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by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

According to his letter sent to “several people who’ve shown a particular interest in our UFO experiences,” on March 20, 1988, John Salter Jr., 54, and his almost 23-year-old son, John Salter III, set off for from their home in Grand Forks, North Dakota, headed for Mississippi and “ultimately New Orleans.” Along the way, as they were travelling between LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and Dubuque, Iowa, they experienced two episodes where they found themselves unable to remember long stretches of road they had just travelled on. After spending the night in Bettendorf, Iowa, and having breakfast in Peoria, Illinois, on March 21^st at 10:14 a.m., they were confronted by a saucer-shaped UFO with a dome on top that came towards them and flew over them. Starting in June, Salter Jr. began to have dreams that developed into conscious recall of an encounter with humanoid creatures, several that were around 4 ½ feet tall and one that was around 6 feet tall, that took them onboard a craft. He says he recalled falling backwards on the way to the craft and being cushioned by what might have been telekinesis. He remembered being examined, injected in the neck and chest, and having an object inserted through his right nostril up into his sinus cavity. He describes his son being examined with a flashlight-like device with a soft head that was moved along his face with special attention being given to his jaw and chin. Salter III began recalling similar events starting in November.

John R. Salter Jr. had been a civil rights activist since the 1950s, and he was headed to New Orleans to present a paper titled “Civil Rights and Self-Defense” at an annual gathering. At the time, he was chair of American Indian Studies (his father was Micmac/Abenaki/Mohawk) at the University of North Dakota. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In 2000, Gary Lowrey, a Bakersfield, California, fire safety officer, came forward with the claim that he and his family were being harassed by strange creatures that came through his bedroom closet and left them with pinprick marks on their bodies. He produced physical evidence and video to back up his claim and got the attention of key figures in the UFO community at the time. While one piece of his physical evidence wound up in labs for extensive testing, his video evidence wound up being defended in a court of law.

Lowrey’s story came to the attention of Ventura, California, podiatrist Dr. Roger Leir, who gained notoriety for his claims that he had repeatedly removed anomalous objects from people who believed they had been abducted and implanted with devices by aliens. Leir wrote about the case in the article (page 3 of the pdf) headlined “The ‘Claw’ Scientifically Analyzed” published in the December 2003 MUFON Journal.

According to Leir, “Gary and his family have been involved for many years with numerous conscious memories of actual experiences.” He says that Lowrey had passed lie detector tests and undergone two regressions, one of which was performed by abduction researcher Budd Hopkins. Lowrey told Leir that he was going to try to capture video evidence and did so using a video camera hidden in a clock radio in his bedroom. He gave Leir what he believed was footage of a creature, and Leir gave it to “several video analysts” who saw “evidence of some kind of an image showing a creature in the film.” Other footage showed “balls of light floating through the air.” Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

“In mid-January 1975, for about three minutes, a spaceship landed on a hill in New Jersey, apparently to collect soil samples. It happened again last month.” This is according to Budd Hopkins in the summation of his article about a case he looked into published in the March 1, 1976, Village Voice under the headline “Sane Citizen Sees UFO in New Jersey.” At the time, Hopkins was a Manhattan-based artist who was just getting started as a UFOlogist. According to him, he contacted veteran saucerologist/UFOlogist Ted Bloecher for advice who then joined the investigation. Bloecher was then the director of the New York State chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. Another veteran, James W. Mosely, a practitioner of what he called “middle UFOlogy,” also investigated on his own. Bloecher wrote a report (page 3 of the pdf) for the MUFON publication, Skylook, and Mosely covered it in his “Non-Scheduled Newsletter,” Saucer News. Hopkins also covered the case in the second chapter of his 1981 book, Missing Time which brought it to a wide audience.

Hopkins begins the article describing a “tall round apartment building” named Stonehenge that sits on top of the Palisades. He notes the coincidence of a building with that name sitting “a few hundred yards” from the site of “a startling event.”

