Podcast UFO

Martin Willis speaks with historian and author Matthew Bowman about the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill UFO encounter and his book, The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill. Drawing upon archival papers, personal correspondence, early Air Force and NICAP reports, hypnosis transcripts, and John Fuller’s research files, Bowman discusses official interest in the case, Dr. Benjamin Simon’s conclusions, the reliability of hypnosis, Marjorie Fish’s star map, the influence of race and religion, and the case’s lasting impact on UFO culture. He also shares his own view of what the Hills may have encountered and why conventional explanations remain unconvincing. SHOW NOTES

Rabbi Michael “Moshe” Rothschild joins Martin Willis for a thought-provoking conversation about UFOs, extraterrestrial life, disclosure, and what confirmation of nonhuman intelligence could mean for religion. Rothschild recounts his own close sighting of a bright orange plasma-like object and explains why he believes some UFOs may represent nonhuman intelligence. They explore whether extraterrestrial life would challenge Judaism, possible interpretations of Ezekiel’s wheel, Kabbalah, consciousness, alleged abduction experiences, government transparency, whistleblower protections, and former Israeli space security chief Chaim Eshed’s controversial claims concerning a Galactic Federation and extraterrestrial cooperation. The conversation ultimately asks whether humanity is ready for disclosure and why an advanced intelligence might choose ambiguity instead of unmistakable open contact. SHOW NOTES

Filmmaker Luigi Vendittelli, director and producer of S4: The Bob Lazar Story, joins Martin Willis for a spirited and sometimes heated examination of Bob Lazar’s extraordinary and controversial claims. Martin remains deeply skeptical, while Luigi spent four and a half years working with Lazar and believes important parts of his story deserve serious consideration. They discuss Lazar’s disputed education, Los Alamos employment, alleged security clearance and work at S4, inconsistencies in his descriptions of the Sport Model, Papoose Lake, Element 115, the reported test flight, the lack of independently verifiable evidence and whether Lazar should truly be considered a whistleblower. It is a candid conversation between two people with very different perspectives who are willing to challenge one another without pretending they agree. SHOW NOTES

Retired NASA aerospace engineer Greg Martins joins Martin Willis to discuss his 35-year career at Goddard Space Flight Center, a childhood UFO sighting and his claimed extraterrestrial encounters through dreams, meditation and out-of-body experiences. Greg also explores consciousness, the Akashic Records, “home planets,” Oversouls and the experiences described in his book, Star Journey Home. Martin approaches these extraordinary claims with an open mind and gentle skepticism. SHOW NOTES

Former senior NASA official and space policy expert Mike Gold joins Martin Willis and special co-host, astronomer Marc D’Antonio, for a candid discussion about NASA, UAP and the stigma that continues to discourage serious scientific investigation. Gold explains that NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team was never asked to examine historical cases or analyze UAP evidence; instead, it was tasked with determining whether NASA should investigate the subject and which agency resources could be used. He discusses proposals to employ artificial intelligence and machine learning to search NASA’s enormous archives, add UAP to NASA’s confidential Aviation Safety Reporting System, and independently examine unexplained imagery from the Moon, Mars and space—including the unusual triangular formation photographed during Apollo 17. The conversation also examines allegations of altered or withheld NASA imagery, professional threats faced by academics who merely ask questions about UAP, and why Gold believes stigma creates a national security vulnerability by providing potential cover for adversarial drones. Gold says disclosure should be viewed as a continuing process of releasing and objectively examining data, and he believes increasingly significant material may emerge as the government works through declassification. The discussion concludes with commercial spaceflight, SpaceX, America’s competition with China, manufacturing human tissue and pharmaceuticals in microgravity, the future of Mars exploration, and why greater government transparency could help restore public trust. Join us for a thoughtful, science-based conversation that follows the evidence without assuming the answer. SHOW NOTES

Filmmaker Darcy Weir joins Martin Willis and UFO Jack for a candid conversation about psychic phenomena, remote viewing, UFO experiencers, whistleblowers, and separating credible evidence from compelling fiction. They explore Project Stargate, Phil Schneider, Travis Walton, Bob Lazar, government disinformation, secret technology, CE5, Jake Barber, and strange entities reported in cases such as Voronezh and Pascagoula. Visit PodcastUFO.com to explore hundreds of historical UFO articles by Charles Lear and support the show for an ad-free experience. SHOW NOTES

Astronomer and veteran photo/video analyst Marc D’Antonio joins Martin Willis to examine highlights from the 40 UAP files released by the government on July 10. Marc analyzes several intriguing images and videos, including possible aerostats, balloon clusters, fast-moving objects, and the widely discussed “star-shaped UFO.” He explains how infrared sensors, diffraction, parallax, camera movement, and missing metadata can make ordinary objects appear extraordinary—and identifies one case that remains a genuine puzzle. Marc also shares his own unexplained observation of two satellite-like lights making a dramatic 40-degree turn. SHOW NOTES

Historian Samantha Graves briefly shares a new research questionnaire collecting close-encounter reports from Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires. Then filmmaker Dean Alioto joins Martin Willis to discuss The Experiencers: Full Disclosure, an eight-year documentary project exploring classic abduction cases, contemporary experiencers, shared encounters, regression research, PTSD, and the challenge of presenting extraordinary testimony with credibility and empathy. They also examine why experiencers remain largely absent from congressional UAP hearings and why their stories may be essential to any meaningful discussion of full disclosure. The film is available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. SHOW NOTES

Former Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet joins Martin Willis to discuss UAP research, undersea anomalies, and reports from submarine personnel of fast-moving unidentified objects detected beneath the ocean. Gallaudet explains his role on the UAP Science Advisory Council reporting to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the challenge of gaining access to relevant data, and why serious scientific investigation is essential. He also shares a brief look at his new leadership memoir, Holding Fast in Heavy Seas, reflecting on his Navy and NOAA career. SHOW NOTES

Rony Vernet returns to Podcast UFO to discuss his field investigations into unusual phenomena reported in the Amazon rainforest and other remote regions of Brazil. An electrical engineer and researcher, Vernet shares accounts from indigenous communities involving luminous orbs, humanoid figures, strange lights, apparent equipment interference, and encounters that local residents believe originate from the forest itself. Martin and Rony also discuss the Peru flying humanoid reports, the Varginha case, alleged Brazilian military and police encounters with UAPs and beings, and the difficulty of collecting repeatable scientific data in unpredictable field conditions. Vernet explains his use of cameras, drones, infrared equipment, sensors, and other tools, along with why some of the most striking incidents reportedly involved lost or corrupted recordings. The conversation explores possible physical, spiritual, psychological, and interdimensional interpretations of the phenomenon, as well as Rony’s upcoming work and documentaries. SHOW NOTES

Martin Willis is joined by Donna Killeen, UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich for UFO Headlines, discussing the latest developments in the UAP and UFO world. Martin and Donna share highlights from the recent Disclosure Forum in Washington, DC, including Martin’s question to Representative Eric Burlison about government file releases, private-sector crash-retrieval claims, and the search for more meaningful transparency. The panel also discusses the latest UAP records release, unusual orb reports, the role of skeptics, government disclosure efforts, archival research, and major historic cases including Roswell, Ariel School, Phoenix Lights, and Rendlesham Forest. They also explore the larger questions: Could there be multiple intelligences behind the phenomenon, and what evidence would it take for the public to truly accept the reality of UAPs? SHOW NOTES

Guest Joe Biscotto, founder of the rapidly growing UAP Reporting Center and host of Beyond Top Secret. Joe discusses his background in law enforcement, his lifelong fascination with UFOs and the unexplained, and how he built one of the fastest-growing UAP news platforms online. We also talk about UFO disclosure, investigating sightings, social media’s impact on the subject, and his work with The Contact Report. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  We often write about UFO cases that end up being neglected as other more dramatic cases grab the attention of investigators and the press. A case that was doomed to just this sort of treatment involved reports on October 22, 1973, out of Indiana. This was just after the October 12th Pascagoula Incident and the October 18th Coyne Helicopter Incident, and while all three cases share the front page of the September-October 1973 APRO Bulletin, the Indiana case faded into obscurity as the other two became classics. We first came across this case in the 1975 Center for UFO Studies publication, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings: A Preliminary Catalogue, compiled by Ted Phillips and edited by Mimi Hynek. The case shows up on page 95, and it’s included in the catalogue because there were traces found in a field the day after the sightings. The source for the report is given as the afore-mentioned issue of the APRO Bulletin. The Indiana case actually got the big headline, “Occupants in Indiana,” above “UFO Chases Helicopter” in the first column and “The Pascagoula Affair” in the second. According to the article starting in the third column, at 9:45 p.m. on October 22, Mr. and Mrs. De Wayne Donathan were driving home from Mrs. Donathan’s mother’s house in Hartford City, Indiana. Along the way, they saw two small creatures in the road ahead of them. Thet reported what they saw and were interviewed by Connersville-based APRO Field Investigator Donald Worley. Mrs. Donathan is quoted describing the scene: “We were coming home from visiting my mother and I was driving. De Wayne, my husband, held the baby and we were just a block from home. I rounded a slight curve and a small hill and there in the road we seen what I thought might be a reflection from a farm tractor in the road. I slowed down and could see what looked like two kids about four feet tall moving in the road. I stopped the car (about 30 feet distant) and with headlights shining on them I decided it couldn’t be kids this time of night in the road with me coming at them in the car.” “They looked confused. They would hop up in the air, their feet would come up slowly, one at a time, and their arms would flop funny. They moved slower than humans do and their feet and their arms would go up funny. Their feet came off the ground easily. They were bright silver.” Mrs. Donathan reportedly said she was a bad artist and refused to make a drawing of the creatures. According to the article, Mrs. Donathan said the creatures were slightly built, and in the reporter’s words, “straight in form to the ground.” She didn’t remember their heads or other features, but was able to describe their feet. She said they had boxes on them a little larger than shoes. She didn’t recall any sort of sound (it is explained that their tape player was playing loudly and their engine was running) or any odor. She also said that their clothing or their surface was, in the reporter’s words, “tight-fitting.” Mrs. Donathan, extremely frightened by the sight, yelled, “Oh, my God!” and stepped down on the accelerator. As she swerved around the creatures, they seemed to be having difficulty as they moved away from the center of the road. They are described as moving “in a slow, clumsy manner with their feet apart and their arms flopping.” Panicked, Mrs. Donathan drove several blocks and then turned south and continued until her husband was able to convince her to pull over and stop by an old church. He believed that what they saw might have been children (he reportedly didn’t get a good look) and persuaded his wife to drive back to the area so he could, in the reporter’s words, “scold them.” When they got to the area, the creatures were gone, but they did see some unidentified lights in the sky to the north at 45 degrees elevation. They went back to Mrs. Donathan’s mother’s house, and Mrs. Donathan was so upset that they considered calling a doctor, but she eventually calmed down. The only thing Mr. Donathan had to add was that after they had passed the creatures, they seemed to be on the other side of a fence in a cornfield. Another person who reported seeing the creatures was Gary Flatter, a Hartford City gas station owner who drove his own wrecker. According to the article, he was with his friend, Deputy Sheriff Ed Townsend, and a state policeman who wished to remain anonymous, when the call came in about the Donathan sighting. He went to the site in Townsend’s car (the state policeman presumably went in his own car) saw nothing, but did hear a high-pitched sound at a certain spot in the road. The three men then went back to town. Flatter and the state policeman returned, Flatter in his wrecker and the policeman in his patrol car, and as Flatter drove around the area, the policeman went east. As Flatter was thinking it was time to go home, he came to a spot just south of the Donathans’ sighting and was surprised by a large group of animals moving across the road from north to south. He stopped to avoid hitting them and counted an opossum, some cats, and 6 or 7 rabbits. He then heard the same high-pitched sound he’d heard before. Looking around carefully, Flatter eventually spotted two creatures to the south about four feet tall that were standing in what looked to be a plowed field. He said they seemed to be wearing tight-fitting silver suits and that the glare as they reflected his headlights was “about halfway between galvanized sheet metal and a mirror.” Flatter said they appeared to be looking south and he thought that they could be better observed “in the edge of my headlights.” He continued to observe them from a position 75 feet to the west of them and could still hear the high-pitched sound above the noise of his engine. He put his spotlight on them, and they turned around, giving him the impression that they didn’t like the light. The reflection hurt his eyes, so he turned the spotlight off. Flatter said the creatures had egg-shaped heads and what seemed to be gas masks with  hoses the diameter of a garden hose going down to their chests. He couldn’t see any facial features and said their arms just ended without any hands. He noted that their movement was slow and said their feet were “square with a heel a little over the back.” He estimated the size of their feet to be 3” by 6” and 2” thick. He said they moved and jumped as if they were “skipping rope” seemingly without the effort of muscles. Their power to move seemed to be in their feet.  He said, “They would move up about three feet off the ground, then go back down, all this in slow motion . . . they might move an arm, but not much.” He said when they went up the fourth time, they stayed up and “flew like a helicopter in the feet down position.” He added that they flew off into the dark and he couldn’t find them with his spotlight. He said he did see some “red trace-like streaks coming down . . .” The next day, Flatter, Townsend, and Mr. Donathan returned to the area and found impressions in a cornfield next to where the Donathans had encountered the creatures. According to the report, there were 7 of them, all ¾ of an inch deep, 3” across, and rounded as if made by a typical heel. They were in alternate rows as if made by walking, and the strides were estimated by Donathan as 12” and Flatter as 18”. It is noted that the ground had been dry for several weeks and that the three men, each weighing about 200 pounds, “did not leave an imprint.”

Rhys Dalton-Morgan joins me from Contact in the Desert for a fascinating conversation about a remarkable family connection to one of Australia’s most intriguing UFO cases. Rhys’s grandfather, a decorated RAF fighter pilot and later operations head of the vast Woomera Test Range in South Australia, reportedly witnessed a bright disc-shaped object during the era of Black Knight rocket testing. According to Rhys’s research, the object was seen over the range by multiple personnel, appeared to circle a missile site, and then accelerated away at extraordinary speed. The case has since led Rhys into a deeper investigation of his grandfather’s military background, including a reported early involvement with a secret U.S.-U.K. UFO inquiry. We also discuss Rhys’s mother’s personal experiences, the role of respected Australian researcher Bill Chalker, the strange history surrounding Woomera, and some of Australia’s most compelling cases. Later, Rhys gives an excellent overview of the 1966 Westall school UFO incident, including the witnesses, reported landings, unusual aircraft, alleged military response, and some lesser-known details surrounding the event. We also touch on Australian high strangeness, alleged abduction cases, cryptid reports including the Yowie, and why the UFO phenomenon may be far more complex than simply unexplained technology. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  It often happens that reported UFO incidents get lost when the media is focused on one of more reports that might be more sensational. This seems to have been the situation in Italy in 1979. There had been a flap in Italy throughout 1978 and a case in December involving a security guard in Torriglia, Fortunato Zanfretta, who claimed with corroboration from supervisors, coworkers, and the Carabinieri (Italian military police) that he had been abducted by huge yellow-eyed creatures on multiple occasions, dominated the news in Italy at that time. What seems like it should have received a good deal of attention from not only the press, but investigators as well, is a case that was reported in an Irish newspaper on January 3, 1979. An extensive search that included the publications of the major foreign and domestic UFO organizations in existence at the time, and even Italian UFO publications, found no other mentions of a case that involved the Interior Ministry and reports by several Rome police officers. In the January 3, 1979, Evening Herald published in Dublin, Ireland, there is an article (page 12 of the pdf) headlined “Thousands Dazzled by Massive UFO.” According to the article, the UFO was reported by witnesses “across the length of Italy.” Witnesses described it as “the size of an ocean liner with dazzling fishtail wings,” and said it “lit up the sky for miles around.” A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Mario Giannini, said witnesses reported that the UFO, in the reporter’s words, “retracted its wings and changed shape, created a screen of smoke or fog and disappeared behind it, traveled noiselessly but sent birds and wildlife dashing for cover.” Giannini is quoted saying that the ministry received “dozens of calls” about the UFO from all over the country and he estimated that, based on this, “we can presume that thousands of people spotted the UFO.” The article then focuses on the involvement of the Rome Police, alerted to the UFO’s presence by calls from four patrol cars and a patrolman on duty “outside an embassy.” Police Captain Giovanni Grimani is quoted saying he was skeptical at first, but that the officers were all “reliable” and “their descriptions were all similar.” He added that the calls came from cars in different parts of the city, and therefore, the reports couldn’t be attributed to “collective suggestion.” According to the article, when the Rome Police contacted the Ciampino Airport control tower, they were told that nothing unusual had been tracked on civilian or military radar. However, a policeman on duty near there, Antonio Giangrande said he saw a V-shaped object that was much larger than a plane and seemed to be made of “opaque crystal.” Giangrande is then quoted at length: “It was giving off beams of light over a mile long which reached the ground. The beams were white, with a shade of yellow. One went up, the other down. Suddenly those beams of light got brighter and yellower. Then there was a blinding flash within the two arms of the V. It was like a burst of gunfire – but without any sound – and then the object disappeared. All that remained at the spot in the sky was a little round cloud, but you could see what looked like a glass globe speeding off in the distance.” According to the article, the first people to spot the object were workers arriving at 5:30 a.m. for the day shift at an oil refinery in Gela on the coast of Sicily. Chief security guard Antonio Ferrara, who said he never believed in UFOs before, is quoted describing it: “It was egg shaped at the top but had these big, bright wings, or beams of light in the shape of wings, which trailed behind it. And it was bigger than any airplane. There was absolutely no sound. A ring of black cloud appeared around it. At the same time, the wings, or beams of light, retracted, and the UFO seemed to hover in the sky for a few seconds. It vanished like magic. It was as though a black veil had been drawn across it. The craft left no trace in the sky. An artist, Romolo Bondi, who saw the object over a mountain in Gragnano near his home is quoted saying it was “like an ocean liner that left a great wake of light behind it. It lit up the sky and the mountain for miles.” Finally, “summing up the reaction of terrified witnesses,” excavating machine operator Bruno Natucci from Torre del Lago Puccini is quoted saying “I was stupefied – I had seen a UFO!” It is almost certain that this story was covered in Italian newspapers at the time, so if any reader who happens to be in that country feels motivated to take a look, we would certainly be interested if anyone should come across some local reporting.    

