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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries that
keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.

Others just defy logic.

NARRATOR: Do
monsters exist?

In West Virginia, a
town is terrorized by

a seven-foot winged demon.

Did it cause the
death of 46 people?

LOREN COLEMAN: It had
two huge black wings

and no head, no arms.

NARRATOR: In Newfoundland,
a macabre creature washes

up on a local beach.

Are our oceans
concealing a mega beast?

GARRY STENSON: It was
nothing that either of us

had ever seen
or could imagine.

NARRATOR: And in New
Delhi, thousands

are attacked by a
metal-clawed monster.

Was it a man or a beast?

SANAL EDAMARAKU: People
ran off in absolute panic.

They just were fleeing
from the scene.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER: You
know I just had a lovely

holiday in Scotland.

Edinburgh Castle, bagpipes
- the whole deal.

Even went to Loch Ness
where Nessie, the famous

Loch Ness monster,
is supposed to live.

We got on this boat, went
out on the loch,

searching for hours.

Then guess what I saw?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Total waste of
time and six bucks!

Are monsters nothing more than
bait to lure gullible tourists?

Do things like Yeti, Big
Foot and Chupacabra exist?

I've got news for you -

they just might.

NARRATOR: Point
Pleasant, West Virginia.

Nearly 50 years ago, this
sleepy farming town was

brutally awoken by a
series of monstrous events

that are still
a mystery today.

Loren Coleman
is an author.

He documented
the incidents,

which began on the night
of November 15th, 1966,

when two young
couples took a drive.

LOREN COLEMAN: Roger and
Linda Scarberry and the

Malletts were driving
around in the old TNT area.

It was called TNT because
that's where dynamite

was stored during
World War II.

NARRATOR: Secluded and
dark, TNT was also

a well-known Lovers' Lane.

But instead of fun,
the four teenagers are

about to encounter a
living nightmare

LOREN COLEMAN: All of a
sudden they see this creature.

It's six feet tall and
it's coming to them.

It's having glowing
red eyes in its chest,

which are reflecting
the headlights.

It had two huge black
wings, no head, no arms.

All of a sudden it goes into
the air and starts flying.

They started racing back
to Point Pleasant and

the creature was in
back of the car.

Really they felt it almost
was touching both sides

of the highway.

Red glowing eyes, no arms,
just these huge wings.

NARRATOR: Reaching speeds of
one hundred miles an hour, the

chase continues until finally
the creature disappears.

[♪]

Was there something
unpleasant in Point Pleasant?

This remarkable story sends
shockwaves through the town.

The media call the
creature the Mothman.

Local resident Faye Leport was
fourteen years old at the time.

Three days after the first
sighting, she decided

to visit the scene
for herself.

FAYE LEPORT: That's the
road over there that we

drove down, me and my
brother, to come out here

to try to find the so-called
Mothman we heard about.

My brother said well I'm
just gonna see uh if I can

find it and prove that
it's just somebody in a

Halloween costume or
something on wires or something.

As we got to the, the area
my brother kept looking

past me to the window.

I said well, what is it?

What are you looking
at? You know?

He said well don't look
right now and he said but

there's something beside
the car there by the window.

So he slammed the brakes
on and just like it was

nothing just leaped
right up on the car.

Even though it was dark,
you could still see the eyes.

It had the features of a bird,
combined with a human.

We were really scared and
I was begging and crying

for my brother to go ahead
and, and let's get out of here.

That's when I finally saw
it open up its wings and

just flew off in the sky
so pretty and it was gone.

NARRATOR: For the next
year, the Mothman

terrorizes the people
of Point Pleasant.

WITNESS 1 (ARCHIVE): We
were coming up around here

and we looked around the
thing, around the curb

there and we thought it was
a car light so we stopped

the car and the thing
came over top of the car.

WITNESS 2 (ARCHIVE):
Well I just think it's

something supernatural
that we can't explain or

something like that.

I know I can't explain
it, that's for sure.

NARRATOR: They wonder
where it will all end.

Thirteen months after
the first sighting,

they get their answer.

LOREN COLEMAN: The
Silver Bridge, between

West Virginia and Ohio
starting at Point Pleasant

collapsed on
December 15th, 1967.

Sixty-seven people fell into
the water of the Ohio River.

Forty-six died and two
bodies never were even found.

NARRATOR: There's
seemingly no apparent

reason for this
horrific tragedy.

