The Van Meter Visitor: Old-Timey Mothman Terrorizes an Old-Timey Town

Gil [00:00:31]:

Now, before we dig into the five days of monster sightings that took place, I’d like to make a special note. What distinguishes The Van Meter Visitor from other cryptid encounters is not just its physical appearance, but how the story builds. You see, it’s not just going to be the intensity of the encounters, but the actual number of people that will see the creature cat the same time. Unlike, say, the mothman, where sightings and reports always come back to individuals and small groups, this case literally escalates to the point of there being a full fledged town posse attempting to ambush the cryptid. And what happens when they do this, in my opinion, does not disappoint. With that said, welcome everybody, to episode 34 of the Black Cat Report. My name is Gil, and I’m joined by the international Betsy Bay.

Betsabe [00:01:24]:

Hello.

Gil [00:01:25]:

The local Joey.

Joey [00:01:27]:

I’m here and ready to listen. Gil.

Gil [00:01:30]:

And the beautiful Selena is sleeping in prep for her shift super fucking early tomorrow morning. Now, first things first, I’d like to give a shout out to our main reference for today’s episode, the Van Meter Visitor a True and Mysterious Encounter with the Unknown by Kevin Lee Nelson, Noah Voss, and Chad Lewis. Working as a team of paranormal investigators, these folks took a huge road trip around Iowa, where they traveled from town to town, digging through old newspaper articles and finding historical references for a number of cases thought to just be urban legends. It’s a darn good book. And as always, I’ll be including links in the show notes so that you can either grab a copy on Amazon or borrow one from your local library.

Joey [00:02:18]:

Local libraries?

Gil [00:02:21]:

Yeah. Honestly, what is it called? Real quick, interrupt the show here. Sorry, future listeners.

Joey [00:02:30]:

A local library.

Gil [00:02:33]:

WorldCat.org. I don’t remember how I came across it, but if you go to WorldCat.org, you can type in the title of any book and it will show you all of the libraries around the world that have that book available. And you can do all sorts of stuff with a free sign up or a free membership with it, where you can have the book transferred to your library so that you can rent it from it and move books around the country and around the world. And it’s actually like, yes, pretty dope.

Betsabe [00:03:00]:

First off, yeah, that’s amazing.

Gil [00:03:03]:

I’m guilty of this, but I do want to still say I don’t go there enough. But I do want to say we should still support our libraries.

Betsabe [00:03:12]:

Yeah, let’s keep supporting our local libraries, all right? They need to keep going.

Gil [00:03:18]:

Hell yeah. Now, with all that said, let’s dive into this week’s story with a little background about the town where this all takes place and the time period it’s set in. In the late 18 hundreds and early 19 hundreds, central Iowa was absolutely awash with sightings of strange cryptids, paranormal encounters, ghosts, demonic figures, you name it. I’m talking giant sea serpents, a loch nest monster, ghost bridges, a weird wild man. Like, this place and this time period is almost like a database for any researcher wanting to look into all the weird and strange things that they could possibly find. Like, it’s just so many cases of high, strangeness, unique cryptids and just basically a lot of awesome shit.

Betsabe [00:04:00]:

Well, I know. Why is it always 1800 where all this weird stuff just happened? And like, it’s always like in a random town like Iowa.

Joey [00:04:15]:

A random state like Iowa? Yeah.

Betsabe [00:04:18]:

What is that place?

Gil [00:04:21]:

No one knows. It’s as hard to find as Atlantis. At least that’s what I heard last. Well, while I’m sure this won’t be our only foray into the 14 fountain that is Iowa, this week we’re going to be narrowing down our scope to focus in on what I can only describe as an old timey mothman terrorizing an old timey town.

Betsabe [00:04:46]:

Just what the world needs, right?

Gil [00:04:51]:

Good old American tradition. All right.

Betsabe [00:04:53]:

Yes.

