Indrid Cold, the 'Grinning Man'
West Virginia contactee Woodrow Derenberger said that on 2 November 1966 a lamp-shaped craft blocked Interstate 77 and a smiling man named Cold spoke to him by telepathy.
1966 CE · 39.19, -81.53 · status: claim
The account
Derenberger described a friendly, olive-skinned man in a shiny coat who said his people meant no harm, and later claimed trips to Cold's planet, Lanulos. The story got wide press and was folded into the Point Pleasant Mothman saga of the same months, where 'the Grinning Man' became a stock character.
The sceptical view
The account rests on one contactee whose claims grew over time; no physical evidence was offered.
The researched reading
A single contactee’s telepathic encounter that grew into an interplanetary saga. Psychology and embellishment explain it best.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 40% | Derenberger’s account grew into trips to the planet ‘Lanulos’, a pattern typical of contactee narratives and of fantasy-prone personalities. |
| Undetermined | 37% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| Something known, misidentified | 8% | A truck or unusual vehicle blocking the road could start the encounter. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 6% | Two other drivers reportedly saw the scene, but no corroboration of a craft exists. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | He became a lecturer and author on his contacts; embellishment for attention or income is likely. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 2% | There is no natural explanation for a conversation. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 1% | Not relevant. |
| Secret human technology | 1% | Not relevant. |
Official position: Derenberger reported to police and spoke on TV the next day; no investigation found evidence.
Connections in the atlas
- Point Pleasant lights of 1967
- ? What was the Mothman, and did it foretell the Silver Bridge collapse?
- Albert Bender and the first Men in Black
- Silver Bridge collapse
- Mothman