The man who reported the incident was 72-year-old New Jersey resident and Manhattan liquor store owner (a “teetotaler” according to Hopkins) George O’Barski. Hopkins tells the reader that O’Barski and his business partner had been his friends, “my evening check cashing service, and the source of my dinner wine for 17 years.” Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In the September 20, 1976, Tehran Journal out of Iran, there is the article (page 27 of the pdf) headlined “UFO – Phantoms in Chase Over South Tehran.” According to the report, officials in the control tower at Mehrabad Airport spotted an object at about 6000 feet over the southern section of Tehran that was alternately flashing red, blue, and green lights. They alerted the Air Force, and two Phantom jet fighters were sent up to investigate. The events that reportedly followed became of great interest, not only to the UFO community, but to the United States Department of Defense as well.

As the pilots approached what they described as a “round body,” the UFO increased its speed to “many times the speed of sound,” changed course, and chased the jets. One of the pilots reported that the object was impossible to catch, even with them breaking the sound barrier.

More information came from the Ettela’at reporter who broke the story who said that “highly informed sources” told him that when the object was heading towards the jets, the pilots went to fire on it and found that their “electronically operated devices failed to respond.” According to the same sources, when the object was within 5 km of the jets, all the electronics failed, including the radios. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

This is the last of a series of blogs looking at the Gulf Breeze, Florida, UFO flap that started with the publication of a photograph of a clearly-defined, lit-up UFO in the November 19, 1986, Gulf Breeze Sentinel. More followed from the same photographer who remained anonymous for over a year and was mostly referred to as “Ed” or “Mr. Ed.” The director of the Mutual UFO Network, Walt Andrus, met with Ed, and Andrus, along with Bruce Maccabee, local MUFON investigators, and the editor of the Sentinel, Duane Cook, became staunch supporters of Ed’s claims that the photos were of real craft taken during encounters which included attempted abductions and psychic communication. Just as word got out that Ed had made a publishing deal and received a $200,000 advance, a double exposed photo alleged to have been taken by Ed as a party trick was brought to the attention of the press by a teenager, Nick Mock, who said he was there at the time. The photo showed a ghost behind another teenage guest, Jennifer Bloomfield, and she came forward and confirmed the story. This was evidence against Ed’s claim that he didn’t know how to make double exposures. In the August 6, 1988, Miami Herald there is an article (page 11 of the pdf) covering the publishing deal and the photo. It was written by Sidney Freeberg headlined “Flash! UFOs are Real!” with the subhead, “Is ‘Mr. Ed’ Giving Us the Horse Laugh?” and at the end of it, Freeberg presents Ed’s full name and aliases: “He is Edward Daniel Walters, alias Daniel Edward Walters, alias Daniel Walters, alias Daniel Hanson.”

Walters’s book, titled Gulf Breeze Sightings, cowritten with his wife, Francis, was published on March 1, 1990. As Walters and his supporters defended the case in the press, the article (the second page is here) by Craig Meyers headlined “Gulf Breeze UFO Model Found” appeared in the June 10, 1990, Pensacola News Journal. Included is a photo of Meyers’s hand holding the model and a double exposure made with it at the Journal that is remarkably similar to Walters’s photos. According to Meyers, it was found in a house that Walters used to live in by the new owner who was looking for a water line in the attic while in the midst of installing a new ice maker. Walters claimed it was planted and is quoted as saying, “The debunkers will go to any lengths to discredit me.” Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In last week’s blog, we looked at a case that started when the Sentinel out of Gulf Breeze, Florida, published three pictures of a well-defined, lit-up UFO in the November 19, 1987, edition under the headline, “UFO Sighted Over Gulf Breeze.” The caption under the top photo asks that anyone who saw the object or had information about it contact the Sentinel. Along with the photos is a letter from the photographer that begins, “To whom it may concern.” The writer explains that the pictures were taken on November 11^th and that he showed them to his wife who suggested he show them to “Ed.” According to him, “Ed, in turn said that the photos should be shown to the press.” He adds, “That is why he is presenting them to you.” While he emphasizes that he is “a prominent citizen” and needs anonymity, he says he might come forward “if these photos and story spark any interest in your readership.” The photos became the subject of a long investigation led by the Mutual UFO Network. More photos and a videotape followed from the same photographer who remained anonymous until just before the publication of his book. At around the same time, a discovery in the attic of his former house by the new owner cast serious doubt on his claims. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

