Encounters with the Shadow Entity Known As "The Hatman"

When I was around four years old, I had told my mom I saw a "shadow man" in my room one night and he was wearing a "cowboy hat". As I got older, I would still think about it and wonder what it really was I was seeing at that young of an age. Was it an over active imagination? a dream? or was something really there? I never knew for sure, so I had largely forgotten about that incident. It would come up here and there, but the outlandish "cowboy hat" description made it unlikely to me that it was actually something paranormal, but rather the wandering imagination of a four year old.

At about 1:45am on Monday (January 20th), my parents and I were up late watching the show "Monsters and Mysteries in America" and in one segment, a man was talking about his encounters with a shadow entity he nicknamed "the cowboy" because of the hat it wore. Hearing that description and seeing the dramatization of what it looked like made the hairs on my neck and arms stand on end. It was EXACTLY what I saw as a child. I almost immediately went to the computer and searched for info on this entity and was surprised to see that it was a widely reported phenomena from all around the world known most commonly as "The Hatman". As a paranormal researcher for the last 8 years or so, I feel a bit stupid having never heard of this phenomena before (especially considering I've seen a few "shadow people" in the past and have researched them quite a bit), but better late than never I suppose. 

At about 3am with all my new found information on this entity and the realization that what I saw as a young child very well could have been the Hatman (my encounter was very consistent with other reports), I went to bed upstairs (I'm now in the room next door to the room I was in when I saw it 14 years earlier). I was actually genuinely scared (which is kind of a rarity for me) after reading all the reports of this entity and how menacing it can appear to be, but my girlfriend was staying over and had been sleeping for a few hours while I was downstairs, so I wasn't completely alone. After laying there for around ten minutes scanning the darkness for shadowy figures and buzzing with a strange combination of fear and excitement, I finally woke my girlfriend up to tell her about what I had seen as a child and what I had just found out about from watching that show. At first she seemed slightly skeptical about the phenomena, suggesting that since many people have the same dreams (falling, flying, etc),  maybe people are having the same vision of a man with a hat when they're in between sleeping and awake. Her skepticism started to fade as I told her about some eyewitness reports I read where multiple people have seen this entity (including one story of a mother who saw it in her son's room watching him sleep after he had been claiming to see it in his room). 

We talked for about an hour and a half (by this time it was around 4:30am) and we finally decided to try to sleep. I was still a bit on edge, but we joked around a little bit and she was saying little things here and there to lighten the mood. Now as for her credibility, she's the most honest person I know (as well as the most objective person I know), and I can trust her with anything. She's also had many paranormal experiences, and it's not something she would lie about or mess around with. Anyways, we were laying there quieting down after laughing a bit, and she kind of looked around the dark room and said in almost a mocking (towards the entity) yet lighthearted fashion "No Cowboy man here!" and laid back down. We were both facing the same direction (she was in front of me) and she was reaching back to rub the side of my leg. Not 30 seconds after she made that comment, I felt her start to squeeze my leg very tightly and I heard her breathing speed up, then I heard her say something I will never forget. In the most terrified tone of voice I've ever heard in my life, she whispered to me "Chris, I see it." I was immediately almost frozen in fear and couldn't bring myself to look up over her shoulder (this is strange for me; I'm always the first one to pursue something to catch a glimpse of it). After a few seconds she looked away from it to look at me and when she looked back, it was gone. The next minute or so afterwards was both of us nearly in hysterics and her in tears swearing she wasn't lying to me about what she saw. She was looking at a small red light on my stereo on that side of the room when she noticed two more faint, smaller red spots higher up (about six feet off the ground) and to the right. She thought to herself how odd it was and what it could have been, when she started to look around the red spots and realized she was looking at a very distinct figure in a hat, and the red spots were eyes. 

Now pardon my french, but I know a bullshitter when I see one. And what I saw when she told me this was a person who was very genuinely terrified of something they witnessed. We stayed awake until dawn, then eventually fell asleep.  Needless to say, we're still pretty freaked out over the whole thing and I've been doing a lot of research and reading a lot of eyewitness reports on this entity. Many seem to think it is non human and/or demonic in nature, while others believe it is completely neutral in it's demeanor. But when it comes down to it, no one really knows anything for sure about it other than the behaviors people have witnessed (which seem to be quite neutral - it almost always just stands and stares for a while before vanishing). 

This is a topic I will be looking into quite extensively, and would love any eyewitnesses who read this post to click the "Report a Sighting" tab on this site or message my facebook page here  and tell me your story. Please be as descriptive and thorough as possible (you may remain anonymous if you wish). 

Have you seen the Hatman? 

Still Frames From October 9, 2011 "Fireball" UFO Footage

A while back, I decided to take some still frames from one of my more popular pieces of footage. The video is below, followed by the stills.

