Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- The Valensole, France UFO Encounter
- Fortean / Alternative News: 2011 UFO Predictions, Jumping Sharks and Future Cuisine
- Relatives of John Wilkes Booth Urge New Inquiry
| The Valensole, France UFO Encounter Posted: 28 Dec 2010 11:48 AM PST  Preamble: On July 1, 1965 in Valensole, Basses Alpes, France, farmer Maurice Masse was inspecting his field of lavender when he heard a whistling sound, then noticed an egg-shaped object with six thin legs and a central pedestal standing nearby. A classic close encounter case from France. At the same time, he also saw two "small boys," humanoid-looking beings less than four feet tall, dressed in grayish-green one-piece coveralls.  One of the beings pointed a pencil-like object at Masse, whereupon he found that he could no longer move. Then the being placed the object into a small case or holster on its left side, and then the two beings moved with great agility toward the UFO, which they entered through a sliding door. Then with a whistling noise the UFO lifted off the ground and within seconds had disappeared in a westerly direction. After about 20 minutes, Masse had regained full control of his body again. Marks from the apparent craft remained visible on the ground. Three days after the incident, Masse suffered a great loss of energy. He slept 12 to 14 hours on the first day, and then the next day he slept nearly 24 hours. It was several weeks before he was able to resume his normal sleep routine. A number of investigators who had interviewed Masse (including the distinguished Professor Jacques Vallee) concluded that he wasn't telling the whole story. Though he hinted that there had been some sort of communication between himself and the beings, he never revealed the particulars to investigators. He told Vallee that one was best off not sharing such encounters with anyone, even family. "One always says too much," he added. **********  Malta UFO Research Account On 1 July 1965, in the early hours of the morning, French farmer Maurice Masse at Valensole was attracted to the sight of a landed object in his lavender field by a strange high-pitched sound. The object was shaped like an egg with a cupola on top and was approximately fifteen feet wide. It was standing on six legs in a manner reminiscent of a spider, according to the witness. The door of the object was open and within it Masse could see two seats. Near the object were what Masse took to be two young boys apparently taking lavender plants; they turned out to be entities from the object about four feet tall and clad in green "ski suits". When they noticed Masse approaching, one of them levelled a rod towards him which immobilised him. On further examination the entities appeared to have large bald heads, big slanting eyes, pronounced chins and small lipless mouths; in fact, very much the description given by many American witnesses. They made guttural sounds. This style of entity is often recounted by Americans under hypnosis in most fearful terms but Masse's conscious recall remembers them as good-natured and bringing a sense of peace to him. It is interesting that many American cases involving these entities combine fear with a great longing to be with the creatures, whether or not that emotion is "engineered". While Masse was still immobilised, the entities returned to their craft and took off, with the landing legs retracting. It was some considerable time before Masse was able to move. Four days after the event occurred he fell into a deep sleep and members of his family fought to wake him up, believing that otherwise he would have slept for a very extended period. Usually Masse slept only five or six hours a night but for months after the event he needed at least twelve hours sleep. The most remarkable of the ground traces was that no lavender plants would grow at the landing site for ten years! **********  Evidence Compiled by UFO Research Australia The following account is drawn from a series of articles which originally appeared in the English Flying Saucer review (1965a b,c.) Valensole is a small village in the south-east of France, near to Nice. A significant event occurred there on July 1, 1965. In the month of June, Maurice Masse, a World War Two resistance fighter, and a trustworthy farmer according to local police; together with his father had noticed someone had been picking their lavender plants. At 5.45 a.m. Masse was standing by a tractor smoking a cigarette. The tractor was parked by a mound of pebbles and rakings, close to a small vineyard, in the lavender field. A whistling sound came to his attention which he thought was a helicopter. However, upon looking around the mound he saw an unusual object. It was shaped like a rugby football and the size of a car. It stood on a number of legs, stated to have been 6 in number by Bowen (1974:246) and 4 by Vallee (1990:108). There was a central pivot stuck into the ground beneath it. Masse noted what he first took to be two children, about aged eight years, close by the object apparently inspecting a lavender plant. Masse thought at first, from an initial distance of 60m, that these were the people who had been taking