Then comes a
terrifying report.

The night before the
disaster, the Mothman was

seen hanging from
the Silver Bridge.

LOREN COLEMAN: And
people were scared.

They were so scared they
didn't want to talk about

the bridge, they didn't
want to talk about

Mothman, they didn't want
to talk about anything.

NARRATOR: The Mothman
was never seen again.

For forty-five years,
this incredible story has

baffled experts.

But some believe recent
evidence could finally

explain the mystery
of the Mothman.

Joe Nickell is a
paranormal investigator

with Skeptical Inquirer
science magazine.

JOE NICKELL: We human beings
misperceive all the time.

People say I
know what I saw.

Actually they know what
they think they saw.

NARRATOR: Joe believes the
Mothman wasn't quite the

monstrous beast it
was made out to be.

JOE NICKELL: I believe the
barred owl is the creature

that most clearly
fits the bill.

NARRATOR: Was the
Mothman simply an owl?

Nickell thinks the answer
lies in Linda Scarberry's

first descriptions
back in 1966.

JOE NICKELL: Her original
description of Mothman is

of a very large
winged creature.

She said it had no neck,
virtually no real head,

just eyes, very large
eyes, round and shining

like a bicycle reflector.

In the owl family there
are different degrees of

what's called eye shine.

Among the most potent is
that of the barred owl,

which has a deep
crimson eye shine.

It's a large owl
with big wingspan.

It would look like just
eyes set at the top of a

body with wings up.

It flies in a silent
moth-like flight.

It has pretty much exactly
the characteristics of

Mothman original
sightings.

NARRATOR: But does Nickell's
theory explain the height?

Eyewitnesses reported
a creature that was

six or seven feet tall.

JOE NICKELL: We know that
people misperceive and

I'm quite confident that
somebody looking and not

knowing what it is at
night quickly and maybe

being frightened by it, I
dare say I would misjudge

the distance and therefore
misjudge the height.

So I would say
this in summary.

If it looked like a
barred owl and acted like

a barred owl and had
red reflector eyes,

maybe it was a barred owl.

WILLIAM SHATNER: It's
incredible, isn't it?

Here we have an entire
town in fear of their

lives from something they
can't explain - a creature

seven feet tall that can
fly a hundred miles an

hour and maybe even bring
down a bridge and they

blame it on this guy?

Don't get me wrong.

He's scary - if
you're a field mouse.

Perhaps the real question
here is why did so many

people think they saw a
monster and even blame it

for the death of
forty-six people?

Weird or what?

NARRATOR: A psychologist
believes there is one sure

way to solve the mystery
of the Mothman. Using fear.

JIM HOURAN: We are going to
try to induce a mild case

of mass psychogenic illness

I feel like someone
is following me.

NARRATOR: A mysterious
winged creature called the

Mothman terrorizes a
town in West Virginia.

Is it proof that
monsters exist?

Jim Houran is a
psychologist.

He believes the Mothman
can be explained by a

phenomenon called MPI.

JIM HOURAN: Mass
psychogenic illness,

or MPI, is a psychological
term for an outbreak of

mysterious illness that
has no medical cause,

but it's entirely in
someone's head.

Before you know it, you
have a contagion effect,

whereby those social
symptoms start spreading

in a large
group of people.

NARRATOR: Was Mothman the
result of a social contagion?

Houran believes he can
prove his theory by

showing what might have
happened in Point Pleasant.

JIM HOURAN: We're gonna
try to induce a mild case

of mass psychogenic
illness.

I've selected a
group of volunteers.

I'm going to give them the
suggestion that they're

gonna be visiting a very
haunted place in the woods.

We're gonna take them
out there and let their

imaginations take over.

JIM HOURAN: Was this fact?

Was this fiction?

NARRATOR: Houran begins by
telling the group he needs

their help to solve a
series of disturbing

paranormal incidents
reported in the area.

As night falls, the group
sets out into the woods.

JIM HOURAN: Stop please.
Everyone fan out.

NARRATOR: They are told to
turn off their flashlights.

From this point they can
only be turned on when someone

thinks they experience
something paranormal.

In just minutes,
flashlights come on and

reports of paranormal
activity flood in.

Houran believes the
flashlights act as social

cues which influence the
other members of the group.

VOLUNTEER: I felt a cold
breeze before the wind

starting blowing.

JIM HOURAN: You
felt a cold breeze?

