FLYING "MAN" IN BLACK IN RUSSIA

The following article was taken from "The Flying Saucer Review."

A FLYING 'MAN' IN BLACK IN RUSSIA
By Vladimir V. Rubtsov

I would like to supplement a report which was published in your magazine. This was the account of the "flying" humanoid in Puerto Rico.

Several years ago I was in Kislovodsk (USSR) where I spoke with a witness of a similar case which she alleges took place in 1936 in Kazakhstan. She was a Mrs. E. E. Loznaya, and her report was recorded. It later formed part of an article of mine which appeared in "Technics for Youth."

"This event took place in the winter of 1936 in Sovkhoz (state farm) 'Oktyabrskiy' in the Kazakhstan, Pavlodar region. I was then fifteen. Early in the morning I went to school by a lonely country road.

"It was already light, although the sun had not risen. The weather was fine and it was freezing. Suddenly I caught sight of a dark point moving rapidly in the sky on my left. It came closer, grew larger, and in a matter of seconds I saw a manlike figure dressed in black and seen in profile. The course of its flight formed an angle of about 60 degrees with the road.

"This 'man' was, to my mind, of medium height, his black clothes covered him completely, like overalls. His head (more exactly -- something like a helmet) and massive ('square') arms tightly fixed to his body were perfectly visible. I saw no hands and feet. I could see behind his back an oval thing like a ruck sack.

"Looking with fright at the 'flying man' I noticed suddenly that he had changed his course and was now flying towards me. When he turned (I saw) his right arm was slightly bent at the elbow. Now the 'man' was seen full face, but I could not examine his features for in place of a face there was just an entirely black surface.

"At that instant I heard an increasing rumble as if it was a flying mechanism and not a living man. By now the distance between us had shortened to about 40 meters. My numb terror had passed and I had turned back in search of shelter but there was none on the snow-covered slope. I then turned again towards the 'flying man' and.... saw nobody. Maybe he had made an abrupt change in his course, or maybe he had dived into a snowdrift.... the next moment I was running towards my home.

"This sighting lasted about one minute, but I have remembered it for all these years. I can also add that I have seen no similar sighting, either before or after that occasion."
_________

COULEE NEWS, West Salem, WI, January 4, 2007

MAN BAT TALE TOPS 2006 FOR WEIRDNESS
BY Randy Erickson

As we start another year, I know there are at least a few among us who will look back at 2006 and say, "Whoa, what a weird year that was!" In fact, 2006 might be the year that puts the Coulee Region on the map ... for weirdness.

By far the weirdest news of the year was something we haven't reported on ... UNTIL NOW! Now it can be told, the strange, bizarre and kind spooky story of the Beast of Briggs Road, the Man Bat.

I have to admit that this won't be news to some of our readers, especially those tapped into weird news sources. The encounter on Holmen's Briggs Road between two area residents and a creature that combined features of a human and a bat was first reported in mid-October on a web site published by author Linda Godfrey - www.cnb-scene.com.

Godrey got her start writing about weirdness back in 1992, after the New Year's Eve 1991 sighting outside Elkhorn, WI, of a strange man-dog/wolf creature, something akin to a werewolf. Godfrey, a part-time reporter at the local newspaper had drawing skills in addition to her writing chops. Being a slow news week because of the holiday, she latched onto the story and gave it a big splash in the paper: THE BEAST OF BRAY ROAD.

"We thought people would just get a chuckle and it'd go away after a few weeks," Godfrey said.

It didn't go away, though. That was the start of something big for Godfrey, who soon was getting calls from other people who had seen similar beasts. Now that she's got several books out on cryptozoological phenomena and general weirdness, plus web sites devoted to those things, she's gotten the reputation as the person to go to with strange tales.

And that's just what those two area men did after their September 26 encounter on Briggs Road. Maybe they would have come to me first if they'd known I'd investigated a report of a ghostly cat-headed snake demon during my tenure at the La Crosse Tribune.

But they didn't, so their tale comes courtesy of the interviews and on-site investigation Godfrey did several weeks after the sighting.

According to Godfrey's account, a 53-year-old LaCrosse man and his 25-year-old son were driving on Briggs Road in Holmen at about 9:30 p.m. on that Tuesday. Suddenly, a creature that resembled the demonic vampire out of "Bram Soker's Dracula" or "Van Helsing" flew right at their windshield, flying straight up into the night sky just inches from striking the glass.

In a written description, the older man -- who would only give Godfrey his Cherokee name, Wohali -- said the creature had leathery wings like a bag, only these wings stetched 10 to 12 feet from tip to tip.

The creature had pronounced ribs, human-like legs with claws for toes and arm-like appendages tipped with claws. The creature's eyes glowed yellow, and the face had a snarling expression, with rows of sharp teeth.

To Wohali, the creature seemed hungry. It also seemed angry to have been seen and gave an unearthly howl as it flew out of sight.

Both Wohali and his son became violently sick to their stomach, and Wohali remained ill for a week after the encounter. The son was so shaken up by the incident that he would not talk to Godfrey about it, she said, but Wohali was willing to relive the experience for Godfrey because he wanted people to "know what is out there."

Godfrey isn't so sure exactly "what is out there" on Briggs Road, but she hopes that news of the sighting will inspire others to come forward if they have seen a strange creature in the area.

"You can speculate until the cows come home -- or until the werewolves come home -- and you don't know," Godfrey said. "I don't know and don't claim to know what these creatures are."

Wohali's account and his sincerity convinced Godfrey that he had a "credible sighting" of something she has not heard described before.

"He certainly has nothing to gain by making it up" -- or talking about it, she said. "He believes the more he talks about it, the more power it gives the creature."

One thing's for sure: Godfrey plans to include the Briggs Road episode in "Strange Wisconsin," one of several books she has in the works. She expects the book to be out by next fall.

Although she can't explain the weird experiences people around the state have reported, Godfrey said she feels it is imporant that somebody record those experiences. The Man Bat of Briggs Road ranks right up there as far as notable weird experiences.

"I do think this sighting that Wohali had is an extremely interesting and exciting sighting," Godfrey said. "I do think it should have some serious consideration given to it."