According to the Press of the time which told the story without much detail and seeming to grant little credit to it, one Mr. Jules Martin, a colonial teacher on holiday, made an encounter sometimes dated October 11, 1954 by ufologists much later, of two Martian females, in the island of Oléron, no details being provided on how they allegedly came and went.
Mr. Martin is said to have claimed that they had the very standard height of 1.70 meters, wore ankle boots, leather gloves, shining helmets, and the "witness" found them "very cute" and probably quite friendly since they agreed to give him an autograph, according to one newspaper, while another newspaper indicated that they grabbed his biro and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, while trying to make themselves comprehensible. Mr. Martin is said to have preserved this manuscript preciously.
The case later entered the ufological literature as example of pure invention.
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[Ref. ss1:] "SAMEDI-SOIR" NEWSPAPER:
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[...] Must we go on? Or also, the 96 centimeters man, carrying a broad leather belt, shoes and panties, which rose in the airs thanks to two boxes in the shape of pears, placed under each arm. This being was seen by Mr. Lacambre, forestry workman in Saint-Pardoux (the Lot), on Monday, October 4, at 8:10 a.m., and the witness has even determined from the footprints that the small being fitted shoesize 21 [Europe standard]... What to think of the assertion of Mr. Garreau, who swears "on his honor" to have seen a "flying soup tureen" landed in his property, and two perfectly normal men get down of it, who shook hands with him and cuddled his dog before leaving as quickly as they came... And this handworker of Lavoux (Vienna), Mr. Roger Barrault who, on Saturday October 9, at 7 p.m., was paralyzed by a luminous ray emanating from a "diver" high of 1 m. 50, fitted with boots, with shining eyes, and carrying a heavy moustache... And the cigar posed in a clearing, in Diges in Yonne, near which Mrs. widows Gaffroy [sic, Geoffroy] saw a man, from the back, in combination and capped of a khaki bonnet... And Mr. Jean Labonne, of Bergerac, who, on October 2, at 10 p.m., saw a metal mushroom in his garden. "Who's there?" he shouted when distinguishing a shade. "What do you want from me?" But the shade climbed in the mushroom which rose in the airs at an extraordinary speed. Even in England which started to worry and almost become indignant that not the least saucer, not the least "cigar" or cigarillo, had made the honor of an appearance to the people which had won the battle of Trafalgar. This gap has been just been largely filled by the sensational revelations of an ornithologist, Mr. Cedric Allingham, who claims to have met, on February 18, in the north of Scotland, not a Martian, but a Venusian with whom he had a lengthy and difficult conversation! This Venusian measured about 1 m 73, he short brown hair, and his skin seemed tanned. He was completely wrapped in a kind of combination which had the appearance of a armored coat. In his nose were two small tubes joined by a metallic wire... Mr. Allingham managed to touch the saucer whose metal was slightly warm, and he finally took the leave of Venusian, not without having offered him his pen, which the man carefully put in a pocket of his combination and after having taken on the run a photograph of the strange character. This rather fuzzy image is, it should be acknowledged, rather unrevealing. One sees the silhouette of a man seen from the back, walking slightly curved, and that, without a little imagination, could easily be matched with the silhouette of any earthman. Lastly, with the latest news, it is a true avalanche of Martians that comes falling on our grounds. In Pournoy La Chétive, in the Moselle, three children were roller skating, when a round machine, of 2.50 meters of diameter, lands close to them. A man left from there, holding in the hand a lit lamp which dazzled the children. He was dressed of a black cassock "like that of our priest", and after having said some unintelligible words, he flew away in his saucer. In the island of Oléron, for the first time, it was two Martian girls who put foot on the ground. It is Mr. Martin, a colonial teacher on holiday, who brings their description to us. They carried small boots and leather gloves, as well as brilliant helmets. They were extremely pretty and nicely agreed to sign an autograph to the teacher. I would take a whole book to bring back all the cases in detail. But all these good people swear to god that they invent nothing. Their entourage echoes that. Him, to invent such a story? A family man known for his respectability... A boy who never drank any drop of alcohol in his life? Come on! So what? Should it be concluded from this that they really saw strange beings, hairy, helmeted, in boots, speaking an incomprehensible language? Do we need to have faith to this story of mysterious green ray which paralyze human beings? Are their accounts, on the contrary, totally invented? Do they rest on a serious basis exaggerated thereafter? Nothing, absolutely nothing in the current state of the collected information which was made available to the public allows to conclude in the sense of the authenticity. The investigations were led as if it were a question of "checking" the statements of the witnesses and not in the spirit to eliminate all the assumptions leading to plausible and relatively simple explanations. These assumptions are numerous, they go from the joke to the hallucination not to mention the optical illusion. To eliminate them, one would need extremely thorough police information, doubled, in all the cases, of a thorough psychological investigation. Then only the facts would remain, logically unexplainable, which would constitute the true file on the Martians. One would then notice that this file is extremely thin, if not non-existent, and that in this business, there is much, far too much, literature. |
[Ref. qh1:] "LE QUOTIDIEN DE LA HAUTE-LOIRE" NEWSPAPER:
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[...] On his side a colonial teacher currently in holidays in the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have encountered in the island two pretty girls from Mars measuring approximately 1,70 meters, wearing boots, gloves and a leather helmet. The two Martians took Mr. Martin's pen, and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, while trying make them understandable. Mr. Martin is said to have carefully preserved this manuscript. [...] |
[Ref. hw1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:
The author indicates that on October 14, 1954, Jules Martin, schoolmaster, swears that in the island d'Oleron, he encountered two pretty ladies from Mars, in leather helmets, gloves and bootees. The ladies from Mars had borrowed his fountain-pen, jotted down some hieroglyphs, then taken off without making a date with him.
