UFO ROUNDUP Volume 5 Number 21
Volume 5
Number 21
May 25, 2000
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
CHUPACABRA STRIKES AGAIN IN CHILE
Chupacabras struck again last week at two locked henhouses in Lebu Alto, a farm village on the outskirts of the city of Concepcion, which is 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Santiago de Chile, the national capital.
According to the Chilean newspaper Diario El Sur, "The attacks occurred in two different locations, and in both, witnesses claim having seen a beast with similar characteristics. The attacks on the henhouses in the Lebu commune by an unknown being bolsters the existence of the mythic 'Chupacabras' in the area, more specifically in the province of Arauco."
"In the early morning hours yesterday (Saturday, May 13, 2000) in the Lebu Alto section, two families claimed to have been victims of strange events which caused the deaths of 24 hens."
"The event, confirmed by the Lebu Carabineros (Chile's national police--J.T.) took place at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning.when an unidentified resident heard a noise in her henhouse. Getting out of bed and going outside, she found that her dogs were calm--even fearful-- despite the fact that something was going on in the henhouse. As she approached the gate, she told police, she managed to see a rounded figure jump away from the chicken coop and go around the base of a nearby hill," the Cerro La Cruz. "Upon entering the henhouse, the witness confirmed that 17 of her 19 hens were dead with visible signs of tearing."
"Shortly afterward, the chicken coop of a neighboring farm was also attacked, and another resident gave a similar account. At 8 a.m., the Carabineros were notified of these events. Police elements reported to the scene and verified the animals' deaths. The carcasses were collected and sent to Concepcion for further analysis."
In its May 15, 2000 edition, Cronica, the other newspaper of Concepcion, made the claim that three Chupacabras had been captured by the Chilean army near a local copper mine and turned over to the custody of agents of the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Cronica reported, "Radio Padahuel and (TV) Channel 13 transmitted news reports indicating that a family of strange creatures--possible 'Chupacabras'--had been found by military personnel in the vicinity of the Radomiro Tomic (copper) mine within the Second Region."
"According to information provided by Radio Pudahuel, it was a female, a male and a cub--a story which has the ring of The X-Files around it--and were delivered to agents of the USA's FBI agency which arrived at Calama from Santiago (where the USA federal police have an office in their embassy) The creatures quietly would have been taken to the USA"
"No further mention of the event was made, but police sources told Cronica that the capture of the specimens was real and that everything had transpired as was originally told" on Radio Pudahuel. (See Diario El Sur for May 14, 2000 and Cronica for May 15, 2000. Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros, Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico y tambien Gloria Coluchi para esas historias.)
(Editor's Comment: If the report about the Radomiro Tomic mine is true, then this is the third report we've seen this year of a "secret team," either FBI or NASA, hunting for aliens in South America. See UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 5 and 20 for the earlier stories.)
MYSTERIOUS BLACK PANTHER SIGHTED IN ITALY
Italian ufologists are investigating reports of a large black panther said to have killed and mutilated livestock in the province of Tarquinia, 110 kilometers (66 miles) north of Rome.
"In Tarquinia, numerous reports of a ferocious animal, said by some to be a panther, have circulated." In late February, "a cow was found dead in a field 1.5 kilometers from a stock breeding farm located just south of Aurelia Bis. The animal had been in the field for two or three days. The flesh had been stripped from its bones, and all that remained was the spine. People in the area continually talk about the problem."
"The last sighting was on the border with Tuscania (Italy's Tuscany province--J.T.) Umberto Angelini was horseback riding in a farm area near Pisciarello when he spotted the strange creature a considerable distance away."
According to Commandante Amorevole of the local Carabineri (Italy's national police--J.T.), "'Angelini was a good distance away, not in close proximity to the animal. He was about 400 meters away from the field, and he saw a great black animal--a beast able to rip the flesh right off the carcass of any animal weighing 60 kilograms and carrying it away..'"
The Carabineri "excluded the possibility of the animal being an escaped lion or tiger. They also excluded as the culprit a selection of other known predators." (Grazie a Alfredo Lissoni di Centro Ufologico Nazionale d'Italia per questo rapporto.)
MOTORIST ENCOUNTERS A RED UFO IN AUSTRALIA
In early April 2000, a 35-year-old man "was driving towards Paraburdoo, north of the Tropic of Capricorn and just south of Karratha and Port Hedland in the Hamersley (Mountain) Range" in the state of Western Australia when he encountered a UFO.