Gil [00:04:55]:

So we’re brought to Van Meter Iowa 19 three. Barely past the turn of the century, the Model A Ford had just been released. The Wright brothers wouldn’t make their maiden flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina until December of that year, officially bringing in the human era of aviation. All of this means that at this point in time, if you ain’t on a horse or a train, you’re walking. And so what does this have to do with Van Meter? Well, it was geographically in the middle of nowhere, a town of about 1000 residents, all living within a quarter mile. It could best be described as having a small but dense population. And by 1903, after working hard to recover their little town’s economy from the closing down of their largest coal mine, which was their main source of employment, nearly everything had transitioned over to supporting a brick and tile factory, Sands, a small mining operation that still remained kind of over on the edge of town and ignored. So to recap, it’s a small, densely populated town with an old coal mine that has the look and feel of every Wild West movie you’ve ever seen. Every one of them. Now let’s dig into the story. Now let’s dig into the story. And quick listener note, the first encounter is entirely underwhelming, so I’ve spiced it up with a historically and demographically inaccurate retelling. So please forgive me.

Joey [00:06:25]:

I do believe this is based off of the movie called Wild Wild West, featuring the wonderful Will Smith.

Gil [00:06:34]:

Yes. Was Tommy Lee Jones in that?

Joey [00:06:37]:

No, that was men in black.

Gil [00:06:38]:

Wait, who is that?

Joey [00:06:39]:

Yeah, I’m trying to think.

Betsabe [00:06:41]:

Who is the other guy?

Gil [00:06:42]:

Yeah, same thing.

Joey [00:06:44]:

I want to say Jude Law, but it wasn’t Jude Law.

Betsabe [00:06:49]:

Someone that just looked like Jude Law.

Joey [00:06:51]:

Yeah, like Jude Brawl or something like that.

Betsabe [00:06:55]:

Yeah.

Gil [00:06:56]:

First sighting. Tuesday, september 2919. Three at 01:00 a.m.. It had been a long day for Mr. Griffith a local, quote unquote implement dealer aka. Tool Guy who, despite the brisk fall air whipping against his face held on to his notoriously chipper demeanor as he proceeded to walk the final stretch of streets and passageways that would lead him home. Tooling around. My name is Mr. Griffith. The two guy in town. But then, just as he approached his driveway mr. Griffith would spot something strange. Oy, I something strange seems to be a light on top of the old Mathers and Greg’s building. Don’t suppose it would hurt if I went to go take a look. As he drew near, he began wondering what it might be. Might be it’s an airplane. No, those won’t be invented for another couple months. Maybe it’s an apple. No, it’s too shiny to be an apple. Then, something peculiar happens. Holy Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. That light just went from one side of the street to the other. Just after the incredible leap, though, the light went out. Well, I’ve seen enough for the evening. Might as well get back to the Mrs. Arm. Mrs. Ain’t no sense in Mr. Griffith getting involved in no one’s business but the toe business. He then frantically waddle walked his way black home.

Joey [00:08:25]:

When did he become a British beetle?

Betsabe [00:08:28]:

I know. Why does he have a British accent?

Joey [00:08:32]:

I just picture Ringo Star being like oh, what’s that over there? I’m just going to go play me drums.

Betsabe [00:08:41]:

What is happening?

Gil [00:08:44]:

Okay, first off, none of the records say that he wasn’t British. That’s one mark.

Betsabe [00:08:49]:

Okay.

Gil [00:08:50]:

Second off, the actual retelling of the first encounter is so boring. It’s a guy, he’s coming home, sees a light, walks towards the light the light moves to the end of the end of the street. He’s, like, goes home. Super fucking boring. All right. I’m doing this for you. Also, rewind the tapes. I already apologized.

Betsabe [00:09:13]:

No, I love it.

Joey [00:09:15]:

To be fair, that would be a story that I would tell. I would just come home and just be like yeah, I know that’s. So you there’s not really much details, so it’s fine. It’s whatever.

Betsabe [00:09:26]:

And I’m just like, Please give me the details.

Joey [00:09:29]:

Those are the details.

Betsabe [00:09:32]:

No, thank you. Gil, I love the British accent. It’s great. Keep it going. Even though it’s in Iowa. Why? Doesn’t make sense, but that’s cool.

Gil [00:09:48]:

I cannot emphasize enough this story will pick up an intensity of encounters but, dear God, it’s a slow start for that first story.

Betsabe [00:09:58]:

All right, so you’re saying that British people are more fun because that’s why you switch his accent.

