UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 39
Volume 8
Number 39
October 15, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
PHANTOM PANTHER TURNS UP IN NEW ZEALAND
"Stock truck driver Chad Stewart unloaded his sheep with an eye over his shoulder after seeing what he believes was a black panther prowling nearby."
"When he first went to drop off the sheep at the property of Blair and Sarah Gallagher at Mayfield, 35 kilometers (21 miles) west of Ashburton," on the South Island of New Zealand, "on Friday," October 3, 2003, "Mr. Stewart noticed a huge black animal sitting beside the stock yards."
"At first he thought it was a dog, but then realised its tail was too long."
"He watched the animal for about five minutes, before it took off up the hill, stopping halfway before slinking out of sight."
"Once he got over the shock, Mr. Stewart was convinced it was a black panther. 'Not that I am a big cat expert, but it definitely wasn't a dog.'"
"After it disappeared, Mr. Stewart unloaded the sheep while looking over his shoulder to see 'if the animal was coming back to get me.'"
"He warned the Gallaghers."
"A helicopter search on Saturday (October 4, 2003) found nothing."
"Mr. Gallagher said he had noticed some strange behaviour among the stock at the time."
"'It seemed very unusual that there was quite a lot of sheep moving up behind the woolshed,' he said."
"People's safety, and especially that of his son, was weighing heavily on his mind. 'I certainly couldn't feel comfortable letting him play out there at the moment.'"
"A mysterious black cat was last reported in mid- Canterbury," at the foot of New Zealand's Southern Alps, "in 2001."
"Alford Forest resident David Wightman said a large black cat was spotted in a gorge area of his Winterslow property in the winter of 2001."
"Mr. Wightman said his worker, Marcus Ewart, and an English friend, David Tattum, were both looking through binoculars when Mr. Tattum saw the animal."
"The pair watched it slowly walk for about 100 meters (330 feet) before disappearing into the underbrush."
"Mr. Wightman said they had not come forward at the time out of fear people wouldn't believe them. However, when he started to make enquiries, other stories surfaced."
"A positive sighting of the cat matching the description was reported in the Bushside area just before the sighting at Winterslow."
"Mr. Wightman said three men saw an unusual animal at twilight in a deer-fenced area."
"A similar sighting was reported on Banks Peninsula in late 1999 by a pest destruction officer."
"'If there is a large cat such as a panther in the area, there will be evidence such as faeces,' Amelia Pascoe of the (New Zealand) Agriculture and Forestry Ministry (MAF) said."
"But since the truck driver came forward, more stories of a mysterious black animal in the area have surfaced."
"Less than three weeks ago, Toni and Peter May spotted what they thought was a large black cat beside the road. 'It wasn't a domestic cat, it wasn't a possum, and it wasn't a dog. I didn't think much of it until last night,' Mrs. May said."
"MAF ruled out the possibility that the cat had escaped from legal captivity, but did not rule out an animal being smuggled in." (See the Southland Times for October 7, 2003, "'Panther' reported on the loose in mid- Canterbury," and the Dominion Post of Wellington for October 8, 2003, "Panther-like creature sighted." Many thanks to Peter Hassall and Kirsty MacLaren for these newspaper articles.)
(Editor's Comment: Welcome to Panthers, Panthers Everywhere Week here at UFO Roundup. You can now add New Zealand to the growing roster of phantom panther or alien big cat sites, along with Northern Ireland, Hawaii, Scotland and England. Read on...)
MORE PHANTOM PANTHERS SIGHTED IN ENGLAND
"The latest sighting of West Lancashire's 'big cat' has been made in Ormskirk's Ruff Woods."
"John Bilboe from Station Road thought he saw the puma-like creature on Sunday," September 21, 2003. "He said: 'I was walking the dogs at the back of the woods on the Wigan Road side when I saw it shoot across.'"
"'It was the size of a big Alsatian (dog) and it was black, but it looked like a cat so that made me think that maybe it was this big cat.'"
"'I saw it for about 10 seconds, and my initial thoughts were of nervousness and anxiety even though it seemed quite timid. There was an air of mystery about it that was hard to understand. It was quite nerve-wracking- -I won't be going to Ruff Woods again in a hurry!'"
"A woman in Skelmersdale was the last person to report seeing the animal in May (2003) when she said she was woken by the sound of it attacking her chickens."
"Previously, sightings of the cat, described as a large panther-like creature, have been reported in Newburugh, Burscough, Mawdsley, Scarisbrick and Tarleton."
