"The photograph is genuine," said the artist, "and it is a mighty fine piece of photographic work at that it would be impossible to "fix" a negative so as to have it so perfect in the picture. And besides, the color could be obtained in no other way then from an object taken in the air."

The etcher while waiting for the artist to finish his work satisfied himself more thoroughly of the genuineness of the photographs by applying some tests with acid. He applied acids to one of them, which was an album a print with the result of showing that the print had not been changed after leaving the negative.

"It is certainly a photograph of an object taken in the air," said the etcher, "it would have been possible to cut the film in the negative before the print was made, but then there would be plainly visible a white line wherever it had been cut, and there is no sign of any such here.

With the other print, which is a bramble, it would be impossible to effect a change on the gray back ground that could not readily be detected. For their kind the photographs are remarkably fine, and there is no doubt they are genuine in every particular."

McCann is a newsdealer at Rogers Park, and his place of business is near the Northwestern Railway tracks. It is his custom to arise early each morning, particularly on Sunday, to deliver the Chicago newspapers.

In his store was a small camera, the property of his son. When McCann sighted the strange object in the sky he immediately suspected it was the airship which had so many people talking. He rushed into his store, seized the camera and got a good picture of it.

G.A. Overocker, who saw the proceeding, suggested a second negative, and the result was a much better negative.

William Hoodless and E.L. Osborne, operator for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway at Rogers Park, saw McCann and Overocker at the hour named, and not only witnessed the photographing, but saw the ship itself.

It is, according to the statement of all these witnesses, an invention without wings or sails. All agree that the outlines of a man could be seen.

The discovery was the talk of the suburb and the usual serenity of that vicinity was transformed into intense excitement. McCann's newsstand was thronged. People came from miles around. They flocked from Evanston, Edgewater, Ravenswood and even from Chicago.

All kinds of theories were advanced. Some thought it was a collapsed balloon floating in the air. Others scouted this idea, because four citizens of undoubted veracity insisted that it was a creation such as they had never seen before.

According to their story, the construction of the alleged air ship was different from the outlines in popular fancy. The upper portion was cigar shaped, with a propeller in the rear. The lower portion was composed of white metal, shaped like the keel of a ship.

The witnesses were kept busy telling the multitude of what they saw. All day long the people asked questions and wondered. Then they went home talking about it.

Some of them said it was a hoax. But the pictures were in evidence, and the sensation grew. So McCann and Overocker found themselves the two biggest men in Rogers Park for a day at least.

Walter McCann told all about it at his store on Greenleaf Avenue. "I had read for several days about the air ship," said he, "I laughed over it and was skeptical on the subject. This morning at 5:30 when I arose to attend to my usual work of receiving the newspapers from Chicago and making my deliveries for the day, I saw a strange looking object in the sky coming from the south."

"It looked like a big cigar. It came nearer, and I saw at a glance that it was not a balloon. Quick as a flash I realized it was the much talked of airship."

"My boy won a camera not long ago in a contest for getting subscribers to a paper. It was in the store, fifty feet from where I stood gazing at the object. I ran and got it as the thing approached. The sky was clear. The conditions were favorable for a photograph. A plate was ready. I ran to Greenleaf Avenue and Market Street and got a good shot at it. With G.A. Overocker, whose attention was attracted to it, I ran down the Northwestern tracks and we got a second picture a few minutes later."

"E.L. Osborne and William Hoodless also saw the air ship. I am no longer a skeptic. I distinctly saw the outlines of a man in the rear of the machine. He pulled a revolving rudder or some sort of contrivance which steered the course of the air ship. This strange invention came within 600 feet of the earth as I could estimate it."

"The lower portion of the air ship was thin, and made of some light white metal like aluminum. The upper portion was dark, and long like a big cigar, pointed in front and with some kind of arrangement in the rear to which cables were attached. The pilot pulled these and steered the course from south to northeast."

"We watched the flight of the air ship until it went east and disappeared from view. I returned to the store with the plates, attended to my morning papers, and, with Overocker, finished proofs as soon as possible."

"I refused an offer from a Chicago paper for the negatives. I think time will prove that this is no fake. I've lived here too long to try and fool people. I have no desire for notoriety."