his plants. He decided to approach quietly through the vineyard. However, when he got closer he realised the figures were not children but unusual beings. He left the vineyard and walked though the low height lavender field. At about 5m distance from the object, one of the beings turned and pointed a pencil-like object towards him and Masse was frozen, unable to move. Vallee (1988:27) reports that masse could still breath and feel his heart beat present. The beings were described as follows. They were some 120cm tall and wore close fitting, grey-green clothes, but no head covering. Their heads were pumpkin-like, with high fleshy cheeks. The eyes were large and Vallee (1988:26) adds that Masse told him that the eyes con- veyed human expressions. These eyes slanted away around the sides of the face. The mouth was merely a slit or hole, without noticeable lips. Their chins were very pointed. Vallee (1988:26) adds their hands were small and nor- mal. Grumbling sounds came from their middles. Masse has consistently refused to disclose what - if anything - happened between him and the beings. After a while the beings re-entered their object. Vallee (1988:27) notes the door closed "like the front part of a wooden file cabinet. " The beings were apparently visible looking at him from inside the object, while the legs whirled and retracted. The central pivot made a thumping noise. Then the object lifted offand floated silently away. At 20m distance from the landing spot the object simply vanished fromview. Masse, according to Vallee (1988 :27), says: "One moment the thing was there and the next moment it was not there anymore." It took some 20 minutes forthe paralysis to wear off. After that Masse went back to Valensole. The proprietor of the cafe des Sports questioned him after being alarmed by Masse's appearance. Masse told him part of what had happened, and the police were informed. The Digne Gendarmerie, lead by a Captain Valet, were called in to investigate. The traces: At the time traces were found at the spot where the object had rested. These consisted of a flat imprint just over 1m in diameter. In the centre, where the central support had been, was a cylindrical hole some 30cm deep and some 15cm diameter. From the hole radiated four flat grooves, making an x shape. Each of the grooves was 2m long and 25cm deep. The soil here was of a near-liquid consistency despite the fact that it had not rained for some time. That evening Masse and his 18 year old daughter went back to the site . The soil surrounding the central trace was as hard as cement compared to the surrounding soil which crumbled when held. After a period of time, a 3 m diameter circular area in the middle of rows of lavender plants died, with only a few weeds continuing to grow. Around the perimeter a num- ber of lavender Plants were stunted and withered looking. The calcium content of the soil, taken from the site, was much higher then in soil taken from other areas of the field (Phenomenes Spatiaux 1966:26) Masse reploughed the landing site and replanted, but these plants also died. After effects: Vallee (1988:27) reports that for several weeks after the event, Masse was overcome with drowsiness and found it difficult to stay awake for more then four hours at a time. Aime Michel visited Masse on Aug 8,1965, and at the end of the interview showed Masse a drawing of the Socorro object which Masse took to be his object. Michel reported that Masse appeared anxious, nervous and distressed at interview. Masse said of the beings: "They were good" and they did not wish to do us any harm." **********  The Physical Evidence - The Valensole Case Summary: This case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as 'The Valensole Case'. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event. Our final case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as 'The Valensole Case'. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event. During early morning of 1 July 1965, Maurice Masse, a French lavender farmer, was working in his field in the village of Valensole, near the lower Alps, when he suddenly noticed an object that had landed in his lavender field. At first glance from a distance, he thought that it was a helicopter or some sort of experimental prototype, but as he approached closer to the object, he saw that it was oval shaped and rested on six curved legs and some type of central pivot. Through an opening in the craft he thought that he could see two back-to-back seats. Suddenly he saw two beings, less than four feet [1.2 metres] tall, wearing grey-blue-green suits but without any type of breathing devices. One of them pointed a small tube at the farmer, which immediately paralyzed him. Although lying on the ground, he remained fully conscious, noting that as they looked at him, with what he later described as 'concerned expressions', they made strange gurgling sounds from deep within their throats as they communicated with one another. Masse saw that the two beings had large hairless heads, smooth white skin, large eyes that slanted away, pointed chins and small mouths without lips. After their brief dialogue, they entered the craft through a sliding