UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 24
Volume 8
Number 24
July 2, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
ASHCROFT AT WAR WITH UFOLOGY?
"FBI and other law enforcement officials raided a Rachel (Nevada) man's rented trailer home Thursday," June 19, 2003, "while he was out of state, searching for what he said were photographs and data stored in his computer about the classified military installation known as Area 51."
"'Area 51. That's what it's for,' said the man, Chuck Clark, when asked by telephone about the search warrant that he found on Friday," June 20, 2003, "on a table inside the trailer in the rural Lincoln County community 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Las Vegas."
"'They timed this very nicely while I was in Denver (Colorado) with a TV crew,' said Clark, 57, author of Area 51 and S-4 Handbook."
"Clark said he thinks the search warrant was triggered by his research into motion-detector sensors that are buried on public land along trails miles away from the restricted area around the classified installation near the dry lake bed of Groom Lake, 90 miles (144 kilometers) north of Las Vegas."
"Clark and other Area 51 buffs think the sensors are linked by radio signals to an interactive alarm network that alerts the installation's security personnel about possible intruders."
"'I dug them up, photographed them, recorded their GPS and put them back,' he said, referring to Global Positioning System coordinates."
"'I resent the fact they put them on public land. All I did was document them...
to make an issue of putting them outside of restricted land,' Clark said. He described himself as a semi-retired photographer and writer who has spent 10 years researching Area 51."
"Clark said the search warrant was issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt and that the agents who executed it left a four-page inventory of items siezed."
"An FBI spokesman in Las Vegas, Jim Stern, confirmed that a search warrant had been executed in Clark's residence Thursday."
"The FBI agents were accompanied by other law enforcement authorities who were part of a task force, but Stern declined to confirm the nature of the task force."
"There were no arrests, Stern said, noting, 'This is an ongoing investigation of Clark.'"
(Editor's Comment: Ongoing investigation!? What for? Clark has neither been arrested, charged, indicted by a grand jury, nor subpoenaed as a witness.)
"He said items were taken from Clark's residence but declined to give details about what prompted the investigation."
"He also would not comment on the scope of the search warrant or say what was siezed."
According to KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nev., "FBI agents have confirmed that a search warrant was served Thursday night on the home of a self-described military watchdog in the tiny town of Rachel, near the mysterious Area 51 military base."
KLAS-TV "learned that the action was initiated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force." (JTTF)
Earlier in June, Clark had "accompanied the (KLAS-TV Eyewitness News) I-Team" to an entrance to Area 51 and "two sensors were located and base security wrote down the plate numbers of our vehicles. We returned five days ago (Tuesday, June 17, 2003) and drove to the rear entrance of Area 51."
"Two days later (Thursday, June 19, 2003) FBI agents, working with (U.S.) Air Force Intelligence and the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided Clark's home and siezed photos, records and his computer."
"'They're paranoid about the location, and I don't see why?' asked Clark."
KLAS-TV "asked the BLM (Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior--J.T.) if it's legal for the military to put security devices on public land, but a (BLM) spokesman couldn't answer our question." (See the Las Vegas Review-Journal for June 21, 2003, "Ongoing investigation: FBI raids home near Area 51." Also the KLAS-TV Eyewitness News broadcast for June 20, 2003. Many thanks to Loren Coleman and Robert Fischer for these news reports.)
(Editor's Comment: No doubt about it. Due process has really gone down the latrine with Attorney General John Ashcroft at the helm.)
LUMINOUS UFO SIGHTED IN NORTHERN SPAIN
"A UFO was filmed (videotaped--J.T.) in the city of Gijon, in Asturias, a province in northern Spain."
"The sighting took place within the framework of the traditional celebrations of St. John's Eve on June 23, 2003 at 11:55 a.m. According to the report in Anyos Luz: 'A light crossed the sky, making strange movements. Was it a UFO? No one knows for sure, but the video recording shows that what occurred is beyond the normal.'"
"According to some eyewitnesses, 'the object resembled a star moving in the distance. It was a large thing that flew away very swiftly.'"
"The videotape shows that when the UFO passed over the buildings, small spherical objects can be seen. These have been attributed to the reflection of the UFO in glass windows through which the object was viewed. Another smaller object can be seen moving in the opposite direction. It has been identified as a 'stunned pigeon.'"
