UFO ROUNDUP Volume 6 Number 10
Volume 6
Number 10
March 8, 2001
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
MALAYSIAN MAN GETS SHANGHAIED INTO SPACE
A 45-year-old man in Malaysia vanished on Tuesday evening, February 20, 2001, and his wife and family say he was abducted by aliens.
"A woman told police" in Tambunan, Keningan district, Malaysia "that her husband became 'invisible' right before her eyes and has not been seen since he vanished."
"Keningan district police chief, Deputy Superintendent Abdul Hadi Baharudin, confirmed that the report was lodged by a housewife who said her husband, hospital attendant Yabi Gistubod, 45, had gone missing."
"However, he declined to give details of the police report saying that they only have been confirmed as a missing-persons case."
"'Like all missing-persons cases, we have flashed the information to all OCPDs (local Malaysian police departments--J.T.) and are seeking the help of the village committee to help track Yabi,' he said."
"Mainis Gampat, mother of eight children, claimed that Yabi suddenly became invisible and vanished into thin air before her eyes just before dinner on" Tuesday, February 20, 2001.
"'We haven't been able to locate him since then,' she told reporters at her home in Kampung Kepayan Baru."
"She claimed that it was the second time her husband had disappeared."
"In the last incident, which occurred two days before his second disappearance (i.e. Sunday, February 18, 2001--J.T.) Mainis said Yabi was found sitting in a bush in a stupor. They sent him for a medical checkup, and he was found to be in good health."
"Yabi's brother-in-law, Mahat Kulimpang, said Yabi had spoken to him of an encounter with a man whom he claimed as an 'alien' with a square body."
"'Yabi told me that the alien wanted him to go to a strange place,' Mahat said."
"He (the alien--J.T.) claimed that Yabi had always wanted to go to that place."
"'The night before Yabi disappeared, he was wearing white, and his feet were not touching the ground. When I touched his shirt, it slowly turned black and he soon passed out,' claimed Mahat, who seemed puzzled by the phenomenon."
"Police, however, are not ready to comment on the family memb statements, saying only that they were searching for Yabi."
The case took a strange twist 11 days later, on Friday night, March 2, 2001 when Yabi suddenly returned--just as mysteriously as he had left.
""A man whose family claimed he was abducted by aliens has returned home after 11 days."
Yabi "was seen walking toward his home in Kampung Kepayan Baru as dogs broke out barking at 10:30 p.m. on Friday."
"He keeps his eyes closed most of the time and communicates with his wife, Mainis, in sign language."
"Doctors found him physically well and have referred him for psychiatric treatment. He is currently under observation in the district hospital."
"'I thank God he is back. I thank everyone who helped in the search for my husband,' said Mainis, who reported to police that her husband vanished right in front of her eyes after dinner on February 20."
Deputy Supt. Abdul Hadi Baharudin "said yesterday (Sunday, March 4, 2001) that they would record Yabi's statement after he completed his medical treatment."
"'We are happy that he was found. We don't know where he went or why he left but he seemed to have returned the same way he left,' " Baharudin said.
According to Baharudin, "family members told Tambunan police that they heard dogs barking and on checking they found Yabi coming out of a forested area, about 150 meters (500 feet) from his house."
"Yabi was wearing the same white shirt and trousers he was last seen in, police said."
(See the Malaysian newspaper The Star for February 27, 2001, "Wife sees husband 'vanish.'" and for March 5, 2001, "Man who 'vanished' reappears near home." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for forwarding these newspaper articles.)
(Editor's Comment: Welcome to Alien Week at UFO Roundup. Don't go away, readers. There are more ETs to come.)
CHILEAN COUPLE'S FIRST DATE TURNS INTO AN ENCOUNTER WITH ALIENS
A couple's first date turned into a terrifying encounter with two aliens on the outskirts of the city of Angol in Chile.
Forest technician Ingrid Amalia Sperperg Sepulveda, 26, of Angol, and Patricio Andres Vallejos, 26, who lives in La Serena, first met in a chat room. On Friday, February 16, 2001, Patricio "accepted her invitation and told her that he would arrive on the 8:30 p.m. bus."
Meanwhile, Ingrid asked one of her workmates, a 40-year-old Angol woman who declined to be identified in the newspaper, if she would serve as the couple's chauffeur that evening. The woman agreed and drove Ingrid to the bus station in her car.
"After driving around the city for a while, they decided to go to a lookout located on the outskirts of the city to show the visitor (Patricio) an interesting sight--a beautiful view of Angol, its lights blazing in the night."
