UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 17
Volume 4
Number 17
August 16, 1999
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
DAY CARE GUNMAN LINKED TO UFO HOTSPOT
On Tuesday, August 10, 1999, Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., 37, of Olympia, Washington state reportedly walked into the North Valley Jewish Community Center in the Granada Hills area of Los Angeles and opened fire, wounding five people.
Shot in the attack on the building's day care center summer camp were volunteer receptionist Isabelle Shalometh, 68; camp counselor Mindy Finkelstein, 16; Joshua Stepakoff, age 6; James Zidell, age 6; and Benjamin Kadish, age 5.
Since last week's assault, the four older victims have been treated and released. Five- year-old Benjamin Kadish remains in serious condition at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles.
After fleeing the crime scene, Furrow reportedly shot and killed Joseph Ileto, 39, a mail carrier employed by the U.S. Postal Service.
Furrow, a.k.a. Neal Furrow, then fled the Los Angeles area by taxicab, spending $800 on two long-distance taxi rides that took him to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Furrow turned himself in at the FBI office in Las Vegas the following day.
According to an unidentified FBI source, Furrow attacked the day care center because he reportedly "wanted to send a wake-up call to Americans to kill Jews."
Asked why he shot Ileto, Furrow reportedly answered that the mail carrier "was a non-white and working for the (USA) government."
Ileto was born in the Philippines and has been a resident and citizen of the USA for twenty-five years.
Furrow was brought up in Lacey, Wash., near Olympia, the son of a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Following graduation from high school in 1979, Furrow enlisted in the Army but was given a medical discharge after a mishap in basic training.
In the early 1990s, he reportedly joined the rightwing Aryan Nations sect, serving as a security guard at the group's summer congress in 1995. (See the Spokane, Wash. Spokesman- Review for July 26, 1995.)
According to USA Today, "Sue Stengel, head of the Western States Council for the Anti- Defamation League, said Furrow and (Debbie) Mathews were married during an Aryan Nations ceremony on the Idaho compound sometime in the early 90s. Furrow sometimes introduced Mathews as his wife..."
Debbie Mathews was married to Robert "Bobby" Mathews (1949-1985), who founded The Order, a.k.a. Bruder Schwiegen (German for Silent Brotherhood--J.T.), a neo-Nazi urban guerrilla group that robbed an armored car in Ukiah, California and shot Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg in Denver, Colorado fifteen years ago. Mathews was killed in a shootout with FBI agents on Whidbey Island in Washington state in 1984. (Editor's Note: Curiously, Bobby Mathews was born in Marfa, Texas, home of the mysterious "Marfa spook lights.")
According to USA Today, "The couple, who lived in Metaline Falls, Wash. and in the desert town of Rosamond in southern California, are now said to be separated." (See USA Today for August 12, 1999, page 2-A, "Furrow was treated for mental illness."
Furrow was a resident of Rosamond in 1993 and 1994 but has been seen there on occasion since then.
Rosamond (population 7,430) is located on Highway 14 about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, and is close to Edwards Air Force Base. The desert town is also one of the most notorious UFO hotspots in California.
Thirteen months before Furrow attempted to turn himself in for treatment at the Fairview Psychiatric Clinic in Washington state, Rosamond was the site of a spectacular UFO sighting.
According to the Antelope Valley Press, at 9:15 p.m. on the night of April 22, 1998, dozens of Rosamond residents sighted "a large object, not quite octagonal in shape, between 100 yards to 200 yards wide, with bright orange and yellow lights seen around its rim," floating above Albertson's grovery store. Both passing motorists and diners at the local Taco Bell saw the UFO, which, they reported, "made no sound." (See the Antelope Valley Press for April 23, 1998, "Residents Report Flying Craft." See also UFO Roundup, volume 3, number 18 for May 3, 1998, "Giant Octagonal UFO Seen in Rosamond, California.")
(Editor's Comment: Don't look for this story on Conspiracy Bull Shit--check the initials--any time soon.)
TWO METALLIC UFOs FLY OVER BRAZILIAN BEACH
On Wednesday, July 7, 1999, "two metallic yellow OVNIs" (Portuguese acronym for UFOs- J.T.) were spotted while flying over Praia da Baleia beach on Ilha Bela in the South Atlantic, off the coast of Sao Paulo state.