Gijon is a port on the Bay of Biscay, located approximately 210 kilometers (126 miles) northwest of Madrid, the capital of Spain. (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Guillermo Gimenez para esa historia de noticias.)
NIGHT SAUCER SPOTTED IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, UK
On Wednesday, June 25, 2003, at 11:20 p.m., Stuart Wood "spotted what I thought was a low-flying plane out of my living room window" in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, UK. He reported, "I soon realised that there was no engine noise, and that it could not be a hot- air balloon at that time of night."
"It was saucer-shaped with four metallic legs hanging from the undercarriage that were bent in the middle, almost in a crouching stance, with three amber lights, one of which lit the leg-like structures up. It also had one red and one white blinking light situated on the port or starboard (left or right) side of the object."
"It measured about a centimetre (0.4 inches) across. (I used a ruler from arm's length from where I was standing--S.W.) I think it was about one-half to three- quarters of a mile (0.8 to 1.2 kilometers) away. My friend also witnessed this. The object never moved; it just hovered. After two or three minutes of staring at it, it (the UFO) disappeared." (Email Form Report)
LUMINOUS SPHERE SEEN OVER BUENOS AIRES
On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 7:03 p.m., spherical UFOs were seen over Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
According to Argentinian ufologist Ricardo E. D'Angelo, the brilliant luminous objects were seen over the urban districts of Boedo, Almagro and Chacabuco in Buenos Aires. Ricardo reported, "I observed an 'intense luminous sphere' over the district of Chacabuco. From my position, looking northeast, the object appeared to be 'a very luminous sphere, moving at a very, very low altitude over the city. It began to disappear as it neared the eastern horizon (the Rio de la Plata estuary--J.T.). However, it vanished in a series of degrees, gradually becoming more and more transparent. It was not a satellite, a bolide or a meteor because of its slow velocity, and it was last seen heading towards (the neighboring country of) Uruguay."
"A few hours later," Ricardo added, "eyewitnesses in the Parque Chacabuco observed 'pulses of anomalous blue light' that 'flashed repeatedly for eight minutes before disappearing into the east." (Email Form Report)
DARK AMBER UFO SEEN IN EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 11:33 p.m., Chris R. and his girlfriend were on the waterfront in Evanston, Illinois (population 74,239) when they spotted something unusual in the sky.
Chris reported, "My girlfriend and I were looking out over the lake (Lake Michigan--J.T.) and up in the sky when we saw a bright point appear in the sky. It was a dark amber color with no blinking lights on it. It was heading west also. But two minutes into watching it, it stopped in mid-air. Then it moved north for less than 30 seconds, where it stopped again and then continued to head west."
"During the sighting, it never once blinked or made a sound or changed in color. We noticed that once it was past us, we could still see a very faded color of red on top of it. But we still could not make out its shape. There were (other) planes in the air. The object had no markings, blinks or colors of any kind."
"I called O'Hare (International) Airport, and they said they had no aircraft in the area at the time. This is my second (UFO) sighting."
Evanston, Ill. is on Sheridan Road and Asbury Avenue about 6 miles (10 kilometers) north of Chicago. (Email Form Report)
VOLLEYBALL-SIZED HAIL HAMMERS NEBRASKA
On Sunday, June 22, 2003, at 7:05 p.m., thunderclouds over Aurora, Nebraska (population 4,225) unleashed a phenomenal fall of hail.
"National Weather Service officials Monday (June 23, 2003) investigated what may be the largest hailstone ever found in the United States--the result of a storm last weekend that produced hail that punched holes in roofs and left the ground pocked with one to two-inch (2.5 to 5- centimeter) deep craters."
"Witnesses described the hail as looking like 'volleyballs falling from the sky.'"
"Hardest hit was Aurora, Neb.," a community on Interstate Highway I-80 approximately 112 miles (179 kilometers) southwest of Omaha. "The largest hailstone there was quickly refrigerated to preserve it. Unofficial measurements put its diameter at 6.5 inches (16.25 centimeters)."
"But, because of its egglike shape, the circumference (the distance around the outer shell--J.T.) was reportedly 17.3 inches (43.25 centimeters)."
"If these measurements hold up, the stone should beat the previous U.S. record set" on September 3, 1970, "at Coffeyville, Kansas. That hailstone was 5.7 inches (14.25 centimeters) in diameter; 17.5 inches (43.75 centimeters)."
