Many parts of the world have enjoyed the curious distinction of harboring mysterious creatures which have captivated the minds of investigators, the so-called "monster-hunters", and others interested in the subject. Some of these creatures are the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, the elusive Yetis of the Himalayan range, and the Australian "Yowies", among others--examples of beings that elude the best human efforts aimed at their capture.
Nonetheless, there are also unique creatures whose apparitions have been documented during a certain time period, only to disappear without leaving a trace, never to be seen again. This is the category occupied by West Virginia's infamous "Mothman" and other lesser-known types.
Grant Callison, a resident of Galesburg, Illinois, knew something beyond the realm of normal experience was transpiring when he saw three winged beings flying in the night skies on May 10, 1968. From their kitchen, Grant and his wife Wilma noticed that the beings, flying at an estimated altitude of 500 feet, were covered in feathers or metallic scales of some sort which acquired an odd fluorescence as they reflected light from the local street lamps. The trio of flyers lacked necks and had short, conical tails. "It was an incredible and frightening sight," according to the witnesses.
This was not to be Callisons only sighting either: a few days later, while visiting with relatives, Grant's brother Ward Callison asked if they had seen anything unusual several nights earlier. After hearing the account of his brother's sighting, Ward admitted having seen the very same creatures following a northeasterly trajectory that went over their house. His description of the enigmatic beings coincided with Grant's down to the smallest details.
Five months later, and at the same time of night, another "giant bird" or "winged being" flew directly over Grant and Wilma. The couple noticed that this particular creature appeared to have some sort of difficulty with its right wing, which was kept rigid and several degrees below the left one (it had a 15 to 20 foot wingspan). The flying creature appeared to take notice of the two humans, and fixed its gaze on them as it flew away. "That really scared us," Grant confessed, "and we went inside the house for the rest of the evening." In the Callisons' opinion, the creatures were naturally not native to this world, implying that their origin had to be extraterrestrial or extradimensional. The couple had not heard of Mothman's forays in West Virginia, nor did they ever see the flying creatures again. This weird succession of experiences was collected by researcher Thomas Adams for his Stigmata magazine. Perhaps the Callisons would have been put at ease by the fact that an anonymous young sailor in the Italian navy during World War II, had shared a similar experience, which was later investigated by Sergio Conti of Italy's Giornale del Misteri. While the battleship Duilio was anchored at the port of Toscana in 1945, the sailor looked up from his post on the ship's bridge at something in the skies which drew his attention. From a distance, it clearly resembled a formation of migrating birds flying in a "V" formation, following the leader in perfect alignment. Having nothing better to do, the sailor reached for a pair of binoculars and was treated to an unexpected sight. The birds turned out to be flying humans endowed with powerful wings, heading toward the battleship in a steady glide. Their faces were entirely human, and the leader, occupying the vertex of the "V", appeared to be engaged in conversation with his companion on the right. The massive wings were strangely motionless, and their legs ended in powerful, three-toed claws. Their bodies were entirely covered in feathers except for their faces. The sailor abandoned his post in order to find a witnesses to the amazing sight, but when he returned, the creatures had predictably disappeared.
Another instance of creatures seen only once and never again can be found in the case of orang minyak, "the oily man", who terrorized the residents of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, in the early 1960's. Carys Evans, a student in a Malaysian school at the time, remembers the panic created by stories of such a creature, which was allegedly endowed with supernatural powers. Orang minyak had the physical appearance of a human covered in oil, and "was impossible to capture due to the ability to literally slip and slide out of the hands of his captors," according to Evans. The "oily man" was allegedly responsible for a considerable number of rapes.
British author Harold Wilkins mentioned a pair of truly enigmatic creatures in his book Flying Saucers on the Attack, one of ufology's early classics. In mid-February 1953, the administrator of a Los Angeles law firm dedicated to tracking missing persons stated that two weird-looking men, standing 6'2", who had been given temporary work by the firm's legal director, had vanished without a trace. The administrator went on to say that the emaciated pair, clad in ill-fitting clothes and
with bluish-green complexions, also had prick ears of the sort seen on certain breeds of dogs.
On January 20, 1953, these two men were given an assignment to help in the tracing of missing persons. Their efficiency in this endeavor was such that the other tracers were astounded. The administrator also noted that on one occasion, one of the beings leaned over the top of a steel cabinet and scored an indentation at least a half inch deep on its surface, using his "oddly curved hand" to do so.
Wilkins' description of the entities doesn't stop there: both creatures had jointless hands and wrists of decidedly non-human curvature. The law firm thought it best to notify the FBI, but the strange pair had disappeared before the agents arrived on the scene. Aside from the testimony of the firm's administrator and legal director, the only evidence left behind by the creatures was the furrow in the steel filing cabinet, which was taken to a metallurgical chemist for analysis. The chemist's report stated that a pressure of at least two thousand pounds per square inch would have been necessary to produce such an indentation.