Actor, writer, and technology innovator Sal Amato joins Martin Willis for a fascinating discussion on UFOs, disclosure, media influence, and the inspiration behind his upcoming novel, Hidden Powers: Disclosure From Within. Drawing from decades of interest in unexplained phenomena, technology, and human behavior, Sal shares his thoughts on historical UFO cases, the 1952 Washington, D.C. sightings, information control, and why curiosity is essential when exploring extraordinary claims. The conversation also explores how technology shapes public perception, the challenges of separating fact from fiction, and the themes of disclosure, power, and truth woven throughout his new book. An engaging discussion for anyone interested in UFOs, mysteries, and the bigger questions surrounding what we know—and what we may not know. SHOW NOTES

Martin Willis is joined by Podcast UFO producer Donna Killeen, UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich for a lively, spoiler-filled roundtable discussion of one of the most anticipated UFO films in recent memory. The panel shares their honest reactions to the movie, explores its many references to UFO history and lore, and debates whether Spielberg successfully captured the mystery, wonder, and complexity of the UFO phenomenon. Topics include experiencers, screen memories, government secrecy, whistleblowers, historical UFO cases, disclosure, and the film’s surprising ending. Was Disclosure Day a groundbreaking UFO movie, a fun science-fiction adventure, or a missed opportunity? Tune in to hear a range of perspectives from voices deeply involved in the UFO community. Plus, the panel discusses some of the real-world UFO developments making headlines and what the movie may mean for public interest in the UFO topic going forward. SHOW NOTES

Martin Willis welcomes Simon Bown, author of Aspects of Alien Abduction: Shocking UFO Encounters, Vol. 1. Simon discusses his own UFO sightings, a possible abduction memory recovered through hypnosis, and the recurring patterns he has found after interviewing hundreds of experiencers. Topics include consciousness, missing time, healing cases, family connections, and the mystery behind alien abduction reports. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  While J. Allen Hynek was bringing the invisible college out into the open, he became involved with a documentary that has Rod Serling as its main host, along with Burgess Meredith, José Ferrer, and Vallée. The movie makes a compelling argument that UFOs should be taken seriously and includes appearances by former Blue Book heads Robert Friend and Hector Quintanilla. In its release in 1974 it was titled UFOs: Past, Present, and Future, which was changed to UFOs: It Has Begun for its release in 1976 and 1979. Besides being informative and entertaining and preserving a bit of UFO history for future researchers, the story behind its production has become a part of UFO history as well, as its producers were reportedly misled by the Pentagon into believing they would receive classified footage of a UFO landing at Holloman AFB in May of 1971. The footage was described as showing a meeting between the UFO occupants and Air Force officials. According to producer, main writer, and composer Robert Emenegger, it was going to be the finale of the documentary until the DoD withdrew the offer at the last minute. Robert Emenegger was interviewed by Mel Fabregas in 2009. According to him, he and Allen Sandler had originally set out to produce a series of films about advanced military technology, but were diverted by an intriguing piece of information offered by their military contact at Norton Air Force Base, Paul Shartle. Shartle, Security Manager and Chief of Requirements for the Audio-Visual Program at the base, said that he had seen a film of an alien craft landing at Holloman AFB in 1971. As discussions about possible projects continued, the idea that one of them be about UFOs came up and was encouraged by military officials who offered the producers the use of the footage. Emenegger and Sandler decided to go ahead with a UFO documentary, and the film was made.[1] Robert Emenegger Watching the film, the cooperation of the DoD is apparent. Besides the appearance of two former Blue Book directors, former Air Force Public Information Officer for Project Blue Book Col. William Coleman describes the military’s involvement with UFOs while walking through the inner ring of the Pentagon. Robert Friend seems particularly pro-UFO as he tells of a bizarre contactee case involving a Naval Intelligence Officer who was investigating it going into a trance and channeling a group of aliens. According to Friend, the aliens produced a flying disk for the officer’s fellow investigators on request. Friend is later seen interviewing the four-man Army Reserve crew who were involved in the Coyne Helicopter Incident. What should be of interest to historians is a discussion among J. Allen Hynek, Robert Friend, Hector Quintanilla, and Al Chop. Al Chop was a press liaison at the pentagon who dealt with UFO inquiries and was in the radar room during the 1952 UFO flap in Washington, D.C. They all give their speculations on what might be behind the UFO mystery ranging from Hynek’s interdimensional theory to Chop’s belief that creatures from other planets are visiting Earth. Quintanilla, who was infamous as a hardened skeptic and debunker during his time at Blue Book, says that he believes ET is out there. At the end of the film is an illustrated sequence that is described by Rod Serling as an event that “might happen in the future or, perhaps, could have happened already.” It shows the purported landing and the meeting. According to Emenegger, this was based on the film footage that was promised by the Air Force. Just before the illustrated sequence is 8 seconds of what Shartle and Emenegger claimed on the 1988 television show UFO Cover-Up?: Live! is footage of the UFO descending before it landed. During his interview with Fabregas, Emenegger begins by giving his background, which seems to offer credence to his being offered film footage that would, most likely, be highly classified. According to him, he was the creative director at the Grey Advertising Company, which had done work for the Nixon administration. Emenegger brings up his and Sandler’s earlier relationship with the U.S. Government saying they had made a film for the Navy to help sailors recognize an alcohol problem and had also made a series of promos in support of public funding for NASA’s shuttle program. He says he was a friend of Nixon’s Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman and that he, Emenegger, received a letter from Nixon asking for names of people he’d recommend to be a part of Nixon’s administration. After giving the background information, Emenegger goes into the details of how the DoD’s offer of the film footage came about. He says that Shartle took him and Sandler into a “clean room,” which is a room free of mics and cameras, and told them about the Holloman film and how it had been sent to Norton. According to him, Shartle said that if they were interested, they should talk to a certain captain (Emenegger doesn’t remember his name) who would put them in touch with the Pentagon. Project Blue Book Staff According to Emenegger, he and Sandler visited the Pentagon repeatedly and never signed in, which had also been the case at Norton. He speculates that this was for the purpose of plausible deniability. He says they met with Col. William Coleman, who okayed the use of the film and told them that the Air Force would sponsor the documentary. This was, according to Emenegger, for the purpose of improving public relations with the military in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Emenegger says there were production meetings at the Pentagon where no one questioned the section of the script dealing with Holloman. He said, “I couldn’t believe it but I said ‘well’ and went along with it.” According to Emenegger, after a long wait, Coleman told the producers that the climate created by the Watergate scandal made it an inappropriate time to release the Holloman footage. The movie was finished and released in 1974, and the illustrated sequence was used in place of the Holloman film. It’s quite a story, but the main source is Emenegger. One might dismiss it if there were any doubts as to Emenegger’s credibility but, as with many UFO tales, there is a twist, which came about in 1988 with the television show, UFO Cover-Up?: Live! hosted by Mike Farrell. Near the beginning of the program, Coleman and Friend appear, and Coleman tells of being in a B-25 while chasing a 70-foot disk over Alabama in 1955. Later, just after the 46-minute mark, after talking with William Moore, Stanton Friedman, and Jesse Marcel Jr. about Roswell, Farrell walks over to sit down with Emenegger and Shartle. Emenegger tells the story of how Shartle brought up the Holloman film and then Farrell asks: “What did you see, Mr. Shartle?” Shartle describes seeing “three disk-shaped craft.” According to him, one seemed to be having problems, and it landed while the other two left. He says that three aliens came out, at which point, a chuckle escapes from Farrell as he asks what they looked like. Shartle describes them this way: Well, they were human size, had an odd gray complexion and a pronounced nose. They wore tight-fitting jump suits, thin headdresses that appeared to be communications devices, and in their hand they held a translator, I was told. A Holloman base commander and other Air Force officials went out to meet them. Emenegger tells Farrell: “Well, although the Pentagon had been very, very cooperative all the way, at the last minute the film was confiscated and we lost the whole finale of our show.” He says that what he “saw and heard” convinced him that the UFO phenomenon is real. Farrell asks Shartle what he was told by his superiors, and Shartle tells him he was told the film was “theatrical footage” purchased by the Air Force to make a training film. Farrell suggests this is a plausible explanation, and Shartle tells him it was his job to keep accurate records of such purchases and that he didn’t have one for the footage in question. The twist in the story is that is that UFO Cover-Up: Live? has also become part of UFO history because of the involvement of Richard Doty, a self-proclaimed, CIA-trained Air Force Office of Special Investigations disinformation agent. Doty is the face on the movie poster for the 2013 documentary Mirage Men where he admits/claims he was the key player starting in 1980, in a  AFOSI disinformation operation primarily targeting APRO members Paul Bennewitz and William Moore (who also participated according to him and Doty), along with investigative journalist and documentary film maker Linda Moulton Howe. Doty appears on the show in shadow with his voice disguised, identified as a government insider with the code name “Falcon” (he denies it was him but his distinctive glasses and vocal inflections say otherwise), and informs the viewing audience that the U.S. is housing an alien guest that likes ancient Tibetan music and strawberry ice cream. As far as this writer can find, Allan Sandler has never publicly commented on the documentary or the validity of Emenegger’s claims. As for his involvement with any sort of intelligence organization, there is one that is definite; he was a producer as part of Sandler-Burns-Marmer Productions of Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, a show he describes as like Get Smart with an entire cast of chimps. Emengger worked on the show as the composer. Both men were also involved in the creation of several B-grade science fiction movies (produced by Sandler Institutional Films), so the nature of their creative involvement puts their background, in this writer’s mind, in a less serious light than that portrayed by Emenegger when talking about Holloman.[2] While it might seem likely that Emenegger made up the story, why would Shartle back him up in front of a television audience?  It the story is true, does the DoD actually have footage of aliens and their craft or did they just say they did, and if so, to what purpose? As it turns out, Sandler did address these sorts of questions privately with Vallée, who made several journal entries during his and Hynek’s involvement with the production. In the May 25, 1974 entry in Forbidden Science 2, Vallée recounts a discussion at Emenegger’s house between him, Emenegger, and Sandler, with Hynek sitting silent while smoking his pipe. According to Vallée, Sandler said he was hired “to make routine documentaries on cancer treatment by radiation and brain computer linkage.” This was a “pet project” of Dr. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, who was head of the Advanced Research Project Agency’s information processing office. Sandler told Vallée that “the client” told him, in Vallée’s words, “to include a UFO film in the series, to his astonishment.” Sandler said they started interviewing military people and were followed everywhere by a “real down-to-earth” and “jovial fellow” who said he worked for what could be thought of as “the internal spies of the Air Force,” which Vallée identifies as the Office of Special Investigations. Note that Doty was not in AFOSI at this time. Vallée asked if Sandler thought they were being used and Emenegger replied “Of course, but what are they using us for?” He speculates that Nixon might be using disclosure as “a desperate way to stay in power in spite of Watergate.” Sandler added that Nixon could declare a state of emergency if he could make the public believe that “the Aliens are here.” After Vallée calls that idea “pretty far-fetched,” Sandler speculates that the U.S. government has decided it was time “to get closer to the Soviets” and that “a claim of UFO news could be a convenient excuse to talk.” He elaborates: “You know, ‘the planet has got to be united against the external threat,’ all that Iron Mountain stuff.” Vallée closes the entry saying that Emenegger believes the Holloman landing actually happened and that he was advised by five sociologists “he’s hiring” that the way to avoid panic, in Emenegger’s words, “is to emphasize the Aliens’ resemblance with us humans, and to minimize our physical differences in the mind of the public.” Adding to the intrigue is a segment of Vallée’s entry date June 16, 1974 concerning information given to him over dinner at “the Lake Ann Restaurant in Reston” by CIA insider Christopher “Kit” Green: “Kit told me about Sandler: ‘Yes, something’s going on at the Pentagon. No, we don’t want Vallée to warn Hynek. Everything’s just fine,’ he was told when he made enquiries. More puzzle, more obfuscation.” [1] Retrieved June 23, 2025 from: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/veritas-w-mel-hostalrich-non-m-9389/episodes/robert-emenegger-the-ufo-landi-49712298 [2] Retrieved June 23, 2025 from: https://archive.org/details/CraggLive-WithOurGuestAllanSandler

Recorded at Contact in the Desert, Martin Willis sits down with explorer Dennis Åsberg, discoverer of the Baltic Sea Anomaly, and astronomer Dr. Beatriz Villarroel of the VASCO Project. Dennis discusses new developments surrounding the anomaly, repeated equipment failures during expeditions, and the discovery of the lost Russian submarine Som, while Dr. Villarroel shares her groundbreaking research into unexplained transient objects, vanishing stars, and evidence suggesting highly reflective objects in Earth orbit. Together they explore the intersection of ocean exploration, astronomy, UFOs, scientific inquiry, and some of the most intriguing mysteries of our time. SHOW NOTES

Preston Dennett returns to Podcast UFO to discuss his latest book, Humanoids & High Strangeness: 20 True UFO Encounters. In this fascinating conversation, Preston shares remarkable cases involving face-to-face encounters with mysterious beings, missing time, telepathic communication, giant owls, elf-like entities, and other bizarre experiences that challenge our understanding of the UFO phenomenon. Martin and Preston also explore schoolyard UFO encounters, witness credibility, differing memories among eyewitnesses, the famous Ariel School case, and the possible connection between UFO contact and consciousness. A thought-provoking discussion with one of ufology’s most prolific researchers that ventures far beyond lights in the sky. SHOW NOTES