Gil [00:10:06]:

Well, the internal commentary much more funny.

Betsabe [00:10:09]:

No, it is, I agree. I’ve been saying this for years. Sounds better if you’re British.

Gil [00:10:16]:

Fast forward now to the next night, wednesday, September 30. At 12:30, a.m. Less than 24 hours after Mr. Griffith’s vague sighting of a strange light jumping from one roof to another, there would come to be the first clear encounter of the monster now stalking fan meter. Dr. Alcott, described at the time as, quote, unquote, a plucky little fellow was resting peacefully in his bed located on the second floor above his office. Without warning, an intense light flooded into his room, striking him in the face and shocking him awake. With one swift motion and no hesitation, dr. Elcott wrapped his tiny hands around a, quote, gun of immense proportions and proceeded to run down the stairs, ready to deal with whatever the hell had woken him up. Bursting through the door, gun drawn, probably in his underwear, dr. Elcott found himself standing only feet away from the last thing anyone would expect to see, an eight foot tall bat like humanoid with a large horn coming from the center of its head. Now, here’s where it gets even weirder. The intense light was coming from the end of the horn.

Betsabe [00:11:28]:

Well, wow.

Gil [00:11:29]:

This is fucking weird. Well, Dr. Alcott, clearly not someone to fuck with, proceeded to unload five rounds at point black range into the beast. When the cool fall breeze quickly pulled the smoke away, dr. Alcott was left standing in horror as he realized the monster hadn’t budged an inch. With one round left in a six shooter, alcott took off running back into his house, where he frantically locked every door and window before hiding in his room until morning.

Joey [00:11:59]:

Wow.

Betsabe [00:12:00]:

Okay, but is this a true story?

Gil [00:12:05]:

I can’t emphasize this enough. Okay, so that team of paranormal investigators, researchers or whatever like that, they found newspaper clippings from all around the state documenting the stories coming out from this specific time period. Like, they went through and dug up the story, and they were like, Wait, what the fuck? And they just found out about all these crazy events. I also really would like to emphasize here, a lot of these folks later become incredibly well respected members of the community, right? Like this doctor, the only doctor in town that also in Iowa. I’m not sure if that qualifies him as very well respected or just like nobody’s allowed to question him. But the point is, I know, because.

Betsabe [00:12:49]:

He’S the only one.

Gil [00:12:50]:

He’s the only one. He’s also one of the most dangerous people in town. I just want to emphasize what the hell kind of doctor reacts with a handgun when he gets woken up?

Joey [00:13:01]:

The doctor with the tiny hands.

Gil [00:13:07]:

This doctor scares them. Like, you are not allowed to make night calls with this doctor.

Betsabe [00:13:12]:

Hey, can I respect his time.

Gil [00:13:16]:

Who the fuck woke me up? I’m going to blast you away. Get back here. What the fuck? This tiny doctor is just fucking going off.

Betsabe [00:13:29]:

Wouldn’t you?

Gil [00:13:31]:

I mean, if you’re the only doctor in town, accidents might happen at 01:00 A.m.. Maybe don’t they have, like, the Hippocratic oath, like, do no harm? I don’t know. It’s confusing.

Joey [00:13:43]:

But to be fair, he’s in the right place at the right time. Because if it was a person trying to intrude on his house, he could have just sewed him right up after he shot him five times. So he would have been the criminal is like breaking into the right house.

Gil [00:13:57]:

That’s true. But in all fairness, he ran outside to confront the criminal. The criminal never went into his house.

Joey [00:14:06]:

He’s in Iowa. He’s in Iowa.

Gil [00:14:08]:

That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, that’s true. Anyways, okay, so by the third night of the monsters rampage, thursday, October 1, word of Mr. Griffiths and Dr. Alcott’s encounters had spread across the tiny Iowa town. While some viewed the stories as an hallucination, many felt that they may have been an exaggeration of encounters with Nairdwells, potential bandits lurking around town. And this was the mindset of one young man, future bank president and future mayor of van Meter, clarence Dunn, aka Peter. I have no clue why his common name was Peter as he made his way that Thursday night to the bank he worked at. Worried the strange lights might be bank robbers trying to plan a heist. Peter was going to spend the night at the bank with a shotgun full of buckshot at the ready and wait out any would be bad guys that would try to get in. This dude was dedicated. I mean, he didn’t know at the time he’d become yeah, he didn’t know at the time he’d become, like, president of the bank or anything like that, but I’m just going to say he earned it. You know what I’m saying?

