HIckson/Parker Lost Interview Tapes Recovered

Blogger’s Note: We are told, based on the scientific research of, well scientists such as Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, that memories fade rapidly. The best testimony is that taken within five days of the event. That taken within hours is certainly preferrable to that taken months, years, or decades later. We are told that each time we access a memory, it can by changed by the simple act of attempting to remember.

Dr. Ulric Neisser tested this in 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. He provided his first-year psychology students with a short questionnaire about the disaster asking, for example, how they had learned of the event, where they were and what they had been doing. He gave the same questionnaire to those same students as they finished their college education four years later. He found that about a quarter of them had memories that were at odds with what they had written on the day or two after the event. About half had some confusion or mistakes in their memory and about a quarter had accurate memories of the event.

The simple point here is that in any investigation, it is best to interview the witness as soon as possible. That as time passes memories can change with new information added and older information lost. When investigating the Pascagoula abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, any information gathered within hours or a couple of days of the event is preferrable to that gathered decades later. If there is a discrepancy, the best course is to accept the first information over that gathered later.

I say all this as preamble to the following press release, that reports on audio files of the interviews conducted by Dr. James Harder and Dr. J. Allen Hynek literally within hours of the reported abduction that have recently been found. It provides a necessary history of APRO and the research conducted by that organization. It also reports on the project headed by David Marler to archive UFO related information in a central repository. Finally, it mentions the recovery of taped interviews with Hickson and Parker that had resided in the APRO files recently obtained by Marler’s project called National UFO Historical Records Center. This is, for UFO research, a truly historic find.

The Pascagoula Tapes.

Please note one other aspect of this. Unlike the situation in the past, in which researchers often withheld information for their own use, here is an example of sharing the information as soon as it was discovered. It is a move toward a more scientific attitude in UFO research. One that we all should take as a model.

 

NEWS RELEASE – HISTORIC AUDIO FILES OF THE 1973 PASCAGOULA ENCOUNTER RECOVERED FROM THE ‘LOST’ APRO FILES (PLEASE SHARE).

 For decades, the civilian American UFO research group APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation) was the go-to UFO group headed by married couple Jim and Coral Lorenzen. Like most UFO groups it gradually faded away to be replaced by something else. APRO was without a doubt a pioneering UFO group and for decades after they closed down access to their archive of UFO files and related material was impossible.

It was therefore great news when David Marler, Executive Director of the National UFO Historical Records Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico put out a  press release. It seems coincidental that in early November 2023 I had been discussing the location of various files on social media when this great news was released by David Marler, the Executive Director of NUFOHRC.  It took the UFO community completely by surprise. Here is the press release in full dated November 28th 2023: 

The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) was one of the oldest and largest civilian UFO research organizations in the world. The research files of this organization have been transferred to the National UFO Historical Records Center (NUFOHRC) in Rio Rancho, NM.   

Dave Marler and the Pascagoula Tapes.

  

Press Release

11-28-23

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former Scientific Adviser to U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book, cited APRO and NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) the best civilian UFO groups of their time. Both of these collections of UFO archival records along with the files of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) are now housed at the headquarters of NUFOHRC.

APRO was founded in 1952 by Jim and Coral Lorenzen, later based in Tucson, AZ. NICAP was started in 1957 in Washington D.C. by Major Donald Keyhoe. CUFOS was founded in 1973 by Dr. J. Allen Hynek in Chicago, IL. All of these records are in the process of being digitized for electronic storage, analyzation, transfer, and ease of access.

The collective files of APRO, NICAP, CUFOS, as well as Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s original U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book files, constitutes the largest civilian historical UFO case file collection in the United States, if not the world.

An appropriate site is being sought in the Albuquerque, NM area for a permanent facility to house this massive collection of UFO research data.

The facility will allow for public access to the UFO data as well as viewing of historic photos and artifacts from the UFO research field. NUFOHRC plans to cooperate with civilian, scientific, and governmental UFO research efforts.

Never in U.S. history has such a vast quantity of UFO records (numbering in the tens of thousands) been centralized in one location.

As a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, a tax-deductible donation may be made to NUFOHRC to fund a free-standing public archive building which will make these files and other historical materials more readily accessible for UFO researchers, academics, scientists, and U.S. government organizations. Donations can be made online or via mail.