In this special live episode, Martin Willis reviews the June 9 Capitol Hill UAP Disclosure Press Conference featuring David Grusch, James Fox, Leslie Kean, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Rep. Tim Burchett, Rep. Eric Burlison, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, and others. The speakers called for increased transparency, declassification of government records, stronger whistleblower protections, and further investigation into claims involving recovered craft and non-human biologics. Grusch discussed ongoing oversight concerns, alleged obstruction of congressional inquiries, and the need for greater accountability. After the event, Martin was joined by Matt Ford of The Good Trouble Show, along with Krys Devine and Kelly Hughes, for an in-depth discussion of the key statements, potential implications, and what may come next in the ongoing disclosure effort. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Recently, there have been reports throughout the media that FBI files concerning a UFO sighting reported by three Anoka, Minnesota, police officers have been declassified and are available at the National Archives. Remarkably, almost none of the media outlets covering the story provide a link to the actual document with the exception one news outlet, KARE 11, which was kind enough to provide a pdf with one of the FBI documents and related material from Americans for Safe Aerospace and the National UFO Reporting Center. There is an article by Conor Wight on the CBS News site (updated May 28, 2026) headlined “Newly declassified FBI documents detail UFO sighting by Anoka officers — and one of them filmed it.” Wight is with CBS Minnesota and starts his story with this: “Buried within the National Archives is an unexplained sighting from right here in Minnesota.” Buried is an apt description, as the documents were quite hard to find in the National Archives Catalogue, but a search within “Group 16: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection,” brought us to records from the FBI, which led us to the files related to the Anoka case, which are the top three in a series of six results. The top file from FBI Cincinnati is dated March 10, 2025, and is identified after the redacted Case ID # as “Observation of UAP by Anoka Police Department personnel.” According to the section headed “Details,” on February 19, 2025, at 1:15 a.m., three officers observed a “UAP” for 90 minutes. It seemed to be at an altitude of 10,ooo-30,000 feet and at one point, possibly 50 miles away. It exhibited a light display described as “rapidly changing ‘tie-dye’ multi-color lighting which was inconsistent with known aircraft lights.” It was additionally described as having had the appearance of an illustration of an atom with six “hula-hoops with lights around each loop.” It was said to have been able to move extremely fast seeming to travel 30-40 miles in seconds “with a movement that ‘skipped across the sky like a stone”’ and to have possibly have flown close to the Monticello Nuclear Power Plant. One of the officers put his phone up to the binoculars he was using to observe the object and captured some video footage of it. This resulted in the video being blurred. After the details, it is explained that FBI Cincinnati got the report “from a liaison partner organization, Americans for Safe Aerospace.”  The ASA report with the initial interview with “the witness” is said to be attached. The ASA report is also said to contain a description of another sighting by the witness on February 17, 2025. The second document down is from FBI Minnesota dated May, 9, 2025. It contains the details of an interview of whom we’ll call “the witness,” in his office at the Anoka Police Department by an FBI agent. According to the document, the witness said that he and the other officers were in the local Domino’s Pizza parking lot for “an after-action briefing” after training. He described the object as a multi-colored gyroscope that was about the size of an SUV or a school bus. He said it was southwest of his position towards Minnetonka, Minnesota, and that when a private airplane flying from the southeast got close to the object, the object descended, moved around the path of the airplane, ascended, and hovered. He said it then moved in three separate bursts, hovered west of him towards Monticello, and then descended, in the words of the reporting agent, “like a leaf floating on a breeze.” The witness said that when he was leaving the parking lot to meet someone (redacted) at the local Kwik Trip he saw, in the agent’s words, “a second object, similar to the first,” followed it for 12 miles down Highway 10, watched it as it hovered over Monticello, and then continued to the Kwik Trip. The witness also provided information on two other sightings he’d had, one (recorded on his phone) on September 11, 2022, of a hovering object near the Anoka Ice Arena that then rapidly ascended, and another when he was younger (age redacted) of, in the agent’s words, “a large yellow and orange orb hovering over the lake at his parents’ cabin.” In addition to his own sightings, the witness said that a friend had seen three flashes of light while driving, recorded the third flash, and gave him the video. The document concludes stating that the case is closed unless additional information is received that might give reason for the case to be reopened The third file down is the last one pertaining to the case and is the same as what was linked to by KARE 11 except that there is a copy of the video taken by the witness. The FBI document, identified as “F–71A  – Guardian Complaint Form,” is dated May 15, 2025. The first page is a duplicate of the March 10th form, while the second lists the attachments from NUFORC, ASA, and the video. The first NUFORC attachment is a report dated January 16, 2025, of a white light seen that same day by three witnesses driving down Highway 10, and the second is dated February 20, 2025, and has details of a January 17, 2025, sighting from a deck in Saint Paul, Minnesota, of a diamond-shaped, muti-colored object that traveled at an “unexplainable speed and direction then disappeared” and caused animals to react. The ASA report begins with a statement that might explain the involvement of the FBI: “Below is a report which might involve nuclear energy infrastructure.” The report has details that are missing in the FBI documents, not least of which is that it states there were a total of four witnesses including the reporting witness. According to the Witness Statement, after the initial sighting with two co-workers, the witness went to his office to get a pair of Bushnell binoculars and took up a new position on a parking ramp and continued observing the object with three co-workers. The witness says a helicopter flew between them and the object and that this seemed to prompt the object to move off rapidly to the north and gain altitude. The witness also says that a co-worker drove 10 miles down highway 10 and reported that the object was still far off to the west of him. The airplane and the object’s apparent reaction to it are described as in the other reports. The witness describes seeing the second object, says it was similar to and much closer than the first object, and that he wasn’t able to stay and “monitor it.” There is no mention of him following it down highway 10. Finally, he says he saw a similar object on February 17, 2025, and that he did not discuss it with anyone until seeing the object with his co-workers on February 19th. For insight into the background of the relationship between ASA and the FBI, there is the article by Daniel Lippman headlined, “FBI agents who investigate UFOs worried they could be pushed out in possible purge,” posted February 3, 2025, on Politico. The subhead reads: “The existence of the FBI’s informal working group on the issue has not been disclosed publicly before.” Founder and ASA Executive Director Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot, is quoted expressing concern that “the FBI’s UAP Working Group could be affected by transition changes.” Lippman describes the group as “informal,” and says that Graves and three others were familiar with it and that they described it this way: “It consists of a national program manager and more than a dozen employees across the country who spend much of their time tracking down UAPs.” According to Lippman, Graves said that ASA had been working with the group for over a year. Lippman includes a statement from the FBI to the effect that it “investigates Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena when there is potential for a violation of federal law.”

At Contact in the Desert, Martin Willis sits down with entrepreneur, AI researcher, and quantum computing expert Deep Prasad for a wide-ranging discussion that explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, consciousness, advanced physics, and the UFO phenomenon. Deep shares details of an extraordinary experience he had in 2019 that profoundly changed his understanding of reality and led him to explore questions surrounding non-human intelligence and consciousness. He also discusses the rapid advancement of AI, the promise and challenges of quantum computing, and how future technologies may help unlock some of the deepest mysteries surrounding UAP. SHOW NOTES

Tonight on UFO Headlines, we’re joined by UFO Jack, Kelly Hughes, and Sam Milodragovich to discuss the latest developments in the UAP world. We’ll cover the recent release of more than 160 government UAP files, the upcoming June 9 Capitol Hill press conference involving David Grusch and congressional transparency advocates, the controversy surrounding Aliens.gov, and some of the most talked-about cases emerging from the newly released documents. We’ll also share our experiences from Contact in the Desert 2026, including standout presentations, behind-the-scenes conversations, and the overall mood of the UFO community regarding disclosure and the future of UAP investigations. Join us live and bring your questions and comments as we discuss the latest UFO headlines and what may be coming next. SHOW NOTES

Whitley Strieber returns to Podcast UFO for a thought-provoking discussion on UFOs, non-human intelligence, Roswell, consciousness, AI, and the enduring mystery of contact. Best known for his groundbreaking book Communion, Strieber shares personal experiences, reflects on the impact of disclosure, discusses the possibility that UFO intelligences originate from another reality, and explains why he believes humanity may have lost abilities once possessed long ago. From the Allagash Abduction case and Roswell to artificial intelligence and the future of human consciousness, this conversation explores some of the deepest questions surrounding the UFO phenomenon and our place in the universe. Whether you’re a longtime follower of Strieber’s work or new to these topics, this is an engaging and wide-ranging interview you won’t want to miss. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  By the time Project Blue Book was terminated, most UFO researchers, especially in the United States, were of the opinion that UFOs were nuts and bolts craft piloted by flesh and blood creatures from other planets. This is what has become known as the extraterrestrial hypothesis or ETH. At around the same time, as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, Jacques Vallée had one book published and John Keel had two published, that challenged the ETH, and caused many in the UFO community to consider other options. Vallée had his first UFO book, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, published in 1965 and his second, Challenge to Science, co-written with his wife, Janine, published in 1966. Both books make the argument that the UFO mystery is worthy of scientific study and present the elements of the problem in an organized manner in an effort to facilitate such study. In what would become characteristic in Vallée’s books, he presents accounts going back to antiquity, and he presents a lot of them. The books are lengthy and dry and hold little appeal for the average UFO enthusiast looking for sensational accounts of sightings and encounters. Jacques Valee at CITD On October 1, 1969 (according to the Kirkus review), Vallée had his book Passport to Magonia published, and it was quite a departure from the first two books. His central thesis in the book is that there is a link between UFOs and tales told in religious texts, legends of old, fairy lore, and folk lore. The full title of the first edition is Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers. Vallée doesn’t dismiss the UFO mystery as a modern myth, but rather, suggests that it might stem from somethings or someones interacting with humanity that have been doing so since antiquity. He also suggests there might be a trickster element involved, saying in the section at the end of the main body of the book titled “Conjectures” (Fact 4), “The behavior of the entities is consistently absurd…” and “their assertions have been systematically misleading.” After the main body, in the appendix, Vallée presents “A Century of UFO Landings (1868-1968.) In his introduction he says “The study of UFOs is more than a descriptive analysis of folklore, but it has not developed into a scientific field.” He argues that what is lacking is “a proper definition of the phenomenon to be studied.” As for the book’s reception, Vallée wrote in the foreword to the 2014 edition that the hardcover edition only sold 5000 copies. However, he explains that while it “was ignored or rejected in the U.S., it was well received in Europe, where audiences have a greater appreciation of history and the importance of folklore in defining a culture.” Just after Passport was published, Keel’s book, Strange Creatures From Time and Space, came out on January 1, 1970, and it is definitely the sort of book that would appeal to the average UFO enthusiast as well as lovers of what we now call cryptids. It has a fantastic cover by Frank Frazetta and is chock full cases involving what the title promises. However, what sets it apart from the usual UFO books of that era is Keel’s commentary. It was here that Keel introduced his idea that there were “widow” areas where UFOs and strange creatures appeared in the midst of other oddities repeatedly throughout history. Like Vallée, Keel was considering alternatives to the ETH, but his thinking was much more evolved, most likely due to his field investigation work that began 1966. It was mostly centered around the events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, involving UFO encounters and the cryptid known as the Mothman. Keel had another book, Operation Trojan Horse, in which he took a more scholarly approach to presenting his ideas, published on the same date. An ad for both books in the Vol. 16, No. 3, May/June 1970 Flying Saucer Review explains that Keel’s original manuscript covering his UFO study was so big that it was “divided into two 90,000-word books.” John Keel Strange Creatures is described as “a casebook recounting hundreds of bizarre incidents involving unknown animals and humanoids, demonstrating the surprising correlations hidden in the testimonial evidence.” As for Keel’s commentary, “The seeming hostility of the central phenomenon is defined and graphically explained.” Operation Trojan Horse is described as “a hardcover containing hundreds of carefully documented cases, and revealing for the first time the author’s personal contact experiences in 1967 which turned him from a ‘believer’ into a sceptic.” As for its impact on the UFO community, “Advance reviewers have declared: ‘It is certain to become the greatest classic on the subject… It will undoubtedly alter the course of all future UFO research.’” Keel’s UFO study actually started off as an assignment. In his 2002 interview with Art Bell, Keel says he was on assignment for Playboy magazine to “get to the bottom of the UFO mystery.” According to Doug Skinner in his February 11, 2015, post on johnkeel.com, Keel’s article was to be called Operation Trojan Horse, but it was rejected. He explains: “John decided to write the definitive article, and it grew longer and longer, as the correspondence grew more acrimonious. Eventually, the piece was rejected.” Playboy, instead, went with Dr. J. Allen Hynek who wrote an article headlined, “The UFO Gap,” that was published in the December 1967 issue. While Passport to Magonia and Operation Trojan Horse have become classics, are still in print, and continue to influence paranormal enthusiasts to this day, the struggle for serious scientific study of the UFO mystery wasn’t going to be helped along at that point by the ideas in those books. As can be seen in their publications, groups such as APRO in the U.S., and the British UFO Research Association in Europe, stuck to the ETH. However, FSR was open to the ideas of Vallée and Keel, as the publishers had formed very similar ideas themselves. Started in 1954, FSR was published in England, and both Vallée and Keel were frequent contributors. They maintained an audience and a presence and the idea that UFOs and their associated occupants might be from a realm other that outer space continues to be entertained by researcher/investigators to this day.

In this episode of Podcast UFO, Martin Willis and UFO Jack welcome Jordan Flowers of the Disclosure Foundation for a discussion on UFO disclosure, government transparency, classified file releases, and the growing momentum surrounding the UAP topic in Washington, D.C. Jordan discusses the impact of the 2017 The New York Times UFO article by Leslie Kean, the Disclosure Foundation’s work with FOIA requests and congressional briefings, recent NSA and military UAP releases, and the upcoming Disclosure Forum taking place June 25th in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room inside the U.S. Senate. Topics include national security, declassified documents, whistleblowers, public stigma, media coverage, and the future of UFO transparency and disclosure. SHOW NOTES

Jerome Clark by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Among the many possible explanations for UFOs is that some UFOs might be creatures that live in the sky. The person who became best known for this idea was Trevor James Constable who presented it, along with infrared photos of what he claimed were bioforms invisible to the naked eye, in his 1958 book (as Trevor James) They Live in the Sky. James wasn’t alone in his belief, and the concept of sky creatures goes back farther than 1958 in both speculative literature and science fiction. A good starting point for the history of the sky-creatures hypothesis is the 1997 paper by Jerome Clark, Spacemen, Demons and Conspiracies, published by the Fund for UFO Research. Clark explores the many explanations for UFOs put forward throughout the years and looks at the SCH in the section “Secret Weapons and Space Animals.” After going into the speculation by people such as James Moseley, Leon Davidson, and Jacques Vallée that flying saucers/UFOs can be explained as classified secret weapons, Clark delves into the history of the sky-creature concept. According to Clark, sky creatures originally appeared in fictional form, possibly for the first time, in the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Horror in the Heights,” published in the November 1913 issue of The Strand Magazine. The first person to offer the speculation that our skies might truly be full of living creatures was Charles Fort in his 1923 book, New Lands, in what Clark calls “a casual aside.”  Fort wrote, “It seems no more incredible that up in the seemingly unoccupied sky there should be hosts of living things than that the seeming blank of the ocean should swarm with life.” In his 1931 Book, Lo!,  he wrote, “Unknown, luminous things, or beings, have often been seen, sometimes close to this earth, and sometimes high in the sky. It may be that some of them were living things that occasionally come from somewhere else.” After Kenneth Arnold’s June 24, 1947, sighting, on July 7, John Phillip Bessor wrote the Army Air Forces giving his opinion that what Arnold and the many others that followed him had seen were “a form of space animal, or creature, of a highly attenuated (ectoplasmic?) substance, capable of materialization and dematerialization, whose propellent is a form of telekinetic energy.” Bessor posited that their presence might explain blood and meat falls reported throughout history (Fort wrote about such events), and in the assumption that they were hostile predators with a taste for human flesh, might explain missing persons. As silly as Bessor’s theory might seem, according to Clark, an Air Force spokesman replied to Bessor saying it was “one of the most intelligent theories we have received.” In a 1949 summary of Project Sign’s investigations it was noted, “Although the objects as described act more like animals than anything else, there are few reliable reports on extraterrestrial animals.” Clark adds that aerospace engineer Alfred Loedding who worked with Project Sign as a civilian (he was a core member when it was established), is quoted in the October 10, 1954, Trenton Times-Advertiser as saying, “I suspect that [UFOs] may be a kind of space animal.” Much of Clark’s paper seems to have been sourced from the December 15, 1957, Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York newsletter. CSI-NY was a science-minded organization founded in 1954 by Isabel Davis, Ted Bloecher, and Lex Mebane. On page 31 of the news letter is the article (page 33 of the pdf) headlined “Who ‘Discovered’ Space Animals?” which has most of the same information provided by Clark. Clark references another CSI article on the subject that appeared in the September 1957 issue of Fantastic Universe. The newsletter article begins with a reference to the Fantastic Universe article: “After we’d written an article for the September Fantastic Universe suggesting that ‘angel hair’ might be interpreted as organic tissues cast off by stratospheric creatures, we began to wonder who was the first to think of UFOs as animals.” Ivan T. Sanderson is the first person mentioned as possibly being the “most eminent advocate” of the idea at the time and is said to have been “principally influenced” by an article by Countess Zoë Wassilko-Serecki published in the September 1955 American Astrology. Clark provides an excerpt and says her article was the most influential of all articles written on the subject because it “gave the theory concrete shape.” It’s summed up in the CSI newsletter this way: “This theory postulated ionospheric, energy-feeding, quasi-electrical entities.” According to the CSI article, others came up with their own sky creature theories at about the same time. French engineer Rene Fouéré published his theory in the summer 1954 Paris-Montparnesse that UFOs were “disc beings,” Commander Walter Kerig suggested that UFOs behaved more like “puppies” than spaceships, and Desmond Leslie suggested in Flying Saucers Have Landed that, in the CSI reporter’s words, “the cylindrical UFO of Oloron-Gaillac might have been a huge living thing.” The CSI article brings up the same early post-1947 theorists as Clark and adds Arnold to the list: “Sometime during this period, too (we don’t have definite references), the idea was first publicly advanced by pioneer saucer investigator Kenneth Arnold.” A search on our part came up with a quote from Arnold in the article by Fred Schneiter headlined “Eerie Blue Light Said Live ‘Thing’” in the January 29, 1955 issue of The Observer out of La Grande, Oregon: “I believe that whatever they are, they are living organisms, and not controlled by any type of Man from Mars.” Going back farther in time, the CSI article, like Clark’s, ultimately attributes Charles Fort with the origin of the SCH and includes the same quote from New Lands at the end. The Civilian Saucer Intelligence article on the subject that appeared in the September 1957 issue of Fantastic Universe is mostly about the angel hair phenomenon. The first part of a series headlined “Shapes in the Sky,” it begins with a description of an investigation by CSI of an angel hair report begun after the witness had contacted Ivan T. Sanderson. Other contemporary cases are described with the source provided for each of them, and then there are several more cases presented going back to 1741. The reader is told that the latter cases were “mostly taken from Fort, but we quote in all cases from the original reference.” This all leads to the speculation that angel hair might come from “live large flocks of spherical entities or creatures, about six feet in diameter,” which the authors admit “is un-questionably in conflict with present scientific view of what is possible.” The two possibilities offered are that these “jellybirds” shed their appendages after mating, or “burst open” after death leaving behind their “cobwebby” remains. A 1950 case in Philadelphia is referenced that is said to have been described in the 2nd of the “Shapes in the Sky” series published in the May 1957 issue of Fantastic Universe. Clark also described this case in his article and its source is the September 27, 1950, Philadelphia Inquirer. According to the article “Flying ‘Saucer’ Just Dissolves,” at around 10 p.m. the night before, Patrolmen John Collins and Joseph Keenan spotted what seemed to be a parachute and watched through their patrol-car windshield as it settled into a field near 26th Street and Vare Boulevard. They called in Street Sergeant Joseph Cook and Patrolman James Casper, and the four of them went to investigate. According to them, when the object was hit by the light of their flashlights, “it gave off a purplish glow, almost a mist, that looked as though it contained crystals. Collins went to pick it up and the area where he made contact dissolved and left a sticky, odorless residue. Within 25 minutes the entire object, which was so light it didn’t even bend the reeds it sat on, dissolved. Cook notified the FBI, but there was nothing to show but “a magic circle on the ground where something purple, and quite evanescent, once had been.” According to many sources, including the Classic Movie Hub blog, the case was the inspiration for the 1958 movie, The Blob. As for sky creatures appearing as movie monsters, it wasn’t until 2022 that such a creature was featured in a major film. This creature has the un-monster-like name of “Jean Jacket” and is the nemesis of Earth-bound humans in Nope.

