by Charles Lear
In last week’s blog, we looked at researcher/investigator Hayden Hewes and some of the cases he looked into. One of those was in Aurora, Texas, where a UFO was reported to have crashed in 1897, killing its not-of-this-world pilot. The pilot was said to have been buried in the local cemetery, and an enthusiastic Hewes attempted and failed to get an exhumation order. The case has endured in the UFO mythos despite the likelihood that the story was made up by a reporter trying to raise some publicity for a dying town. In the midst of the publicity stirred up by Hewes and other investigators, Jim and Coral Lorenzen of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization expressed their doubts in their publication, the A.P.R.O. Bulletin. Read more
When it comes to reporting UFO sightings, it often happens that local police departments are the first organizations witnesses turn to. Many times, the reports to police take place while the UFO is still active in the area and patrol officers are able to respond and verify witness accounts. Famous examples are the 1966 case involving Dale Spaur and his partner, Wilbur “Barney” Neff, who chased a UFO from Portage County, Ohio, all the way into Pennsylvania, and another Ohio case, this time in Trumbull County in 1994, involving multiple officers chasing and observing UFOs. Their radio interactions have been preserved in the form of a 
DAVID MARLER has had a lifelong interest in the UFO subject and has actively investigated and researched the subject for 31 years. He joined The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1990 as a Field Investigator Trainee. Since then, he has served as Field Investigator, State Section Director, as well as Illinois State Director.
BIO: David Clarke is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Arts and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He teaches media law and his research specialism is contemporary legend. Previously he worked as a journalist for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. His PhD in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. From 2008-13 he acted as consultant and curator of the MoD UFO files project with The National Archives. His books include The Angel of Mons (2004) and How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth (2015). In 2018 he co-founded the Centre for Contemporary Legend at Sheffield Hallam University. This blog covers his twin research interests in journalism and folklore. The views expressed in the contents are entirely his own.
