In 1966, Mrs. Everett X contacted by phone the well-known ufologist Leonard Stringfield and briefly reports to him that she observed a UFO. She brings back an observation which seems rather usual, insofar a UFO observation can be called usual. In any event, Stringfield has already too many important investigations in progress, so that he does not particularly follow up on this case at the time.
But on October 30, 1975, Mrs. X calls Stringfield again and this time, she tells him with a certain shyness and embarrassment that in fact, in 1966, she had not really told him the entire story:
"You would have thought I was crazy; now, I must tell you the rest, but only in one condition."
What she demanded was:
"My name and even the district of Cincinnati where I live must not be revealed."
Stringfield promised that to her and respected his word. Mrs. X had followed his writings and research for some time now; and in addition, after the 1973 UFO flap in the US and the case of the close encounter of the third type in Pascagoula in 1973, and many other similar cases, it had become somehow less unacceptable than in 1966 to testify of experiences going beyond the simple observation of "lights in the sky." Thus, although Mrs. X had told of her experience only to members of his family, and of course had discussed it with the members of her family who were witnesses themselves, she now had decided that if her privacy is respected she can talk about it to a ufologist respected and known to keep his privacy engagements. (She was referred to as Mrs. Everett Steward, this was a pseudonym.)
She explains to Stringfield that nine years earlier, exactly on October 2, 1966 at 20:20, as the notes she carefully wrote and preserved indicate, when she 49 years old, she spoke on the phone with a friend, when a nauseous odor invaded the room.
She was seized in a giddiness, has to excuse herself by her friend on the phone, stopped the conversation and to hang up, and she went up in her bedroom as quickly as she could. She remembers that before she undressed, she had the impression of being observed, and, while looking though the window, she was amazed to see an object of oval shape, brilliantly coloured, with port-holes, which seemed motionless close to the ground in a wooden place at a hundred meters from there.
Her husband, who was a dispatcher in a big harware company in Cincinnati, had already retired in the bedroom for the night, and had fallen asleep. But he was awaken by his wife who wanted to show him the strange object. He looked at it, and thought initially that it was a plane flying too low. But as he continued to watch it he has to give up this first impression. The object was then moving away from their house, but then it returned in the vicinity, stopped at approximately 300 meters above ground-level during ten minutes.
It seemed to have approximately 25 meters in diameter, and was girdled of red, green and white lights which swiveled quickly. When Mrs. X realized that the object was now close to the house of her married daughter, Janet Y, at some 1 500 meters, she called her by phone:
"I felt very sick when I phoned to alert Janet. The odor seemed stronger to me, and I was so dizzy that I had to sit down."
When her phone rung, Janet was cleaning tiles. She listened to her mother, and then immediately woke her husband Ken up, and they indeed saw the UFO which was now within two hundred meters of the window of the first floor of their house.
Both described the object as large, metallic, and equipped with a line of yellowish lights. They were amazed.
Ken, Janet's husband, at once went to get their neighbor, David Stites, who was a reserve officer in the US Navy. Stites got his binoculars, and with Ken, joined Janet at the window. Stringfield indicates:
"The binoculars were excellent, and Stites, used to aerial navigation, had quickly made its observation. The disc had, no doubt, square windows, and each one emitted a yellow gleam."
Then the lights became sharper, the machine started to roll and pitch, and it started a slow horizontal movement. Ken said:
"At this time, all the dogs in the neighborhood were barking. It was obvious that something out of the ordinary was occurring."
Convinced that it was not a plane, Ken and David went out of the house for better seeing. Ken reported:
"At my amazement, my cat, Nightcap, spout out of a bush, close to me, in attack posture, hair raised on its back, Then he made a kind of howl, threw itself against the door and got caught in the mosquito net. I almost had to tear off his claws to free it."
The UFO had moved again. Ken continues:
"It seemed ready to leave. I asked Dave to come with me in my car to see it more closely."