Someone felt cold
over there too.

VOLUNTEER 2: I feel like
someone is following me,

and someone is trying
to say something.

VOLUNTEER 3: I feel
like electricity like

static on my face.

JIM HOURAN: Let me
understand this.

Right here you feel like
there's static electricity

on your face?

JIM HOURAN: As soon as one
or two cues took hold,

then you start seeing
a flurry of other

flashlights going on.

It percolated throughout
the entire group, exactly

what we would expect with
psychogenic illness in a group.

NARRATOR: Was the Mothman all
in the minds of its victims?

And does this explain
what eyewitnesses like

Faye Leport saw?

Ken Gerhard is a
professional monster hunter.

He believes the best way
to solve the Mothman

mystery is to hunt
it down himself.

KEN GERHARD: For the past
decades, I have gone out

and searched for hard
physical evidence that

we share our world with
creatures, legendary

beasts, things that have
not been classified or

verified by scientists.

NARRATOR: Gerhard has come
to the McClintic Wildlife

Reserve, close to where the
Mothman was first sighted.

KEN GERHARD: It's very
exciting to be here uh in

the actual location where
Mothman was reported

so many times back
in the 1960s.

If Mothman is a real
physical animal,

it's gonna make an impact on
its environment and this

could be tracks on the ground,
nests, markings and the like.

NARRATOR: Using a camera
trap, Gerhard is hoping

to catch Mothman unaware.

KEN GERHARD:
This is actually

a motion-activated camera
with an infrared beam and

anything that passes
within that beam is

actually gonna be captured
on this particular camera.

I can put the camera out
overnight and come back

the following morning to
determine whether in fact

I've captured an
image of the subject.

NARRATOR: To attract his
prey, Gerhard sets up

a 'Blasting Device' - a
machine that broadcasts

the sound of forest
creatures in pain.

[animal in pain sound]

KEN GERHARD: Many of the
eyewitnesses said the

Mothman made kind of a
squeaking mechanical mouse

sound and uh fortunately
I have a little sound on here

called lip squeak and I think
that's exactly what we need.

[animal squeaking sound]

[ruslting]

Did you hear that?

There's something moving
around there in the brush.

I don't know what it was
but basically that last

sound definitely evoked some
type of response or reaction.

NARRATOR: With his
equipment set,

it's now a waiting game.

Will the Mothman
reveal himself?

WILLIAM SHATNER: I don't
know about you,

but if I were a monster
hunter, indeed if I were

hunting the Mothman,
I think I'd be taking

something a little more
substantial than this.

[squeak]

I mean at least I would
think you'd take something

like this, wouldn't you?

But we have to ask the
question if monsters

really exist, why has no
one, monster hunter or not,

been able
to catch one?

Then again, if monsters
were just ordinary critters,

they wouldn't really
be monsters, would they?

[squeak]

NARRATOR: Returning the next
day, monster hunter Ken Gerhard

checks to see if he's found
evidence of the Mothman.

KEN GERHARD: Huh. Well
unfortunately it doesn't look

like we got anything on film.

I uh I may have been a
little bit wrong about

the, the placement
of this camera.

The lesson learned here is
that monster hunting is

a very arduous and time
consuming process and it

may take quite a, quite
a bit of time before

we actually get an
image of our quarry.

NARRATOR: The high tech
approach has failed to

find anything, but Gerhard
thinks he knows exactly

what Mothman is.

KEN GERHARD: I believe
Mothman to be the product

of negative energy.

Consider for a moment
the main location where

Mothman was encountered.

Many of the Native
American tribes would

avoid this area completely
because they believed it

to be haunted by monsters
and evil spirits and then

you have the great curse
of Chief Cornstalk,

the Shawnee Chief who on his
deathbed, cursed the area

because the white men
had betrayed him.

So in that respect, I
believe Mothman to be the

accumulation of all of
this negative energy,

perhaps brought to life by
some type of mechanism far

beyond the realm of
human comprehension.

NARRATOR: Was Mothman a
bad omen that somehow

materialized in
Point Pleasant?

Or could it simply have
been mass hysteria

created by an owl?

Weird - or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: A fisherman finds a
giant unidentifiable creature

on a beach in Newfoundland.

GARRY STENSON: It was
nothing that either of us

had ever seen or
could imagine.

NARRATOR: Are monsters
lurking in the deep?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Ah! Hey. Oooh.

You know I used
to love fishing.