panel and the object took off, leaving a deep crater and an area of moisture that later became as hard as concrete. After about twenty minutes Masse was able to move his arms and legs, but four days after the incident he collapsed and his sleep pattern was dramatically altered for several months. Rather than his usual five or six hour sleep break, he was sleeping for periods of twelve hours or more and his wife and father noted distinct behavioural changes. Masse was a former Resistance fighter, an astute farmer and regarded as 'absolutely trustworthy' by police investigators. Lieutenant-Colonel Valnet, Maitre Chautard, leading the gendarmerie and the Mayor of Valensole, in fact everyone who investigated the case, concluded that Maurice Masse was telling the truth. Investigators found that the ground where the craft had landed was soaked with moisture, although no rain had fallen. Geometrically spaced indentations covered the area and the plants were affected by the proximity of the phenomenon, appearing to decay in direct proportion to their distance from the central column of the craft. The calcium content of the soil at the landing site was found to be much higher than in samples taken from other areas in the field. Famous UFO writer and researcher Dr Jacques Vallee, returning to the scene of the incident in 1979 and meeting with Maurice Masse and two of his close friends, makes a number of interesting observations. He notes that Masse was reluctant to give all the details of his experience to investigators as well as to his own family at the time, including the fact that he believed that some type of silent communication took place between himself and the beings. From the beginning he wanted to minimise the impact of the experience, not wanting publicity, amongst other reasons. Like many experiencers of this phenomenon, he had changed in many ways as a result of the experience, including the belief that some form of contact, once established, continued in subtle forms. Vallee concludes, "Throughout these discussions with Mr Masse I had the feeling that I was in the presence of a very intelligent man, capable of deep emotions and rational thought. He is also quite humble; he has declined to appear on a television documentary with a nationally known journalist.... I had brought with me a photograph of similar traces left after another case. Mr Masse looked at me with a mixture of amazement and relief that someone else was aware of these particular marks. He told us that he sometimes found them in his field; that's how he knows that 'they' have come back. He always erases the traces immediately." - Michael Jordan Sources: www.ufoevidence.org 'The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning', - Jerome Clark 'Journal of Alternative Realities', Volume 10, Issue 1, 2002 - Michael Jordan members.ozemail.com.au science.howstuffworks.com en.wikipedia.org propertyprovence.info www.ufologie.net www.oocities.com www.ufofu.org www.iqpedia.com       |
| Fortean / Alternative News: 2011 UFO Predictions, Jumping Sharks and Future Cuisine Posted: 28 Dec 2010 11:05 AM PST  Before His Death, Fulham Predicted UFOs Over London and Moscow in January 2011 UFO sightings 2011 prediction - Stanley A. Fulham predictor of New York UFO sighting on Oct 13th, 2010, predicted another set of mass UFO sightings over Moscow-Russia and London-UK in January 2011 before he died this month. Stanley A. Fulham, a retired Captain from the Royal Canadian Air Force, died on December 19, 2010 after a battle with cancer. Fulham came to the attention of the UFO/exopolitics community with his recently published book, Challenges of Change [Link], where he made a number of predictions concerning the appearance of UFOs and extraterrestrial life. His prediction of UFOs over New York City on October 13 attracted international media attention when unidentified objects did show up and were witnessed by thousands. The closure of New York's three major airports on the same day has been claimed to be linked to the UFO sighting. On Oct. 14, 2010 - a day after the New York City UFO sightings - Dr. Mazian Othman, director of the U.N. Outer Space Office, delivered a wide-ranging 28 minute video press conference at the United Nations in New York during which she stated that 'ET life is a possibility' and remarked that the United Nations must ready itself for ET contact. Examiner.com readers can view Dr. Othman's press conference here. UFO will appear over Moscow and London in January 2011 His next set of predictions concerned UFOs appearing over Moscow in early January 2011, being followed one week later with UFOs showing up over London. According to Mr. Fulham, the Council of 8 has had a caretaker role for our planet for about the last million years, and has effectively maintained Earth under protective quarantine following an attempted invasion and takeover of Earth. Mr. Fulham has authored a book, Challenges of Change [Link], containing the results of his 10 years investigation of the role of the Council of 8 and other entities in our galaxy and Universes. Mr. Fulham writes that he obtained this information about the Council of 8 through an inter-dimensional intelligent