On November 19, 1987, the Sentinel out of Gulf Breeze, Florida, published three pictures of a well-defined, lit-up UFO under the headline, “UFO Sighted Over Gulf Breeze.” The caption under the photo asks anyone who saw the object or had information about it to call the Sentinel. Along with the photos is a letter from the photographer that begins, “To whom it may concern.” The writer explains that the pictures were taken on November 11th and that he showed them to “Ed.” According to him, “Ed, in turn said the photos should be shown to the press.” He adds, “That is why he is showing them to you.” While he emphasizes that he is a “prominent citizen” and needs anonymity, he says he might come forward “if these photos and story spark any interest in your readership.” The photos became the subject of a long investigation led by the Mutual UFO Network. More photos and a videotape followed, and the photographer remained anonymous until just before the publication of his book. At around the same time, a discovery in the attic of his former house by the new owner cast serious doubt on his story.

The Sentinel stuck with the story for over two years due to Editor Duane Cook’s faith in the photographer’s credibility. The December 3, 1987, Sentinel has the article (page 6 of the pdf) headlined, “UFO – Follow Up – More Sightings Reported.” It begins with the background that the Sentinel has been keeping tabs on local UFO sightings since it published the photos taken on November 11th. It is reported that a photo of a “similar object” taken over a year earlier in June of 1986 had been submitted and it is printed below in the section headed “Letters to the Editor.” The November 11th photo is printed next to it for comparison, and the objects pictured in both are more identical than similar. The photographer of the 1986 photo wrote that he/she was “relieved to see the UFO photos” as they looked “just like the photos I took last June ‘86.” Even though there is only one photo from the writer published, he/she says that two photos were taken while facing south on Shoreline Drive. This photographer also wished to remain anonymous. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In last week’s blog, we looked at a case from the Canary Islands involving thousands of people reporting that at around 10:30 p.m. on June 22, 1976, they saw a huge sphere of light in the western sky. The Spanish Air Force investigated, and included in the case file (released on July 22, 1994) are testimonies from members of the crew of the Atrevida, a Spanish Navy corvette, and Dr. Francisco Julio Padrón. The captain of the Atrevida said that a “luminous point of intense bluish-yellow” came up from the ground and reached an altitude of 15-18 degrees where it stayed for about two minutes while “generating a large halo of intense bluish-yellow light that persisted in the same position for forty minutes.” This matches almost all of the other reports. Padrón, on the other hand, said that while in a taxi on his way to see a patient in the town of Gáldar, he saw a transparent sphere 60 yards away that had two red humanoids inside. Even though Padrón’s description was unique and dismissed by the Air Force investigator, many accounts of the case focus on it, from the first reports in the press up until the present day. The cause of the sightings remained a mystery until two Spanish investigators, Vincente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, looked into the case and came up with a likely explanation.

Campo wrote the article headlined “Dos Gigantes Rojos Cabalgando un Misil” (Two Red Giants Riding a Missile) that was posted on June 22, 2016 (the 40^th anniversary of the sightings), on the Naukas website. In it, he is highly critical of the press and others who promoted Padrón’s story to the extent that what was seen by people all over the Canary Islands became known as the “Gáldar UFO.” Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

On June 22, 1976, beginning at 10:15 p.m., offices of emergency responders throughout the Canary Islands were inundated with calls from citizens reporting a huge fireball in the western sky. Officials were able to see it for themselves as it remained visible for several minutes. The incident made international news and became a part of UFO lore with the main focus on a witness who claimed to have seen the cause of the reports yards away, which he described as a transparent sphere with two occupants inside.

