Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Phantoms and Monsters

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The Falkville Tin Foil Alien Encounter - October 17, 1973

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:43 AM PDT

The year was 1973...I was getting ready to start my sophomore year in high school. It was a tumultuous and cynical time filled with news of Watergate, the Vietnam War and many other historical events. People were sick of reading about crooked politicians and continued war. UFO sightings were on the increase culminating in abductions and extraordinary sightings...and I was riding the wave. Unparalleled UFO encounters and alien visitation's occurred worldwide during the most extraordinary "UFO Flap". The number of UFO reports was unprecedented during this banner year. 1973 brought us the Pascagoula Incident and the Charlie Hickson and Coyne cases. But the one event that grabbed my attention the most was the Falkville Tin Foil Alien case.

On the Autumn evening of October 17, 1973, Jeff Greenhaw, then 26-year old Chief of Police of Falkville, Alabama, was settling in with his wife for a well deserved night of rest when he received an emergency call around 10 PM that would literally change his life forever.

The call was from an hysterical anonymous woman who claimed that a UFO had landed just outside of town in a field which was owned by Bobby Summerford.

Although he was off duty, Greenhaw...abiding by his sworn duty to serve and protect...jumped up, grabbed his keys, cuffs, revolver and his Polaroid camera, on the off chance that there might be something worth taking a shot of. He then hopped into his truck, radioed the call in and raced to the location of the alleged flying saucer landing.

When Greenhaw arrived on the scene he got out of his truck and patrolled the area, but claimed to find nothing out of the ordinary. The chief then returned to his vehicle and decided to take drive around the field before returning home. Greenhaw cruised around the perimeter of Summerford's property, scanning the darkness for anything unusual, but saw nothing of interest in the murky blackness. He then turned down a narrow, gravel path for one final pass...that was when he came face to face with an unknown entity.

After traveling down the path for about a hundred yards, Greenhaw saw an being that he described as a humanoid figure standing next to the road, about 75-feet away. The chief got out of his truck and carefully approached what he still assumed to be a human being, thinking that it may be someone in need of assistance.

Police Chief Jeffrey Greenhaw shows the area of his encounter
Greenhaw shouted to his strange companion, but it did not respond. As he got to within 15-feet of the being that was illuminated in his truck's high-beams, the chief realized that something was very wrong. The entity appeared to be wearing some kind of silvery, metallic suit that resembled thick aluminum foil.

Some reports also indicate that its stature was somewhat child-like or simian, like a monkey in a spacesuit. Greenhaw described what he saw:

"It looked like his head and neck were kind of made together… he was real bright, something like rubbing mercury on nickel, but just as smooth as glass-different angles give different lighting… when I saw him standing in the middle of the road I immediately stopped the car and asked if he was a foreigner, but no sound came out of his mouth."

Greenhaw also noted that the thing had an antenna sticking out from the top of its head and that its movements were jerky and mechanical.

The shocked Greenhaw realized that he was dealing with something unknown and, pushing his panic aside with years of police training, had the presence of mind to pick up his instant camera and shoot four photographs.

The first Polaroid shows nothing but inky darkness and a flash of silver, but the next three images hit paydirt. In the photos one can clearly see a human-like figure wearing a wrinkly, metallic suit, which is reflecting the Polaroid's flash.

Perhaps believing that it was being attacked by a human with some kind of "light-beam" weapon, the creature almost instantaneously turned and began sprinting across the field at speeds far in excess of those capable by human. Greenhaw noted that it seemed to be heading in the general direction of Lacon, which is about three miles away from Falkville. The chief reacted swiftly, ran back to his truck and took off in pursuit of the 'tin foil man.'

Greenhaw would state that he managed to accelerate his truck only to about 35 MPH due to the rough terrain of the field, but that he was still completely outrun by this unusual entity, which defied the laws of gravity with it's speed and and spring-like jumps. According to Greenhaw:

"It ran in a bizarre way...seemed to have springs in the feet for propulsion, could cover about three meters in every way. He was running faster than any human I ever saw."

