The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  More recently, a prominent businessman contacted me and told me how he and his friends, then teenagers in 1965, tried to get near the site and were stopped my military personnel. He was frightened at the time of the experience, he thought the soldier was going to shoot him. Would armed soldiers respond to the scene of a meteorite crash? Who issued the orders for such an operation to take place? The Kecksburg mystery remains.

  —STAN GORDON

  References

  Gordon, Stan. “Kecksburg: The Untold Story” video (Stan Gordon Productions, 1998).

  Randle, Kevin D. A History of UFO Crashes (Avon Books, 1995).

  Randles, Jenny UFO Retrievals (Blandford Books, 1995).

  Young, Robert. “Old Solved Mysteries: The Kecksburg UFO Incident” in Frazier, Kendrick; Karr, Barry; and Nickell, Joe, eds. The UFO Invasion (Prometheus Books, 1997).

  Keel, John A. (b. 1930). Pen name of Alva John Kiehle. A professional writer since age sixteen, John Keel was head writer on numerous radio and television programs, science editor for Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedia, a syndicated newspaper columnist, and author of thirteen books and countless published short pieces for major publications in the U.S. and abroad. He also founded the New York Fortean Society in 1987.

  John Keel

  His books include: UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), Strange Creatures from Time and Space (1970), Our Haunted Planet (1971), The Mothman Prophecies (1975), and The Eighth Tower (1976), and Disneyland of the Gods (1988).

  POSITION STATEMENT: I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs. My findings were extremely unpopular at the time, but in the years since, most of the major European investigators, and many of the American scientists involved in the subject, have verified and accepted my conclusions.

  Basically, a large part of the UFO lore is subjective and many alleged UFO events are actually the products of a complex hallucinatory process, particularly in the contactee and CE III-type reports. The same process stimulated religious beliefs, fairy lore, and occult systems of belief in other centuries.

  A very small percentage of sightings (perhaps less than 2 percent) and events indicate that other strange, but natural, phenomena are often included, or absorbed, into the UFO data.

  While we cannot satisfactory explain all UFO events in terms of present-day knowledge and technology, I feel that the ultimate solution will involve a complicated system of new physics related to theories of the spacetime continuum. It is possible, even highly probable, that a subtle cosmological system of control has been in effect since the dawn of mankind and that UFOs are a part of that system.

  The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs. The problem can be reduced to a series of difficult philosophical questions and might be explored by behavioral scientists and mathematicians.

  —JOHN A. KEEL

  Kelly Cahill abduction A woman, Kelly Cahill, contacted me on October 4, 1993, about a bizarre experience she had near the outer Melbourne (Australia) suburban housing estate of Narre Warren North, in the foothills of the Dandenongs, Victoria, during the early hours of August 8, 1993. Because of the potential significance of the initial report by Kelly Cahill, I referred her to John Auchettl and his Victorian based group Phenomena Research Australia (PRA). Kelly Cahill proved to be central to the unraveling of an independently witnessed CE-3 event with apparent “abduction” dimensions and related physical evidence.

  Entities and craft as described by

  Kelly Cahill. (Drawing by Wes Crum)

  On their way home, Kelly and her husband were confronted with a spectacular view of a UFO. They seemed to experience “missing time.” Subsequent spontaneous conscious recall by Kelly Cahill indicated that the couple had stopped their car. The large UFO was over a field off the road. They got out to get a closer look. It was at this point that Kelly recollected seeing another car that was parked further down the road, which contained at least two people, a man and a woman. She paid little heed to them at the time, because they were focused on the UFO that had landed in the field. Kelly recollects crossing the road to the field, seeing at first one tall black being with glowing red eyes, then many which seemed to be approaching rapidly, as if gliding. The large group of tall black beings, seemed to split into two groups, one focused on Kelly and her husband, and the other one the other people who had also crossed further down the road.

  Kelly found herself screaming out to the other group of people down the road, “They’re evil. They’re going to kill us.” She was then struck in the stomach area and fell back onto the ground, somehow unable to see. The rest of her recollection is somewhat confusing and fragmentary. Voices and blindness were experienced. She experienced physical effects including marks on her abdomen.

  By November 17, 1993, PRA’s investigation managed to locate the man and woman apparently seen by Kelly that night. They took PRA back to the encounter site, to a spot consistent with Kelly’s location of them. The group’s drawings of the UFO and entities also closely coincide with those of Kelly. Another woman was with this couple that night.

  Bill, the male witness in the trio also, like Kelly’s husband, appears have also had only limited involvement. The two women had a conscious recollection up to and including onboard episodes. They recollected the UFO, and the tall black beings. Their description did not feature the red eyes Kelly saw. Sketches made by the three women of both the UFO and the beings bare a striking resemblance.

  As they approached the site the trio heard a strange noise and started to feel ill. The driver, Bill, started to lose control over the car, and ran off the road striking a pole. After checking for damage they drove on for a short distance. Throughout this Bill’s vision was impaired. He was unable to remember seeing the UFO. The two women with him recollected the UFO clearly and their descriptions matched those of Kelly’s closely. Bill had extensive conscious recall of smells and sounds, and a lot of activity going on, but does not recall seeing anything. He subsequently underwent hypnosis, which expanded his apparent recollections to apparent onboard components but again these were through the senses of smell and hearing only.