For more information, contact Executive Director David Marler at: dbmarler@outlook.com

National UFO Historical Records Center

P.O. Box 15541

Rio Rancho, NM 87174

www.nufohrc.org

 

In short David Marler and NUFOHC were now in  possession of what I called the Holy Grail of civilian UFO research files. I have known David Marler for a number of years and I was happy to donate my own humble collection of UFO files and related material to NUFOHRC in 2023. David knows what projects and topics I am working on but it was going to take a good amount of time to go through the APRO files but I was confident that these long ‘lost’ files were now safe and could bear fruit.

The Pascagoula Tapes

Since 2018 I have been working with Calvin Parker on his encounter on the Pascagoula River, Mississippi on October 11^th 1973. I worked with Calvin Parker right up until he died in August 2023. I spoke with him on the phone shortly before he died and told him that I’d continue to be the torch bearer for his and Charles Hickson’s encounter and the search would go on for more material.

Thankfully, I was joined in this research by my friend and colleague Dr Irena Scott from Ohio, USA. Over the last five years we have had amazing support from UFO groups and individuals around the world who have supplied us with all they have on the Pascagoula encounter. There are too many to mention but working with these amazing colleagues we have uncovered: documents and photos of the minor injuries on Parker & Hickson, the full transcript of their interview at Keesler AFB, the full unredacted US Coast Guard documents on the USO sighting in the Pascagoula River and the list goes on and on. This is a great example of how UFO researchers can work together. Nothing has come from the false claims of those stating that they ran a MoD UFO project or a secret DoD UFO study. The same applies to so-called ‘whistle-blowers’. They have put nothing on the table. In fact the whole ‘disclosure lobby’ has ignored the subject of alien abductions.

Dr Irena Scott and I have also obtained firsthand eyewitness testimony from UFO witnesses that first spoke up in 1973 and others who we have either located ourselves or have stepped out of the shadows in these last five years. In  fact they are still coming forward with several new witnesses being interviewed in the last few months. Some of these witnesses were in the direct vicinity of where Parker & Hickson had their encounter. Mr Charles Anderson was driving across the bridge that goes over the Pascagoula River when he saw the ‘blue UFO’ down below him. Mr Louis Lee was working on the opposite side of the river that night as a crane driver in the shipyard. As soon  as he got in  his cab he could see this ‘darn thing’ out over the river. And most fascinating of all are Mr and Mrs Blair. They were on the opposite side of the river that night and saw the Parker/Hickson encounter and they had their own alien abduction experience as well. 

HISTORIC AUDIOFILES OF THE 1973 PASCAGOULA ENCOUNTER RECOVERED FROM THE ‘LOST’ APRO FILES 

It was much to my surprise and delight that I received a message from David Marler on Thursday December 28^th (2023) asking the following:

“Do you have any of Harder’s regressive hypnosis tapes related to Pascagoula? I just found one in the APRO audio tapes. I’m listening to Calvin under hypnosis. Yes. I’m not with it now. But there are references to the event occurring just days before. Also, there is recorded discussion between Hynek and Fred Diamond.”

I replied immediately that I did not have this material and could I have a copy please. David, being the gent and genuine UFO researcher that he is, digitized these audio cassettes for me and they are now with me and Dr Irena Scott.

A colleague is already on standby to try and boost the sound quality of these files and they will be sent to him shortly.

There are five separate audio sequences. They are:

1. Dr James Harder hypnotic regression on 10-14-73 (October 14^th, 1973) of Calvin Parker re Pascagoula MS UFO incident on 10-11-73.

2. Dr James Harder interviewed in wake of Pascagoula MS incident on10-11-73.

3. Pascagoula MS 10-11-73 incident interview with Hickson and Parker by Sheriff Fred Diamond.

4. Sheriff Fred Diamond Interviewed by Dr. J Allen Hynek re the Pascagoula Incident on 10-11-73.

5. Sheriff Fred Diamond plays secret recording of Calvin and Parker to Hynek re the Pascagoula Incident on 10-11-73.

At my request David Marler took a couple of photos of the original tapes including one of himself holding them. These photos and all of these audio files remain copyright David Marler/NUFOHRC.