"At around 10:55 p.m., they reached the location known as El Mirador, one kilometer (0.6 miles) to the southeast of Angol, and known to local residents as Las Pinas."
The overlook encompasses a small cliffside park with a driveway and parking lot paved with riprap stones.
"Unlike other nights, there were no other vehicles in the vicinity, , only the immensity of the wilderness and the starry sky lit with a gibbous moon. The driver parked her vehicle four meters (13 feet) away from an iron gate adorned with cartwheels, which guards the entrance to a field studded with pine and eucalyptus trees.."
Leaving the vehicle, "Ingrid and Patricio walked some 20 meters (66 feet) to the place from which it is possible to see Angol at night, while the driver waited beside her vehicle. "
"Looking toward the field, Ingrid and Patricio could see a white light rising in a vertical line 150 meters (500 feet) away. At first the couple thought the light was level with the ground, but then they realized that it was at a 45 degree elevation."
"The woman who had remained beside the car then joined the couple, and the trio witnessed that the beam of light spread open like a fan, displaying an orange hue at the base, yellow further up, re, then red and finally the upper stage in a soft violet tone."
"'It lit up everything for some 40 meters (132 feet) around. The iron gate, all the depressions, the green of the trees and shrubs could clearly be seen,' the witnesses said."
"In its fan-like position, the object began to move slowly in a horizontal direction, without varying its lights. The witnesses were able to behold the phenomenon for three or four minutes."
"'I was quite frightened at the time. My friends enjoyed the whole spectacle but I felt fear and went back to the car. I don't like seeing strange things, and I'm skeptical about UFOs,' Ingrid said."
"While she was in the car, Ingrid tried to light a cigarette but her nervousness kept her from doing so. Seeing her nervousness, the vehicle's owner returned to the car and spoke to her. She tried to open the front right door but the dome light wouldn't work. She had to turn it on manually,' Ingrid said."
"While the event occurred, Patricio and the driver had remained outside the vehicle, and they had heard a sound similar to two bells, which repeated itself with a certain regularity. After the UFO vanished, all three friends began to discuss" what had just occurred.
"'I insisted that we should go home. Patricio tried to calm me down, saying that it was all over. Patricio asked me to come out of the car, and after getting out I stood to the right of the car. My friend (the driver) stood to the left,' Ingrid recalled."
While they talked about the UFO, Ingrid "heard a noise similar to the sound of metal being dragged across riprap. 'That's when I looked up, and behind the iron gate were two figures. They were 1.6 meters (5 feet, 2 inches) tall, dark and slight. They weren't walking. They were dragging themselves along.'"
"'The beings' faces, hands and legs couldn't be seen, and they resembled shadows, with a tunic that covered their slight bodies.'"
"'When I saw them, I looked at Patricio, who was about to ask what was happening. At first I thought it must be people as I struggled to find a rational explanation as to what was going on. I heard the sound of metal. I'm sure the figure on the left carried something strange, two metallic rods, but I don't know what they were.,' said Ingrid."
"The beings stopped about a meter behind the gate, and at that moment, the one of the left phased through the gate and into the presence" of Patricio, Ingrid and the driver. The small alien "then did a walk-around, turned around and re-entered the field. After it rejoined the other being, the two entities turned around and walked away down the riprap road" leading back into the field.
"After they had walked about two meters, the vehicle's owner turned on the car's high beams (headlights--J.T.) but the entities had already disappeared as if they had made themselves invisible to the car's lights." Although the event "left her speechless, Ingrid 'told Patricio and my friend to please get us back home.'"
"While none of the witnesses communicated with the entities, the women claim having heard the entity" that came beyond the gate "making noises similar to speech. The witnesses also agree that a strange element raised the local temperature and made them feel extremely warm. 'It was as if the heat was concentrated in the space where we stood,' Ingrid said."
"A further detail was added--an odd smell, like burning wiring, filled the air." (See the newspaper Diario de Temuco for February 25, 2001, "A shocking UFO encounter!" Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico y tambien Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo de diario.)
(Editor's Comment: Next time, Patricio, take her to see The Wedding Planner.)
GIANT ALIEN FRIGHTENS AN ELDERLY COUPLE IN CHILE
Ancient ruins, willow and eucalyptus trees dot the Butaco Valley. Over the past few months, UFOs have been seen in that location, to the north of Angol, with unusual frequency."