  The two women with Bill had a conscious recollection of the UFO, the beings, and onboard experiences. There was no sense of this, for them, being a abduction experience, as there seemed to be a “free will” type of situation. The primary element of their onboard experiences seemed to be a form of examination. However the abduction episode was not visually remembered. Other parts of their onboard experience were remembered visually and consciously. Hypnosis in their cases appeared to have only reinforced their conscious recollections. There was no apparent speech and very little information from the entities involved. Marks that resembled pressure rings around the base of their legs lasted for about two weeks. Each had “rash” like spotting around the thigh areas and one had swelling of the vaginal area.

  This second group described seeing yet another car parked further back down from them. In it a man appeared to be looking at the UFO’s position through a break in the vegetation cover. This man has come forward anonymously providing details that could only have been known to someone who was there. He had also experienced ligature style marks on his ankles.

  This extraordinary case appears to involve independent groups of people unknown to each other witnessing the same UFO encounter, entities and experiencing missing time. Two of the groups have been available to investigators and researchers. There were effects on some of the witnesses, including gynecological problems, body marks, and ankle ligature-like injuries. Unusual ground traces at the site of the apparent UFO landing (including three ground markings about 6 metres apart resembling affected or wilted grass. Possibly significant levels of pyrene (a polynuclear aromatic compound
, which can be found in coal tar) and above average sulphur content, were noted. There was also a half moon shaped magnetic trace of a low order). Perhaps for the first time independent witnesses have been able to provide information that enabled cross checking and correlations to reveal a striking degree of similar information, therefore offering a compelling case for the reality of the strange events described.

  —WILLIAM C. CHALKER

  References

  Cahill, Kelly. Encounter (1996).

  Chalker, William C. The Oz Files: The Australian UFO Story (Duffy & Snellgrove, 1996).

  _______. “An Extraordinary Encounter in the Dandenong Foothills,: International UFO Reporter (September/October 1994).

  Kelly-Hopkinsville (Kentucky) goblins Probably the granddaddy of all “occupant sightings in the United States is that which occurred on August 22, 1955, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The basic details include the beginning of the episode when visiting relative Bill Taylor went out to the well for a drink and came back in to tell of a “spaceship” which had landed in a nearby field. Just a scant few minutes later the aroused household saw a small specterlike figure approaching the house.

  It appeared to be lit by an internal source, had a roundish head, huge elephantine ears, a slitlike mouth which extended from ear to ear. The eyes were huge and wide-set. Only about three or three and one-half feet in height, the creature had no visible neck, and its arms were long and ended in clawed hands. Although it stood upright, it dropped to all fours when it ran.

  According to the Frank Sutton family, several of these creatures roamed the area adjacent to the house, climbed trees, and climbed up on the roof. At one point Sutton fired a shotgun through the screen door at one of the little men. Although struck and knocked over by the blast, the little fellow got up and scuttled away on his hands and feet. Later, Taylor walked out the same door, only to be confronted by one of the creatures on the roof, apparently grabbing for his head.

  This weird sequence of events continued for the grater part of one night, and finally the family scrambled to the car and drove into town to report their plight. Deputy Sheriff George Batts and two Kentucky state police came to the house but found no evidence of the little men’s presence or the “spaceship.” However, researchers who interviewed the Suttons and carefully investigated the whole affair, including Isabel Davis of New York (Civilian Saucer Investigations), were inclined to believe the incident did take place.

  One of the creatures as described to artist Bud Ledwith

  Local investigators, including Chief of Police Greenwell, said that “something scared those people—something beyond reason—nothing ordinary.” One investigator with medical experience noted Sutton’s rapid pulse beat of 140 per minute, which is about twice the normal rate.

  —CORAL & JIM LORENZEN

  References

  Hendry, Allan. “Kelly/Hopkinsville (Kentucky) encounter” in Story, Ronald D., ed. The Encyclopedia of UFOs (Doubleday/New English Library, 1980).

  Lorenzen, Coral and Jim. Flying Saucer Occupants (Signet/NAL, 1967).

  Kentucky abduction The February 1, 1976, issue of the Kentucky Advocate, published at Danville, Kentucky, carried an article pertaining to UFO sightings in that general area, among which was the story told by Ms. Louise Smith, Ms. Mona Stafford, and Mrs. Elaine Thomas about their drive home to Liberty from a late dinner at the Redwoods Restaurant, located five miles north of Stanford.

  The ladies were celebrating Mona Stafford’s thirty-sixth birthday on January 6, 1976. After they left the restaurant—at a point about one mile south of Stanford—they saw a huge disk-shaped object, which was metallic gray with a white glowing dome. A row of red lights rotated around the middle, and underneath were three or four red and yellow lights that burned steadily. A bluish beam of light issued from the bottom.

  The newspaper did not carry a lot of detail, but it was mentioned that when the women arrived home in Liberty, it was 1:25 A.M. Having left the restaurant at 11:15 P.M., they should have arrived home by midnight, indicating a time loss of about one hour and twenty five minutes.

