In early 1941, Sir David Petrie was appointed Director General of the Security Service. MI5, and was given substantial resources to restructure the organization, whose origins date back to 1909. As a result, MI5 became one of the most efficient agencies of the War. After the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, it was learned that all of the Nazi agents targeted against Britain had been successfully identified, and in some cases recruited as double-agents, by MI5 – something that contributed to the success of the Allied Forces landing in Normandy on D-Day on 6 June 1944. 

A number of files pertaining to the wartime activities of MI5 have been declassified and are now available for public inspection at the National Archive, Kew, England. One deals with MI5 investigations of what are intriguingly described as “markings on the ground.” With hindsight, today, those markings may have been nothing less than Crop Circles!

According to the report: “This account is not concerned with the activities of fifth columnists such as sabotage, capturing airfields and key points, and harassing the defending army, but in the methods used in communicating to each other and to the enemy. Reports from Poland, Holland, France and Belgium showed that they used ground markings for the guidance of bombers and paratroops (and of lights by night).”

The author of the report continued: “Such ground markings might be the cutting of cornfields into guiding marks for aircraft, painting of roofs and the inside of chimneys white, setting haystacks on fire, and laying out strips of white linen in pre-arranged patterns. For guiding and giving information to advancing troops they would conceal messages behind advertisement hoardings and leave markings on walls and telegraph poles.”

Most notable of all: from interviews conducted with Allied personnel who had taken part in the hostilities in Poland, MI5 had determined that one of the ways that Nazi spies were communicating with German Luftwaffe pilots was by “beating out signs,” twenty meters in diameter, “on harrowed fields or mowing such signs on meadows or cornfields.” Crop circles, as they are famously known today!

Interestingly, as a result of finding such curious formations across wartime Europe, MI5 began a stealthy check of cornfields throughout the British Isles for any evidence of similar activity. In a section of a report titled Examples of Ground Markings Investigated, a still-anonymous MI5 employee wrote:

“Field, north of Newquay, Cornwall: Aircraft noticed, in May 1940, strange marking in this field and it was photographed. Enquiries were made and it was found that the lines were formed by heaps of lime used for agricultural purposes. The farmer concerned was above reproach and removed the lime heaps.”

A second report followed: “Field at Little Mill, Monmouthshire: In May 1941 a report was made that an unusual mark was visible amongst the growing corn. Near one of the gates was a mark in the form of the letter G, some 33 yards long. This mark had been made by sowing barley transversely through the grain.”

MI5 added: “Air photographs were taken and it was seen that the tail of the marking pointed towards the Ordnance factory at Glascoed. The farmer, a man of good character, was interviewed, and admitted that he had sown the field himself. He explained that he had sold the field in April.

“Shortly after, having a drilling machine nearby which had a small quantity of barley seed in it, and wishing to empty it as he had to return it to the farmer from whom he had borrowed it that night, he turned his team of horses into the grain field and drilled it into the ground thickly to get rid of it. He did this because it is extremely difficult to remove the grain in the machine by hand, and to sow it was the quickest way of getting rid of it.

“He agreed to plough up this part of the field. As a satisfactory explanation had been reached, the case was carried no further.”

And the reports kept on coming: “Field, near Staplehurst, Kent: In October, 1943, aircraft saw a faint white circle on the ground. Enquiries were made, and it was discovered that before the war the field was used as an emergency landing ground by Imperial Airways; the mark was made by them, and they paid a small yearly rent to the farmer. At the beginning of the war the mark was obliterated in some way, but this had worn thin. Steps were taken to obliterate it again.”

It is quite clear from examining the contents of these now-declassified files that the foremost thought on the part of MI5 was that the wartime Crop Circles across Europe – as well as the similar formations found on the British mainland – were the work of Nazi spies, and that the designs were intended to convey a specific, coded message to German bomber-pilots.

It’s also deeply important, however, to note that with regard to the truly unknown formations that MI5 studied (those from Poland, Holland, France and Belgium), the theory they were created by the Nazis was simply that: a theory, an assumption, an assessment of the fragmentary data available.

Of course, in 1944, no-one was perceiving these formations as something possibly linked to distinctly unusual – possibly even paranormal – phenomena. But, maybe, that’s exactly the direction MI5 should have been looking in…

Over the years, a great deal of Roswell-related debate has focused upon John Keel’s assertion that what came down at the Foster Ranch, New Mexico in July 1947 was a Japanese Fugo balloon. Despite what some have said, Keel’s theory is not one which I endorse. The people I interviewed for my Body Snatchers in the Desert book said the Roswell device involved a Horten Brothers-type glider, held aloft below a massive balloon array based on Japanese designs for what was specifically described as a next-generation Fugo. But, most certainly not the far smaller, less advanced designs that were used to attack the United States during the latter stages of the Second World War.

But, I digress. Back to Keel. From 1990 to 1993, there was a deep debate on this very Roswell/Fugo matter in the pages of Fate magazine, with comments, observations and articles from the likes of Keel himself and Kevin Randle, who has written (and co-written) a number of books on Roswell, from the perspective that what came down in 1947 was extraterrestrial.

What I find intriguing is that many of the people who have commented on Keel’s Fugo theory have failed to note – or even comment on the fact that – Keel also talked about uncovering data on manned Japanese balloons that, allegedly, reached the U.S. in the closing stages of the war, and which – his sources said – were subject to military secrecy.

In April 1993, in an article titled Return of the Fugos, Keel noted that he had been contacted by three unrelated people who had intriguing reports to relate of things that occurred back in the 1940s. These same things – which took place at some point in 1945 – involved the sighting of a low-flying balloon that had a gondola attached below it, and which, said one of the witnesses, contained “a living creature” that one thought, initially, was a “screaming monkey.”

As the balloon came closer, said Keel, the “creature” could now be seen as a “a very small man wearing some kind of headgear, probably radio headphones. The poor fellow was clearly agitated…He appeared to be Oriental.” The balloon then disappeared over the horizon, and a couple of military jeeps quickly appeared on the scene, heading in the direction of the balloon. A few minutes later, gunshots rang out.

Realizing that the witnesses had seen or heard pretty much all that had taken place, the military returned and sternly warned them not to say anything about what they had experienced – to anybody at all. Keel himself commented on this matter – of secret Japanese balloon-based flights to the U.S. undertaken in the latter stages of the Second World War with people on-board – as follows:

“If such a project was launched, they would have selected the smallest, lightest volunteers available…It is also likely they might have expired during the trip…their complexions would have been very odd, discolored by the cold…”

He concluded on this matter: “If even one such volunteer balloonist attempted the trip and crashed, we would have the answer to all those rumours and legends which persist to this day.”

I intend pursuing Keel’s data – and sources – on these claims, and, in fact, have already made some significant headway, which I will be reporting on in the near future. The picture that is developing as a result of probing further into Keel’s data is one suggesting a wealth of secret balloon-based ops in the United States with a Japanese connection, and a “bodies” link too. And not just at the Foster Ranch, New Mexico in 1947, but possibly as far back as 1944-era northern California and Washington State.

Some of these stories are focused on secret, domestic projects of the military. A few, astonishingly, really do appear to be genuine (albeit only several) examples of manned flights to the U.S. by Japanese military personnel in the latter part of the Second World War – all of which ended catastrophically for the crews, who did not survive the flights, for a variety of reasons; but chiefly as a result of altitude, weather and the rigours involved in undertaking such dicey missions.

I’ll have more to report on this very soon..

One of the most notable UFO encounters ever recorded occurred shortly after 11p.m. on October 18, 1973. That the prime witnesses were serving members of the U.S. Army Reserve only added to the credibility of the report. Having departed from Port Columbus, Ohio, their UH-1H helicopter was headed for its home base at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Aboard were Captain Lawrence J. Coyne; Sergeant John Healey, the flight-medic; First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, a chemical engineer; and a computer technician, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek. All seemed normal as the crew climbed into the air and kept the helicopter at a steady 2,500 feet altitude.

But approximately ten miles from Mansfield, they noticed a “single red light” to the west that was moving slowly in a southerly direction. Initially they thought the object might be an F-100 aircraft operating out of Mansfield. Nevertheless, Coyne advised Yanacsek to “keep an eye on it.” These were wise words, as suddenly the unidentified light changed its course and began to head directly for them.

Captain Coyne immediately swung into action, putting the helicopter into an emergency descent, dropping 500 feet per minute. Equally alarming was the fact that radio contact with Mansfield Tower could no longer be established, and both UHF and VHF frequencies were utterly dead, too.

When it seemed that a fatal collision was all but imminent, the red light came to a halt, hovering menacingly in front of the helicopter and its startled crew. At that close proximity to the object, Captain Coyne and his team were able to determine that this was no mere light in the sky. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agreed that the object before them was a large, gray-colored, cigar-shaped vehicle, which they described as being somewhat “domed,” and with “a suggestion of windows.” They could now see that the red light was coming from the bow section of the object.