"It's an air ship, and if you don't believe it, look at the picture and be convinced. I can swear that I saw the air ship. So can three other men here whose word stands well in this community."

"That's right," came a popular chorus of suburbanites near the counter, "McCann is all right."

"I saw him take the first picture," said G.A. Overocker, "and assisted him with the second. My attention was attracted to his excited conduct in Greenleaf Avenue at such an early hour, looking at the sky. I looked and got excited too. It's the airship, said he, Then I assisted in getting a second picture of it, and it's all there, too."

From various parts of the north side the strange aerial visitor was seen last night. Many people are willing to take oath that they saw it, and that it was not a star, comet, or anything of that nature.

It appeared more like an arc electric light, changing color at times from white to red and green. Slowly it drifted across the sky, growing dim, disappearing and returning at intervals.

Great crowds watched the mysterious light and marveled. At North Avenue and Larabee Street a group of reputable citizens watched it for nearly an hour from the roof of Herman Fry's drug store. Among them were Herman Fry, George Fry, Dr. August Venn and Dr. E.G. Earle. They are all willing to swear the light was something they had never seen before, and could not account for.

When they first noticed it the thing was over toward the northwest. It gradually drifted in their direction, and appeared to rise higher and higher, until it was lost to view.

Desk Sergeant Hayes of the Larabee Street police station and Operator Berger also saw it.

At Clybourn and North Avenues Electrician A. Lamb and a crowd of people watched the light change from blue to red and then white.

In the vicinity of the Sheffield Avenue police station the light was watched by many people, all of whom swear they have never before seen the like.

At times the air ship, or whatever it is, appeared to be as close as 2,000 feet above the earth, but usually it was much higher.

And even the street car conductors and gripmen found time to observe the mysterious light flitting through the skies. Conductor Yost was in charge of the last cable train on the North Clark Street limits line last night and he reached the barn shortly before 1 o'clock this morning. On his car besides the gripman were half a dozen citizens and a policeman.

The gripman was the first to observe the light, and for the remainder of the trip all eyes were centered on the mysterious thing. It was well off to the north seemingly just over Evanston, and skimming rapidly across the heavens.

Wow! That hardly sounds like Mr. Presley, submitted the photographs for analysis. Sounds quite clear to me they were confiscated as were the other 23 copies.

I can't help being intrigued by all this. Why confiscate pictures that were already published in a newspaper? Even more disturbing is why threaten nearly a dozen people "to say nothing to anyone" about photographs that are, admittedly, so poor in quality they're of no use? One suspects most people were using them for bookmarks and forgotten they even had them.

Our next case occurred in Arizona, on July 7, 1947. A scientist named William A. Rhodes was beginning to prepare dinner at around twilight when he became aware of a strange noise moving about outside. Thinking it maybe a flying saucer because they had been in the news lately he grabbed his Brownie box camera and rushed outside.

Once outside he spotted a dark heel-shaped object about 30 feet in diameter flying to the southwest at around 100 mph. He estimated the object to be between 1,000 and 2,000 feet off the ground. He quickly raised his camera to the sky but only had time to snap two pictures.

Two days later (and one day after the Roswell press release of a recovered disc) the Arizona Republic published Mr. Rhodes photographs on the frontpage of their newspaper. The pictures really are quite remarkable even for today's standards but the newspaper botched the job.

First they enlarged the prints then cropped the sky out entirely so as to only leave the UFO. And if that wasn't bad enough they then published the pictures upside down. Even Mr. Rhodes couldn't recognize them and voiced this loudly to the news staff.

Someone recognized the pictures.

The metal looking heel-shaped object had what looks like a hole in the center complete with bulbous glass enclosures on top and bottom. Possibly affording the operators a view of the ground as well as the sky.

In essence, this cresent-shaped airfoil looked exactly like what Kennth Arnold had reported two weeks eariler. And interestingly, the same shape of object that was reportedly recovered in the New Mexican desert the day Mr. Rhodes' claims to have taken his pictures!

One week later, Mr. Rhodes received a visit by two men claiming to be from the FBI and Army Intelligence. They asked numerous questions, but in the end asked for the photographs & negatives. Mr. Rhodes obliged them but only to lend the material. They assured him the "Air Corps" only wanted to do an "assessment" and he would get his property back in a few days. They than promptly drove off in a big black car.

