It greaves me to announce, a wonderful friend, and one of the true icons of the UFO world, Lee Speigel passed away from a short-term illness on August 15.

*NEW Help Send Lee Speigel’s ashes into space! https://rb.gy/ym1ns

Lee Speigel has presented credible, compelling stories about UFOs, Science and the Paranormal since 1975, when he produced and wrote a documentary record album, “UFOs: The Credibility Factor,” for CBS Inc. This marked the first time that a major recording company offered a UFO-related product to the public via a prime time TV infomercial. During production of his UFO album, Speigel and numerous law enforcement officers were involved in a historic UFO encounter in Lumberton, No. Carolina — the first well-documented, multiple witness, triangular-shaped UFO incident in America, highlighted in David Marler’s 2013 book, “Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation.” In 1978, Speigel’s second attempt at UFO disclosure took place on a world stage when he became the only person in history to produce a milestone presentation on UFOs at the United Nations. Under the sponsorship of Grenada, he brought together leading military and scientific experts (including astronomers J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee), who urged world leaders to establish an international UFO study committee. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In the November 1978 Vol. 24, No. 3, Flying Saucer Review, there is an article (page 9 of pdf) by W. K. Allan headlined, “The Fort St. James Sightings,” that details Allan’s investigation of a case in British Columbia, Canada, along with the editor of the Canadian UFO Report, John Magor. Allan describes becoming interested in the case upon seeing a report (page 2 of pdf) headlined, “Possible Canadian Abduction,” in the March 1977 APRO Bulletin. According to Allan, he and Magor travelled, along with their wives, to Fort St. James to interview the witness, who identifies himself as Kirk Alore in the transcription of his story as told on tape. His account includes what seems to be a period of missing time, and this is likely what led the APRO investigator, Michael Sinclair, to consider that Alore might have been abducted. As they looked into the case further, they encountered some problems with Alore’s story but got corroboration from his parents. Read more →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In October 1970, the publishers of the British magazine Flying Saucer Review put out the first issue of FSR Case Histories. Editor Charles Bowen explains at the beginning of that issue that readers had “suggested that FSR should be a monthly journal.” According to Bowen, the FSR staff worked in their spare time to put out the magazine, and while putting it out monthly wasn’t possible, it was possible to put out a supplemental journal in between the main issues. Other reasons Bowen gives for putting out a supplement are: to provide space for cases that might otherwise go unrecorded, to translate stories from foreign journals, to encourage readers to become part-time investigators, and to have “a vehicle to carry important re-investigations of old cases.” The February 1974 FSR Case Histories, Supplement 18, was the final issue and Bowen and Assistant Editor Eileen Buckle explain in that issue that this is due to “lukewarm support and the shocking rise of costs and postage.” A case from that issue that caught this writer’s interest is an example of a case that was translated from a foreign magazine, in this instance, from the December 1972 issue of the Spanish magazine, Stendak. Read more →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In 1966, there was a series of UFO sightings in Michigan that got the attention of the press and the Air Force. There was a great deal of excitement and Project Blue Book (the code name for the Air Force’s UFO study) scientific consultant, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, was sent in to help calm things down. At a press conference, he offered some possible explanations. Due to sightings over a marsh, he speculated that people there had seen ignited balls of swamp gas, some going out and others igniting, and that this created the illusion of movement. The swamp gas explanation made the headlines and outraged many Michigan residents, including Michigan Representative and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford. He sent a letter dated March 28, 1966, to the chairmen of the Science and Astronautics Committee and the Armed Services Committee, suggesting that one of them schedule “hearings on the subject of UFO’s”.  He mentioned Hynek’s explanations in the letter and, in a press release that same day, it is noted that he described Hynek’s swamp gas explanation as “flippant.”  Documents relating to Ford’s efforts and the resultant open hearing are housed at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

Just before Stanton Friedman got Roswell fever, one of the earliest saucer researchers, Leonard Stringfield, was hard at work researching and investigating reports that involved military recovery of crashed flying saucers and alien bodies. He presented the results of his work in the form of a paper titled “Retrievals of the Third Kind” at the July 28, 1978 MUFON Symposium. A three-part series by Stringfield based on that paper was published under the same title in Volume 25, numbers 4, 5, and 6, in the British magazine, Flying Saucer Review, starting with the July-August 1979 issue.

Stringfield begins his paper by presenting the “facts” that the “world public at large” and the scientific community do not believe in UFOs. He then expresses the frustration of those in the UFO community who have “no doubt that a real interloper from somewhere exists.” Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In 1966, John Keel, longtime fortean and author of several books on UFOs, including his most famous book published in 1975, The Mothman Prophecies, was just beginning to focus on the UFO phenomenon. At this time in his life, he was writing articles for the British publication, Flying Saucer Review and sharing his research with Jim and Coral Lorenzen of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. He wrote an article (page 6 of pdf) about one case he looked into that year, headlined “New Landing and Creature Reports” that was published in the November-December 1966 Flying Saucer Review. The article’s main focus is on one incident that took place on July 31, 1966. Keel shared the details of the case with APRO, and they published their take on it (page 3 of pdf) headlined, “The Presque Isle Landing,” in the July-August 1966 APRO Bulletin.

Read more →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

While browsing through the archives of the UFO Newsclipping Service, we came across a headline that a co-worker commented would make a great T-shirt. We searched for other possible mentions of the story in periodicals of the time, and came across another headline that the reader might agree is also T-shirt worthy.

In the September 1988 UFO Newsclipping Service, there is an article on page 14 from the July 20, 1988 Eastbourne, England Gazette headlined, “UFO Kidnaps 26 Elephants.” According to the article, an African safari park in Lugo, Spain, lost 26 adult elephants. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

This is the third part in a series looking at a case involving a woman who claimed she was with Einstein as his assistant in 1947 when he went to examine a crashed flying saucer and aliens at a military base in the American Southwest. The case was originally investigated in 1993 by Mutual UFO Network affiliated researchers Leonard Stringfield and Sheila Franklin. Franklin got the woman’s story on tape and Stringfield wrote about it in his 1994 Status Report titled UFO Crash/Retrievals: Search for Proof in a Hall of Mirrors. As Einstein supposedly made the trip in 1947, Stringfield speculated that it might have involved the saucer that allegedly crashed at Roswell, and the woman told him, “I did hear that name pop up during my trip.” The woman had agreed to provide photos of the saucer and the aliens as well as documentation to back up her story, but these never materialized. According to Franklin and Stringfield, the woman was either lying or the victim of a Men-in-Black type campaign of harassment, surveillance, search, and seizure. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In last week’s blog, we looked at the cottage industry that grew up around the Roswell incident. We noted that people continue to cash in on it by coming up with “new evidence” that is promised to be “the smoking gun” that ultimately fails to live up to that promise. In a pattern that has continued for decades, once one piece of “evidence” is knocked down, another one pops up in its place. This happened fairly recently in the case of the “Roswell Slides,” which were said to be pictures of an alien recovered from Roswell, but turned out to be pictures of a mummified two-year-old boy. One of the people involved, Anthony Bragalia, made his apologies and then got right back out there with more “new evidence.”

Read more →