Nothing better than the
thrill of landing a big one -

the ultimate challenge
between man and beast.

But every now and then you catch
something you're not expecting.

Strange things that make
you wonder - what is

living in the depths
of our oceans?

I don't know.

NARRATOR: In 2001, Garry
Stenson was working as

a fisheries officer in
Newfoundland, Canada when

he received the strangest
phone call of his career.

GARRY STENSON: I got a
call from a fisherman.

He was telling me about a
creature on the beach that

had washed up.

He started to describe
it to me and it sounded

unlike anything that
I had encountered.

NARRATOR: Mystified,
Garry decides to meet the

fisherman and investigate
the strange sighting.

GARRY STENSON: It was a
very isolated area and as

we came up to it we saw
this large creature laying

on the beach itself.

I've never seen anything
that looked like this.

There was nothing that
looked like a head.

There was nothing that
looked like any sort of

structure that we, that
we could identify it.

NARRATOR: In over twenty
years as a fisheries officer,

Garry thought he had seen
it all - until now.

GARRY STENSON: I've worked
on a lot of whales and

I've worked on a lot of
seals and even some sharks

that have come ashore, but
this creature was nothing

like that and there was
nothing that we could tell

where it came from.

From a distance, it had
what looked like hair,

standing up all over it.

It was about five and a
half meters long, about

two meters wide and about a
meter high in the middle of it.

There were a
number of lobes.

They looked almost like short
arms, with notches in between.

It smelled a lot
like rotting tissue.

It was pretty heavy.

We tried pushing on
it, it was solid.

It was nothing
that we could move.

So what we did was we took
our knives and we tried

to cut up and cut
into the tissue.

NARRATOR: As they cut into
the carcass, they made

a bizarre discovery.

GARRY STENSON: The exterior
of it was very hard,

it was quite tough but there
was no sign of any organs.

If it was a shark, there
would be cartilage but

there was no cartilage.

So we looked for bone.

If it was a whale, there
would be some bone in it,

but there was none
of this either.

NARRATOR: It seemed Garry
and the fisherman had

discovered a creature
unknown to science.

GARRY STENSON: It was
nothing that either of

us had ever seen
or could imagine.

It's not impossible that
there's something out there

that we haven't seen before
that's lurking in the depths.

NARRATOR: A giant creature
washes up in Newfoundland.

Was it an unknown species
or a monster from the deep?

And if there was one,
could there be others?

Remarkably, the
answer is yes.

WILLIAM SHATNER:
It's incredible.

In the last century, giant
weird blobs of - ooh well

I dunno what - have been
washing up all over the planet.

Are they something awful from
the bowels of ships? I hope not.

In fact, they're so hard
to identify that the only

name scientists could come
up with is globsters.

Part glob, part monster.

Globster. Clever.

But what the hell
are they?

NARRATOR: Mathew Wedel is
a professor of anatomy.

He believes the
explanation is simple.

MATHEW WEDEL: It sounds
like something very

mysterious, something
completely unknown to

science but there's no
evidence so far that

they're anything other
than dead whales.

NARRATOR: But if globsters
are whales, how could tons

of bones and internal
organs be missing?

Wedel thinks the answer
lies in one of the

strongest elements in
nature - collagen,

a protein found
in whale skin.

MATHEW WEDEL: Collagen is
similar to steel in terms

of tensile strength so
it's one of the toughest

substances known to man.

If you feel the back of
your heel, feel your

Achilles tendon, that's a
big rope of collagen the

size of your finger.

Now imagine something like
that woven in overlapping

belts around an animal a
hundred feet long and you

get some idea of the
strength of whale skin.

It's just incredible.

NARRATOR: Scientists think
protective collagen allows

whales to dive up to two miles
below the surface of the ocean.

MATHEW WEDEL: Many
submarines would crush

before they got
down to that depth.

Collagen is their pressure
suit when they dive and

their armour against
things like sharks that

would try to take
bites out of them.

NARRATOR: Wedel also
believes collagen causes

whales to decompose
in a unique way.

MATHEW WEDEL:
Decomposition for whales

is an interesting process.

When a whale dies, the
skin doesn't fall apart

the way that normal
animal skin does.

NARRATOR: After death,
scavengers rapidly devour

the inside of a dead
whale, but they leave the

gristly collagen alone.