It goes without saying that they are a huge find and are a significant part of the history of the 1973 Pascagoula alien abduction account and to the wider study of such experiences.  I cannot thank David Marler enough for his cooperation with this and for proving up with copies of this truly fascinating material.  David is still going through the APRO files and who knows what else might turn up. As yet we have not decided how to make this new information available in public. We will take it one step at a time with the first step being the enhancement of the sound quality of these audio files.

REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

Dr Scott and I know that there are others out there that have more information on this case. With the greatest of respect all we ask is that whatever you might have, no matter how insignificant you might think it is, to please share it with us. We are looking for anything: newspaper cuttings, photos, correspondence, ephemera and so on.

OTHER WITNESSES

Over the last five years we have literally interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses to the UFO events back in 1973. Most of these witnesses were perfectly willing to allow us to use their real names. There were a few that were not happy with this so we simply used a false name instead. No problem. We are confident that there are still other witnesses out there that have yet to go on the record. What we would like to ask is for you to contact us and allow Dr Scott and I to document your sighting. We can do this in complete confidence if so required.

CONTACT

If you would like to contact us regarding any of the above I can be contacted on face via private message or directly on email:

https://www.facebook.com/philip.mantle.9

philip.mantle@gmail.com 

Should We Investigate Decades Old Cases?

 

Several years ago, I learned about Rich Reynolds when he suggested it was time for we geezers to get out of the way and allow the youngsters to solve the mystery of the UFO. I believe he thought we had failed, though I thought that we had supplied quite a few explanations including those answered as “unidentified.” Didn’t mean alien spacecraft, only that we didn’t know what it was and alien spacecraft was one possible answer.

Anyway, that started a communication between us which, I believe, we found more common ground than disagreement. We had good conversations during the run of Game of Thrones until the show runners wrecked the whole thing with an incredibly stupid final season, but I digress.

Lately, if I have read some of his comments correctly (and allow for the possibility that I missed a point or two), he thought that we geezers were wasting too much time going over the older cases. We needed to move into the modern era where answers other than alien lived. I think he was saying that there might be paranormal explanations, not to mention misidentified natural phenomena and certainly items of national security that needed to be protected because they were, well, items of national security.

The notion isn’t completely wrong, but then it is only recently that we have had access to files that were buried under various classifications and protected by the umbrella of national security. But I also noticed that as we found our way into some of those hidden files, we found things that were once accepted as truth that were, to be kind, mistakes.

Take the landing in Socorro, New Mexico, in April, 1964. Police officer Lonnie Zamora saw something that didn’t look like a conventional aircraft and that seemed to operate outside the norms for any sort of aircraft. I had said, for years, as had others, that this was an interesting case, but suffered from one flaw. It was single witness. It would be strengthened by additional witnesses.

While talking with Ben Moss and Tony Angiola, they mentioned that three people had called the police station in Socorro with sightings in the minutes before Zamora made his sighting and his report. I asked if that had been written down in the police log, three times, and didn’t get a satisfactory answer. I don’t know if we were just miscommunicating or if they thought the answer was simple and I should have known it.

Zamora provided his eyewitness account for this illustration.

I pulled up the Project Blue Book file on Socorro and in there I found a short report written by Captain Richard Holder on the night of the sighting. In that report, submitted to the Pentagon that night, just hours after he, along with an FBI agent, had interrogate Zamora, Holder mentioned those three telephone calls into the police station. In 1964, apparently no one thought it important to find those witnesses, which, in 1964, wouldn’t have been impossible. The flight path of the UFO was known and Socorro wasn’t all that large. Investigators would have had to knock on a lot of doors, but it could have been done. Think of the important data that could have been learned from those witnesses and think what it would have meant to the case.

Similarly, in 1973, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed they had been abducted outside Pascagoula, Mississippi. For years, I, along with many others, suggested the case might be a hoax because there were no independent witnesses for that abduction. In fact, when I interviewed Calvin Parker several months ago, I made that case. He said that there were other witnesses and he, along with Philip Mantle and Dr. Irene Scott had found and interviewed several of them.