Robert Powell joins Podcast UFO to discuss the controversial May 8 UFO file release and why SCU says much of the material lacks the metadata needed for real scientific analysis. We discuss over-classification, AI-assisted UAP research, the Aguadilla case, government transparency, and the growing involvement of academia in UFO studies. Robert also previews the SCU 2026 Conference in Toronto featuring Christopher Mellon, Dr. Randy Bostick, Kevin Knuth, and many others. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  In the early years of the flying saucer/UFO mystery, magazines played a significant part in the public perception of the phenomenon. One of the most popular magazines in that era was LIFE, which started covering saucer/UFO news at the very beginning during the 1947 summer of the saucers. For anyone interested in the early history of the phenomenon, Archives for the Unexplained has a collection of related magazine articles which includes LIFE articles from 1947 t0 1966. In the article published in the July 1947 issue headlined “Speaking of Pictures… a Rash of Flying Disks Breaks Out Over the U.S.,” it is lamented that none of the many saucers seen that summer paused long enough to get its picture taken. There are pictures, however, of two fake saucers: one an obvious saw blade with what looks to be a capacitor attached to it held up by Reverend Joseph Brasky who claimed it hit the lightning rod of his church with an explosion, and the other an aluminum disk with what looks to be spent fireworks attached held up by a man from Shreveport, Louisiana, who said it flew out from behind a signboard. In 1950, a saucer in McMinnville, Oregon, seemingly did pause long enough for not only one, but two photos, and the article headlined “Farmer Trent’s Flying Saucer” published in the June 6, 1950, issue presents two photos taken by Paul Trent of what he said was a saucer flying over his farm. Trent is described as frugal, and it is noted that after he took the two saucer pics on May 11, he used up the last of the roll taking three pictures at a family picnic on Mother’s Day. LIFE had this to say about Trent and his photos: “Herewith LIFE prints Farmer Trent’s pictures. No more can be said for them than the man that took them is an honest individual and that the negatives show no sign of having been tampered with, although there are people who would say that the object looks like the lid of a garbage can.” The next issue in the collection is the May 5, 1951, issue which has the article headlined “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass.” The article is about the rise in popularity of science fiction, described as “the fastest-growing folklore of the machine age,” which had been a genre with a small dedicated fandom since the 1930s. The article covers the recent spate of movies featuring space travel and aliens such as Man From Planet X, and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and then gets deep into the culture of science fiction fandom. Significantly, the Shaver mystery (called the “Shaver hoax”) is discussed, which set a precedent for the flying saucer mystery. There are three issues from 1952, which was a big year due to a major flap throughout the country and the fact that the Air Force had resurrected its neglected saucer investigation, Project Grudge, under the new name, Project Blue Book. The director was Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who wrote about his time as director throughout 1952 in his 1956 book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. In it, he mentions reporters from LIFE contacting and visiting the office of Blue Book, but describes personnel other than himself interacting with them. Throughout the 1952 LIFE articles, Blue Book and Ruppelt are not mentioned by name. The April 7, 1952, issue has Marilyn Monroe on the cover next to the teaser, “There is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers,” for the article by H. B. Darrach and Robert Ginna headlined “Have We Visitors From Outer Space?” The article is based on the fact, as the reader is told, that the Air Force had, “for the first time” opened up its files on UFOs “for study.” At the top of the article is a center page spread of an illustration of a green fireball done by the wife of Dr. Lincoln La Paz. Dr. La Paz was head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico and had investigated a series of such sightings (and claimed to have had one himself along with his wife) for the Air Force. The article is then introduced with this: “The Air Force is now ready to concede that many saucer and fireball sightings still defy explanation; here LIFE offers some scientific evidence that there is a real case for interplanetary flying saucers.” The article begins with a list of “facts” reported to LIFE by the Air Force, which includes statements that the Air Force is maintaining an active investigation with a “positive policy” in its efforts to discover the source of UFO reports. Significant is the news that the Air Force was now welcoming civilian reports and guaranteeing confidentiality and freedom from ridicule. Then, after a review of what are now classic cases in UFO history up to that point, starting with Kenneth Arnold’s June 24, 1947, sighting and including the Thomas Mantell incident, the sighting reported by pilots Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitehead, and the “Gorman dogfight,” ten cases from the Air Force files are presented in detail along with three cases uncovered by LIFE investigators and “reported for the first time.” The most notable of these is the first case presented known as “The Lubbock Lights” which involved photos taken on August 30, 1951, by 18-year-old Texas Tech student Carl Hart Jr. of lights in formation over Lubbock, Texas. The photos are printed under the fireball illustration, and copies can be seen in the Blue Book files. The June 9, 1952, issue has the article by Ginna headlined “Saucer Reactions” which describes “unprecedented” reader responses to the former article: “Some have been non-sensical, some philosophical, some have contained provocative and plausible theories.” It is noted that the Air Force is “enlarging” its investigation and that LIFE has offered its news resources to Air Force intelligence for “the gathering of pertinent data.” Readers are encouraged to report their sightings to the Air Force and instructions are given on what information to include and how use a coin to judge elevation. The August 4, 1952, issue has an article headlined “Washington’s Blips” covering the two consecutive weekends in July starting July 19th when multiple UFOs in restricted Washington, D.C., airspace were spotted visually and on radar. Jets were scrambled and the blips on radar disappeared when the jets arrived. Ruppelt mentions in his book that Blue Book hadn’t been alerted and that he found out about the events when Ginna asked him for a statement. Afterwards, the largest press conference since WWII was held by the Air Force and the explanation was offered that the radar returns might have been caused by a temperature inversion. Notably, the coverage in the LIFE article is cursory, and the main source is the chief of radar at Washington’s CAA control center, Harry Barnes. The Air Force is said to have denied sending in jets and then to have later admitted doing so with no explanation for the denial. The press conference isn’t mentioned. After 1952, coverage is scant. There is a short article on plans to build a practical flying saucer in the May 31, 1954, issue and a short article in the November 29, 1954, issue covering three Italian cases. The first of these is the famous case of Rosa Dainelli who claimed that two small humanoids took one her stockings along with some flowers. A picture of her with her husband and children is presented over the well-known illustration of the reported incident from the cover of La Domenica del Corriere. There is another short article in the December 5, 1955, issue on the various shapes of craft reported to the Air Force and an article in the May 27, 1957, issue covering contactees and George Van Tassel’s Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock Airport near Yucca Valley, California. The April 1, 1966, issue is the last in the collection and it makes up for the lean years with three articles. In spite of it being April Fool’s Day, the articles are a mostly serious look at the phenomenon up to that point with a major focus on the flap in March around Dexter, Michigan. Several pictures of strange lights in the sky are presented under the headline, “A Well-witnessed ‘Invasion’ by Something,” and the Dexter flap is covered under the headline “‘It wasn’t no hullabillusion,’ said the farmer, and 52 agreed.” The quote is from the main witness, Frank Mannor as he was complaining about the crowds of people around his property in the aftermath. His wife, Leona is quoted at the end of the article saying, “We ain’t Martians- they act like you’re not human or something because you seen it. I’m about to get a gun and shoot some of these smart alecks if they don’t stay to hell away.” Blue Book’s director at the time was Hector Quintanilla (spelled Quintanella in the LIFE articles), and he sent consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek to investigate. Hynek is quoted as saying, “I believe the people who made these sightings are entirely honest and sincere, but I am not willing to guess what they saw.” Unfortunately, Hynek did guess, and at a press conference given after the article was written he suggested that some of the sightings in the area were of flaming marsh gas, which became “swamp gas” in the press. This led to the Air Force representatives being brought before Congress at the behest of outraged Michigan State Representative Gerald Ford. The last article is headlined “Of 10,147 flying saucer sightings there are rational explanations for all but 646.” Hynek and “Quintanella” are featured giving their thoughts on the phenomenon. Hynek expresses his feeling that there is an obligation to try and provide an explanation to “solid citizens” who report “something puzzling,” and Quintanilla says, in spite of his belief that there has been no evidence that saucers are of interplanetary origin, that “it is impossible to prove that flying saucers do not exist.

Martin Willis & Dean Alioto speak with Bogna Konior, author of The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet, about the surprising connection between artificial intelligence, the internet, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Drawing from the dark forest theory, she explores the idea that true intelligence may remain hidden, avoiding detection in a potentially hostile environment. The conversation covers whether the internet itself is a form of first contact, how AI may already be learning from human communication, and why advanced intelligence might choose silence over expression. This thought-provoking discussion challenges how we think about AI, communication, and the possibility that contact may already be underway in ways we do not fully understand. SHOW NOTES

John and E.J. Craig, a husband and wife UFO research team based in Colorado, discuss their new platform UFO Track, designed to detect and report UAP activity in real time. Instead of relying on after the fact sightings, their system alerts nearby users instantly so multiple witnesses can observe and document the same event. We talk about their sensor technology, triangulation methods, and the idea of proactive disclosure, empowering the public to help gather meaningful data. It is an interesting look at how coordinated, real time reporting could shape the future of UFO research. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Ted Bloecher, who passed away not too long ago at the age of 94, was a researcher/investigator who started out in the days of flying saucers as a founding member of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York and was active until the mid-1980s. He was an early researcher of humanoid reports starting in 1955, just after the 1954 French humanoid wave and the 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville incident, and was the author of numerous publications on the subject. Tucked away in the United Kingdom file of the downloads section of the Archives for the Unexplained website is a report he wrote titled Close Encounters of the Third Kind that was published in 1977 by the British UFO Research Association. According to the introduction, the paper was prepared for a talk he gave at the BUFORA National UFO Conference at the Centre Hotel in Birmingham, England, in November 1976. The subtitle describes the paper as “The preliminary presentation of extensive study into UFO cases involving the reported sightings of humanoids and other alien beings.” In this blog, we’ll look at some of the highlights. The publication starts off with a biography of Bloecher which includes his saucer/UFO involvement as a founding member of CSI-NY, a staff member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, a member of the Mutual UFO Network (since 1972), and some of his publications. At the time, he was MUFON’s state section director for New York City and co-chairman with David Webb of MUFON’s Humanoid Study Group founded in 1974. Bloecher begins his report saying that there had been “a number of unusual events that involved strange humanoid beings” reported throughout North America during the fall of 1975. He describes them as being the source of a great deal of “disbelief, confusion, and controversy,” and posits they may be the result of alien visitation or “as some researchers are suggesting, poorly understood manifestations of the human psyche about which there is much to discover.” According to him, CE III reports (from a classification system developed by J. Allen Hynek) had not only escalated, but their level of strangeness had as well. Bloecher then summarizes specific cases, which are all footnoted with references. The first is a mother and daughter from Birmingham, Alabama, who, in November, reportedly saw two eight-foot-tall humanoids wearing tight-fitting silver suits, silver ankle-high shoes, and helmets that reflected their car’s headlights as they drove towards them. One of the figures held one arm over its head. The women were “startled” by the creatures’ appearance and swerved around them without stopping to investigate. Next, a woman driving near Peers, Alberta (Canada), at 5:30 p.m. on October 14, reportedly saw what she first thought was a cattle truck parked with its lights on. It turned out to be some sort of object with two men, each holding a staff and wearing a helmet, standing motionless on top. The woman went to get two witnesses, but when they returned, the object and the men were gone. A highly strange case involved an elderly couple in Wauwatosa near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to Bloecher, they were at home on the evening of November 10th. The doorbell rang, the wife answered it, and was confronted with a “man” wearing a narrow-brimmed hat. He had a brown face “like smoked meat,” with vertical grey lines, a narrow chin, a small opening for a mouth less than a quarter inch wide, and he was holding a white, five-foot-long rod. He didn’t respond to “her queries,” and she called her husband over. When he saw the man, he said, “What the hell is this, something left over from trick or treat?” He went to grab the man, and the man hit the ground with the rod, which made an audible click, and he then glided backwards out of the husband’s reach. As he drifted across the lawn, he raised his arm and presented a bent hand to the witnesses. In spite of having seen the man up close, the husband was unable to recall the details of his face other than the small mouth. The couple saw at least four other similar creatures on their lawn and in the street. They were all moving “like the astronauts on the Moon” in long, slow jumps. They all had rods and hit them on the ground and would then float a few inches above the lawn. The creatures are described as looking deformed “like gnomes” with bowed legs and claw-like hands. Bloecher notes there were no UFOs reported in the area. The next case from Poland Springs, Maine, does involve a UFO. According to Bloecher, on October 27, at 2:30 a.m., “two youths” were driving and found themselves no longer controlling the car. The car proceeded down a back road near a lake, and they saw a UFO, described as a “large, cylindrical object,” as it rose up over a field. A “number of strange events” are said to have occurred, which included a fog or mist enveloping the car. They were able to drive away, but later returned due to an “irresistible impulse,” and this time, they saw the original object as well as another one. When they got home, there was a period of time they couldn’t account for, and one of them, identified as a young man, began to suffer “some odd physical effects.” The young man underwent hypnotic regression “weeks later” and recounted being taken from the car and then finding himself looking down at his car and companion through a porthole. According to him, he was confronted by a four-and-a-half-foot-tall creature that communicated telepathically and told him not to be afraid. He was led into a room, told to undress, and then underwent a physical exam which included blood being taken and him being scanned by a “machine with dials.” He was told to get dressed, that they’d see him again, and he then found himself back in the car where his companion seemed unaware that he’d been gone. According to Bloecher, the young man and his family reported seeing UFOs afterwards “on numerous occasions.” He says they also reported other events of a strange nature that were “too complex and involved to be included in this summary…” and that everything had occurred during a “spate of reported UFO sightings in the area.” The last case Bloecher summarizes is the Travis Walton incident. He notes that it was “widely publicized here and abroad” and out of all the cases summarized, “the most highly controversial” with too many “complications” to include in the summary. After his summaries, Bloecher explains that due to the enormous number of UFO reports, for instance, the 90,000 case entries in the computerized UFO Catalogue (UFOCAT) set up by David Saunders, researchers are “obliged” to focus on the phenomenon “in microcosm,” and that this is what he is doing with humanoid reports. Bloecher then makes note of the benefits of research into CE-III reports in terms of the amount of data they provide as compared to a light in the sky report. He introduces the term “entity” and goes on at length about the reports of their appearance, behavior, activities, association with vehicles, and communication with witnesses.  He provides a chart of the yearly distribution of reports and a statistical breakdown, and introduces the Humanoid Study Group and Humanoid Catalogue (HUMCAT). Bloecher was a pioneer in humanoid study at a time when most researchers, in his words, “dealt only gingerly with the subject.” After the Travis Walton incident and the Pascagoula incident just over three years before, at the time of his talk, Bloecher’s fringe research was on its way to becoming mainstream.    

