Ufologist Leonard Stringfield wrote on the multiple reports of encounters of weird small creatures, often without any corresponding UFO sighting, at the time when the Press published sensationalist articles on the case known as the Kelly-Hopkinsville little men.
Among them was that of Mrs. Margaret Symmonds of Cincinnati, who said that while going to Florida, near Stockton, Georgia, on July 3, 1955, 03:30 a.m., driving the car with her husband sleeping in the back, she saw four figures standing in a group on the right side of the road. She first thought they were a group of pigs, but getting closer she saw that they were not.
These figures were between 3.5 and 4 feet tall, they seemed to wear a greyish one-piece cape covering thin arms ending in appendices similar to claws.
Two of them stood in the background, turned their back at Mrs. Symmonds, only their round heads were visible. The third was leaning or bending ahead, with its claw-like hands holding a rod or stick that touched the ground. The fourth stood straight, well in sight, facing her, and had large oval eyes reflecting a reddish luminosity, no apparent mouth, a long pointed nose, and a pointed chin. It wore a flat hat with edges, and had its arms lifted.
Mrs. Symmonds made a brutal manoeuver with the car not to run up against them. She screamed in fear and her husband, Wesley Symmonds, thus awoke, but too late too see what had occurred. He wished to go back on the spot to see these figures, but his wife had been so frightened that she refused. When she felt at a safe distance from the place where she had seen them, she let her husband drive. Mrs. Symmonds could not explain to herself what these characters were and wished she could forget the short but frightening encounter.
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[Ref. ls1:] LEONARD STRINGFIELD:
Ufologist Leonard Stringfield discusses several cases he investigated around 1955, and among them, an incident that was related in the press, witnessed by Mrs. Wesley Symmonds of Cincinnati.
While driving through Stockton, Georgia to Florida, on July 3, 1955, she encountered four bug-eyed creatures standing in the road.
Leonard Stringfield indicates that he does not dismiss this case, because he talked with Mrs. Symmonds, also heard her testimony on a tape record done during an interrogation by Calvin Prem, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Hamilton County. Stringfield felt that she was telling the truth, at least in his opinion, about this experience she could not explain and hopes to forget.
Leonard Stringfield indicates that the case was published in the September 1955 of his UFO group bulletin ORBIT.
He provides sketches he did, based on Mrs. Symmonds description, during interview with him.
[Ref. lo1:] CORAL AND JIM LORENZEN:
The authors note that the defunct Orbit, official publication of the Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects organization (CRIFO) of Cincinnati, Ohio, listed a number of cases, such as the July 3, 1955, sighting by Mrs. Wesley Symmonds of Cincinnati, Ohio.
She was driving through Stockton, Georgia, on her way to Florida, and claimed she saw four "bug-eyed" creatures near the road.
The authors indicate that the sketch of the creatures based on her description shows little bipeds with rather thin arms, large eyes, and pointed chins. Two, in the background, appeared to be turned away from the observer, one was bending over with what appeared to be a stick in its hand, and the other had its right arm raised, and was facing the observer. This creature had large, bulging eyes, a cap-like affair on its head, or what appeared to be a cap, no visible mouth, a long, pointed nose, and a chin that came to a sharp point. Its long, thin arms ended in claw-like appendages.
[Ref. cl1:] CORAL LORENZEN:
Coral Lorenzen provides the same information she gave in [lo1].
[Ref. ls2:] LEONARD STRINGFIELD:
Leonard Stringfield discusses the numerous reports of encounters with weird little creatures at the time when the Press published sensationalist articles about the Kelly-Hopkinsville case, and among them was that of Mrs. Wesley Symmonds of Cincinnati, who said that while driving by car through Stockton, Georgia, with her husband asleep in the back, she saw three figures with the "insect eyes" on the right side of the road, and made brutal turn not to run them over. Her husband then awoke but too late to see what had happened. He would say that she "was too afraid to stop", "When we were at a good distance from the place where she saw them, far enough to be safe, I drove."