They then drove towards Mount Airy, trying to reach the UFO, but it flew above them at a tremendous speed and they then lost sight of it.
Meanwhile, Janet had remained alone and had constantly kept it in sight. She really wanted to go outside to look at it but she was afraid. However when the UFO had moved, her curiosity overcame her:
"I was terrified, but I went outside nevertheless."
At her mother's and her father's home, panic had won. After having warned her daughter, Mrs. X had called the airport of Cincinnati which admitted that "something not identified" had flown above Cincinnati. Mrs. X then called the police. She remembers that the answer of the chief of the police officers had been: "Lady, you are the forty-fifth to call tonight." A little later, whereas the craft was close to the ground, the airport called her backed, to asked where the UFO was at this time.
The strange odor had now filled all the rooms of the house. Mrs. X indicated:
"It was a repelling chemical odor. So strong I lost balance."
Then, her daughter Debbie, who had been at the theatre with her friend, arrived home, and she also saw the UFO. While entering the family house, she was suffocated by the horrible odor and asked her mother what had spread through the house. But her mother, disabled, had crashed on a chair. She was given aspirin and taken to her daughter's bedroom, where there was an additional bed where to spend a good night of rest...
Meanwhile, not far from there, her other Janet daughter regretted not having remained inside her house. The UFO had moved and returned in the vicinity. Its yellow lights started to flash more quickly, then, suddenly, a smaller object spouted out of it from its side. Janet later said: "It looked like a red balloon."
This "red balloon" carried out fast manoeuvres, zigzagged, leaped and rotated. Then, it moved right towards Janet and Ken's house, "without any noise."
While this "red balloon" made these manoeuvres, the largest machine moved away quickly towards the south and was lost sight of sight there. Janet told:
"Soon after, the red balloon emitted a ray of white light over the house. It rose straight at thirty meters approximately above it. It had an oval shape at this time, its lower face was like aluminum foil, smooth and shining. I could not evaluate the dimensions that it had taken, but it was larger than my house and its court together. It seemed very close. I had the impression that I could have touched it; I even tried to raise my arms in the air to reach it."
When Stringfield asked her whether she had felt physiological effects during this encounter, she told him that she felt no dizziness, no faintness, no feeling of paralysis, no ticking. She did not remember any change of internal temperature. However she told that she had also smelled the unpleasant and strange odor which floated in the air, that she could possibly compare only with "a dustbin odor." But she also added:
"Only one thing seemed strange to me - really strange. When that thing passed above me, any fear suddenly disappeared. It is the most fantastic feeling I ever experienced."
Meanwhile, Mrs. X's husband and her other daughter Debbie, in the other house, exhausted, had gone to lie down and had fallen asleep. Mrs. X, although she also went to bed, had remained completely awaken, trying to push out of her mind the memory of the UFO and the odor which had made her sick.
Some delay occurred, then suddenly, during a half-second, the darkness was replaced with a brilliant white light which filled all the room where she was lying.
Mrs. X sat then sat down on her bed, too shocked to shout. From one wall to another, from the floor to the ceiling, the room bathed in a light so brilliant that she could see clearly all the furniture. There were no shades left. Instantly, the light died out. In the middle of the darkness, a very luminous sphere appeared at the foot of the bed. Inside this sphere, which, according to the memories of Mrs. X was the size of a 15 inches TV set, there were five nonhuman heads, without hair, with two almond eyes inserted in the cranium.
She specified:
"The five heads were similar. Instead of nose, they had slits. They had neither mouths, neither necks, nor arms."
The mouthless heads did not speak, but in a certain way Mrs. X received this message: "We made contact."
The message was repeated like by telepathy, several times. Mrs. X then started to shout. Her daughter Debbie leapt out of her bed, Mr. X arrived running from his room and found his wife in a state of nervous breakdown. She tried to explain, in an incoherent way, what she had seen, which had disappeared.
