Well,
this is going to be a weird one…
For
those who visit here regularly, you’ll remember, just a few weeks ago, we were
talking about the DIRD reports, specifically, that one created by Kit Green.
That one, which actually dealt with UFOs, referenced a number of sightings in
which the witnesses were injured in some fashion. Dr. Michael Swords had
connected some of those sighting reports to an article written by Walter Webb
that appeared in Official UFO in 1976.
That
launched a search for the article which I eventually published here. The
problem was that the entries were not very detailed and while Webb did mention
the sources at the end of the article, he didn’t provide any way to connect
those sources to a specific report, which meant that we needed to search all the
mentioned sources for the specific case we wanted to identify. A rather tedious
task.
I
was able to do it with a few exceptions and one of those was the case from
Mannford, Oklahoma. Webb provided a little information about it. He wrote:
Mannford,
Oklahoma. October 16, 1973. As the UFO hovered nearby, witnesses in a pickup
truck heard or felt, or both, an intense and penetrating low-pitched hum. The
air seemed charged and oppressive.
That
was it. I went through my books and sources, looking for anything to provide
additional information. Remember, I did have Webb’s list of sources, but since
the list included The UFO Investigator published by NICAP and The
APRO Bulletin, published by, well, APRO, it meant searching through many
issues. The task was complicated because sometimes a case would be reported
months or years after the fact. And, of course, there was the final note that
some of the sightings were from his personal files, which I couldn’t search.
Anyway,
there was only three or four that I couldn’t find anything beyond what Webb had
published. The Mannford, Oklahoma, case was one of those. In the catalog that I
was preparing of the sources Webb used, I was stymied by these cases.
George
Eberhart, was doing the same thing, or rather, had cataloged a number of the
cases in the past so that he was able to provide a long listing to those of us
interested in it. His listing included additional sources, almost as if he was
chasing the footnotes or sources back to their original appearance before the
latest interest brought all this to our attention.
He
did have a longer entry for the Munnford, Oklahoma, case, which was helpful. He
wrote:
Night.
William and Donna Hatchett are
driving down a country road near Mannford, Oklahoma, when she sees a bright
light coming from the south. They first think it is a security light on a pole,
but then realize the object is pacing them and descending. When the Hatchetts
stop the truck, the light also stops in front of them. As the object hovers, it
gives off a blinding light and a penetrating low-pitched hum. They have a
feeling that there are occupants who know everything they are thinking. Donna
is so afraid that she twice leaves the truck cab and goes into the back.
William manages to persuade her to return, and they set off, the object rising
up in the opposite direction.
That
was something, and the names of the witnesses struck a chord with me. I mean I
recognized the names but I didn’t know where I had heard or read them. That
meant that his source was a real shock to me, when I reached that point. It
said, “Kevin D. Randle, The UFO
Casebook, Warner, 1989, pp. 143–144.
Unfortunately,
The UFO Casebook was made up of magazine articles I had written back
when I was starting out as a writer, and in keeping with the conventions of the
time, sources were generally not included. There was a sort of “Reference”
section in the back of the book, and for the entry on the October 1973,
sightings, it didn’t provide much in the way of help for finding the original
source. It said:
October
1973: The UFO Occupants
Charles
Hickson [yes, I had actually interviewed him], Pat Roach, James Harder, Susan
Ramstead, Leigh Proctor, Coral Lorenzen, the APRO Bulletin, various newspapers
from October 1973, and a number of witnesses who asked their names be withheld.
In
other words, I didn’t know now where that information had originated and wasn’t
sure how to find it. There were hints, but suggesting the that I had found
information in various newspapers and The APRO Bulletin, just didn’t
tell me much. However, I had a very good working relation with Coral Lorenzen,
and the entry in the book seemed to suggest more than just a newspaper report. I
suspected it might have been something that Coral had provided. I do have a
file labeled, “October 1973 Occupant Reports.” I was surprised to find that it
contained several issues of The APRO Bulletin from 1973.
Yes,
the information I sought came from the September-October 1973 issue. The Bulletin
usually ran a month or two behind so that information gathered by APRO in
October, would have appeared in the September-October issue. Credit is given to
APRO Field Investigator L.G. Sikes for the investigation, whom I would guess
lived in Oklahoma at the time.
This
is about as far as I can take this. Rather than retype the entry for inclusion
here, I’ve just scanned the relevant parts which you can read here:
 |
| The APRO Bulletin entry for the Mannford UFO sightings |
Unless
someone knows Sikes or how I might contact him, this is the end of the road. I
did find an email address but it bounced as not existing now. I did, however, make
it to the original published source that I had used and the only way to improve
on it would be to talk with Sikes, or even better, the witnesses themselves.
But, at least, I have found the source that I used to prepare the entry for The
UFO Casebook.
