The folder labeled “Mothman Casebook” isn’t really a casebook. It contains four articles John wrote about Mothman: “Red-Eyed Monster Haunts Ohio Valley,” “Special Report: West Virginia’s Enigmatic ‘Bird’,” “UFOs and the Bridge Disaster,” and “It’s a bird… it’s a plane…No, No, it’s ‘Mothman’ (gulp).” The second appeared in somewhat different form in Flying Saucer News, and the fourth, as “Mothman Monster,” in Saga. I haven’t been able to trace the first and the third. There is, of course, repetition in these articles, and all the material was reworked for The Mothman Prophecies. But here are John’s early attempts at telling the story, as they left his typewriter, with all their corrections, deletions, and extra notes.
So, we’ll start with “Red-Eyed Monster Haunts Ohio Valley.” It’s headed “UFO #4,” but I don’t know which magazine or newsletter that means. Here’s the first part.