Illinois Man Recounts Sighting of "Winged Creature" with "the Body of a Large Man" Seen While Hunting

*(Emily Wayland / Singular Fortean Society)*

79-year-old Gerald Turrise contacted the Singular Fortean Society recently to recount an experience he’d had with a weird, winged creature in Illinois during the winter of 1957.

"I realize this story is a little late, but I never knew who to tell my story to until I came across [your article] about the man who saw a birdman at O'Hare airport," Turrise wrote in an email. "I'm 79 years old now and this happened a long time ago. It was around 1957 when I was with my late brother Gene and his late brother-in law, we were hunting in the Braidwood, Illinois, area for pheasants and rabbits. As we were walking in this large open field, there was a lone, large tree standing in the middle of the field. When we were directly under it, a huge man-sized creature sailed over our heads into the woods across the road. We were stunned, we just looked at each other too dumbfounded to speak."

Investigator Tobias Wayland wrote back to Turrise and asked for any additional details he could remember.

"I was a young teenager at the time and it was early wintertime, [the time of day] was mid-morning," Turrise responded. "The winged creature had the body of a large man with legs, but it was covered over the whole body with dark, tan-colored feathers. This happened so long ago I don't recall what the face looked liked. I'm glad to tell this story to someone who has knowledge of such creatures before I die."

When asked if he’d had any other paranormal experiences either before or since his sighting, Turrise said that he'd "had an encounter at a U.S. Army station at a Nike Hercules missile site in Northfield, Illinois” in 1963.

"I was on guard duty at the time at our radar station," he said. "It was after midnight when I witnessed a UFO in the sky southeast of my location, maybe a mile away around 1000 feet above the terrain. I watched it for a few minutes before I made a phone call to our command offices in Arlington, Illinois, to report what I was observing. I was contacted a few days later by Dr. J. Allen Hynek. This report is documented in project Blue Book. Dr. Hynek had told me he was informed to tell me that what I saw was just a private airplane towing an advertising sign. I doubt they would be flying at that time of night, Now, there's no way a plane could ever make the moves I witnessed, and at the end of the encounter this UFO just shot up into space as fast as a bullet."

A review of the Project Blue Book case files confirmed the date as May 11th, 1963, and the official evaluation as “aircraft.”

The missile site—which was active from 1955 to 1974—is one and a half miles south of the Chicago Botanic Garden and two miles west of Lake Michigan. Braidwood, where Turrise had his winged creature sighting, is approximately 70 miles southwest of the site.

This is currently the oldest flying humanoid case recorded in the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation.

This report constitutes the latest news in a string of ‘Mothman’ sightings from within a few hundred mile radius surrounding Lake Michigan, including every state bordering the great lake. These sightings ostensibly began in the spring of 2017, but more historical accounts are being reported as more people become aware of the phenomenon. They generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large, gray or black, bat or bird-like creature—although in a small number of cases the creature was described as insect-like—sometimes with glowing or reflective red, yellow, green, or orange eyes, and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Some witnesses have reported feeling intense fear and an aura of evil emanating from the creature they encountered. Many of the sightings are also of something seen only briefly or are described only as a flying creature with few details, which leaves open the possibility that a large bird or bird-like being could explain some—although certainly not all—of the encounters. A number of associated high strangeness incidents have also occurred alongside the creature sightings; including reports of UFOs, other anomalous flying creatures and mysterious humanoids, psychic and haunting phenomena, and bizarre events experienced by those investigating the sightings.

To report a sighting reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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