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker.

Well, I wasn’t overly impressed because witnesses coming forward decades after the event aren’t all that impressive. The argument can be made that they just wanted to climb on the band wagon and see their names in the papers or be interviewed for the various documentaries. We had witnesses who saw the abduction, but they hadn’t talked in 1973.

That turned out to be wrong. I have seen a document, written the day after the abduction, by Air Force personnel at Keesler Air Force Base, in which two other men were interviewed about the sighting and said they had seen it. Two witnesses, independent of one another, reporting the next day, they had seen something very strange as Hickson and Parker were abducted. And, one of the men was with two other people who also saw the same thing running the total to four.

Think about that. We have two men saying they were abducted by alien creatures, and part of that event was witnessed by outside sources. There was a record of what they had seen, the very next day, but in all the controversy, some of it introduced by the skeptical community, caused that information to be overlooked by so many.

And finally, as I was working on the book about the Levelland sightings in November, 1957, I found some interesting documentation that I don’t believe had been reported. According to the Air Force, the Hockley County Sheriff, Weir Clem, said he had seen a streak of red in the distance. However, in news reports published before the Air Force investigator arrived, Clem said that he had seen a brightly glowing red, “football-shaped” or an oval-shaped object rather than just a streak of red.

Don Burleson, about twenty years ago, interviewed the man who maintained the sheriff’s car. Burleson was told that the sheriff had brought his car in, the next day, and asked that it be checked out. The only reason that the sheriff would have done that was if his car had been stalled by the close approach of the UFO. The sheriff wanted to be sure there was no mechanical reason for the engine to stall.

That is an interesting bit of information, suggesting that the Air Force had suggested that Clem be less than candid when talking to the press about the sighting. Don Berliner, in 1975, interviewed Clem, who again said that he had seen the brightly glowing red, football-shaped UFO.

Sheriff Weir Clem and two of his deputies.

That, by itself, is an interesting revelation but there is one other fact. As I was researching the case, I learned that Clem, with a deputy, had gone out to look for the UFO. Following them was a car from the Texas Department of Public Safety, that is, the state police. And following those two cars was a third occupied by Air Force officers from Reese Air Force Base located about twenty minutes from Levelland.

In other words, there is documentation suggesting that Air Force officers were close enough to see the object rather than a streak of light, and if Clem’ car was stalled by the close approach of the UFO, then the Air Force car was stalled by the close approach of the UFO as well.

Think about the importance of that revelation and what it would mean to the Air Force investigation if that information had been available to us at the time of the sighting. It would be impossible for the Air Force to claim that ball lightning was the culprit.

Here’s the other side of that coin. Why is there no reference in the Air Force file to Air Force officers making a sighting on the night of the event? Clearly, the Air Force would have known about them, but, according to the Air Force, there were only three witnesses to an actual craft. Norman Barth, the Air Force investigator only interviewed six witnesses during his short, seven-hour investigation and, three of those witnesses said they had only saw something in the distance. There is no mention of the Air Force officers being involved because if the Air Force admitted that, then the entire tone of the investigation would have changed.

The point here is that while I understand what Rich is suggesting, I believe that these older cases deserve another look based on what we have found in the Project Blue Book files and other records that have made their way into the public arena. Although I have been unable to identify those Air Force officers, think what their comments and descriptions would have meant to understanding what UFOs were and are, especially in a robust case like that from Levelland.

So, while I understand what Rich is saying, I also believe that we need to study the older cases because there are some extraordinary testimonies hidden in them. Properly documented, properly investigated and properly understood, we just might advance UFO research to a point where we are talking about the home worlds of the aliens rather than denying that they exist.

Pascagoula Perspective

 

While I was doing research on the Internet, I found a reference to me about the Charles Hickson – Calvin Parker abduction in Pascagoula, Mississippi on October 11, 1973. This was in a skeptical magazine, but it was based, apparently, on a reference I had supplied to Ron Story’s The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, published in 2001. What I had written there was:

The landing site of the UFO was only a few hundred yards away from and in full view of a heavily traveled highway. No one ever came forward to corroborate the story, or to suggest that he or she had been on the highway and saw the UFO.