In this episode of Podcast UFO, I’m joined by Miguel Sancho, executive producer of the HISTORY® series The Proof Is Out There® and author of Evidence of the Extraordinary. We discuss how his team evaluates UFO sightings and unexplained phenomena using a mix of journalistic rigor, scientific analysis, and expert review—revealing that most cases can be explained, while a select few remain truly puzzling. Miguel also shares insights from his book, exploring how our perception of reality can be challenged by experiences that don’t fit conventional explanations. From AI-generated hoaxes and government disclosure to credible UFO cases and even mysteries in our oceans, this conversation takes a grounded look at what holds up under investigation—and what still defies explanation. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  It’s always a plus when UFO cases come along with physical evidence to back them up. Sometimes this evidence is in the form of physiological effects on the witnesses, and cases involving these are numerous enough that investigators have been able to focus on them as a specific area of study. Conjunctivitis (burning red eyes), nausea, hair loss, numbness, paralysis, and burns are some of the symptoms commonly described, but a very unusual effect was reported in the following 1976 case from Bolton, England. While the incident was said to have occurred in 1976, it didn’t show up in major media until 1987. In the March 1987 issue (page 19 of the pdf) of She magazine, there is an article by Peter Hough headlined “The UFO in Armadale Road.” According to Hough, at 5:15 p.m. on January 23, 1976, 17-year-old Shelley McLenaghan had just gotten off a bus and was 100 yards from home when she saw a UFO. She is quoted as saying, “Before that, I would have thought anybody who said they’d seen a UFO was crazy.” She added, “I think the government know far more than they let on.” McLenaghan is then quoted describing her encounter: Peter Hough I saw a red and green light in the sky, thought ‘what’s that?’- it was a bit weird. The lights were about four or five times the size of a star. Then, as if they’d said, ‘we’ll catch your eye with the space ship,’ the lights merged and the semblance of a real nuts-and-bolts craft zoomed in. It was the size of a small house, flat on top, with sloping sides and sloping underneath, with a trap door, tripod legs. It was spinning on an axis, then righted itself, I could see portholes with light shining through. Suddenly, it tilted towards me, then there was a terrible pressure on my head and shoulders, an off taste in my mouth. My teeth seemed to vibrate. When I tried to run it was like being in a nightmare. My arms and legs moved, but in slow motion. I tried to scream, nothing came out. Then everything went hazy until I remember bursting through the side door at home. Mother was cooking tea. She gave one look at me, then said ‘What on earth’s happened?’ She thought I’d been raped. I grabbed her arm, dragged her outside and pointed at the sky, but whatever it was had gone. We went back into the kitchen and I started to calm down. Then I noticed the time – ten minutes past six. A ten-minute walk had taken me 45 minutes.   According to Hough, when McLenaghan’s father got home that night, the family called the Bolton Police, who didn’t believe Shelley’s story and suggested she had misidentified a low-flying plane. Over the weekend, McLanaghan developed a rash that covered her upper body from the neck down. Along with this, her eyes hurt, her joints ached and “she had problems with her mouth.” She went to a doctor who told her mother that the symptoms were due to hysteria and a means to get attention. However, a dentist she went to thought otherwise and was puzzled by the condition of her teeth: her top fillings had come out, and her bottom fillings had turned to powder. Hough describes this as being what would come from a serious head injury like one might get from a car accident. According to Hough, the family was visited by two men eleven days later at 7:00 p.m. in the midst of a downpour. They were “an odd couple,” and one of them said he was an RAF commander. Hough points out that that rank only exists in the Navy. The “commander” was around 40, had fair hair, only one arm, and “did most of the talking,” while the other man was dark-skinned, small, and sat silently with “a black box on his knee.” This man said it was a tape recorder, but reportedly never changed a tape in the course of a four-hour discussion. McLenaghan said the “commander” gave her a “grilling” calling her a liar, “stupid enough to wrongly identify a weather balloon,” and just looking for publicity. She told him that the Bolton Evening News and Granada TV must have heard about her sighting from the police and that she hadn’t cooperated with them, and “he seemed placated.” He said this was good and insisted that she, in her words, “not mention it to anyone – especially UFO organizations.” McLenaghan describes being pushed to the point of breaking down, at which point the “commander” would talk to her parents “about something trivial.” She says the men “had a strange effect on all of us,” and that her father, who was normally protective, “sat by while this man was tearing me to pieces.” She says the man seemed to know about her rash even though the family hadn’t said anything about it. Hough adds that when her father asked for identification, the men evaded the issue and then said “We investigate these sort of things.” They then drove off in a black car. According to Hough, McLenaghan agreed to help him and Jenny Randles “reopen the case,” and he recounts McLenaghan’s experiences under hypnosis. She described herself lying on a table in a strange room with, in Hough’s words, “a figure with long blond hair” examining her feet. She then found herself running home. Hough says that during a second session, McLenaghan said she was talked to by the “commander” twice. She is quoted as saying, “But I can’t say anything about the hypnosis because I wasn’t conscious. Maybe it was something like a nightmare.” What is noteworthy here is that Randles was the director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association from 1981 until 1993 and instrumental in getting a moratorium put into place starting in 1988 on the use of hypnosis in investigations by BUFORA members. She and Hough wrote several books together covering UFOs and the paranormal. The article ends with a final quote from McLenaghan: “If anyone has an experience they can’t put in a box, file away and take out as a normal memory, they’re bound to ask just what happened. Why did they choose me?” In a box below the article, Randles is quoted explaining why McLenaghan’s case was re-investigated: “Because the information is verifiable via other people, for example Shelley’s parents, and also because of the associated effects of the sighting – Shelley’s rash and crumbled fillings. One odd aspect is the medical silence over these; we have asked in vain to look at Shelley’s medical records of the time.” This case is included in A Catalogue of UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects (page 69 of pdf) published in 1996 by John Schuessler, and in Jacques Vallée’s 1990 book, Confrontations. Accounts can also be found in the March 22, 1988, Weekly World News, and the July 30, 1987, Australasian Post.

Martin Willis interviews filmmaker Ron James, Head of MUFON Media, about his new documentary Accidental Truth: Next and the current state of UFO Disclosure.Ron shares behind-the-scenes insights from Washington, D.C., including conversations connected to lawmakers such as Tim Burchett and Kirsten Gillibrand, and discusses whether the ongoing UAP narrative is true transparency, or a controlled rollout. Topics include Congressional hearings, limited vs full disclosure, missing scientists, MUFON’s role behind the scenes, and how the UFO subject may be shifting beyond “nuts and bolts” into deeper questions about reality itself. Ron also previews Accidental Truth: Next, premiering June 1 at Contact in the Desert and streaming June 2. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Recently, footage taken of a video that has been described by documentarian James Fox as the holy grail of UFO videos has been shown online. The original video on VHS had been in the possession of one of the early Area 51 researchers, Chuck Clark, since 1995. Clark was reportedly offered a large sum of money to turn over the video, and he refused, whereupon underhanded means were employed to get what was on it out to the public. This story goes all the way back to the 1990s when the United States was in the midst of its own special brand of paranoid UFOlogy, which emphasized government cover-ups and conspiracy theories fueled by the popularity of The X-Files. Area 51 had become the most famous secret base in the world after Bob Lazar, in silhouette using the name “Dennis,” was interviewed by George Knapp on KLAS in Las Vegas in May 1989. He claimed to have worked on reverse-engineering nine recovered alien space craft at a site he said was called “S-4” located in the southern section of Area 51. The excitement stirred up by Lazar’s claim resulted in a flood of UFO tourists descending on the area. Many would stop at the only bar in the nearby small town of Rachel, Nevada, a population that usually numbers around 50 people. According to the “Rachel Timeline” section of A Short History of Rachel, Nevada by Glenn Campbell and Edith Grover, Pat and Joe Travis bought the Rachel Bar and Grill in 1988. They renamed it “The Little A’Le’Inn” and held the first annual UFO conference there in July of 1990. According to the timeline, Campbell moved into the Little A’Le’Inn in January 1993, and started “publishing his Area 51 Viewer’s Guide.” In August 1993, he was “kicked out” by Joe Travis and started the Area 51 Research Center in a mobile home in the trailer park owned by the founder of Rachel, D. C. Day. The first Area 51 researcher to gain notoriety was Norio Hayakawa. According to his autobiography on DreamlandResort.com, he first became interested in Area 51 in 1987 when Bill Moore sent him a copy of a satellite photo of Groom Lake taken by the Russians along with a 10-page research paper. He says he attended a lecture given by Bill Steinman who wrote The Crash at Aztec, which had a chapter devoted “to the mysterious base in Nevada, and also that “Area 51 was briefly mentioned” in the 1988 TV special UFO Cover-Up?: Live! He goes on to describe the developments that led to Rachel being permanently associated with extraterrestrials and credits Campbell as being the person to discover the Area 51 vantage point that came to be known as “Freedom Ridge.” It appears that Clark’s history with Rachel and Area 51 begins around 1991. There is a 1995 video covering a UFO Clark said he saw over Area 51, and he is described as an author and astronomer who has lived near the base “for the past four years.” A comprehensive look into his history and activity regarding Area 51 is presented in the article “Chuck Clark: The Desert Astronomer Who Kept Looking at Area 51” posted on UAPedia. According to the writer, “biographical data on Chuck Clark is sparse, which is itself very Rachel. In a video posted 17 years ago on YouTube, Clark says he formerly lived adjacent to Vandenburg AFB in Southern California and was the director of the Western Spaceport Observatory. A web search failed to find any such observatory, so it might have been an amateur facility and Clark is often described as an amateur astronomer. He describes capturing footage a UFO passing by a rocket during launch and what seems to be that footage is shown. According to the UAPedia article, Clark has been described as ex-military and there is a link to an Area 51 tour site where Clark is described as “ex-Air Force Captain Chuck Clark.” Anyone with access to military records could, of course, verify this. Clark put out his own guide for Area 51 tourists around 1995-96 titled The Area 51 & S-4 Handbook, which is said to have angered Campbell. He continued his observation of Area 51 into the 21st Century and ran into trouble with the Air Force and the FBI. According to the UAPedia article and other sources, Clark had discovered sensing devices on public land, dug them up, reburied them, and mapped them. After Clark showed several of them to a Las Vegas TV crew (KLAS), Air Force personnel and FBI agents raided his trailer and took his computer, photos and records. One of the sensors reportedly went missing and Clark was charged with “malicious interference with a communications system used for the national defense.” He reached a deal to either replace the sensor or pay restitution, and the case was dismissed in January 2005. James Fox made the acquaintance of Clark when he was working on his first UFO documentary. He spoke about this in an interview with Richard Dolan. According to him, he interviewed Clark about his reported Area 51 sighting and later got a phone call from him saying he had something to show him and that in Fox’s words, “When you see it, your jaw is gonna hit the floor.” Fox says he drove twelve hours to Clark’s double-wide trailer in Rachel where Clark told him that what they were going to watch was shot by two men from Los Angeles, one around 19 and the other around 30. Fox says it was a typical Area 51 road-trip video with them hitting all the stops and that there is then a section shot at dusk from what seems to be the armrest of the car. At this point he describes the men being in a panic and seeming like they’re trying to crawl under the seats. According to him a “yellowy-orange light” flooded the inside of the car and the shadows shifted as if the light source was on a pendulum. He describes the effect as “fluid” like “something you’ve ever seen before.” One of the men, Fox assumes it was the younger man, said he was getting out and in the midst of his companion’s protests, took the camera and started filming what was above the car. Fox describes it as a “perfect, perfect flying saucer” at about the height of a telephone pole. He says it was rocking and that it glowed like “phosphorous on a beach.” He says there were seams like the lines in a sliced pizza. What was on the video can now be seen thanks to Logan Paul who made arrangements to see the video through Royce Meyers, known for running the website UFO Watchdog. On the May 9, 2023, episode of his Impaulsive podcast, Paul admitted to secretly filming the video using a button camera after Clark had refused to sell him the video for $1oo,ooo. He says he’s waiting for the right time to release it, describes it as “compelling, not convincing,” and that “everything about it screams bullsh*t.” Coming full circle in the Area 51 saga, Paul chose to show his footage for the first time to Bob Lazar (at around 1:22:00) when Lazar was a guest on the April 13, 2026, episode of American Alchemy hosted by Jesse Michels. Lazar comments that “it’s moving the right way, it’s the right color, and it’s the right shape. It makes it very compelling.” Adding some context, Reddit user SignalsIntelligence posted a link to a transcript of an interview he did with Clark regarding the video, where it came from, and where it is now. According to Clark, he got the video from someone who “was in the media out of Hollywood, Burbank.” He was a cameraman for a, in the writer’s words, “major network news organization,” the name of which was redacted. Clark got to know him when he was in the area working on a non-UFO-related Area 51 documentary. This person was “acquainted with at least one” of the men who shot the video. They had brought it to him, he made a copy of it, and he gave it to Clark to evaluate. Clark said he made a promise not to release it and that the man had since died. As for Paul offering to buy the video from him, Clark says he didn’t recall Paul offering him money. He adds that he “made it pretty clear that it wasn’t for sale.” He says he was “advised” afterwards that Paul had $200,000 with him. Meyers made an unsuccessful attempt to locate the men who had shot the video by posting stills on X on March 26, 2022. Their identities remain a mystery.

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Last week, Nick Pope, full name Nicholas George Pope, passed away on April 6th at the age of 60. A fixture in the UFO scene, Pope first gained notoriety with his 1996 book, Open Skies, Closed Minds. Besides providing an overview of UFO history up to that point, the book has an autobiographical account of his time as the head of the “UFO desk” at the Ministry of Defense from 1991 t0 1994. After the book came out, he became a go-to “UFO expert” whenever an authoritative comment was needed to punch up a news story. He maintained his interest and a media presence and was sought after as a speaker at conventions and a commentator in various documentaries. By the time of his passing, he was a well-known personality in the UFOtainment industry, having appeared regularly on Ancient Aliens and at Contact in the Desert. In the midst of his notoriety and association with the more sensationalistic aspects of UFOlogy, his commentary seemed to be heartfelt and true to his actual beliefs. According to Pope in his book, he was a skeptic before he was assigned to the “UFO desk” in Secretariat (Air Staff) Department 2A at the Ministry of Defense. He had been with the MoD since 1985, and personnel were shifted to different sections every three to four years as a matter of policy to give them “a breadth of knowledge and experience.” When he was assigned to deal with UFO reports, he took it upon himself to learn as much as he could about the subject, and the comprehensive historical overview in the book shows the depth of his research. Besides studying UFO history, Pope reached out to British UFO researchers, such as Timothy Good who wrote the Foreword of the book, and established relationships with organizations such as the British UFO Research Organization. This set him apart from his predecessors and helped diminish the us-and-them perception between the MoD and the British UFO community. Pope’s assignment came when The X-Files was popular and he describes his co-workers calling him “Spooky” and whistling The X-Files theme when passing him in the hallway. He was fully aware how unusual his job was, and when Focus, the MoD’s in-house journal, started a regular feature on unusual jobs within the organization, he was the first person to be profiled. Pope presents cases he looked into, and the most notable of these was what has become known as “The Cosford Incident” which involved over 30 reports to the MoD of bright lights over the Southwest England in areas that included RAF Shawbury and RAF Cosford, overnight from March 30-31, 1993. According to him in his book, the MoD was “asked to take part” in the production of a Central Television program on UFOs. While such a request would normally have been refused, Pope persuaded his superiors that it would be good to explain the Ministry’s policy on UFOs on camera and “lay to rest a few misconceptions.” On April 24, 1994, he was interviewed by producer Lawrence Moore and “freely admitted that many of the cases on file cannot be explained today in conventional scientific terms.” Just before his book came out, Pope made his first BBC Television appearance on the Newsnight program. A segment was devoted to him and his book and begins with an actor dressed like him on a shadowy office set reading from the book over ominous background music. The actor reads from the section describing cases Pope looked into, and witness interviews are presented covering incidents in Bonnybridge, Scotland, and Dorset, England. Pope is then interviewed, and he is remarkably confident and articulate in this very early television appearance. The interviewer, Peter Snow, is noticeably taken aback when Pope says that he is “convinced by the sheer weight of evidence” that some of what are seen in the sky “are extraterrestrial in origin.” After moving on from Sec (AS) 2a with what he describes in the book as a promotion, Pope continued investigating UFO reports in his spare time, and there is an early account (page 14 of the pdf) of one of these in the article by Mike Merritt headlined “Expert in UFO Probe on Isle” published in the November 4, 1996, Sun. According to Merritt, “Top UFO hunter Nick Pope is probing a mystery mid-air explosion which sparked a massive search nine days ago.” Pope is quoted as saying, “This sighting off (the Isle of) Lewis could be a UFO – I would not rule it out until I look at the reports I have asked for.” The caption under his picture at the top of the column reads “Pope… former MoD man,” which is inaccurate because he was still with the MoD at that time. Pope left the MoD in 2006, and in 2007, the Ministry made the decision to release its UFO files. Pope describes this on his website, Nick Pope in the section titled “MoD UFO Files.” According to him, there were three reasons for the decision: the French had released their UFO files that year, it would be good P.R., and there had recently been a huge number of Freedom of Information Act requests for UFO-related documents. Pope describes the laborious process of review, redaction, and digitizing which led to the first group of documents being released in 2008 and the final group in 2019. As for his involvement, Pope says that the staff at the National Archives asked him to select cases to highlight in the media, and that he did “literally hundreds” of interviews across all media “and thus became the public face of the file release project.” As can be seen in the section titled, “Spokesperson” on his website, Pope embraced his fame as a “UFO expert” and capitalized on it working in film, television, video games, and advertising. Besides his appearances on sensational programs such as Ancient Aliens, in 2019, he began appearing as a regular guest on The Basement Office with Steven Greenstreet starting with the first episode which premiered on May 29th. While still advocating for the extraterrestrial hypothesis and displaying obvious enthusiasm when discussing cases that he has a personal interest in, his commentary is restrained and well-informed. Pope wrote a total of six books in his lifetime which include three books on UFOs, two science fiction novels, and one action thriller. Besides Open Skies, Closed Minds, his other two UFO books are The Uninvited, a book about abductions published in 1997, and Encounter in Rendlesham Forest written with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston (both USAF Ret.) about the reported lights and UFO landing near RAF Woodbridge in 1980 that was published in 2014. R. I. P. | Check out Martin’s Tribute HERE

