C.N Crowder, manager of the Mobil Chemical Co warehouse, driving home from the warehouse on Friday about 9 pm enocountered a landed UFO. He described a giant cylindrical tank-shaped object (twelve feet in diamter, sixteen to eighteen feet high) that took off while he watched setting the road on fire. A burned patch approximately 39 by 26 inches in size was found on the road (Route 747, E. Farrell St.). Also found were four tiny (half inch diamter) holes punched in the macadam forming corners of an irregular rectangle with distances between holes varying from 137 to 145 inches.
Mr. Crowder was a "very reliable man, a respected man in the community". The case was investigated by NICAP, Hynek's UFO center, Philip Klass, and Virginia State Police. It was first reported in the Richmond News Leader, then nationally by AP wire story. The USAF officially classified the case as "Unidentified". However. Four paper matches were found on the burned patch. The four holes seem likely to have been made on the morning following the incident since they were not noted during a careful initial investigation by the police.
The story appears in "The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours `Aboard a Flying Saucer'" John G. Fuller (Dial Press: New York) 1966, but was first published in Look magazine in October 1966. The Hills were returning from Montreal to their home in Porstmouth NH. They saw a light in the sky and thought it was following their car. They decided to take a different route and arrived home later than expected. Ten days later Betty began to have night nightmares wherein she dreamed she and Barney were taken aboard a flying saucer and examined by aliens. In a series of sessions with a Boston psychiatrist, Betty, under hypnosis, described the details of the abduction and examination; these sessions began in the fall of 1963. The reality of the abduction was suggested to the Hills by others; the psychiatrist did not believe they had been abducted and taken aboard a flying saucer. A map of the star system of the alien's origin drawn by Betty several years after the event and under hypnosis does not match any know stellar configuration.
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed while fishing in the Pascagoula River they were carried aboard a flying saucer by three creatures, examined, then released unharmed. They gave inconsistent accounts during appearances on various national TV talk shows. Hickson `passed' a polygraph test of questionable validity, but another test was not conducted. A nearby draw bridge operator did not see anything at the time. There is circumstantial evidence Hickson was trying to make some money from the `incident'.
16 seconds of 16 mm color film, shot at approximately 11:25 a.m. (MST). It was a clear, sunny day and two white points of light were seen and filmed flying behind a water tower. There were two F94 jets in the area at the time, but no clear connection could be established. The lack of detail makes interpretation questionable.
The Lonnie Zamora story, as seen recently on TV.
A picture of the depression made by one of the `landing pads' of the
flying whatever is seen here.