civilization that monitors events in our galaxy and Universes. **********  Jump the Shark...and Jumping Sharks nzherald - When keen photographer Mandy Hague went to White Island to count seals, she had no idea she would capture on camera the moment a mako shark leapt from the water near her boat. Ms Hague was about 7km off the coast of Whakatane last week, on her way back from the island, when the boat skipper saw the shark. "On the way out there I'd seen a shark jump two or three times and he said it was quite common at this time of year." On the trip back they saw the shark jump again, and Ms Hague took her chance. "I saw where it landed in the water, the splash, and hoped it would come back up again and sure enough it did." She lifted her camera and focused on the spot where she'd last seen it and started clicking. Ms Hague said the shark was about 2m long and leaped at least 2.4m in the air. The first time it jumped it was only about 8m from their boat, but the second time it was further away. Ms Hague usually photographed birds but said she'd become a shark fan recently. As a child she used to go game-fishing with her father, who holds the New Zealand record for black marlin - 444kg. Mako sharks are a common species in New Zealand waters but usually stay offshore in deep waters. They are known to be aggressive and can be a danger to boaties. Department of Conservation marine biologist Clinton Duffy told the Herald in October they stole fish off lines and were known to chase fish right up to boats. Large mako can be longer than 3.5m and weigh up to 450kg. "They are also known for their jumping ability. "They are a popular game fish and they have incredible stamina. They can jump several times their own body length over and over and over. They could jump into a boat," Mr Duffy said. ********** Santeria...or Something Else? parkrecord - The decapitated animals discovered in Park City in mid-December appear to have been killed in sacrificial ceremonies conducted by people practicing a faith that originated in Africa, an expert said in an interview, affirming a suspicion by local investigators that the animals were killed as part of some sort of ceremony. Don Rimer, who spent 30 years as a law enforcement officer and now provides training in the fields of ritual crimes and the occult, said the decapitated animals are telltale evidence of people who practice a faith known as Santeria. Followers brought the faith with them to the New World when they were taken from Africa during the slave trade, first establishing themselves in the Caribbean region, he said. Santeria is a blend of ancient African religion and Catholicism, Rimer said. A Utah state agency alerted Rimer to the Park City cases, he said. Rimer, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., said the circumstances of the Park City discoveries resemble those of Santeria practices elsewhere. Rimer said people who adhere to the faith sacrifice animals and then place the carcasses close to transportation corridors like pathways, railroad tracks and streams in honor of the means slaves used to move about. In the Park City cases, the dead animals were found just off Bonanza Drive and just off Kearns Boulevard. They are two of the busiest roads in Park City, and Bonanza Drive is situated close to the Rail Trail, a trail designed for nonmotorized forms of transportation. The sacrifices are conducted to honor Santerian gods, known as orishas. There are 236 of them, Rimer said. He said adherents sacrifice the animals somewhere else and then bring them to the location of transportation corridor in tribute to the orisha. The sacrificial ceremonies are conducted on numerous different occasions, he said. Rimer said the Santeria followers typically also sacrifice and then cook other animals as part of a feast at the same time the sacrifices are made in honor of the orishas. "They're not leaving any violent message for anybody," Rimer said, adding, "There's no threat to anybody in the community." The practice is protected by the Constitution's religious freedom clause, he said. The Santeria adherents sometimes travel miles to leave the sacrificed animals in a location that is meaningful as a transportation corridor, he said. The adherents do not always live in the communities where the sacrifices are left, Rimer said. There were two discoveries in Park City within four days of each other in mid-December. In the first case, seven dead chickens and a dead goat were found just off Bonanza Drice close to the Munchkin Road intersection. Most of the animals had been decapitated. In the second case, a paper bag with three dead chickens inside was found at the Park City Cemetery on Kearns Boulevard, with one of the animals having been beheaded. Park City Police Department investigators found pieces of cloth tied to one leg of one of the chicken bodies discovered at the cemetery. The cloth pieces were of different colors. Rimer said the pieces of cloth signified the Santeria followers were honoring more than one orisha with the sacrifice. The practice of Santeria in the United States had largely been confined to the Southeast throughout its history, Rimer said. Followers who were dislocated