In Derbyshire, "after many months without a sighting, a mysterious big black cat has again been spotted in Ripley."
"Kevin Tryner of Greenhill Avenue, Ripley, was walking his dog at the old Ripley Pit near his house at approximately 9:15 p.m. on (Wednesday) September 24 (2003) when he spotted the animal."
"Kevin described the animal as a black cat the same size as an Alsatian (dog), with a curled tail, pointed ears and yellow eyes."
"Kevin said: 'I wasn't frightened. I was just curious that I had seen it. It just looked at me and walked away, vanishing into the trees.'"
"A Derbyshire police spokesman said: 'There have been several sightings of big black cats over the years, but no one has come up with any clues as to where they might be living.'"
"The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals--J.T.) said: 'Although we cannot confirm reported sightings of a puma-like big cat in Ripley, we were called out a few months ago by a member of the public who said they had seen a large black cat in woods in Little Eaton.'"
"'In subsequent investigation, a RSPCA inspector found nothing to indicate the presence of such an animal-- there was no big cat, nor were there (paw) prints, droppings or carcasses upon which it had fed.'"
Elsewhere in England, "Humberside police have confirmed they believe big cats are living wild in their area."
"The force's wildlife officer Sue Rhodes tells the BBC's Inside Out programme that they believe two big cats, probably black leopards or puma (cougar or mountain lion in the USA--J.T.) are on the loose."
"And she says the cats are roaming in areas around towns in East Yorkshire."
"Police are investigating more than 80 sightings of the animals, including one in which three sheep were killed."
"The (BBC) programme includes extensive new footage of a large black cat filmed near Horncastle in Lincolnshire." (See the Ormskirk Advertiser for October 2, 2003, "Big cat is back;" the Ripley News for October 2, 2003, "Mystery cat is sighted again;" and BBC News for September 29, 2003, "Police confirm big cat sightings." Many thanks to UFO Roundup's phantom panther expert, Robert Fischer, for these newspaper articles.)
TRACK OF THE BIG CAT
Even as the worldwide phantom panther flap continues, strange incidents involving big cats made headlines here in the USA.
On Friday, October 3, 2003, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, illusionist Roy Horn was severely mauled by a white Siberian tiger during the act.
"In front of an audience of 1,500...Roy was attacked by Montecore, a 600-pound white Siberian tiger and dragged from the stage."
"The attack occurred after Horn, 59, commanded Montecore to lie down; the tiger refused so Horn tapped him on the nose with a microphone, and suddenly the animal, known as one of the most docile tigers in the (Siegfried & Roy) troupe, swiped at Horn's arm, causing him to stumble. Montecore then lunged at his neck and dragged him offstage, barely missing Horn's carotid artery."
As of this writing, the entertainer is still in critical condition at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
Then there was the strange case of Antoine Yates in New York City.
"His obsession began innocently enough, with the puppies and broken-winged birds many little boys beg to bring home. Over the years, Antoine Yates' taste in animals grew ever more exotic, neighbors said, and his collection came to include reptiles, a monkey or two, and a hyena."
"But when Yates' most exotic pet--a tiger named Ming- -grew to more than 400 pounds, the trouble began."
"Terrified, his mother Martha packed up and moved to a suburb of Philadelphia earlier this year, neighbors said."
"Yates, hard pressed to control the tiger, apparently decamped, too, to a nearby apartment. He continued to feed the tiger by throwing raw chicken through a door opened just enough to keep a paw the size of a (dinner) plate from swiping through, neighbors said."
"On Saturday," October 4, 2003, "police arrived after being alerted by phone tips."
NYPD "officers rappelled down the side of the apartment building, and a sharpshooter fired a tranquilizer dart through a window to subdue the 20-month- old tiger."
Also found in Yates' apartment was a 5-foot (1.5- meter) long alligator.
(Editor's Comment: I honestly believe Mr. Yates lured the alligator out of the sewers and smuggled it upstairs.)
"Ming, a two-year-old Bengal tiger," and the alligator "were relocated on Sunday," October 5, 2003, to Noah's Lost Ark Sanctuary in Berlin Center, Ohio.
"At the Drew Hamilton Houses, the (apartment) complex on 141st Street," in the Harlem section of New York City, "neighbors found more than the tiger astonishing. They were also surprised at the size of Yates' apartment in space-starved New York City."
"'Five bedrooms and he lived there by himself with a tiger,' neighbor Tracy Holmes said, 'Tiger, alligator, bird--he must have had them on the lease.'"