It is worth noting that mystery beings belonging to no particularly definable group have been with us since the earliest days of human history, standing out on account of their very uniqueness, such as the Minotaur of Greek mythology.
The writings of Roman chroniclers such as Aulus Gelius, Julius Obsequens, and Pliny the Elder often mention extraordinary creatures--almost always vaguely humanoid--whose sudden appearance would spread fear among the population and which were considered to be harbingers of great changes or disasters. The Aztec chronicles echo this sentiment in the description of the Tlacantzollis or "divided men" who were captured and taken to emperor Montezuma's house of sorcery, where the beings vanished before the startled eyes of the monarch and his courtiers. More recently, according to the July 1993 issue of Uruguay's Paradigmas magazine, the residents of the community of Rivera, located to the north Montevideo, the nation's capital, lived in terror of a creature resembling the legendary werewolf, especially after two attacks were reported. The first victim was attacked at night, when she got off work. The wolf creature, denominated lobizón by the locals, tore her dress and ran its claws across her chest, leaving deep claw marks. The second victim, who has also chosen to remain anonymous in the face of the "deep shame" she has experienced, was apparently sexually assaulted by the lobizón.
The local police went to great lengths to deny the existence of any supernatural creatures, and have cast doubt even upon the injured victims'
suffering. The eldest residents of the area, however, made the sign of the cross whenever the subject was broached and even recited a number of prayers whose purpose was that of warding off the evil creature.
The legendary Springheel Jack, whose apparition at the beginning and at the end of the 19th century created a stir in Victorian England, also falls into this category. The degree of fear caused by this unknown entity was such that even the eldery Duke of Wellington, who vanquished Napoleon at Waterloo, rode out at night with two pistols in hopes of dispatching the Public Enemy Number One of his time. The Red Man, whose visits to King Charles of Sweden and to Napoleon himself marked crucial moments in the lives of both monarchs, also appears to have been another card in the deck of strange beings. But the question still remains unanswered: Who or what are these mysterious creatures?
Spanish researcher Salvador Freixedo described a singular case, which revolved around the love affair between a well-to-do Venezuelan woman named Lula and thoroughly unusual man known only as Jorge, in his book La Granja Humana. After a courtship laden with supernatural events, the couple married, and
the strange man proved to be a wonderful husband, although he remained particularly adamant about discussing his origins, relatives or livelyhood. Lula jokingly accused him of not being human--a charge which Jorge never really denied. For her peace of mind and that of her relatives, he said that he was the son of Argentinian immigrants and the owner of a small printing shop that never seemed to transact any business. The couple's friends testified to Jorge's astounding powers of precognition--he could accurately fortell the future to the extent of adjusting his behavior beforehand. He possessed superhuman physical prowess, doing things that would have proven lethal for a normal person. Jorge would go to the beach on the worst possible days, challenging the waves and swimming miles away from the shore to the distress of lifeguards. Upon emerging from the water hours later, he would gallop at full speed up and down the length of the beach, to the amazement of onlookers. People driving along the road opposite the shore would stop their cars to witness the spectacular display of locomotion.
In spite of his prowess, Jorge's health was far from good. He would complain to Lula that the "atmosphere" was killing him, and would often lapse into catatonia, recovering enough to take a whiff from a small crystal vial that he always kept close at hand, recovering completely in seconds. Lula was warned many times to resist the temptation to look into the vial or try to sniff it.
On one occasion, she weakened while her husband was in one of his trances. Suddenly, she heard him say, "Lula, quit fooling around with it."
The respiratory problems continued until Jorge lapsed into a coma from which he did not emerge. A medical technician took a few X-rays of Jorge's lungs, and was stunned to discover that the patient had no lungs whatsoever. The attending physician berated the technician for his carelessness, and ordered that a new set of X-rays be produced. The result was the same. Not only did Lula's mystery husband not have a pulmonary apparatus, he had some bizarre organs that were foreign to human anatomy. Before dying, Jorge instructed a servant to buy several yards of bandages, stating that his corpse was to be swathed in bandages like a mummy and silver coins were to be placed between his fingers. No autopsy, he said, was to be performed.  Lula insisted in complying with her husband's wishes and allowed no autopsy. Eight years later, she informed Freixedo that the time limit imposed by law for exhuming a body would be up soon, and she would like him and other friends to be present at the exhumation.
Freixedo traveled to Caracas, only to learn that Lula's whereabouts were unknown to her mother and friends. This, he states, is where interaction between non-humans and humans acquires a negative cast. Lula had allegedly experienced terrible bad luck after following the orders given by a nocturnal apparition that claimed to be Jorge's spirit. Apparently, she was told that she "had a mission to perform" (a message given to many contactees, from Moses on down). As of 1989, Lula was still missing.
