Thursday, April 16, 2020

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Bernard O'Connor (and Official UFO)


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-
Bernie O'Connor
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:


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
Official UFO issue that describes the
destruction of Chester, Illinois.
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.

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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