Honesty Credibility

Yesterday I spoke by phone to a man who seemed quite credible to me. In fact we had two phone conversations, and I found nothing in the manner of his speech, or in what he said, that gave any hint of any hoax: I believe him.

But the long hand-written letter I had just received from him—that’s the best evidence for his honesty. Let’s consider parts of it. (I did a little editing to correct English errors.)

Encounter With a Winged Creature in Ashland

My name is James M. Boice/Jim. I was looking [probably online searching] for a flying creature that is nocturnal, hoping maybe someone reported it. . . . I saw your article on pterodactyl.

I’ll tell you ahead of time: I didn’t see it. But you should hear me out anyway.

I got out of the U.S.M.C. in 1977 . . . lived several places in Ashland, Ohio, and I’d say around the early 80′s I was living on Ohio Street in Ashland. . . . I lived [in] the second house on the left on Ohio St., by the railroad tracks off Cottage Street.

It was at night. My wife was on the couch in the living room. I was sitting in the dining room reading . . . she had fallen asleep. . . . I heard a sound outside, like screaming. I heard . . . as if a cord cutting through the air, also the sound of a dog fighting with a cat, all these sounds at once.

I stood up and tried to look out the window but it was dark out and I couldn’t see . . . the sound stopped and I didn’t have lights out back. So then I sat back down but not for long . . . it started again. This time it made click clock sounds and loud banging, as it seemed to climb up the side of my house.

I stood up while hearing this again and listened. It went up two stories then up on the tin roof, which was approximately a 45 degree angle. Pounded very loud in fact. . . .

It then started down the way it had come up. When it got to the ground, it was right [off] the window in front of me and started to go left slowly and occasionally [would] bump the side of the house hard.

As it reached the tree out back, it started to make flapping sounds, as if flying very slowly, and you could hear the sounds of its wings, shh, shh, around one flap every three seconds. . . . I shut the door so it wouldn’t get in.

It flew towards the front of the house, then to the left, then to the right, then across the tracks. Then I opened the door and listened. I thought, at the time, it had a bat-like sound.

. . . I think it was trying to carry my dog away. It was a medium-sized dog . . . the next day, . . . [the dog] didn’t appear to be harmed.

[Getting back to the sounds of that night] While I was out in the backyard, I looked at the back of the house where I believe it was, and there were no scratches on the house but there was one [on] the [two] antennas. I think it went up that.

It [the antenna] had zig zag metal pieces in it. . . . [the creature] probably had claws on its front wings, as without them it would have to fly while climbing. . . .

I checked all kinds of birds, owls, etc, and they don’t fit . . . [they don't have claws on their wings]. . . .

[Much more was written in the letter by Mr. Boice.]

It’s hard to imagine any person trying to make a convincing hoax by sending me many pages of hand-written descriptions like the above account. It’s easier to believe that he heard the sounds that he said that he heard—much easier. That’s what I call ” high honesty credibility.”

As is often the case, however, high honesty credibility may coincide with a higher potential for misidentification. Although it seems unlikely that any classified bird was involved in this encounter in Ashland, Ohio, we have no sighting or clear evidence that the creature involved was a species of pterosaur. It may have been some other kind of winged cryptid. . . . still . . .

Near Ashland, Ohio

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Scientific Analysis of Memory Credibility

Eyewitnesses of crimes can misidentify suspects. This is not at all to say that all eyewitnesses are always unreliable. Human memory in general is often flawed; the main weakness in reliability, however, is in details in which the person was not focused and was not emotionally attached at the time.

Ohio Pterosaur Sightings

Him and a bunch of guys about 17 years old were looking around an old barn one night and they saw a large, featherless bird. He said it was standing like a bird would but was about 6 feet four inches tall. Its skin appeared like leather.

Nocturnal Pterosaur Sighting

Reports of living pterosaurs – sightings in South Carolina and sightings of the bioluminescent ropen in Papua New Guinea

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Third edition of the non-fiction book Live Pterosaurs in America

From a reader of this cryptozoology book:

I may be a sceptic at heart, but I have no simple answers to what people are experiencing. The thirty-five cases Whitcomb gives may be the tip of the iceberg . . . I just hope they are real.

From another reader:

Mr. Whitcomb does a thorough job questioning indoctrination and the close-mindedness of the Western world. Reading so many eye-witness reports of people who have seen living pterosaurs in America was mind-opening, to say the least.

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A living pterosaur in Ohio, not millions of years ago but in the twentieth century—that should be in the news. But a number of eyewitnesses have reported apparent live pterosaurs in Ohio, regardless of the apparent lack of newspaper headlines. Probably unknown to many news media reporters and editors, sighting in neighboring states may be of the same species or at least are related to what was seen in Middletown, Ohio, years ago. (Middletown is about thirty miles north of Cinncinati.) “Pterodactyls” have also been reported in Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Middletown, Ohio, Pterosaur Sighting

This is a second-hand report given to the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization. The sighting of the flying creature (bird, bat, pterodactyl, or by whatever label it received by the eyewitnesses) was at night.

