This week I talked with Lee Spiegel about the James Fox film, The Phenomenon. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that Lee had a big role in producing the film and was involved from the beginning. You can listen to that conversation here:
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/41687438
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| Lee Spiegel |
We touched on a number of UFO cases. I did mention the Socorro UFO landing because, frankly, I believe it to be a good UFO case. James Fox was able to speak with and interview the widow of Lonnie Zamora and was granted access to his papers and letters. There were some interesting things that developed from that including a letter from a small boy who had asked some interesting questions.
Lee
mentioned the sighting by then Major (later Colonel) William Coleman and his
UFO sighting in July 1955. Coleman and his crew saw a silver object that was so
close to the ground that its wake stirred up parallel lines of dust. Coleman
said that he reported it to Project Blue Book, but when he became the press
officer for Blue Book, he could not find his report. Lee wrote an article about
it and you can read that here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ufo-secrets-national-atomic-testing-museum_n_1902019
We
did talk about the Zimbabwe UFO landing that was seen by some 110 children,
who, according to Lee, reported or drew, basically, the same thing. You can
read about it, and Dr. John Mack’s take on the case, here:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2009/05/31/film-takes-closer-look-at-african-ufo-sighting/
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| Student drawing of the incident |
There are those who have dismissed this as a case of mass hysteria, suggesting that the children suffered from a common delusion. This was embedded in an article that appeared Malawi Medical Journal. Though it doesn’t seem that this case fits into the overall theory, you can read the article here to decide for yourself:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3588562/
We
also, at the end, talked about the Roswell case, since that is a large part of
the UFO history today. Lee mentioned his interviews with Major Jesse Marcel, in
the late 1970s. What was interesting was Marcel saying that both he and
Brigadier General Roger Ramey knew that the stuff in Ramey’s office was not the
material he had brought from Roswell. I pressed that point with him because it
is one of the critical bits of information about the Roswell case.
Next
week, I’ll be talking with Ben Moss about his book about the Socorro UFO
landing. As you all know, I too, have written about Socorro in Encounter in
the Desert. I promise that we won’t get too deep into the correct symbol
that Lonnie Zamora described.
And,
the following week, if everything goes according to plan, I will be talking
with Colonel Richard Weaver about the Air Force investigation into the Roswell
case. You can find his book here:
Given
our backgrounds, I think the conversation will be interesting.
If
you have questions for either of these guests, put them in the comments section
and I’ll get to them. Just mark it private and it won’t be posted.
