UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 22
Volume 7
Number 22
May 28, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
TWO MORE UFO CASES REPORTED IN INDIA
On Sunday, March 3, 2002, at 7:20 p.m., Aninda Duta and his wife "were driving from Bidhan Nagar to the airport in Calcutta. While driving, my wife's attention was grabbed by a bright white light, fairly low on the horizon in front of us and to our right. Looking in the direction she was pointing, I observed an extremely bright light."
"It was a perfectly clear night, and the clock on the dashboard of my car informed it was precisely 7:20 p.m. The light was clearly the brightest object in the sky by a factor of many magnitudes (say, a factor of 20 percent brighter than the brightest star that was visible--A.D.) Initially, I assumed it was the landing lights of an aircraft, but, as I continued to drive, I expected the light to diminish as my reference (position in relation to) the aircraft continued to change. I also expected to see the usual red and green blinking (navigational) lights on the wing tips. But the remarkable thing is that the intensity did not change, nor could you see the intermittent red and green lights usually associated with aircraft."
"I also thought that the object was a helicopter, as it seemed to be just hanging motionless in the air. But with the car windows down, neither one of us could hear any aircraft engine sound. However, given the relative position of the light to us, I would have definitely expected to hear some engine and rotor noise," which would have been the case had the light been attached to a real helicopter.
Nine days later, on Tuesday, March 12, 2002, at 7 p.m., software engineer Roger Sequeira, 31, had a strange encounter in Goa state, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Mumbai (Bombay).
"First, let me tell you that until March 12th, I was a total disbeliever in aliens," Roger reported, "However, on the 12th, in Verna, Goa, on the eve of my departure for Mumbai, I was taking a stroll on a deserted road. It was twilight, and there were no other humans in sight and just some goats grazing in a field."
"It was then that I saw an amber glow in front of me. I looked up to see what was causing it and noticed a peculiar cylindrical object hovering above. I cannot say exactly how large it was because I was too confused to take in the details. As I stood in the glow, I felt a rather strange sensation, as if my skin was peeling. However, it caused me no bodily harm. Then the object rose higher and moved out of sight."
"I consulted my watch to note the time and it said 7:03 p.m. However, upon returning home, I noticed that my watch was still showing 7:03 p.m. I am now in Mumbai and tried taking two family members into confidence. But they only laughed at me and called my thoughts irrational." (Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry of World of the Strange for these reports.)
AUSTRALIAN UFO SEEN BY TWO POLICE OFFICERS
"'We've just seen a UFO!' was the radio call received by the Mildura, (Victoria state, Australia) Police Station during the early morning hours of yesterday," Friday, May 17, 2002.
"'At 5 a.m. this morning, Mildura divisional can crew members Kate and Greg were patrolling Apex Park when their jaws dropped at the sight of a very bright lit-up UFO hovering on the N.S.W. (New South Wales) side of the river,' a police spokesperson said."
"It appeared that the UFO spotted them at the same time as it shot off in the direction of Gol Gol."
"'They attempted to give chase, but it had gone in the blink of an eye,' the spokesperson said."
"'One of the officers commented over the air, 'We've just seen a UFO!' and received the reply, 'We've just boiled the kettle; you had better come in for a cup of tea and a lie-down.'"
"The spokesperson said one of the officers had seen a similar sighting in the same area several months ago."
"'Her first sighting was the source of much mirth and mess room humor among her colleagues,' he said."
(Editor's Comment: Go ahead and laugh, guys. But two UFO sightings between Mildura and Gol Gol in a matter of months, and by the same officer? Sounds to me as if Constable Kate might be a silent contactee.)
"Victoria UFO Research Society's Mildura representative Allan Wilson said sightings around water were frequent occurrences."
"'I have not had any reports about this particular sighting, but I can tell you that UFO sightings around bodies of water are extremely common,' Mr. Wilson said."
"'I have heard of many stories similar to this one.'"
"'One call I had was in regard to a man who lived on a property with a large water tank. He reported seeing a blue haze hovering above his tank one night. When he went to investigate, the tank--which had been full--was completely empty. There was no evidence of water having been spilt anywhere, It had just vanished,' he said."
Mildura, Vic. is about 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Melbourne, the state capital. (See the Sunraysia Daily for May 18, 2002, "Police sighting of UFO." Many thanks to VUFORS for this newspaper article.)