Him and a bunch of guys about 17 years old were looking around an old barn one night and they saw a large, featherless bird. He said it was standing like a bird would but was about 6 feet four inches tall. Its skin appeared like leather. This occurred sometime in the early 1990′s. This was at that time an undeveloped area. Just a farm area. . . . as they entered the barn the [flying creature that was referred to as a "bird"] turned to look at them [moving only its head]. They ran out . . .

Sightings in Antwerp, Ohio

The following pterosaur sightings were published, in brief, in the August 5, 2009, issue of the Antwerp Bee-Argus weekly newspaper of Ohio.

. . . an account of two sightings over the Maumee River, Ohio: 2002 and 2003, both in the daylight heat of summer. (More detailed information is in my book Live Pterosaurs in America, published two weeks before the newspaper article.)

 

Third edition of this nonfiction cryptozoology book on living pterosaurs

In my cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America, second edition, a sighting in Kentucky is explained as follows:

Earlier in 2008, a man tried to reach me by telephone. After he left me a phone message, we communicated by email about his daylight sighting, which was not years but just hours earlier.

“Hi, my name is [MR] and I live at . . . Bowling Green, Kentucky. Today I opened my back door around 4:30 p.m. . . . and I noticed a large bird in the sky flying above me. I thought it seemed strange because I [saw] a tail with a spade-like end; also the wingspan was a lot larger than any bird I have ever seen around here. . . . The bird seemed to have a set destination . . . ‘cause it did not waste any time moving through the sky.

“I thought about running in to grab my camera but I knew . . . that it would have been gone before I got back, so I watched in awe as this bird streaked [across] the sky . . . I am positive 100% about the tail, there [were] overcast [skies] today, so the sun was not glaring in my eyes. Anyways, I hope that this information is helpful in some way. I’ll keep my camera nearby and will continue to look for what I [have] seen today.

“I am confident [that] what I [saw] was absolutely not a standard bird with feathers . . . I was so transfixed on the tail of this creature that I did not notice the head.”

In the second edition of my cryptozoology book (LPA), pages 45-47, two apparently related sightings are documented for Zionsville, Indiana (north of Kentucky), on the same day. (I take no firm stand on whether or not there was only one flying creature or a number of them.) I could just as well have mentioned sightings in Ohio or Virginia or North Carolina. Over the years, I have received reports from across the USA.

Through the living-room window, IM noticed a “flying creature” strange in shape: small body, triangular wings, no feathers. The body he described as the shape of an “elongated-lemon.” The long straight tail had “a swelling at the end shaped, again, somewhat like a lemon.” With rapid wing-flapping, the small creature flew away.

The second boy, IA, [also in Zionsville, Indiana] remembers that the sighting was on a weekend. He was about to take a walk, when he noticed something through the window of his brother’s bedroom. What he first assumed to be a bird flew close to the window, revealing its color: a “deep scarlet.” Also, “Its face was very angular and almost eerie to view.” Because it flew fast and close to the window, little else was noticed at first. Then the creature landed in the street, revealing a pigeon-size, but no pigeon-resemblance.

The Antwerp Bee-Argus newspaper (Aug 5, 2009 issue) gave an account of two sightings over the Maumee River, Ohio: 2002 and 2003, both in the daylight heat of summer. (More detailed information is in my book Live Pterosaurs in America, published two weeks before the newspaper article.)

When I first interviewed the young man, years ago, the amazing description made me hesitate publishing it; after studying the details, however, I included it in my book, for this eyewitness is credible, describing a real creature that he observed. I also stand by my opinion that his description of a flexible tail came from his observation of a stiff tail that moved back and forth with the unusual flight pattern of the creature as it was trying to catch sparrows over the river: Tail-flexibility was an optical illusion but the eyewitness saw a real creature.

Flying Dinosaurs

Live Pterosaur in Ohio

. . . The creature was reported “chasing sparrows as it flew over the Route 49 bridge near Antwerp, Ohio.” [reported in a local newspaper in Antwerp] {This is the same story as above}

The challenge faced by most . . . eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs in the United States (Ohio, or Kentucky, or any other state) is this: Who can you tell? Our culture frowns on reporting anything like a live dinosaur or live pterosaur . . .

Minister sees Pterosaur in Ohio

In another account, a minister is reported to have observed a flying pterosaur, long-tailed with an apparent Rhamphorhynchoid tail flange (sometimes this kind of structure is called a “tail vein”). It was in the Mount Vernon, Ohio, area. I have not yet interviewed this eyewitness.

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Did you know that living pterosaurs have been reported in North America, even in the United States? It’s true! Get the details of many eyewitness sighting reports  by purchasing a copy of this cryptozoology book on Amazon.

Learn much more about this sighting around Antwerp, Ohio. Live Pterosaurs in America is packed with many more sightings, true-life encounters from across the United States: California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kansas . . . and many more states. Read it yourself.

“The problem with science is that we think we know it all and that is far from reality. This book shows courage to continue the search. If you have an interest in cryptozoology you should read this.” Dale Reeder, Pennsylvania

For many weeks, this has been the best-selling nonfiction book (Amazon.com) about living pterosaurs. It is in pure cryptozoology genre, with many exciting encounters by shocked eyewitnesses. Find out for yourself why many Americans are awakening to the knowledge that these creatures still fly, not just in remote jungles but right here in the United States.