Joey [00:15:17]:

I’m going to say if I’m going to put my money in a bank back in those days, I’m putting in that guy’s bank. He will protect it with his hood.

Gil [00:15:26]:

Yeah. Clearance done, gets it done. All right. All was silent as the hours passed the town’s clock tower sounding out the hours with a steady, if not dragging reminder of the boredom, his adrenaline once stoked to anticipation. Well, as with the two nights before, the tower would come to strike a single bell 01:00 a.m. And the time would not disappoint. On the tail end of the bell’s toll, peter heard a sound rising of what he later described as either a human or an animal being strangled, confused and gripping his shotgun tight, he barely had time to take a step towards the windows before being made disoriented by a powerful beam of light hitting him in the face. Moments passed, and his IDIS began to adjust to the reality that there was something large in the lobby with him rapidly moving throughout the room, first in a scanning motion, before finally darting straight towards Peter, he raised up his gun, took aim, and at point blank range fired, shattering the windows behind the beast. But just as rapidly as it had darted through the room, it disappeared out through the busted windows to east. Convinced he had cat the creature and likely killed it, but too scared to go check, peter waited, shotgun in hand, for the next 6 hours until finally the morning sun rose with a new day’s light. Bringing a renewed confidence, peter proceeded to make his way outside, hoping to find the body of the beast. But upon reaching the window, he had blown out. All he found was a set of three toad, tracks of which newspapers at the time reported casts were made. They’ve since been lost, but a lot of newspapers reported them being made. And like, yeah, you remember in the.

Joey [00:17:14]:

Pemex, in the Pemex invasion or the Pemex UFO incident, they also had three three toed little tracks around that they sell too as well.

Gil [00:17:25]:

That’s a damn good point. That’s a damn good point. I’m going to have to look up not to give any spoilers, but we’re going to have to look up if there’s any coal mines near Pemex. All right, so to do a quick recap, over the last three nights, there have been three separate witnesses to the beast, two of which have shot it at point blank range with no effect. And each time the creature has appeared, it’s been around 01:00 A.m.. We’ve also learned that if you have a late night medical emergency, do not go to Dr. Alcott’s house. Motherfucker obviously crazy. Well, this all brings us to the next set of encounters. Well, Peter blowing out the front windows of the bank only raised tensions in Van Meter. Again, this is a really small town, and that is their only bank. Everyone who lived there or traveled through it had to have asked about why the windows were smashed out. Like Nike Town in Seattle, rumors grew, and so did fear. And while clearly there is no absence of gun lovers in this town, at this point, many that evening would be pulling them off their gun racks and going to bed with them loaded and sitting on their nightstand, ready for any scenario. I can’t emphasize enough from reports at the time, people were freaking the fuck out. Like, at this point, there’s been three consecutive nights of this. One of them is somebody who obviously is well respected. I mean, they’re eventually going to go on to become bank president or CEO or whatever, and then they’re going to become mayor. Like, they’re really well known in town, right? Another one is the town’s only doctor. Another one is an implement, I don’t know, tool guy that for some unknown reason was just getting home at 01:00 A.m. From selling tools. I still can’t figure out he’s a drug dealer. Why? Somebody sells he’s a drug dealer. He cut that good. 1900 cocaine. Why the hell is Mr. Griffith just getting home at 01:00 a.m.?

Joey [00:19:39]:

Either seeing his mistress or something like that.

Betsabe [00:19:43]:

Whoa, Steve, that’s how rumors start.

Joey [00:19:46]:

I think he’s dead now, so I don’t think it matters.

Gil [00:19:48]:

Mr. Griffith is a damn good man, and I will not have you sully his fine name.

Betsabe [00:19:53]:

Yeah, that’s his reputation.