"'It was a house pet,' said Jerome Applewhite, 43, who lives on the 18th floor. 'To me, that is cool.'"
"City officials do not share this view."
"Clearly this tiger should not have been anyplace in New York City outside of a zoo,' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said."
"Yates was released on personal recognizance after being arraigned Tuesday," October 7, 2003.
Finally, in San Juan Capistrano, California, "authorities shot a mountain lion believed to have been stalking people around an equestrian facility."
"A U.S. Department of Agriculture specialist with tracking dogs found the lion in a tree and killed it. A necropsy was planned to determine whether disease was causing the animal's unusually aggressive behavior." (See USA Today for October 6, 2003, "The Siegfried & Roy show likely won't go on," page 1D; Star for October 21, 2003, "Roy: 'Don't kill the cat!' page 20; Chicago Tribune for October 7, 2003, "NYC cops have a tiger of a tale, and wonder why," page 8; USA Today for October 6, 2003, "Tiger, alligator found in NYC apartment," page 3A, and "Across the USA: California," page 11A; and USA Today for October 9, 2003, "Tiger in Harlem among thousands of kept wild 'pets,'" page 3A. Many thanks to Eugenia Macer-Story for alerting UFO Roundup to the weird synchronicity of these reports.)
(Editor's Note: San Juan Capistrano is one of the most haunted spots in California. The old mission is home to several ghosts, including spectral Franciscan monks and a phantom bellringer. Which is not that surprising, considering that Father Juniperro Serra laid the cornerstone on November 1, 1776. In Mexico, the first day of November is the Day of the Dead.)
ARKANSAS BIGFOOT IS STILL ON THE PROWL
"A mysterious creature roaming Northwestern Arkansas is making some residents a little nervous."
"Police have received several calls recently about a large ape-like animal in Benton County," located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Fayetteville. "The first sighting was in Decatur (population 1,314). The second caller claimed the animal was headed towards Crystal Lake, about a quarter of a mile away."
"Then a third caller said the animal was on Benning Road, several miles east of" Decatur.
"There's a lot of speculation about what's lurking in the woods in and around Decatur."
"'It's freaky,' said resident Ike Owens, 'They're saying it's Sasquatch. They're saying Bigfoot and this and that.'"
"Whether it's actually Bigfoot...is still up for debate. It's certainly the topic of conversation at the Galley Cafe in Decatur."
"'It's happening around the nation. Everywhere, I guess,' said resident David Cook, 'It could happen here as well as anywhere, I guess. It's sure getting around,' and added, 'I think it's ridiculous. There's nothing like that in Decatur.'"
"Police say there are a lot of theories about the mystery animal. That's why they're sticking to the facts."
"'The only description I have is a small brown monkey about a foot and a half tall,' said Decatur police chief Coy Hendrix, 'It's not Bigfoot, I believe. I didn't see any tracks of anything.'" (See the KATV News broadcast of October 3, 2003, "Mystery creature in northwest Arkansas has residents nervous." Many thanks to Jim Hickman for the transcript of the news broadcast.)
MYSTERIOUS SKY BOOM ROCKS RHODE ISLAND
"A tremendous boom was heard across Rhode Island shortly after 9:30 p.m. last night (Wednesday, October 1, 2003) but the police have yet to determine its cause."
"The (Rhode Island) State Police received calls about the loud noise from residents in East Greenwich, West Warwick, Coventry, Cranston, Scituate and Burrillville, Trooper John C. Sherbert said."
"More than 100 people called the Coventry police, and 'we felt it here at the police department,' Sgt. Robin M. Winslow said, 'It was a tremor or some sort of loud boom.'"
"But there were no reports of damage or power failure, Winslow said, adding, 'I have absolutely no idea what it was.'"
"Cranston police received about 25 calls, mostly from the western part of the city (Waterman Four Corners and Jackson villages--J.T.), Lt. Robert Quirk said. 'We've had officers checking into it but found nothing unusual,' he said."
"Warwick police received a dozen calls, Lt. Christine A. Kelley said. 'It's not an airplane--we'd have known about that,' she said."
"The West Warwick police had 120 phone calls in 40 minutes, said Sgt. Fernando Araujo."
"He said the police 'heard a (second) loud boom 20 minutes later, felt a smaller version.'" (See the Providence, R.I. Journal for October 2, 2003, "Boom! Mystery noise is unexplained." Many thanks to Mary Lou Jones-Drown for this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Note: The boom appeared to be centered over the Summit and Greene villages of western Coventry. In the Eighteenth Century, when it was originally founded, Greene was known as Coffin Corner, and, in 1837, was the birthplace of the occultist Whipple Van Buren Phillips, the grandfather of H.P. Lovecraft.)