ABDUCTEE COMES FORWARD IN ANGOL, CHILE
"An electrician claims having been abducted by a UFO while traveling between two cities in southern Chile."
"Gabriel Encina, 47, stated that his strange experience occurred six years ago, but the anguish he experienced kept him from disclosing it until now."
"'No one can keep me from thinking that I was abducted by something or someone. What I saw wasn't an airplane or a flying saucer--it was simply a very bright light that landed on top of my car,' said Gabriel Encina in an interview with the newspaper Diario Austral de Temuco."
"Encina notes that he never discussed the subject and that only his wife and close friends knew about it. 'I know that others will call me a madman.'"
"'In spite of the time that has elapsed, I'm still a bit affected by it. Ever since the abduction, I have had headaches, migraines and bone trouble,' he explained, 'I have difficulty sleping. I'm afraid of dreaming, and when I close my eyes, I see the light following me, moving slowly towards me.'"
"Encina recalled that the incident occurred on June 27, 1996 at 8 p.m. while traveling between Los Sauces and Angol in the La Araucania region 608 kilometers (365 miles) south of Santiago de Chile," the national capital, "under clear skies and the damp weather characteristic of the winter season."
(Editor's Note: June is the middle of winter in Chile, Argentina, Australia and the other countries of the southern hemisphere.)
"'I suddenly saw a very bright white light some 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter which appeared and descended and followed me. I accelerated but, curiously, the car lost speed,' he added."
"He says that when the light descended on his vehicle, the radiance was so intense that he could make out dust particles floating in the air. 'That's when I felt anguish and passed out.'"
"According to Encina, when he awoke, both he and his car were some 12 kilometers (8 miles) away from where the encounter with the alleged UFO took place. 'My legs trembled, and my head hurt. I was surprised that my wristwatch had stopped at 8:05 p.m., although about an hour had elapsed since the encounter,' Encina explained."
"In mid-April of 2001, Erasmo Mena, an expert with the Centro Informativo para el Fenomeno OVNI en America Latina (CIFOAL; Spanish for Information Center on the UFO Phenomenon in Latin America--J.T.) described the 'massive' presence of UFOs between the cities of Angol and Victoria, which could be seen by the unaided eye." (See the newspaper Diario Austral de Temuco for May 14, 2002; also Spain's EFE news agency report for May 17, 2002. Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, y tambien Marco Reynoso de Fundacion Cosmos para esas noticias.)
(Editor's Note: For more on the UFOs in Angol, see UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 20 for May 14, 2002, "UFO flap breaks out in Angol, Chile," page 2; and UFO Roundup, volume 6, number 10 for March 8, 2001, "Chilean couple's first date turns into an encounter with aliens," page 2.)
ANOTHER COW MUTILATED IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA
"Another cow turned up dead in a very strange way in a field in the General Acha region" of Argentina's La Pampa province.
"As in previous cases, the animal was bloodless and missing some organs. No traces are found in the place, and the causes of these deaths remain a source of mystery to the investigators. During the recent discovery, despite the fact that the animal had been dead for days in the outdoors, it had not yet putrefied."
"Mystery struck once more in a local field. The latest event occurred on the El Huitr farm some 70 kilometers (42 miles) from the city (General Acha--J.T.) near Provincial Highways 115 and 18, where a dead cow was found with characteristics similar to the first two (mutilation cases). It was bloodless and was missing an eye, jaw and tongue."
"The strange part of the case is that authorities were unable to find a perpetrator for the crime committed at Rural Lot 16, Sector 7 of the Utracan department. (i.e. the El Huitr farm--J.T.)."
"In an interview with this newsroom, the main official at the local town hall, Roque Ceferino Estepa, reported that the cattleman claimed that sometime between 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15, 2002, he had found one of his Aberdeen Angus cows--approximately three years old and weighing 450 kilograms (1,000 pounds)--mutilated by persons unknown. Cattleman Dario Garcia alleged that the cow had been found completely exsanguinated (drained of blood--J.T.), without a tongue, and missing a left ear, its jaw and an eye, its udders and vital organs."
"He further opined that in spite of the incisions made with hot sharp objects, given that the animal's fat was still warm, there were no traces of blood on the scene."