Then without warning, a green “pyramid shaped” shaft of light emanated from the object, passed over the nose of the helicopter, swung up through the windshield, and entered the tinted, upper window panels. Suddenly the interior of the helicopter was bathed in an eerie green light. A handful of seconds later the object shot off toward Lake Erie. But the danger was still not over.

To the crew’s concern, the altimeter showed an altitude of 3,500 feet and a climbing ascent of 1,000 feet per minute, even though the stick was still geared for descent. The helicopter reached a height of 3,800 feet before Captain Coyne was able to safely and finally regain control of the helicopter. Shortly thereafter, all radio frequencies returned to normal and Coyne proceeded on to Cleveland Hopkins Airport without further problems.

While the UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass opined at the time that the crew had been spooked by nothing more mysterious than a “fireball of the Orinoid meteor shower,” this was never proved, and an in-depth study undertaken by investigator Jennie Zeidman for the Center for UFO Studies summarily ruled out any conventional aircraft as being responsible. Zeidman concisely and accurately concluded: “The case has maintained its high ‘strangeness-credibility’ rating after extended investigation and analysis.”

On several occasions in the immediate aftermath of their encounter, Captain Coyne received telephone calls from people identifying themselves as representatives of the Department of the Army, Surgeon General’s Office, asking if he, Coyne, had experienced any “unusual dreams” subsequent to the UFO incident. As it happened, not long before the Army’s call, Coyne had undergone a very vivid out-of-body experience.

Sgt. John Healey also reported being called about the incident and its aftermath. “As time would go by,” said Healey, “the Pentagon would call us up and ask us: ‘Well, has this incident happened to you since the occurrence?’ And in two of the instances that I recall, what they questioned me, was, number one: have I ever dreamed of body separation? And I have. I dreamed that I was dead in bed and that my spirit or whatever, was floating, looking down at me lying dead in bed. And the other thing was had I ever dreamed of anything spherical in shape; which definitely had not occurred to me.”

That the Army’s Surgeon General’s Office was interested in both out-of-body experiences and the nature of death and the after-life in the early-to-mid 1970s is not in doubt. For example, a September 1975 document titled Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research that had been prepared for the Defense Intelligence Agency by the SGO’s Medical Intelligence and Information Agency contains a section titled Out-of-the-body Phenomena that focuses on the research of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder who “reported that the Soviets were studying out-of-the-body phenomena in Yogis.”

Ostrander, a Canadian, and Schroeder, an American, were the authors of the classic 1971 book, Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain. In June 1968, the pair was invited to attend an international conference on ESP in Moscow. The invite had come from Edward Naumov, a leading figure at the time in Soviet psi research.

With the late 1960s seeing the emergence of a more relaxed atmosphere of discussion in such controversial areas of research in the Soviet Union, Ostrander and Schroeder began contacting Soviet scientists and researchers in an effort to understand the scale of investigations being undertaken behind the Iron Curtain. This ultimately led to the publication of their book.

Interestingly, the Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research document also displays interest in the issue of unusual, and somewhat unsettling, occurrences reported at the moment of death within the animal kingdom. Referring to the work of Russian scientist Pavel Naumov, the document states:

“Naumov conducted animal bio-communication studies between a submerged Soviet Navy submarine and a shore research station: these tests involved a mother rabbit and her newborn litter and occurred around 1956. According to Naumov, Soviet scientists placed the baby rabbits aboard the submarine. They kept the mother rabbit in a laboratory on shore where they implanted electrodes in her brain.”

The document continues: “ When the submarine was submerged, assistants killed the rabbits one by one. At each precise moment of death, the mother rabbit’s brain produced detectable and recordable reactions. As late as 1970 the precise protocol and results of this test described by Naumov were believed to be classified.”

Of course, all this begs two important questions, which I will leave you to ponder on: (A) Why is the world of officialdom interested in out-of-body experiences; and (B) why was someone, also in officialdom, making a connection between that curious phenomenon and UFOs?

As many students of Ufology will be aware, the last couple of decades or so have seen a rise in reports of one particular type of UFO. It has become known as the Flying Triangle. The FTs are triangular in shape and very often black in color, hence the name, of course! They often emit a low humming noise, and have a trio of lights on their underside. They usually have rounded corners too, rather than sharply angled edges. And, in some ways, they are not unlike the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (otherwise known as the Stealth Bomber) in design. This has, quite naturally, given rise to the possibility that the FTs are next-generation Stealth planes, rather than true UFOs. It’s not an unreasonable assumption. But there’s a problem with that scenario: the FTs are actually not new, or even recent, at all.

While digging through a whole host of formerly classified files on UFOs at the National Archives at Kew, England in 1996, I came across a one-page report dated 28 March 1965 that, I confess, I almost overlooked. On closer inspection, however, I realized that it was potentially one of the most important UFO-related documents that I had ever come across. According to the MoD paperwork, on the night in question a witness saw at approximately 9.30 p.m. over moor-land near Richmond, North Yorkshire, England: “Nine or ten objects – in close triangular formation each about 100ft long – orange illumination below – each triangular in shape with rounded corners, making low humming noise.”

Interestingly, as noted in the first paragraph of this article, the “rounded corners” and “low humming noise” are precisely what many witnesses to Flying Triangle-style UFO encounters are reporting today – in a world-wide capacity, no less.

Recognizing the significance of this, I made a photocopy of the document and set about locating the witness, who is named in the files, I should stress. This did not prove to be a difficult task. I introduced myself and explained that I had located at the National Archives a copy of the original report that dealt with his sighting all those years ago. It is fair to say that the man was shocked, to say the least, to find that details of his long-gone encounter had been kept on file by the MoD for more than thirty years.

“Yes, I did send in a report all those years ago, but I didn’t think they would have kept it all this time,” he told me, with astonishment in his voice. As he explained, on 28 March 1965 at approximately 9.30 p.m., he had been driving through the North Yorkshire moors. On approaching the village of Skeeby, near Richmond, however, the engine of his car began to splutter and die.

“It was a 1951 Ford,” he states, adding with some humor, “and it was a good car but a bit unpredictable at times. I didn’t want to break down on the moor because it was icy cold and the nights were still dark. I got out of the car to have a look at the engine and that’s when I saw this light.”

He continued: “At first, because it was so dark, I wondered if it might be a weather balloon. But then I had a good look at it over the hedge and realized how big it was and how low down it was. It was about one hundred feet from end-to-end, about one hundred feet above the moors and shaped like a huge triangle and white, milky-white in colour.

“It kept coming towards me and then stopped about two hundred yards from me over the moors. It hovered for a while – nothing came out of it, but there was a light below it that just pulsated like a light bulb. There could have been quite a few lights on it but from a distance the light just looked like a glow. Then without a warning, it just took off at a speed that isn’t recognised. Good gracious, I thought, it must be a UFO!

“As it shot up, not vertically but at an angle, it joined a group of others that were identical and that were in a triangular or V-formation. The others were very, very high; a whole fleet of them. They all then headed south, I think, at a tremendous speed and disappeared over the horizon. I saw the main one for no more than a couple of minutes,” he recalls, “but after they had gone I was still stood by the moor watching this fleet disappear. I waited in case something else exciting happened, but of course it didn’t.”

Curiously, shortly after the encounter, and after having reported the incident to the Ministry of Defence at Whitehall, the witness began to notice “awful red marks on my skin which were like a stretch mark, but they were like a deep salmon red and they kept coming and going. But I didn’t have them before.”

The most bizarre angle of the entire episode was still to come, however, as the man now graphically illustrates: “For about eighteen months after the sighting, I would get strange telephone calls from people. These would be every two or three months. They just phoned out of the blue but didn’t introduce themselves. They just said they were from some bureau or other. They didn’t mention the name of the bureau but kept mentioning ‘sightings’ and asked whether I had seen anything else strange. Had any men come to interview me?”

The witness was never visited by anyone with regard to his Flying Triangle encounter, nor did the MoD ever offer an explanation as to what it was that he saw on that fateful night in March 1965. He was, however, unnerved by those mysterious telephone calls – primarily because aside from informing the MoD of what had occurred, he made no other report (either official or unofficial) with anyone and kept the details to himself: “The only report I ever made was the one I sent to the MoD. It was so exciting that I had to tell someone.”

This important testimony raises a number of vital questions. Why was someone so determined to find out if the witness had received any strange visits with regard to his encounter? Why the interest in knowing if he had had any other unusual encounters of a UFO nature? And most important of all: who was his mysterious caller?

Finally, if as some researchers contend, the Flying Triangles are a relatively modern day creation of the military, how is that an entire squadron of them – right down to the triangular shape, the underside-illumination, and the low humming sound – could have been seen flying over England almost 50 years ago?

Although many people look to the skies for answers concerning the UFO puzzle, there are more than a few reports on file demonstrating that UFOs have a deep connection to the oceans of our world. Indeed, I have many such cases in my files, and here’s just a few of them. Puerto Rico, or to give it its correct title, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is what is known as an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Caribbean Sea. And according to some, it may very well be the one place – possibly more than any other on the planet – that is home to not just one secret base, but to an overwhelming plethora of classified locations, certainly of a governmental nature, and maybe even of an alien nature, too.