In his book Extraterrestrial Visitations from Prehistoric Times to the Present, the late Jacques Bergier was of the opinion that said creatures were indeed unique and enigmatic, and that their sole purpose was that of testing human reaction to things from beyond our natural surroundings. After having made themselves visible to a given number of human spectators, the creatures disappear "only to be put back into a box that exists somewhere" by unknown experimenters who could well be described as "gods".
On the other hand, F.W. "Ted" Holiday, whose research included phenomena surrounding both phantom felines and the monsters of Loch Ness and other bodies of water in the British Isles, conveyed the opinion in his posthumous The Goblin Universe that the sudden manifestation of these beings is a reminder to humans that there is also a spiritual or divine aspect to their existence, something along the lines of an antidote to the materialism which tends to imprison us.  This notion is not so unusual if we take into consideration that waves of UFO sightings and paranormal events appear to obey a similar directive: the UFO flaps of the late '40s and early '50s followed in the wake of global military and nuclear advancement, and the beginnings of consumer economies in North America and Western Europe, and so forth. Holiday notes that the façades of many British churches depict images of UFOs, Black Dogs, and Phantom Cats, suggesting that such things have their ultimate origin in the spiritual realm.
The parade of enigmatic creatures, however, remains oblivious to the explanations put forth to account for them, and continue to appear all over the world. Many of them have been incorporated into the national psyche of many countries, as is the case with Mexico's La Llorona ("The Weeping One") whose existence is still
believed by many and is used to frighten tens of thousands of misbehaving children to this very day. This counterpart of the bogeyman of northerly climes made its appearance during the years preceding the Spanish conquest of Aztec Mexico, when she would roam the temples and squares of Tenochtitlan wailing and screaming in stentorean tones: "Oh, my children! All is lost..Where shall I hide you?". This powerful cultural image, originally named Cihuacoatl, appeared only a number of times in the 16th century, but its legend was retold under various different forms to keep up with the changing times. In one of the many retellings, La Llorona was a woman who was endowed with the power to turn into a nagual, and during one such lycanthropic change, devoured her children. Upon learning of her hideous crime when reverting to human form, she was then doomed to roam the night and mourn her loss.
Another singular being was encountered in 1964 near the village of Tarifa, Spain by a diver who was later interviewed in 1981 for J.J. Benítez's book La Quinta Columna. The anonymous diver, who was 28 at the time of the incident, was on his way home late in the evening from a summer fair at a nearby village. The road back to his house ran along a seaside cliff, and it was there that the diver very nearly ran into a monumental pair of legs.
A giant hand rested on an equally massive thigh, and the diver found himself staring at a veritable giant, well over twelve feet tall, staring motionlessly out at sea. The creature's clothing consisted in a one piece outfit of tightly-knit scales. The beam of a nearby lighthouse cast its brilliance on the colossus with every rotation, but the diver was unable to make out its face. 
The diver told Benítez that he felt no fear of the towering presence blocking his path, but was left completely flabbergasted when it suddenly spoke to him in
Corrales-perfect Spanish, asking politely: "Are you from these parts, fellow?". Astonishment getting the best of him, the diver mumbled an inconsequential reply before simply walking off toward his house. At one point, he turned around, only to see the giant staring out to sea once more. In his analysis of the case, the author pauses to consider the inverosimilitude of this chance encounter on a deserted trail in the wee hours of the morning, suggesting that the diver's actions were also being guided to gauge his reaction to the event. Are these Bergier's "hidden experimenters" at work once again?
Spain's Las Hurdes region (popularized by the films of Luis Buñuel) appeared prone to unannounced visits by bizarre entities. In 1983, Mari Carmen Ramos, a young resident of Vegas de Coria, was startled by her encounter with 12-foot tall being at
dusk as she walked down the street leading to her house. The creature appeared to be gliding or floating above the ground, dressed in priest-like black garb and carrying what she described as a handbag. This unsartorial being  was encountered by two more young townswomen, who described it in exactly the same fashion. Though there were a number of other apparitions, this particular one was never to be seen again.
Finally, some of the creatures suggest a reality we can only speculate about, even in our most detailed analyses: this category is occupied by non-corporeal beings which also made an "only once" appearance. Foremost among them is the terrifying force, presence, or creature described by author Vincent Gaddis in his landmark Invisible Horizons. This unknown entity manifested itself to the hapless crew of the Russian steamer Ivan Vassili in 1903, as the vessel transported war material halfway around the world from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. Gaddis describes the creature as "a faintly luminous, misty form, vaguely resembling a human being" which would terrify percipients. The crew was thrown into blind panics whenever the entity made itself felt, and the death by suicide of a crewmember seemed to "appease" it. The steamer's ultimate fate was being set afire in Vladivostok, and the ghastly presence has fortunately never been mentioned again in contemporary accounts.

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