after Hurricane Katrina struck the region in 2005 brought the faith with them, he said. Since then, Santeria adherents have been reported to be practicing the faith across the United States, he said. In the West, the reports have been filed in states either bordering Utah or close to the state. They have included Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Idaho, according to Rimer. "It's not about getting attention. They're not trying to frighten anybody," he said. The discoveries in Park City, though, were a shock, with a longtime member of the Police Department saying the cases were the first of their kind in Park City since at least the mid-1980s. The carcasses were turned over to Summit County Animal Control for investigation. ********** 'The Jetsons' Style Cuisine Coming dailymail - First there were meals we had to make all by ourselves. Then 'ready made' meals came along, making life that much easier. But what if you could just print your dinner using food 'ink'? Scientists at Cornell University in New York are developing a commercially viable 3D food printer which uses raw ingredients inside syringes. Part of their Fab@home project, an open-source collaboration, you just put the raw food 'inks' into the machine, load the recipe (or 'FabApp') - and press the button. The design takes the form of a set of syringes that deposit food inks line by line, and layer by layer, according to an electronic blueprint. The blueprint states exactly what materials go where and are drawn up using traditional engineering computer-aided design (CAD) software. And the implications of the technology could be far-reaching. People wishing to emulate the likes of Gordon Ramsay could just download his recipe files - and doctors could prepare special dishes to suit their patients' dietary needs. Project leader Dr Jeffrey Ian Lipton said: 'FabApps would allow you to tweak your food's taste, texture and other properties.' 'Maybe you really love biscuits, but want them extra flaky. You would change the slider and the recipe and the instructions would adjust accordingly.' The 'inks are currently limited to 'anything that can be extruded from a syringe' - such as liquid cheese, chocolate and cake batter. But the team is working on ways to turn other ingredients into syringe-friendly materials. So far, they have had some success creating cookies, cake and 'designer domes' made of turkey meat. For master chefs, the breakthrough could mean a whole new world of customisable menus and food. Homaro Cantu, chef at Chicago's Moto, has 'printed sushi using an ink jet printer'. 'Imagine being able to essentially "grow", "cook" or prepare foods without the negative industrial impact - everything from fertilisers to saute pans and even packaging,' he said. 'The production chain requirements for food would nearly be eliminated.' Mr Cantu believes this will have the added benefit of improving food production methods. 'You can imagine a 3D printer making homemade apple pie without the need for farming the apples, fertilising, transporting, refrigerating, packaging, fabricating, cooking, serving and the need for all of the materials in these processes like cars, trucks, pans, coolers, etc,' he said. Long term, the team believes that people will take to the technology by creating their own 3D printable food recipe social networks with everyone improving on each other's creations. '3D printing will do for food what e-mail and instant messaging did for communication,' said Mr Cantu.     |
| Relatives of John Wilkes Booth Urge New Inquiry Posted: 28 Dec 2010 10:29 AM PST   John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot the 16th President of the U.S. in the back of the head while he watched a performance of Our American Cousin at a theater in Washington on April 14 in 1865. At the time of the assassination the American Civil War was drawing to a close and days earlier the Confederate general Robert E Lee had officially surrendered. After the murder, Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, fled on horseback and went into hiding with fellow conspirator David Herold. The fugitives were tracked down to a barn in northern Virginia by Union soldiers 12 days later. Booth was shot dead after refusing to surrender but Herold gave himself up. He was sentenced to death on July 6 and was hanged the very next day. However, conspiracy theorists have claimed that the man shot in the barn was in fact Confederate soldier James William Boyd who looked like Booth. And subsequent generations of the Booth family have told the tale of how the assassin escaped the barn and went on to live for nearly four decades in Texas and Oklahoma under assumed names. Now Booth's descendants want to exhume the body of his brother Edwin, one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, to compare his DNA with that of the body lying in an unmarked grave in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, long believed to be Booth. It is the second attempt by the remaining family of Booth to exhume his body. A request in 1995 was turned down by a judge who feared the graves of three young children beneath would be disturbed. Joanne Hulme, 60, a Booth descendant and family historian, told the Philadelphia Inquirer: 'I'm absolutely in favor of exhuming Edwin. Let's have the truth and put this thing to rest. 