This bit of analysis was based on the skeptical argument that had been offered over the years. Turns out to be wrong. First, the location site of the UFO landing and the abduction is only briefly visible from the highway, given the construction of the bridge that must be crossed, the surrounding terrain, and the vegetation in the area. In other words, it is in a location that is in view of the highway for only seconds and it is difficult to see.

What I have learned about this in the world today is that there were others in the area who saw the bright blue light that surrounded the UFO. I learned, in talking to Calvin Parker, that he had talked with people who told him they had seen the UFO that night in 1973. Among those witnesses were Vernon and Maria Blair, crane operator Louis Lee, and a carload of people including Ray Broadus, Emmanuel P. Sigalas and finally a fellow named Larry Booth.

Vernon and Maria Blair at a much younger age.
Photo courtesy Philip Mantle and Calvin Parker.

The Blairs and Louis Lee had not talked about their observations until decades later. They said they wanted to avoid the ridicule that is associated with reporting a UFO. They could read the newspapers and see the news reports and they just were not comfortable with dragging the spotlight to them.

I asked Calvin Parker about this, because he was talking about new witnesses, and that there were newspaper articles and other documentation that provided dates. I, of course, was of the opinion that these new witnesses had just appeared on the scene recently and to me, that was a problem.

However, there is a document dated October 12, 1973, created at Keesler Air Force Base by officers at the base. It mentions the military personnel who were involved in the interrogation of Hickson and Parker while they were at the base to be checked for radioactive contamination. But more importantly, it provides the names of two men who had reported seeing something in the area of the abduction on the night of the abduction.

That document names, specifically, Ray Broadus, and another, independent witness identified only by his first name, and that he owned a gas station. Later, Ralph Blum reported on a fellow named Larry Booth who owned a gas station. In other words, here were the names of two witnesses who made reports the very next day.

Add to that, in interview conducted with Emmanual P. Sigalas, months after the abduction. That doesn’t matter, because, as noted he was in the car with Broadus and that gives us the date.

My point here is simple. When I wrote those words most recently quoted, it was that I had accepted the words printed by Philip Klass and other skeptics. Given these criticisms, that is, no one saw the object from the highway and there were no other witnesses to the event, I had believed them. When Parker told me that this wasn’t true, I investigated and found that there were other witnesses, and some of them were interviewed the day after the abduction. That certainly changes some of the problems with the case and provides, well, a different perspective. I just thought I would mention it.

'X' Zone Broadcast Network - Philip Mantle and the UAP Hearings (Among Other Things)

 

By coincidence, I had scheduled an interview with Philip Mantle before I learned about the open hearing about UFOs, I mean UAPs, that was held on May 17. We both watched that hearing and spent the first part of the show talking about our impressions of it. Again, I was not very impressed with that hearing and Philip had the same general reaction. You can see the show here:

https://rumble.com/v159qkr-a-different-perspective-with-kevin-randle-interviews-philip-mantle.html?mref=yqkns&mc=7zk0c

Or can listen to it using the audio player to the left or just click here for the audio only link:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49855180

We did talk about some other things as well. Philip, and his publishing company, Flying Disk Press, have been involved with Calvin Parker of Pascagoula fame. Parker

Philip Mantle

has written about his experiences in 1973 when he and Charles Hickson were abducted while fishing. I knew, based on the investigation that Philip and Dr. Irene Scott had conducted, that the witness base had expanded. This sort of thing is always worrisome when it comes about decades after the fact and I mentioned that to Philip.

Turns out that there were many witnesses to the blue, glowing object near the river that night that had been reported by Parker. Philip and Irene had talked to many of these witnesses, gathering more corroborative evidence. I, of course, am always a little skeptical of witnesses showing up long after the event. Here, however, not only were they interviewing the witnesses in our modern world, but they had evidence of those witnesses involvement in 1973. As I say, you can listen to Philip discuss this and verifying that many of the witnesses were interviewed in 1973. There is solid documentation to back that up. Makes the case just that much stronger.

