The Mothman Prophecies

The book relates Keel's accounts of his investigation into confirmed sightings of a large, winged creature called Mothman in the vicinity of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during 1966 and 1967.[2] It combines these accounts with his theories about UFOs and various supernatural phenomena, ultimately connecting them to the collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River on December 15, 1967. Official investigations in 1971 determined it was caused by stress corrosion cracking in an eyebar in a suspension chain.[3]

Keel harshly rejects the theory that UFOs are of an extraterrestrial origin, instead positing the ultraterrestrial theory: that Mothman, UFOs, and other unexplained phenomena are hallucinations caused by a psychic intelligence.[4]

Kirkus Reviews called the books skepticism towards the extraterrestrial theory for the existence of UFOs "most convincing."[5]

In the May/June 2002 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, journalist John C. Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO researcher Gray Barker, published an article titled "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk". It contained an analysis of private letters between Keel and Barker during the period of Keel's investigation. According to Sherwood, Keel wrote in 1967 that people in the New York area were receiving mysterious phone-calls from a woman who identified herself as "Mrs. Gray Baker"; recounting these events in The Mothman Prophecies, published eight years later, Keel had changed the name to "Mrs. Gray Barker". Sherwood said that he contacted Keel in 2001, asking him to assist in clarifying the discrepancy, as well as to defend the book's thesis. Sherwood said that Keel declined, citing a recent eye-surgery, and eventually stopped replying to Sherwood's letters. [6]

The Mothman Prophecies was the inspiration for the 2002 film of the same name, starring Richard Gere.

• Invasion of the Doll People by Colin Bennett, in Fortean Times 156 (2002)
• Dunning, Brian (June 23, 2009). "Skeptoid #159: The Mothman Cometh". Skeptoid.