Stringfield concluded:
"For the X's, it was an horrible night. An horrible night which was followed by many other exhausting nights. Mrs. X saw a doctor the following day; he took care of her nervous disorders. But as her dreams became nightmares, she was sent to a psychiatrist. During two years, she had to remain under constant medical supervision."
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[Ref. ls1:] LEONARD STRINGFIELD:
The author indicates to have received in 1976 the confidential statements of a person he called by the pseudonym of Mrs. Everett Steward as she required of him that her true name was not revealed, about her weird UFO experience, a close encounter, of the type that Jacques Vallée calls "psychic" and are not often revealed, while now even the astronomer J. Allen Hynek who would have rejected it 10 years earlier is interested in it.
The author indicates that he noted down these statements in his personal ufology diary he updates every day.
The witness had heard about Stringfield's research for a long time, but acknowledged to him that she did not have the courage to talk about her experience except to members of her family.
On October 30, 1975, the witness called Stringfield at dinner time, telling him that she had already called him in 1966 to tell that she saw a UFO. She added timidly that at the time she did not tell the whole story because he would have though she was crazy, but now she wanted to tell it all under the condition that her name and the district of Cincinnati where she lives are not revealed - requirements that Leonard Stringfield respected.
She thus reported that on October 2, 1966, at 08:20 p.m., as indicated in the notes she preciously keeps in a drawer of her office, 9 years before, when she was 49 years old, she was on the phone with a friend when a nauseous odor invaded the room.
She felt dizzy, excused herself to her friend, hung up, and climbed a stair as quickly as possible to get to her bedroom. She remembers that before taking her clothes off, she had the feeling of being observed, and when she looked through the window, she was amazed to see an object of oval form, brilliantly colored, with port-holes, appearing to be motionless close to the ground in a timbered place at a hundred meters of her.
Her husband who was a shipper in a large hardware company in Cincinnati, had already gone to bed for the night, and he remembers that his wife awaked him as she wanted to show him the weird object; which he initially thought to be a low flying plane. When better observing, he had changed his opinion. The object then moved away from the house, then returned and stopped at approximately 300 meters above ground-level during ten minutes.
It is described by Leonard Stringfield as of maybe 25 meters in diameter, and having a belt of red, green and white lights that swiveled fast.
The woman then realized that the object was close to the house of her married daughter, Janet Emery, at some 1500 meters. She phoned her, and suddenly felt completely sick when calling. The odor then seemed stronger to her, and she was so dizzy that she had to sit down.
Her daughter was cleaning the floor when her mother called, and she immediately awoke her husband Ken. They then located the UFO at approximately 200 meters from a window upstairs, and to both, it was like a large metallic object equipped with a line of yellowish lights. The husband who stated "I had it right in front of my eyes" was stunned and quickly went to get his, David Stites, a Navy reserve officer. The latter took some binocular, and joined Ken at the window. The binoculars being excellent and Stites being used to air traffic, the object was then described as a disc that had square windows, each one producing a yellow gleam.
These lights then became sharper, the apparatus started to pitch and started a slow horizontal movement. Ken said that at this time, all the dogs in the neighborhood started to bark and that obviously something unusual was going on, and they were convinced that it was not a plane.
Ken and Stites went outside for better seeing, and Ken stated to have been very surprised that his cat, "Nightcap", rushed out of a bush close to him, hair raised. The cat emitted a kind of yell, threw itself on the door and was caught in the mosquito net, from where it proved very difficult to free.
The UFO had again moved, Ken stating that it seemed ready to leave. He and Stite took off by car to observe it more closely, and they drove towards Mount Airy, the UFO then flying overhead , very fast, after what they lost sight of it.