Over the course of the last twenty-years or so, the people of Puerto Rico have been swamped by a multitude of UFO encounters, sightings of strange and unearthly-looking craft surfacing from both mountainous and cavernous lairs, and run-ins with strange, vampire-style creatures that one might accurately describe as the distinctly evil-twin to Steven Spielberg’s benign E.T.: the Chupacabras. And then there are the USOs (Unidentified Submarine/Submersible Objects) of Puerto Rico.

In 2004, when I visited Puerto Rico for the first time – in search of the Chupacabras – I was told of the account of a former civil-defense employee, who had seen a gigantic, unknown craft rise silently out of the coastal waters of the island, while he was on an early-morning jog in the spring of 1999. In this case, the vast device, which was viewed at a distance of around half-a-mile off the coast, or perhaps slightly more, wobbled slightly – rather like a falling-leaf – as it took to the skies, and then streaked vertically at a fantastic speed, before finally vanishing from view as it grew ever smaller, and was finally lost due to the effects of the bright, rising sun.

Further rumors of a potentially-related nature were also provided to me on that same expedition to the island. They came from a retired police-officer who had heard rumors to the effect that, somewhere off the coast of Puerto Rico – he was not entirely sure where exactly – in late-1993, elements of the U.S. Navy spent several days tracking, via sonar, the movements of a huge USO in the deep waters off Puerto Rico. Perhaps aware of its potentially hazardous nature, the U.S. Navy contingent was ordered to merely carefully log the movements of the undersea craft, but never to engage it any way, shape or form whatsoever that might be interpreted as hostility.

Taking the above into thoughtful consideration, is it truly feasible that Puerto Rico might be home to a massive undersea installation? When one realizes that we, the Human Race, have had the ability to construct such science-fiction-like facilities for decades, then the possibility becomes all-too-real, and not so unbelievable, after all. And, make no mistake: evidence of our very own undersea abilities is far from lacking.

For example, an October 1966 document prepared by one C.F. Austin, of the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, California, includes a truly remarkable statement. Titled Manned Undersea Structures – The Rock-Site Concept, it states in part that: “Large undersea installations with a shirt-sleeve environment have existed under the continental shelves for many decades. The technology now exists, using off-the-shelf petroleum, mining, submarine, and nuclear equipment, to establish permanent manned installations within the sea floor that do not have any air umbilical or other connection with the land or water surface, yet maintain a normal one-atmosphere environment within.”

If, as this previously-classified U.S. Navy document demonstrates, the government of the United States was constructing undersea installations – with a comfortable shirt-sleeve environment, no less – a number of decades before the documentation was even prepared in the mid-1960s, perhaps someone else, someone from a world far, far away, has secretly been doing likewise. And, maybe, they chose Puerto Rico as their secret base of both underground and undersea operations.

Extending from Bermuda in the north to southern Florida, and then east to a point through the Bahamas past Puerto Rico and then back again to Bermuda, is a truly ominous realm of wild, churning and turbulent waters known infamously as the Bermuda Triangle, a permanent fixture in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, and one that has become renowned for the hundreds of aircraft, ships, boats and unfortunate souls that have disappeared in the area without trace – and for decades, too.

Down to earth explanations for such vanishings, it goes without saying, most certainly proliferate. Compass malfunctions, disorientation, sudden and violent bouts of severe weather, mechanical and electrical failure, and pilot error are just some of the conventional theories that have been offered as answers relative to why there should have been so many disappearances in such a clearly delineated area over so many years.

But, not everyone is quite so sure that those particular theories provide all the clues to solving the maritime mystery; one of the reasons being that on numerous occasions USOs have been seen in the area.

One particularly significant case involving a craft of distinctly unknown origin occurred in April 1973 when a Captain Dan Delmonico, a calm and collected character with a fine reputation for being grounded and logical, had an encounter that could be considered anything but grounded and logical.

It was around 4.00 p.m., while negotiating the waters of the Gulf Stream, specifically between Great Isaac Light, north of Bimini, and Miami, when Delmonico was amazed by the sight of a large cigar-shaped object – nearly two hundred feet in length, grey in color, and with rounded ends – which shot through the water, not surprisingly amazing and astounding Delmonico in the process. Who, or what, piloted the strange submersible on that April 1973 afternoon remains unknown.

Ninety sixty-six saw an unusual event occur at Pasajes, Northern Spain that caught the attention of the Ministry of Defense. From a radio officer attached to the S.S. Patrick M. Rotterdam, came the following, which I found in 1997, in a then-newly-released batch of formerly classified British Ministry of Defense files on UFOs. This case does not involve a USO directly, but since the witnesses were at sea, it may be of some relevance. A letter sent to the MoD by the ship’s captain reads thus:

“Perhaps the following will be of some interest to you or Jodrell Bank. Whilst at Anchor at Pasajes, North Spain on 22 April at 2100 Bst in a very clear sky, one of the crew noticed a bright patch in the sky and drew my attention to it. It appeared stationary and squarish, the area being about 4 times the size of a full moon. Several of the crew watched, being interested and of course at anchor, there is very little to do.

“The patch elongated and became brighter and to our amazement a complete ring, similar to pictures of flying saucers, bright and distinct with dark centre. For several minutes this object remained visible then returned to a patch, receding elongated again. Then it branched out to form a letter M. When the ring was clear it was about [the] same size as a full moon. We know it was not the moon because the moon was in another quadrant and lying on back at [the] same time. The patch receded away into distance. I can assure you none of us were drunk.”

And there you have it: a round-up of just a few of the weirder USO-themed reports from my files, all of which suggest maybe it’s not to the stars – but to the seas – that we should be looking for the answers concerning the many UFO-themed mysteries that dominate our world.

In the latter part of 1973, a series of distinctly unusual events began to quietly unfold above the green fields and rolling hills of northern England that subsequently triggered a strange, and still-ongoing operation coordinated by an elite division of the British police force. It all revolved around the phenomenon of phantom helicopters. Of the varied elements that make up what is popularly known as the “UFO phenomenon,” there can be few so strange as the phantom helicopter and its close relative, the even-more-sinister black helicopter.

For at least four decades, numerous people throughout the world have reported seeing helicopters, very often completely black in color and with no identifying markings, in areas that have been subjected to intense UFO activity. This has led a number of commentators to speculate that the helicopters are operated by covert groups from within the military-industrial complex and that they are involved in a surreptitious UFO monitoring program.

Many such cases, if not the overwhelming majority, surface from within the United States. Few people, however, realize that Britain had its own run-in with the phantom helicopters in a specific period of time that ran from late 1973 to early 1974. It was a run-in which ultimately attracted high-level, official interest and concern.

Indeed, it was revealed in the press on January 15, 1974 that police forces throughout the North of England had been alerted to look out for any unusual helicopter movements in their vicinity. For six months, night sightings of unidentified helicopters had been filed in both Cheshire and Derbyshire, something confirmed by Cheshire Police, who stated the following:

“We don’t know of any reason why the helicopter should make these trips at night. Obviously we are anxious to find out. Apart from anything else, the helicopter crosses one of the main flight paths to Manchester Airport. There is an obvious danger to the aircraft going into the airport. We are very interested to know what is happening. We hope to be able to trace the pilot and put some suggestions to him. It would appear the pilot is in breach of civil aviation laws. A special license is needed to fly a helicopter at night.”

A spokesperson for Derbyshire Police added: “All sorts of things spring to mind but we have pretty much ruled out that it is anything to do with illegal immigrants, and nothing appears to have been stolen in the areas where the aircraft has been sighted.”

Although Cheshire Police expressed their opinion that only one helicopter was involved in the nighttime sorties, Staffordshire Police admitted on January 16 that their officers had received details of no less than fifty encounters with the phantom helicopter across Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire.

While the reasoning behind the following conclusion was never disclosed, Staffordshire Police said that their inquiries had led them to believe that the phantom helicopter mystery originated in the London area, and added that whoever was flying the craft was either highly skilled or “completely crackers.”

Still more phantom helicopter reports surfaced in Staffordshire, this time near the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. In response to inquiries made by the Birmingham Post newspaper, police confirmed that they had received “several reports…of it being heard in the north of the country. All traffic controllers report that no flight plans for a helicopter have been filed. We do not know what it is up to.”

Darley Moor, Derbyshire, was the site of a strange incident in the early hours of January 18. An unnamed person informed police that they had seen a “single, bright light” flying at an unspecified altitude over the Moor. Derbyshire Police declined to speculate as to whether or not there was a connection with the helicopter sightings, but confirmed that an investigation had been set in motion.

The probability that a number of helicopters were responsible for the many accounts on record is supported by the fact that a multitude of additional reports surfaced on January 18. The county of Cheshire was the location once again, and reports poured in from Bramhall, Prestbury, and Scholar Green.

More sightings of unusual aerial lights and phantom helicopters were reported throughout mid-January 1974. Possibly one of the last recorded encounters of this particular wave took place on the evening of January 24, 1974, when Paul Gelling, sub-editor at the Birmingham Evening Mail newspaper, saw a “white descending light” in the sky at Aston Catlow, near Stratford-upon-Avon. “The light fell from the sky and seemed to explode into blue and green,” said Gelling.