Stringfield explains that he then made a sketch of the figures as he imagined them, that they were between 3.5 and 4 feet, were wearing a one piece cape covering their thin arms finished by appendices similar to claws.
Two of them, having a round head, turned their back at Mrs. Symmonds and stood in the background, a third was leaning ahead with its claw-like hands gripping a rod which reached the ground, a fourth stood straight and well in sight, it had oval eyes, not visible mouth, a long pointed nose, and an angular chin. It wore a hat with flat edge going downwards, he had its arms raised.
[Ref. jv1:] JACQUES VALLEE:
In his catalogue of UFO landings, Jacques Vallée indicates that on July 3, 1955, in Stockton, Georgia. Mrs. Wesley Symmonds was driving near this town when she saw four "bug-eyed" creatures near the road. They were small beings with thin arms, large eyes, and pointed chins. Two were turned away from the witness; one was bending over with something like a stick in its hand; and the fourth one was facing her with its right arm raised. It had bulging eyes, a sort of cap, no visible mouth, a long pointed nose, a chin that came to a sharp point, and long thin arms with claws.
Vallée indicates that his sources are "Stringfield; Humanoids 54."
[Ref. rh2:] RICHARD HALL:
The US ufologist indicates in a listing that on July 3, 1955, Margaret Symmonds, in Stockton, Georgia, at 03:30 a.m., saw four 3.5 to 4 feet tall beings, in gray garb, with long arms, large reddish eyes, pointed chins, small mouths, claw-like hands. The beings were in the road with one apparently digging with a stick, while the witness' car passed.
He specifies that no UFO was seen, and that the source is Davis and Bloecher, page 149.
[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
The Belgian ufologist indicates that on July 3, 1955, in Stockton, Georgia, the USA, Mrs. Wesley Symmonds from Cincinnati drove through Stockton in direction of Florida and saw four creatures "with eyes on the end of rods" near to the road. Her drawing shows small bipeds with thin arms, large eyes and pointed chins. The two in the background seemed to turn their back at her, a third was tilted on what seemed to be a stick held in the hand, the fourth had the right arm raised and faced her. It had large bulging eyes, something which resembled a cap on the head, no visible mouth, a long pointed nose and a chin which finished in an acute point. Its long arms ended in appendices similar to claws.
Godelieve van Overmeire indicates that the source is Charles Bowen in "En quête des humanoïdes", J'ai Lu, 1974, page 181.
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that near Stockton, Georgia, on July 3, 1955, at 03:30 a.m., Mrs. Margaret Symmonds, 52, was driving at 03:30 a.m. when her headlights picked up 4 figures huddled in the middle of the road. As she approached, she saw that they were 4 humanoid beings less than 4 ft tall, with very large heads and short legs, wearing slouch hats and grayish capes. One had something like a stick and seemed as if digging in the road. Only then one closest to her looked at her as she drove by, swerving to avoid them; he held his claw-like hands over his head. She saw that he had enormous "saucer like" eyes with no visible pupils, who reflected a reddish light, and a long hooked nose like a carrot. The skin was dark and rough looking. She screamed and woke up her husband.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Ted Bloecher and Leonard Stringfield, and Humcat 1955-9.
[Ref. jr1:] JEAN-PAUL RONECKER:
This French author indicates that in Georgia, USA, on July 3, 1955, travelling near the town of Stockton in direction of Florida, Mrs. Wesley Symmonds saw four very strange creatures at the edge of the road, of small size, bipeds, with very thin arms and a pointed chin, and astonishing large eyes on stems.
The two most distant creatures turned their back to her, the third was tilted and seemed to hold what resembled a "stick". The fourth was the closest, facing her, thus she saw it well, it had large bugling eyes on stems, did not appear to have a visible mouth, its nose was long and pointed and its chin was acuminate and finishing in a very acute point. It had very long thin arms ending in "hands" with claws.
The author indicates that the source is Charles Bowen, En quête des humanoides.