According to Diario de Grande ABC, "the objects had a strange metallic yellow color and were coming from the ocean" at a height of "about 20 meters (66 feet). They had no wings and made no sound."
Brazilian ufologists are investigating the sighting. (See the Brazilian newspaper Diario de Grande ABC for July 8, 1999. Muito obrigado a Thiago Luiz Tichetti por eso caso.)
UFO HOVERS OVER TOWN IN NORTHERN PORTUGAL
On Saturday, July 10, 1999, a silvery UFO was seen hovering over Rojas, a tiny town in the rugged mountains of the Tras os Montes region of northern Portugal.
"There were a lot of witnesses to this sighting," a resident reported. "They say it was kind of like a silver ball with a black or navy-blue stripe at the center. They had it in view for over five minutes."
Rojas is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Mirandella, site of last year's big UFO sighting, and about 270 kilometers (164 miles) north of Lisboa, the national capital. (Muito obrigado a Guillermo Alarcon por eso caso.)
(Editor's Note: The Tras os Montes area was also the site of a weird sheep mutilation case back in the spring of 1997.)
DEAD EGYPTIAN REVIVES IN THE MORGUE
According to the newspaper Al-Akhbar of Cairo, "a man pronounced dead from drowning off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt regained consciousness after spending three hours in a morgue refrigerator."
"Ali Abdel-Rahim Muhammad, 32, an Arabic teacher, said the last thing he remembers is having a dizzy spell and seeing a vision of his mother's face while swimming at the beach on Monday," August 9, 1999.
Muhammad "was awakened by a loud bang and unfamiliar voices."
"'I found myself locked inside tight walls of metal and whispers of people I didn't recognize,' Muhammad said."
"He grabbed the hand of an attendant who was trying to close the refrigerator drawer in the Alexandria morgue. His firm grip sent the attendant and a family who had apparently come over to identify the body of a loved one scurrying out of the morgue, yelling, 'Help us!'" (See the Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for August 11, 1999, page A-3, "'Drowned' Egyptian awakens in morgue.")
(Editor's Comment: H.P. Lovecraft would have had a field day with this story!)
ATTACK OF THE GIANT TURTLES: THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES...
"An ancient sea turtle, nearly half the size of a full-grown steer, was rescued near the Verrazanno Narrows Bridge" in New York City's harbor on Tuesday, August 10, 1999.
"Coast Guard officers who rescued the turtle, estimated to weigh 600 pounds and to be nearly a century old, spotted it Monday," August 9, 1999, while making an inspection tour of the oil tanker M/V Loucas, out of Nicosia, Cyprus.
"The turtle had snagged its left fin on a line attached to a lobster cage near the bow of the tanker and was weak from trying to keep afloat with one free fin."
"'This is an unusual case,' said Coast Guard officer Don Wagner, who said the Coast Guard chose to return the animal to the sea rather than take it to an aquarium."
"'It has been doing well for 100 years, so it was better to let it go,' said Wagner." (See the Chicago Tribune for August 11, 1999, page 6, "Snagged by ship's line, giant sea turtle is rescued.")
UNITED NATIONS POLICE MAKE DEBUT IN KOSOVO
The first contingents of the United Nations International Police Force (UNIPF) arrived in Pristina, Kosovo last week, composed of policemen from many UN member states. But there were some organizational problems
"More than 80 policemen sent from Nepal and Bangladesh to work in Kosovo don't have the basic equipment or training for the province's hostile environment, the commander of the UN's international police force said Tuesday," August 10, 1999.
"The 50 officers from Nepal and 36 from Bangladesh are 'on hold' for now, said Col. Michael Jorsback of Sweden."
"Jorsback is chief of staff of the U.N. International Police Force in Kosovo, which was created to help fight ethnic violence and rampant crime."
"According to Jorsback, the Nepalese arrived without handguns, while 36 of the 49 sent from Bangladesh were mostly administrative personnel." (See the St. Paul, Minn. Pioneer Press for August 11, 1999, page 4A, "Not all cops cut out for Kosovo.")
(Editor's Comment: So now we have a United Nations International Police Force which is answerable only to a Security Council elected by no one. No, don't look for this news on Conspiracy Bull Shit, either.)
Join us next time for more UFO and paranormal news from around the world. With any luck, we might be able to get our from the UFO Files feature section up and running again. Until then, have a great week!
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1999 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news stories from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