Precisely who was flying the oddly elusive phantom helicopter was never fully resolved – at least, not to the satisfaction of the public and the media. Numerous theories were formulated within the corridors of power, however, with much of the attention focused upon the possibility that the many and varied helicopter sightings were linked with the activities of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Following a series of phantom helicopter encounters in and around the area of Buxton, Derbyshire the Metropolitan Police Special Branch initiated an operation to try and resolve what was taking place. Special Branch studied twelve encounters reported to police in Derbyshire in September 1973, including one actually filed by police personnel, who reported “a positive identification of an Augusta Bell 206A Jet ranger helicopter.”

And as Special Branch ominously noted in its now-declassified files on the matter:

“The machine was observed on a number of occasions over a period of two weeks to be apparently practicing landings in the vicinity of the sites of quarries and explosive stores in the Derbyshire countryside. Special Branch Constable [Deleted] has made numerous enquiries to discover the ownership and reasons for the flights from various sources but has yet to establish any positive facts. He has contacted an experienced Royal Air Force helicopter pilot with night flying experience who explained that night flying in the Derbyshire areas would be extremely dangerous due to the nature of the terrain and to the number of overhead pylons in the area.”

The report concluded that there was a “strong possibility” of the flights being “of an illegal nature.”

Sightings of the phantom helicopters continued through March 1974 – something that prompted a meeting to be held at Horseferry House, London, on the 21^st of that month that was attended by senior officers from the Derbyshire and Cheshire constabularies, Special Branch, the Home Office, and the Ministry of Defense.

Intriguing and eye-opening plans to utilise Harrier Jump-Jet aircraft and Ministry of Defense helicopters in response to phantom helicopter encounters were deemed too costly and ultimately impractical. A unanimous agreement was reached, however, for a continual monitoring of the situation, if indeed such action was considered necessary.

As it transpired, however, no further reports were filed, and the Home Office asserted that “…the helicopter and the pilot were never identified.” For some, the mystery lingers on…

Did a German secret society resort to human sacrifice to stem the tide of the First World War in Germany’s favour? Was the builder of a house that became known as The Round House a member of this order? Were human remains found, and was there a geoglyph in the shape of the supreme god of Nordic mythology carefully hidden in the landscape around this enigmatic edifice? Does the landscape itself offer more clues pointing to a carefully constructed occult geography? Was all of this known in certain select circles and was that the reason that the house was destroyed in 1967?

These questions and many others haunt a rural village in the Netherlands. The mystery has been known for some time by a select group of journalists and writers who were in possession of the same, fragmentary source. Last year, the situation changed with the publication of a book that has left me with more questions than answers. Titled De Geschiedenis van Het Ronde Huis, Mysteries Ontrafeld… (The History of The Round House, Mysteries unravelled…), the book is the result of a study by an anonymous ‘working group’, consisting of seven persons. Sixty-five year old former bank employee Hans Schalkwijk is one of them. He is listed as the unofficial ‘author’ of the book and acts as spokesperson for this group. He became interested in the mystery over forty years ago.

In the book the group claims it has spent a considerable amount of time, decades in fact, investigating the mystery of the Round House. It has built up a comprehensive archive on the case, it further claims, yet the book is unreferenced and much of the testimony in the book is by anonymous sources. I have not seen the archive. I only know it from Schalkwijk’s description, so I don’t know what it contains. Since the claims are so wild and there is no documentary evidence, the book has only led to more controversy, with fierce proponents and opponents. After a short flurry of minor interest, the national media have dropped the case.

But let us first examine the strange story of the mystery of the Round House itself.

A local hermit by the name of Johan Montenberg begins to tell a strange story to Schalkwijk, who he meets in 1972. Montenberg is a distrustful man. He doesn’t tell the story in one breath, but rather, by bits and pieces, by hints here and there, and by rambling letters to various persons, over a longer period of time.

What he hints at is hair-raising and unbelievable. A tale unfolds of secret rituals, a German occult order, and the abduction of young girls for human sacrifice. Mention is made of subterranean passages and a lime pit where the bodies of the hapless victims are disposed of. As recent as 2011, a local weekly states that human remains were found in 1916 and the corpse of a young girl in 1917. A police investigation at around 1924 is said to have been halted on ‘orders of superiors’. All of this is said to have occurred before, during and after the First World War. In that war the Netherlands had a neutral status.

On these points though Schalkwijk is adamant. “There was no corpse found in 1924, no human remains were dug up. There is no system of underground passageways. I found absolutely no evidence”. Schalkwijk’s words were printed in a Dutch newspaper five months ago. Yet he remains convinced that around the time of the First World War a pagan-Germanic order existed that practiced occult warfare.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Europe was literally riddled with secret societies and occult orders, and Germany was no exception. Ariosophy, theosophy, anthroposophy and countless of other, lesser known sects, cults and orders flocked the streets. There was for instance the O.T.O. that came into existence between 1895 and 1904. Others were the Germanenorden, founded in 1912 in Berlin and having a swastika as its symbol. From it ultimately sprang forth the Thule Gesellschaft, formally founded in 1918. There were many more virulent antisemitic and Volkische orders. Political murders, especially after the defeat of Germany in the First World War were the order of the day. But no evidence has ever come to light of instances of human sacrifice in these German-Austrian occult circles, which makes the claims surrounding the Round House especially hard to believe.

At the centre of the dark mystery stands a wealthy Dutchman, Frank van Vloten (1858 – 1930), who has a reputation for eccentricity. Some stories claim he always dressed in black, rode a black horse and was known as ‘the black devil’. In 1906 Van Vloten begins the construction of a curious building. It is a circular shaped stone house of three stories and a flat roof on his large estate near Nunspeet, a little Dutch town in a wooded area called the Veluwe. A private pony tram on a Decauville track delivers guests from the local train station to the building that quickly acquires the name The Round House.

Strange rumours begin to swirl around it although it is hard to say when this exactly started. It is said that a woman, dressed entirely in black, now and then visits the house. On certain occasions, it is claimed, she brings a number of young girls, veiled and also dressed in black with the private horse carriage. The children arrive, but are never seen leaving. It is said that some of the labourers who work for Van Vloten know what happens with these girls, but keep their mouths tightly shut out of fear of reprisals. When these rumours begin to emerge in the local Nunspeet newspaper in 1976, they are rebuffed and delegated to the realms of fantasy by others who visited the Round House in their childhoods. It is later claimed that the reporter who wrote the 1976 story immigrated to Canada because of serious threats made to his life.

The book also cites an anonymous, handwritten account in a notebook. It is said to have been written by a man who hunted regularly during the First World War in the woods around the Round House. Read aloud to one of the researchers in 2006, it states in detail what happened:

“Had a conversation with H. in regards to the rumours about the Round House… He finally confirmed that German rituals took place on the grounds of the Round House. First in the house and then outside. Always at full moon. The girls, usually a number of about six, were given a drug to drink and were thus put in a state of hypnosis… At one of the small ponds, a sacrificial stone was placed on a pedestal. Next to it in an inclination in the ground a fire burned… The priest with a hood with two holes for the eyes killed the girl with a sword. It is not known who this man is. The group went back to the Round House and the priest stayed behind and disposed of the body…”

Other accounts surface over the years, such as this one by a by now deceased, local artist-painter:

“We were so poor, that I used to hunt a rabbit in the woods… One night I was at it again. At the pond I heard voices and saw a light gleaming. I hid behind a tree to have a look. At the bank of the pond there were a number of girls with oil lamps. They were standing in a half circle, facing the pond. Twelve to fifteen girls, probably twenty years old. In front of them was a woman facing them. A sturdy woman of about 40 years old. The girls wore white blouses and dark skirts, possibly red in colour. On their heads they wore some kind of hood. In fact more a band round the head with on their foreheads something glistening. Around their waits something that looked like a little apron or bag. The older woman wore a long, dark dress, possibly red in colour too. Something glistening was hanging on her chest. I think a chain or something. All the girls and the woman put up their right hand with two fingers in the air. It seemed like an oath taking. The older woman said something, after which the girls repeated it. Afterwards the woman threw something over her shoulder in the pond, perhaps a stone or a coin. Then the girls began to sing softly. During the singing a number of men approached the girls. They must have been standing farther away in the dark. I became frightened and left immediately.”

How much of these weird tales without any possibility of checking should we believe? That is the main gripe of the opponents and I can’t blame them. I have talked to Schalkwijk and asked him if he or the group he represents had any documentary, verifiable evidence for the existence of that German occult order. His reply was that he had three oral sources but no documentary evidence.

We will take a critical look at the problem of references in a further instalment. But first we need to hear what else Schalkwijk and his group have to say, as the story gets even stranger. They claim that there is, or rather was, evidence as to the occult nature of Van Vloten and his order. It is not found in archives, but in the landscape around the Round House.

