APRO

A 1976 UFO Encounter in Kentucky: THE INVESTIGATION

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By Charles Lear

In last week’s blog, we looked at a UFO encounter in Kentucky reported by three women, Louise Smith, Mona Stafford, and Elaine Thomas. According to them, they saw a craft that shone a blue light into their car and seemingly took control of it. They felt pain down through the tops of their heads and in their eyes, felt the car being pulled backwards and then suddenly found themselves almost eight miles away in what seemed like an instant. The UFO was gone. They continued on to Liberty, Kentucky and stopped at the trailer home of Smith, who had been the driver. They became aware that they all had a number of physical ailments, including burning and tearing eyes, skin that burned when in contact with water and one-inch-by-three-inch marks on the backs of their necks. There was also about 80 minutes they couldn’t account for. Smith looked to see if any of her neighbors were awake and she saw a light on in the trailer next-door belonging to Lowell Lee. The women went over to his house and Lee listened to their story. He looked at the marks on their necks, and then had them go to separate areas and draw what they said they saw.  The drawings were almost identical. The story found its way into the press and it wasn’t long before interested UFO investigators approached the women to look into the case. Read more →

A 1976 UFO Encounter in Kentucky

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by Charles Lear

In our last blog, we looked at a case involving three women in Kentucky who experienced actinic conjunctivitis after a UFO encounter. Since the blog was about multiple UFO-related conjunctivitis cases, we focused on that aspect of the encounter, but there was more to their story – a lot more.

According to the October 1976 APRO Bulletin (date from February 12, 1976 Kentucky Casey County Press) on January 6, 1976, Louise Smith, Mona Stafford, and Elaine Thomas were all sitting in the front seat of Smith’s 1967 Chevy, which she had bought the day before. Smith was driving and they were on their way back to Liberty, Kentucky, where they all lived, after having had dinner at the Redwoods restaurant 29 miles away, five miles north of Stanford, Kentucky. They had gone there to celebrate Stafford’s birthday (they reportedly didn’t drink any alcohol) and left at 11:15 p.m.

They were about one mile south of Stanford when they spotted a large metallic disc-shaped object with a glowing white dome. There were “three or four” lights on the underside that were red and yellow, and “a bluish beam of light issued from the bottom.” The object descended from their right to left and then hovered at tree level over the road in front of them. At this point, they were able to estimate its size. Smith said it was “as big as a football field,” and Stafford said it was about the size of two houses. It gently rocked back and forth for a couple of seconds and then moved off to their left.

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A Country Singer, UFO Occupants, and Men in Black

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By Charles Lear

One of the most famous early abduction cases is that of Travis Walton in late 1975, which received a lot of attention and still fascinates many people to this day. Walton’s case was investigated primarily by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. In the midst of that investigation, APRO was contacted by Johnny Sands, a country western singer who claimed he had encountered two humanoids in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is perhaps because of the attention given to the Walton case, that Sand’s case has all but been forgotten. I might also be because it’s seriously weird.

According to Sands, in his report to APRO and in subsequent interviews with researcher Timothy Green Beckley, he was in Vegas to promote a new record with some live shows. He had been visiting the towns surrounding Las Vegas to see how much his record was being played on local radio and how many jukeboxes it was in, and on January 29, 1976 (Sands didn’t recall the exact date with Beckley), he had been in Pahrump, Nevada.

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UFO Occupants in the 21st Century

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by Charles Lear

In last week’s blog, we looked at a case that involved an encounter with a UFO occupant that didn’t fit the profile of the iconic Grey-type alien. There were many such cases reported in the press up until the 1980s. Then, the Greys, the Reptilians, and the occasional Insectoids seem to have pushed the others aside, but even these don’t show up too often in the papers. UFO occupants, especially those that don’t fit what has become the standard model, have become personae non gratae for most newspaper editors, and this seems to have created the impression that they haven’t been reported by witnesses.

From the 1950s into the 1970s, there are UFO occupant cases with extensive documentation including: newspaper articles containing first-hand witness accounts, affidavits, witness reports submitted to government and private investigators, police records, and sometimes medical reports when the encounters weren’t entirely friendly. The documents can be found in the files of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, the Center for UFO Studies, and other organizations that were open to such reports. The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, headed by Donald Keyhoe, was noted for rejecting most occupant reports.

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UFOs, Contactees, Humanoids and a Thorn in the Side of the Air Force

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by Charles Lear

The year 1957 was a very interesting one in UFO history. In that year, UFO occupant reports were accepted as worthy of investigation by serious organizations such as the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York; Contactees were in the spotlight thanks to the Long John Nebel Show; and Maj. Donald Keyhoe USMC ret. became the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. The main question in the early days of flying saucers had been  whether or not they came from outer space. The Air Force had assured the public that they were working to find the answers to the mystery, but now the public’s faith in the Air Force was waning and the mystery was more complex. Who to believe and what to believe were now complicated by competing factions and commercial interests. A person could get in there and diligently research and investigate, sit back and enjoy the circus or join the circus and cash in.

The editorial in the May, 1957 CSI News Letter No. 19, “The Price of Being Too Factual,” encapsulates the state of UFOlogy at that time. It begins with the announcement that Leonard Stringfield will no longer be issuing the periodical Orbit. This was the newsletter for his organization, Civilian Research Interplanetary Flying Objects. Stringfield had a reputation for being a no-nonsense investigator and was a trusted source for sightings reports. That he was unable to cover his printing costs while a “tongue-in cheek entertainer,” like John Nebel, and “a purveyor of a gospel,” such as George Adamski, were able to maintain a mass audience is noted as boding “ill for the future of UFO research.” Providing hope is the news that NICAP is under new management and the writer ends by encouraging readers to support the organization and that “it’s time to put up or shut up.”

NICAP was founded in 1956 by T. Townsend Brown, who claimed to have developed an anti-gravity device. Keyhoe had been instrumental in recruiting many prominent people, including Rear Adm. Delmar C. Fahrney USN ret., to sit on NICAP’s board of governors. NICAP had lofty ambitions and having a paid, full-time staff was one of them. An $85,000 a year payroll for that staff, which included Brown, was “suggested” and an argument ensued that resulted in Brown leaving and Keyhoe taking over as director. Read more →