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  For many years, stories of recovered crashed saucers and alien bodies were usually dismissed by investigators due to the stigma created by the effective debunking of the Aztec incident by J. P. Cahn in two articles he wrote for True magazine, the first in 1952 and the second in 1956. The stigma remained until the 1970s when influential researchers started becoming open to such cases, and an early story to come out during this period was that of a 1953 crash in Kingman, Arizona, that made the news in 1973. It was looked into by National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena investigator Raymond E. Fowler, who published an article covering it titled “What About Crashed UFOs?” in the April 1976 issue of Official UFO. Leonard Stringfield included the Kingman portion of it in his 1977 book, Situation Red! The beginning of the renewed interest in crash recovery stories can be traced back to January 15, 1974, when Robert Spencer Carr claimed during a debate at the University of South Florida that the government was keeping two saucers inside Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson AFB. This was reported on in the January 16, 1974, edition of The Tampa Tribune. According to the article headlined “Does USAF Have UFOs?” by Frank Bentayou, Carr was a “mass communications instructor” at the university. It was around this time that Fowler began looking into an article that was published in the Framingham, Massachusetts edition of the Middlesex News on April 23, 1973. Kevin Randle described this in a report he submitted to NICAP on February 19, 2007. According to Randle, the article is based on an interview of a man named Fritz Werner by two teenage UFO researchers, Jeff Young and Paul Chetham. Fowler contacted Werner and also interviewed him. He wrote a report for NICAP, which Randle has said he has a copy of, and presented Werner’s story, along with a signed affidavit, dated June 7, 1973, in the April 1976 issue of Official UFO:   I, Fritz Werner, do solemnly swear that during a special assignment with the U. S. Air Force on May 21, 1953, I assisted in the investigation of a crashed unknown object in the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona. The object was constructed of an unfamiliar metal which resembled aluminum. It had impacted 20 inches into the sand without any sign of structural damage. It was oval and about 30 feet in diameter. An entranceway hatch had been vertically lowered and opened. It was about 3½ feet high and 1½ feet wide. I was able to talk briefly with someone on the team who did look inside only briefly. He saw two swivel seats, an oval cabin, and a lot of instruments and displays. A tent pitched near the object sheltered the dead remains of the only occupant of the craft. It was about 4 feet tall, dark brown complexion and had 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and a small round mouth. It was clothed in a silvery, metallic suit and wore a skull cap of the same type of material. It wore no face covering or helmet. I certify that the above statement is true by affixing my signature to this document this 7th day of June, 1973.   Signature: Fritz A. Werner Date Signed: June 7, 1973 Witness: Raymond E. Fowler Date Signed: June 7, 1973   According to Fowler, in the process of trying to verify Werner’s story, he contacted Wright-Patterson AFB, former Blue Book personnel, the Atomic Energy Commission, Stanford Research Institute, “and a number of persons employed within the military-industrial complex.” While he didn’t find any corroborating witnesses, the tests, dates, people, and places in Werner’s personal account which follows “checked out very well.” Werner’s story as he told it to Fowler is the same as that in the affidavit with more details added. He explained that he had been working for the AEC under Dr. Ed Doll as a project engineer for Operation Upshot-Knothole. This involved a series of three atomic explosions at the atomic proving ground in Nevada, and Werner’s job was to measure the effects of the blasts on different buildings built for the tests, which were the “tests” Fowler was referring to. According to Werner, he got a phone call from Doll who told him he was going on a special job the next day. He reported for his assignment and was driven to Indian Springs AFB where he and about 15 other “specialists” got on a plane, were told not to “fraternize,” and were flown to Phoenix, Arizona. There, they got on a bus with blacked out windows. Others were already onboard and they were driven or four hours to what Werner thought might have been the area of Kingman. On the way, an Air Force colonel told the group that they were to conduct an investigation on a crashed “super-secret Air Force vehicle” based on their own individual specialties only. Werner’s job was to determine the forward and vertical velocities of the vehicle when it crashed. Werner was escorted to the crash site, and it was there that he happened to glance inside a tent with an armed guard in front of it. This is where he said he saw the body and he speculates that the creature’s dark brown skin may have been due to exposure to our atmosphere. This was the explanation for the “chocolate-brown” skin color of the Aztec creatures. When everyone was done and back on the bus, the colonel had them raise their right hands and take an oath that they wouldn’t tell anyone what they had seen. They were told to write out a report in longhand and were given a number to call when they were finished. When Werner finished his, he called the number and an airman came and picked it up. Kevin Randle took an interest in the case and wrote numerous blogs about it, which were mostly dismissive. In his August 14, 2024, post titled “The Kingman UFO Crash Conundrum,” Randle tells the reader he “was unimpressed with it (the case) for several reasons.” His reasons included the fact that Stansel was the only witness, there was no documentation supporting his story, “and a suggestion that Stansel, after he had been drinking, told wild stories.” What throws a new light onto Stansel’s tale is part of the interview with Young and Chetham “that seems to have been left out of this whole tale.” Randle, presents a transcript of a section of the interview with Young and Chetham that starts with Stansel being asked, “Did you say that you had contacted beings from other planets?” Stansel answered, “Yes, but now we’re getting into things where you’ll just have to take my word for it because I can’t produce it or prove it.” Stansel said he met with a group once a week and that after a year they were able to make psychic contact. He said he “learned astral projection” and was able to project himself onto a ship. He then goes on much like many contactees have done throughout the years.

Join Martin Willis and UFO Jack for the premiere episode of UFO Headlines, a new monthly series covering the latest developments, controversies, and breaking stories in the world of UFOs and UAP. In this episode, we explore alarming drone incursions over U.S. military bases, including activity near strategic nuclear assets, and discuss what this could mean for national security, along with the ongoing mystery surrounding the disappearance of Major General William Neil McCasland and other unusual cases involving scientists and defense-related personnel. The conversation also dives into explosive claims circulating in Washington, including alleged hybrid programs and statements from members of Congress, while taking a critical look at the controversial “Buga Sphere,” Dr. Steven Greer’s upcoming event, and the broader issues of credibility, evidence, and misinformation in the field. We also touch on NASA’s Artemis mission, strange aerial anomalies observed during launches, and the growing push for transparency, including efforts to release additional UAP footage. This is a wide-ranging, candid discussion blending skepticism, curiosity, and real-time analysis of today’s most talked-about UFO topics, and UFO Headlines airs the first Thursday of every month so join us live and be part of the conversation. SHOW NOTES

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Screenshot Throughout the 1950s and 60s, major science-based UFO organizations in the United States, and especially the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, looked down on contactee claims as ridiculous and unworthy of their time. This started to change as the 1970s got underway, due in part to the ideas put forward by Jacques Vallée and John Keel, but by the 1980s, things started going back to the way they were, at least in the United States. Investigators in other countries, however, stayed open to such reports, and in this week’s blog, we’ll look at a 1983 case from Brazil as it was presented in the British publication, Flying Saucer Review. In the Vol. 29, No. 4, April 1984 issue of FSR (page 10 of the pdf), there is a translation from Portuguese by Gordon Creighton of an article by Marcos Bedin that appeared in the December 18, 1983, O Estado out of Florianópolis, Brazil. It’s presented under the headline “A New Brazilian ‘A. V. B.’” The initials stand for Antônio Villas Boas, who claimed (page 5 of pdf) in 1957 that he was taken aboard a craft where he had a sexual encounter with an alien female. According to the article, 49-year-old father of six, Antônio Nelso Tasca, was well-liked in his former community of Chapecó where he had worked as an announcer at Radio Chapecó. Three years prior to the time of the writing he left Chapecó and went to work in various locations. He had a good reputation and was “well-known for his impeccable honesty.” He ended up in Barreiras where he became a cattle rancher. At around 8:00 p.m. on December 14, 1983, Tasca was driving alone on a road that led to route BR-282 at Chapecó. When he was about 1,000 meters from a Coca-Cola factory, he felt an urge to stop. He pulled over and parked about 5 meters from the road and saw a stationary object up in the air to his right. He got out of the car and walked towards it and saw it was circular, lit from the inside, and emitting beams of white light. According to Bedin, “He at once realized it was a UFO or ‘flying saucer,’ such as he had read about in dozens of books on the subject.” Feeling he was brave enough to handle a meeting with whatever might be occupying the craft, Tasca continued walking until he suddenly felt strong waves of heat. Thinking this might be some sort of radioactive emission, he turned around and started towards his car but only made it a few steps before a shaft of light came down and pulled him up into the craft at an “unimaginable speed.” He was terrified, and in the midst being taken, he went unconscious. When he woke up, he was lying naked in a dark place feeling constricted and sensing a lack of air. His first thought was that he had been buried alive. He was then gradually able to move his legs and arms and breath with difficulty. The darkness and oppressiveness filled him with a terror such as he had never felt before and he broke down into tears. He then felt small hands or claws touching his body and realized that two or three creatures were examining him. After a while, the creatures left and then the space he was in became lit up. Still terrified, Tasca saw he was in a room with no sharp angles and no indications of any doors or windows with the walls and ceiling being the source of the light. Tasca saw his clothes lying nearby on the floor and he went to put them on when a door opened in a wall and “a very beautiful small woman came in, a woman with delicate skin and light-coloured clothing.” The italics are Creighton’s and he seems to be using them to emphasize where Tasca’s story is reminiscent of Boas’s. Tasca is quoted describing her: “She was an enchanting woman, with wide-set eyes like Bruna Lombardi – eyes extending backwards in the oriental style.” He said she was wearing something similar to slippers on her feet and that her clothing resembled pajamas. According to Bedin, as a flood of questions welled up in Tasca’s mind, before he could say anything, a telepathic link was established, and the woman told him her name was Cabalá from, in Bedin’s words “the world of Agali.” She said he had been chosen to be given a message for the people of Earth, in Bedin’s words, “warning against destroying the planet and against other typical malpractices of Earthlings.” Tasca asked her why he, a person of no influence with no special traits should be chosen to receive such a message, and the woman replied, “Because you have always believed in the existence of higher civilizations. Because you have always desired to have contact with me, and because you have a cosmic mind.” After this, in Creighton’s italics, it is explained that an incident followed that Tasca didn’t want to reveal because “it would create problems of a personal nature for him and he therefore prefers to keep silent about it.”  Tasca said that he would leave a complete account of what took place with his children before his death. Tasca warned Cabalá that his memory was bad, and she assured him that he wouldn’t forget the message. She went over to a crescent-shaped desk coming out of the wall (the only furniture in the room) pressed a button, and a “sort of monstrance” holding a “diadem” rose out of the floor. Cabalá placed the “diadem” (described as yellow, red, and green, and having eight sections), on Tasca’s head, gave him the message, and told him to repeat it twice. After that, Cabalá told Tasca the message would never be removed from his mind and then “the extraterrestrial woman took her leave of him, raising aloft her right hand with open palm.” Creighton added an asterisk and his footnote reads “Just as A. V. B.’s little lady did!” In fact, Boas reported that his “little lady” pointed at him, her belly, the ground, and then at what he believed was the southern sky. The room went dark, and Tasca felt himself being conducted to another room by the creatures that had examined him. He lost consciousness, and when he came to, he was lying on a rock on top of a small plateau next to the BR-282. A diesel factory was nearby and when he was able to muster up the strength to make his way down, he went to the factory. Someone in the office agreed to notify his family, who had already called the police, and when Tasca went to his car he found them and the police waiting for him. Screenshot At his son’s home in Palmital, Tasca’s family noticed there were what looked like burn marks on his back, one of which was “W” shaped. He was examined by Dr. Júlio Zawadscki who gave a statement that he was mystified by the marks, as they caused Tasca no pain or any other symptoms associated with first or second-degree burns. The first person Tasca approached to deliver Cabalá’s message was Bedin. According to Bedin, Tasca sat down at a typewriter in the newspaper office in Chapecó and “instantly produced” the text that follows in the article for more than half a page. As is typical of contactee messages, there is a warning against the use of nuclear weapons and it is explained that a “total nuclear war will drive the Earth off its celestial orbit and cause grave disturbances to life on neighbouring worlds, some of them worlds existing in dimensions of which terrestrial man still has no inkling.” There are instructions to abolish imperialism, preserve human reproductive functions, and not engage in potentially disastrous experiments with genetics. Finally, it is promised that the “Masters of Supreme Wisdom” will come back to Earth, establish a paradise, and resurrect the dead “within the beam of the four Xis.” A translation of the article without the message is included in the February 1984 UFO Newsclipping Service (page 14 of the pdf) and Tasca’s case is included in the UFO Related Entities Catalogue where there is an abundance of additional information.

Blog by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Amidst the many assorted descriptions of UFO-related entities, silver-suited humanoids, sometimes with antennas, show up in many reports. They are described repeatedly in the 1976 Center for UFO Studies publication by David Webb, 1973 – Year of the Humanoids, and there were several reports during the 1977 flap in what has been called “The Welsh Triangle” that we wrote about recently. In this week’s blog, we’ll look at a couple of cases from the Southern United States, the second of which became quite well-known. In the January 4, 1981, issue of The Robesonian out of Lumberton, North Carolina, there is an article (page 7 of the pdf) by Tim Lewis headlined “Shining Silver Man Stalks Forest Acres Area.”  According to Lewis, the previous Tuesday at around 10 p.m., a couple had just exited Barker Ten Mile Road when they saw a round flashing light near the turnoff at Bee Gee and McLeod. As they got closer, they were able to determine that the light was located in a vacant wooded lot. They turned onto McLeod Street, and a shiny figure came out of the bushes waving its arms as if it was signaling them to stop. They thought better of it, sped up, and continued on. Lewis tells the reader that he did some research after hearing the story and found an article in the Robesonian files that described multiple reports of the same sort of figure. There is a reprint of the article headlined “Area Residents Report Sighting UFO Sunday.” According to the article, dated December 30, 1974, county dispatcher Fred Barnes said there were four calls from residents who said they  saw an “object or subject wearing a silver and black suit and wearing some kind of helmet.” They all said that when they saw it, it jumped into the bushes at the intersection of Forest Road and Barker Ten Mile Road. There were also reports of a white object with bright lights over Forest Acres. Four deputies investigated and didn’t find anything. Lewis notes that that the events reported in both instances occurred in the month of December around the time of a full moon in the same area. He then goes on to describe other strange reports received by the staff at the paper. According to Lewis, there was a series of recent reports from residents living along a railroad track going through Forest acres involving loud wailing and voices speaking in a foreign language. About two weeks prior to Lewis’s article, a resident said she saw a figure run from her yard into the woods. When her husband went outside to investigate, he found a set of fence posts had been pulled out of the ground. Lewis has this to say about the effort involved: “Evidently, this had to have taken super-human strength to have pulled fence posts out of the ground bare-handed.” During the “Year of the Humanoids,” on October 17, 1973, 26-year-old, recently-elected Falkville, Alabama, Chief of Police Jeff Greenhaw reported an encounter with a silver-suited humanoid and had four Polaroid photos to back it up. A comprehensive examination of the case can be found in the blog by Mark Russell Bell headlined “Detailed Report of Jeff Greenhaw’s Falkville Incident Alien Encounter Testimonial” posted on August 4, 2020, at metaphysicalarticles.org. Along with reproduced articles on the case from Official UFO Magazine, Bell includes one from the October 19, 1973, Birmingham News and one from the November 16, 1973, Decatur Daily. His source for those was the 1975 book by Ralph and Judy Blum, Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact With UFOs. The originals are available with a subscription at newspapers.com and the Decatur Daily website. According to the Birmingham News article headlined “Falkville Chief Says ‘Howdy’ to Spaceman,” Greenhaw was at home when he received a call from a woman who told him, in the reporter’s words, “that a spaceship with flashing lights had landed in a field west of the city.” Because there had been “numerous reports” of UFOs in the area, Greenhaw took along a camera as he drove to the site. As he was driving down a gravel road, he saw a human-shaped creature standing in the middle of it. The creature walked towards him, and Greenhaw took four photos. He said “I was scared stiff.” The creature was covered in a material like tin foil and had an antenna on top of its head. Greenhaw said, “It moved stiffly, like a robot, and didn’t make any sounds.” Greenhaw turned on the blue flasher on top of his car, and the creature turned around and took off running down the road. Greenhaw said, “I jumped into my car and took after him, but I couldn’t even catch up with him in a patrol car. He was running faster than any human I ever saw.” Greenhaw told the paper he received multiple calls the day after from people who said they had seen UFOs in the area during the time of his encounter. His wife is reported to have laughed the incident off, and Greenhaw commented, “She wouldn’t be laughing if she saw what I saw.” There is a follow-up article in the November 16, 1973, Decatur Daily. Headlined “Falkville Police Chief Resigns Under Pressure,” it describes the unfortunate events in Greenhaw’s life following his encounter. Besides being asked to resign by the mayor, his car engine “blew up,” his wife divorced him, and his mobile home burned down. Greenhaw is quoted describing his situation: “So now I’ve lost my car, my wife, my home, and my job, and I guess I’ll just have to go where ever I can to find another job. I had planned to stay in Falkville in spite of all of the problems I have been having, but now it doesn’t look like I can.” The four photos made the rounds among UFO enthusiasts and were used on the cover of Beyond Earth. Georgia-based NICAP Investigator Marion Webb looked into the case and a report is presented on the front page of the October 1974 UFO Investigator under the headline “Police Chief’s Nightmare: Real or Contrived.” According to the article “an official received word of a rumor that several firemen from a nearby community may have collaborated on a hoax which involved their ‘borrowing’ silver firefighting uniforms.” Webb managed to acquire such a suit, added aluminum foil to the hood and feet, and had his picture taken wearing it. While there were similarities to Greenhaw’s photos, Webb found it difficult to move in the uniform, which contradicts Greenhaw’s claim that the creature outran his car. Webb speculated that Greenhaw had only gone a short distance before spinning out in the gravel, which is a detail that shows up in Bell’s blog. Greenhaw stayed away from public exposure for most of the remainder of his life, but gave an interview in 2020 to Red Water Filmworks. In the recording posted on YouTube, he describes coming upon the creature and saying “something to the effect (of) ‘howdy stranger,’” and getting no response. He says he initially thought someone was “pulling a prank” but that “things just started that was so strange.” He said that the creature moved stiffly with “no bending of the arms and legs…” Describing its running after it turned away, he said it was “like it had springs on its feet or something.” Greenhaw added that almost to the day, 10 years later, someone broke into his house and took the four photos, along with his service revolver and shotgun. He said he thought it was “really weird” that the only three things he had with him that night should turn up missing.      