Soon to follow: Part II – Occult geography

The so-called “Kinross Case” focuses upon the strange – and still-unresolved – disappearance of a U.S. Air Force F-89C jet fighter that was scrambled late on the night of November 23, 1953. At the time, it was on an “active air defense mission” to intercept an “unknown aircraft” over Lake Superior. Kinross Air Force Base, which was closest to the scene where the “unknown” was initially tracked, quickly alerted the 433rd Fighter Interception Squadron at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, and the F-89C gave immediate chase.

Available USAF records demonstrate that the F-89 was vectored west-northwest, then west, climbing to 30,000 feet. While on its westerly course, the crew received permission to descend to 7,000 feet, turning east-northeast and coming steeply down on the target from above. Alarmingly, as the aircraft closed-in on the”unknown” it subsequently vanished into oblivion, along with its two crew-members. The last radar contact placed the interceptor at 8,000 feet, 70 miles from Keeweenaw Point, and about 150 miles northwest of Kinross AFB, which, today, is called Kincheloe AFB.

An extract from the official USAF Aircraft Accident Report outlines further details of the official story:

“Aircraft took off at 2322 Zebra 23 Nov 53 on an active Air Defense Mission to intercept an unknown aircraft approximately 160 miles Northwest of Kinross Air Force Base. The aircraft was under radar control throughout the interception. At approximately 2352 Zebra the last radio contact was made by the radar station controlling the interception. At approximately 2355 Zebra the unknown aircraft and the F-89 merged together on the radar scope. Shortly thereafter the IFF signal disappeared from the radar scope. No further contact was established with the F-89. An extensive aerial search has revealed no trace of the aircraft. The aircraft and its crew are still missing.”

First Lieutenant Felix E. Moncla, Jr

Although a search-and-rescue mission was immediately launched, no answers were forthcoming. The intriguing fact that the official records on the affair acknowledge the presence of the “unknown aircraft,” as well as the equally intriguing fact that neither the aircraft nor its crew, pilot First Lieutenant Felix E. Moncla, Jr., and radar observer, Second Lieutenant Robert L. Wilson, were ever found has led to theories suggesting that crew and aircraft were abducted by entities from another world.

For its part, the Air Force eventually concluded that the “unknown aircraft” was a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47 aircraft and that the pilot of the F-89 had identified it as such as he closed in, but then crashed – “probably” as a result of “vertigo” – after abandoning the chase. Nevertheless, in both 1961 and 1963 the RCAF vigorously denied to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) that the object had been one of its C-47’s.

Harvard University astronomer Dr. Donald Menzel championed the Air Force’s position, but added that, in his opinion, the radar operators saw a “phantom echo” of the F-89 that had been produced by atmospheric conditions, and that the “echo” subsequently “merged” with the radar return from the jet and vanished with it as the aircraft crashed into the lake – thus creating the impression that two separate objects had become one, or that an abduction of the Air Force plane had occurred.

It is important, however, to note the important questions and issues raised by the late author and UFO researcher Richard Hall, who stated: “Exactly what happens that night remains unclear, as the Air Force acknowledges, and serious unanswered questions remain. How likely is it that a pilot could suffer from vertigo when flying on instruments, as official records indicate was the case? If the F-89 did intercept an RCAF C-47, why did the ‘blip’ of the C-47 also disappear off the radar scope?”

Hall continued: “Or, if Menzel’s explanation is accepted and there was no actual intercept, why did the Air Force invoke a Canadian C-47, which RCAF spokesmen later stated was not there? No intelligence document has yet surfaced that reports the radio communications between the pilot and radar controllers, and what each was seeing. Without this information, it is impossible to evaluate the ‘true UFO’ versus the false radar returns and accidental crash explanations.”

Very curiously indeed, there is another intriguing aspect to this story that has been overlooked by many researchers of the case: only five hours prior to the disappearance of the F-89, another F89 from Truax Field – this one piloted by First Lieutenant John W. Schmidt and Radar Operator Captain Glen E. Collins – had crashed on the shores of Lake Wingra, approximately 400 miles from the site of the crash at Lake Superior.

In an article in the Wisconsin State Journal on November 24, 1953, it was stated with respect to this earlier crash that: “An Air Force clamshell crane was being used today to lift wreckage of the crashed Scorpion in the mud-filled hole of the University Arboretum in an attempt to find the bodies of Schmidt and Collins.

“Col. Shoup said he was convinced that the men had stuck with their plane in an attempt to keep it [from] crashing into densely-occupied areas of Madison. He praised the cooperation of police, fireman, members of the press and radio and others in trying to find the men.

“He added that an all-out effort will be made to salvage every bit of wreckage to present to an investigating board of experts so that the cause of the mishap may be determined. Officials were inclined to believe that a sudden mechanical failure caused the crash and the two occupants of the plane had no opportunity to radio that they were in distress or to bail out of the speeding aircraft.”

Perhaps this event was indeed a tragic accident resulting from nothing stranger than “mechanical failure” as the Air Force suggested. However, taking into consideration the strange, second incident that occurred only five hours later over Lake Superior – and involving personnel from the same military base and in the same type of aircraft, no less – an open-mind should be kept on the possibility that there was a connection; even if it is one that remains unresolved.

Bernard Newman’s sci-fi novel of 1948, The Flying Saucer, was the first full-length fiction story in the world to deal with the emotive topic of crashed flying saucers. A prolific author, Newman wrote more than a hundred books on subjects including real-life espionage, global politics and current affairs. It was his foray into the weird world of crashed UFOs that was perhaps most notable of all, however.

The Flying Saucer

The book was published just 11 months after the alleged recovery by the U.S. military of a flying saucer on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County,  New Mexico in July 1947 – the Roswell affair, of course. The Flying Saucer tells the tale of an elite group of scientists that decide to secretly stage a series of faked UFO crashes, with the express purpose of attempting to unite the world against a deadly alien foe that, in reality, does not exist.

The Flying Saucer begins with a series of worldwide UFO crashes (involving distinctly terrestrial vehicles built for this specific task): the first in England, the second in New Mexico, and the third in Russia. The crash sites are carefully chosen by the scientists and involve all of the three major powers that emerged out of the carnage of the Second World War. But, the work of the scientists is only just beginning.

Not content with creating its bogus UFO crashes, the team takes things one step further and constructs a faked alien body that is pulverized in one of the crashes and which is then presented to the world’s scientific community as evidence of the alien origin of the creatures that pilot the allegedly unearthly craft.

As a result of these events and with remarkable speed, the many and varied differences between the governments of the Earth dissolve under the “Martian” threat and the final chapter of Newman’s book sees practically every international political problem hastily resolved.

As the researcher Philip Taylor notes, Newman was a decidedly interesting character indeed: “In his unrevealing autobiography Speaking From Memory [Newman] describes how from 1919 onwards he was apparently employed in an undemanding Civil Service job in the Ministry of Works. Somehow he seemed able to take extremely long and, for those days, exceedingly adventurous holidays, including lengthy stays in Eastern Europe and Russia. His destinations invariably seemed to include areas of particular political interest: for example several extended holidays to Germany in the 1930’s.”

Taylor also notes that Newman claimed to have prepared a report on the German rocket site at Peenemunde in 1938, which he sent to the British Foreign Office. And adding yet more mystery to the story is an article published in the New York Times in 1945 that describes Newman as having spent most of the First World War acting as a double agent in the German Intelligence Service.

While Newman was indeed fluent in German, the idea of a then-eighteen-year old “boy-spy” operating within the German forces and influencing senior officers stretches credulity to its finest line, states Taylor, adding that: “an addendum to Newman’s obituary in the Times [in 1968] contains a reference to the alleged episode that relegates it to the realm of fiction. “

That may very well be the case; however, it is notable that here we have, albeit in a sci-fi format, a top secret project that utilizes the crashed UFO scenario as a cover story for other purposes. It does seem unlikely that Bernard Newman could have been operating on mainland Europe as a “double agent” in German Intelligence. And yet, the ever-present rumors that Newman had high-level links with the British Government should not be ignored.

Of one thing, however, we can be certain: less than a year after the events at Roswell, an author who had numerous, high-level, official connections and who had written extensively on espionage issues, wrote a sci-fi novel that specifically linked the worlds of crashed UFOs, faked alien autopsies, and bogus flying saucer tales promoted by military officials.

Does all this mean Newman had insider knowledge on how, and why, a real psychological-warfare program along these lines may have existed in the world of official secrecy back in the 1940s? Did someone “on the inside” come up with a bright idea to fake a crashed UFO event as a means to determine how the public and foreign nations might react to such amazing news?

If so, what does that potentially tell us about Roswell, a case filled with a multitude of conflicting stories and disinformation, and one that occurred just 11 months before Bernard Newman’s The Flying Saucer was published?

In 1999, Simon & Schuster published a novel titled Operation Thunder Child. The author was Nick Pope, a now-retired British Ministry of Defense man, and someone who – between 1991 and 1994 – investigated UFO reports for the MoD. When Thunder Child was released, some characters within the world of British Ufology wondered if Pope was trying to reveal more than a few government secrets about flying saucers, albeit under the carefully-crafted guise of a fictional story.

