireball that he then presumed to be several flying saucers among them one that crashed landed in Braxton County. The mistake here was to plot on a map all the newspaper accounts and then assume that each of these reports were of a local disc at low altitude when in fact the stories reinforce the impression of a far away fireball that fools everyone into thinking it's up close.

After making what I believe to be that huge mistake he then teases out of the government a number of also classic documents that are then misinterpreted as a massive UFO battle that took place that night along the eastern coast and was subsequently covered up.

Read this book for a definitive understanding of what the eyewitnesses said in Braxton County but I suggest pulling together a blanket of skepticism regarding the rest!

I must take exception with Mr. Spickler's review.

There is much, much more to that evening of September 12th, 1952 than five or six SECONDS of an *alleged* "fireball meteor" flying through prohibited airspace over Washington, DC ...and THAT object changing direction by report! Much more, folks.

Reader! This was but a poorly touted _excuse_ from a less-than-forthcoming government regarding 18 and a half HOURS of _continuous_ UFO sightings, DOCUMENTED, regarding 25 _different_ UFOs reported on that fateful day!

The preceding exceeds a mere meteor's fizzle-factor, eh?

All this high strangeness occurred during a tumultuous summer of a HUGE ufological flap likely subsequent to standing "SHOOT-DOWN ORDERS" given to Air Force, Marine, and Navy Aviators. Key General Officers and their representatives report much "life lost" and "equipment destroyed," chasing UFOs. Other Key persons report "lurid duels of death" engaging same! No stretches _here_!

The reader can be well served with regard to cited documentation, charts, drawings, and lists... ...regarding something "real" happening in a "real" world... but hidden in shadows of institutional cowardice and a less than sentient government cover-up! Like those don't happen, right?

Feschino kicks this rock _over_, folks!

All this said? _Don't_ buy the reviewed book! That right!

"The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed," is a mere shadow of the book as written! It is too heavily, even incompetently, edited in the opinion of this writer!

The book as published here was subject to thoughtless prunings and parings of the aforementioned lists, photos, diagrams, and drawings culminating in over a hundred errors of fact and happen-stance. All this contributed to a diminished clarity in no way Feschino's fault!

This _may_ be the provenance of Mr. Spickler's problem with the book. Pity!

A new book with a new publisher is due to be released soon, correcting the aforementioned errors and adding more of those unsettling if rationally connected dots.

[...]

...then read it again. It's a well-written and exciting book; I couldn't wait to see how the writer's case for the cover-up progressed. The second time I read more carefully to absorb his research methods and understand the significance of all the evidence that he revealed.

One doesn't WANT to believe it, but believe me, he makes a hell of a good case FOR believing!