We wrapped up the show with Philip talking about the new book he had written, UFO Landings U.K. It is, of course available on Amazon for those interested in learning about landing cases outside the United States. For ease, here is the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/UFO-LANDINGS-UK-Philip-Mantle-ebook/dp/B09SD8LFJH/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1653008642&sr=8-1

Next week, I’ll finally talk with Michael Shermer, if everything works out. We had some trouble in the past with getting everything coordinated with him given his schedule and mine. This should be an interesting show given our diverging opinions.

Calvin Parker is Seriously Ill

 I have received word that Calvin Parker, one half of the Hickson-Parker abduction story has some serious health issues. Philip Mantle, who published Calvin’s books wrote, “My friend and colleague Calvin Parker in the USA hasn’t been well for a year or two now. After a number of medical tests his doctors have decided that he has to undergo surgery, possibly next week. I’ll not go into specifics but will say that he has a very serious medical problem the cost and the cost of constant hospital visits, tests and now an operation is simply beyond his means.”

Calvin Parker

As those of you who visit here often know, I’m not a fan of alien abduction stories. I believe there are terrestrial explanations for most of them running from poor interview technique, to psychological issues to outright hoaxes. There are few cases that I find intriguing and that don’t seem to fit that pattern. These are usually single events that take place outside in what I would consider targets of opportunity. The Hickson-Parker abduction fits into that pattern. Two guys, outside, when the abduction took place.

I met Charles Hickson many years ago at a UFO convention. His story was virtually the same as always with little in the way of corroborative detail. The big plus was that the local sheriff, after the abduction, left Hickson and Parker alone in an interrogation room with a recorder running. They said nothing to one another that would suggest hoax.

It was only in recent years that Calvin told his side of the story. I interviewed him twice for the radio version of A Different Perspective. I really didn’t detect anything that would suggest hoax. I just don’t believe that he is sophisticated enough to construct an elaborate hoax. Maybe a better way to say it is that there seemed to be no motive for it and his wasn’t the sort of character that would agree to do something like that.

You can listen to the two interviews I did with him by scrolling through the interview lists on the audio player to the left. You can decide for yourself. But I will note that others have been located that saw something strange that night and have been interviewed about those experiences. They tend to corroborate the story being told by Calvin today.

For those interested in supplying some financial assistance to Calvin, there is a Go Fund Me page. You can access the page here:

https://gofund.me/8b4b0e46

Normally I wouldn’t do anything like this, but then Calvin was kind enough to appear on the radio version of the blog twice and share his tales. Too often, those of us who do these sorts of interviews seem to forget about the guests when the show ends. I just thought Calvin deserved a little help with what will probably be monstrous medical bills.

Philip said that he would keep us all apprised of the outcome of the necessary surgery and I’ll post information here. Given that, I thought it only fair to repay his kindness with a note about his health and his needs. Help if you can and if you want to

Coast to Coast - Calvin Parker

 

Those of you who visit here regularly know that I’m not a big fan of tales of alien abduction. I believe that the solution for most cases is based here on Earth and that some of the investigation has been less than stellar. I do think that if there are alien abductions, I believe they would be targets of opportunity rather than some sort of longitudinal study conducted over years or decades. As I have said to Kathleen Marden, I’m more inclined to accept the tales told by Barney and Betty Hill, Travis Walton, and Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker.

For those interested, I have interviewed Calvin Parker of Pascagoula fame, a couple of times on the radio version of A Different Perspective. You can listen to those interviews here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2019/03/x-zone-broadcast-network-calvin-parker.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2020/07/x-zone-broadcast-network-calvin-parker.html

Like many others, I have always been somewhat skeptical of single witness reports, or in the case of Hickson-Parker, two guys telling the same story from the same point of view. That means they were together and there didn’t seem to be any corroborating witnesses. In the case of the latest investigation by Philip Mantle, it seems that additional witnesses have

Calvin Parker

been uncovered, and Calvin and I talked about that in the second link listed above.

But now, however, their seems to be some additional corroboration. Rather than witnesses who appeared nearly fifty years after the fact, there is a document found by Mantle that was written literally hours after the abduction took place. Mantle wrote:

After the book was published [Pascagoula – The Closest Encounter: My Story by Calvin Parker] … I continued my search for any formal documentation related to the incident as any that had been in the possession of Calvin Parker had been washed away by hurricane Katrina. I contacted all of the major UFO groups one of which included the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in the USA. They were very obliging and sent me a PDF file of what they had on the case. Most of what they sent was newspaper cuttings but buried in the middle of this file was a very curious and possible ‘smoking gun’ type-written document.