His wife Janet had remained alone and observed the object, resisting the desire to get outside to look at it, because she was afraid. But when the UFO had moved, curiosity had won and although she was terrified, as soon as Ken and Stites were gone, she went outside all the same; which she regretted. The UFO had moved, then returned to its initial position, its yellow lights starting to rotate faster. Suddenly, a smaller object spouted out on the side; which Janet would describe as resembling a red balloon. The young woman, frozen, observed the complex manoeuvers of this red "balloon". It "zigzagged, leapt and rotated. Then, it appeared to slip by and moved right onto my house without any noise." During these operations of the red balloon, Janet saw that the larger apparatus with the yellow lights had moved away fast towards the South and was gone.
The next moment, Janet saw the red balloon emitting a beam of white light over the house, and rising straight up at approximately 30 meters above her. It had an oval shape now, its lower side was like aluminum foil, smooth and brilliant. She could not evaluate the size it now took, but stated that it was larger than her house and yard together and seemed very close: "I had the felling I could touch it, I even tried to raise my arms up to reach to it."
Leonard Stringfield asked her whether she had felt physiological effects during this encounter, and she answered that she felt no faintness, no feeling of paralysis, no tickling. She did not remember of any change of internal temperature, but said that only one thing appeared very strange to her: when the thing passed above her, all her fear was suddenly gone. "It is the most fantastic feeling I ever felt." She was also conscious of the strange and "unpleasant" odor that filled the air, and when asked which familiar odor she could compare it to, she told it was like a dustbin smell.
At her mother's house, panic reigned, and after having alerted Janet, Mrs. "Steward" had phoned the Cincinnati airport, where it was admitted that "something unidentified" had passed above this city. Then she had called the police where the chief officer had answered "Lady, you are the 45th people who calls tonight."
A little later, whereas the apparatus was close to the ground, the airport phoned back and asked her where the object was.
The odor had now filled all the rooms of the house. Mrs. "Steward" described it as a repelling chemical odor, which made her lose balance.
Mrs. "Steward"'s younger girl, Debbie, had been to the theater with her boyfriend and arrived in the evening. She had also seen the UFO, she was suffocated by the horrible odor, and asked to her mother what she had spilled in the house.
Dismayed, Mrs. Steward had crashed on a chair, she was given some aspirin and taken to her daughter's bedroom where there was an additional bed. Her exhausted husband went to bed and fell asleep in spite of the widespread persistent odor in the house. Their daughter Debbie also went to sleep, of an agitated sleep, but her mother, in the nearby bed, was completely awaken, trying to chase away the UFO from her mind and to overcome the odor which had made her sick.
After a certain time, the darkness suddenly gave up during a half-second to a shining white light that filled the bedroom. Mrs. "Steward" sat down on her bed, too awestruck to shout. From one wall to another, from the floor to the ceiling, the bedroom was bathed in a light so bright that she could clearly saw all furniture. There was no shade. In a moment, the light was off in the middle of the darkness, a sphere of the same luminous intensity, the size of a 50 centimeters television screen appeared at the foot of the bed. Inside were five nonhuman heads, hairless, with two almond eyes "inserted like orbits in a cranium."
Mrs. "Steward" specified: "the five heads were similar. Instead of nose, they had slits. They had no mouths, no necks, no arm." These heads did not speak, but Mrs. Steward received their message: "We made contact." This message was repeated telepathically several times, and Mrs. Steward started to shout, which made Debbie leap out of the bed, while her husband rushed in from his bedroom to find his wife in a state of nervous crisis. The sphere with the heads had disappeared. She tried to explain to them, in an incoherent manner, what she had just seen.
Mrs. Steward went to see a doctor the next day, and he treated her for nervous disorders, but as her dreams became nightmares, she was urged to a psychiatrist and during two years, she had to remain under constant medical supervision.
[Ref. bh1:] ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW AND GEORGE S. HOWARD:
The authors indicate that on October 2, 1966, Cincinnati, Ohio, at 08:20 p.m., inside her home, Mrs. Everett Steward smelled a bad odor, felt someone was watching her, and went to the bedroom where she saw an egg-shaped object with revolving red, green, and white lights and portholes.
Several other people claimed to have seen it at seventy-five to one hundred feet off the ground.