"Police elements under the commad of Officer Lucero established themselves in the field along with veterinarian Juan Manuel Orterdag, who analyzed the strange death."
"This is the third animal to have been found mutilated in similar circumstances, which places a shroud of mystery over the police investigation. The same happened only a few days ago at a ranch in the vicinity of Salliquelo, where police investigators have still been unable to find an answer."
General Acha is 150 kilometers (90 miles) west-southwest of Salliquelo and about 550 kilometers (330 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.
(See the newspaper La Arena of La Pampa, Argentina for May 23, 2002, "Another mutilated animal found in a field." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo de diario.)
(Editor's Note: For more on the cattle mutilations in Salliquelo, see UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 19 for May 7, 2002, "Three cattle mutilations reported in Argentina," page 2.)
MYSTERIOUS HUM HEARD IN KOKOMO, INDIANA
"It started as a low hum, barely noticeable. But within months, the endless throbbing was like a corkscrew driving into Diane Anton's temple."
"Some in Kokomo (population 46,113) claim city government knows the noise comes from an industrial source but believes officials are in cahoots with local industry and refuse to make companies fix the problem."
"The walls of her (Ms. Anton's) house vibrated. Her bed shook. Bouts of nausea, short-term memory loss and hand tremors followed."
"'The noise was so penetrating and invasive,' she said, 'It was just not getting better.'"
"So Ms. Anton quit her job, abandoned her $180,000 house and fled. She was the first person driven out of the city by what's come to be known as 'the Kokomo Hum.' But she may not be the last."
"As many as 90 people in this industrial, central Indiana city have complained about a low-frequency hum for the past three years, City Attorney Ken Ferries said."
"While most residents don't hear a thing beyond the typical sounds of the city's factories and busy roads, the City Council approved a $100,000 study of the mysterious noise, often described as the constant idling of a tractor trailer's diesel engine."
"'We decided, rather than sit on our duffs and talk about it, let's try to do something,' Ferries said. The city intends to request proposals for the study by the end of the month."
"Those who suffer the hum, and have had years to educate themselves about the sound, say it's about time. They point to evidence, grounded in science, that the exposure to consistent, low-frequency noise can cause vibracoustic disease. It has symptoms that mirror the ailments those in Kokomo are complaining about--nausea, headaches and dizziness, to name a few."
"Unidentified sounds that bother a handful of people have popped up in communities around the world, but because so few are affected, the issue hasn't received much attention."
"In Taos, New Mexico, a small town in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, some residents were bothered by a mystery noise in the early 1990s."
(Editor's Comment: People in Taos are still periodically hearing the hum.)
"They too described the sound as a diesel truck idling in the distance and said it caused sleeplessness, dizziness and a host of other symptoms."
"On the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, people have long complained of health problems caused by low-frequency sound coming from a U.S. Navy bombing range. The Navy has discounted these claims and continues bombing in the area."
(Editor's Comment: Both Taos, N.M. and Vieques, P.R. are notorious UFO "hot spots.")
"Kathie Sickles, who lives near Kokomo, spends most of her free time trying to educate people about the hum. She packages research papers and other studies in bright-colored plastic folders and hands them out to City Council members. She makes flyers for the public (entitled) Sound pollution can hurt you! filled with Internet addresses and lists of symptoms associated with exposure to low-frequency sound."
"'People need to know this is going on,' said Sickles, who founded a group called Our Environment. 'People are getting sick and nothing's being done.'"
"Angelo Campanella, an acoustical engineer hired by (Diane) Anton, detected low-frequency sound in her neighborhood, but said further research would be needed to clearly determine a source. Campanella said he was not able to hear the sound Anton described but believed 'others may be more sensitive to it.'"
"Most Kokomo residents aren't, however. Jeff Smith, owner of Jeff's Barber Shop, said aside from news coverage of the issue in the Kokomo Tribune , which urged an investigation in a front-page editorial, he doesn't hear much about the hum."
"'As far as I know, I don't think it exists,' Smith said, 'I can't say I've ever heard it.'" (See the MSNBC website for May 21, 2002. Many thanks to Jim Hickman for forwarding this news story.)
From the UFO Files...
271: RESTITUTA'S GUARDIAN ANGEL
In Italy, about 140 kilometers (88 miles) southeast of Rome, in the narrow valley of the Liri River, is the ancient town of Sora. Tourists visiting the town will find a baroque Seventeenth Century church and a sturdy hilltop Roman arx, or citadel, each bearing witness to what was arguably the strangest jailbreak in European history.