UFO HOVERS OVER A NEW HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL
On Friday, October 3, 2003, at 1 p.m., Jennifer Parker-Cash sighted a UFO over "McDonough Elementary School on Lowell Road, near Exit 8, Wellington Road, off (interstate highway) Route 93 North in Manchester, New Hampshire (population 107,006)."
According to Parker-Cash, the UFO was "a large stationary object emitting a pulsating or highly reflective light. I'd say there were two off-white orbs that had a wrinkled or baggy appearance and looked like they had material streamers hanging from them."
"When they suddenly disappeared, a group of silver- white orbs swarmed like a group of bees in a tight, swirling formation. They went up and down, side to side and sometimes swirled like cream being stirred in coffee."
"While stationary, they emitted bright blue beams and appeared flat, and the two wrinkled orbs that looked like a scoop of dirty clouds was off-white. At first they were stationary, and then they took off to the south in a swirling formation." (Email Form Report)
STRANGE PIGEON DEATHS SEEN IN TAUNTON, MASS.
"Area pigeons appear to be falling prey to a freelance exterminator with no regard to their suffering."
"Taunton Animal Officer Manny Massa said the owner of one of the buildings around the Green has been poisoning pigeons. He's picked up at least 10 dead pigeons in the last couple of days and was told by a woman who lives nearby, she's picked up an additional five."
"That's many more than would be expected to die from natural causes and accidents, he said."
"This is the third year in a row someone's been poisoning pigeons around the (Taunton) Green, he said."
"Massa said he does not know which building is responsible, but believes the poison is placed on the roof."
"It's legal to exterminate pigeons (in Massachusetts- -J.T.), Massa said, but he questioned whether it's being done humanely. The pigeons are clearly suffering, he said. The poison does not kill them instantly. Some of the pigeons take up to 30 minutes to die, he said."
"'I think it's a cruel way for them to go,' Massa said. In one case, he picked up a pigeon on Hodges Avenue, and the man who reported it said, 'It just fell out of the sky.'"
"Stacey Hooben of Taunton said she was on her way to the post office at the Green when she saw a crowd of people gathered around a pigeon that who was flailing around on the ground yesterday afternoon (Friday, October 10, 2003) in front of the Comfort Station."
"A lifelong animal lover, Hooben said she's outraged at the prospect of someone deliberately exterminating pigeons."
Taunton, Mass. (population 55,976) is located on Routes 44 and 138 about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Boston. (See the Taunton, Mass. Daily Gazette for October 11, 2003, "City pigeons getting poisoned by inhuman person." Many thanks to Mary Lou Jones-Drown for this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Note: Located in the heart of what Loren Coleman calls "the Bridgewater Triangle," Taunton is the birthplace of both your editor and his mother. The city was also visited by H.P. Lovecraft in July 1921, who called it "delightfully unchanged since the (American) Civil War." It was also a favorite haunt of his mother, Sarah Susan Phillips, who was a student at the nearby Wheaton Seminary for Women (now Wheaton College) from 1880 to 1884. "Susie," of course, was the daughter of Whipple Van Buren Phillips, whom you read about earlier in this issue. During his visit, HPL toured the old Bristol County Jail where the infamous Lizzie Borden was held prisoner during 1892 and 1893. Forty-nine years after HPL's visit, in July 1970, the county decided to tear down the old jail, and your editor, who was a student-intern at the Taunton Daily Gazette at the time, was assigned to write a feature story about Lizzie's old cell. I don't mind admitting that Lizzie's one-time residence gave me some really bad vibes. Yet, it was over 30 years later, before I finally learned that Lizzie had been visited in that cell by none other than occultist Algernon Blackwood, who in 1892 was a British journalist touring the USA. Algernon and Lizzie spent over six hours sequestered in that cell, discussing Cthulu-knows-what. Such is life in the paranormal--a bewildering array of strange coincidences, odd linkages, synchronicity, weird happenings and bizarre phenomena.)
TWO NEW MOONS FOUND ORBITING URANUS
"Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered two more tiny moons, one eight miles (13 kilometers) in diameter and the other 10 miles (16 kilometers) in diameter, circling the planet Uranus."
Uranus "already boasts the most satellites in the solar system. The two moons are orbiting close to the gas giant and had escaped detection when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by in 1986."