"Dozens of tornadoes raked the upper Midwest on Tuesday," June 24, 2003. In Buffalo Lake, Minnesota (population 700)," located about 70 miles (112 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, "sirens went off many times and many residents recall the sky turning a soupy, eerie shade of green."
"Buffalo Lake Police Chief Greg Gowan said he took shelter in a building on the city's main street and watched in horrified fascination as a giant uprooted fir tree performed a graceful, twirling ballet in the air high above him."
"The tornado ripped the roof off the post office and didn't leave much intact of the city's grain elevator or Zion Lutheran Church."
"Ten homes were destroyed and about 40 were seriously damaged, said Duane Hoeschen, regional program coordinator for the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management."
"In west-central Minnesota, where the storms seemed to hit hardest, the rain turned many farm fields into ponds. From Buffalo Lake to Dassel to rural Hutchinson, winds uprooted oaks and firs, or twisted their trunks around as if they were rubber bands."
"About 50,000 people in outstate (rural) Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, South Dakota and upper Michigan lost (electrical) power."
"Pipestone County (Minnesota) Deputy Sheriff Dale Mathews was standing on his front porch about 7 p.m. Tuesday when baseball-sized hail started pounding the ground."
'When they hit the ground, they went thump,' he said, 'and when they hit the house, they went bang! It was clinking my car. I've never seen hail that big here.'"
"The weather weirdness hasn't been confined to the East. A freak summer snowstorm in Wyoming this week left (snow) drifts up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) on some mountain passes. It also chilled the start of the annual Rainbow Family gathering, a counter-culture campout expected to draw 20,000 people to northeastern Utah's Uintah Mountains through the Fourth of July weekend." (See the Chicago Tribune for June 24, 2003, "Nebraska hail: It looked like 'volleyballs,' section 2, page 10; USA Today for June 26, 2003, "Sodden East finally feels heat," page 4A; and the Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for June 26, 2003, "More rain predicted, but no more severe storms," page A11.)
MOTHMAN REVISITED
Cryptozoologist and paranormal researcher Loren Coleman has turned up new and unusual facts in the mystery surrounding "the Curse of The Mothman Prophecies."
A statistically unusual number of sudden deaths have been linked to the opening of the 2002 film, which dealt with the strange events around the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia on December 15, 1967.
In his latest update, Coleman noted that "Aaron Stephen Rebsamen, 14, unexpectedly committed suicide in his Fort Smith, Arkansas home. He was the beloved son of the well-known cryptozoology artist William Rebsamen, who did the cover illustration of Mothman for Coleman's book, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters."
"Under a tight deadline after the publisher rejected earlier images from another source, Bill Rebsamen created the Mothman painting, overnight, in one creative inspiration."
"Witnesses such as Linda Scarberry, upon seeing the Rebsamen full-length, colored illustration of Mothman, said it is the best drawing, which most matches" the creature that "was first seen on November 15, 1966."
Three days after the boy's unfortunate death, "near Webbers Falls (Oklahoma)," about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Fort Smith, Ark., "fourteen people died after a barge collided with an Interstate Highway I-40 bridge, sending cars, trucks and trailers into the Arkansas River early Sunday morning, May 26, 2002."
The bridge collapse was eerily similar to the fall of the Silver Bridge into the icy Ohio River in December 1967.
"The bridge crossed the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River waterway in eastern Oklahoma. Seven women, seven men and at least 10 vehicles were pulled after one of two barges pulled by a tugboat struck a pillar, collapsing a 500 to 600-foot (150 to 180-meter) section of the bridge."
(Editor's Comment: The "seven women/seven men" theme rang a bell in your editor's memory. Then I remembered the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts. Every year, ancient Athens was required to send seven men and seven women to the land of Colchis (modern Crimea), to be used as human sacrifices.)
"Among those lost were Andrew Clements, 35, who was traveling from California to Woodridge, Virginia; Jeanine Cawley, 48, of Lebanon, Oregon; Margaret Green, 45, of Stockdale, Texas; Gail Shanahan, 49, of Corpus Christi, Texas; Misty Johnson, 28, of Lavaca, Ark.; James Johnson, 30, of Lavaca, Ark.; Wayne Martin, 49, of Norman, Okla.; Susan Martin, 49, of Norman, Okla.; Jerry Gillion, 58, of Spiro, Okla.; Patricia Gillion, 57, of Spiro, Okla.; David Mueggenborg, 52, of Okarche, Okla.; and Jeanne Mueggenborg, 51, also of Okarche, Okla."