It all began in 271 A.D., a time when the Roman Empire was in swift decline. Emperor Claudius Gothicus, also known as Claudius II, had just died, and a Roman general born in the Balkans, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (better known as Aurelian--J.T.) had just been chosen emperor by the Praetorian Guard.
No sooner had he donned the imperial diadem than Aurelian found himself embroiled in a four-front war. In Syria, Queen Zenobia had attacked the Roman legions garrisoned there. In Egypt, a wealthy merchant named Firmus had declared himself pharoah and the "heir to the throne of Cleopatra." Barbarian Alemanni (ancestors of the Germans--J.T.) had marched across the Alps and destroyed an entire Roman army at Placentia in northern Italy. And a rebel Roman general named Tetricus had organized a kind of early-day European Union composed of the breakaway provinces of Brittania (UK), Gaul (France) and Hispania (Spain and Portugal) and was thumbing his nose at the Empire.
Living in Rome at the time was a 17-year-old patrician girl named Restituta. Her family had converted to Christianity following the death of Emperor Decius, and Restituta spent her evenings in prayer, reading and meditation.
One April evening in 271 A.D., her prayers were answered in a most surprising way.
Kneeling in her bedchamber, Restituta became aware of a presence behind her. A muted white light cast her shadow on the stucco wall. With a soft gasp, she stood suddenly and turned and came face-to-face with Jesus Christ.
Astonished, the girl murmured, "Lord, how may I serve you?"
"Go to Sora," Jesus replied, "To the house of the widow Beatrice. She has a son afflicted with leprosy. You will cure him. And others like him."
"But...but Sora is in Volscia. How will I get there?"
(Editor's Note: Volscia was a small Italian state conquered by Rome in the Second Century B.C.)
Jesus answered, "Remain here. I will send someone to take you."
And then he vanished.
Stunned, Restituta stood motionless in her bedroom. She couldn't quite believe what had just happened. Had she dreamed it?
About ten minutes later, a circle of white light appeared on the stucco wall. It was far brighter, much more radiant than the light that had interrupted her prayers earlier. The light seemed to dissolve the wall. And then a young man stepped through the luminosity. He was dressed like a warrior in silver-and-gold armor of a very curious design, neither Greco-Roman nor Celtic nor Gothic, and he carried a sheathed sword at his hip. But no crested helmet or casque covered his short, curly brownish-blond hair.
"Fetch your shawl, Restituta," he said in a strange vibrant voice, "The Lord has sent me to conduct you to Sora."
No sooner had Restituta tossed a few dresses in a sack and covered her dark hair with a woolen shawl than the entity led her onto the piazza. Then, lifting the girl in his arms, he soared into the sky.
Breathless, her heart beating wildly, Restituta clutched the entity and looked down in amazement at the moonlit Tiber below. They flew even higher. Beneath her wide-eyed gaze passed the Forum, the Via Appia, the Capitoline Hill, the dome of the Temple of Jupiter, all the landmarks of her girlhood. She was seeing them as no Roman ever had before--from the air.
A couple of hours later, the angel landed in a shadowy corner of Sora's plaza. After setting Restituta on her feet once more, he pointed out a small house a short distance away (now the Church of Santa Restituta--J.T.). "There dwells the widow Beatrice. Go and knock on her door."
Moving like someone in a dream, Restituta did as she was told. The door swung open, and she came face-to-face with a middle-aged woman. For a second, she didn't know what to say. And then the words came surging out. "Beatrice? My name is Restituta. I have been sent by the Lord to heal your son."
Wonder and hope lit up Beatrice's face. "He said you would come!"
Straightaway she brought Restituta to the room of her son, Horatius, who had a rather advanced case of leprosy. The girl laid her hands on his shoulders, and all three prayed for a cure. Afterwards, Horatius complained of a strange itchy sensation. He lifted his sleeve, and they saw that the leprous sores were beginning to dry. By sunrise, they were completely gone.
The next morning, Beatrice told her relatives and friends about the miracle. And when Horatius himself appeared in the plaza, hale and hearty and cured of leprosy, it caused a sensation. Word spread like wildfire through Volscia, and sick people by the score descended on the house of Beatrice, where Restituta was lodging.
