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URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

APRIL 23, 1965, RIVERVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA, A WOMAN:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Several sources indicate, referring to the US Air Force as source, that on varied dates, April 23, 1965, April 25, 1965, April 23, 1964, at 08:00 a.m., in Rivesville, West Virginia, USA, a woman, called in one source Mrs. Yvan Frederick, was working in her kitchen when she observed an object land near her house.

It was lens-shaped with a dome above, or a disc, 7 or 8 meters broad, and when it approached the ground a central cylinder approximately 1 meter in height and 1 meter broad came out, with a sliding door, from where a being approximately 1 meter in height, or 0.90 to 1.20 meters in height, came out to go collect ground and dirt.

The story says that its face was not clearly visible, but it had pointed ears, a kind of tail, and was connected to the saucer by a cable. He was dressed in black, or white, depending on the versions.

The being returned in the saucer by the cylinder, which went up inside the body of the saucer, the external rim started to rotate clockwise, or anticlockwise, depending on the sources, with a soft whistling noise, or a humming noise, depending on the sources, and the saucer left right up and out of sight.

There was mention of ground traces of the central foot of the saucer and footsteps traces with four toes, 15 to 20 centimeters long, of a sighting distance of 200 meters and a 15 minutes duration, of an case unexplained by the Air Force, which actually dates the case as of the end of February 1965 and had concluded that the story was explained by the psychology of the witness.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. bb1:] US AIR FORCE'S PROJECT BLUE BOOK:

[Ref. jv1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

In his catalogue of UFO landings, Jacques Vallée indicates that on April 23, 1965, at 08:00 a.m., Rivesville, West Virginia, a woman observed an object land near her house while she was working in her kitchen. It was shaped like a disk, showed portholes and a cylinder about 1 meter high, with a sliding door from which a small creature, about 1 meters tall, emerged and jumped to the ground. Its face was not clearly visible but it had pointed ears, a sort of tail, and was linked to the main object by a cable. It wore white clothing, appeared to pick up something from the ground, and reentered the cylinder, which then slid up into the larger white disk. The outside rim started spinning in a counterclockwise motion with a soft whistling sound and the object rose straight up, out of view. Estimated diameter of the disk: 7 meters.

Vallée indicates that his source is "Atic."

[Ref. tp1:] TED PHILLIPS:

[Ref. bs1:] BRAD SPARKS:

In a listing of US Air Force Project Blue Cases with explanation "unknown", Brad Sparks indicates that case 1368 was on April 23, 1965, Rivesville, West Virginia at 8 a.m.

A Woman saw a 25 feet object land near her house while she was working in the kitchen. It was shaped like a disk, with portholes, a cylinder about 3 feet high, a sliding door from which a small being, about 3 feet tall emerged, and jumped to the ground. Its face was not clearly visible but it had pointed ears, a sort of tail, was linked to the main object by a cable, wore white clothing, picked up something from the ground, then re-entered the cylinder, which slid up into the larger white disk.

The outside rim of the landed object started spinning in a counterclockwise motion with a soft whistling sound, it then rose straight up out of sight.

The source is indicated as "Vallée Magonia 644."

[Ref. dj1:] DONALD JOHNSON:

Donald Johnson indicates that on April 23, 1964, a 9-foot in diameter lens-shaped UFO with a dome hovered six feet above the ground in Rivesville, West Virginia at 7:30 a.m. making a humming sound. It extended a three-foot wide cylinder to ground, and a black figure, three to four feet tall, with painted [sic, actually "pointed"] ears and a tail emerged, collecting grass and dirt samples. The creature got back in the craft and it took off vertically. The witness was a woman named Ms. Frederick.

The sources are indicated as Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, case 681; David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case A0585, citing Gray Barker; Gray Barker, Saga UFO Report, December 1976, p. 33; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, case 644, mistekenly dated as of 1965.

