Faeries From a UFO

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In 1969, Passport to Magonia by Jacques Vallée was published. Its central thesis is that there may be a link between folklore, particularly stories of the Fae folk, and UFO lore. In the Vol. 25, No. 6, issue (page 25 of the pdf) of Flying Saucer Review, there is an article by Eileen Morris headlined “The Winged Beings of Bluestone Walk” covering a case that certainly seems to support Vallée’s ideas.

According to Morris, a “necessarily brief” version of the story told by Jean Hingley first appeared in the January 12, 1979, edition of The Dudley Herald. She says she met Hingley and her husband “a number of times” both at their residence and at her own, and describes them as “honest, hard-working people.” She took notes and used them to type up Hingley’s version of events and then had Hingley read it. Hingley was “satisfied that it is accurate.”

According to the account written as if Hingley was telling it in the first person, she lived “in a small council house in Bluestone Walk, Rowley Regis, near Birmingham,” with her husband, Cyril, and their Alsatian, Hobo. On January 4, 1979, it was a cold, dark morning, and there was snow on the ground as she saw her husband off to his job at a cement works (she worked at a company that made soundproofing for cars). She was at the back door of the house that opened out to the road, and as her husband drove off, she noticed a light from the area of the garden. Read more

A Conversation Worth Remembering — Hint: Roswell

By: Albert Wain

In 2015, while handling an inspection claim for damaged furniture in Buffalo, New York, I met with a client at his home. He was around eighty years old and wore a cast on one arm. As we walked through his condo inspecting the damaged pieces, he explained that he was battling bone cancer in his arm and that his wife of many years had recently passed away.

At one point, he brought me into a room lined with photographs of various aircraft. He told me he was a retired Air Force officer who had flown many combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. This, he explained, was his room of memories. He spoke easily about his time in the military, and it was clear he was enjoying the conversation. When we finished the inspection, I asked if we might sit for a while and visit before I headed out. He smiled and said, “That sounds nice.”

Read more

An 1897 Cattle Mutilation

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

The cattle mutilation mystery and its association with UFO activity didn’t get the attention of researcher investigators until the 1970s. There is an article on page 2 of the March 1975 APRO Bulletin, headlined “More on Mutilations,” discussing the findings of APRO Field Investigators Bill Pitt, Lee Spiegel, and Kevin Randle. It was the opinion of APRO at the time that “no satisfactory evidence has emerged which links UFOs to mutilated animals.” The first mutilation to get the public’s attention was that of a horse named Snippy found by its owners in the San Luis Valley of Colorado on September 8, 1967. Shortly after that, in his article (page 8 of the pdf) in the July/August 1968 Flying Saucer Review headlined “West Virginia’s Enigmatic Bird,” John Keel mentions that cow and horse mutilations are “now common” in the midst of sightings of the Mothman and UFOs in the area around Point Pleasant. However, there is a report far earlier than this that, by most accounts, appeared in the April 23, 1897, Yates Center Farmer’s Advocate. This involves a mystery airship caught in the act of abducting a cow right in front of prominent Woodson County, Kansas, citizen Alexander Hamilton (not the one on the 20-dollar bill).  While the Advocate article remains elusive, Redditt user Remseey2907 found an article in what appears to be the Globe Democrat that includes the details of and references the Advocate article. Read more

Chariots of the Gods: Its Beginning and Aftermath

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

For many people growing up in the 1970s (of which this writer is one), seeing a UFO documentary was their first in-depth look into the subject. These films often came along with books tied in, and major publishers such as Bantam were getting onboard. More and more people were willing to accept the idea that UFOs were worthy of serious consideration, and this meant that more and more people were willing to spend money on movies and books covering the subject. What had formerly been mostly confined to a subculture of enthusiasts, was now becoming a somewhat profitable entertainment industry. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to some readers, but between the summer of the saucers in 1947, and 1968, there were only two documentaries made in the midst of all the science fiction saucer films that became popular starting in the 1950s.