[Ref. rl1:] RENAUD LECLET:
Following his article in which he proposed that the famous Kelly-Hopkinsville case in 1955 was caused by owls, Renaud Leclet wrote an article ensuring that many other cases of probable mistakes with clawed night birds of the owls family exist in the world casuistry, and that he already listed a good ten of them, including the four in his article, among which he provided the following.
He indicates that the fragmentary information he has about them does not allow a thorough study and that he thus presents them here very briefly in the hope to cause possible additional investigations if still possible.
Stockton (Ohio, USA), July 3, 1955, 3.30 a.m.Mrs Symmonds, seeing on the road shoulder four entities lit by her headlights, firstly thinks they are animals. They are 1.05 to 1.20 m tall and clothed with a grey-greenish cape without buttons. One of them is leaning and has a stick (driven into the ground?) in its hands. Their arms are too long compared to their height and they have long clawed fingers. Shoulders are square, broad and robust. They have a big head, huge eyes without eyelids, reflecting a reddish light, a long pointed and hooked nose and a small lipless mouth. When the car approaches, one of them moves away, and turns towards the witness with the arms raised. It wears a kind of slouch hat with brims turned down. No UFO is observed. References:
It is clear that we are dealing with a family of eagle owls:
CONCLUSIONUndoubtedly, many other sightings of so-called extraterrestrial beings or "flying entities" among world UFO cases will appear to be only misinterpretations of night raptors. |
The sketches in the article are captioned, for the two on the left, as being interpretations by Eric Maillot, the one on the right, uncaptioned, is with or without its notations depending on the version of the article, and is actually one of the sketches by Leonard Stringfield.
[Ref. lc1:] LOREN COLEMAN:
Loren Coleman indicates that on July 3, 1955, Mrs Wesley Symmonds was driving near Stockton, Georgia, when she saw four "bug eyed" small creatures near the road, with thin arms, large eyes, pointed chins. Two were turned away, one was bending over with some sort of stick in the hand and the fourth faced her with the arms raised. This fourth being had bulging eyes, a sort of cap, no visible mouth, a long pointed nose, a chin ending in a sharp point, and long thin arms with claws.
[Ref. dj1:] DONALD JOHNSON:
Donald Johnson indicates that on July 3, 1955, Mrs. Wesley Symmonds was driving near Stockton, Georgia, when she saw four "bug-eyed" creatures near the road. They were small with thin arms, wide shoulders, large eyes, pointed chins. Two were turned away from her, one was bending over with something like a stick in its hand, the fourth was facing her with its right arm raised. It had bulging eyes, a sort of cap, no visible mouth, a long pointed nose, a chin that came to a sharp point, and long thin arms with claws.
Donald Johnson indicates that the sources are Leonard Stringfield, Inside Saucer Post...3-0 Blue, and Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 249-250.
[Ref. jb1:] JEROME BEAU:
Jérôme Beau indicates that on July 3, 1955 at 3:30 in Stockton in Ohio, in the headlights of their car, Mrs. Symmonds sees on the side of the road four beings which she initially thinks to be animals, of a size going from 1.05 meters and 1.20 meters, dressed of a gray-greenish cape without buttons. One of them stands leaning, a stick (planted in the ground?) between its hands. Their arms are too long for their size, with long fingers that were claws. The shoulders are square, broad and robust, they have a large head for their body, enormous eyes without eyelids reflecting a reddish light, a long pointed and hooked nose, a small mouth without lips. When the car approaches, one of them deviates, turns to her, arms raised. It is wearing a kind of fedora with folded back edges. No UFO is observed.
Jérôme Beau indicates that the sources are Davis et Bloecher 1978, pp. 149-160, Bowen 1969, p.181, and Inforespace N.50, march 1980, pp. 23-24.
He displays the following drawing on his page:
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[The drawing is one of those made by Leonard Stringfield, and actually comes from the CUFOS booklet by Davis and Bloecher; the notations read, from top, "like claws", "no mouth", "too indistinct to see "feet" ", and "closeup view of gnome / Stockton GA INCIDENT / Drawn by (illegible) Aug 28 1956".]