During this frantic off road pursuit, Greenhaw claims he lost control of his truck and slid into a ditch. At which point he watched as the creature slipped into the darkness never to be seen again. Leaving Greenhaw with only his haunting memories of the event and a single controversial Polaroid.

Greenhaw's experience was instantly met with skeptical derision, if not outright ridicule.

Within months of revealing his bizarre encounter, the Chief of Police was terminated by the town council, his marriage fell apart and, just when it must have seemed as if matters couldn't get any worse, his home was burned to the ground. All of the above factors have thrown kerosene on the already brightly burning flames of the UFO conspiracy theories surrounding this event and gives a clear indication as to why most contactees and eyewitnesses remain silent regarding their unusual experiences.

Some ufologists believe that the tin foil man was a robotic scout for an extra-terrestrial landing craft, while skeptics maintain that it was all a hoax perpetrated by Greenhaw and an unknown accomplice who was clad in a tin foil costume.

Falkville, Alabama
The images that Greenhaw snapped were collected and sent for analysis by Walt Andrus, a director of MUFON.

The conclusion drawn by the analysts was that the encounter was most likely a fabrication...probably inspired by all the furor surrounding the recent Pascagoula case. If was presumed that aluminum foil or an asbestos fire suit was used to create the unusual look of the creature.

Interestingly the negatives of the Greenhaw pictures that were studied by MUFON seem to show images of a "flying saucer" amongst them, although no one ever claimed to have photographed the object initially reported.

Chief Greenhaw garnered no financial gain or positive notoriety due to his experience and, while he has managed to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, all reports indicate that he continues to regret his encounter with this unknown. To this day, however, Greenhaw and his supporters insist that he had an actual encounter with an alien being.

Sources:
ufos.about.com
www.ufocasebook.com
www.nicap.org
www.theironskeptic.com
www.davidicke.com/forum
americanmonsters.com
www.martiansgohome.com
UFOs 1973: Aliens, Abductions and Extraordinary Sightings
paranormalinvestigationtools.com

Photos: Orb UFOs - Adelaide, South Australia - 10/18/2010

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:13 AM PDT


I am just writing to you to tell you about an odd experience I had last night.

I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I was sitting in my loungeroom when out of the corner of my eye approximately 10.30pm, 18th Oct, I saw a massive shooting star in the SW. It was a great white ball of light that fell from the sky, it caught my attention as it was rather large and moved quite slowly in a downward, vertical direction. Then again at approximately 11.00pm I went outside for a cigarette and spotted what seemed to be a similar light as before but it was in the W, moving in a horizontal direction from S to N, which eventually vanished a few moments later. Then at 11.30pm I was outside for another smoke when I spotted quite a large orange light in the SW travelling in the same direction, seemed to be flying above the Western Suburbs of Adelaide, or the beach. As I watched another two orange lights followed. They moved in a wavey line across the sky, again S to N, also moving in circle and zig zag formations, before vanishing one by one. While they were travelling I could hear sounds coming from their direction. It seems the best way to describe it was "WOOooo ooooOOoo," similar to a whistle but I have never heard this sound before. I managed to snap a few photos, did not get any footage unfortunately due to battery being flat. After looking in to recent UFO sightings on the internet I have found similar accounts have occurred in NYC, El Pasa, London and China. I believe they are indeed related incidents.

-Lexi, Adelaide, South Australia


NOTE: I want to thank Lexi for sending in the report and images. These orange and various colored orbs has been prevalent for a few years and the reports seem to increase as time goes on. Take a look at the MUFON CMS and you'll most likely find a similar sighting listed. Lexi's images are of a better than average quality and several details and patterns can be seen. What are these orbs? I have several earlier examples posted below. These are just a few of the better quality images I have collected over the years. Lon

New York City - July 2007
Near Shanghai, China - August 2008
Dublin, Ireland - Winter 2007
Hawaii - 2008
Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba - June 2007

Fortean / Oddball News: Bigfoot Discovery Day, Fish Spears Kayaker and Homer Simpson

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:37 AM PDT

Bigfoot Discovery Day

UPI - The small town of Felton, Calif., held its annual Bigfoot Discovery Day but the guest of honor again failed to show up, organizers said.

