Jon Northwood Black Eyed Kids Encounter In Portland

Back in 1998 Brian Bethel posted the very creepy Jon Northwood Black Eyed Kids encounter.

The Northwood Black Eyed Kids report is particularly creepy as it was before the phenomenon of Black Eyed Kids had become widely known and was not long after Brian Bethel’s Black Eyed Kids encounter.  What follows is a transcript of  Brian’s chat with Jon along with some of his commentary that was posted on the site http://www.camalott.com/~brianbet/ghosts.html which no longer exists.

What Are Black Eyed Kids?

There is a lot of skepticism of whether these Black Eyed Children accounts are real. These earliest reports are in this writer’s opinion, more valid as they predate the Black Eyed Children phenomenon.

Jon Northwood Black Eyed Kids Encounter

I should preface this by saying that Jon Northwood is one of my very good Internet friends. A gentleman of high intelligence and candor, he’s an investigator for SPIRIT, a pagan rights coordinator in his home state of Oregon and one of the nicest fellows I’ve ever met. He doesn’t joke around about the paranormal.

Which is why this scares me to no end. I’m absolutely certain it’s true.

Jon and I had never talked about the “black-eyed kids” before. In fact, he wasn’t aware that I had an experience like his.

He swears that all of the text below is true.

I believe him

(I’m THOTH in the transcript, by the way.)

Webmaster’s note: NOTE: Most off-topic dialogue was removed for length considerations, dialogue lines were rearranged for easier readability, and minor grammatical errors were corrected.

<JonNrthwd> So, do any of y’all really believe in ghosts?  Or, for that matter, kids with funny eyes?  (shiver — never again, in downtown Portland at night . . .)
<Lykaon> kids with….wha?…
<Thoth> Er … Jon. You know I do. And I believe in kids with funny eyes, too. 😉
<Thoth> Did you see some?
<Nancy-> Well, I guess I believe in ghosts.  And I have seen kids with funny eyes. 🙂
<JonNrthwd> Yes — a week ago — downtown Portland about 2330.
<Lykaon> i believe in ghosts….kids…like the ones from village of the damned?…
<Thoth> Indeed. Do tell, Master Northwood.
<Lykaon> it was like a bunch of 6-8 year olds with glowing white eyes…
* Thoth hmmms. (The children he saw had black eyes. Assuming, of course, they had eyes at all.)
<Hellraisr> ah I remember that Thoth
<Hellraisr> remember u telling it
<Lykaon> jeez!
<Thoth> It was most disturbing.
<Lykaon> just regular kids but with black eyes…
<JonNrthwd> I was in downtown Portland (Oregon) after a seminar series on software development.  I’d grabbed a bite of dinner about 10pm, and when I left it was about 11(ish).   I’d grabbed a bite of dinner about 10pm, and when I left it was about 11(ish).
<JonNrthwd> I’d gotten in my car, locked and belted up and just started the engine when someone tapped on my window.
<Thoth> This sounds … incredibly familiar, Jon.
<JonNrthwd> I was in an above-ground garage on the third floor, so I wasn’t too freaked (good lighting, still some people around).
<JonNrthwd> It was one of the guys from the conference, so I rolled down my window and asked him what was up.
<JonNrthwd> He wanted a ride around the block a few times, as he was freaked about who was standing outside his car.
<JonNrthwd> I figured (so sue me) that it was some of Portland’s homeless, or some punker kids.  So, being a good Samaritan, I let him in and we took off.
<JonNrthwd> We drove by his car, and there were three kids around it, two boys and a girl.
<JonNrthwd> The girl was . . . weird.  Just freaky.  Y’know, clothes and hair and makeup — Goth-O-Matic. <g>
<JonNrthwd> The two kids were . . . I dunno . . . just scary as shit.
<Lykaon> thats goths for ya..heh..
<Lykaon> how old roughly?…
<JonNrthwd> She was probably fourteen or fifteen, the oldest boy was probably fourteen(ish) and the youngest between ten and twelve.
<JonNrthwd> She looked bored and was smoking a cigarette, the two boys were just leaning against the car.
<JonNrthwd> They looked _way_ too intense for kids.
<JonNrthwd> Anyway, I started itching behind my eyes, like I needed to really look at them, so, like an ass, I slowed down.
<JonNrthwd> BIG mistake.
<JonNrthwd> The two boys sauntered over and the girl stayed against the car.
<JonNrthwd> The eldest was on Doug’s side (the guy from the seminar) and the youngest was on mine.
<JonNrthwd> I made sure the doors were locked (I love electronic locks) and asked why they were standing around his car.
<JonNrthwd> The young one said “It’s scary out there all alone, and we just wanted a ride home.”
<JonNrthwd> The eldest one said “You promised you’d help us out” and Doug said “I don’t even _know_ you.”
<JonNrthwd> By this time, I was really on edge — I felt caught between throwing up and jazzing — adrenaline does that to me.
<JonNrthwd> All of a sudden Doug said he was getting out of the car, and I told him not to.  As soon as he reached for the handle, the two kids . . . I don’t know how to say this right . . . they looked a _lot_ older.
<JonNrthwd> Their faces were somewhat drawn, and their eyes were _solid_ black.  Edge to edge — no pupil, no iris — nothing.  Just a liquid black pool.
<JonNrthwd> I just about wet myself, slapped the car into reverse and burned rubber backing about sixty feet away.  They started running after the car, so I spun around one of the support struts and we took off.  I kid you not — I was convinced that if they got ahold of the car, I was going to die — and not in anything approaching a pleasant fashion.
<JonNrthwd> Anyway, the oldest one was at the bottom of the garage when we came out, and almost made it to my side door.
<Lykaon> preservation instinct prevails yet again…
<JonNrthwd> We’d gone down from the third floor doing thirty-ish, maybe thirty-five around the ramp.  He’d _beaten_ us down the stairs and onto the sidewalk.
<JonNrthwd> Anyway, we left him on the corner, and when I turned to look — nothing.  He was gone.
<JonNrthwd> Doug just about passed out.
<JonNrthwd> All of a sudden, the feeling of menace — left.
<Lykaon> i’ve never heard of a sighting of those entities in human bodies tho i’ve had my speculation on the fact that it could happen…
<Hellraisr> did you ever go back there?
<JonNrthwd> We went back about ten minutes later, nobody was around his car.
<JonNrthwd> He got out, got in his car, and drove home.
<JonNrthwd> He’d said that he had met the young one earlier in the evening, and had said he’d take him home — had even given him a short ride in his car to the seminar and told him to wait.  Apparently, though, the older brother scared him, so he felt that all bets were off.
<JonNrthwd> I was behind him about forty-five feet when the feeling of *menace* hit again.  At that moment, Doug misjudged going across an intersection on a yellow light and his car was hit by a truck.  He was killed instantly.
<JonNrthwd> I gave a police report, and the whole time, felt _really_ freaked out and very exposed.
<The_JAmis> that’s one freaky ass story :/
<JonNrthwd> I got back to my car, got in, locked the door, and waited.
<JonNrthwd> I saw the kids again, from about two blocks away.
<Hellraisr> wow
<JonNrthwd> I’m not making it up — I’m not thinking they were “vampires” or something like that, but they weren’t as pale, they weren’t as skinny, and they felt a damn sight more menacing.  I left, quickly.
<JonNrthwd> My only concern now, though, is that this upcoming Wednesday I’m going back to the area for another seminar, and I won’t be leaving until 9:30.
<JonNrthwd> I’m _freaked out_, people.