MATHEW WEDEL: Once animals
have eaten their way into

the body to get the good
stuff, it's easy for the

bones to slide right out and
sink to the bottom of the ocean.

The skin falls off like a
sock off of a foot and now

you have a hundred foot
long tube of skin floating

through the ocean.

NARRATOR: But many
globsters have tentacles,

strange arms, even hair.

Can Wedel's theory explain
these bizarre features?

MATHEW WEDEL: Imagine, that
sack of skin can float around

in the ocean for months
or maybe even years.

It can rip, it can tear,
it can shred into all

kinds of interesting
shapes and the collagen

actually frays, just like
an old pair of pants and

those threads of collagen
that stick out are usually

pink or red and
they look like hair.

NARRATOR: Are globsters
simply giant blobs of

collagen floating around
in a suit of whale skin?

Or are they beasts
from the deep?

MATHEW WEDEL: I love a
good mystery much as the

next person and I would
love to think that there

are giant unknown animals
in the ocean and there

probably are some new
kinds of sharks and maybe

even new species of
whales, but there's

no real sea monster.

NARRATOR: Are globsters
simply masses of mammal meat?

Some believe they are
proof of something

far more terrifying.

HANS LARSSON: It would
absolutely be a monster.

NARRATOR: Strange
creatures called globsters

are washing up on beaches
all over the world.

Are they simply
dead whales?

Dr. Hans Larsson
is a paleontologist.

He thinks globsters could
be a living relic from our

ancient past.

HANS LARSSON: The
researchers who, who point

to globsters and say they're
nothing more than whales,

they're probably
right for most cases,

but pretty much the entire
ocean below a hundred

meters' depth hasn't
been explored.

NARRATOR: Some areas of the
ocean are over six miles deep.

Larsson believes that a
terrifying creature could

be lurking in the
depths - the Megalodon.

HANS LARSSON: Megalodon
is a huge fish.

It looks a lot like
a great white shark

but it's much bigger.

NARRATOR: It's known as
the Tyrannosaurus Rex of

the sea, a monster that
terrorized the ocean

for twenty-five
million years -

and the right size
for a globster.

HANS LARSSON: This is a
tiger shark about fifteen

or so feet long and look
at the size of the teeth

and the size of the mouth
so it's pretty impressive.

I mean this would be scary
enough in the water should

you be in front of it
but compare that to

a Megalodon and this is
an average sized tooth.

It would absolutely
be a monster.

NARRATOR: Most scientists
believe this marine monster

became extinct one and a
half million years ago.

But remarkably,
Larsson isn't so sure.

HANS LARSSON: Some people
have suggested that the cooling

of the oceans may have driven
megalodon to extinction.

I think we should be a
little bit skeptical about

that because all the other
animals in the ocean

survived quite well.

And if that whole
ecosystem could survive

the global cooling of the
oceans and the ice ages,

why not megalodon?

NARRATOR: Could
science be wrong?

Another giant of the deep,
the coelacanth was supposed

to have died out 65 million
years ago with the dinosaurs.

But then, in 1938, a
fisherman hauled one up.

Are Megalodons alive?

Could globsters be washed
up remains of a 25 million

year old living fossil?

HANS LARSSON: We have
glimpses of some other

fishes down there, other
sharks and other non-shark

fishes but we know practically
nothing about them.

I think that that world
is just unexplored.

NARRATOR: Do giant killers
lurk in our oceans?

Are they monsters of the
deep or just globs of

super strength blubber?

Weird or what?

[♪]

In India, a rampaging
man-beast causes

widespread panic in
the nation's capital.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: They
scream and cry and run off.

You know, it was
absolute panic.

NARRATOR: Are scientists
creating manmade monsters?

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
when it comes to trying to

prove there's no such
thing as monsters,

there's one big problem -

there's just no hard evidence.

They never seem to hang
around long enough.

But what if we're looking
in the wrong places?

What if instead of creepy
shadows or deep dark

corners of our
imagination, the monsters

we're looking for are
right under our noses?

What if we're the
ones creating them?

NARRATOR: Sanal Edamaraku
is a journalist.

He was in Delhi in the
summer of 2001 and

witnessed for what many is
the most bizarre events

in its long history.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: It
became very, very warm.

The temperatures went up
to forty-eight degrees

Celsius with enormous humidity,
which made life unbearable.

Nobody could sleep in
home, especially poor

section of the town.

So a lot of people have
been sleeping on the rooftop.