'The first story my mother ever told me was the John Wilkes Booth was not killed in the barn.' Booth,, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln on the night of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, days after hearing the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered. He had already planned to kidnap the President after his landslide re-election the year before along with fellow conspirators David Herold, George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell. He planned to derail the Union government by also targeting the Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson, who were to be assassinated by Atzerodt and Powell. Herold would help them escape to Virginia. On the night, however, it was only Booth who pulled the trigger, killing the President at around 10pm. He then jumped from the Presidential box onto the stage, brandishing a knife and shouted: 'I have done it, the South is avenged!' Powell only stabbed Seward, who survived, and Atzerodt lost his nerve and went drinking instead. Booth and Herold are believed to have fled after the killing and hid in woodlands and outhouses for 12 days until they were surrounded in Garrett farm. But contrary to the common belief that he was shot dead, many believe he escaped the barn and lived under the names John St Helen and David E George in Texas and Oklahoma. George committed suicide in 1903 and is said to have confessed to his true identity while on his deathbed. **********  It was a chance visit to Ford's Theater in Washington on April 14, 1865, that ultimately led to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, decided to collect his mail from the theater at around noon and overheard that Lincoln would be attending a performance of Our American Cousin that evening. Booth, whose brother Edwin was one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, knew the layout of the theater, having performed there several times. He also knew the play very well and waited for a moment when there would be laughter to muffle the sound of a gunshot. At the time of the killing he raced forward and shot the president in the back of the head. Lincoln slumped over in his rocking chair, unconscious. His wife Mary reached out and caught him, then screamed. Major Henry Rathbone, who was a guest of the president, tried to prevent Booth from escaping, but the assassin stabbed him in the arm before vaulting over the rail and down to the stage. Booth landed awkwardly, fracturing his left foot. He is said to have shouted 'I have done it, the South is avenged!'. He then managed to run to the back door where a horse was waiting. Within half an hour he was riding into Maryland. **********  Booth Descendants Agree to Brother's Body ID Tests In life, Edwin and John Wilkes Booth were brothers, ambitious actors, and bitter rivals. They ruthlessly competed for the limelight on stages in Philadelphia and across the nation. Edwin became one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors, while John Wilkes achieved infamy in another role - as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, at Ford's Theater in Washington. Now, for the first time, Booth descendants have agreed to exhume Edwin's body, adding drama to the family's story and delighting historians who have speculated that John Wilkes escaped capture 145 years ago. By using DNA comparisons, relatives from the Philadelphia area, New Jersey, and Rhode Island hope to learn in the coming months whether the lore of John Wilkes Booth's flight is true. Is Lincoln's assassin in an unmarked grave at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, as history records? Or did he elude justice, as descendants have been told for generations, to live 38 more years? "I'm absolutely in favor of exhuming Edwin," said Joanne Hulme, 60, a resident of the Kensington section of the city who is the historian in the Booth family. "Let's have the truth and put this thing to rest." "It's better to know," said her sister Suzanne Flaherty, 64, of Bordentown. The sisters, with a third sibling, Virginia Kline of Warminster, have wondered about Booth stories that don't match accepted history, as did their late mother. "John Wilkes Booth is probably loving this," added Lois Trebisacci, 60, of Westerly, R.I., whose grandfather was Edwin Booth's grandson. "Just being an actor, I'm sure he loves the controversy." At 9 p.m. April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, son of theatrical parents, walked into Taltavull's Star Saloon next to Ford's Theatre and asked for a bottle of whiskey and some water. "You'll never be the actor your father was," a customer reportedly told him. "When I leave the stage, I will be the most famous man in America," Booth fired back, according to accounts. An hour and a half later, the dark-haired actor - a matinee idol of his time - shot Lincoln in the State Box at Ford's and dropped about 11 feet to the stage, breaking his left leg. History says Booth was cornered 12 days later by detectives and Union soldiers in a