""He was driving at night and saw a red light ahead of him. The light paced his car no matter what speed he drove at."
"After some time he stopped because he felt that the light was just playing games with him, and because he realized he had bent his steering wheel by gripping it so hard. The light also stopped about 500 metres ahead of him."
"The witness then decided he had had enough so he planted his foot and accelerated toward the light. The red light then rose into the air, changed into a white light and produced a spotlight beam down toward the road. It then went further up into a storm cloud which it seemed to illuminate from the inside for a while, and then it disappeared."
"When the witness reached the next petrol station stop, he asked a lady there if anyone had seen anything similar. At first she seemed reluctant to comment, but then she opened up and said that people had had similar sightings in the area." (Many thanks to ufologist Simon Harley-Wilson and Diane Harrison of the Australian UFO Research Network for this story.)
RADAR SPOTS "GHOST PLANES" IN LAKE MICHIGAN TRIANGLE
For the past five weeks, air traffic controllers at the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois have been seeing images of "ghost planes" on their radar sets, usually in the skies of the Lake Michigan Triangle.
The Triangle is an area of Lake Michigan which runs from Ludington, Michigan south to Benton Harbor, Mich., then across the lake to Manitowoc, Wisconsin and then back to Ludington.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "False radar images have been popping up on the screens of O'Hare International Airport's air traffic controllers, forcing pilots to take sudden turns unnecessarily."
"At least a dozen 'ghost planes' have been reported during the last few weeks, the newspaper said, citing documents from the Terminal Radar Approach Control Center in Elgin, Illinois (population 78,000)."
"Controllers said that at least a few times they have ordered pilots to take sudden turns to avoid what appeared to be planes on their radar, potentially putting passengers at risk."
"'The ghosting is a complete terror for air traffic controllers,' said Charles Bunting, president of the Elgin local the National Air Traffic Controllers Association."
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Tony Molinaro "said there have been 13 ghost images in the last five weeks rather than the usual eight or nine the FA would normally expect in this time period., 'meaning we shall need to look into them.'"
"But Mike Egan, vice president of the controller's union at Elgin, accused the FAA of playing down the problem. 'Maybe 130, but not 13,' Egan said Friday (May 19, 2000). 'We had a couple of them today, as a matter of fact. They know there's a problem.'" (See the Chicago Sun-Times for My 21, 2000. Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Comment: It's possible that the recent upsurge in solar activity is behind this phenomenon. Either causing the "ghost plane" echoes themselves. Or by "opening the Triangle" and allowing the O'Hare radar sets to sweep the skies of the past...or the future.)
DAZZLING UFO SEEN ON LAKE ERIE'S SOUTH SHORE
On Sunday, May 21, 2000, at 11:30 a.m., Sarah M. was at Sheffield Lake, Ohio (population 9,800), a town on the southern shore of Lake Erie, when she spotted a dazzling gleam in the sky.
According to Sarah, the UFO approached from the north, over Lake Erie, and then shot away to the east. She described the object as "a shape about like an oval and a square. It was very bright. I practically had to use sunglasses. Was going slowly but not too slow. Really bright, almost like the sun's rays. It was about 15 feet tall and about 30 feet long, and was about 200 feet (60 meters) above the ground.," with an estimated speed of "about 30 miles per hour on approach and 60 miles per hour flying away."
Sheffield Lake is on Ohio Route 6 approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Cleveland. (Email Form Report)
MORE "BIG WAVE" DREAMS REPORTED BY READERS
UFO Roundup has received more reports from readers about dreams involving a giant tidal wave.
Steven M. had a dream in which he saw a giant tidal wave hitting New York City. He writes, "Funny-- I had the 'tidal wave' dream, too. I was quite surprised to read in UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 18 that others have had the same dream."
"But during my dream, prior to the arrival of the tidal wave, people were watching fireworks. I am skeptical of prophecy and do not consider myself a prophet. Nevertheless, I am a little apprehensive about the Fourth of July."
"P.S. In my dream, after the tidal wave, there were good communities rebuilding in a spirit of cooperation and hope."
Jay S. formerly a resident of Melbourne, dreamed of a giant 1,000-meter-high tidal wave hitting Sydney, Australia. He writes, "More surprising for me to read, while reading your UFO report, were stories of a tidal wave in people's dreams. I, too, have had such a dream."