One month later, he asked Washington for the photographs back, but Washington didn't know what he was talking about. After six months of pestering Washington, the FBI and the Army Air Force. He received a phone call from the now USAF asking him to come to Wright-Patterson AFB, in Dayton, Ohio, for an interview. They were still clueless about the whereabouts of his photographs.

Mr. Rhodes, neither having the time nor the money to make a long trip to Ohio, politely declined. Within hours two more strangers turned up on his doorstep. This time they claimed to be from the Air Technical Intelligence Center. They wanted to interview him about his sighting. But their questions seem more pointed towards his last interviewers - did they show identification? - what kind of car were they driving? They didn't seem that interested in his sighting or that of finding his photographs.

Mr. Rhodes tired of all the runaround, told the officers that that was going to be the last time he would talk about what he had seen and photographed. The photographs as in numerous other cases were never recovered.

NOTES:

I gleaned the document below through a July 47 FBI files search. It pertains to the Rhodes' case and interestingly enough even after 60 years the Government still refuses to release copies of Mr. Rhodes' pictures. I know this simply because the photographs were not attached to the document.

But more importantly the file affords the reader another rare peek into these alphabet soup agencies, Modus operandi.

At first I thought it highly unlikely Special Agent Aldrich snatched the photographs. Since he could've taken them at anytime from the newspaper or so it would seem?

However, I did find it quite curious that Mr. Aldrich's report, complete with photos, were filed on the very day Mr. Rhodes' photographs went missing!

Why did agent Aldrich submitt the photographs on the 14th, instead of the 8th, the day he admittedly gathered the material?

What...Special Agent Aldrich just drives around town for a week or so with classified material in the trunk of his car and when he feels like it, turns it in?

I think not!

Remember, at this moment in time the Defense Department was worried sick about secret foreign aircraft intruding into our airspace. Anyone who actually takes the time to plow through these documents will no doubt notice the demeanor of High Command. Flying saucers might have been a joke too many, but to the Brass they're a logistical nightmare.

There's something else that's bothering me about this case. It was something Rhodes said to investigators early on and I thought not to publish it. But now in light of this document I think it's pertainent that I do.

Mr. Rhodes stated that one of men who took his photographs had told him he worked for Army Intelligence and was stationed at Hamilton Camp, in California. When I first read that I thought perhaps Mr. Rhodes had been mistaken and really meant to say Hamilton Field. But when investigators asked him, pointedly, was he sure the man said "Hamilton Camp" Rhodes replied, yes he was sure.

This is what I call the "name game" and it's one of the oldest ploys used by the MIB. The MIB tells the person they're from say 'Atmosphereic Command' stationed at Wright-Patt in Florida, and may even produce ID to prove it. - Later, the victim comes off sounding like a third grader with an overactive imagination.

And at other times they'll just shift a word or two around like they did in the case of Mr. William A. Rhodes.

But, here's the real clincher, look at where the document originated: "Williams Field" in Arizona!

UNIDENTIFIABLE OBJECTS

WILLIAMS FIELD, CHANDLER, ARIZONA

14 July 1947

MEMORANDUM FOR THE OFFICER IN CHARGE:

On 8 July 1947, this Agent obtained pictures of unidentifiable objects, (Exhibits 1 and 2) from the managing editor of the Arizona Republic newspaper.

The pictures were taken by Mr. William Rhodes, 4333 N. 14th St., Phoenix, Arizona, at sunset, on 7 July 1947. The subject object flew at unconceivable speeds, making three circles in the vicinity of Mr Rhodes' home.

The pictures were taken as the object passed in front of Mr. Rhodes, and Exhibit 2 as the object turned towards Mr. Rhodes. The height of the object was estimated at 1000 feet.

AGENT'S NOTES: See Exhibit 1 and 2, photographs of unidentifiable objects, enlarged aproximately 20 times. No further reports have been received by this office of objects seen by military personnel.

Lynn C. Aldrich,

Special Agent, EIC - AAF, FDTRC.

*

According to Kenneth Arnold, on July 31, 1947, an Army Intelligence team, made up of Lieutenant Frank M. Brown and Captain William L. Davidson, had taken him into their confidence and told him they had the Rhodes photos and that the original negatives had been flown to Washington, DC.