  An Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) investigation brought out the following details: After Mona spotted the object, which was descending from their right to the left, she asked Louise to speed up as she thought it was a plane about to crash, and she wanted to help any survivors. Mrs. Smith saw it clearly, but Mrs. Thomas did not see it until it had stopped at treetop level at what they estimated to be one hundred yards ahead of them. All of the women said the object was huge; Louise described it as being “as big as a football field,” while Mrs. Stafford said it was at least as large as two houses.

  Mrs. Smith said that the object rocked gently for perhaps two seconds, at which time she estimated its size, for it extended beyond the edges of the road and over the fields on both sides. It then moved across the road to their left, circling behind and above some houses, and then apparently came back to the highway and swung in behind the car.

  Drawings of the UFO by Louise Smith

  At a point in their journey, about a quarter of a mile beyond the houses, the inside of the car was lit up with a bluish light which came from behind. Mrs. Smith said that at first she thought it was a state trooper approaching from behind, but realized almost immediately that it was not. At this point, Louise and Mona were near panic. The car began to pull to the left, and Louise screamed at Mona to help her control it. The speedometer was registering eighty-five miles per hour, and both Mona and Mrs. Thomas shouted at Mrs. Smith to slow down. Louise held her foot in the air to show them and said: “I don’t have my foot on the accelerator and I can’t stop it!” Mona reached over and grabbed the wheel and they fought the “force” together. Then, quite suddenly, the women experienced a burning sensation in their eyes, and Louise later described an additional pain which seemed to “go right through the top of my head! It was almost unbearable!”

  The next sensation was that of some “force” pulling the car backward. Also, they got the feeling that the car was going over a series of “speed bumps.” Mrs. Thomas began urging Louise to stop so that she could get a good look at the object, but Mona and Louise were too terrified. Elaine had only a glimpse of the object as it circled to their left and around behind them, and later commented about the object’s “beauty.” “I can’t describe it,” she said. “I’ve never seen red that beautiful. I wanted to get out and look at it.”

  Then, the women said, they saw a strange, wide, lighted road stretching as far as they could see ahead of them. At the same moment, Mona noted that a red light on the car’s instrument panel had come on, indicating that the engine had stalled, despite the sensation that they were moving very fast.

  At what seemed to be a split second later, the women saw a street light ahead and realized that they were coming into Hustonville, a full eight miles beyond where they had encountered the strange craft. They wondered among themselves how they had gotten there so fast, then became quiet while they proceeded on into Liberty.

  When they arrived at Mrs. Smith’s trailer, they all went inside. Mrs. Smith went into the bathroom, took off her glasses, and splashed water on her face, whereupon her hands and face began to burn with searing pain. All three had a red mark on the backs of their necks, measuring about three inches long and one inch wide, with clearly defined edges, giving the appearance of a new burn before it blisters. Louise and Elaine’s marks were centrally located between the bases of their skulls and the top of the back, whereas Mona’s was located to the left, behind her ear. They could not account for the marks, which disappeared two days later. All three were experiencing burning and tearing of their eyes, but Mona Stafford had a much more severe case of conjunctivitis (an inflammation of the conjunctiva membrane of the eyes.)

  Prior to washing her hands, Louise had taken off her watch and was startled to see that the hands of her watch were moving at an accelerated rate of speed, the minute hand moving at the speed of a second hand, and the hour hand was moving al
so. Upon experiencing the pain of the water on her hands and face, she forgot about the phenomena of the watch and does not recall when it returned to normal or when she reset it.

  Concluding that something was wrong, the three ladies went next door to the home of Mr. Lowell Lee and told him what they had seen. He asked them to go into separate rooms and sketch the object, and when finished, he found the resulting sketches to be almost identical.

  Although all the women had trouble with their eyes, only Mona Stafford sought medical help, as her problem was so severe. The doctor who examined her found no explanation for the pain and tearing, but gave her some eye drops which helped very little.

  On July 23, 1976, the three ladies met in Liberty with Jack C. Young, president of Professional Polygraph Consultants, Inc., of Lexington, and they were given a polygraph test.

  The pertinent test questions for Mary Louise Smith were the following:

  Question: After this experience, were you unable to account for a period of time that night? Answer: Yes.

  Question: This past January 6, did a UFO hover over your 1967 Chevrolet sedan? Answer: Yes.

  Question: During this experience, did you lose physical control over your automobile? Answer: Yes.

  Question: Have you conspired with anyone to create a hoax about this UFO encounter? Answer: No.

  In Mrs. Stafford’s and Mrs. Thomas’s report, as with that of Louise Smith, Young stated that in his opinion they believed they were telling the truth about the questions asked. However, Mr. Young did make a comment which should not be overlooked. He wrote, “Prior to the examination of these three persons, it was determined by the polygraphist that these persons had been previously interviewed by Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle and members of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). How much or how little these previous interviews played a part in what these persons now believe about this alleged encounter cannot be determined by the polygraphist. I cannot discount the fact that previous interviews with these persons could influence their personal beliefs as to whether or not this alleged encounter did or did not occur.”