Gil [00:19:56]:

He was out practicing with his quartet, his implement, his implements. Well, ready for any scenario, as was the case with one Mr. White. No, not the same Mr. White you just thought of. Unless you didn’t just think of him anyways. Co owner of the Fisher and White Hardware and furniture store located in town, mr. White lived and slept above the store. Well, normally he’d feel comfortable and content safe in his small apartment. That night, Mr. White was left alone to fight off the anxiety of every bump breeze and raindrop that met the timber of the shop. As he slowly drifted to sleep, his fear wouldn’t be wasted. Shortly before midnight, his paranoia would soon find purpose when a loud, rasping noise, which I don’t understand what that is would startle him awake. Jumping up from his bed, gun in hand, he ran over to and opened his second floor bedroom window. As he gazed out along Main Street looking for the source of the sounds, his eyes brought him to the reality that standing on a telephone pole only 15ft away from him was a huge, dark figure. As was tradition in Van Meter, mr. White lifted up his firearm, took aim, and let off around directly at the beast. And as was tradition with the beast, being shot didn’t do a damn thing except, quote, wake it up. The beast then turned and looked directly at Mr. White, light on its horn shining straight at him. It was at this point, Mr. White will report later that two things happened. The first, an overwhelming, terrible odor filled the air. The second, his mind became hazy and he lost memory after this. Now, I’ll admit, upon first reading this account, it sounds more like either a, it was all the dream, or B, he reacted the way I would have by shitting myself and then passing out. But no, there’s more to this. I would have just straight up shit myself and passed out.

Betsabe [00:22:06]:

Yeah, that’s a valid way to react to that.

Gil [00:22:11]:

Could you imagine you’re on the second floor of a building. You look out the window. You’re like, where the fuck is he? Where the fuck is he? And then you’d, like, kind of just casually look over to the right, and he’s like, literally, like, eye level next to you, and you’re like, you’re out. You’re done, son. You’re done.

Joey [00:22:31]:

I just think this thing was very horny, so he just wow.

Gil [00:22:38]:

Accurate. All right. When Mr. White fired his gun, it woke up another shop owner Sydney Greg, who was also sleeping in a store just around the corner when the shot rang out. Mr. Greg jumped from bed and ran out the front door, only to see a massive creature climbing down a telephone pole the way a parrot climbs down a branch with its beak. Yes. It’s as weird as I just said. Have you ever seen a parrot just kind of like going down a tree? Yeah. Everybody’s shaking their heads. Okay, so that’s what this thing was doing. It was climbing down a tunnel.

Betsabe [00:23:15]:

So weird.

Gil [00:23:17]:

And then once it got to the bottom, it was standing on two lakes. Also fucking weird. Anyways, once the beast was on the.

Betsabe [00:23:26]:

Ground the whole episode is weird.

Gil [00:23:28]:

Hell, yeah. Once the beast was on the ground, it stood up straight and proceeded to use what I assume scientists call its headlamp horn thingy to search around the area. The strange beast took its time using its built in spotlight to look around the town before finally spreading open its massive featherless batlike wings and flapping them as it took huge leaps and bounds away like a kangaroo.

Joey [00:23:54]:

This thing’s fucking and then the guy looking through the window turns to his right and just sees this old lady smoking in a rocking chair, going like.

Gil [00:24:07]:

Do you see that, too?

Joey [00:24:09]:

He’s like, oh, that’s what the raspy noise was.

Gil [00:24:12]:

Third night now. That’s the third night now. Yep, yep. Cracks open. That’s all, boy. Yep. All right. So now all this brings us to Saturday, October 3. Less people are taking this as a joke. The town is now near full panic mode and wondering what the hell this creature might be. By that evening, over on the edge of town, workers in the small mine that was still in operation were beginning to report that they were hearing strange noises coming from deep in the coal shafts below the earth. This is frightening, right? Well, tensions were rising, and so was the proof. Van Meter had a visitor. Now, that night, the very sounds the miners had been reporting started bellowing out from the entrance of the old decommissioned mine which was located right next to the brick and tile factory. Now, to give you an idea of just how loud these sounds were, they could be heard at a brick and tile factory. Now, I’ve never been to one of these, but there’s no way in hell that these places are quiet. Can you just imagine a place not.

Joey [00:25:29]:

In the 18 hundreds? Especially the 19 hundreds?

