The Black Flash was first reported by some school kids on their way home, they stated it jumped out from behind the dunes. It was tall, dressed all in black and incredibly fast. The kids ran, the figure’s maniacal laugh echoed after them.
Next it was an adult who claimed to have encountered it. Marie Costa was walking past the Provincetown town hall one October evening when it jumped out in front of her from behind some bushes. In addition to its black wardrobe, she claimed it had glowing blue eyes, silver ears and could jump impossibly high, which the newspaper account bore out. She ducked into a coffee shop, told what had happened and several men went to pursue it, with no luck. The police said it was a hoax, but Costa was genuinely frightened.
After Costa’s encounter, more reports filtered in. Some nights had several reports, from different parts of town, sometimes simultaneously. Even the police started to admit that perhaps there was something to the report, something devilish. It was called many things in addition to the Black Flash … the Provincetown Phantom and the Devil of the Dunes.
Most descriptions agreed that the Black Flash stood at an imposing height, some claiming the figure to be far taller than the average adult. Eyewitnesses often mentioned a long black cape and mask that added to its startling silhouette.
Distinctive features included glowing blue eyes and sometimes silver ears, which set the Black Flash apart from any known person. Locals frequently remarked on the figure’s apparent ability to leap over fences, displaying agility that seemed unnatural. Some reports even speculated that the Black Flash’s movements resembled those of a prowling animal rather than a human.
Last week my sister found this book at a museum, and as luck would have it the Black Flash himself had a few pages of his own.
This book gives the full detail of witness Al Janard’s encounter.
“On a cold December afternoon, Allen Janard, his younger sister Elanore, and his two brothers, were playing hide-and-seek in their back yard on Standish Street. On the sandy hill overlooking the yard, Elanore spotted something crouching. “Look,” she shouted, “there’s a bear on the hill.” The boy laughed. “There’s no bears on Cape Cod,” Allen informed her.
“I’ve never seen a bear,” Elanore admitted, “but if that isn’t a bear, what is it?” The boys looked up and saw something crawling down the hill towards them, barely visible in the fog. Allen recognized it immediately, and a numbing fear flooded his body. He gave the alarm and they all ran for the house. Their parents weren’t home and the kitchen door lock was broken. Out the window, they watched the black figure run into the back yard and head for the back door. Joey grabbed his mother’s rolling pin, Allen held a carving knife over his head, and Louie quickly filled a bucket with scalding water. Elanore hid behind a char. All the crying ended suddenly into an eerie silence as the backdoor doorknob began to turn. “All I could hear was my heartbeat,” said Allen, but the door didn’topen. The phantom just remained outside the backdoor, breathing heavily, so they’d know he was still there. Louie then got an idea, he went up through the house with his bucket of water to the attic and, through the skylight, got out onto the roof. Crawling down the overhang over the kitchen, he spied the black figure below and dumped his bucket. Then through the window, they saw him retreat through the back yard, a dripping black phantom, shivering from head to toe, not looking half as fearsome as he had when he arrived, and that was the last anyone in Provincetown saw of The Black Flash.
Allen Janard, now in his mid-fifties, thinks it might have been his cousin, Manny Janard and Matt Costa, now a prominent businessman in Provincetown, always thought it was his brother Elmer, but both those suspects were only 12 and 13 years old when the Provincetown Phantom made his first appearance. Francis Marshall, who became Provincetown’s Police Chief in 1959, and is now retired, living in Yarmouth, told me that he knows who The Black Flash was, “but I won’t give you a name,” the former police chief told me. “I will tell you this though,” he said, “The Black Flash wasn’t just one person. He was four men, who sometimes played the part alone, and sometimes together. Two are dead now, but the others have a hell of a time when they get together, reminiscing about the times they scared the hell out of their friends and neighbors in Provincetown.” The Provincetown Phantom, better known as The Black Flash, is legend now, and his daring exploits, agility, strength and size grow greater and greater as the years go by…”
And a final surprise to the weekend my niece made me a t-shirt of the Flash from my IG post design.
Got a love a family that takes an interest in your weirdness!
Happy Folklore Thursday!