[Ref. ni1:] NICAP WEBSITE:

The case is listed as of April 23, 1965, in Rivesville, West Virginia (BBU), at 8 a.m., with a woman seeing a 25 feet object land near her house while she was working in the kitchen. It was shaped like a disk, with portholes, a cylinder about 3 feet high, a sliding door from which a small being, about 3 feet tall emerged and jumped to the ground. Its face was not clearly visible but it had pointed ears, a sort of tail, it was linked to the main object by a cable, wore white clothing, picked up something from the ground, then re-entered the cylinder; which slid up into the larger white disk. The outside rim of the landed object started spinning in a counterclockwise motion with a soft whistling sound, it then rose straight up out of sight.

The source is indicated as "Vallée Magonia 644."

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Rivesville, West Virginia, on April 25, 1965, at 08:00 a.m., a woman observed an object land near he house while she was working in her kitchen. It was shaped like a disk, showed portholes and a cylinder about 1 meter high, with a sliding door from which a small creature, about 1 meter tall, emerged and jumped to the ground. Its face was not clearly visible, but it had pointed ears, a sort of tail, and was linked to the main object by a cable. It wore white clothing, appeared to pick up something from the ground, and re-entered the cylinder, which then slid up into the larger white disk. The outside rim started spinning in a counterclockwise motion with a soft whistling sound, and the object rose straight up, out of view. Estimated diameter of the disk was seven meters.

Albert Rosales indicates as source Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia.

[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website lists that on April 23, 1964, at 08:00 in Rivesville, West Virginia, USA, a lens-shaped UFO with dome, 9' diameter, extended a 3' wide cylinder to ground at 6'. A black figure, 3-4' tall, with pointed ears, a tail, was collecting grass and dirt. The explanation was psychological.

[Ref. ud2:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on April 23, 1964, at 08:00, in Rivesville, West Virginia, USA, a lens-shaped UFO with dome, 9 feet diameter, extended a 3-feet wide cylinder to ground at 6 feet. A black figure 3-4 feet tall, with pointed ears, a tail, collected grass and dirt. The explanation was psychological.

A domed disc, about 10 feet across was observed by one female witness, an experienced observor [observer] named Frederick, at a house for over 15 minutes. It departed by rapidly flying straight up until lost to sight, and occupants of the craft were seen. A humming sound was heard. One 3.5-foot-tall black dwarf, wearing black clothing, was seen.

The website comments that is is a report attributed to a known source of unknown or uncalibrated reliability, that the site was visited by a skilled analyst, and that no natural explanation possible, given the evidence.

The sources are indicated as Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; Project Bluebook, (USAF) Blue Book files counted in official statistics; Data-Net Report; Vallee, Jacques, A Century of Landings (N = 923) (in JVallee 04), Chicago, 1969; Schoenherr, Luis, Computerized Catalog (N = 3173); Bloecher, Ted R. Ted R Bloecher investigation files; Phillips, Ted R. Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, Chicago, 1975; Eberhart, George M., A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002.

Points to consider:

Just about each source gives a different date to the alleged sighting. The Air Force indicated February 9, 1964, end of February 1965, Vallée and all those using his summary gave April 23, 1965, Ted Phillips gave April 23, 1964, Albert Rosales gave April 25, 1965.

The fact that a case appears in Ted Philip's "traces" catalogue does not mean at all that he investigated the case or went on location to check the traces. The catalogue was a listing of such report, not a list of investigated trace cases. Most of the time, Phillips just picked up some sighting report in which the witness claimed about some traces and that was enough for the case to appear in this listing.

The name "Mrs Ivah Frederick" in transcripts of Ted Phillips catalogue is probably an OCR glitch for "Mrs Ivan Frederick".

When it is known that the case was explained as "Psychological" by US Air Force, indicating that it is an US Air Force unknown makes no sense, indicating that it has "no natural explanation given the evidence" makes no sense, indicating that the case is from US Air Force ATIC's file while silencing their explanation makes no sense. Any ufologist should indicate the US Air Force explanation, and if in disagreement, explain why, instead of silencing the explanation and acting as if there was none.