They then told him if he ever made it out to California, they'd be more than happy to give him copies. However, later that night Lt. Brown and Capt. Davidson were killed in a mysterious plane crash while returning to Hamilton Field.

Arnold did eventually make his way out to Hamilton Field where he was given copies of the Rhodes photos. Which he later turned over to UFO researcher Dr. James McDonald.

In Arnold's book, he said of Mr. Rhodes:

"His camera didn't lie."

Ray Palmer publisher of "Flying Saucer magazine" claimed the US Army Air Force confiscated 64,000 newspapers off newsstands the day the Arizona Republic printed Mr. Rhodes' pictures.

Our next case is a highly controversial one and involves even more intrigue than that of Mr. Rhodes. Look for the "name game" "date game" and "omissions game." All favorites of the MIB.

On August 3, 1965, an Orange County highway inspector by the name of Rex Heflin was catapulted into the national limelight when he managed to capture some of the most astonishing flying saucer photographs ever taken.

While inspecting open fields adjacent to a Marine Corps Air Base near Santa Ana, California. Mr. Heflin suddenly encountered a strange hat-shaped flying object emitting a whitish glow intersecting the secluded access road he was traveling. Amazed by what he was seeing he slowed down and began watching it.

Since one of his duties as a highway inspector is to take pictures of accident scenes and road conditions, he had a Polaroid camera sitting on the seat next to him. Feeling that he didn't have time too both stop and get out, he stopped and took three pictues through the vehicle's windows.

As he prepared to take a fourth, he momentarily checked to see if he was blocking the road. When he returned taking the picture the object was gone. Getting out to investigate he noticed a black smoke ring hanging low in the sky. Believing the smoke ring was some sort of exhaust trail left behind by the weird flying machine. He decided to drive over and take a picture of it.

Rattled but not too badly shaken and thinking that he had just photographed a secret military aircraft of some kind. He shoved the pictures in the glove box and went about his duties.

Just moments before the object appeared he had been trying to reach his office by two-way radio, but all he could raise was static. Shortly after the incident he found the radio working again.

At the end of his shift he returned to headquarters and passed the photographs around to his friends and co-workers. Copies were made and within weeks the pictures started popping up in every barber shop in Santa Ana.

One co-worker took three of the photos and sent them off to Life Magazine, whom eventually turned them down. The main office at Life, called Mr. Heflin at work and told him the pictures were "too controversial at the time" and sent the photographs back.

By now just about everyone in town had seen the photographs except perhaps the military. One of the pictures eventually fell into the hands of Frank Hall, of the Santa Ana Register.

On September 18th, Mr. Hall contacted Heflin and showed an interest in doing a piece on his sighting and asked to borrow the photographs. Heflin agreed.

By the 20th, Hall had transmitted the article & photographs to United Press International, who then sent the story out over the wire to other newspapers who published them.

The same day Hall wrote the article, Heflin received a visit from a Marine sergeant named Dolyak, from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, who asked to borrow the original prints. Heflin agreed, saying "you can kept them if you like." Sgt. Dolyak left taking the originals with him.

On the 20th, same day the article appeared in the press, Heflin started receiving death threats over his unlisted home phone. Two of which were bomb threats.

However, two caller's perked Heflin's interest. One was from a man claiming to be from North American Air Defense Command, and the other identified himself as a representative of Boeing Aircraft. Both had warned him that he "comment no more on the 'item' for reasons of national security," and that they would soon contact him personally and hung up.

On the 22sd, Sgt. Dolyak reappeared at Heflin's home and returned the originals. Heflin still thinking the strange aircraft was military and feeling somewhat baffled by their returning the photographs, told Sgt. Dolyak, "you can just keep them." The Marine sergeant informed Heflin he was ordered to return them, and assured him the aircraft wasn't theirs and left.

Later that evening Heflin received a visit from a man wearing cilivian clothes who flashed an ID card and announced he was an "investigator from North American Defense Command." He recanted the previous warning "comment no more on the 'item' for reasons of national security" and asked for the original prints.

Heflin complied, and turned over three of the four originals. The fourth photo was that of a black smoke ring which was still in the glove compartment of the road department van he worked from.