Gil [00:25:35]:

I don’t think silence when I think of bricks. That’s all I’m saying. Anyways, by 01:00 a.m. J. L. Platt Jr. The operations manager working that night, had had enough. By now, pretty much all of the workers in the factory were regularly hearing the strange sounds and starting to complain about it. And so he and a few men made the 660 foot walk, which I’m pretty sure they missed about 6ft from the factory to the entrance of the old coal mine. Well, just before reaching said entrance, there was a bright flash, and not one, but two of these weird cryptids stood in the opening. The eight foot tall horned mothman thing and a slightly shorter, identical looking mothman thing.

Joey [00:26:27]:

This is my budd.

Gil [00:26:30]:

Yes. My girlfriend. The men from the factory were frozen in astonishment. The creatures in front of them simply shouldn’t exist, but they were there. A few moments passed before both of the beasts began flapping their wings and took to the sky, sailing off into the night. I can only imagine listening to Come Sail away. Come sail away.

Betsabe [00:26:52]:

I love that.

Gil [00:26:55]:

Yes. I almost included that sound clip, but then Seleni was like, I don’t know if you should. I’m like, but we can. She’s like, I don’t know if you should, but do it if you want to. And then I didn’t. That was totally on me. All right, so needless to say, the rest of the shifts at the factory were canceled. That evening, the men of the town had a new job. Monster hunting. Yeah. I wish. I fucking swear to God. God damn it. I love what’s about to happen.

Betsabe [00:27:25]:

So, ghostbusters but with monsters.

Gil [00:27:28]:

All right? Basically, that like, picture every movie with a monster you’ve ever seen in your life, okay? There’s always the fucking town scene. Everybody’s all riled up. That’s the shit that’s about to happen. But we actually have documentation that it happened. This shit happened. I love it as much as any other historical event has been documented. So has this one.

Betsabe [00:27:55]:

That shit amazing.

Gil [00:27:56]:

I’m fucking here for this shit, bro. All right? Now, I wish what I’m about to say was an exaggeration of what happened that night. But according to a local newspaper reporter who showed up, interviewed, and documented what went down, this shit really happened. Armed with the knowledge of where the beast lives and now knowing there’s two of them, the men of the tile and brick factory rushed home, grabbing their biggest guns, and proceeded to wake up everyone in town besides Dr. Alcott, I’m assuming, since no one was reported shot that night anyway, the plan they hatched was simple. Turn on every goddamn light in town for the few folks they left behind to keep watch while the new mob of hundreds of armed men set up an ambush outside of the entrance to the old coal mine. This shit is full on torches and pitchfork style mobbing, and I’m fucking here for it, baby. Whoo.

Joey [00:29:00]:

Oh, my God. Gil, is that an AK 47?

Gil [00:29:03]:

Hell, yeah, it is, Joey. And we’re fucking going in.

Joey [00:29:06]:

Yeah, brother. Marco.

Betsabe [00:29:14]:

I know.

Gil [00:29:16]:

All right. Yeah. All right. So pretty much every guy that can hold a gun creeps into position and hides in the trees and bushes around the coal mine entrance. And they wait and they wait. They wait and they wait until finally it’s 05:46 A.m. And the motherfuckers come home. Now, here’s where it all pops off. The creatures land and start walking towards the coal mine cave. All of a sudden, the serene calm of the morning is ripped apart as every gun there opens fire. Thousands of hot shells crashing, flying everywhere, bouncing on the ground. It looks like the breath of the devil himself. As the air burns with peppery tastes of gun smoke consuming everything visible. The monsters, they begin shrieking with a piercing scream as the awkward smell that once knocked out Mr. White only days earlier begins overtaking everyone’s senses. And then the smoke clears, revealing the monsters still fully intact, still walking towards the entrance of the coal mine. Needless to say, the Van Meter Visitor Committee, aka monster Hit Squad, stood in silence, completely flabbergasted by what they had just seen. Some men broke down into defeat. Others, still high on adrenaline, couldn’t stop talking about it. Time passed, and for the ones still willing to stick around and deal with the situation, a new plan developed. A barricade. Folks from around town gathered whatever they could and brought it to the entrance, hopefully realizing there’s literally a brick factory next door. Anyways, they worked all day on it until finally they had the entrance to the mine completely closed off that night. We can only assume many stood watch around town waiting while nothing appeared. Same as the next night and the next night until weeks, months and finally, years would pass by without any other sighting. And that is the story of the Van Meter visitor.