Staged Saturday by the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers and the Bigfoot Discovery Project, the event has been held every year since 2006, the Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel reported.

About 50 people attended the outdoor lunch and meeting in the town of 1,051 people north of Santa Cruz to hear of purported Bigfoot sightings and examine evidence.

Many of the stories were told with an emphasis on Santa Cruz County, the newspaper reported Saturday.

"We have plenty of evidence of a Bigfoot presence up here in the mountains," Michael Rugg, curator of the town's Bigfoot Discovery Museum, said.

"I have some vocalizations we've recorded, we have some video that we shot locally, and we have a number of eyewitnesses who have reported sightings," he said. "In our testing, we've come up with more evidence to indicate it's true than the opposite."

Rugg said he founded the museum in 2004 because he wanted to "have a bigger part in trying to solve this mystery."

"I'm so sure this is real, I don't care what anybody says," he said.

Bigfoot in Santa Cruz County?: Enthusiasts make their case during Bigfoot Discovery Day

Skeptics need not apply.

The Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers and the Bigfoot Discovery Project presented the annual Bigfoot Discovery Day Saturday, staged at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum. The all-day gathering began in 2006.

From local investigators to interested families with children, more than 50 people attended the outdoor lunch and roundtable discussion, where purported Bigfoot sightings and evidence were presented, and numerous stories were told with an emphasis on Santa Cruz County.

Bigfoot Discovery Museum founder and curator Michael Rugg officiated, answering questions and facilitating much of the day's discussion. Rugg said the goal of the annual Discovery Day is to get people in Santa Cruz County to realize that the museum is not just a roadside attraction on the side of Highway 9, but a center for diligent research.

"We have plenty of evidence of a Bigfoot presence up here in the mountains," Rugg said. "I have some vocalizations we've recorded, we have some video that we shot locally, and we have a number of eye witnesses who have reported sightings. In our testing, we've come up with more evidence to indicate it's true than the opposite."

Rugg, who recounted his own Bigfoot sighting as a toddler in 1950, told the gathered crowd that, since he founded the museum in 2004, he's had an opportunity to further his research and hear numerous firsthand tales of sightings.

"Our museum is trying to serve as an advocate for eyewitnesses," he said. "People have been reporting anomalous events that our scientific authority figures have relegated to complete nonsense. What we're saying is, give these folks a break. There are plenty of things to learn yet."

Entering the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, one is confronted by plaster casts of giant feet, looping footage of the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film, where an unidentified creature bounds across the screen, and Bigfoot-themed art. There is also a wall-sized map of Santa Cruz County, with pushpins detailing reported local sightings, stretching from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos.

Boulder Creek resident Bill Tucker, a longtime volunteer with the museum who stood behind the counter alongside Capitola resident Mike Barrow, recounted his own experience coming into contact with the unknown. Tucker was camping in Washington in 1987, he said, in an isolated campground. He found himself at a river, where he had the feeling that he was being watched.

"Then, a bunch of rocks came across the river," he said. "This happened, off and on, for the next 12 hours. Something was trying to keep me out of there. I began to believe right then."

Barrow said that his interest stemmed from the Patterson film, which was released when he was 7.

"It grabbed my imagination and, ever since, I've been looking," he said.

Pleasanton resident Tom Yamarone has been involved with the museum in various capacities since it opened, he said. Yamarone, who writes Bigfoot-related folksongs, which he performed later in the evening, said that he was encouraged by Saturday's turnout.

"My interest in the subject is very active," Yamarone said. "It's great to see so many people turn out for this."

The Discovery Day moved to the Louden Nelson Center later in the evening, where further presentations were given, including discussions on the latest game-camera technology used in Bigfoot-tracking and a historical slide-show of newspaper reports on Bigfoot dating back to the mid-1800s.