"Pedro Rivas drives his horse-drawn wagon at 6:30 in the morning and at 10 o'clock at night for the past three years. But a month ago, as he drove along, he witnessed an incredible sight."
"'There was an enormous thing in the sky that lit up the entire valley. It was orange in color. My horse was spooked, although no noise whatsoever could be heard. The thing was very large and moved very high u. I think it was a thousand meters up,'" Rivas said.
"The 42-year-old sharecropper states that there was another (UFO) incident last month."
"Not far from there, Armando Ulises recalls that late last year (December 2000) he was 'near the willows, by the river bank' with other people when they witnessed three gigantic circular objects one evening. The unknown objects formed a very bright triangle as they traveled."
"'I've only seen it once, but it can't be a satellite or a star, because how are they going to send three satellites into space in such an exact position? I don't think it was a star, either, because the objects were no more than 600 meters (1,890 feet) high.'"
"Seven kilometers (4 miles) into the Butaco Valley is a sparsely-populated area and one soon reaches a tiny white wooden chapel. Behind it dwells Maria Concha Rivas de Husiquil, 77, who doesn't like to discuss the oddities she's seen ."
"'Since 1968 we've seen these lights in the sky, but for a long time we thought we were just seeing things. The last time, my husband and I saw the shape of a giant humanoid about three meters (10 feet) tall. We saw him in a straight line from the house down by the riverside.,' Sra. Husiquil said, 'We didn't dare take a closer look because it frightened us, and we went back inside the house.'"
"Her husband, 84-year-old Mario Husiquil, held his head in his hands and mumbled, 'We don't know what it was, but it was as large as a giant. It frightened us, and we went straight to bed. All of the people around here have seen something strange.'"
"According to the locals, there is a large circular imprint--left behind by a UFO--on one of the local mountainsides. Local researchers are preparing an expedition to find this location, which is at some point" in the foothills of the Andes. (See the newspaper Las Ultimas Noticias for March 2, 2001, "Local residents share strange experiences: Fireballs seen in Butaco." Otra vez, muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi, y gracias especiales a Rodrigo Cuadra para eso articulo de diario.)
"EARTHQUAKE SEASON" HITS FULL STRIDE IN SEATTLE
The (USA's) Pacific Northwest was rocked Wednesday," February 28, 2001, "by the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in 52 years., a 40-second-long tremor that shattered windows, crumbled bricks and buckled pavements across Seattle, and cracked the (state) Capitol dome in Olympia, a dozen miles (19 kilometers) south of the quake's epicenter."
It was the worst earthquake on the USA's Pacific Ocean coastline since the Northridge, California quake of 1994.
About 400 people "were injured, and officials said property damage could run into billions of dollars. The quake, which struck at 10:54 a.m., sent a wave of fright through schools and offices."
"The U.S. Geological Survey said the" earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and caused "buildings in downtown Portland, Oregon, 175 miles (285 kilometers) south of Seattle, to sway for nearly 30 seconds."
In downtown Seattle, bricks fell from the roof of the Starbucks World Headquarters building, crushing cars in the street below.
About 30 people were trapped in the restaurant atop the Space Needle. Rescuers freed them a few hours later.
"'Within seconds the whole building was swaying back and forth and everyone was yelling, 'Get under your desk!' said Novella Carpenter, a 28-year-old editor at Sasquatch Books, who works on the second floor of a brick office building" in downtown Seattle.
"'From under my desk, I watched a hail of concrete, rock chips, bricks and plaster falling from the upper floors. Afterwards, we all went out into the street and moved to an open space. We were afraid of aftershocks."
In Olympia, Wash., the shock chewed up sidewalks, sending individual blocks poking one meter (3 feet) into the air. "At the Capitol building in Olympia, Maureen Walsh, a Republican legislative assistant, watched a large crack spread across her boss's wall. 'I think what frightened me the most is to realize that this massive building we are in is all marble and stone and it was literally just jumping up and down,' she said."
On Saturday, March 3, 2001, engineers announced that the Capitol roof was very unstable and the building "is uninhabitable."
"The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport sustained structural damage at its control tower and at one of its satellite terminals." The airport was closed for a few hours, and flights were diverted to Portland, Ore. and Spokane, Wash.
Robert Ashton, a Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines pilot, was taking a shower in a downtown Seattle motel when the earthquake hit."
"'It was fairly strong. I knew right away what it was,' said Ashton, a 14-year pilot who divides his time between Washington state and the Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota The quake "felt almost like an airplane in moderate turbulence.'"