NARRATOR: As thousands of
people try to escape the heat,

they have no idea a
six-week reign of terror

is about to begin.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: Two
factory workers said that

they had been sleeping on
the factory balcony in the

evening and suddenly some
strange creature jumped

from the floor to the second
floor and scratched them,

attacked them,
screeched and went off.

NARRATOR: In a city home
to thousands of monkeys,

at first the attack
seemed unremarkable -

until the victims described
what they had seen.

[speaking foreign language]

SANAL EDAMARAKU: They said
that it had two, three

special things - metallic
claws, then special lights

coming from its forehead,
one green and the other

red and these lights were
moving and it scratched,

made a special whistling
sound and disappeared.

The story was
like wildfire.

It spread everywhere.

People have been speaking
about this special creature.

NARRATOR: What had
attacked the workers?

Within twenty-four hours,
the newspapers give the

creature a name
- the monkey man.

The very next night,
it strikes again.

By the end of the week
there are reports of

a dozen more attacks.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: Everyone
so afraid, so afraid.

People ran off in
absolute panic.

They just were fleeing
from the scene.

They scream and cry and
hearing this sound people

shut off the windows,
close lights.

You know it was
absolute panic.

NARRATOR: All the victims
describe the same thing,

a hairy creature with metallic
claws and strange lights.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: Everybody
has been speaking about

the uh this special kind
of movement that it has,

as if it's controlled
by somebody.

Some people said that it
could be a half man,

half robot and specially
created by the neighbouring

country Pakistan to
make trouble in India.

NARRATOR: But then
comes a new twist.

As rumours grow,
so does the panic.

Just two weeks after the
first sighting of the

Monkey Man, the entire
city of New Delhi is

besieged by terror.

Then, tragedy strikes.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: One lady
was on a rooftop sleeping

and someone saw the monkey
man, screamed and whole

people started
running off.

She had been running off
and she had fallen down

from the second floor,
straight down, hitting the

floor and she died.

NARRATOR: In the following
days, more people die as

crowds rush to escape.

As the panic grows, New
Delhi becomes a ghost town.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: People
were so afraid to come out.

The Delhi streets were
completely empty after

eight o'clock,
totally empty.

Not even a car
would go out.

The whole city was completely
afraid of monkey man.

NARRATOR: Then, just as
the terror reaches its peak,

the incredible
happens.

SANAL EDAMARAKU: There was
no monkey man reported

anywhere after third or
fourth week of May and

it simply disappeared.

NARRATOR: What
happened in New Delhi?

Something held this giant city
in its fearful grip for weeks.

Was it a monster? Could the
Monkey Man be real?

Jay Lakhani is a teacher
of the Hindu religion.

He believes the Monkey Man can
be explained by Indian culture.

JAY LAKHANI: There is
nothing here that would

make me feel that there
is anything more than

superstition kind of
rolled up with fear and

rolled up with this idea
of religious iconography

that just kind of
produced this story.

NARRATOR: Lakhani thinks
that powerful religious

beliefs could have helped
create the Monkey Man.

JAY LAKHANI: In the Hindu
tradition the word Avatar

is very central.

Avatar means one
who descends.

The Hindus say the spirit
has a habit of descending

to earth in human form.

NARRATOR: In the Hindu
religion, gods known as avatars

are believed to descend
to Earth in times of need.

Many are depicted as
part human, part animal.

Was the Monkey Man a
well-meaning avatar that

was mistaken for
something evil?

JAY LAKHANI: India is a
poor country struggling

with lots of issues so
it's understandable the

public would like to
project the idea that an

avatar is here
to rescue them.

You see a layperson is
very, very gullible.

I suspect it is quite
possible that a few

pranksters got together,
dressed up a couple of

monkeys and set them loose
on the streets of New Delhi.

But for a layperson who
is kind of steeped in

religious tradition it is
understandable that when

he sees a few pranksters
he somehow projects his own

idea that this is an avatar
on the streets of New Delhi.

NARRATOR: Were thousands
of New Delhi residents

victims of pranks blown
out of proportion by

widely held
religious beliefs?

Did the Monkey
Man exist at all?

JAY LAKHANI: I don't think
the monkey man existed at all.

I think all these things
combined with a few real

monkeys kind of jumping
about and perhaps some

pranksters getting into
the, onto the act is the

reason why you got this
story developing in India

as an avatar coming
down to earth.