Joey [00:31:39]:

Okay, I can see, like you just said, I can see these people going to their houses, pulling off the wood off of their walls and off of their stuff and boarding it up. And then some guys just sitting some kids just sitting there looking at them do this and just looks around, looks at the brick, and it’s just sitting right next to him. And he’s just like I think that would have been a little easier. And they’re looking at like and their house falls down. Their house falls down.

Gil [00:32:11]:

This joist out from under that.

Joey [00:32:15]:

At least we trap that monster.

Gil [00:32:18]:

Got him. He didn’t do a goddamn thing to us, but we got him.

Joey [00:32:24]:

He looked at me.

Gil [00:32:26]:

I really want to point out the fact at no point at literally no point in all of this were the monsters aggressive. They didn’t do anything. They were just fucking chilling. They bounced around town. They might have been night owls or night bats or night mothman humanoids, whatever. Doesn’t matter. The point is, they didn’t do anything to anybody. Nobody came up missing, right? Nobody had their blood sucked. There weren’t like goats being harvested and brought up into the air or some shit. The bank wasn’t short $20. I don’t know. The point is, nothing bad happened to anybody in the town. Frankly, anytime.

Betsabe [00:33:05]:

It was just there.

Gil [00:33:06]:

Yeah, it was. Just kind of like they’re hanging out and just existing. And they were like, fuck you.

Betsabe [00:33:13]:

I know. And that’s why aliens don’t come and visit, because they see how we react to new things.

Gil [00:33:22]:

Yeah, this is really an episode about why you suck and aliens don’t like us. That’s the point.

Betsabe [00:33:29]:

Exactly.

Gil [00:33:31]:

Yeah, you the listener. Fucking blows. And aliens won’t come because of people like you. I’m just kidding. Not you. Because you listen to us. And if you listen to us, you already feel that way. But the people around you that don’t, they fucking suck. Hey, you know what really happened better than them?

Joey [00:33:49]:

What really happened to them? So as they were putting the barricades up, right, all these townspeople were putting the barricades up. And then this lonesome stranger walks through the town, comes through, like struts through. I can’t now with an AK 47. He struts through and everyone’s looking at him, and he takes off his hat, his ball cap with his little backpack on, his little rat that follows him. And he goes in there and he just goes, I’ll take care of it. And everyone’s like, do you know who that guy is? That’s Ash. Catch him. He’s going into there to catch them all.

Gil [00:34:32]:

And that was the end. You could have gave a spoiler alert, but that was actually end of Pokemon Coal. Yes. Which hasn’t yet been released due to a missing Ash ketchum.

Joey [00:34:49]:

Well, Ash did follow the Coal, so, I mean, it was kind of.

Gil [00:34:55]:

Nice. That was good.

Joey [00:34:57]:

That’s what they pay.

Gil [00:34:58]:

That’s what I’m paid here for.

Betsabe [00:35:01]:

Yes. Okay. So why are these stories not like in the history book?

Gil [00:35:09]:

What do you mean?

Betsabe [00:35:10]:

They are no like in history books.

Gil [00:35:15]:

Just reading lame history books because of big government.

Joey [00:35:19]:

I do believe that. Honestly, it’s big public school because this.

Betsabe [00:35:26]:

Is like history if you really think about it.

Joey [00:35:29]:

Big textbooks.

Gil [00:35:31]:

This shit is fascinating to me. Okay, full disclosure here, okay? We were going to do a we might do it in the future if I can get my mind in the right spot. We were going to do a conspiracy episode. But I struggle with conspiracies because they’re so fucking stupid. Okay. So I really have a hard time with that.

Betsabe [00:35:50]:

Are they, though?

Gil [00:35:52]:

Yes. The deep level conspiracies, the ones worth dedicating 45 minutes to 85 minutes or whatever to are fucking dumb. Some of them are really fucking stupid because they’re just like referencing points in history that didn’t exist. And then they’re like, check your history books, and then you do, and there’s no reference for them. And I don’t have the passion for that. Some shit like this, right? So I have passion for shit like this, where it’s like there’s tons of accounts, right?