Although this document, dated 13^th of October 1973, just two days after the alien encounter, is unsigned it was written by Dr. James Harder. We know it was written by Dr. Harder as he was the only person to examine the witnesses which has been confirmed by Calvin Parker. Dr. James Harder’s academic credentials are as follows: BS (Caltech), MS, Ph.D., (U.C. Berkeley). He is a Fellow, AAAS; Life Member, ASCE; and Founding Member, Society for Scientific Exploration. Professor Emeritus, U.C. Berkeley. He was also a director of the UFO research group APRO.

Dr. Harder along with Dr J. Allen Hynek were on site in Pascagoula within 36 hours of the event happening. They interviewed Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson and at a press conference confirmed that they believed what the witnesses were saying.

It is important, in attempting to understand, the relevance of the document, to read first, what Calvin had to say about it:

At the time of my abduction on October 11^th, 1973   when the alien reached out to take me on board the ship. From the first time I saw them it was the fear I felt that is hard to describe. I just knew I would not live through this fear. As the alien made contact to my left arm, I heard a whisk of what I thought was air then all at once I got became really relaxed then all the fear was gone. Later on, after being examined by Dr. James Harder I heard him telling Dr Hynek that I had a puncture marks on my arm and later at the hospital I found out that I was given not one shot but two shots the second was while I was on board the craft. This document simply confirms what I have always known and that is both Charlie and I were given injections by these creatures and we had the puncture wounds to prove it.

Rather than me type in what is found on the document, the best course is to provide the document itself so that you can read it here.

Document found by Philip Mantle.

 Although the provenance of the document is not rock solid, the fact that it came from CUFOS and was among Hynek’s papers is relevant. It’s not as if the document appeared from an unknown location in the mail box of a UFO researcher. It does have a certainly level of credibility attached to it.

However, it would have been more powerful had it been signed by Dr. James Harder, and given what is known, it is reasonable to believe that Harder was the author. Given what is known, given the date of the document, it does provide us with some corroboration for the event told by Calvin Parker. It is up to each of us to decide what weight to give to it.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - John Steiger

This week I spoke with John Steiger, a long-time friend who has just published a book of plays called The UFO Trilogy – Dramas for the Stage. You can, of course, listen to the show here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/37816825

Although I hadn’t planned on spending so much time on the Roswell “trial,” the discussion just went in that direction. John’s idea was to present the Roswell case

Sheridan Cavitt. Photo
copyright by Kevin Randle.

as a civil trial by questioning the “witnesses” on the stand. Although the majority of the witnesses are those who saw some aspect of the Roswell debris, or participated in the recovery of that debris, there were witnesses on the other side, including Sheridan Cavitt, Charles Moore and Irving Newton. We did spend some time identifying who the witnesses were so that everyone would be able to understand the relevance of the people called to testify.

The second drama is a Board of Inquiry that is investigating the Rendlesham Forest events of December 1980. Here there are only three witnesses, Jim Penniston, John Burroughs and Charles Halt. Each has his own act, and providing their perspective on the observation and landing of a craft. The idea was to have a single

John Burroughs.
Copyright by
Kevin Randle

interrogator, but fill out the other four Board slots with members of the audience. As John put it, they might have the best seats in the house.

The last of the dramas is “Will to Believe: The Brooklyn Bridge UFO Investigation.” This involves the Budd Hopkins’ investigation into the Linda Cortile abduction which might have included a Secretary General of the United Nations. John expressed his concern for the accuracy of the information as reported by Hopkins originally. I would have been a little more forceful, suggesting that this case wasn’t nearly as strong as Hopkins might have suggested.

I fear that we didn’t have enough time to properly examine the last two dramas. All three are intriguing. The dramas are available in a single volume which can be found at Amazon, quite naturally. They were published by Flying Disk Press, and in the interest of full disclosure, my recent book, The Best of Project Blue Book has the same publisher.