We came across this story looking through a collection of clippings from the National Enquirer. It was covered in the August 28, 1976, edition in the article (page 62 of the pdf) by David Klein headlined ‘Transparent UFO Tall as a 3-Story Building.”

According to Klein, three astronomers from the Astrophysical Observatory on Monte Izana “watched in stunned amazement as the ‘giant brilliant sphere with a swirling center’ streaked directly toward their observatory.” One of them, Dr. Fernando Bello, is quoted saying that it paused during its approach and then made a 90-degree turn. According to him, “No flying machine made by man could have executed that maneuver.” Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In 1969, just before the December 17^th press release that Project Blue Book was being terminated, Donald Keyhoe was removed from his position as director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. NICAP quickly became a shadow of its former formidable self, but it never fully ceased being active thanks to Fran Ridge, who passed away on January 20^th of this year. Ridge maintained the NICAP website, which is still operating as of this writing, and this week, we’ll look at one of the last cases Ridge investigated.

In the 2025 Chronology in the section of the site headed “The Chronos,” there is a file headed “2025-MADAR.htm.” This is the “Project Report: 2025” covering “Potential Sightings of Interest & MADAR Anomalies,” which is a joint effort between NICAP, the National UFO Reporting Center, and MADAR (Multiple Anomaly Detection and Automatic Recording).  MADAR was a project started by Ridge in 1970, and by 2023, there were 221 members operating 168 sites with systems designed to collect and record geomagnetic, electromagnetic, and background radiation anomalies. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

The National UFO Reporting Center, started in 1976 by Robert Gribble, has been a mainstay in UFO research ever since. Its present director is Peter Davenport, who took on the position in 1994. As the name implies, NUFORC is primarily a reporting center, but there are four investigators, Keith Bickford, John Budrys, Ben Hansen, and Lynda Thompson, listed in the “About Us” section of the website. While browsing the “Posts” section, the November 28, 2025, post titled, “Mysterious Lights in Northern Michigan – A NUFORC Investigation” caught our eye. It covers a case investigated by Budrys and has a link to his report and the report of the primary witness.

According to the post, from September into October 2025, a couple in northern Michigan had “repeated encounters” with basketball-sized illuminated objects. The couple, a 75-year-old artist and her 87-year-old husband with a PhD in psychology live in an isolated area with no nearby light sources, which made the lighted objects they saw stand out. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

Starting in December 1975 and continuing into the middle of 1976, there was a UFO flap in the area of Madoc, a village in Ontario, Canada, halfway between Toronto and Ottawa. Investigators from the Ontario-based Neptune Research Organization went to the area, interviewed witnesses, and were able to see for themselves what may be the most unique UFO-related trace evidence ever recorded.

Harry Tokarz, “affiliated with Neptune Research” and “editor and publisher” of UFO Pulse Analyzer wrote a report on the case and published it in the first issue of his journal, put out in April 1977. According to Tokarz, the flap came to the attention of the press when a farmer in an area north of Madoc found something unusual on his property and contacted Madoc Review reporter Ron Heiser. NRO found out about it and seven investigators, including Tokarz, “were dispatched.” Besides studying and analyzing what was in the farmer’s field, they found several witnesses who reported seeing UFOs throughout the Madoc area.