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  Timothy Green Beckley Among UFO enthusiasts, in between the serious, science-based researchers and the crackpots, there are people who enjoy the mystery for the fantastic tales and the colorful people it spawns, as well as the social interaction with the like-minded. One of the first examples of this sort of person was Gray Barker, who became known for his 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. He became good friends with James W. Moseley, who would become well-known as the publisher of Saucer Smear magazine, and the two of them became notorious for pranking and poking fun at what they considered their over-serious peers. As the 1960s got under way, a group formed around Moseley, who was based in Fort Lee, New Jersey. This included Allan Greenfield, Eugene Steinberg, and Timothy Green Beckley. Of these, Beckley, Like Barker, would become a prolific publisher of UFO-related material, and in 1978, he started putting out UFO Review, which was a tabloid-style newspaper chock full of UFO news, reports, interviews, and lurid ads for UFO books, UFO merchandise, new age self-help guides and related paraphernalia. Timothy Green Beckley left this planet on May 31, 2021. Records of his age at the time of his passing range from 65 to 69. According to the IMDb, he was born on March 4, 1952, as Jeremy Stone. In addition to his interest in the paranormal, he was an actor in and producer of soft-core porn/horror movies and was known to fans as “Mr. Creepo.” He wrote and published many books on the paranormal with a definite sensationalized bent and was active in the community up until his death. According to what is believed to be his self-authored bio, “Tim Beckley had so many careers that even his own girlfriend didn’t know what he did for a living… Timothy Green Beckley has been described as the Hunter Thompson of UFOlogy by the editor of UFO magazine Nancy Birnes.” His bio contains the claims that his life was saved by an invisible force at the age of three, he started having out of body experiences at the age of six, he had his first UFO sighting at age ten, and had two more after that in the course of his life. As near as we can tell, the first issue of UFO Review, “Collectors Edition,” Vol. 1, No. 1, came out prior to June 1978. The month and day are not noted anywhere, but there is a 1978 copyright as well as a notice for the 15th Annual National UFO Congress in Cleveland (organized by Moseley) in June. The front-page headline is “Top Secret UN Committee Probes Startling Case of Mexican Doctor Who Claims: ‘I Examined a Live Space Alien,’” which sits over a photo purported to be “startling photographic proof” that “UFOs have a base beneath Lake Ontario.” Inside, on page 2, is “On the Trail of Flying Saucers” by Timothy Green Beckley–Mr. UFO. It starts off with the heading, “Welcome Aboard,” and Beckley proceeds to tell the story of his motivation for creating the newspaper and the process of bringing it to life. According to Beckley, it occurred to him that while interest in UFOs was “at an all-time high,” there weren’t many “sources to turn to for legitimate information on this vital subject.” He assures the reader that those who are aware of his 15 years of research “will instantly recognize my sincerity when it comes to getting to the bottom of the mystery and placing before the public all the information that is available.” UFO Review ad. Beckly says “one of the main reasons” that the paper is being put out at this point in history is that the public is hungry for the truth and that Close Encounters of the Third Kind, “has ignited a spark that has turned into a full-blown flame and it is up to someone to kindle the fire before it goes out.” Beckley says he has been busy “spreading the word” in areas where UFO stories wouldn’t be touched and proudly announces that two of his articles will be appearing in Swank and Knave. Beckley then relates how “a well-known New York City publisher” hired him and his staff at Global Communication to put together a UFO magazine and then told him to drop the project because he, the publisher, had done some research and had found that UFO magazines don’t sell very well. Beckley explains that he tried in vain to make the argument that the magazines didn’t sell well because of poor distribution and then opted to publish a magazine with his own money in the economical tabloid form. To the right of Beckley’s article there is an ad for three of his books: Book of Space Brothers, a book of “alleged communications from space;” Subterranean World, covering the theory that some UFOs come from an underground base populated by descendants of the people of Atlantis; and People of the Planet Clarion, about the claims and messages of contactee Truman Bertherum. The lead story about the UN committee hearing about the examination of the alien is on page three. This would have happened just before the presentation at the UN on UFOs organized by Lee Speigel (listed as UFO Review’s chief of field investigations staring with issue number 3) at the behest of Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy. According to the report, a Mexican doctor in Guadalajara was visited by a man who said he was very ill. Upon examination, the doctor saw that the man’s skin was unusually pink and that he had no hair follicles except for those on his head. The man then said he had wanted to be examined to prove he was not human and proceeded to say that Earth had been visited regularly by beings from other planets and that there was concern about our slow development. The doctor felt obligated to report the encounter to “someone in authority” and Ambassador Francis Redhead of Grenada “was called in to investigate the matter.” The doctor was subsequently “invited to UN headquarters to tell his story.” The Centerfold Story is “Flying Saucers & Big Foot are Related!” by Jim Barnett. Barnett presents cases where Bigfoot creatures and UFOs were reported in the same area around the same time. Under the centerfold artwork by Dick Massa, the reader is told that it’s available as a poster for $3.80. For Gray Barker fans, there is what would be a recurring column by him called “Chasing the Flying Saucers.” In this first one, Barker describes waking up in his West Virginia home on January 9th to see 12 inches of snow covering the area, making breakfast, and opening the West Virginia Reader. He describes a report involving four women spotting a classic saucer while driving. The driver described tears starting to flow uncontrollably from her eyes upon spotting it. Barker describes rescuing the bacon he was cooking before it burned and then satisfying his hunger with some cinnamon rolls before digging into other reports from S.A.U.C.E.R.S. (Saucers and Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society) which was Moseley’s group that often had him as its sole member. He then presents the details of some more cases and ends describing a discussion of a case with a woman from his office, which might give the reader the impression that he makes his living as a professional UFOlogist. Right in the midst of the article on page 12 there is an ad for books by Barker and saucer related tape recordings for sale describing him as “one of the top UFOlogists in America.” UFO Review lasted until issue 39, which is the “official program” for the 1994 National New Age, Cosmic Conspiracies & UFO Conference held from May 20-23 in San Diego, California. Beckley was the organizer and speakers included Jim Moseley, Dr. Frank E. Stranges, and Sean David Morton. The keynote address was given by Vince Davis, who was notorious as one of the “Gulf Breeze Six.” Despite the sensationalism and the silliness contained in the paper throughout its existence, there are reports of some noteworthy cases. If nothing else, UFO Review provides a look into the popular, unabashedly commercial side of UFOlogy at that time.

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  In 1977, there was a flap in the area of St. Brides Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales, that involved reported sightings of craft and humanoids. The most well-known incident involved 14 Broad Haven Primary School students running inside to tell their headmaster that they had seen a yellow cigar-shaped craft land in a field. On February 17, three staff members reported they saw the same craft. The story made national news thanks to British UFO Research Association investigator and UFO Investigators Network correspondent Randall Jones Pugh, and a flap began that would result in the area being referred to as “The Welsh Triangle.” A lesser-known case involved an entire family that reported a series of strange events which Pugh covered in articles published in issues of Flying Saucer Review and the BUFORA Journal. In April, while driving, Pauline Coombes and three (out of four) of her children were reportedly chased by a football shaped UFO. Later that year, in October, Coombes, her four children, and her mother reportedly witnessed a craft and humanoids that behaved in an especially bizarre manner. It came out that all sorts of strange happenings were said to have been occurring on the family homestead called Ripperston Farm. Journalist Clive Harold got close to the family and wrote a book about their experiences titled, “The Uninvited.” In the Vol. 23, No. 1, June 1977 issue (page 6 of the pdf) of Flying Saucer Review (page 6 of the pdf), Pugh includes Coombes’s report in “West Wales Roundup,” just after his article on Broadhaven. He presents the details from an article (in which he named as a “local UFOlogist”) by Hugh Trumbull that was published in the April 14, 1977, edition (page 15 of the pdf) of the Western Telegraph. According to the article headlined, “Chased by a Flying Football,” Coombes had seen three UFOs that year. In this instance, she was driving near Little Haven with her three children, when her 10-year-old son, Keiron, saw a light coming down towards them. He described it as yellow, about football-sized, with a beam coming out of the bottom. The object followed along the side of the car, hopping over hedges, for over a mile. When they reached the farm, the car’s engine and lights died. They went to get Coombes’s husband, Bill, but the object was gone by the time he came out. Pugh wrote an article covering a sighting Coombes and all four of her four children said they’d had, along with her mother, on October 30, 1977. It’s headlined “Stack Rocks Humanoid Display” and was published in the Vol. 23, No. 6, April 1978 issue (page 8 of the pdf) of Flying Saucer Review. According to Pugh, they were pulling up to the farm in their car when Coombes’s mother drew her attention to something in the sky. Coombes stopped the car and everyone got out to look. They described it as a “round, flat disc, whitish in color” moving towards the sea at what Coombes estimated was at around 200 feet “at the speed of a motor-boat going fast across the bay” or at about 20-30 mph. It came down to about the height of nearby Stack Rocks, maintained the same speed and then went into the side of the islet and disappeared. Coombes said she and her mother expected an explosion, but there was none, and “both women were quite adamant that ‘it just disappeared into the rock.’” The entire group crossed two fields to get to the water’s edge.  The water between them and the islet at this point was only about 400 feet wide, and as they approached, they saw what they first thought were, in Pugh’s words, “two skin-divers going about their business in the deep waters around the Stacks.” They then realized that the heads of the figures were elongated and much larger than a normal human head. Coombes described them as “rectangular in shape with the corners rounded off.” When asked if she was sure they weren’t divers or fisherman, Coombes said that while “they were human in shape, they were definitely not human beings.” They watched for about 15 minutes as, in Pugh’s words, “the silver-clad humanoids moved about on the uneven surface of the Stack Rocks.” Pugh points out that the islet rises “abruptly” to a height of about 80-100 feet and that the surface of the rock is such that it would require a good deal of caution in order not to fall off. Coombes said they saw “a door opening and shutting fairly rapidly on the right-hand side (the Broad Haven side) of the rock face.” The door seemed to be about the same size as a normal household door, had a “shimmering haze” around it, and the space behind it was “quite black.” It opened and closed, in Pugh’s words, “much as would the sliding doors of a serving hatch in a restaurant,” and the group saw a “silvery clad humanoid” repeatedly come into view and leave as if it was walking up and down some steps. The other figure moved across the rock face as if it was a smooth surface and even seemed to walk on the water. Eventually it went out of view behind the left side of the islet towards the sea. The other figure then vanished “abruptly” along with the door. According to Pugh, he and BBC news reporter David Allen interviewed Coombes and the children on December 1st. One thing that came out was that Coombes took a different road home that day and “could not fathom why she decided to take that particular route.” Pugh tells the reader that he is convinced that Coombes “has a psychic ability to see things not normally visible to other people” and mentions there being a paranormal aspect to the farm without going into specifics. As for Coombes’s credibility, he reports that she stuck to her story and was prepared to take any test that would prove she wasn’t imagining things. Pugh ends his article relating a sighting of his own through his bedroom window overlooking St. Brides Bay, Pembrokeshire. According to him, he saw a crescent-shaped object with a tube sticking up about 3 feet and a dome on top sitting in a field. As he pulled aside the curtain exposing the light from his room, the object took off vertically at great speed. The Coombes family shows up repeatedly in reports published in the BUFORA Journal throughout 1977 into 1978. In the Vol. 6, No. 2, July-August 1977 issue (page 16 of the pdf) Pugh says the family reported seeing a  7-feet-tall silver-clad humanoid looking in at them through their living room window. Coombes can be seen on YouTube describing this to a group of visitors at her farm. In the Vol. 6, No. 1, January-February 1978 issue (page 17 of the pdf), there is a report by Pugh that on May 17, 1977, Coombes’s twin daughters, Joanne and Layann, saw a silver-suited being walking around on the farm that then went through a hedge and a barb-wire fence and disappeared. He says they also saw “a silver-white ‘platelike object’ with a red light” that landed, put out a stair ramp, and ejected a box down it. The stairs then retracted, the door shut, and the craft took off. The family investigated and found no box but did find large footprints in the area. In the meantime, the twins and Coombes’s eldest daughter Katrina are said to have shouted out to the adults as they had seen a craft similar to the first one fly into the water by the Stack Rocks. Pugh wrote a book about the flap with Fredrick “Ted” William Holiday titled The Dyfed Enigma that was published in 1979. The Uninvited by Clive Harold published that same year focuses on the events reported at Ripperston Farm which were said to have also included televisions exploding and a herd of cows being mysteriously transported from a locked field to a neighboring farmyard. Pugh can be seen talking about the events he investigated here.

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  In 1980, The Roswell Incident by Charles Berlitz and William Moore was published. In the book, on page 103 of the first printing, there is a bad photocopy of a photo showing two soldiers escorting a small creature. One of the soldiers is carrying a suitcase-shaped object that seems to be a respiration device, as there is a hose going from it to the creature’s mouth. The photo is said to have “reportedly first surfaced in Wiesbaden, Germany.” In 1981, Wiesbaden resident Klaus Webner took it upon himself to investigate. He wrote an article presenting his findings that was published in the September 1981 issue of The Probe Report, put out by the Britain-based Probe UFO Research Organization. In the book, the photocopy is presented with the caption “Alien from Another World or Elaborate Hoax?” The reader is told that it, along with the “artist’s interpretation” on the preceding page, is being published “without comment about whether it may or may not pertain to certain significant aspects of the Roswell Incident.” According to the authors, “an unnamed informant” gave the original photo, which he said he bought for a dollar, to FBI agent John Quinn at the New Orleans field office. They say the photo “purports to show an alien survivor of a UFO crash in the custody of two U.S. military policeman.” Lastly, they say that it got “limited publicity in West Germany in the 1940s” and was met “with skepticism by U.S. officials of the then-existent Allied Military Government.” In his article headlined “The Strange Case of ‘Mister X,’” Webner describes Berlitz as “inventor of the Bermuda Triangle and mystification man of all things which are surroundable [sic] with the haze of mystery, and realisable [sic] in hard cash.” He describes the book as “nothing more than a mixture of far-fetched speculations, fantasies and false information.” Webner didn’t have to look far to establish the origin of the original photo. According to him, he found an article in “the archives of the local newspaper Wiesbadener Tagblatt” that had three photos under the headline “Flying saucers over Wiesbaden. A Giant Flying Disc Crashed at the Bleindenstadter Kopf. Crew Member is in Protective Detention. No Cause for Panic.” According to Webner, the article reports that a “crew member” had been taken into protective custody after a search for a saucer that had crashed overnight near Wiesbaden. He says the detainee is described as a “strange creature with only one leg moving about a rotating plate. His arms come to an end in four stubby fingers.” It reportedly had “large glaring eyes” and an oval-shaped head. The creature, called “Mr. X” in the article, was said to have been taken to the Neroberg Hotel where it would be taken for daily walks between “14 and 15 hours” in order to get used to our atmosphere. A search for other crew members was said to be ongoing. The photo used in the article showing the creature in custody is presented in Probe. The reproduction in Probe is of much better quality than the photocopy seen in The Roswell Incident, but they both come from the same source. Webner tells the reader that the article was published on April 1, 1950. According to him, on April 15, 1981, he was able to talk with the reporter and the photographer. The reporter was Wilhelm Sprunkel, and he told Webner that the whole thing was an April Fool joke. Sprunkel wanted to make the photo as realistic looking as he could, so he called the local U.S. liaison officer (we presume he told him his plan) and asked if he could “borrow” two soldiers. The officer laughed and said he needed to get permission from the commanding officer. The commanding officer also laughed and said he needed to get permission from headquarters in Heidelberg. Permission was granted, and Sprunkle proceeded with his plan with the help of photographer Hans Scheffler. First, Sheffler created fake saucer photos using pictures he took of “light fountain glasses from Wiesbaden’s cure house pond.” He cut out saucer shapes and stuck them on photos that would provide a background. One of these, showing two saucers over the Market Place Church, is reproduced in Probe. For the creature, Scheffler enlisted the aid of his five-year-old son, Peter. One of the soldiers held a jerry can and Sheffler painted in the “hose, breathing gear, horror head, griffin hands, one leg and foot-plate.” The source of the photos was given as “3 TRANSLAG/USA PHOTOS” which was invented by Sprunkel using the name of a local business. The story caused a sensation, and the American Wiesbaden Post reprinted it along with the photos. Sprunkle got a call from a female journalist who wanted to buy the copyright for the Mr. X photo, and it took Sprunkle around 20 minutes to convince her that the story was a joke. The Wiesbaden Tagblatt published a confession on April 3rd under the headline “Tuchtig Reingefallen!” which Webner translates to “Good Letdown!” and Google translates to “Fell Right In!” As for how Moore and Berlitz got ahold of the photocopy, Webner says it was discovered by UFO Information Network affiliate Barry Greenwood. According to Webner, UFOIN had “acquired a bundle of FBI photocopies” thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. Because the photocopy was in such bad shape, another UFOIN affiliate, Lawrence Blazey, made the “artist’s impression.” He says, “William Moore ordered this material for his book The Roswell Incident and Mister X was born for the second time.” Webner says his investigation was easy, as there were only two newspapers in Wiesbaden. According to him, he was told by employees at Wiesbadener Tagblatt that neither Belitz nor Moore had contacted anyone at the paper and neither had anyone else. He tells the reader that Sprunkle, Scheffler, “and even Mister X himself, Peter Scheffler are still employed there.” Webner’s research resulted in the paper publishing an article on April 22, 1981, headlined, “A Tagblatt April Fool Joke in the files of the FBI…” Webner laments that his name wasn’t mentioned. As for the Roswell story, Webner concludes that “the latest research says” that “‘Crashed flying saucers’ and ‘crew members on ice’ are fantasies and not facts!” https://archive.org/details/charles-berlitz-william-l.-moore-the-roswell-incident-1980_202012/mode/2up