"The Johnsons' three-year-old daughter, Shea Nicole, was found floating approximately one-half mile (0.8 kilometers) south of the bridge. She was one of the 14 victims pronounced dead. The Johnsons were on their way to the Tulsa Zoo."
Adjusting for time zones, the Webbers Falls bridge collapsed into the Arkansas River at the same time the "bridge destruction" climax of the film The Mothman Prophecies was showing on movie screens in Sydney, Australia. The Webbers Falls disaster took place on May 26, 2002, the very same day The Mothman Prophecies premiered in Australia. (Many thanks to Loren Coleman for the updated Mothman information. For more, see UFO Roundup, volume 8, number 22 for June 18, 2003, "'Mothman Curse' may be haunting Hollywood," page 2.)
VIRGIN MARY RETURNS TO MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS
"Nearly two weeks after people said they had seen the image of the Virgin Mary (birth name: Miriam bat-Joachim) on a Milton (Massachusetts) Hospital window, some of the faithful who have been flooding there said they have spotted another apparition on a hospital chimney."
"While the majority of the crowd at Milton Hospital continues to focus on the window, some have turned their attention to the chimney. Some said they see a cross, while others said they see another outline of the Virgin Mary."
"Believers said they see the image in the bright red brick surrounded by soot, about 5 feet (1.5 meters) from the top of the chimney. The chimney is more than 30 yards (27 meters) from the hospital window where a chemical deposit caused the first apparition."
"'It's another sign...there is hope for us all, with all that is going on in the world,' said Soraya G. Fentas of Randolph (Massachusetts)."
"A hospital spokesman did not return a phone call requesting comment."
"The crowds flooding to the hospital to see the first apparition caused hospital officials to request (that) visitors come only from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Hospital officials have decided to cover the window with a tarp (tarpaulin cloth) the rest of the time. It is not known if they will cover the chimney."
"'It's a miracle because it brought everyone here together," said Tanya Velez of Hyde Park," a suburb of Boston, Mass. "'It's very emotional to see everyone here praying and searching for something to believe in.'"
"The words spoken most among the 200 or so people at the hospital were faith, prayer, peace."
"Connie Buckley of West Roxbury, Mass.," another Boston suburb, said she saw two crosses on the hospital chimney."
"'They're very pronounced,' he said, 'I believe it's letting everyone know that God is aware and present, along with the Virgin Mary.'"
"One believer said she saw the Virgin Mary sitting down. Another said she saw the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus on one side of the chimney and her back (was displayed) on the other side."
"The likeness of the Virgin Mary in a window at Milton Hospital is likely the product of a chemical deposit, the Archdiocese of Boston said. Since the image took shape three weeks ago, more than 40,000 people have thronged to the hospital to see it."
Milton, Mass. (population 26,062) is located on Route 28 approximately 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Boston. (See the Boston Globe for June 24, 2003, "Some say they're seeing second image at hospital," page B2. Also USA Today for June 30, 2003, "Across the USA: Massachusetts," page 7A. Many thanks to Robert Fischer for the Boston newspaper article.)
NASA SAYS FOAM CAUSED THE SHUTTLE DISASTER
"In their strongest statement yet on the (space shuttle) Columbia disaster, investigators said Tuesday (June 24, 2003) that flyaway foam from the fuel tank was 'the most probable cause' of the wing damage that brought down the space shuttle almost five months ago."
"'We've been trying to line up all the Swiss cheese holes,' said Roger Tetreault, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. 'I think those holes have lined up pretty good.'"
"Tetreault said he thinks the deadly breach was partway down the leading edge of the Columbia's wing, at or near carbon panel No. 8."
"Both the engineering analysis and the shuttle wreckage pinpoint that location, he said. That is the spot--or close to it--where a one-and-a-half pound chunk of foam insulation from the external fuel tank struck during liftoff back in January."
"The Feb. 1 (2003) disaster killed all seven astronauts aboard."
"The board's final report is expected by the end of July."