The earliest report described is that of Pauline Dudgeon who said that on December 11, 1975, a bright light caught her attention. She went to a window, looked out, and saw a large object that took up the width of Highway 12. A pulsing red light on top of it made her think she was looking at a traffic accident scene. She went outside and was, in Tokarz’s words, “awed by what she described (from 1000 ft. distance) as a disc or oval-shaped object with a dome or cupula on top and bright lights revolving around its periphery.” She was particularly fascinated by the bright light on top as she watched the object for 20 minutes. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

On April 24, 1964, in Socorro, New Mexico, Sgt. Lonnie Zamora of the Socorro Police reported seeing an egg-shaped object and two small humanoids dressed in white coveralls. On April 24, 1964, in Newark Valley, New York, farmer Gary Wilcox reported seeing an egg-shaped object and two small humanoids dressed in white coveralls. The difference is, Wilcox claimed he talked with the creatures he saw.

The first investigator on the scene was Wilcox’s neighbor, Priscilla J. Baldwin. She had an interest in UFOs and spoke with Wilcox on April 28^th. National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena advisor Walter Webb interviewed Wilcox on November 8, 1964, and there is a NICAP file on the incident.

Dr. Berthold Eric Schwartz investigated this case extensively and wrote an article (page 20 of the pdf) about it headlined, “Gary Wilcox and the UFOnauts,” published in the September 1969 Flying Saucer Review Special Issue 3. According to him in his article, material from Baldwin and Webb was made available to him, and he interviewed Wilcox along with his wife, friends, neighbors, and members of his family. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

At the top of the first page of National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena 1988 Chronology on the NICAP website, there is an illustration depicting what witnesses said they saw land on a frozen section of Lake Erie in March of that year. The report comes from Eastlake, Ohio, and witnesses include members of the Coast Guard. Under the illustration is a link to the NICAP Case Directory page covering the incident along with this brief description: “Coast Guard witnesses, large illuminated ellipse hovering over Lake Erie, landing on ice. Smaller triangular objects emerged, zipped around independently.”

The Case Directory page has a brief summary by webmaster Fran Ridge of events which began at 8:35 p.m.  According to Ridge, this case, which is “one of FUFOR’s (Fund for UFO Research) top cases,” had a possible “nuclear connection” (a nuclear power plant was nearby), and involved a “huge, gunmetal gray, football-shaped object that was rocking back and forth” which “was first observed by five people.”

Below the summary are links to “detailed reports and documents” which include the report from FUFOR, the partial transcript of an interview with the primary witnesses, the Coast Guard report, an email thread, and correspondence from the researchers. Read more →

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

UFOlogy has always attracted its fair share of academics, and some have managed to incorporate it into their fields of study. Fields such as astronomy, psychology, sociology, history and folklore studies lend themselves easily to the subject, and the literature is filled with books, papers, and articles, often in peer-reviewed journals, by professionals in those fields. Two famous examples are Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Dr. Jacques Vallée. Some were drawn to the subject because of a personal experience (Vallée had a sighting as a teenager) and one of those was Julliard professor of humanities and folklore, Peter Rojcewicz. He focused on Men in Black stories, wrote an article that was published in an academic journal in 1987, and then made the news when he lectured on the subject.

Rojcewicz wrote a 13-page article titled, “The ‘Men in Black’ Experience and Tradition: Analogues with the Traditional Devil Hypothesis,” that was published in the April-June 1987 (Vol. 100, No. 396, pp. 148-160) Journal of American Folklore.

In his article, Rojcewicz traces the origin of the modern Men in Black “tradition” to Albert K. Bender who shut down his organization, the International Flying Saucer Bureau, in 1953 after claiming he was visited by three MiBs. Rojcewicz describes the reported appearances and behaviors of the MiB that are familiar to many readers, provides first-hand accounts, compares the MiB tradition with the Devil tradition, and concludes that folklorists should entertain “the possibility that a real experience lies behind traditional belief.”

In 1990, Rojcewicz spoke in Minnesota, as part of a lecture series presented by Medtronic, which brought in people from the world of alternative science and the paranormal to speak about their work. Covering his talk is the article (page 1 of the pdf) by Gordon Slovut headlined, “Encounters With ‘Men in Black’: Fact or Fantasy?” published in the March 24, 199o, Minneapolis Star Tribune. Read more →