"'It's a testament to how much our Earth-based instruments have improved in 20-plus years that we can now see such faint objects 1.7 billion miles away,' said Mark Showalter, a senior research associate at Stanford University who made the discovery" in September 2003.
"The two new moons are part of a unique and densely crowded field of 11 other small moons discovered by Voyager. They make up an inner ring of smaller moons which are surrounded by the five larger outer moons of the planet."
"Using a strict definition of a moon, Uranus has more than any other planet" in this solar system.
"The larger new moon was discovered in what was believed to be empty space around the larger moons Puck and Miranda, while the smaller moon circles the (Uranian) moon Belinda." (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for October 5, 2003, "Two more moons found circling Uranus," page 14A.)
From the UFO Files...
1943: A STRANGE ROBBERY IN ROME
Sixty years ago, during World War II, "on the first of the Jewish new year, the final day of that September (Thursday, September 30, 1943)," two men in the black uniforms of the SS "quietly appeared at the offices of" Dr. Ugo Foa, president of the Jewish community of Rome.
Italy had been in turmoil for months, ever since Benito Mussolini had been ousted from power by Marshal Pietro Badoglio. The new regime promised to keep Italy on the Axis side, but Badoglio was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the Allies.
Things came to a head on September 8, 1943, when Badoglio announced the surrender, and Allied forces landed at Salerno in southern Italy. Suspecting treachery along these lines, Adolf Hitler had sent 11 German divisions into Italy, occupying all of the peninsula north of Napoli (Naples).
The Axis leadership had plans for Italy's Jewish population. Following his release from captivity, Mussolini joked about it with his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, saying, "He (Hitler) is forcing them all to emigrate...to the next world!"
So, while Adolf Eichmann sent his deputy, Theodore Dannecker, to Rome to organize the roundup and "deportation" of the city's Jews to Poland, the two officers of the SS-Ahnenerbe showed up at Dr. Foa's office on Yom Kippur.
"Due to the holiday, they found no one in except Rosina Sorani, Foa's assistant. They wanted to meet with the president, they said, but there was no cause to disturb him. Tomorrow would be soon enough. They were particularly interested, Signorina Sorani was able to discern, in the community's library facilities."
"The two Germans examined the second and third floors of the temple. They found their way to the two libraries maintained by the community, which were called the Biblioteca Comunale and the Biblioteca del Collegio Rabbinico. Without remaining very long, and barely opening a book, they left."
The SS-Ahnenerbe officers "and their many colleagues were associated with a unique academic adventure, which had been formulated in an institution called the Einsatzstab Rosenberg. Founded in 1940 by Nazi party ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, the Einsatzstab was an integral part of the dream of the (Nazi) intellectuals to reinvigorate European thought and culture after the war."
"Eventually an ideological "Hohe Schule" to be known as the Central National Socialist University was to be established."
"Some institutes of this university were already functioning in 1943; among them, one in Hamburg for colonial research; another in Halle for religious research; in Kiel for German 'living space' ('Lebensraum' im Deutsch--J.T.); in Stuttgart for biology and race; and in Frankfurt am Main for research into the Jewish question."
The next day, Friday, October 1, 1943, "the two German intellectuals returned and were received by President Foa...They had introduced themselves as Orientalists. One of them, in the uniform of a captain (Sturmbannfuhrer of the SS-Ahnenerbe--J.T.), said he was a professor of Hebrew language studies from the Hohe Schule in Berlin. With scholarly interest, they asked if they could browse among the books of the community's libraries."
Dr. Foa gave his consent.
"The Biblioteca Comunale, unlike the less important library of the Rabbinical College, had a magnificent collection, one of the richest in Europe, not only for the study of Judaica but also early Christianity. A heritage of 2,000 years of Jewish presence in Rome, the library contained vast treasures that had not yet even been catalogued, let alone researched."
"Among the known material were the only copies of books and manuscripts dating from before the birth of Christ, from the time of the Caesars, the (Roman) emperors and the early popes. There were engravings from the Middle Ages, books from the earliest printers and documents handed down through the ages."
"The German visitors were very impressed. They spent long hours silently examining the library's holdings-- 'with suspicious attention,' it seemed to Foa."
Whatever the SS-Ahenenerbe officers were looking for, they found it. "When the Einsatzstab officers declared at the end of the day that, in the interest of their studies, it was necessary to remove the catalogues of both libraries."