As was I, for obvious reasons.

Okay, now, the commentary:

I’ve been haunted — no pun intended — by this story ever since I decided to share it. Rather than the ridicule I expected, it seems that it touches some sort of strange, primal chord in people.

I’ve been trying, of course, to move beyond and forget these events, but inevitably something comes along to remind me of it.

Apparently, I’ve become something of an urban legend. I have people ask me all the time on the Net: “Hey, did you read the ghost story about the guy who saw the black-eyed kids who wanted to get in his car?”

“Yeah, that was me.”

“Really? Cool!”

“Not exactly.”

And that’s something I can’t seem to get the point across about. This was
not “cool.” It was not “just like being in a Stephen King novel!” or any of
the inane comments that sometimes go along with it. It was real, though
sometimes it made me feel crazy.

And now, I have a report from someone I trust that an extremely similar
event has occurred — and even resulted in the death of someone, at least
indirectly.

In a word: Help?

I need thoughts. I need ideas. I need to calm down. 😉 But beyond that … I
just want to know what people think about this?

I’ve protected myself in my own manner. I am not worried about any danger to
me. But this is too close to what I experienced to be mere coincidence.

Your thoughts are welcomed.

Brian

Thoughts On This Black Eyed Kids Encounter

Several things intrigue me about the Northwood Black Eyed Kids encounter. The first is that his passenger announced that he was getting out of the car. This seems consistent with the mental suggestion that we often hear with Black Eyed Kids encounter where they “suggest” that people open doors and the like.

The other is that one of the BEKs showed that familiar technique of moving far too fast and disappearing without a trace.

BEK Report From Someone That Let Them In

Then of course there is the death of Doug, who had originally been in contact with the kids. Having bad things happen after giving in to the Black Eyed Kids seems to be an essential trait and very likely what their goal is.

Is the Northwoods Black Eyed Kids encounter real? I’ll leave that up to you, but if I were you, I’d be wary of doing any favors for strangers until you can see the whites of their eyes.

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3 Responses

  1. Either what Rachel says or perhaps they are just hungry. Doug agreed to help which sealed his fate. But when he changed his mind they got mad and decided he needed to die right away rather than over months from a disease like some other accounts of people who agreed to help them suggest… Once you agree and let them in your vehicle or home they are able to “latch” on to you. Otherwise they also likely feed on fear from their less successful encounters with people who deny their requests. In these situations they just get a little snack instead of a whole meal. It’s likely they’re able to keep feeding from people who are afraid of them, this is also probably why they allegedly only visit people who have heard of them. Since they’ve already had a “taste ” of these people. It might even be one reason why they picked your friend’s associate. Knowing he’d share this with you since you already knew about and feared them. They probably need to eat constantly but their staple diet is likely people’s fear. Killing people is probably only an occasional treat for them. .. Also I think the reason they looked older when he reached for the door handle is because they were hungry, and since looking younger probably costs slightly more energy than looking older does. they sensed his submission(since he had already agreed to feed them) so they allowed themselves to relax slightly, resulting in an older looking disguise… All of this is pure speculation but let me know if any makes sense

  2. Pingback: Episode 51: The Black-eyed Kids - Walking the Shadowlands

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