"It is daytime. It seems to be afternoon, but it is still very light outside, a clear blue sky, and I am inside an apartment, looking toward a picture window with a view out to sea. All I can see is water and the horizon beyond. .Near the window, within the apartment, is my mother."
"Suddenly, I see an enormous wave rise up out of the sea. It is huge and black in colour. It is so big. I instantly realize we are about to die, that there is no possible escape from it. Feeling the sudden surge of fear and helplessness, I crumple to the floor and crawl with hardly any energy into the side hall, where I lay awaiting the wave's dreadful impact. I then wake up!"
"Where did I feel this happened? I remember the dream as being in Sydney, the apartment as being situated on South Head, looking out to sea, probably around Dover Heights or environs. If Dover Heights is correct, then the wave in my dream was enormous, maybe a kilometer in height."
"Let's hope the wave-dream phenomena people are having aren't prophetic ones! Where do I live now? In the mountains of Victoria!"
On Thursday, May 18, 2000, just before 1:45 a.m., your editor had another "weird weather" dream. In this dream I was merely an observer, not a participant.
It was night. I was looking out a window at teeming rain and gale-force winds. I heard a noise and looked up, and I saw the underside of a helicopter. It was a large bulky model with landing skids instead of wheels. The helicopter was about 75 feet directly overhead. I could barely hear its engine in the howling wind. I was very much surprised to see a helicopter up in such rough weather.
The helicopter descended to about 30 feet, directly over the window, and began shining a bright spotlight. My gaze followed the beam across a large plaza filled with people. It was absolute panic. They were running every whichway, bouncing off each other, pushing, shoving and shouting, intent only upon running away.
After a moment, I recognized the place-- the Praca Guerra in Diamantina, a mountain city in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Windblown orange roof tiles shattered against the stone walls of the Cathedral of Santo Antonio. Hurricane winds bent the royal palm trees almost double.
I knew something was very wrong. Hurricanes rarely go that far down into the South Atlantic. And Diamantina is high up in the Serra do Espinhaco, about 220 kilometers (132 miles) north of Belo Horizonte. Having a hurricane there is as unlikely as having one in Denver, Colorado, USA.
All at once, army trucks pull up in front of the Banco do Brasil, and out come the soldiers. They are wearing black raingear and blue helmets. But they're carrying automatic rifles, not riot batons and plastic shields.
Seeing them, the civilians stampede out of the plaza, heading up the Rua Quintanda. The people are terrified. Officers shout orders, and the troops fall in, forming two-man columns. And I wake up. Check the clock--1:45 a.m. Grab the notebook and jot down the details.
Now I haven't been to Diamantina in 22 years. Ana Maria and I visited the town in 1978, toured the homes of Xica da Silva and former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek, and saw the caverns of Gruta da Salitre, rumored to be the entryway into the "Inner World." I can't understand why it would figure so prominently in my dreams.
If this was indeed a "dream of the Last Days," Diamantina could be in for a rough time in the future.
PEOPLE'S RALLY AT GROOM LAKE SET FOR JUNE 6
An expected 300 to 500 concerned citizens are expected to gather at the Area 51-Groom Lake facility south of Rachel, Nevada on Tuesday, June 6, 2000.
The rally will begin at 6 a.m. at the restricted boundary line on Groom Lake Road in Lincoln County, Nevada, and will last about three hours.
The Area 51 People's Rally was started by Norio Hayakawa of Torrance, California to protest USA federal government secrecy around the Groom Lake Test Facility and the environmental and other damage that may have been done to workers at the facility.
(Editor's Note: In 1999, President Clinton issued an executive order exempting Area 51 and the Groom Lake contractors from any liabilities stemming from violation of USA environmental laws.)
Hayakawa has recently retired from Area 51 research and has passed on his mission to Joerg Arnu, a part-time resident of Rachel, Nevada.. Arnu is also the webmaster for Dreamland Resort, the official home page of Rachel's well-known establishment, The Little Ale-e-Inn.
Rally organizers will hold a press conference at The Little Ale-e-Inn in Rachel on Monday, June 5. That evening, there will be a camp-out at the border of the restricted Groom Lake facility for those who will be attending the rally at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. (Many thanks to Norio Hayakawa for this news release.)
SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ON FLIGHT TO RENDEZVOUS WITH ISS
"After a month's delay, space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts rocketed away" from Cape Canaveral Friday, May 19, 2000, "on a mission to fix the international space station (ISS)."