Reminber that little detail, because it's important.

On the 23rd, a stranger turns up at Heflin's place of work this time wearing a USAF uniform. It was Capt. Charles F. Reichmuth, from the Investigating Office of Air Force Systems Command. He interviewed Mr. Heflin extensively, and wrote a lengthy report. (The same report I'm relying heavily to write this, but isn't my only source) Up to this point the Heflin incident had only been investigated by the Marine Corps intelligence G-2 office.

Capt. Reichmuth noted in his report:

"It appeared that he (Heflin) was a normal, upright and tolerant citizen. From all appearances he is not attempting to perpetrate a hoax."

He went on to state in the final report that G-2 had been very impressed with Mr. Heflin and the photographs. But noted the Air Force never had a chance to see the original prints because the originals were lost the night before they even got on scene.

It seems a great many things went missing during the good captain's investigation. Such as the Marine Corps' G-2 intelligence assessment!

The "date game" as well as the "omissions game" is very important as we shall see later on. It helps us too determine who may have the original prints. There were vital details in the original prints that were lost in the copying process, and Capt. Reichmuth was quick to point this out in his report.

Years later it was discovered that mysterious scratches had appeared on some of the prints, perhaps suggesting a string had been used to hold the object in the sky. But these mysterious scratches were not found on older prints which were made by the Marine Corps' G-2, and the Santa Ana Register.

Many of these newer prints were later found published in so-called pro UFO books. Look and you will find. "You'll know them by their fruits" so the old saying goes. This phenomenon has turned up in so many cases that in fact chapter five is devoted to it.

Back to the case at hand, for some reason Capt. Reichmuth was concerned for Heflin's safety. So special measures had to be put in place to protect him, the report states.

Measures that were quite frankly, puzzling? One was that Mr. Heflin keep the two-way radio in his work vehicle turned off? Another, the captain instructed the Orange County Road Department to give out Heflin's home phone number to anyone who asked, adding, tell the callers they can catch Mr. Heflin at home after 5:30 PM. I know that sounds crazy but it's true!

The reasoning behind these contradictory precautionary measures were made quite clear in the report:

"In certain instances, appointments would be made with the callers with Mr. Heflin at his residence during the evening hours."

On the 24th, Capt. Reichmuth's mousetrap nearly worked, but the caller neven kept the appointment.

On later reflection, it was clear Capt. Reichmuth had no concern for Mr. Heflin's safety. His only concern was catching the "mysterious NORAD & Boeing men" who were lurking in the shadows. The USAF wanted these individuals badly and even demanded an accounting from NORAD & Boeing.

NORAD denied ever sending out an investigator and insisted they hadn't the slightest interest in Mr. Heflin or his photographs. Boeing was just as clueless, as they too, were mystified by the mystery men. In the end, the USAF's search for these mystery men overshadowed the actual saucer investigation.

The USAF Chief of Aerial Phenomena Branch and head of Project BLUEBOOK, Major Hector Quintanilla, and his team of photography experts in the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, had too contend themselves with analyzing duplicates of the originals. Or so they claimed.

In conclusion, Maj. Quintanilla stated:

"You could throw something through the air and photograph it and call it a flying saucer. All the photograph shows is something flying through the air. But what?"

Implication: Hoax.

BLUEBOOK's final assessment:

_________________________________________________

"Conclusion: (hoax)

"Photo analyis indicates that the pictures of the object did not represent the visual condition of the sighting."

"Brief summary and analysis:

"Three poloroid photos taken in 15 seconds of object reportedly 30ft. in diameter. Object made turn and went over horizon in 15 seconds. Photos taken through car window (open). Photos 1 and 2 showed the object the same distance from the camera lens, and the third slightly farther away. All print's showed object within 50ft. of camera lens. Size assumed to be about one ft. in diameter and less then 3ft."

_________________________________________________

That was no surprise to anyone. But what was a surprise was the date the photo analysis team actually came to this conclusion: August 14th!

How is it the BLUEBOOK team had analyzed the photographs a month before Sgt. Dolyak had collected them from Mr. Heflin, on September 18th?

Remember the 'date game' I eluded too, earlier.

