Bernard
O’Connor, one-time editor of Official UFO magazine was the guest this
week. I had worked with Bernie back in the 1970s, in the heyday of UFO
magazines. Those of us who had access to a great deal of UFO information, not
on-
line because that didn’t exist, but through contacts with various UFO organizations
and researchers, could make a nice living writing UFO articles. You can listen
to the interview here:
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| Bernie O'Connor |
We
did, of course, talk about more than the workings of a UFO magazine. We talked
about the UFO wave of 1973 and the two pictures of a silver-clad occupant,
taken in Falkville, Alabama. Jeffrey Greenhaw, who is described as the chief of
police but was, in fact, the only police officer in the town (which, I suppose,
made him the chief) said that some woman called him around 10:00 p.m. about a
landing UFO. On the outskirts of town, he saw a figure, about five and a half
feet tall, standing in the middle of the road. Greenhaw stopped, got out of the
car. While talking to the being, he was taking pictures. But it stepped toward
him and Greenhaw flipped on the red light on top of the police car. The being
turned and fled. Greenhaw, in the police car, couldn’t catch it. He lost it
when the car spun out on the loose gravel even though Greenhaw was only driving
at about 20 m.p.h.
Within
minutes, Greenhaw was at the newspaper, and it wasn’t long until the story was
out over the news wires. It grew into a massive story. I mean, there were the
pictures
of the alien creature that Greenhaw had taken. But, a month later, the mayor
asked Greenhaw to resign from his job. At the same time, Greenhaw’s marriage
failed and his trailer burned. He left town soon after that.
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| Official UFO issue that describes the destruction of Chester, Illinois. |
Analysis
of the photographs seemed to indicate that the figure was a human in what is
known as a hot suit. Test pictures taken by UFO researchers, including Marion
Webb of NICAP, seemed to bear this out. NICAP thought that Greenhaw was the
victim of a hoax but Webb eventually concluded that Greenhaw and a friend had
created the pictures.
I
suppose the point here is that if Greenhaw had been the victim of a hoax, then
the consequences were out of line. If, however, he had perpetrated the hoax,
well, I’m not sure that he’s the type of person you need as a police officer. I
should mention that Greenhaw never admitted to the hoax and maintained that he
had seen something truly strange. For those interested, here is some additional
information and the pictures:
We
did talk about threats made to people after UFO sightings, but I wondered if
some of that wasn’t overblown hype and the military just reminding service
members about disclosure of classified material.
This
sparked my comments about Carroll Wayne Watts, who, in 1968, reported that he
had made contact, been abducted, or maybe stalked, by alien creatures in a UFO.
He eventually admitted it had been a hoax but then retracted that statement. He
found his life in shambles, just as Greenhaw did.
We
ended talking about Bernie’s website which is filled with Fortean material, not
just UFOs. You can visit it here:
Next
week, I’ll be talking with Doug Westfall about the fate of Flight 19 in the
Bermuda Triangle. The following week, I’ll interview Andy Marocco, about the
fate of that same Flight 19. Both men have been studying the case for years,
and both believe they have a solution, though they don’t exactly agree. I think
this will be a couple of interesting shows and will allow you all to decide who
has found the right answer, if in fact, and answer has been found.
As
always, if you have any questions for either of the men, post them in the
comments section and I’ll try to get them asked during the show. Please
remember that these questions might not show up on the blog which doesn’t mean
I won’t ask them.
And,
if you are interested in Project Blue Book, I just published The Best of
Project Blue Book, an in depth look as some of the cases that those at Blue
Book overlooked, ignored or labeled as hoax without a worry about the facts. If
you enjoy the book, put a review up on Amazon… it does help.
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