[Ref. 312] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors quote from a text without indicating a source:
"On October 11, in the island of Oléron, Jules Martin saw two "ladies" close to an object on the ground (not described). The entities borrowed Jules' pen to trace some hieroglyphs before leaving."
They add that according to Le Figaro for October 13, the ladies are described as "two pretty Martian measuring approximately 1.70 meters, with boots, gloves, and helmeted of leather."
The authors comment on that Mr. Martin was quite lucky since normally the encountered creatures are rather ugly.
[Ref. mf1] FRANCAT, MICHEL FIGUET:
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10/11/1954 Ile d'Oléron Invention of M. J. Martin who observed two pretty martian girls. Communication by M. Duquesnoy and B.B. p. 80-81. |
("B.B." refers to the book by Barthel and Brucker, see references.)
[Ref. bh1:] ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW AND GEORGE S. HOWARD:
The authors indicate that on October 14, 1954, in the island of d'Oleron, Bay of Biscay, France, schoolmaster Jules Martin claims to have encountered two beautiful females from Mars wearing leather helmets, boots and gloves. The Martian girls borrowed his pen to write down hieroglyphs, then left, apparently flying off.
The authors indicate that their source is Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers Uncensored (New York: Pyramid, 1974), page 245, originally published in 1955 by Citadel Press (New York).
[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
The Belgian ufologist indicates that on October 11, 1954 in France on the Island of Oléron, Jules Martin, colonial school teacher on vacation, observed two delightful "Martian" females close to an object posed on the ground.
These two women wore ankle boots and leather gloves, as well as brilliant helmets, and before leaving they nicely agreed to give an autograph to the teacher.
The author indicates that the source is Samedi-Soir for 10/14/54 as well as J.L. Rivera.
The author specifies that actually the witness would have entirely invented this alleged encounter, and she indicates as source for this explanation "Les apparitions d'humanoïdes" by Eric Zurcher, Alain Lefeuvre publisher, 1979, page 179.
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
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159. Location. Island D’Oleron Bay of Biscay France Date: October 14 1954 Time: unknown A schoolmaster, Jules Martin, encountered two beautiful females wearing leather helmets, boots, and gloves. They wrote down some symbols on the sand before departing in a silvery flying disc shaped object. No other information. HC addition # 307 Source: Robert E Bartholomew, quoting Wilkins Type: B |
The story made the delights of skeptical ufologists. As a negative case, it shows that invented stories can describe extraterrestrials that bear no resemblance to those in more serious reports, and that invented stories lack any continuity and consistency, as the sequence of the arrival and departure of the Martian girls is missing and as the supposed saucer is not even mentioned. The autograph signing too shows how the fantasy tale did not refrain from describing alien behavior that the passing of time makes utterly nonsensical.
There is a ufology school of thought that claims that aliens are too absurd to be aliens and thus all the close encounters of the third kind and UFO sighting reports are to be interpreted as "paranormal" phenomena, or visions of some "other realm" rather that extraterrestrial visits. Such cases are used as examples for this sort of thesis, by ignoring that plain hoaxes can simply be nothing more than plain hoaxes and thus should not be viewed as bona fide reports that require exotic explanations.
This particular case makes me wonder whether it was not simply a story invented by some newspaperman for ridiculisation purpose: "Jules Martin" sounds as a made up name, and it does not seem that anyone ever spoke to this Jules Martin. Also conveniently, Mr. Martin is said to have been on holiday on the Island of Oleron, as if someone wanted to make clear that there would be no success in trying to find him on the island.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
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Invention of the witness or the Press.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | November 5, 2007 | Creation, [ss1], [qh1], [hw1], [bb1], [mf1], [bh1], [go1], [ar1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 5, 2007 | First published. |