Let's review the timeline, shall we:

On August 3rd, Heflin takes photographs.

Around August 5th, Heflin's co-worker sends 3 of the 4 original Polaroids to Life magazine.

On August 14th, Three photo analysts' sign off on report, testifying that Maj. Quintanilla submitted the photographs before August 14th. And that's according to Project BLUEBOOK's own final Report.

Remember, at this moment in time, Project BLUEBOOK was still classified: ( "EYES ONLY" )

On September 14th, according to the BLUEBOOK file intelligence officers at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station first learn of photographs.

On September 18th, Frank Hall from the Register, contacts Heflin and writes article.

On September 18th, Sgt. Dolyak from El Toro, contacts Heflin and collects 3 of the 4 original prints.

On September 20th, Hall publishs article & picture in the newspaper.

On September 22sd, Sgt. Dolyak returns original prints. This Heflin could tell because small details were still visible, whereas the duplicates they were not.

On September 22sd, NORAD impostor turns up at Heflin's house and collects 3 of the 4 original prints.

On September 23rd, Capt. Charles F. Reichmuth interviews Heflin at his place of work for three and half hours.

On September 24th, Boeing imposter fails to show up at Heflin's house.

In short, what are we looking at?

According to BLUEBOOK's own files they had the photographs at around the same time copies were making their rounds in the barber shops of Santa Ana. If this is where the good major collected the photos than they would have no doubt collected only copies.

However, if on the otherhand, BLUEBOOK collected the original prints when Heflin's co-worker sent them off to Life magazine? They would have than had the originals to analyze. The dates match perfectly in this scenario. Perhaps this is why Life told Mr. Heflin the photos were "too controversial at the time." They of all people would know the importance the UFO phenomenon plays to national security. After all, Life magazine was part of the propaganda apparatus setup by the Robertson Panel, whose job it was to down play the seriousness of the UFO situation.

"People just want to get on with their lives. Let's let them." Quote from Life magazine executive.

It appears the Heflin saga is still unfolding as I write. Mr. Heflin, now in his 70's and living in northern California, reports that some time ago he received a mysterious package in the mail that contained the missing Polariods!

Earlier this year a researcher by the name of Ann Druffel bought the rights to the images and is now refusing the UFO community the right to bona fide their authenticity or even post the pictures over the internet.

WOW! What can I say, I'm dumbfounded. I can not tell you of the shock waves this sent through the UFO community and the internet in general.

Through my studies I've learned that it's not out of the realm of possiblities that Mr. Heflin has indeed recovered the originals. However, in this little cat & mouse game the "MIB" play. I'm a little reluctant to except this as fact, on face value alone.

It's long been my experience that there's always a fly in the ointment, somewhere. Perhaps these recently recovered "originals" will later prove 'bona fideably' that Mr. Heflin's sighting was a hoax - when it was not?

In my assessment, John Edgar Hoover got the originals. Why have I come to this conculsion, because the FBI was never mentioned in the BLUEBOOK report. And in my Book that means you did it and got away with it. (What I affectionately refer to as "the omissions game.")

It's no secret Director Hoover felt he was being left out of the loop by the military establishment, especially when it concerned UFOs. There are many FOIA documents as well as the FBI's own UFO files, which are open to the public, that clearly show a rivalry between the two.

Look for one day when J. Edgar Hoover's private UFO files are unearthed and declassified. And when they are, remember you read it here first.

By the late 1960's the US Air Force had had enough of the military/government "impersonators" as the USAF document below will attest to:

REPLY TO: OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF

ATTN OF: AFCCS

TO: ADC AFSC HQCOMD USAF SAC AFC ATC CAC TAC AFLC AU MAC  USAFSS

Information, not verifiable, has reached Hq USAF that persons claiming to represent the Air Force or other Defense establishments have contacted citizens who have sighted unidentified flying objects.

In one reported case an individual in civilian clothes, who represented himself as a member of NORAD, demanded and received photos belonging to a private citizen.

In another, a person in an Air Force uniform approached local police and other citizens who had sighted a UFO, assembled them in a school room and told them that they did not see what they thought they saw and that they should not talk to anyone about the sighting.

All military and civilian personnel and particularly Information Officers and UFO Investigating Officers who hear of such reports should immediately notify their local OSI offices.