In Everett, Wash., north of Seattle, "Tom Doley was at his desk using a phone in an office building on the ground floor. 'I saw the floor move a little bit and then they told us all to evacuate the building,' he said, 'We were out in the street for about 20 minutes' and then it was 'business as usual.'"
"Cindy Haveman was driving her truck with her two children when the earthquake struck. 'My truck rocked around as if it were on waves and then rolled. I couldn't believe it,' said Haveman, 23, of Ferndale, Wash., about 19 miles (16 kilometers) north of Seattle. Her two children were not hurt."
"In Renton, Wash., 10 miles south of Seattle, Shannon Mediskey, 25, was at her desk designing Web pages for a software company when the quake hit."
"''The carpet was rolling like it was water,' she said, 'I ran to a doorway.'"
Two strong earthquakes also struck in Central America right after the Seattle quake.
"An earthquake that measured 6.0 on the Richter scale struck the center of El Salvador Wednesday," February 28, 2001. "The quake destroyed more buildings in San Pedro Nonualco," which was heavily hit by an earthquake only four days earlier on Saturday, February 24, 2001."
The following day, Thursday, March 1, 2001, "an earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale rattled a jungle area at 8:35 p.m. According to the Instituto de Seismologia de Panama, the epicenter was located in the Kuna Yala zona indigena (Indian reservation), located 125 kilometers (75 miles) west of Balboa, Panama. The quake collapsed rural houses and toppled tall trees and caused about 205 injuries and one death." (See the newspapers Seattle Times, Tacoma News-Tribune, The Olympian of Olympia, Wash., USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Wisconsin State Journal for March 1, 2001. Also the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for March 4, 2001. Tambem, muito obrigado aos Visitantes Cosmicas por esas informacoes sobre os terremotos em El Salvador e Panama.)
UFOs VISITED TROUT LAKE PRIOR TO THE QUAKE
Two UFOs visited the Self-Mastery Earth Institute a couple of days prior to the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that rocked the state of Washington.
The institute in Trout Lake, Wash., located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Portland, Ore. has been the site of many UFO encounters during the year 2000. The institute is located right in the middle of the earthquake zone.
Ranch owner James A. Gilliland reported, "Due to the clouds, rain, snow and subzero temperatures on Mount Adams, there had not been any sightings lately. But that all changed" Sunday night, February 25, 2001 "when we saw at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night, a very large red-colored object flew over and hovered at around 2,000 feet (600 meters). It was silent, brilliant red and when we signaled it, the object hovered directly over the main lodge."
Although the UFO did not communicate with them or provide any sort of explicit warning about the impending earthquake, Gilliland said the object's motions were "unsettling."
"Not a good sign," he reported, "The brilliant craft, from our understanding, is one that we try to avoid if possible. There were real strange energies all that night, and things did not feel right."
(Editor's Comment: Very interesting! Could the psychics and sensitives at the institute have possibly tuned in on the tectonic stresses building 30 miles (48 kilometers) beneath their feet, deep within the earth?)
"On Monday night, February 26, 2001, , again around 8 p.m., we were outside due to a telepathic signal." The psychics were "feeling a benevolent presence in the area. We looked straight up over the main lodge and saw a very large golden-white object, larger than the first (the red UFO--J.T.) coming in from the north. directly from Mount Adams. It was at a lower elevation, about 1,500 feet . It went directly over the main lodge and then disappeared in the exact location as the earlier object."
(Editor's Note: UFO Roundup received Mr. Gilliland's report 24 hours before the Seattle earthquake.)
Other psychics and seers also successfully predicted the quake.
New Age psychic Veronica Woodruff of Vermont predicted the Seattle earthquake back in August 2000. Veronica had a vision of a newspaper headline reading EARTHQUAKE ROCKS SEATTLE, followed by a terrifying vision of the city's Space Needle swaying back and forth like the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival (fun fair in UK--J.T.) while people were screaming.
At a motel-based revival meeting in the USA's Upper Midwest in October 1999, evangelical Christian seers of the Prophecy Club, based in Topeka, Kansas, had visions of "a strong earthquake in the Seattle area, causing billions of dollars of damage."
And in 1985, another evangelical, Pastor Langford, saw "a powerful Northwest earthquake." (Many thanks to James A. Gilliland. Also to Veronica Woodruff. See also The Prophecy Club broadcast for October 14, 1999 and the Call to Prophecy broadcast for September 22, 2000.)