After that, things began to happen fast. On Saturday morning, October 2, 1943, "the Einsatzstab Orientalists, with the aid of a locksmith, broke into Rabbi Zolli's abandoned apartment" on the Via San Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari. "Searching the place, they confiscated some Hebrew language books, as well as the rabbi's private papers."
A few days later, on Thursday, October 7, 1943, "one of the German intellectuals, with an escort of SS men, returned to" Dr. Foa's office. "This new man, a lieutenant whose name would never be known, said he was a paleographer and a specialist in Semitic philology."
"'He was a strange figure,' the Roman Jewish writer Debenedetti, who lived the experience of those days, would later recall: '...to look at him, one would have said he was a German official like all the others." But this fellow knew what he was about. He had been sent to the Biblioteca Comunale by the SS-Ahnenerbe to search the ancient scrolls for some unknown bit of valuable information.
"Debenedetti continued: 'While his men began to rifle through the library of the Rabbinical College and that of the Community, the officer, with artful and meticulous hands like fine embroidery, touched softly, caressed, fondled the papyrus and the incunabula; turned the pages of manuscripts and rare editions and leafed through the membranaceous codices and palimpsests. The varying attention of his touch, the differing artfulness of his gestures were at once proportionate to the volume's worth. Those works, for the most part, were written in obscure alphabets. But in opening their pages, the officer's eyes would fix on them, widening and brightening, in the same way as some readers who are particularly familiar with a subject would know where to find the desired part, the revealing passage. In those elegant hands, as if under keen and bloodless torture, a kind of very subtle sadism, the ancient books had spoken.'"
His research task completed, the SS-Ahnenerbe officer acted quickly. He told Sra. Sorani that none of the books present must be touched or moved. And if any were moved, his SS guards would instantly shoot the civilians present with their Schmeisser MP-40 submachine guns. "As she looked on with chagrin, the German picked up the telephone receiver and called the firm of Otto & Rosoni, an international shipping company with its main office in the Piazza di Spagna. He wanted to know, Signorina Sorani overheard, when they could be prepared to pick up the books."
Just before dawn on Saturday, October 16, 1943, a yard locomotive pushed two railway cars down the trolleycar tracks and halted in front of the Jewish temple.
Promptly at 8:30 a.m., "the Germans, their armed (SS) escorts, and a team of moving men finally arrived for the books. Work was begun at once, the facchini (Italian for movers--J.T.) loading the railway cars, and the Germans directing. The Einsatzstab bibliophiles took great pains to prevent any harm befalling the precious material. The books were placed flat side down on the bed of the freight cars like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. In this way layers were formed and between them sheets of corrugated paper cushioned the books for the long journey to Germany."
"Nevertheless, some of the facchini, who either sought to deprive the Germans of some of the booty or simply wanted to break up the heavy work with a diversion, were surreptitiously throwing books away. They hurled them from the second and third-story windows...Some of these priceless works were later seen among the ruins of the Roman theater, ripped to shreds."
At day's end, the two-car freight train began its long northward journey to the Brenner Pass. Sad to say, there was no Indiana Jones to swoop down and save the day, rescuing that cargo of priceless ancient manuscripts.
The train crossed the border into Germany--and entered oblivion.
Somewhere in central Europe is a secret Nazi hideaway filled with the Biblioteca Comunale's ancient books. Only one man knew its actual location-- Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, overall boss of the SS-Ahnenerbe and the chief of Hitler's secret police. And he committed suicide in May 1945, a couple of weeks after the end of World War II in Europe.
One can speculate endlessly about what was in the scroll that the SS lieutenant read. The SS-Ahnenerbe was interested in a multitude of occult topics--runes, ritual magick, European prehistory, the lost continent of Atlantis, secrets of Antarctica and the moon. Whatever it was that sparked the interest of the SS lieutenant--and, ultimately, Heinrich Himmler--may never be known. (See the book Black Sabbath by Robert Katz, Macmillan Company, New York, N.Y., 1969, pages 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 148 and 149.)
Our USA readers are well aware of the outcome of last Tuesday's election in California, in which actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, best known for his science fiction action movies, won the governor's seat. Many have pointed out that Schwarzenegger's 1990 movie about Mars, Total Recall, eerily predicted the circumstances that resulted in his election victory.
Your editor was reminded of the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer, which starred Schwarzenegger as the barbarian hero. In the final scene, actress Olivia d'Abo invites him to share the throne of Shadizar with her. Schwarzenegger replies, "I will find my own queen...and my own kingdom."
Prophecy fulfilled, Arnold!
And we'll be back next week with 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.