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  As anyone who has looked into the subject of UFO-related humanoids knows, reported creatures come in all shapes and sizes. Some are more unusual than others, and a pair of creatures said to be seen in Italy in 1978 definitely stand out. In the Vol. 28, No. 6, issue (page 15 of the pdf) of Flying Saucer Review, there is an article by Antonio Chiumiento headlined “An Encounter with ‘Rat-Faces’ in Italy.” The article was translated from Italian and Chiumiento is described as an “Investigator and member of the board of directors of C.U.N. (Italian National UFO Research Centre, Turin.)” According to Chiumiento, on the morning of November 24, 1978, 61-year-old Gallio resident, Angelo D’Ambros, went to get some firewood in nearby Gastagh. At about a quarter before noon, he turned to put down a branch he had been chopping up when he “was gripped with horror” upon seeing two creatures looking at him that were “extremely close.” They were hovering about 40 cms above the ground and D’Ambros estimated that one of them was 1 m 20 cm tall while the other was 1 m. They were “extremely thin,” and had yellowish skin that was tight to where D’Ambros could see large veins on the head and hands of the larger creature that was closest to him. Their heads were bald, smooth, large and pear-shaped, and they had “enormous” pointed ears that stuck straight up. They had no eyelids and large, sunken white eyes. Their noses were long and almost went below their lower lips, and they had large mouths with a long, pointed tusk at each end. They seemed to be wearing dark, tight overalls, and sticking out of the sleeves and leggings were huge hands and feet that were out of proportion to the rest of their bodies. Their ring fingers were bigger than the others, and their nails were long. As D’Ambros stood frozen in terror, the smaller creature began moving back and forth in rapid leaps between D’Ambros’s left and right side as though gliding and without moving its feet. As it did so, there was the sound of air displacement and the rusting of vegetation due to its ears brushing the lowest branches of the trees nearby. D’Ambros managed to overcome his terror enough to shout “Help!” as loud as he could. He then got the strength to ask the creatures who they were and what they wanted with him. It was of no use as he only got “incomprehensible mumblings” from the smaller creature. Suddenly, D’Ambros’s attention shifted to the larger creature that had remained almost motionless about a meter away from him. The creature grabbed the billhook (also known as a “sling blade”) D’Ambros was carrying at a spot that had no cutting edge and attempted to take it from him. D’Ambros became determined not to let the creature have it, as it was his only defense should they should prove hostile. D’Ambros tightened his grip, and the creature grabbed onto the tool further down, at which point, D’Ambros felt what seemed to be “a slight electrical shock.” The creature made one more attempt using both hands, and D’Ambrose felt what was clearly another shock go up his arm. D’Ambros became “furious” as the creature refused to give up, and he used his free hand to grab a large branch he had cut and was ready to hit the creature. Both creatures, seeming to recognize the threat D’Ambros posed to them, “fled instantly.” D’Ambros recovered “his normal calm” and then, compelled by curiosity regarding the origin of the creatures, ran after them “as fast as he could along the mule-track along which they had come.” Finally, in a clearing, he saw a disk-shaped metallic object with a dome on top standing on four legs. The upper part was red, and the lower part, separated by a white band around the middle, was blue, while the legs were aluminum grey. Without the legs it was about two meters high and four meters wide. As soon as D’Ambros spotted the craft, he saw the hand of one of the creatures closing “from inside the dome, a sort of trap-door by drawing it backwards.” The craft then took off silently at an angle at great speed while putting out a “burst of red flame.” It quickly went out of sight behind some fir trees. When D’Ambros got home, he kept his story to himself but was so disturbed that he skipped his lunch. He then decided to confide in his son in law, Luciano Munari. The next day, Munari got someone to go with him and went to the spot where D’Ambros said he’d seen the craft. At the site, Munari saw a 3.5 m circular area of grass that was blackened more from oil than burning and swirled flat in an anticlockwise direction. When he touched the grass, his hands stayed clean. He also saw two impressions that were U-shaped, 20 cm long, 3 cm wide, and 3 cm deep, and some bushes that had been uprooted, “this being the result of the displacement of air as the ‘object’ departed.” Many of the local townsfolk didn’t believe the story and Munari decided to photograph the site as proof. Unfortunately, it snowed, and he wasn’t able to get back there until December 3rd. He went with some of the non-believers who helped him clear away the snow, and he took some black and white photos that didn’t show the details of the impressions very well. He tried again with color film on the 10th and circled the marks with yellow paper to make sure they’d show up. The photos are not included in the article. Thanks to “an initiative of Munari,” the story made the local paper, Giornale di Vicenza, under the headline, “I Was Attacked by Two Martians: They Wanted My Billhook.” After it appeared, D’Ambros was swarmed with curiosity seekers and local UFO enthusiasts. The billhook’s blade reportedly had an imprint about the size of a pinky, and the cutting edge had turned red. Local UFO “students” took it for testing but brought it back when they found that the lab work would be too expensive. Munari told Chiumiento that D’Ambros started using it again, and that the imprint and discoloration were no longer visible. According to Chiumiento, he (he uses what I assume is the royal we) found out about the case when a “fellow investigator” sent him the article. He went to Gallio in the fall of 1979 and was told by the D’Ambros family that the site was still blackened, but he wasn’t able to see it for himself because it had snowed. He went there again in February 1980 and got a statement from Munari who said he believed his father in law’s story, and that he had read UFO Report by J. Allen Hynek. He said he saw there was a resemblance between the marks he saw and the marks pictured in photos in the book, which Chiumiento identifies as photos of the Socorro landing site. Chiumiento made several visits and established that D’Ambros and Munari had good reputations. He compares the creatures reported by D’Ambros to the ones reported in the 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville case. He then includes descriptions of five more sightings in the area around the same time, including one where a witness gave photos he’d taken, along with the negatives, to a man identifying himself as an Air Force officer who “was never seen again.” Chiumiento predicts that the Gallio case will become as well-known as the Kelly-Hopkinsville case and argues that it supports the theory “which asserts the presence here of UFO occupants of unknown but in any case non-terrestrial origin.”

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  On January 20, 2026, Francis Lee Ridge passed away. His contributions to UFO investigation and research spanned six decades, and thanks to his efforts, a treasure trove of historical UFO-related material is available to anyone with an internet connection. According to Ridge’s bio at nicap.org, he was born on October 13, 1942. In 1960, he became an active investigator as head of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena Indiana Subcommittee and remained in that position until 1970. In 1970, Ridge began a project called MADAR (Multiple Anomaly Detection and Automatic Recording) which he continued throughout his life. He created detection and recording systems to gather data on geomagnetic, electromagnetic, and background radiation anomalies and monitored them at his home in Newburgh, Indiana. In April 2016, “a new idea was conceived to create a network of affordable devices.” This resulted in the creation of the MADAR-III DataProbe system with the help of MADAR member Rich Vitello and his team at ARUFON after a “costly and disastrous false start” in the fall. By May 2018, the system was operational, and as of 2023, there was a network operating with 221 members operating 168 sites (56 of which were “DAS-equipped”) throughout the world. In 1972, Ridge became Indiana state section director for the Mutual UFO Network and state director in 1986. He was also a field investigator for the Center for UFO Studies. He investigated hundreds of cases and created the Regional Sighting Information Database which, as of the last update in 2023, had 4,000 entries covering the area of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He also ran the UFO Filter Center doing computer studies on regional and nationwide sightings. In 1997, Ridge was authorized to start work on a website for NICAP. The site contains a wealth of information for historical researchers including NICAP casefiles, biographies, chronologies, publications, documents, and links to other resources. Ridge was project coordinator for The Nuclear Connection Project, which focused on UFO reports around nuclear sites, and in 2006, he led a re-investigation into the Mantell case which concluded that “Mantell was chasing a real UFO.” The report in book form, titled The Mantell Incident: Anatomy of a Re-Investigation was published in 2010. Along with a link below the bio to the Mantell book, there is a link to his 1994 book Regional Encounters: The UFO Center Files, and his 2021 book CAP POINT: A series of staggering events with global implications for everyone on planet earth.  At the bottom is a position statement regarding the UFO mystery: “There is no question or doubt that most UFOs are actually IFOs (Identified Flying Objects). For the subset of events that cannot be explained, there is a small group of sightings that demonstrate solid objects under intelligent control. I am convinced that these objects are somebody else’s craft. Although I cannot prove that the intelligence behind the phenomena is ET in nature, I consider the ETH to be the least unlikely. I also feel that there is a nuclear connection (or one that indicates a cause and effect relationship with serious world events that could lead to a nuclear threat) and that the evidence in the form of military sightings indicates we are being observed and are obviously scientifically and militarily inferior to this presence.” In Ridge’s “detailed” biography, also found on the NICAP website, there is much more information regarding his activities. There are also links to his afore-mentioned books and several papers written by him. An updated version now begins with his obituary written by his friend Phil Leech. Francis Lee Ridge made a huge contribution to UFOlogy and his efforts are greatly appreciated, particularly by those of us who are passionate about the history of the subject. R.I.P.    

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear  In 1969, Passport to Magonia by Jacques Vallée was published. Its central thesis is that there may be a link between folklore, particularly stories of the Fae folk, and UFO lore. In the Vol. 25, No. 6, issue (page 25 of the pdf) of Flying Saucer Review, there is an article by Eileen Morris headlined “The Winged Beings of Bluestone Walk” covering a case that certainly seems to support Vallée’s ideas. According to Morris, a “necessarily brief” version of the story told by Jean Hingley first appeared in the January 12, 1979, edition of The Dudley Herald. She says she met Hingley and her husband “a number of times” both at their residence and at her own, and describes them as “honest, hard-working people.” She took notes and used them to type up Hingley’s version of events and then had Hingley read it. Hingley was “satisfied that it is accurate.” According to the account written as if Hingley was telling it in the first person, she lived “in a small council house in Bluestone Walk, Rowley Regis, near Birmingham,” with her husband, Cyril, and their Alsatian, Hobo. On January 4, 1979, it was a cold, dark morning, and there was snow on the ground as she saw her husband off to his job at a cement works (she worked at a company that made soundproofing for cars). She was at the back door of the house that opened out to the road, and as her husband drove off, she noticed a light from the area of the garden. Thinking her husband had left the light on in the car port on the other side of the garden, she walked over to it with the dog to check and saw that the light was off. She turned to go back to the house and saw an orange light over the garden that turned white and lit up the whole area. She went into the house through the back door and there “was a sound like Zee… zee… zee…” as three “beings” floated through the door and went past her. The creatures were between 3 and 4 feet tall, glowed brilliantly, “had wonderful wings,” and were about a foot above the floor. Hingley was terrified and grabbed onto the steel sink in the kitchen. She was “frozen” with her mouth wide open and unable to speak. The dog went over to his water bowl “swaying from side to side.” His hair was sticking out “like a hedgehog’s,” and he seemed as if he was drugged. He then lay down on the floor, “stiff, with his eyes open.” “After a while,” the fear seemed to go away, and Hingley felt as if she was lifted up. She felt like a different person as if she was “in Heaven,” and seemed to float into the “lounge.” She was warm, even though the doors were wide open. She was blinded by a bright light and covered her eyes. It seemed to her that the creatures were reading her mind: “It was like a light or an X-ray penetrating my mind.” She could hear their artificial Christmas tree shaking. She took her hand from her eyes and could see the creatures shaking the tree. The light surrounding them was dimmer as if they had turned it down. They were “slim ‘men,’” and were wearing “silvery-green tunics and silver waistcoats with silver buttons or press studs.” They had pointed hands and feet covered with the same silvery green and wore pointed caps, also of that color, “with something like a lamp on top.” Covering their heads were transparent helmets. Their faces were waxy, white, and corpse-like, and they had “black diamond” eyes and thin mouths. Their wings were large and oval-shaped, glowed with “rainbow colours,” and were covered with dots Hingley describes as being like “‘Braille’ dots.” The creatures floated around and touched everything in the lounge. Hingley was finally able to speak and said “Three of you and one of me. What are you going to do? What do you want with me?” The creatures all touched the buttons on their chests and their voices then seemed to come from there. They all spoke together and said, “We shall not harm you,” and when Hingley asked where they came from, they said, “We come from the sky.” The creatures shook the tree again, and “the little fairy fell from the top.” Hingley wanted to pick it up but wasn’t able to move. She explained about the tree, Christmas, and Jesus, and the creatures said they knew who Jesus was. Hingley saw the creatures looking at the Honour list in the Sunday paper on the table. She explained that the people listed had been made lords, and the creatures replied, “There is only one Lord.” Hingley then told them she was just a working woman and suggested that they should go see the Queen or a “real lady.” They said, “You are a lady.” The creatures then sat on the couch and “bounced like children,” causing Hingley to say in a sharp tone, “Be careful of the furniture.” They “put the light up,” and she became concerned that they had the power to hurt her, and she felt she should be friendly. She said “I can’t call you ‘creature,’ so I shall call you ‘gentlemen.’” She started to say, “Nice to see you! Nice.” They replied saying, “Nice.” The creatures floated around the room with their wings fluttering “gently” and made no sound. They went through a door and “folded their wings behind their backs like pleated fans,” went upstairs, and then came back. They picked up some tapes, looked at cigarette packs, whiskey, and sherry on the sideboard, and Hingley asked, “Do you want a drink?” They replied, saying “Water,” three times. Hingley went and filled four glasses so she could drink with them and show that the water wasn’t poison.  When she brought the glasses in on a tray, it felt as though the tray was “magnetized towards them.” They took the glasses, seemed about to lift their helmets, and then “put the ‘power light’ on,” so she wasn’t able to see them drink. When they put the glasses back, they were empty. A long discussion then followed in which the creatures told Hingley they’d been to Australia and New Zealand to talk to people there, and no one seemed to be interested. Hingley asked if she should “tell people on Earth about it,” and they said, “Yes.” They told Hingley that everyone goes to heaven, and “It’s a man’s world,” and Hingley said she hadn’t been to chapel “for a year or two.” They said there was “no need to worship in synagogues,” and Hingley tells the reader that she didn’t know the word for the Jewish place of worship until her husband told her. Hingley then offered the creatures some mince pies, and they “each lifted a mince pie from the plate as though their hands were magnetic.” Hingley saw they were looking at the cigarettes again, and she decided to demonstrate how people smoke them. When she lit one with a match, the creatures leapt back as if they were scared and then floated out the door. Hingley put out the cigarette and ran after them asking them to come back. Outside, she saw them, still holding the mince pies, get into an orange cigar-shaped craft that was 8-10 feet long and about 4 feet high. It seemed to be covered with shiny plastic, had port holes, “a scorpion tail” on the back, and a “kind of wheel” on top. Once inside the ship, they flashed the lights twice and took off heading towards Oldbury. In the aftermath, Hingley found that the tapes the creatures had touched were ruined by distortion. She was left with sore eyes for a week and had to wear dark glasses. She felt ill and had to take a leave from work. As strange as this story is, Morris assures the reader that Hingley told it to people from the following organizations who went to her house: The Oldbury Police, the West Bromwich Police, and the UFO Studies Investigation Services. The case is mentioned in Northern UFO News No. 57 (page 4 of the pdf), and the reader is told that the case is being investigated by UFOSIS and UFORA under the supervision of Mark Pritchard and Martin Keatman and that “landing marks in the snow were seen and photographed.”    

By: Albert Wain In 2015, while handling an inspection claim for damaged furniture in Buffalo, New York, I met with a client at his home. He was around eighty years old and wore a cast on one arm. As we walked through his condo inspecting the damaged pieces, he explained that he was battling bone cancer in his arm and that his wife of many years had recently passed away. At one point, he brought me into a room lined with photographs of various aircraft. He told me he was a retired Air Force officer who had flown many combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. This, he explained, was his room of memories. He spoke easily about his time in the military, and it was clear he was enjoying the conversation. When we finished the inspection, I asked if we might sit for a while and visit before I headed out. He smiled and said, “That sounds nice.” We discussed his wife and the life they had shared, his military service, and I shared a little about my own life as well. Because I’ve always had an interest in the UFO topic — and because he seemed receptive — I decided to ask. “So,” I said, “have you ever seen anything up there you couldn’t quite explain? A flying saucer or something like that?” “You mean like a spaceship, or something like that?” “Yes,” I replied. He looked up at the ceiling for a few moments, his eyes moving back and forth, then said, “Nope. Not that I recall. Some of the other pilots and I would see these things called contrails and couldn’t figure out where they came from, but no UFOs.” I was, of course, disappointed and was about to move on to another subject or get ready to leave when his demeanor changed. He stared at me with a look that suggested he wasn’t sure whether he should tell me something — or whether I would even believe him. “I’ll tell you something that happened while I was with another pilot at an officers’ club in Korea,” he said, “if you’re interested.” “Yes, of course,” I said. He told me they had been sitting at a table with two young pilots they met that night, playing pool and drinking beer. As the evening went on, the conversation drifted through careers and the usual pilot talk. At some point, the two young men mentioned that their first assignment out of flight school had been Roswell Air Base. “My friend and I chuckled a little,” he said, “and one of us asked, ‘Oh, isn’t that where the flying saucer supposedly crashed?’” Both men went silent. Their expressions turned serious. They looked around the room nervously, then at each other, and back at us. Finally, one of them spoke quietly. “They were there,” he said. “We saw them.” They tried to get the young men to explain, to tell them more, but neither one would say another word about it. “And I guess,” he added, “that’s all I can tell you as well.” My visit ended shortly after that, and I moved on with my business and with my life. In reflection, I cannot speak to the sincerity of the two young airmen from Roswell. But I will never doubt the sincerity of the story I was told by a very fine older gentleman — and a patriot.