You’ve probably heard of the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The 1960s-era sightings of a bizarre winged creature in Point Pleasant became the basis for a book by John Keel, which in turn became the basis for the Richard Gere movie titled The Mothman Prophecies. The Mothman is famous, but Texas has its own, earlier, sighting of a similar creature.
Have you heard of the Houston Batman? It all began one night in June 1953. A young Houston housewife named Hilda Walker was sitting on the porch of her house on East Third Street along with her neighbors, Judy Meyer, 14, and Howard Philips, 33. It was a peaceful, though very hot night. What happened next shocked the trio.
Photo: Possible Mothman sighting in West Virginia, photo from Facebook/Mothman Festival
Walker later described what they witnessed. According to author Nick Redfern, Walker stated, “…twenty-five feet away I saw a huge shadow across the lawn. I thought at first it was the magnified reflection of a big moth caught in the nearby street light. Then the shadow seemed to bounce upward into a pecan tree. We all looked up. That’s when we saw it.”
It was a man-like form which stood six-and-a-half feet tall and sported batwings on its back. A strange yellow glow surrounded the batman. The witnesses sat stunned and watched for thirty seconds, then the light began to fade, and the figure vanished. Judy Meyer let out an ear-piercing scream.
Photo: Facebook/Mothman Festival
“Immediately afterwards,” Walker went on, “we heard a loud swoosh over the house tops across the street. It was like the white flash of a torpedo-shaped object… I’ve heard so much about flying saucer stories and I thought all those people telling the stories were crazy, but now I don’t know what to believe. I may be nuts, but I saw it, whatever it was… I sat there stupefied. I was amazed.”
Philips stated, “We looked across the street and saw a flash of light rise from another tree and take off like a jet.” The next morning, Walker made a police report of the terrifying encounter.
Photo: Facebook/Bob Moore
It’s been nearly 70 years since the flying humanoid was reported by Walker, but has something similar been witnessed more recently? A close friend of cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard told him an intriguing story. Multiple employees of the Bellaire Theater in Houston are said to have witnessed a “gigantic, helmeted man” crouching on a rooftop downtown in the 1990s.
Was this the return of the Houston Batman? Whether it’s a Texas-sized tall tale or a terrifying true encounter remains to be proven, but we know a great yarn when we hear one. Have you ever spotted an unusual creature in Texas? Tell us about your experience!