HEWITT T. WHELESS, Lt. General, USAF

Assistant Vice Chief of Staff

Actual Document

==============================================

I think it's clear to even the skeptics the flaps of 1965 & 66, were by far the most extraordinary. The amount of objects that were reported at one time by multiple eye-witnesses such as law enforcement, military, pilots, educators and so forth, was unprecedented in the annuals of the UFO enigma.

On to our next case. It involves five police officers, a local UFO named Floyd, a picture, one dark 1959 Ford sedan without a licence plate and an ominous red emblem of a triangle with a bolt of lightning dashed through it, above which reads "Seven Steps to Hell".

I've see this incident printed in many books. So I'll try and do a more complete accounting of it than my predecessors. Besides, I think this case deserves a second look. At first glance it appears our mysterious MIB's fingerprints are all over it.

The incident actually occurred on the morning of April 17, 1966, but lets first start with this news item which appeared 6 months later and work our way back:

RAVENNA (AP)--In his world of loneliness and twisted nightmares, Dale Spaur wonders if the nightmare will ever end.

It began six months ago with "Seven Steps to Hell" and ended with a flying saucer named Floyd.

In the predawn hours of a gentle April morning, Portage County Sheriff's Deputy Spaur chased a flying saucer 86 miles.

NOW THE STRANGE craft is chasing him. And he is hiding from it, a bearded stranger peering past the limp curtains of a tiny motel room in Solon.

He no longer is a deputy sheriff.

His marriage is shattered.

He has lost 40 pounds.

He lives on one bowl of cereal and a sandwich each day.

He walks three miles to an $80-a-week painters job. His motel room costs $60 a week. The court has ordered him to pay his wife $20 a week for the support of his two children.

That leaves Dale Spaur exactly nothing.

THE FLYING saucer did it.

"If I could change all that I have done in my life," he said, "I would change just one thing. And that would be the night we chased that damn thing. That saucer."

He spit the word out, "Saucer." An obscenity. Others might understand.

Four other officers took part in the April 17 drama.

Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua saw the craft and photographed it. The pictures turned out badly, an odd fuzzy white thing suspended in blackness. Today, Chief Buchert laughs nervously when he speaks of that night.

"I'D RATHER NOT talk about it," he says. "It's something that should be forgotten... left alone. I saw something, but I don't know what it was."

Special Deputy W.L. Neff rode with Spaur during the chase.

He won't talk about it.

His wife Jackelyne explains, "I hope I never see him like he was after the chase. He was real white, almost in a state of shock. It was awful."

"And people made fun of him afterwards. He never talks about it anymore. Once he told me, "If that thing landed in my back yard, I wouldn't tell a soul." He's been through a wringer.

PATROLMAN Frank Panzenella saw the chase end in Conway, Pa., where he works. He saw the craft.

Now he is silent. Friends say he had his telephone removed because of calls about that April morning.

H. Wayne Huston was a police officer in East Palestine, O. He had worked there seven years. Several months after the saucer passed above him in the night, he resigned...going to Seattle Wash., to drive a bus.

Huston now goes by Harold W. Huston. He tells you," Sure I quit because of that thing. People laughed at me. And there was pressure... You couldn't put your finger on it, but the pressure was there.

"The city officials didn't like police officers chasing flying saucers."

SPAUR AND HUSTON have turned in their badges. Now Spaur hides in Solon, a fugitive from a flying saucer named Floyd. He cannot escape the strange craft.

Spaur and Neff were checking on a car parked alongside U.S. 224 between Randolph and Atwater. The car was filled with radio equipment and had a strange emblem painted on its side, a triangle with a bolt of lightning inside it. Above the emblem was written, "Seven Steps to Hell."

Behind them they heard a strange humming noise and turning, said they saw a huge saucer shaped craft rise out of a woods and hover above them, bathing them in a warm white light. Then it moved off.

LEAVING THE mystery car behind, never to be seen again, the two deputies hopped into their cruiser and chased the object, sometimes at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour. The chase finally ended when the cruiser ran out of gas near Pittsburgh.

They said the craft they chased was about 50 feet across and 15 to 20 feet high with a large dome on its top and an antenna jutted out from the rear of the dome.