Rugg said the day was a success. He added that he founded the museum in 2004 because he wanted to "have a bigger part in trying to solve this mystery."

"I'm so sure this is real, I don't care what anybody says," he said.

**********

Leaping Fish Punctures Lung of Woman Kayaking in Florida Keys
myphl17 - A marine mystery unfolded in the Florida Keys on Sunday, when something leapt from the water, punctured the lung of a woman in a kayak and returned to the ocean. Karri Larson, 46, of Cudjoe Key, was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was listed Monday afternoon in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit. It's unclear what attacked her. Several species are capable of leaping from the water, but only a few can inflict that sort of injury. Unlike other incidents of this sort, the creature didn't remain in the boat to be identified but disappeared over the side. The Coast Guard issued a news release blaming her injury on a barracuda. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission disagreed. FWC Officer Robert Dube said, "It was definitely not a barracuda. She was struck by some species from the water. Nobody saw it. We can only speculate at this time." Among the possibilities, experts say, is the houndfish, a species that has been known on rare occasion to leap out of the water and injure people. Although the houndfish lacks the barracuda's sinister appearance, it has a needle-like snout that can penetrate human flesh. "It sounds like a houndfish," said Jason Schratwieser, conservation director of the International Game Fish Association. "Those things have been known to jump out and impale people." The kayakers were on a "real nice Sunday afternoon kayak ride," paddling past pristine wilderness near Big Pine Key, said Capt. Kevin Freestone, owner of TowBoatU.S. in Big Pine Key and Cudjoe Key and a member of the Big Pine Key Volunteer Fire Department. They then saw "quite a big fish that was skipping across the water," Freestone said. "Lo and behold, it went and hit her. Crazy." The fish, which the kayakers estimated was about four feet long, knocked Larson from their two-person watercraft, but she climbed back in, Freestone said. The man, unable to row to shore fearing it would further harm the injured Larson, phoned for help. Freestone and other rescuers reached them on two boats and took them to safety. Larson was taken to Dolphin Marina, and then taken by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Boats never have been an entirely safe haven from marine creatures. Although such incidents are extremely rare, Florida boaters have been injured by sturgeon, spotted eagle rays and other species leaping into their vessels. "There are several species of fish that will jump out of the water in South Florida," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "The barracuda is certainly one, the houndfish is certainly one, and the king mackerel will jump out of the water. The most likely one of the three is the houndfish. The houndfish and other needlefish are known and documented to get embedded in humans." Ten years ago, a houndfish seriously injured a 17-year-old girl standing in chest-deep water near the site of Sunday's incident. The fish leapt from the water and stabbed her, breaking its bill off in her neck. It had to be surgically removed. She underwent speech therapy to restore her damaged vocal cords, and was left with a 6-inch scar that runs from her left ear down toward her collarbone, the St. Petersburg Times reported in 2000. Stephanie Mittler's accident drew national attention, including calls from David Letterman's show and NBC's "Dateline." But despite all the talk Monday of the houndfish, Capt. Tom Zsak, a charter boat operator out of Fort Lauderdale, said a barracuda still sounded like the most likely suspect. They are a common species, aggressive biters and known to leap several feet out of the water while chasing fish. "We call them the saber tooth tiger of the ocean," he said. "Here in Fort Lauderdale I see it when they're chasing baitfish, I've seen them a good four or five feet out of the water. A person would be mangled pretty good by a barracuda bite."