After Mrs. Steward went to bed, a bright white light filled the room, then vanished, and suddenly, a glowing globe appeared at the end of her bed, containing five "non-human" beings with bald heads and oval sunken eyes. They had slits for noses, appeared mouthless, and repeated the mental "We have made contact" message several times.
The authors indicated that the source is Leonard Stringfield, "Situation Red: The UFO Siege!", Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977, pp. 33-36.
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 2, 1966, at 08:20 p.m., Mrs. Everett Steward was talking on the telephone when she smelled a foul odor in the room. She went to her bedroom, where she had a feeling of being watched.
Looking out the window, she saw an oval shaped object with portholes and red, green, and white lights revolving around it. It was 75 ft in diameter and 100 ft up. She woke her husband, who also saw it, and called her married daughter, Mrs. Janet Emery, a mile away; the Emerys also saw it, and a neighbor with binoculars could see that it had square windows glowing yellow.
Janet went outdoors and saw the UFO eject a red ball, which maneuvered while the first UFO took off southward. The red ball flew 75-100 ft over Jane's head; it was oval, and its underside was shiny like aluminum foil; it was "bigger than my cottage and yard combined." She also smelled the garbage like odor.
Mrs. Steward went to bed, the odor still in the house. After some time, the room was filled for an instant with brilliant white light; then this vanished, and a globe of light about 21" in diameter appeared at the foot of her bed.
Inside this globe were 5 "non-human, hairless heads" with oval, sunken eyes. "Instead of noses, there were slits, and they had no mouths." Telepathically, they repeated several times "We have made contact." Mrs. Steward screamed, and the globe disappeared. She was so disquieted by the experience that she was under psychiatric care for the next 2 years.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Leonard Stringfield.
Obviously the reports as passed by Len Stringfield are of high strangeness. No known aircraft from this planet, for example, would show the characteristics reported by "Janet Emery" when she described how an object the size of her house and yard together hovered above her head so close as if she could try to touch it, while being capable of maneuvers such as jumps, zigzags, rotation, all in silence.
However, as told in the book by Len Stringfield, the case also raises a number of questions. For example, skeptics will possibly argue that as the mother underwent psychiatry after the sighting, the entire episode may be of psychiatric nature. And the fact is that the case is not documented thoroughly enough to show whether she was a sound person before the sighting, or not.
Is is also not clearly established if Len Stringlfield talked to all of the witnesses. It looks like he talked with the mother over the phone, and talked to at least her daughter Janet. But it was important to document whether he went on site, whether he talked with the other witnesses, or if what Janet and the others said was actually reported by the mother only. In a case of such strangeness at least at first sight, it would have been necessary that a full-fledge investigation was made, on site, with written statements from all the witnesses, a situation map, drawings to reconstitute the main UFO, the second UFO, the weird device with the weir heads. The medical personal who took care of the main witness should have been asked their opinion on their patient. At least two investigators should have been involved, to prevent that the story remains a report by a lone investigator with no independent company, etc.
Possibly, this was all thoroughly documented in Len Stringfield's personal ufology notebook, possibly documented in his case report for Skylook. Just as possibly the might be nothing more in these earlier sources than in the book. Thus I must refrain from any sure assessment on the case and hope that I can find these more primary and possibly better sources.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | August 24, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Initial notes by investigator not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Data | Severe | August 24, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | First case report by investigator not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 3 | Ufology | Severe | August 24, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Investigator seems to have worked alone, which is regrettable in this context insofar it lacks any second opinion. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 4 | Ufology | Severe | August 24, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Anonymized report with no real names and location; which precludes any counter-investigation. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 5 | Ufology | Severe | August 24, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | The psychological profile of the main witness is in question, her state before the sighting is not indicated, the medical personnel's opinions is not indicated. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Extraterrestrial visitors or psychological. Insufficient data.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | August 24, 2007 | Creation, [ls1], [bh1], [ar1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | August 24, 2007 | First published. |