In fact, despite the obvious mess in the data and their obvious lack of information despite the apparent details given, what happened is quite probable.

US Air Force has two dates and mentions contradictory information: this is likely because the witness contradicted herself in different statements.

Another contradiction actually appears between Ted Phillips's version and the versions based on Vallée: the space man is dressed in black in the one, in white in the others! Its "devilish" look, with the tail and pointed ears, is probably indicative of the psychological issue here.

It also remains to demonstrate how pointed ears can be seen on a 1 meter tall figure 200 meters away.

The description of the saucer should have been thought about. What the woman described is nothing else than exactly the type of flying saucers that were shown in the famous 1956 Science Fiction movie "Earth Versus the Flying Saucers" with special effects by the famous Ray Harryhausen, who himself actually had asked the alleged "contactee" Adamski for help about flying saucers design. Many tall tales of flying saucers and occupants encounters actually were "inspired" by the particular design of the saucers in this movie!

	In Earth vs the Flying Saucers, the saucers in flight have a rotating rim.
	When they hover above the ground, a central axis comes down for rest, the rotation stops, a door slides open in the central axis and the extraterrestrial invaders come out.

Hence, unless proven otherwise, the story was likely purely invented by the so-called witness, prompting the "psychological" explanation by the US Air Force at the time.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Probable invention.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [bb1] * Cases listings for February 1964 and February 1965, US Air Force Project Blue Book file, now at The National Archive and Records Administration, USA, 1965.
• [jv1] * "Passport to Magonia - On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds", book by Jacques Vallée, Contemporary Books publisher, USA, 1969.
• [tp1] * "Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings", catalogue compiled by Ted R. Phillips, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), Chicago, USA, 1975.
• [tp1] * "Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings", catalogue compiled by Ted R. Phillips, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), Chicago, USA, 1975, partially reproduced by Paul Fuller, in the "crop circles" magazine Crop Watcher, #17, Canada, March - April 1993.
• [tp1] * "Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings", catalogue compiled by Ted R. Phillips, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), Chicago, USA, 1975, partially reproduced by Paul Fuller, at www.project1947.com/phillips.htm
• [tp1] * "Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings", catalogue compiled by Ted R. Phillips, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), Chicago, USA, 1975, partially reproduced by Jérôme Beau, France, at www.rr0.org/Documents/Articles/Philips/phillips.htm
• [---] ? "Saga UFO Report", book by Gray Barker, special issue by Saga magazine, USA, page 33, 1976.
• [---] ? "HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", case A0585, compiled by David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, USA, CUFOS, circa 1977.
• [---] * "Data-Net Report".
• [---] * "Computerized Catalog", (N = 3173), by Luis Schoenherr.
• [---] * "A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies", book by George M. Eberhart, Greenwood Press publisher, USA, 1980.
• [---] * "*U* Computer Database", compiled by Larry Hatch, USA 2002.
• [bs1] * "Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project BLUE BOOK UFO Unknowns: Work in Progress (Version 1.6, June 18, 2003)", compiled by Brad Sparks, USA, 2001-2003, at www.nidsci.org/pdf/bluebookunknowns-v1-6.pdf
• [dj1] * "Encounters With Aliens On This Day - April 23, web page compiled by Donald Johnson, USA, circa 2004, at www.ufoinfo.com/onthisday/April23.html
• [ni1] * "The 1965 UFO Chronology", web page at the NICAP Website, USA, July 12, 2006, at www.nicap.org/waves/1965fullrep.htm
• [ar1] * "1965 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2007, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1965.shtml
• [ud1] * "UFO Sightings in 1964, web page by the website UFOdna, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/chrono/chrono/1964.htm
• [ud2] * "23 Apr 1964 - Rivesville, West Virginia, USA, web page by the website UFOdna, at www.ufodna.com/uf00/uf3/003739.htm

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This page was last updated on April 2, 2008