Creature Feature: The West Virginia Vegetable Man

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“YOU NEED NOT FEAR ME. I WISH TO COMMUNICATE. I COME AS A FRIEND. WE KNOW OF YOU ALL. I COME IN PEACE. I WISH MEDICAL ASSISTANCE. I NEED YOUR HELP.”

These are the strange, fragmented words a man named Jennings Frederick claimed to have heard from the mouth of a monstrous creature. Frederick was a bow hunter and on a hunt outside Fairmont, West Virginia (on a hot day in 1968) he heard an odd sound. This sound, like “a high-pitched jabbering…a record running at exaggerated speed”, would lead him to an event that would change his life.

Frederick came across the creature, which he described as being much taller than himself but skinny as the stalk of a river reed. Its body was skeletal and green like a blade of grass but its eyes were sickly yellow. From its hands stretched out thin, impossibly long fingers that ended in wide suction cups. From the cups were needle-like thorns.

It spoke the above words to him in that same fast-paced jabbering before lunging at him and sticking those thorns deep into his hand. The creature was strong and as blood was drained from his body, those eyes began to flash from yellow to red in such a way that Frederick felt hypnotized. The pain faded the longer he held the plant-like creatures gaze. Then, as abruptly as it attacked, the Vegetable Man shot off and up a hill at inhuman speeds.

Not long after that Frederick heard a deep humming, which he later concluded must have been the entity’s ship taking off. Frederick kept this account a secret from everyone until he finally broke down and told the story to Gray Barker.

Gray Barker will be the subject of another post later on since he is a controversial figure in many paranormal accounts from West Virginia. He is credited with coining the term “Men In Black” as well as having connections to both the Mothman and Flatwoods Witch cases.

My own take on this possible encounter is one of non-commitment. There was never another sighting of any creature that even came close to this thing since the original in 1968. To me, there isn’t really much to go on to form an opinion either way. In any event it, the odd case of West Virginia’s Vegetable Man is an interesting addition to our increasingly strange world.

Stay frosty out there

(If you enjoyed the Vegetable Man, please feel free to check out other fascinating cryptids under the Creature Feature category.)

Sources:

http://www.cryptopia.us/

http://ufozone15.blogspot.com/

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