Whatever the answer, it’s interesting to note that Nick Pope was not the only employee of British officialdom involved in the investigation of the unexplained who also focused on the worlds of sci-fi and fantasy. There are, intriguingly, far more than a few such characters that followed a similar – if not near-identical – path. And here’s just a trio of them.

In 1915, a Lieutenant Colonel William Price Drury, the Garrison Intelligence Officer of the British Admiralty at Plymouth, England, prepared an extraordinary document for his superiors titled Report on the Dartmoor Floating (or Balloon) Light. It detailed a series of UFO-style encounters that occurred in the wilds of the moorlands of Devonshire  – where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles was set.

On numerous occasions throughout the month, strange, brightly lit aerial objects were seen to move across the moors late at night, and that seemed to exhibit definite signs of intelligent control. Despite the fact that there were numerous sightings of the strange phenomena – Drury was himself a witness to the aerial activity – no definitive conclusion was ever reached and the affair was quietly filed away and classified as unexplained. But the world of the mysterious was one that Lt. Col. Drury had been acquainted with for years.

As far back as 1904, Drury had been writing adventure novels about a character he called “Mr. Pagett,” the first being The Peradventures of Private Pagett. Described as a “one-time private in the Marines, and now hostelry landlord, parish councilor, and vicar’s warden,” Pagett’s escapades were all of the “take it with a pinch of salt”-variety.

One such story, Pagett Meets a Sailor on the Moor, sees our hero crossing paths with the ghost of Sir Francis Drake – on the same moorland where Drury’s very own encounter with the unknown occurred in 1915. Coincidence, bizarre synchronicity, or was Drury possibly an early Fox Mulder type character, secretly undertaking investigations into the paranormal for his Government, and presenting them as thinly-veiled, fictional, paranormal stories?

Drury is now long gone, as is, frustratingly, a conclusive answer to that question.

Dennis Yates Wheatley was born in South London on January 8, 1897 and joined the family wine business until World War One erupted. With the advent of the Second World War, Wheatley, by now a successful writer, submitted a number of papers to the Joint Planning Staff of the British Government’s War Cabinet, and was eventually asked to join them, subsequently becoming the only civilian ever to be given a commission in the Joint Planning Staff with the rank of Wing Commander.

Star of Ill-Omen by Dennis Wheatley

Wheatley continued his career as a writer after the War, and ultimately penned more than seventy books, many on the domain of the supernatural, and perhaps the best-known being The Devil Rides Out. However, it is his 1952 sci-fi novel, Star of Ill-Omen that is perhaps the most intriguing, albeit certainly not the man’s most memorable.

In the book, the hero, Ken Lincoln, a scientist named Escobar and his wife Carmen, are captured by huge Martian creatures known as the Bee-Beetles. They transfer the trio – in their flying saucer, of course - to Mars. Star of Ill-Omen reveals that the Martian world is a decaying and dying one, and it is the Bee-Beetles’ intention to take over the Earth – after they destroy our civilization via a devastating atomic attack.

Now we come to a man named Ralph Noyes.

According to the biographical note on the dust-jacket of his 1985 novel, A Secret Property, “For nearly four years, until late 1972, Ralph Noyes headed a division in the central staffs of the Ministry of Defense which brought him in touch with the UFO problem…A Secret Property is not only fiction but also ‘faction’ – at least to the extent of drawing on Ralph Noyes’s lengthy background in the Royal Air Force and the Ministry of Defense.”

The description of Noyes that his publisher presented is made all the more provocative by virtue of the fact that, in a sci-fi format, A Secret Property specifically dealt with what is perhaps the most well known UFO incident within the British Isles: the alleged landing, on December 26, 1980, of an alien spacecraft at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk.

Noyes added, regarding Rendlesham specifically: “The case itself is complex. I have given my own views about it – essentially that [Colonel] Halt and several others came face to face with a striking manifestation of the ‘UFO phenomenon,’ whatever that may be, in the December of 1980.”

Taking all of the above into consideration, are we seeing evidence here of people with official ties to government presenting secret truths as science-fiction? Or, is the truth far more down to earth; namely that there were people in government who happened to be fans of sci-fi, and so they decided to write it, too? I’ll leave those questions with you to ponder on…

What is the connection between David Icke and former Page Three girl Leilani Dowding? It turns out the two see eye-to-eye when it comes to conspiratorial matters, the 33-year-old English glamor model and television celebrity expressing a strong admiration for Icke’s theories.

In an article that appeared in The Sun on March 13, 2013, it was revealed that Dowding, during a recent private dinner party with a group of friends and acquaintances, stunned her companions by stating, among other things, that she shares Icke’s belief in shape-shifting reptilian aliens.

The function, held during Los Angeles Fashion Week, was presumably restricted to the classy and glamorous. One unnamed attendee confessed to being “a little shocked by her comments; they were pretty out there.” They added: “Leilani kept going on about the Royals being a bunch of shape-shifting lizards… It was all very weird. She actually believes this stuff.”

“She babbles on about David Icke and how everything in his book The Biggest Secret has come true,” revealed another anonymous attendee. “She also thinks everything bad that happens in the world is a conspiracy, even 9/11. Some of the stuff coming out of her mouth was shocking… She’s nuts!”

That Dowding’s dinner party companions wound think of her as “nuts” for questioning the official version of 9/11, or for finding the Royals a little scaly in appearance, is not at all surprising when you consider that the vast majority of the population either has no interest in conspiracy theories or finds them objectionable. The question, then, is why would someone like Dowding – who’s been voted as one of FHM’s “top 100 sexiest women in the world” – hold a strong interest in such matters?

Dowding, who currently works as a fashion designer, clearly isn’t your typical celebrity. Whereas most celebrities have absolute faith in their government and no desire whatsoever to question the status quo, Dowding is fiercely suspicious of the powers that be, stating in a recent Twitter post regarding Barack Obama: “Can you explain how a man who just passed the use of drones on US soil to kill US citizens with no trial, has a Nobel Peace Prize?”

The image of Dowding presented by the mainstream media is of a woman who’s becoming unhinged from reality, her interest in conspiracies being a sign of mental instability. Stated The Sun: “Friends of the model told how Leilani has become socially withdrawn after [undergoing] a painful divorce… and now prefers to be alone with her three dogs.” The newspaper added that Dowding now spends most of her time reading “books about aliens and conspiracy theories… rather than seeing her chums.”

Fortunately, Dowding doesn’t fit the “bimbo model” stereotype. In fact, she has a reputation for being quick-witted and articulate. After receiving high grades in school, she started – though never completed – a degree in economics at the prestigious Royal Holloway University, in Surrey, choosing to quit her studies in order to pursue a career in fashion and modeling. Asked to comment on the “weird” and “shocking” statements she made recently, she confidently told The Sun: “I did say all that. I thought it was common knowledge. I truly believe there are powerful forces at work that keep the truth from the public.”

She added: “Anyway, what’s weird about believing in aliens? It would be pretty sad to find out that we are truly alone in the universe. I hope we’re not!”

Any meaningful attempt to try and accurately determine when the first so-called alien abduction of a human being took place is inevitably going to be a very difficult task. Most researchers and students of the UFO phenomenon would probably concede that the phenomenon that has today become popularly known as alien abduction was relatively unknown until sometime after September 19, 1961.

On that night, Betty and Barney Hill, a married couple from New Hampshire, were driving home from vacationing in Canada when they were allegedly subjected to a terrifying experience. Despite viewing some form of unusual aerial object in the night sky and what appeared to be living entities that could be seen through the craft’s portals, until their arrival back home, the Hill’s had very little indication that there was actually far more to the encounter than they realized.

Betty and Barney Hill

It later transpired, however, that approximately two-hours of time could not be accounted for. After some months of emotional distress, sleepless nights, and strange dreams pertaining to encounters with unusual, otherworldly beings, the couple finally sought assistance from Benjamin Simon, a Boston-based psychiatrist and neurologist. Subjected to time-regression hypnosis, both Betty and Barney recalled what had taken place during that missing 120 minutes or so.

The Interrupted Journey

Significantly, they provided very close accounts of encounters with apparent alien creatures that took the pair on board some form of alien vehicle and subjected them to a series of physical examinations – a number of which were highly distressing and intrusive in nature. The experience of the Hill’s later became the subject of John Fuller’s now-classic book, The Interrupted Journey and a 1975 movie of the same name.

By far the most commonly reported creatures present during alien abduction cases are those that have become popularly known as the Grays. Typically, the Grays are short in stature, around three-to-four-feet in height; they have gray-white skin, hence the name; and their bodies are usually described as being thin to the point of near-emaciation at times. Certainly the most striking and memorable features of the Grays are their heads.

They are hairless and overly large in proportion to their bodies with their ears, nose, and mouth being vestigial at best. Their eyes, on the other hand, are black, huge, almond-like in shape, and hypnotic in nature. And since that fateful 1961 night, when Betty and Barney Hill unwittingly added a whole new dimension to the UFO controversy, literally thousands of people from all across the globe have reported close encounters with the Grays and their distinctly motley ilk. Less well known, however, is the interest that the U.S. military took in the Hill affair.