Next up is Rob Swiatek, who will be telling us a little bit about the beginnings of MUFON, which is the outgrowth of an accusation levelled a number of months ago. Of course, we won’t be limited to that and will delve into the current crop of UFO sightings as well. If you have questions for Rob, submit them here and I’ll get them asked during the program.

And a follow up for last week... Philip Mantle, by way of Robert Fischer, supplied the following link to an interview with Charles Hickson. It might be of interest to those of you who were intrigued by last week’s interview with Calvin Parker about their abduction in 1973. You can listen to it here:

https://archive.org/details/TheForceBeyond_201609

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Calvin Parker (Second Interview)

This week I spoke with Calvin Parker who appeared on the show several months ago. We began with a brief recap of his original experience. For those who might not have been familiar with his story, you can listen to that earlier show here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/search?q=Calvin+Parker 

We talked about other witnesses to the case, that is people who had seen the original abduction in 1973. These were people who had not come forward then, but

Calvin Parker

who had made comments later. According to Calvin, Philip Mantle followed up on some of this, locating several witnesses who either saw Charles Hickson and Calvin carried into the craft, or had seen the craft. You can listen to that show here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/35411741

I had wanted to talk with him about something he had said at the end of the last show. He had mentioned then of another experience that took place twenty years later, in 1993. This seemed to be another encounter and he thought that it was with the same crew that had abducted him in 1973.

I also was curious if anyone had written anything down in 1973 that might provide some documentation about the events. Calvin suggested that the Coast Guard had some sort of record from 1973, but it seems that the event then was not directly related to the abduction. There should also be a Coast Guard record from the 1993 event because his wife called the Coast Guard when he didn’t come home for hours. While they hadn’t gotten the search off the ground before he returned, there should be a record of the missing person call having been made. And, of course, a record of the search being cancelled when Calvin returned home about 3 a.m. This all becomes clear when you listen to the interview.

Next up is John Steiger, who had created a series of plays, courtroom dramas, to examine, in that sort of arena, the evidence for some of the most famous UFO cases including Roswell and Rendlesham. This is an interesting way of looking at the evidence. If you have questions, append them here, and I’ll attempt to get them asked during the program.

In following weeks, I hope to talk with another former cast member of Treasure Quest for his insights into that program. For those who missed it, I spoke with another cast member, Keith Plaskett months ago. You can find the link here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/search?q=Keith+Plaskett

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Calvin Parker and Pascagoula Fame

This week I was able to speak with Calvin Parker of Pascagoula abduction fame. After remaining virtually silent about his experiences for decades, he has finally written a book, Pascagoula – The Closest Encounter, detailing what happened. While I’m sure that much of what we discussed is known, he did make a few revelations that I found interesting. You can listen to the interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/17313809

Calvin Parker

He did provide details about the interior of the craft and what he experienced. I had read that he had undergone hypnotic regression, which I find problematic, so I did ask if he remembered what happened prior to that. He said that he always had vivid memories, but had claimed he had passed out to avoid the circus that surrounded the claims of abduction. Charles Hickson, who was also there, had taken the opposite path, talking about the abduction from the very beginning. You can find the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HKMYJJK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

One thing I did find interesting was that he said Hickson had told him to stop at a convenience store so that he, Hickson, could use the telephone. Rather than call his family, Hickson first called Kessler Air Force Base to report the sighting. Told that the Air Force was no longer interested in those things and that if he felt threatened to report it to the local law enforcement, Hickson did just that.

I had wondered how the story got out. Parker said that people in the area, including reporters, had police scanners. The press apparently learned about the story as it was broadcast over the police radio. What I found amusing was that the local police, believing them to be drunk, told them to stay put until a patrol car could get there. They didn’t want them driving under the influence. This little anecdote seemed to lend a note of credibility to the tale.

While in the police station, Parker said that he and Hickson had been secretly recorded. The idea was to listen to what they had to say, thinking they would reveal the hoax. You can read more about this at:

https://www.mufon.com/pascagoula-mississippi-case---1973.html

There were other nuggets, including the names of other witnesses and apparently another encounter some twenty years later. For those interested in the Hickson/Parker case, there are some interesting aspects.

Next up: Nick Pope, to talk about his experiences in the Ministry of Defence on the UFO desk.