"The board's chairman, retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman Jr. expects to release an interim recommendation to NASA soon, possibly as early as this week, that will emphasize the need for caution to avoid damage to the wings' thermal protection shielding on every flight and to repair problems in orbit." (See the Chicago Tribune for June 25, 2003, "Shuttle investigators blame foam in disaster," page 5.)
From the UFO Files...
1942: THE HUNT FOR THE HOLY GRAIL
Most people think knightly quests in search of the Holy Grail were a phenomenon of the Middle Ages. Yet one such quest took place right in the middle of World War II.
This Grail hunt ravaged the Crimea, but the story actually begins in the Pyrenees, in a small town called Ussat-les-Bains, a hundred years ago. Here two French occultists, Antonin Gadal and Rene Nelli, began researching Cathar legends and became convinced that the Cathars once had possession of the Holy Grail.
(Editor's Note: The Cathars were a religious sect that flourished in Europe from about 800 A.D. to the fall of their stronghold, Montsegur, in southern France in 1244 during the so-called Albigensian Crusade.)
Gadal and Nelli formed a society called Les Amis de Montsegur et le Graal (French for The Friends of Montsegur and the Grail). A few years later, Gadal opened "a private Cathar museum at the small town of Ussat-les-Bains in the Pyrenees with an alleged Cathar connection. He also had an extensive library on the subject of the Cathars and the Grail...The society--as its name implies-- believed that a connection existed between the Cathar movement and the Grail Romances" of the medieval troubadours.
In 1906, French author Josephin Peladan wrote a best- selling book on the subject, Le Secret des Troubadours. Ussat-les-Bains became a kind of "Roswell of the Cathars." Among the occultists who made the pilgrimage there was a young German named Otto Rahn.
Rahn arrived in 1931 and made friends with Gadal. While working part-time at a local hotel, Rahn frequented Gadal's museum and took voluminous notes on the Holy Grail. But when the worldwide Depression worsened in 1932, Rahn lost his job and drifted back home to Germany.
During a fruitless search for work in the Fatherland, Rahn wrote a book of his own, Kreuzzug gegen den Graal (German for Crusade Against the Grail --J.T.) It was as big a hit as the Peladan book a quarter-century earlier. Gadal's friend, Rene Nelli, translated Rahn's book into French, and Croisade contre le Graal soon found a global audience.
Unfortunately for Rahn, his book caught the eye of a fellow German with a pronounced interest in the occult. This was Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer-SS and Adolf Hitler's confidant and secret police chief. Himmler "personally invited the author (Rahn) to meet him at his Prinz Albrechtstrasse headquarters in Berlin. There he offered Rahn a commission in the SS and virtually unlimited resources for which Himmler expected Rahn to continue his research into the Grail legends, the Cathars and related subjects of Aryan interest."
Weeks later, a liberal friend was horrified when he saw Rahn in the black garb of an SS Sturmbannfuhrer. "Otto! What are you doing in that uniform!?"
"My dear fellow," Rahn replied, a bit sheepish, "A man has to eat. Himmler himself offered me this job. What was I supposed to do--turn him down?"
So Rahn continued his Holy Grail research and in 1935 became one of the founders of the SS-Ahnenerbe (German acronym for Ancestral Heritage and Research Teaching Society--J.T.).
The SS-Ahnenerbe turned up persistent rumors that the Holy Grail had been hidden by the Cathars after the fall of Montsegur. Trouble was, it was rumored to be in a number of different locations throughout Europe--including the Crimea.
One who took a keen interest in the Grail was a rising SS man named Otto Ohlendorf.
Ohlendorf was born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen bei Hildesheim, near Hannover. While a university student, he became an enthusiastic partisan of Theosophy and devoured many occult books, such as Der Stammbaum der Menschen by Annie Besant, Der Weltenschauung der Rosenkreuzer oder Mysteriches Christentum by Max Heindel and everything by the prolific Dr. Franz Hartmann, especially Was ist Theosophie? and Die weisse und schwarze Magie.
(Editor's Note: Dr. Hartmann has a surprising connection with the USA's "Old West" and two of its most notorious outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Don't miss this feature story when it appears in UFO Roundup.)
In 1925, while still a student, Ohlendorf joined the Nazionalsozialische Deutschesarbeiterspartei (NSDAP, better known as the Nazi Party--J.T.). He joined the SS in 1926 and, after obtaining his law degree, went to work at the Institute for World Economics in Kiel.