One by one, Restituta cured them. The miracle cures are meticulously documented in Acta Sanctorum, Volume 6, that chronicle of the early Christian church. Within a week, Restituta had converted and baptized Beatrice, Horatius and 37 other people of Sora, including Cyril, the priest of Apollo, who became a believer after witnessing a miraculous cure with his own eyes.
The proconsul Agathius soon became aware of Restituta's presence in town. The Empire, under siege on four fronts, had financed a legion of informers to ferret out dissidents, subversives and other "internal enemies." When he heard about Cyril's conversion, Agathius decided to act. On May 12, 271 A.D., Restituta was arrested by Roman soldiers and taken to the citadel of Sora.
The following day, Restituta was brought in chains before the proconsul. Agathius offered to find her a husband among the Praetorian Guard if she would "forget this foolishness" and return to Rome. Restituta refused, saying, "Healing the sick is not a crime."
"No, but impiety is," Agathius replied, "Those who have no loyalty to the gods (of Olympus) have no loyalty to Rome. And you will see how we deal with traitors."
Returned to the citadel, Restituta was mercilessly flogged by the warden. She was taken to the lowermost cell in the dungeon and weighed down with manacles and chains strong enough to hold an elephant. By Agathius's direct order, the guards were to give her no food or water. When a pair of Roman soldiers protested, the warden said, "There are puddles in her cell. Let her drink with the other cockroaches."
Seven days passed. Seven days in which Restituta suffered the raw lash scars on her back and the pangs of hunger and thirst. She knew the fate that awaited her as a "Galilean-worshiper"--death by beheading. But that was assuming she came to trial. She might starve to death before a summons even arrived. More than one "enemy of Rome" had been "forgotten" in a lonely dungeon.
Then came the night of May 25, 271. Awakened by a strange sound, Restituta rose from the dank stone floor and saw a circle of light appear on the wall. The glow hurt her eyes, now accustomed to the stygian darkness. Soon the circle reached from floor to ceiling. Through it stepped a familiar figure--her angel.
"The Lord has heard your prayers, Restituta, and those of Beatrice and her family. You shall go free," the angel said, grabbing his ornate sword hilt. "Put out your hands."
Restituta raised her manacled wrists. The angel drew his sword. It was a lengthy blade of no earthly metal but of an eye-dazzling radiance that might have been light and might have been fire. Slowly, gingerly he touched each manacle with the glowing sword.
Her eyes blinked wide open as the iron cuffs turned red, then white. And then the manacles began melting like wax, dripping on the stone floor. But Restituta felt nothing. The iron was melting away, and she didn't feel a bit of heat.
She noticed something else, as well, the strange prickling sensation that Horatius had described. The pain of her lash wounds began to ebb.
The manacle fragments hit the floor with a muted clang. Immediately the girl reached behind her, through her slashed clothing. Her fingertips found smooth bare skin. The wounds were gone.
"Let us leave this place," the angel said.
He gestured at the cell door with his free hand, and the iron grille burst apart, littering the corridor with iron shrapnel. As they stepped out of the cell, the other prisoners began rattling and shaking their chains. "Free us! Free us!"
Touching the angel's golden cuirass, Restituta asked, "These men are innocents. Political enemies of Agathius. Can you do nothing for them?"
"As you desire, sweet Restituta."
The angel made an X-shaped sweep with his luminous sword. Like a string of firecrackers, each cell door exploded outward. With a roar, the crowd of prisoners made a dash for the stone stairs.
They didn't get far. Hearing the tumult, the warden summoned a cohort of Roman soldiers. Forming a square, the soldiers lifted their shields and levelled their long iron-tipped javelins and forced the escapees back. Several prisoners lay dead on the stone tiles. The rest scurried back down the corridor, leaving the girl and the angel to face the troops alone.
"Stand behind me, Restituta." Unperturbed, the angel hefted his sword and addressed the soldiers. "Go your way, and we shall go ours."
"Barbarian!" the warden shouted. "The only place you're going is Tartarus!"
Restituta watched as the angel lifted his free hand again, palm upward.
"You were warned," he said.
A tiny bluish-white flame erupted on the angel's open palm. It grew and coalesced into a sphere the size of a grapefruit. The luminous sphere emitted a barely-noticeable hum. The front line of soldiers suddenly wavered.