tobacco barn at the Garrett farm in Port Royal, Va. Shortly after 2 a.m. on a cool and cloudy Wednesday, he was mortally wounded in the neck. Or was he? Efforts by descendants to open the Baltimore grave believed to be John Wilkes Booth's were thwarted in 1995 by a judge who concluded its location could not be conclusively determined. The remains were supposed to be in the family plot, but reports placed it at an undisclosed location. The family had hoped to use the skull and photographic techniques, along with other identifying scars, to make an identification. Their best option now is to compare DNA from Edwin Booth, buried in Cambridge, Mass., with a specimen from the man shot at the barn, who experts agree is buried in Baltimore. Three cervical vertebrae from that body are in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington. Philadelphia's Mutter Museum has cervical tissue from the man, but the DNA was degraded by formaldehyde and alcohol. The Booth escape "is a story that never seems to die," said Jan Herman, chief historian for the Navy Medical Department and special assistant to the Navy surgeon general in Washington. "I have always been disturbed by the opposition from recognized Civil War historians" to uncover the truth, he said. "We have the means, and it's certainly worth solving an age-old mystery. Why wouldn't you want to do that?" The questions over Booth's possible escape also have attracted the scrutiny of the History channel program Brad Meltzer's Decoded, which will air a one-hour segment at 10 p.m. Thursday that explores the evidence. "There are certain incidents in history that raise enough questions that they're worth looking at," said David McKillop, senior vice president of development and programming for History. Booth's possible escape "is a mystery." Probably no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than Nate Orlowek, a Maryland educator and historian who since age 15 has doggedly pursued Booth through the yellowing pages of books and period documents. "If the man who killed our greatest president got away and a giant hoax was perpetrated on the American people, then we should know about it," he said. Orlowek, 53, has trailed Booth through the reports of witnesses who claimed another man was shot at the farm: James William Boyd or John William Boyd, who bore a striking resemblance to the assassin and by some accounts was sought for the murder of a Union captain. He's followed the trail of carnivals that exhibited the mummified body of a man the barkers claimed was John Wilkes Booth. And he's sought clues from descendants and interviewed forensic pathologists, authors, and lawyers. His conclusion? Booth escaped 145 years ago to live in Granbury, Texas, as John St. Helen, then changed his name to David E. George and moved to what is now Enid, Okla. He worked there as an itinerant painter before poisoning himself. George's mummified remains were allegedly last seen at a carnival in New Hope in 1976. "Society exists based on the knowledge of itself and the truth of its history," Orlowek said. "We believe in getting the truth no matter what it is. . . . "If we are proven right," he said, "history will be set on its ear. This will teach us that just because something was blindly accepted in the past, that it is not necessarily true." The Booth conundrum comes down to the DNA, say family members. Once a sample is retrieved from Edwin Booth's body, the next obstacle would be obtaining a viable sample from a bone specimen believed to be John Wilkes Booth's, preserved in Lucite, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. A panel judges such requests, based on their merits and social, legal, and ethical implications, officials said. "We do not approve destructive testing on nonrenewable historical artifacts," said Timothy Clarke Jr., a spokesman for the museum. Possible harm to the artifact must be weighed against the benefits of the testing, said Sharon A. Smith, president of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia. "It's a question of preserving the physical evidence of history and not putting it at risk," said Smith, who believes the accepted version of what happened at the Garrett farm. "If the preponderance of evidence is that this is a myth, then should we be investing scarce historic resources?" Historians such as Herman, though, say the test "wouldn't destroy the sample." A tiny drill could extract what's needed. "If it compares favorably, that's the end of the controversy," Herman said. "That was Booth in the barn, end of case. "If it doesn't match, you change American history," he said. "Booth would have a fine time making headlines in the newspapers again. Someone else was shot" at the Garrett farm in that case, he said. Booth descendants "always refer to that man as the 'body in the barn,' never John Wilkes Booth," Hulme added. "If historians are so convinced they're right, let them prove it." Sources: news.blogs.cnn.com www.dailymail.co.uk www.philly.com enidnews.com www.upi.com www.telegraph.co.uk www.opposingviews.com www.huliq.com www.sacbee.com Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  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