The beginning of the 1970s wave of UFO documentaries can be traced back to the 1968 book Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (Memories of the Future) by Erich von Däniken published by Econ-Verlag in West Germany. The book not only whetted the public’s appetite for UFOs and aliens (especially ancient ones), but opened up the doors for all things strange and mysterious, including Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts, and lake monsters. Read more

The First Feature-Length UFO Documentary

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

The first feature-length UFO documentary was titled, appropriately, Unidentified Flying Objects with the subtitle, The True Story of Flying Saucers. It was produced by Clarence Greene and released in 1956. Researcher Robert Barrow devoted a blogspot.com site to it titled UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers and posted from June 2008 until July 2025. In his June 12, 2008, post, “The Driving Force: Clarence Greene,” Barrow includes a statement “signed” by Greene, but he tells the reader that he found it on the web “uncredited.”

According to Greene in his July 26, 1967, statement titled, “UFO: Why I Made Unidentified Flying Objects,” one night in August of 1952, a friend called his attention to something in the sky Greene describes as “a sphere of light.” They watched it for about five minutes as it moved, stopped, made turns, and then moved off over the horizon. He later learned that members of the Ground Observation Corps had also observed it. Read more

The First UFO Documentary

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

For many people growing up in the 1970s (of which this writer is one), seeing a UFO documentary was their first in-depth look into the subject. These films often came along with books tied in, and major publishers such as Bantam were getting onboard. More and more people were willing to accept the idea that UFOs were worthy of serious consideration, and this meant that more and more people were willing to spend money on movies and books covering the subject. What had formerly been mostly confined to a subculture of enthusiasts, was on its way to becoming the profitable entertainment industry it is today. What may may come as a surprise to some readers is that between the 1947 summer of the saucers and 1968, there were only two documentaries (if any readers know differently feel free to comment) made in the midst of all the science fiction saucer films that became popular starting in the 1950s.

What is thought to be the first flying saucer/UFO documentary was released in 1950 as an approximately 9 ½ minute short titled The Flying Saucer Mystery. It was re-released in 1952 with added footage that brought it up to around 12 minutes. Both releases were produced by Telenews, which had a chain of 13 theatres in major cities throughout the U.S. that only showed newsreels. According to the December 20, 2019, post on The Science Fiction Encyclopedia website, the film (which release isn’t specified) was lost until the 1990s. The producer, director, and screenwriter are unnamed. Read more

A 1954 Landed Craft and Humanoid Report from Cennina, Italy

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

Throughout 1954 in France, there was a wave of humanoid reports that received national and international press coverage. That same year, Italy experienced a wave of its own that didn’t get nearly as much attention, although one particular case has since become a classic. A detailed account (page 12 of the pdf) of the case and a follow-up investigation 18 years later is presented in the Vol. 18, No. 5, Flying Saucer Review. Jacques Vallée included a brief account in his catalogue titled Une Siècle d’Atterisages” (a Century of Landings) published as a series in Lumières dans la Nuit starting with the April 1969 issue and ending with the February 1970 issue. However, according to editor Gordon Creighton, “so far as I am aware, no full description of it has ever appeared in English.”

The account, by Sergio Conti, appears on page 11 (page 14 of the pdf) under the headline, “The Cennina Landing of 1954.” It was translated by Creighton from Il Giornale dei Misteri No.17, published in August of 1972. Read more

Reports of Cube in Sphere UFOS from the 20th and 21st Centuries

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In 2019, U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves began speaking publicly about regular encounters by flight teams starting in 2013 with UFOs. On July 26, 2023, he testified before congress and said that on one occasion, two jets were forced to make evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision with an object he described as a clear sphere with a black cube inside. By the time of the hearing, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office headed by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick had looked into these types of reports, and in May of 2023, Kirkpatrick informed NASA’s UFO advisory council that AARO had about 800 instances of “metallic orb” UFOs. This is according to a January 24, 2024, Science Times article by Caleb White headlined “Cube in a Sphere UAP Could Be ‘Aliens’ or ‘Next Generation’ Spherical Drones, Pentagon Former UFO Chief Says.” Read more

PART II: A 1976 Encounter report from Spain

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In last week’s blog, we looked at a case from Spain that involved three airmen who were stationed at a Spanish Air Force base near Talavera La Real. It was investigated by Juan José Benítez who wrote a report (page 4 of the pdf) and sent it to Flying Saucer Review. The report was translated into English by Gordon Creighton, and it was published in the Vol. 23, No. 5, February 1978 issue.