(Editor's Comment: Maybe we should have a Nostradamus Awards ceremony, like the Oscars, to honor the year's most accurate prophets.)
SMALL METEOR HITS A GARDEN IN YORK, UK
A small meteor struck the ground in the city of York in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, February 28, 2001.
"The small meteorite landed in the back garden of a house in York. Police said it left a hole one foot (0.3 meters) wide and three feet (0.9 meters) deep Officials from the Yorkshire Museum have inspected the hole and confirmed that the object is a meteorite."
"According to North Yorkshire police, a woman was out walking her dog in the Hopgrove section of York when she heard a loud explosion, followed by a rush of air and then saw a smoking crater in a field opposite the (Motorway) A64."
"Sylvia Mercer was out walking her dog when she heard a strange banging noise" just before the meteor hit. (See BBC News for February 28, 2001. Many thanks to Martin Montague for this item.)
DAZZLING UFO SIGHTED OVER DENVER, COLORADO
On Sunday, February 25, 2001, Elizabeth Wilson saw a bright UFO near Cheeseman Park in Denver, Colorado.
"I live in a 12-story highrise (apartment building--J.T.) about 25 blocks from downtown Denver," she reported, "My place is across from Cheeseman Park. I went upstairs at 7:10 p.m., out onto the roof. And the sky was so clear you could see many stars. I was just about to go back inside and was looking straight ahead over the east end of the park when right before my eyes appeared a UFO. The object was about two blocks away, also a whitish-blue light that burst into being. I would say it was the size of maybe two small helicopters. It hovered only momentarily and then it streaked in a very straight line due west. When it was about 15 to 20 blocks west of the park, it disappeared completely and as instantaneously as it had first appeared." (Email Form Report)
COUPLE SPOTS CHEMTRAILS IN SOUTHERN INDIANA
On Monday, February 26, 2001, at 2 p.m., Sandra Douglas and her husband were outdoors on their farm near Sparta, Indiana (population 300), about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Cincinnati, Ohio, when they spotted crisscrossing thick contrails in the clear blue sky.
"My husband and I saw all these little filaments coming down," she told radio host Lou Lyons. "It was almost like angel hair. They sprayed across a large area."
She described the aircraft as "a small dark jet," possibly a commercial jet like the Gulfstream.
"I'd like to know what's going on. There was a strong smell, too. It's very scary, believe me." (Lyons Magnetic Therapy Hour broadcast for February 27, 2001.
NEAR SENDS ITS LAST SIGNAL FROM EROS
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft "which landed on Eros February 12, 2001," concluded its mission on Friday, March 2, 2--1 "after a two-week mission extension to gather bonus scientific data from the space rock's surface."
"NEAR sent its last piece of information to NASA's Deep Space Network Wednesday, February 28, ending a five-year voyage that exceeded all expectations."
"'This mission has been successful far beyond what was in the original mission plan,' mission director Robert Farquhar said."
"Besides orbiting the asteroid for a year, NEAR also got photos of another asteroid--Mathilde--and was the first (Earth) spacecraft to land on an asteroid."
'All this at no extra cost,' said Farquhar, who is based at John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. 'When you talk about 'faster, cheaper, better,' this is 'better.''"
"The $223 million mission, launched in 1996, was expected to end after its year-long circling of the 21-mile-long (34-kilometer-long) asteroid, over 196 million miles (315 million kilometers) from Earth."
"Not only did the craft land gently enough that its solar panels continued to operate, but it continued to send back data to Earth," which allowed NASA scientists "to receive more data from the spacecraft's Gamma Ray Spectrometer." (Many thanks to Steve Wilson for this NASA news release.)
AREA 51 PLAYS HOST TO BIG ALLIED AIR MANEUVERS
Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base, Groom Lake, better known as Area 51, and the Tonopah Bombing Range will host the biggest Allied air maneuvers in years, Exercise Red Flag 01-3.
The exercise will be divided into three training periods, each one lasting about two weeks. Following morning class work, pilots from the participating countries fly missions from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. over the mountain and desert terrain of southeastern Nevada.
Red Flag 01-3 involves 120 fighter aircraft and 7,000 personnel from the six participating countries, plus support cargo aircraft and helicopters.
Fighter squadrons involved in the training missions include squadrons from the U.S. Air Force, the UK's Royal Air Force, France's Armee de l'Air, Germany's Luftwaffe, Spain's Fuerza Aerea de Espana and the Singapore Air Force.
According to Norio Hayakawa of Groom Watch, "Residents of the Las Vegas Valley and east of Area 51 are witnessing an increase of military aircraft during the operation," which began on Saturday, March 3, 2001.