[Ref. rh1:] RICHARD HALL:
The US ufologist indicates in a listing that on July 3, 1955, Margaret Symmonds, in Stockton, Georgia, at 03:30 a.m., saw four 3.5 to 4 feet tall beings, in gray garb, with long arms, large reddish eyes, pointed chins, small mouths, claw-like hands. The beings were in the road apparently digging with sticks, and the witness swerved her car to avoid hitting them.
[Ref. as1:] AARON SAKULICH:
US student Aaron Sakulich wrote a web page on his "the Iron Skeptic" web page, titled "The Symmonds Gnomes"; in which between irrelevant comments about a friend's company who has an owl as logo, he discusses that there were cases of little gnome; which he feels were owls, although not certain, but certainly not space aliens, rather naturals things.
He says that in 1955, "a certain Mrs. Margaret Symmonds" and her husband were en route to Florida for, "I assume", a summer vacation away from their hometown of Cincinnati, but they did not foresee that they were "taking a detour through both Stockton, Georgia and terror."
He says that around 03:30 a.m., she was driving while her husband slept in the back of the car, and as they drove, she became aware of four small figures on the road ahead of her, around 4 feet tall, gray, appeared to be wearing capes, and standing together.
He says "she thought that she had interrupted the little men digging a hole in the road, since one of them seemed to be carrying a stick." One of the figures moved apart from the group "and she got a good look at it: the little man was wearing a slouch hat, had a turnip-shaped head, a long pointed nose and small mouth, huge eyes that glowed red, short legs, and long, thin arms that ended in claws."
He publishes copies of drawing by Davis and Bloecher with no source or credit, and a drawing signed "EMT":
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[Note: EMT stands for Eric Maillot, the French Skeptic ufologist who worked with Renaud Leclet on the owl explanation for the case; which betrays that Aron Sakulich did not come up with the owl explanation by himself, but by reading Renaud Leclet's articles, about which he says no word.]
[Ref. tp1:] T. PETER PARK:
This author indicates that at 3:30 a.m. on July 3, 1955, Mrs. Margaret Symmonds of Cincinnati, Ohio was driving her family car to Florida when she saw 4 small figures in her headlights on the road ahead of her, which at first she took for pigs.
Coming closer, she saw that they were "bug-eyed" little "men" 3.5 or 4 feet tall, gray in color and wearing capes, huddled in the road as if about to dig into it with a stick one of them was holding. One of the humanoids stepped aside to get out of her way, and looked right at her. He had a roundish head, with a slouch hat or cap on, huge eyes like saucers reflecting red, a long pointed nose, a small mouth, a sharp pointed chin, and long thin arms with claws, and short legs. His body was hidden by the cape.
Mrs. Symmonds swerved past the dwarfs, then screamed out in fear, waking up her husband who was sleeping in the back of the car. When she told him what she had seen, he wanted to go back, but she refused.
Peter T. Park indicates that the sources are Lorenzen and Lorenzen, "Flying Saucer Occupants", page 121; Vallee, "Passport to Magonia", case 365, pp 249-250; Lorenzen, "UFO Occupants in the United States," in Bowen, ed., "The Humanoids" pp 149-150; Stringfield, "Situation Red!", pp 110-506; Bord and Bord, "Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century", pp. 150-151.
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Above: This is how the scene and the beings look like in Leonard Stringfield's drawing. There were two figures at the background that were indistinct, one gigure with the body bent and holding a stick in its hands as if it were leaned onto it, it had no visible facial features; the fourth being had hands like claws, no mouth. The feet of the 3rd and 4th beings were not visible as they were in the vegetation.
Somes notes on the second-hand sources:
The first explanation of puzzling entities as owls appeared in Charles Fort's 1919 book, including the possibility that their sometimes observed luminescence can be explained by phosphorescent mushroom powder, a possibility I can personally confirm to be valid: I and other kids used to play "ghosts" in the night with it.
It is then with the infamous Sutton case that former Major Donald Keyhoe, a proponent of the thesis of the alien visitors, proposed that the creature might have been some owl nested in a tree and not an extraterrestrial monster, his opinion being quoted later by Joe Nickell of the skeptic group CSICOP.