"The shuttle lifted off in a spectacular dawn launch, its exhaust plumes glowing as the sun peeked out over the Atlantic" The shuttle's "two spent solid-rocket boosters painted parallel pink streaks in the sky as they tumbled into the ocean."
On early Sunday morning, May 21, 2000, Atlantis "docked at the unfinished $60 billion outpost," the International Space Station. "After eight hours of sleep, the seven Atlantis astronauts began making preparations for the riskiest portions of their docked operations."
"Astronauts Jeff Williams and James Voss ventured out of the shuttle about 10 p.m. Sunday to begin work on the outside of the seven-story station."
Construction tasks for the mission include repair of a USA-made 209-pound crane whose base has loosened since it was first installed a year ago; assembly of the Russian-built 45-foot (14-meter) telescoping construction boom; replacement of a faulty communications antenna; and installation of various cables and handrails for future spacewalkers.
This is the first space mission for rookie Jeff Williams. Other crew members include Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms and Mary Ellen Weber, who operates the shuttle's 90-foot robot arm. Helms is expected to return to the space station in February 2001 as a member of the first permanent crew.
"During five days of docked operations, mission commander James Halsell and pilot Scott Horowitz will use the shuttle's thrusters to boost" the space station's orbit to about 235 miles (376 kilometers).
Due to recent surges in solar activity, the space station's orbit had fallen to only 208 miles (332 kilometers), and boosting the station into a higher orbit is a mission priority. (See the Milwaukee, Wis. Journal-Sentinel for May 20, 2000, "Shuttle Atlantis finally lifts off," page 4 and USA Today for may 22, 2000, "Shuttle starts repair mission to space station," page 3A.)
from the UFO Files...
1972: UTAH'S MYSTERIOUS GADIANTON CANYON
One of the strangest Highway Space Warp (HSW) cases took place in southeastern Utah near the railroad crossing of Modena, on the edge of the Escalante Desert.
There's a slickrock canyon just north of Modena that bears the name of Gadianton. It's a name that brings a shudder to God-fearing Latter-Day Saints.
"Among the freighters who hauled supplies to Pioche (Nevada) in the seventies (1870s--J.T.) there grew up a legend that a rocky gorge near the Nevada Line was haunted by the Gadianton robbers, a terroristic brotherhood which the Book of Mormon explains as having sprung up among the Nephites and Lamanites in the century before Christ."
The Gadiantons were a mysterious sect of assassins quite similar to the Bruder Schweigen of Germany or the Crna Ruka of Yugoslavia.
"Wide-eyed freighters told tales of rocks closing the way, and of the canyon folding up to entrap them."
Eventually the old Gadianton tales were forgotten in Utah's Iron County. Until May of 1972, when four coeds from Southern Utah University (SUU) were driving back to their dorm in Cedar City after spending Saturday at a local rodeo in Pioche. (All names have been changed to protect the witnesses' confidentiality--J.T.)
Janna North had the wheel of her father's 1971 Chevrolet Nova, and Carol Abbott was in the passenger seat. Sitting in the back seat were Lisa Rochefort and Bethany Gordon. It was after 10 p.m. when the girls crossed the Utah-Nevada state line nine miles (14 kilometers) east of Modena. And they were anxious to get back to the campus before their housemother, Mrs. Mortensen, locked the dorm doors.
That stretch of Utah Highway 56 is pretty desolate, all sand and sagebrush and ocotillo and Spanish bayonet, with the red sandstone bluffs on the northern horizon. So the girls were pretty happy when they finally spotted the Union Pacific railroad crossing at Modena. But just past the rails, Janna noticed something strange. Two sets of blacktop highway headed off into the desert--one veered sharply to the southeast, the other shooting northeast toward the canyon country further north.
"Which one do we take?" asked Carol.
"Left," Janna said. She knew that Cedar City was 46 miles (73 kilometers) to the northeast, and she guessed that the canyon road would bring them home much sooner.
Five minutes later, the Chevy entered the red-rock canyon. Janna, who had been chatting with her friends, suddenly noticed that the car's headlights were shining more brightly on the pavement. Looking closer, she let out a gasp. The white centerline was gone. Instead of black asphalt, they were driving on white cement..
"Janna, up ahead!" Carol exclaimed.
Janna gasped. The highway ended abruptly at a rocky cliff face. Janna stepped down hard on the brake pedal. Fishtailing slightly, the Chevy screeched to a stop in front of the cliff.
"Oh, great! A dead end!" Putting the gear into reverse, Janna swung the car's nose around. "You'd think they'd put up a few warning signs."