After the chase, Spaur's daily routine was washed away in a sea of reporters, television cameramen, Air Force investigators, government officials, strange letters from places like Little Rock, Ark. and Australia that told him what to do if "the little green men" tried to contact him.

"MY ENTIRE LIFE came crashing down around my shoulders," he said.

"Everything changed. I still don't really know what happened. But suddenly, it was as though everybody owned me. And I no longer had anything for myself. My wife, my home, my children. They all seemed to fade away."

Spaur's wife Daneise now is alone with her two children.

She has filed for divorce and is working as a waitress in a bar at Ravenna.

"Something happened to Dale, but I don't know what it was," she says. He came home that day and I never saw him more frightened before. He acted strange, listless. He just sat around. He was very pale."

"THEN LATER, he got real nervous. And he started to run away. He'd just disappear for days and days. I wouldn't see him."

"Our marriage fell apart. All sorts of people came to the house. Investigators. Reporters. They kept him up all night. They kept after him, hounding him. They hounded him right into the ground. And he changed."

Then one night, Dale came home very late. He isn't sure what happened. He walked into the living room. There were some other people there. Things were very tense. Very confused.

HE GRABBED his wife and shook her. Hard. He kept shaking her. It left big ugly bruises on her arms. He doesn't know how or why...

That was the end of July. Daneise filed assault and battery charges. Dale was jailed and turned in his badge.

A newspaper printed a story about the deputy who chased the flying saucer being jailed for beating his wife.

When he got out of jail, Dale ran...left town, turned his back on everything.

BUT THE SAUCER followed him, locked in his dreams.

In Ravenna, Daneise can only say, "Dale is a lost soul. And everything is finished for us."

In Solon, Dale said, "I have become a freak. I'm so damn lonely. Look at me... 34 years old and what do I have? Nothing."

"Who knows me? To everyone I'm Dale Spaur, the nut who chased a flying saucer. My father called me several weeks ago.

A long time ago we had a fight. I hadn't heard from him for years. Then he calls me." "DO YOU THINK he called to ask how I was... To say 'I love you, son... To see if I wanted to go fishing, or something?

Hell, no. He wanted to know if I'd seen any more flying saucers."

"I tried to go to church for help. I went to church and the minister introduced me to the congregation. "We have the man who chased a flying saucer with us today," he said."

Dale Spaur wept as he told what the flying saucer named Floyd had done to him.

He calls it Floyd because he saw it once more while he was still working for the sheriff's department.

THE RADIO operators knew civilians were monitoring their broadcasts. So they agreed to use a code name if the flying saucer was seen again. They called it Floyd...Dale Spaur's middle name.

Dale was driving east on Interstate 80-S one night in June. He looked up. There it was.

"Floyd's here with me," he whispered into the radio.

Then he parked the car and sat there, alone. This time Barney Neff was not with him. Dale did not look out the window. He lit a cigarette and stared at the floor of the cruiser. He sat there for nearly 15 minutes... not looking outside, not wanting to see Floyd.

WHEN HE LOOKED up, Floyd had disappeared.

Yet it still follows him. And it has ruined his life. This he believes.

Actually this story is neither new nor rare to ufology. One suspects there's something more happening here than meets the eye. It's as though the person has experienced some kind of physiological event?

I've interviewed eye-witnesses that seemed jumpy and easily excitable, however, when interviewing their family members (folks who had the same experience) they tell me their sibling never acts this way, and suggest "perhaps they're just tired?"

I'm not so sure. I've seen people's personality change almost overnight. Sometimes for the good and sometimes not. It even happened to me but I didn't know it for years. So whatever's happening here someone needs to study it!

Back to Ohio, it's also very possible combined with this "physiological event" that officer Spaur obviously suffered, someone (MIB) was in the shadows ratcheting up the pressure?

I find it somewhat interesting that the article above who's author is so thorough as to release the names, addresses and occupations of those involved. Was not ready to give the name of the commanding officer 'Sergeant Schoenfelt' who actually ordered Deputies Spaur and Neff to pursue the object?

It's as though the news item was intended to remind those of us who serve the public, 'this can happen to you, best to keep your eyes on the floorboards' message?

Either way, it had that effect!