The Black Flash of Provincetown, 1938

In October 1938, police reports in Provincetown described a seven-foot tall figure in black, sprinting through the fog and clearing ten-foot fences without slowing. The locals called it the Black Flash, and for months, people avoided the streets after dark, terrified of its glowing eyes and the metallic screech it left hanging in the air. Schoolchildren fainted from fear; grown men locked their doors tight at dusk. Even armed patrols never caught the Black Flash, until one group of teenagers tossed a bucket of scalding water at its cloaked form and watched it vanish into darkness-never to be seen again.