Many readers of The Mothman Prophecies will remember a disturbing “Man In Black” named “Tiny,” who visited a family in New Jersey in 1967. (It’s in Chapter 8, if you want to look it up.)
John sent a detailed report of this encounter to other researchers shortly after it happened. He included some details that didn’t make it into the book, such as Tiny’s penchant for sing-song recitations of verse.
One of these researchers, Charles Bowen (the editor of Flying Saucer Review), wrote back to say that Tiny reminded him of an unpleasant UFO buff who had visited him the year before. Do we, then, have an explanation for one of these creepy visits?
I’ll reproduce the relevant section of the letter below. After some reflection (and discussion with someone who knew Bowen’s visitor), I’ve decided to delete the name. As you can gather, the man in question is not a healthy specimen, and nothing would be gained by naming him. And don’t fret, the actual letter was not harmed in the deletion process. It’s dated July 3, 1967.
Here’s a transcription, for those impatient with longhand.
TINY. I am now seriously perturbed. In November I received a letter from [deleted] who announced that he was flying over to England to do research in the British Museum (checking on a manuscript about vampires!). [Deleted] who forever was bellyaching about being too hard up even to pay a sub for FSR. He rang me on arrival, & I collected him at West Byfleet station on Saturday, Dec. 10. I discovered him to be a huge young man — at a guess 240 lbs. — & about 6 ft. 3 ins., fair haired, very thin on top. Wore a check shirt & ducks, riding high above his ankles, & thick soled shoes. He had a shabby overcoat, & sported a Russian style of fur hat! His speech was a monotonous, emotionless, expressionless, mechanical one-pitch perpetual motion. He often broke into poetry by Milton & Edgar Allan Poe, reciting it as though he had learnt it computer fashion. He drank the best part of a bottle of my Martini & got himself well sloshed — & ranted on about poor misunderstood Hitler etc. etc. My family regarded him rather as they might do a cobra, & expressed a feeling of repugnance. I thought he was a schizo. On the Sunday, just before lunch, he said “And now may I look at your FSR files?” I declined, lying that they were “At the office”. After lunch he upped & went. I saw him off, & have had one short letter since. He flew back to De Kalb, Illinois, after only two or three days here. What do you make of that?
Your maps received, but nothing of New Jersey (Wanaque) or W. Virginia, etc.
Yours ever Charles.
ADDENDUM: The original title of this post was “Were Some ‘Men In Black’ Ufologists With Asperger’s?” I called it that because the man I interviewed about Bowen’s visitor described him as having Asperger’s. But I received some angry responses from readers with Asperger’s, objecting to what they saw as a stereotype, so I’ve changed the title. My interest was not in a diagnosis, anyway; but in the evidence that there may be an identification for a classic MIB case. Charles Bowen certainly thought so. So if I offended anyone with Asperger’s, I apologize; I didn’t mean to imply that the man in question is typical: he may indeed be somewhere on the autism spectrum, but clearly has a number of other problems.