According to Benítez, the three airmen, José María Trejo, Juan Carrizosa Luján, and José Hildago were on guard duty after midnight on November 12, 1976. Trejo and Carrizosa were in their sentry boxes, and Hildago was on patrol with a German Shepherd. At around 1:45 a.m., Trejo and Carrizosa heard what sounded like radio interference, which then turned into a piercing, high-pitched whistle that hurt their ears. The whistle started and stopped repeatedly, and the two men, armed with Z-26 quick-firing rifles, searched the area where it seemed to be coming from.

They then saw a light that looked like a flare high up in the sky that lit up a wide area. Hildago came by with the dog and he had also seen the light. They were joined by a corporal and two support guards, and they went to do a search.

After hearing branches breaking in a stand of eucalyptus trees and sending the dog in repeatedly, they saw a luminous green figure that was about three meters tall with what looked like a helmet on its head, long arms, thick body, and it didn’t seem to have any legs or feet. The men described it as being like a bobbin or a spindle. Read more

A 1976 Encounter Report from Spain

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In the Vol. 23, No. 5, February 1978 Flying Saucer Review, there is a report (page 4 of the pdf) out of Spain headlined, “Encounter at Talavera.” It was written by Juan José Benítez and translated by Gordon Creighton. Benítez got the story from the main witnesses who were three airmen stationed at a Spanish Air Force base near Talavera la Real, close to the Spanish-Portuguese border. He describes the case as “simply staggering.”

Benítez explains that the incident occurred on November 12, 1976, and that he got the story firsthand from the witnesses, but kept the details to himself because the three men involved had still been in the service “until a short time ago.”

According to Benítez, at around 1:45 a.m., José María Trejo and Juan Carrizosa Luján were in their sentry boxes on guard duty near the fuel depot of the Talavera Air Force Base and Jet Aircraft School a few kilometers from the city of Badajoz. Their boxes were 60 meters apart and they both heard what sounded like radio interference, which then turned into a piercing, high-pitched whistle that hurt their ears. After a few minutes, it stopped, and then started up again five minutes later, this time near Trejo’s box. Trejo called for Carrizosa to come over and both men searched the area armed with Z-26 quick-firing rifles. Read more

Two Co-workers Share Their UFO Stories

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

This past week, I found myself in the position of having two co-workers who are UFO witnesses and decided to take advantage of this and have them tell their stories for this blog.

The first story is that of Ilya Vett, 54, who has been with the organization for over three years, and he first told it to me not long after I met him. He grew up in the area of New Paltz, New York, which is near Pine Bush and the Hudson Valley. Both of those areas are notorious for UFO flaps in the 1980s (Ilya and I went to the 2022 Pine Bush UFO Fair where I met up with Martin), which is when Ilya said he had his sighting. Ilya also told me that his wife, prior to their marriage, had a sighting of a UFO with her family while they were driving. According to him, when they got home, it was over their house.

As for Ilya’s story, he recorded it for me on his own time not prompted by any questions from me. According to him, he and some friends were riding their bikes on Prospect Street in New Paltz sometime in the fall (school had started) “in the early 80s.” It was dark, and they were heading north towards Henry W. Dubois Drive. The area was undeveloped at the time, and there were “a lot of trees” on both sides of the road. They heard what Ilya indicated through vocalizations was a combination of a whoosh and a hum, though he settled on it not being “distinct.” Read more

A 1940 UFO and Alien Encounter Report

by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

While June 24, 1947, marks the beginning of the modern-day UFO mystery, claims of earlier encounters and incidents, Maury Island for example, are found throughout the literature. One such case is that of Udo Wartena, a Dutch immigrant working as a miner for the Northwest Mining Syndicate in Broadwater County, Montana. Wartena claimed that in 1940, an alien invited him to go on board a huge flying saucer.

The case came to light in the 1990s, and is based on the testimony of Wartena just before he died in 1989. Prior to this, he reportedly kept the story to himself, not even telling his wife. It was included in the 1993 book, Aliens and UFOs by James L. Thompson. Australian researcher Warren P. Aston looked into it after reading the book and presented his findings at the July 1997 Mutual UFO Network International Symposium in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more