STILL FRAMES

                                              (All images ©Chris Fleming. All rights reserved).




Note: I apologize for the lack of content lately. There are a few things (including the recent sighting of a pulsating "fireball") that I will be posting about soon. 

Large Humanoid Footprints - May 24, 2011 & May 26, 2012 - Seasonal/Migratory Return?

Here's an interesting discovery I made while typing up a post originally intended to document only one footprint that I had found on May 26 of this year. Here's the info on that print:

"It is a large (15 inches) humanoid footprint in the mud. I still find it very bizarre that I didn't find any others (of that size anyways, there was 1 other but much smaller), but the muddy area it was in has many MANY roots from nearby trees that if one planned his steps carefully, could step on to avoid stepping into the mud. Here are the photos. Unfortunately, it seems that a blob of mud had landed right where the toes were. This still bothers me to this day."

Now I was going to reference a very similar print that I had found last year, and compare the similarities, but when I went to our Youtube page to pull up the video to take a screenshot, I realized the date I found that print on. May 24, 2011. Almost exactly one year apart. Was this some kind of seasonal migratory return to this area as it passed through? I'm not sure. One interesting detail is that the 2011 print was 13 inches long, and the eerily similar one I found just two days after the one year anniversary of that print was 15 inches long. Whatever it was seems to have grown in that one year period. Very strange. There's not too much else I can add to this, so here's the 2011 print (one photo showing the outline of the print because it is very hard to see in the original photo - it was more of an impression in the leaves than a defined footprint. And another that is untouched), followed by a comparison showing both the 2011 and 2012 prints side by side.

Has the "Werewolf" of Northeastern Illinois Returned?

Nearly 5 years to the day of the original bipedal canine sighting not even 700 yards away, the original witness spots a large dog like creature bounding down a trail along a treeline. Even stranger, this location is 32.8 miles away from the famous Bray Road in Elkhorn Wisconsin, where the "Beast of Bray Road" (who matches the description of this creature perfectly) has been seen many times since 1936. 

Although there is no footage of the creature itself, some claw marks in the dirt and a strange footprint were found the next morning on the trail the creature ran down. 

On another note: I now have permission from the individual who posted the no trespassing signs to resume going into the woods. 

-Chris

UPDATE: Another Anomalous Set of Eyes in the Same Place One Year Later?

Tonight, me and my dad walked down the street to the location of the strange "ghost light" incident that occurred last year around the same time. I took a couple of photos (trying to capture similar anomalies) which contained nothing. Then I took another. What that photograph showed seemed very similar to the pair of "eyes" captured last year. Right in the same area. After I took that photo, I then took more photos at various distances and angles trying to debunk this "eye" phenomena as reflections or what have you. We could come up with no reasonable explanations to these occurrences. I could also swear that I see a "reptile" kind of face as well. But I'll let you decide.

First, the original, followed by an enhanced crop.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Ghost Light Photo Anomalies

Sometimes as a paranormal investigator/researcher, pieces of evidence such as in photos or audio recordings may slip right past you without even noticing them (especially if you're like me and take MANY photos during an investigation). And even if you do know what you have, it can be easy to just dump it into a folder on the hard drive and forget about it (especially if paranormal activity is a fairly regular occurrence in your life). Even some very interesting things (like what you're about to see) can simply be forgotten, as strange as that sounds. This series of photos were taken by me on September 13, 2011. I was shooting in a few different directions during an EVP session another individual and I were conducting. I snapped a photo towards a very dark area of the path that leads along the woodline and comes out to a road. After looking at the photo, I immediately noticed this strange light anomaly. (It is located low and to the right) I then began snapping more photos in that direction to see if I could see it again. I took 2 more which contained nothing, then a few more which contained other strange anomalies, including what looks to me like a set of eyes. One of the anomalies is smaller and harder to see, but is still visible (but partially obstructed by leaves from a low branch). Another vital fact is that all of these were taken between 9:16pm and 9:17pm. Only a one minute window. Here are those photos. Here's an enhanced crop of the last photo. Eyes?

I had completely forgot about this incident until I found the pictures on the hard drive. And it actually goes hand in hand with an incident that took place in the house on July 19, 2012 at around 4:45 am when someone in the family had awoken to see a set of ping pong ball sized "Blue-ish white glowing eyes" in the dark on the stairs. Coincidence? I'll leave that one up to you. ***EDIT*** Here is a photo of the area during the day. -Chris

N.I.P.R INVESTIGATIONS (NEW SERIES)

I (Chris) have come to the conclusion that instead of posting short video clips to YouTube every once in a while, making longer, more professional looking videos every month or so (we'll see how it goes - evidence worthy of publication is usually few and far between) might be the way to go. I figured a good old fashioned ghost hunt would be an appropriate first installment to a "series" like approach to making videos. So, without further ado, the first episode of "N.I.P.R Investigations"