Joe Nickell made the explanation his own for this same case, as well as for the case of Kelly in 1955, and according to Joe Nickell, it was then shared by skeptic ufologist Renaud Leclet, France, who then started to look for others such cases and applied this explanation to the case in this file, among others. It was Eric Maillot who told Leclet about the solution to the luminosity issue of the beings in the case of Kelly: the phosphorescent mushrooms, which I confirmed as valid possibility to the latter - I was the only French ufologist to my knowledge not to react to the explanation by useless scoffing, the way it was generally was welcomed in France and also in the United States.
Renaud Leclet had not agreed with my point of view such as I expressed it, namely that the explanation of the Kelly case by owls was a good proposal, a possible explanation, including "strong" points and "weaker" points but not a proven explanation; it became obvious to me that Renaud Leclet wanted his explanation to suffer no relativisation; although he did just that sometimes. For example, he does introduce these cases by a note suggesting he talks about "probable" mistakes and not "proven" mistakes, but further along nevertheless claims certainty by a "It is clear that we are dealing with a family of eagle owls."
I refuse to consider this "clear" or factual, I consider this as nothing more and nothing less than one probable explanation for this case. This is almost just the same, but not exactly the same to me, the difference is important to me.
Renaud Leclet is deceased, and thus did not have the time to demonstrate that there was really such a multitude of cases where owls and eagle owls had been mistaken for aliens, he thought he located about ten cases and really published 6 of them. It goes without saying that my CE3 catalogue will make it possible to see among the totality of the cases from all times and all countries which are so explained, and I can say right now that they exist.
[Temporary note - February 16, 2008: a topical listing of the relevant cases will be available soon.]
At the time when I write these lines, in February 2008, my CE3 catalogue includes a little more than 500 files, and I gave owls or eagle owls as explanation for 5 of them; this suggests - if one admits that there is no favorable or unfavorable chance-introduced bias in the cases I already treated compared to those that I still have to treat, that is to say at least 12.000 already open files, that these birds constitute the possible, probable or almost certain explanation for approximately 1% of the close encounters of the third kind casuistry.
In the case this file is about, if one looks at the sketches by Leonard Stringfield and makes the error to take them as "faithful to the detail", one can only note several "characteristics" of these beings that badly match owls. For example, it is of course excluded that one of these birds should take a rod in his hands. However, in one of his writings about the case, Stringfield did indicate that he had used his imagination to draw what the described beings were to resemble, and thus they are not sketches seen and approved by Mrs. Symmonds. Hence no valid argumentation can be based on these sketches to argue that the beings are too different from owls to be owls. Thus for example there is no need to imagine that the stick or rod was held vertically, as the report only tells it touched the ground; which solves the apparent difficulty that an owl cannot held a stick or branch vertically, except maybe using its beak.
It is also important to realize that in this case, the conditions of observations disadvantaged Mrs. Symmonds enormously: it occurred in the night, at the end of the night, whereas she had possibly been driving all the night and have been tired; and the observation cannot certainly be of long duration since she was driving, probably not slowly. Anyone can get in their car and drive by night passing close to some milestone at the edge of the road to check that it is quite nice if the sighting duration of the milestone in any detailed manner can last only one or two seconds; if, in addition, an brutal avoidance maneuver is to be performed, the concentration on the subject of the observation is further decreased. In spite of all this, the description by Mrs. Symmonds was actually quite accurate.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | February 16, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Initial source, the Press, not available and not referenced. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Ufology | Severe | February 16, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | No investigation report available, only second-hand story. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 3 | Ufology | Severe | February 16, 2008 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Bad observation conditions: night, short duration witness possibly tired, focused on driving. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Possible confusion, owls.
* = 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: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | February 16, 2008 | Creation, [ls1], [lo1], [cl1], [rh2], [go1], [jr1], [rl1], [lc1], [ar1], [dj1], [jb1], [rh1], [as1], [tp1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 16, 2008 | First published. |