This week's exercises include USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-15 Eagles, B-52 Stratofortress bombers, E-2 Sentries and KC-135 Stratotankers. Allied aircraft include RAF GR-7 Harriers from UK, EF-18 Hornets from Spain, Tornados from Germany and F-16s from Singapore.
"The best viewing for the exercises is at the rear (north) fate of Area 51," Hayakawa added. (Many thanks to Norio Hayakawa for this news story.)
IN MEMORIAM
DESMOND LESLIE, AUTHOR AND PILOT
Desmond Leslie, author of Flying Saucers Have Landed, passed away at his home in the south of France last weekend. He was 79.
Leslie came by his interest in the paranormal early in life. He was born in Castle Leslie, near Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland. The castle "is said to be the most haunted in Ireland and is best known to researchers of the paranormal for its levitating bed."
He attended Trinity College, Dublin. When World War Two broke out in 1929, he joined the RAG and became fighter pilot. His military career was a little less than spectacular, though. During the war, he crashed two Supermarine Spitfires and one Hawker Hurricane. "Famous for his aerial pranks, he was court-martialed for flying under a bridge and for clipping the sign off a pub" with his plane's wingtip.
In the early 1950s, Leslie met George Adamski, the first of the UFO contactees of that era. He questioned Adamski about his experience in California's Mohave Desert in November 1952, and wrote Flying Saucers Have Landed. Published two years later, the book became an international bestseller.
In the 1960s, Leslie continued his paranormal studies and hung out with rock stars Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull. Leslie was married twice, first to stage actress Anne Bernelle and later to Helen Strong, who was with him at the time of his death. During his final days, he told family and friends that he was cheerfully "releasing my atoms to Mother Earth, Goddess Gaia." (See the Irish Independent for March 4, 2001. Many thanks to Chris Rolfe of UFOMEK for forwarding the obituary.)
From the UFO Files...
1932: NORTH CAROLINA'S FIRE POLTERGEIST
A rare but repititive phenomena in the annals of Forteana is the fire poltergeist. This is a series of mysterious fires, usually featuring blue flames, that breaks out spontaneously and repeatedly in a single house or location.
One of the most famous fire poltergeist cases in USA history took place in the small town of Bladenvoro, North Carolina in January 1932.
Mrs. C.W. Williamson, a middle-aged housewife, was wearing a cotton dress, and it suddenly "unaccountably burst into flames. She was not standing anywhere near a heater, fireplace or stove. She was not smoking. She had not saturated her dress with cleaning fluid or any substance that might have caused combustion."
"The flaming dress was torn from her body by her husband and teenaged daughter. All that remained of the frock was a charred rag, yet Mrs. Williamson did not suffer a single burn. Neither did her husband or daughter, although they had ripped the dress free with their bare hands. Later that same day, a pair of Mr. Williamson's trousers in a closet were reduced to ashes."
"On the following day, while the family and friends watched, a bed burst into flames, and the bedclothing was destroyed. A set of curtains in an unused room burned to ashes. "
"For three days, fires destroyed various objects in the home, then vanished without spreading to flammable materials lying below or beside the objects. Witnesses included (Bladenboro) Mayor J.A. Bridger; Dr. S.S. Hutchinson, the family physician' and J.B. Edwards," the health agent from Wilmington, N.C.
"The bluish flames, similar to those from a natural gas jet, consumed materials rapidly without changing color, but without burning anyone who tried frantically to put them out.. 'There was no smoke and little odor from the strange flames,' according to the AP account."
"On the fourth day the (Williamson) family moved out, and the police moved in. Arson and fire control experts checked the house for any materials that might cause spontaneous combustion. They found none. Electricians unsuccessfully searched the wiring. Gas company experts could locate no leak. Yet the weird blue flames continued to appear out of thin air under the noses of the helpless officers."
"'The fires have burned and vanished as if guided by an invisible hand,' the AP reported, 'There has been no logical explanation.'"
"The fires disappeared on the fifth day. The Williamsons moved back into their house, somewhat nervously. But they had nothing more to fear. It was all over." (See the book Mysterious Fires and Lights by Vincent H. Gaddis, Van Rees Press, New York, N.Y. 1967, pages 188 and 189. Also True Strange magazine for March 1957.)
Well, that's it for this week. Will the current flurry of alien sightings continue? We'll find out next week in "the paper that goes home-- UFO Roundup." See you then!