On the day after the Hill’s encounter, Betty telephoned the 100^th Bomb Wing, Strategic Air Command, at Pease Air Force Base, to report the details of her and Barney’s experience – at least, those parts of the event that they could consciously recall. Of this telephone exchange, Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden wrote in their book Captured!:

“Barney omitted his observation of the humanoid figures that communicated with him through a double row of windows, fearing that he might be thought a ‘crackpot.’ Later that day, Major Paul W. Henderson phoned the Hills and questioned both of them extensively. According to Betty, he seemed very interested in the wing-like structures that telescoped out from each side of the pancake shaped craft and the red lights on their tips.”

Of this aspect of the affair, Betty herself wrote: “Major Henderson asked to speak with Barney, who was hesitating about talking on the phone. But, once he was on the phone, he was giving more information than I had. Later, Barney said he had done this, for Major Henderson did not seem to express any surprise or disbelief.”

Betty then added something very interesting: “Later, Major Henderson called back and asked if we would be willing to be put through to somewhere else, and have our calls monitored. We agreed to this. One call was transferred to another place and today we do not know with whom we were talking.”

The following day, Major Henderson told Betty and Barney that he had spent the previous night burning the midnight-oil, while preparing an official report on the encounter of the Hill’s, which reads as follows:

“ …on the night of 19-20 Sept between 20/0001 and 20/0100 Mr. and Mrs. Hill were travelling south on Route near Lincoln, N.H., when they observed, through the windshield of their car, a strange object in the sky. They noticed it because of its shape and the intensity of its lighting as compared to the stars in the sky. The weather and the sky were clear at the time…

“They continued to observe the object from their moving car for a few minutes then stopped. After stopping the car they used binoculars at times. They report that the object was traveling north very fast. They report it changed directions rather abruptly and then headed South. Shortly thereafter it stopped and hovered in the air. There was no sound evident up to this time. Both observers used the binoculars at this point.

“While hovering, objects began to appear from the body of the ‘object’ which they described as looking like wings which made a V shape when extended. The ‘wings’ had red lights on the tips. At this point they observed it to appear to swoop down in the general direction of their auto. The object continued to descend until it appeared to be only a matter of ‘hundreds of feet’ above their car.

“At this point they decided to get out of that area, and fast. Mr. Hill was driving and Mrs. Hill watched the object by sticking her head out the window. It departed in a generally North westerly direction but Mrs. Hill was prevented from observing its full departure by her position in the car. They report that while the object was above them after it had ‘swooped down’ they heard a series of short loud ‘buzzes.’

“They continued on their trip and when they arrived in the vicinity of Ashland, N.H., about 30 miles from Lincoln, they again heard the ‘buzzing’ sound of the ‘object’; however, they did not see it at this time. Mrs. Hill reported the flight pattern of the ‘object’ to be erratic, changed directions rapidly, that during its flight it ascended and descended numerous times very rapidly. Its flight was described as jerky and not smooth.

“Mr. Hill is a Civil Service employee in the Boston Post Office and doesn’t possess any technical or scientific training. Neither does his wife.

“During a later conversation with Mr. Hill, he volunteered the observation that he did not originally intend to report this incident but in as much as he & his wife did in fact see this occurrence he decided to report it. He says that on looking back he feels that the whole thing is incredible and he feels somewhat foolish – he just can not [sic] believe that such a thing could or did happen. He says, on the other hand, that they both saw what they reported and this fact gives it some degree of reality.

“Information contained herein was collected by means of telephone conversations between the observers and the preparing individual. The reliability of the observer cannot be judged and while his apparent honesty and seriousness appears to be valid it cannot be judged at this time.”

Since many abductees report apparent secret, official interest in their experiences, one has to wonder: did it all began with the Hills back in 1961? Did their encounter  provoke some agency of government, or of the military, to initiate a kind of “Project Abduction” to study and evaluate cases of cosmic-kidnap? Perhaps, when it comes to abductions, we might be better off looking for the answers not in the stars, but deep within the vaults of government…

In his 1997 book Remote Viewers, Jim Schnabel told the story of the U.S. Intelligence community’s involvement in the controversial issue of psychic spying that largely began in the early-to-mid 1970s. Commenting on the skills of a talented remote-viewer in relation to matters of a UFO nature, one Pat Price, Schnabel noted Price was of the opinion that “…Alaska’s Mount Hayes, the jewel of a glacial range northeast of Anchorage, housed one of the aliens’ largest bases.”

According to Pat Price, the aliens that lived deep inside Mount Hayes were very human looking, differing only in their heart, lungs, blood, and eyes. Ominously, he added that the aliens use “thought transfer for motor control of us.” Price added: “The site has also been responsible for strange activity and malfunction of U.S. and Soviet space objects.”

Rather notably, despite the controversial nature of this story, we find that the U.S. military took a great deal of interest in tales of UFO activity in Alaska in the formative years of the subject. For example, formerly classified FBI files tell of startling UFO encounters in Alaska in the period 1947-1950.

It was in August 1947 that a highly impressive account of a UFO incident involving two serving members of the military was supplied to the FBI at Anchorage. The report began: “This is to advise that two army officers reported to the Office of the Director of Intelligence Headquarters Alaskan Department, at Fort Richardson, Alaska, that they had witnesses an object passing through the air at a tremendous rate of speed which could not be judged as to miles per hour.”

According to the official report, the UFO was initially sighted by only one of the two officers, but he soon alerted his colleague to the strange sight. “The object appeared to be shaped like a sphere and did not give the impression of being saucer-like or comparable to a disk. The first officer stated that it would be impossible to give minute details concerning the object, but that it appeared to be approximately two or three feet in diameter and did not leave any vapor trail in the sky.”

Experienced officer that he was, in his first attempt to gauge the altitude of the object, and, from a comparison with cloud formations in the area, he determined that whatever the nature of the mystery sphere, it was cruising at a height of more than ten thousand feet. And it should be noted that to be at such a height and still be visible, in all probability the UFO must have exceeded by a wide margin the initial size estimate of “two or three feet.”

When questioned, the second officer gave a substantially similar account, the only marked difference being that, in his opinion, he considered the object to have been approximately ten feet in diameter, and compared it to “half the size of a full moon on an ordinary night.” This discrepancy in size was apparently due to the fact that the second officer believed the UFO was more likely to have been at a height of three-to-four thousand feet, rather than at an altitude of ten thousand feet as had been suggested by his colleague.

The difference of opinion over the altitude and size of the object may or may not have been significant; the important factor, however, was that both officers agreed that some type of anomalous object had most definitely been seen. And as the report concluded: “…the second officer pointed out that one of the remarkable features of this report was that it was definitely traveling against the wind.”

Shortly afterwards, the FBI Office at Anchorage reported to Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover that: “…we have been able to locate a flyer [who] observed some flying object near Bethel, Alaska in July 1947.” The report to Hoover continued: “[The pilot] related that the occasion of seeing the flying object near Bethel was on a July day when the sky was completely clear of clouds, and it being during the early part, it is daylight the entire night. The time of his sighting [of] this flying object was about 10 PM and the sun had just dropped beyond the horizon. Flying weather was extremely good and he was coming into the Bethel Airport with a DC-3.”

On approaching the airport the pilot was amazed to see to his left an unidentified craft “the size of a C-54 without any fuselage,” which seemed to resemble a “flying wing.” As a result of its unique shape, the pilot was initially unable to determine whether the object was heading towards his aircraft or away from it, and elected to make a 45-degree turn in an attempt to diffuse any possible chance of collision. The FBI noted that the pilot was certain that the craft was free of any external power source, such as a propeller-driven engine, and exhibited no exhaust as it flew by.

The document added: “He called on his radio to the Civil Aeronautics Administration station at Bethel, asking what aircraft was in the vicinity and they had no reports of any aircraft. The object he sighted was some five or ten miles from the airport before his arrival and [he] stated that the path did not go directly across the airport. He, of course, could not tell whether the object was making any noise and stated that it was flying at a thousand foot altitude and estimated travel at 300 miles per hour.

“It was traveling in the direction from Bethel to Nome, which is in a northwesterly direction. He noted no radio interference and is unable to describe the color other than it appeared dark but of definite shape and did not blend into the sky but had a definite, concise outline. [He] clearly observed the object at this time.”

As the 1940s drew to a close and a new decade dawned, the FBI continued to receive and log high-quality UFO reports on a regular basis. Of those, one of the more credible related to a noteworthy series of encounters that occurred in Alaskan airspace over the course of two days in early 1950.

Forwarded to the FBI by an official U.S. Navy source, the confidential three-page intelligence report paints a startling picture of multiple UFO encounters involving the military. Titled “Unidentified Phenomena in Vicinity of Kodiak, Alaska,” it concerns “a report of sightings of unidentified airborne objects, by various naval personnel, on 22 and 23 January 1950.”