**********
Vatican Declares Homer Simpson 'is a true Catholic'
telegraph - The long-running cartoon series explores issues such as family, community, education and religion in a way that few other popular television programmes can match, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily broadsheet. The newspaper acknowledged that Homer snores through the sermons of the Reverend Lovejoy and inflicts "never-ending humiliation" on his evangelical neighbour, Ned Flanders. But in an article headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics", the newspaper said: "The Simpsons are among the few TV programmes for children in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes." The family "recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter". It quoted an analysis by a Jesuit priest, Father Francesco Occhetta, of a 2005 episode of The Simpsons, The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star, which revolved around Catholicism and was aired a few weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II. The episode starts with Bart being expelled from Springfield Elementary School and being enrolled in a Catholic school where he meets a sympathetic priest, voiced by the actor Liam Neeson, who draws him into Catholicism with his kindness. Homer then decides to convert to Catholicism, to the horror of his wife Marge, the Rev Lovejoy and Ned Flanders. The episode touches on issues such as religious conflict, interfaith dialogue, homosexuality and stem cell research. "Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic," insists L'Osservatore Romano. It is not the first time that the Vatican newspaper has praised The Simpsons. Last December, as the television series celebrated its 20th anniversary, the paper said that "the relationship between man and God" is one of its most important themes and that it often mirrored the "religious and spiritual confusion of our times". Once a staid and sober paper of record, L'Osservatore Romano has ventured into popular culture in the last three years under a new editor, commenting on everything from The Beatles and The Blues Brothers to the blockbuster film Avatar and the Harry Potter books and films.

**********

'Panther-Sized' Black Cat Roaming La Quinta, CA

Authorities are conducting a search in La Quinta for what one resident described as "a large, panther-sized black cat," on the roof of a house.

Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigators said the cat was seen about 8 a.m. Saturday in the 78000 block of Calle Remo.

"They said it was much larger than a house cat and looked more like a black panther," investigator Matt Diaz said.

California Fish and Game officers, along with deputies, searched for hours but were unable to find the animal.

One neighbor told deputies that a cat of a similar look was seen on a La Quinta golf court last week.

Legends and Past Employees Persevere in Notable Landmark

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 07:09 PM PDT

The Bissman Building in downtown Mansfield, Ohio was built in 1886 where Peter Bissman's expanded wholesale grocery still stands today, but not in operation. In the early 1930s the twenty smokestacks on the north and south sides of the Bissman's filled the early morning air with the rich aroma of coffee, as its own brands Red Ban Java Blend, Steel Cut and Acme were prepared fresh each day. Downtown residents would wake to the scent of roasting coffee beans and return home at workday's end to the fragrance of roasting peanuts.

The building has an early Romantic Gothic styling and shares a haunting similarity with the Historic Ohio State Reformatory since they were both built in the same year by the same architect.

The Haunted Bissman Building was the site in the movie, Shawshank Redemption, of the Brewer Hotel where Brooks, actor James Whitmore, went to stay and hung himself soon after being paroled from The Shawshank Prison. The building was also utilized in the film as the front office of the building for the set of the Portland Daily Bugle.

"It's been in the family for six generations," owner Ben Bissman said. "It started out as a grocery distributor and we made roasted coffee beans."

Today it is used in part to house Pirate Printing, and also to store Bissman's personal car collection.

"There are different legends," Bissman said. "My grandfather used to tell me to stay away from the elevator."

According to old stories, Bissman said an employee once got his head cut off in the elevator on his last day of work.

It is also rumored that an 8-year-old girl named Ruthie haunts the upstairs.

Bissman said he'll never forget his first paranormal experience inside the building.

"I was a real skeptic at first," he said. "But I always had a feeling of never being alone in there. Two Augusts ago, we were on the third floor with an investigator and she was trying to communicate with my grandfather, saying things like, 'If you're there, give us a sign.' "

In addition to a lug nut rolling across the floor above, Bissman said he was hit on the right side of his neck with a softball-sized blast of cold air, which rolled across his chest and then hit his wife.

"I about passed out," he said. "It was just so freaky and scary. After that, I really started listening more to what people were saying about the building."

In 2007 the building was leased to a major film production company, the Midnight Syndicate, for the production of The Dead Matter, a vampire movie that was released in October of 2008.

"When your skin crawls and your goosebumps give you the chills...You know your on a shoot that has a story to tell!,and this building never stopped talking once it started!" - assistant producer of 'Shawshank Redemption'

Sources:
www.hauntedbissmanbuilding.com
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com
www.mansfieldtourism.com
www.mrps.org



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