Betsabe [00:36:24]:

Yeah. Records.

Gil [00:36:26]:

Yeah, there’s like personal records. There’s stories that were handed down. There were people that were interviewed who were alive at the time, who were children, who watched their dad come home and be like, yes, I was fucking involved in this shit. That kind of shit. That shit’s fascinating to me because it’s like connecting back to a potentially almost lost point in history, in human history. That shit fucking fascinates the fuck out of me. And it’s really fun to explore. It’s like, there’s a shit ton of people. There’s references all over the place, right? There’s historical records, all this great shit conspiracy shit where it’s just like, well, you can trust it because he brought up this other thing, which actually if you check this Wikipedia article, which doesn’t actually have a citation, it references, and that’s why the ocean is blue. And you’re just like, what the fuck are you talking about? This week I literally Googled, okay? Town Terrorized by Cryptid. That’s what I did. I typed in town. Terrorized by cryptid. And this is what came up. And you know what? I’m glad it did. And you know what it was a Town Terrorized by Encrypted. That’s all I’m saying. I had no points cat that.

Betsabe [00:37:40]:

Thank you for sharing.

Gil [00:37:43]:

This story is fascinating to me because A, it meets the archetype of a town dealing with a monster. What case, what situation, what scenario do we have in history where it’s actually a town dealing with a monster in the way that movies have presented it, right? Like, we don’t we don’t have these cases. We don’t have these incidences, but it has happened, and upwards of five, 6700 people witnessed it. That’s fucking fascinating. I love the hell out of that. Like, literally hundreds of people shot at these things and it just got boarded up and forgotten. I don’t know. There’s a lot more to our history than we think.

Joey [00:38:31]:

That’s all I really do think.

Betsabe [00:38:33]:

I agree.

Joey [00:38:33]:

I think that it’s not a very good marketing strategy for the gun lobbyists. I do believe they actually hid this story because they’re like, damn, our bullets aren’t doing good against cryptids, so we got to kind of hide this stuff or else people aren’t going to buy our weapons.

Gil [00:38:52]:

That is an interesting theory. I was also thinking that maybe there’s a slight chance the train that delivered ammunition only delivered black that week, and they fucked up. They mislabeled it at the general store. And so everybody’s like, this thing’s impervious, but really it wasn’t doing anything. And they were just like, are you shooting me? And then just kept fucking walking along its way, like, doing his thing.

Betsabe [00:39:22]:

Also could have been I mean, that’s annoying.

Joey [00:39:24]:

It could have been Big Coal too. They didn’t want people thinking that all these things were down there in their coal plants. They wanted people to keep mining coal, I guess, in those days.

Gil [00:39:36]:

Wait, does that mean that we’re working for Big Coal because we’re revealing this?

Joey [00:39:40]:

No, because that would shut Big Coal down if they said that they were down in those mines because no one would want to work down there.

Gil [00:39:48]:

That’s true.

Joey [00:39:51]:

It’s always the bigger picture.

Gil [00:39:54]:

God damn it. It is.

Joey [00:39:57]:

And these monsters were just trying to help.

Gil [00:40:01]:

Literally not doing anything, just flying around horny and advertising it.

Joey [00:40:06]:

Horny enlighten horny enlighten everything up.

Gil [00:40:11]:

Yeah.

Betsabe [00:40:12]:

I mean, if you think about it, that’s history all the time. There’s wars just because people get afraid of each other, just because they don’t know what’s going on, and that’s literally it. I mean, it’s happening right now with China, with Russia, because they fear each other and they don’t know each other.

Gil [00:40:39]:

I think it has more to do with them not understanding each other’s. Cryptids, but controversial opinion.

Joey [00:40:46]:

Yeah, I think the cryptids could have stopped the wars. Honestly, they could have.

Joey [00:40:53]:

Thanks for listening to the Black Cat report and our episode on The Van Meter Visitor. We are getting ever closer to getting our merch website set up, so be on the lookout for information on that in future episodes and on our Instagram. Remember to, like, review and follow our page. Wherever you get your podcasts, we love to keep putting out content to you all every week, and we’ll see you next week on the other side.