He rose rapidly in the SS during the 1930s, joining the SS- Sicherheitdienst (German for SS Security Service-- J.T.) in May 1936 with the rank of Sturmbannfuhrer. With the outbreak of war in September 1939, "he became chief of the SD-Inland (Interior--J.T.) section in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (German for Empire Main Security Office or RSHA--J.T.) with the rank of Standartenfuhrer."
Although never a formal member of the SS-Ahnenerbe, and never that chummy with Himmler, Ohlendorf retained his interest in Theosophy. His SS comrades had a nickname for him--Der Graalritter (The Grail Knight).
When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Himmler named Ohlendorf the field commander of Einsatzgruppe D. "Since the German leadership expected the war in Russia to last only a few months, the Einsatzgruppen received orders to slaughter the Jews as quickly as possible. This would give the appearance that the war had produced the killings, not that the killers had perpetrated such a policy purposely."
At the briefing, Himmler gave Ohlendorf a mission with three objectives.
(1) Since Jews supposedly "formed the intellectual reservoir of Bolshevism in the East," Ohlendorf's Einsatzgruppe was to kill them on sight.
(2) Take the Crimea away from Stalin's Soviet Union and turn it into "the Riviera of the Reich."
(3) Capture the Holy Grail and remove it from its Cathar hideaway in the Crimea.
(Editor's Comment: It is unclear exactly why Himmler wanted the Grail. It's possible that Himmler, a great believer in Hindu world-ages, intended to use the Grail in a grand magickal working at Wewelsburg that would have brought about the end of the Kali Yuga.)
On December 13, 1941, Ohlendorf struck hard at Simferopol, the largest city in the Crimea. "In an Aktion (pogrom--J.T.) that lasted three days, 14,300 Jews from Simferopol were murdered by the SS."
(Editor's Note: Simferopol was the site of an earlier massacre on October 18, 1905, carried out by the Soyuz Russkevo Narodnya, (Union of the Russian People) better known as the Black Hundreds, a home-grown Russian Nazi party that flourished during the early 1900s.)
As German forces advanced through the peninsula, the SS raided synagogues like the Karaim Kenass and ancient sites like the Keremchik fortress and the Kebir Djami mosque in Simferopol, the palace of Princess Dzhanike- Hanym in Bakhchisarai and the caves of Chufut-Kaleh.
Next it was the turn of the Masonic lodges. "It was (Nazi visionary Alfred) Rosenberg who ordered that Freemason temples" in the Crimea "be looted by Einsatz commandos and their contents shipped back to him in Berlin, an order cheerfully carried out by Franz Six and Otto Ohlendorf."
No lodges were spared as Ohlendorf marched down the coast--Alushta, Gurzuf, Massandra, Yalta, Livadiya, Kurpaty, Gaspra--the SS sacked them all.
By the time the Crimean campaign ended in July 1942, Ohlendorf "had directed the murders of some 90,000 civilians." Of them, 50,000 were Karaite Jews, a community that had lived on the peninsula since 300 B.C.
But the Holy Grail was not found.
For his service in the Crimea, Hitler awarded Ohlendorf the Military Service Cross (a.k.a. the Iron Cross--J.T.), Class 1 with swords. Ohlendorf was appointed to a high-ranking position in the SS and remained at Himmler's side until the war ended in 1945.
Tried for war crimes by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, Ohlendorf was found guilty and condemned to death. He spent the last few years of his life as one of the "red jackets" (Death Row prisoners--J.T.) at the Landsberg am Lech prison.
Although the Grail had eluded him, Ohlendorf remained convinced that some day the priceless artifact would be found. On the eve of his execution, he told the Allied prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz: "The Grail will rise again. The Jews in America will suffer for what you have done to me."
On June 7, 1951, Ohlendorf and three other Einsatzgruppen leaders were hanged at Landsberg. The Holy Grail remains hidden. (See the books Unholy Alliance by Peter Levenda, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, 2003, pages 114, 115, 210 and 211; Hitler's Shadow War by Donald M. McKale, Cooper Square Press, New York, N.Y., page 198; Masters of Death by Richard Rhodes, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York, N.Y., 2002, pages 274 and 275; The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, volume 2, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, N.Y., 1991, page 665; and Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, volume 2, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, N.Y., 1990, page 1084.)
That's it for this week. Join us next time 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 in seven days.