"Sorcery!" a soldier cried.
"Cowards!" the warden bellowed, "Are you children to be frightened by some conjuror's trick!? Rush in and take them!"
As if possessed of a life of its own, the glowing sphere hopped off the angel's palm. It zigzagged along the floor with a soft clinkety-clank noise and then came to rest directly in front of the cohort.
The soldiers inched closer. The radiant sphere continued its muted humming. Then someone had the bright idea of prodding it with his javelin.
BAH-ROOOOM! The explosion toppled the entire cohort, hurling the soldiers back against the stairs. All except the first row. They, like the warden, were so many smoking corpses on the floor. Billowing eerie bluish-green flames cascaded down the corridor, pulverizing stout doors, consuming furniture and tapestries, and driving the screaming Roman survivors before them.
Sheathing his fiery sword, the angel said, "Take my hand, Restituta. No harm will come to you."
And, holding his hand, Restituta walked through the tunnel of aquamarine flames that filled the corridor, gaping open-mouthed at the devastation throughout the citadel.
At the bottom of the hill, on the outskirts of Sora, people heard the resounding booms and rushed into their gardens. Light flashes lit up the citadel, each burst accompanied by a peal of thunder. Their jaws fell in unison as the citadel's main gate exploded into splinters and the iron portcullis, heated to a bright cherry red, went cartwheeling into the night.
Across town, Beatrice, Horatius, Cyril and a handful of other Christians were praying for Restituta's safety. They heard the booms but thought it was just a late spring thunderstorm, common to the valley of the Liri. They wondered, though, why there was no rain. And while they were wondering, Beatrice heard a soft knock at the front door.
Swinging it open, she gasped. "Restituta!"
There stood the girl Beatrice had come to think of as her daughter. Her dark hair wild, tendrils of smoke clinging to her tattered dress. "Beatrice," she said, "You aren't going to believe what happened." Hugging the older woman, she added, "I don't believe it...and I was there!"
As the others gathered around, Restituta showed them her wrists and spine and told them how the angel had miraculously set her free. Together they gave thanks to God until a more cautious neighbor advised them all to flee. Reinforcements would soon arrive, and the Roman soldiers would then be in hot pursuit of the escaped prisoners.
The Christians packed a sack of food and fled.
The angel was seen no more in Volscia.
As for Agathius, he was left with the thankless task of rounding up the escaped prisoners and writing a letter of explanation to the emperor. He knew he was in trouble a couple of months later, when Aurelian's letter arrived with this query:
"How much is it going to cost ME to rebuild MY citadel which YOU (underlined three times) allowed to be destroyed?"
Agathius then submitted his letter of resignation to the Senate, pleading "reasons of health," and went on a long tour of Caledonia (Scotland, which was about as far away from Rome as you could get and still be in the Empire--J.T.). He returned to Italy in 274 A.D. after Aurelian was assassinated by his top generals.
Restituta's freedom was short-lived. Tipped off by an informer, Roman troops arrested Restituta, Cyril and two other Christians on a wooded island, Isola de Liris, eight kilometers (5 miles) south of Sora. This time the Romans took no chances. On May 27, 271, a centurion beheaded all four of them on the banks of the Liri, and their bodies were thrown in the river.
The remains were recovered a few days later by other Christians. Today the bones of Saint Restituta lie in the church bearing her name.
Charles Fort once wrote that he had his doubts about the official history of the fall of the Roman Empire. He doubted that a world-conquering civilization as powerful, as wealthy and as well-organized as Rome could have collapsed so completely and yet left so few documents describing its destruction. Northern barbarians were no more capable of sacking Rome, he argued, "than Geronimo's Apaches were capable of taking Chicago."
Fort wondered if the European barbarians had received some "outside help."
Restituta's angel is just one of many strange tales of the late Roman Empire, which suggest that we may not know as much about that time in history as we think we know. (See the books Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, P.J. Kennedy and Sons, New York, N.Y., 1956, pages 404 and 405; The Saints, edited by John Coulson, Hawthorn Books Inc., New York, N.Y. 1958, page 656; and Monuments and Men of Ancient Rome by Grant Showerman Ph.D., D. Appleton-Century Co., London, 1935, pages 80 to 84.)
That's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items 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.