WILLIAM SHATNER: So is that
the end of this mystery?

Maybe not.

Could monkey man be a
product of the human

imagination in
a different way?

Not a religiously
inspired delusion but

a manifestation of the
dark side of science.

Recently declassified
documents hint at some

kind of twisted Soviet
genetic experiment.

Was the monkey man a
secret weapon that escaped

the evil lab of a mad
scientist that spawned him?

Is that weird or what?

NARRATOR: In New Delhi,
thousands of people claim

to have been attacked by a
metal-clawed monster known

as the Monkey Man.

Was it simply mass hysteria
or religious superstition?

Scott Marlowe is a
cryptozoologist with

a remarkable theory.

SCOTT MARLOWE: I
believe monsters exist.

They may not necessarily
be the Saturday or Friday

night movie version of the
monsters that terrify us on

the silver screen, but there
are things out there that

go bump in the night that are
terrifying to say the least.

When I first heard the
story of India's Monkey Man,

I was pretty certain
I knew exactly what it was.

NARRATOR: Marlowe's theory
is controversial and alarming.

He thinks the Monkey
Man is a real life monster

created by us.

SCOTT MARLOWE: Monsters
exist and we certainly have

the ability now with genetic
engineering to create them.

Based on some of the
descriptions there's a

distinct possibility that
Monkey Man could be some

kind of human-ape hybrid.

NARRATOR: Could someone
have created a creature

half man, half ape?

And if so, why?

Incredibly, this concept
isn't as weird as it sounds.

It could even be
based in fact.

Declassified Russian
military files have

allegedly revealed that in
the 1920s Joseph Stalin

secretly tried to
create a super soldier.

SCOTT MARLOWE: A super
soldier is a genetically

engineered creature
that is designed with a

military purpose in mind.

Stalin commissioned a
scientist to attempt a

hybridization who went to
Africa, collected ape DNA

and then attempted to
impregnate human women

with the sperm of these
chimps that he collected

the material from.

They were trying to create
a soldier that uh had

superhuman strength.

They wanted the strength
of an ape, which was known

to be about seven times
that of a human, uh

with the intelligence
of a human.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
Marlowe believes Stalin

wasn't the only one who
was messing with nature.

SCOTT MARLOWE: Not to be
outdone by the Russians,

we attempted to
do the same thing.

The attempt was not
successful by all accounts

but a lot of that had
to do with the lack of

knowledge on the genetics.

Today it could
probably be done.

NARRATOR: Are scientists
using modern technology to

create super soldiers
from humans and apes?

Could this explain
the Monkey Man?

SCOTT MARLOWE: Some of the
evidence that the Monkey Man

is a human-ape hybrid
could be that they are

frequently reported
wearing some sort of helmet

uh or flashing lights
and that kind of thing,

which would probably be some
sort of communications device.

The most alarming feature
that's reported are metal claws.

That is, seems more
of a military weapon.

If such experimentation
were going on and these

creatures were intelligent
enough, as presumably they

would be to escape from the
facility that was creating them,

they could certainly account
for the Monkey Man.

NARRATOR: Was the Monkey
Man an escaped super soldier?

And why in an age of
predator drones and

nuclear bombs would
India need one?

SCOTT MARLOWE: Creating
a super soldier using

hybridization genetics
would probably be a good

solution for a country
like India where, yeah,

they belong to the nuclear
club, but it's not a very

popular solution to solving
one's problems as a country.

SCOTT MARLOWE: A super
soldier might be

engineered for
stealth purposes.

I do know if Monkey Men
had been created with

genetic engineering for a
military purpose, I would be

extremely concerned, if not
deathly afraid of the outcome.

NARRATOR: Was a hybrid
man-ape let loose on the

streets of New Delhi?

Are we creating
manmade monsters?

Weird or what?

NARRATOR: So there we have
it - monster stories from

all over the world.

[♪]

In West Virginia, a winged
monster seven feet tall

with red eyes terrorizes
the town of Point Pleasant.

[♪]

In Newfoundland, a
mysterious giant mass of

flesh emerges from the
depths of the ocean.

[♪]

And in India, a half
man/half beast attacks

thousands and sends an
entire city into panic.

Are these bizarre stories
evidence that monsters exist?

Can we dismiss thousands
of eyewitnesses who claim

these things are true?

You decide.

Join me next time for
more stories that will

undoubtedly be
weird or what?

[♪]

[♪]

[♪]