People continue to hear stories of unusual encounters with strange creatures which cannot be explained. Some of these stories are related to Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) and possibly their occupants. One of these unusual creatures the Grinning Man, is connected to another cryptid the Mothman, who is also famous.
Who is the Grinning Man
There are many stories of ordinary normal people, who while doing their daily routine activities, come across something which is not known, which is unnatural and cannot be logically explained. Some of these stories are related to creatures, animals which are not documented by mainstream or modern science, strange lights in the sky at night or sighting a phantom like creature or ghostly apparition. People who have had these unexplained experiences have told these stories in the past and are likely to continue telling these stories in future also.
In the last sixty years, a few stories have been told of people who have had encounters with an unusual humanoid creature who may be linked with the mysterious world of UFO stories. The creature has been nicknamed the Grinning Man, and one feature of all the encounters with this creature is a maniacal grin on the creature’s face whenever he was spotted. This is the most memorable feature of all the encounters and some claim that the creature is malevolent. .
John Keel is a famous paranormal investigator who has made another cryptid the Mothman famous worldwide. According to him, the Grinning man was first noticed in 1966. Keel published his book “Strange creatures from Time & Space” in 1970. In this book, Keel has narrated the first encounter in modern times with the humanoid having a maniacal grin. In the incident, in the month of October 1966, two boys were walking in New Jersey, on a street. Earlier in the day, in the same area, a woman had complained that she was being chased by a tall man in green, and the boys were nervous after hearing the story.
The boys reported that they probably saw the same man, standing in some bush, behind a nearby fence, looking at the house on the opposite side of the road. The creature was behind the boys, and the green colored one-piece suit which he wore, had reflections of the street lights in the area. After the creature realized that the boys had noticed him, it turned towards them and smiled, grinning from one ear to another. Since the creature had elongated eyes, it was difficult to make out, whether the creature had ears, hair or nose. The same night, police started receiving reports of a UFO which was brightly white in color. A number of officers themselves allegedly spotted the object near a reservoir in the area. Many people started claiming that the encounters were probably linked and correctly assumed, that the creature was an alien who was stranded or the UFO was searching for the creature.
Three weeks later, a salesman selling sewing machines claimed that he was stopped by a strange automobile on the highway. A bald tall man wearing a blue colored metallic suit emerged from the vehicle hatch and approached the salesman. The humanoid had a maniacal grin which glinted in the headlights of the car, and his eyes were slightly elongated according to the salesman. Using telepathy for communication, the salesman claimed that the grinning humanoid gave his name as Indrid Cold, and said that he would interact with the salesman again. This encounter was reported near Point Pleasant. A few weeks later in the same area, people would report the sighting of the Mothman, another famous cryptid, who is considered responsible for the bridge collapse which led to deaths.
The salesman who was named Woodrow Derenberger later claimed that Indrid Cold visited him often. Derenberger claimed that Cold revealed to him that he was a alien from another galaxy, from a planet named Lanulos. The salesman also claimed that he visited Cold on his home planet, and also met other creatures like Cold during his travels. Though Derenberger wrote a book about his encounters with humanoids, he lost his job, wife and some claim that he was also insane. Derenberger died in 1990 and some claim that he lost his life due to his obsession with his friend Cold, the grinning man.