I love Mothman. As a kid, I was terrified out of my child-sized-head at the idea of this particular cryptid being real. Although I grew up to realise it’s unlikely that such a creature exists, I still think that the Mothman sightings that originated around the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia, USA make for one of the most fascinating cryptozoology mysteries to date. Not only in terms of the occurrences but also the cultural impact that the work of Mothman researcher John Keel has had. In 2011 there were three reported sightings of a Mothman-like creature followed by more than fifty reported sightings in 2017. Although I was aware of the contemporary sightings I never explored them in great detail because I’m in the UK.

Allison Jornin did, though. She is the only investigator to have visited all of the sites of contemporary Mothman eye-witness reports because she believes that “getting boots on the ground at every site is crucial to discovering the truth of any situation” which is something I agree with. According to Jornlin, of the 2017 sightings:

• Seven reports were submitted to ‘MUFON’ (who also received the first 2011 report)
• One report was taken by ‘IL MUFON’,
• Four reports were taken by ‘Singular Fortean Society’,
• The remaining majority of reports were taken by ‘Phantoms & Monsters’ and the ‘UFO Clearinghouse’, the latter of which also received two 2011 reports

There are several issues with the contemporary reports of Mothman sightings, such as at least five individual eye-witness reports coming from the same IP address. Jornlin also says that there are inconsistencies between the accounts and their locations, weather data, moon phases, and other details that don’t match up or make contextual sense. In addition to this, there was also tell-tale similar wording and phrasing used in reports made by allegedly different people that suggests otherwise.

Over on her Youtube channel, you can watch footage that Jornlin filmed at all of the locations of the contemporary Mothman sightings. Jornlin has also appeared on the wonderful Monster Talk podcast to discuss her research with hosts Dr Karen Stollznow and Blake Smith. It’s an incredible piece of investigative work that has been achieved here by Jornlin… but it hasn’t gone down well with everybody.

Lon Strickler writes the ‘Phantoms & Monsters’ blog which received a large number of the contemporary Mothman reports, Tobias Wayland writes the ‘Singular Fortean’ blog which received four reports, and Manuel Navarette runs the UFO clearinghouse website through which many contemporary reports were made. It seems as though these men, who are invested in the contemporary accounts of Mothman sightings, aren’t so happy that Jornlin actually did the footwork and investigated the reports. Especially that as result of this Jornlin has caught the attention of the public and conference organisers.

According to screenshots currently doing the rounds (which I won’t share here after Lon Strickler threatened to report my blog to WordPress), during a recent Facebook post discussing the cancellation/postponing of The Mothman Festival due to COVID-19, Wayland wrote ‘I’m still pissed at them for inviting Allison [Jornlin] to speak instead of me. I’ve been patiently waiting for them to correct their mistake and invite me there.’ To this Lon Strickler replied ‘she is like a bad cold.’

Manuel Navarette then asked ‘Is Allison still relevant?’ In answer to this, Strickler replied ‘she deserves a bath in the Ohio river’ and Wayland chipped in with ‘luckily no, she’s not relevant at all these days … I figure that after the book, TV spots, and various documentaries … people will want to be on our side of this. It would be nice if that led to the Mothman Festival asking me to present and set the record straight. It’d be even better if you were all there, too. Maybe we could do a panel discussion?’

One has to wonder what the panel discussion would focus on. How best to drown uppity women? How to punish a woman who is guilty of the imagined crime of stealing your ill-deserved limelight?

In all seriousness though, would it have been about bruised egos? Sorry, I can’t help myself. However, a panel discussion about bruised egos would certainly be fitting for any paranormal-related conference and it could be an all-female panel so that the women on it could discuss the misogyny that runs rampant through paranormal research communities and how when men feel disrespected in a paranormal subject that they were too lazy to research properly, they instantly start talking in abusive terms about the woman or women who showed them up by doing the hard work.

Jornlin explained to me that when she realised there was something not quite right about the 2011 and 2017 eyewitness accounts, she approached these men with her concerns that they were being trolled or tricked, but rather of taking her concerns on board, they instead turned against her. Which raises some serious questions about their integrity, in my personal opinion.

Then again, I get it. It must be humiliating to have written a book, done TV spots, and featured on documentaries about a subject you’ve ill-researched only for a woman (of all things) to come along and discover the subject you’re so invested in is probably built on a bed of bullshit. That woman deserves to be punished! In all reality, a good researcher would take this new information on board, do better, learn more, research more, reflect, and adjust their conclusions as the result of having an open mind.

Not these guys, though.

Since their comments came to light, they’ve yet to apologise and have gone to ground. At least in the case of Tobias Wayland who has locked his Twitter account – but not before publicly apologising to another man that he had to see “the drama” Wayland had been “caught up in”.

I honestly feel embarrassed for these guys. Not only have they been shown to have made snide, misogynistic, bullying comments about people they disagree with, but they’ve been caught making those comments about Allison Jornlin – the female paranormal researcher who walked the walk when they could barely talk the talk.