The author of the report noted: “…at 220240W January Lt. Smith, USN, patrol plane commander of P2V3 No. 4 of Patrol Squadron One reported an unidentified radar contact 20 miles north of the Naval Air Station, Kodiak, Alaska. When this contact was first made, Lt. Smith was flying the Kodiak Security Patrol. At 0243W, 8 minutes later a radar contact was made on an object 10 miles southeast of NAS Kodiak. Lt. Smith checked with the control tower to determine known traffic in the area, and was informed that there was none. During this period, the radar operator, Gaskey, ALC, USN, reported intermittent radar interference of a type never before experienced. Contact was lost at this time, but intermittent interference continued.”

Smith and Gaskey were not the only two to report that unidentified vehicles had intruded into Alaskan airspace. At the time of these encounters, the USS Tilbrook was anchored in the vicinity of “buoy 19” in the nearby man ship channel. On board the Tilbrook was a seaman named Morgan (first name unknown) who was standing watch. At some point between 0200 and 0300 hours, Morgan reported that a “very fast moving red light, which appeared to be of exhaust nature seemed to come from the southeast, moved clockwise in a large circle in the direction of, and around Kodiak and returned out in a generally southeast direction.”

Perhaps not quite believing what he was seeing, Morgan alerted one of his shipmates, Carver, to the strange spectacle, and both watched as the UFO made a “return flight.” According to the testimony of Morgan and Carver: “The object was in sight for an estimated 30 seconds. No odor or sound was detected, and the object was described to have the appearance of a ball of fire about one foot in diameter.”

The report then records yet another encounter with the mystery visitor: “At 220440W, conducting routine Kodiak security patrol, Lt. Smith reported a visual sighting of an unidentified airborne object at a range of 5 miles, on the starboard bow. This object showed indications of great speed on the radar scope. The trailing edge of the blip gave a tail like indication.”

Lieutenant Smith quickly advised the rest of the crew of the PV23 No. 24 that the UFO was in sight, and all watched fascinated as the strange vehicle soared overhead at a speed estimated to have been around 1,800 mph. Smith climbed to intercept the UFO and vainly tried to circle it. Needless to say, its high speed and remarkable maneuverability ensured that Smith’s actions was futile. However, neither Lieutenant Smith nor his crew was quite prepared for what happened next.

“Subsequently the object seemed to be opening the range,” the official report reads, “and Smith attempted to close the range. The UFO was observed to open out somewhat, then to turn to the left and come up on Smith’s quarter. Smith considered this to be a highly threatening gesture and turned out all lights in the aircraft. Four minutes later the object disappeared from view in a southeasterly direction.”

At 0435 hours on the following day, Lieutenants Barco and Causer of Patrol Squadron One were conducting the Kodiak Security Patrol when they, too, sighted an unidentified aerial vehicle. At the time of their encounter the aircraft in which the officers were flying was approximately 62 miles south of Kodiak. For ten minutes, Barco and Causer, along with the pilot, Captain Paulson, watched stunned as the mysterious object twisted and turned in the Alaskan sky. An assessment of these reports read thus:

“1. To Lt. Smith and crew it appeared as two orange lights rotating about a common center, “like two jet aircraft making slow rolls in tight formation.” It had a wide speed range. 2. To Morgan and Carver, it appeared as a reddish orange ball of fire about one foot in diameter, traveling at a high rate of speed. 3. To Causer, Barco and Paulson, it appeared to be a pulsating orange yellow projectile shaped flame, with regular periods of pulsation on 3 to 5 seconds. Later, as the object increased the range, the pulsations appeared to increase to on 7 or 8 seconds and off 7 to 8 seconds.”

The final comment on the encounters reads: “In view of the fact that no weather balloons were known to have been released within a reasonable time before the sightings, it appears that the object or objects were not balloons. If not balloons the objects must be regarded as phenomena (possibly meteorites), the exact nature of which could not be determined by this office.”

The “meteorite” theory for this series of encounters is particularly puzzling. It goes without saying that meteorites do not stay in sight for “an estimated 30 seconds,” meteorites do
not close in on military aircraft in what is deemed to be a “highly threatening gesture,” and they do not appear as “two orange lights rotating about a common center.”

In other words, it seems safe to conclude that genuinely anomalous phenomena were indeed witnessed by experienced military personnel at Kodiak, Alaska in January 1950.

Does any of this prove that there really is an alien base deep within Alaska’s Mount Hayes, as Pat Price suggested? No, of course not. But, in view of all the above, perhaps it’s time someone took a closer look at Price’s claims. You know: just in case…

On the silver screen, and in the printed pages, it has felled death-dealing aliens and marauding robots, and has even destroyed worlds and entire galaxies. It is easily the most awesome weapon of mass destruction, and is one of the most recognizable motifs within the annals of sci-fi. It is the death-ray. One of the earliest examples of the usage of such a weapon, in the form of what was described as a “Heat-Ray” device, appeared in H.G. Wells’ novel of Martian invasion: The War of the Worlds. As a result of the overwhelming popularity and success of Wells’ novel, many early sci-fi authors picked up on his highly original premise, and the deadly ray technology was often graphically shown in pulp magazines of the 1940s and 1950s as one accompanied by giant electric arcs, lightning-style flashes, and thunder-like crashes and roars.

With the advent of the laser in 1960 and its accompanying famous pencil-thin red light, however, the death-ray was quickly modified within sci-fi (partly as a result of the usage of such a device in the 1960s movie version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond story Goldfinger) and gained a new and more popular relation: the ray gun, perhaps most universally recognized in the form of the Phaser from Star Trek. Indeed, the American Heritage Dictionary defines a ray gun as: “A gun that fires a ray of energy, especially as depicted as a destructive weapon in science fiction.”

There are countless examples of the utilization of such technology in sci-fi circles: In the movie Aliens, soldiers are armed with a shoulder-carried weapon called the Plasma Gun. In the popular television series Babylon 5, the similarly named Phased Plasma Gun appears regularly. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, a spin-off of the sci-fi meets horror computer game of the same name, features a device called the Paracelsus Sword, which is essentially a huge cannon that fires an all-destructive energy beam. And, of course, in Star Wars, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker possessed their trusty light-sabers.

According to some, however, the classic death-ray of sci-fi is not merely, or specifically, a tool of fantasy writers. Rather, it is a very real, and very deadly, technology that has attracted the attention of the highest echelons of government agencies, and the scientific community, that have attempted to harness such deadly devices for their own, Top Secret, reasons. In some cases, decades ago.

Indeed, evidence exists to show that research into so-called death ray-type devices was undertaken in both the pre-Second World War era and in its aftermath, too. A media press release of June 6, 1934 begins: “A death ray machine was conspicuously absent today from the exhibition room of the National Inventors Congress, presumably at the request of the Federal Government. Its death-dealing potentialities were described to the congress last night by President A.G. Burns of Oakland, California. The machine, an invention of Dr. Antonio Longoria of Cleveland, resembles a motion picture projector, Burns said.”

The story continues: “I witnessed a demonstration of the machine in Cleveland last October,” Burns said. “Several Government scientists were there. Dr. Longoria turned the ray on rabbits, dogs and cats. They fell over, instantly killed, their blood turned to water. The same thing happened to pigeons. They fluttered to the ground and were dead when picked up. Because of the ray’s death-dealing possibilities, Burns said that Dr. Longoria readily agreed with Government scientists that the machine will be suppressed.”

On the same day, the following article appeared in various newspapers in Cleveland, Ohio:

“An electric ray, whose death-dealing potentialities are said to be almost unlimited, will be suppressed until such time as it is needed for American defense, its inventor indicated today. Dr. Antonio Longoria, Cleveland physician and electrical engineer, informed that a report of his death ray had been made to the Congress at Omaha, said details of the machine would remain a secret until a foreign invader entered the United States. Dr. Longoria, who perfected an inexpensive violet-ray machine and the first electrical device to measure the speed of an airplane, declined to comment on reports that his ray had been suppressed by governmental request.”

Whether or not Dr. Longoria did indeed hand over the designs for his weapon to the US Government is debatable; however, according to Popular Science of February 1940, the doctor had decided that mankind would be far better off without the benefit of such a weapon: “Pigeons on the wing killed by death rays from a machine from four miles away – that is the feat reputedly accomplished by a deadly apparatus developed by Dr. Antonio Longoria, of Cleveland, Ohio, who recently announced that he had deliberately destroyed the lethal machine for the good of humanity.”

Possibly of some relevance to this kind of research is the following, February 15, 1957, extract from the FBI’s extensive file on Albert Einstein: “In May, 1948, [Einstein] and ’10 former Nazi research brain trusters’ held a secret meeting to observe a new beam of light secret weapon which could be operated from planes to destroy cities, according to the ‘Arlington Daily,’ Arlington, Virginia, May 21, 1948. The Intelligence Division of the Army subsequently advised the Bureau that this information could have no foundation in fact and that no machine could be devised which would be effective outside the range of a few feet.”

Was the story simply a rumor and nothing else? Or, was the military’s hasty dismissal of the Einstein issue evidence that certain secret research of a death ray variety had been compromised and, as a result, had to be swiftly denied as being of no consequence? Maybe one day we will know for sure. In a future post, I’ll focus my attentions on where present day research into death rays is at…