Eisen I posted all of the letters from Mary Hyre that I could find several years ago. This one escaped my notice before. It’s from May 7, 1967, and in it Ms. Hyre reports on some of the strange events in Point Pleasant, including UFO sightings, television, phone and car interference, and the sound of a baby crying. She also describes a visit from a strange little man, whom Keel readers might recognize from Chapter 8 of The Mothman Prophecies. The letter preceding this one can be found here.
We continue with the coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster in the Athens Messenger. More bodies are recovered, and Mary Hyre objects to the way some of the press describes Point Pleasant.
John was often critical of the Air Force’s UFO project, “Project Blue Book,” and in 1966 he compiled this analysis of its statistics. Despite what he says on the first page, no data are encircled in red; perhaps he did that when he sent copies to colleagues.
Readers of The Mothman Prophecies are familiar with Mary Hyre, John’s main contact in Point Pleasant and the dedicatee of the book. On May 9, 1967, the Athens Messenger celebrated her 25th year with the paper. (Here, by the way, is an earlier and longer version of that dedication.)
As a supplement to the coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster in The Athens Messenger, here are two pages of clippings and photocopies of clippings from the same paper. John just taped them to typing paper; maybe he made copies of them to send to other researchers. They’re pretty rough, but they’re still legible.
