Winged Freak Terrorizes Chicago? Wait'll You Get A Load Of These 29 Sightings

CHICAGO, IL — For about a decade, Chicago has been a stand-in for the fictional Gotham City, thanks to Christopher Nolan's Batman films. So it makes a certain amount of sense that reports of a winged, bat-like creature around the city — and even the suburbs — would pop up. As of the second week in August, there have been nearly 30 sightings of a "large, flying humanoid" in the Chicago area, according to Lon Stickler, who has been tracking these reports on his website, Phantoms and Monsters, and for the Singular Fortean society.

Putting aside the pipe dream that Batman is in Chicago fighting crime, sightings of these kind — a dark, winged, humanoid with glowing, red eyes — have been reported for decades across the country. The most famous so-called "Mothman" sightings happened in 1966 in Point Pleasant, West Virgina, and are said to be connected to a bridge collapse that killed 46 people a year after the first reports. The creature's appearance and significance inspired a film, movie and countless pop culture references.

Stickler, who told the Chicago Reader he encountered a Mothman when he was a child in Pennsylvania, started hearing stories about a winged creature in Chicago in 2011 when he received three reports. Last year, only one report popped up, but Stickler has tracked 29 sightings so far in 2017, most of them occurring near Lake Michigan. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

The latest sighting Stickler received happened Wednesday, Aug. 9, along North Lake Shore Drive, according to his website. A wife and husband were walking in that area at around 9:20 p.m. when they saw a winged form swoop from the sky and eventually fly toward them:

"Then suddenly, the large winged being slowing descended in front of them, no more than 25 feet away. It hovered about 5 feet above the sidewalk, with it's wing spread open, as it peered at the couple with large bright red eyes that slowly altered back and forth in intensity. Several people on the other side of the street, including a delivery van driver, reacted with screams and frightened yelps. The winged being hovered for 10 seconds, then quickly pulled the wings into its body and shot up quickly into the night sky."

The woman who contacted Stickler described the 5-foot to 6-foot "winged being" she and her husband saw as "'human-like' with a small head that narrowed at the top" with "moist," deep blue-green skin that appeared shiny. The wings looked like a butterfly's and attached along the body. It also had long, tapered feet.

Earlier this summer, Stickler received a report from another couple who claim they accidentally photographed a winged humanoid while taking a shot of the Eye Car Muffler Man at 6254 S. Pulaski Road. He posted the photo in a YouTube video in June.

Other sightings Stickler listed on the Singular Fortean Society's website include:

• May 19: Two "giant bats" are witnessed performing "aerial maneuvers" near Adler Planetarium.
• June 29: Two police officers, an "aspiring journalist" and a group of witnesses see a "dark black shadow with wings" flying and standing on a building top in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
• Aug. 2: A woman and her son reported seeing a "tall, dark humanoid" making a "sucking and slobbering sound" at Indian Boundary Parkin suburban Bolingbrook.
• Aug. 4: Similar sightings are reported on the same day, one in Melrose Park and one in River Forest.

Stickler doesn't think the current Mothman sightings in Chicago are prophesizing bad times for the city the way some people believe happened in West Virginia. But he can't explain the sightings, either, which he told the Chicago Reader were the most reports he's seen in a single area in such a short span of time.

The idea of a 6-foot man-bat or mothman is a bit terrifying, but let's not rule out Batman quite yet. We'll know for sure if Mayor Emanuel buys a bat signal to shine on the Willis Tower.

Go to Stickler's website, Phantom and Monsters, and his YouTube page, Paranormal Junkie, for the reports on the Chicago sightings. He also compiled a list of sightings at the Singluar Fortean Society's webpage.

More via the Chicago Reader

"Batman Begins" movie poster (Image via Warner Bros.)

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