"Now we've got to go all the way back to Modena," Bethany complained.
"We're never going to make curfew," Lisa said.
"We'll make good time once we're back on the state highway," Janna assured them.
Tense minutes passed. Janna began to feel uneasy. They were still rolling along, hemmed in by red canyon walls. But they should have been back out in the open desert by this time.
The canyon gradually gave way to open country. The girls gasped. Instead of moonlit desert, they saw grain fields on the right and a large like, with stands of ponderosa pine, on the left.
Carol looked around in awe. "This sure ain't Modena!"
"We must've gotten turned around back there," Janna said, her gaze darting back and forth. "Where the hell are we?"
Up ahead Janna spied a roadhouse (tavern--J.T.) and an adjacent parking lot. It seemed to have a neon sign, but she couldn't red it. What should have been letters were brightly-lit squiggles and curlycues. Some men came out of the building.
"There are some guys," Carol said.
Bethany let out a giggle. "Are they cute?"
"Let's find out." Lisa began rolling down the rear passenger window.
"Lisa! We don't have time for this," Janna said.
"Relax!" Hastily she touched up her lipstick. "I'm only going to ask them how to get back to the highway."
As Janna slowed down, she noticed a good deal of consternation among the men. As if they'd been startled by some unknown animal. Sticking her head out the window, Lisa said, "Hi! We're--" And she let out a terrified scream.
"Lisa! What--!?" Janna turned in her seat.
"Get out of here!" the girl screamed, frantically rolling up the window. "Punch it, Jana!"
Bethany shrieked, "Step on it!"
Tires sitting sand, the Chevy zoomed away from the building. Janna stepped down hard on the gas pedal. The lake flew by on her left.
"Oh, my God! They're coming after us!" Bethany shouted. "Janna, faster!"
Janna glanced in her rear-view mirror, and what she saw turned her blood to ice. They were being chased, but not by any vehicle that had ever been built in Detroit.
Four queer-looking automobiles followed in their wake. Egg-shaped vehicles mounted on tricycle wheels. That is, with two large wheels in the front and a smaller wheel in the rear. A single bright white headlight shone from the front of each pursuing "car." They made a strange whirring or buzzing sound as they rolled along.
"Janna, go faster! They're gaining on us!"
Ahead the road led back into a red-rock canyon. Janna's Chevy plunged into it at 80 miles per hour. The road was so narrow, it seemed to hem them in. The Chevy's tires kicked up a billowing cloud of dust. They could no longer see their pursuers.
Minutes later, they roared out of the canyon, back into the familiar desert. All at once, the road vanished. The headlights showed nothing but sagebrush and ocotillo. The Chevy bucked and jostled like a wild bronc. Janna hit the brakes. Too late! The car sideskidded down an arroyo and came to rest at the bottom.
Shaking uncontrollably, the girls emerged from the car. Miraculously they were unhurt. The Chevy took the worst of it, with three flat tires, numerous dings in the front bumper and a missing hubcap. Jenna took one look and clapped both hands to her forehead. "Oh, no-no-no! My dad's going to kill me!"
Lisa, however, was near-hysterical. She sat on the ground, hugging the knees of her bell- bottom blue jeans, weeping and moaning, She kept mumbling, "They-they weren't human..."
The girls stayed with the car until sunrise. Then they walked a couple of miles due south. Boy, were they glad when they found the familiar blacktop of Highway 56. An hour later, they flagged down a cruiser of the Utah Highway Patrol and told their story.
Trooper Vic Lundquist, who investigated the case, noted several circumstances that were never adequately explained.
(1) There were no tire tracks showing where the Chevy had left Highway 56 in Modena.
(2) Tire tracks from the wrecked Chevy extended only 200 yards back into the desert and ended abruptly.
(3) No one could explain how the Chevy had gotten nearly two miles north of Highway 56 without leaving any physical trace of its passage through the rough desert terrain.
(4) Although volunteers searched diligently, no trace of the Chevy's right front hubcap was ever found.
If Utah's Gadianton Canyon is, as some people claim, a gateway to another dimension, then perhaps Janna's missing hubcap is a prime exhibit--an "alien artifact"--on display in a museum on that parallel Earth. (See the book Utah: A Guide to the State by Hastings House Publishers, New York, N.Y., 1945, page 298.)
Today's Quote: "If God had wanted me to exercise, he would have put diamonds on the ground." Joan Rivers.
