Probably around 1977, two authors, Ramon A. Pantoja and Robert Freeman Bound, who were apparently specialized in ghost stories and devilish apparitions, wrote an article that appeared in Fate magazine in which appeared a weird case of goblins from Mexico.
The story apparently said that that near Cintalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, on May 22, 1973, at 08:00 a.m., driving a 6-ton truck loaded with asbestos sheeting, cement, and steel, Manuel Angel Gonzalez was in the vicinity of Cintalapa when he suddenly noticed five little figures standing in the road ahead of him with their arms raised in the air. They had abruptly appeared from nowhere.
The driver braked his truck immediately, only a short distance from them. He thought at first they were children, but at closer range he saw they were perfectly proportioned adult figures but no more than 2 feet high, with light brown skin and black hair. He was unable to remember details about their clothing.
As he got out of his truck, the little figures began scattering toward the sides of the road, disappearing into the underbrush along the highway. As he turned to go back to his truck, he saw it suddenly engulfed in blue flame; in a matter of no more than 30 minutes, the truck and its normally non-flammable cargo were reduced to ashes and fused metal.
Two other motorists who stopped to watch witnessed the conflagration. Interestingly, according to the witness, two days after the truck was consumed by fire, metal fragments that had been collected spontaneously burst into blue flames and were reduced to ashes.
The witness related the appearance of the little figures to stories of little people of Mexican folklore, the Chaneques.
The story adds that investigators later learned that two other trucks were similarly destroyed and that in one case, UFOs were seen.
It seems the authors had published at least another very dubious story, that there was no investigation, and I found no trace of the case, if I except three ufological catalogues that re-told it with no verification.
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[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that near Cintalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, on May 22, 1973, at 08:00 a.m., driving a 6-ton truck loaded with asbestos sheeting, cement, and steel, Manuel Angel Gonzalez was in the vicinity of Cintalapa when he suddenly noticed five little figures standing in the road ahead of him with their arms raised in the air. They had abruptly appeared from nowhere.
The driver braked his truck immediately, only a short distance from them. He thought at first they were children, but at closer range he saw they were perfectly proportioned adult figures but no more than 2 feet high, with light brown skin and black hair. He was unable to remember details about their clothing.
As he got out of his truck, the little figures began scattering toward the sides of the road, disappearing into the underbrush along the highway. As he turned to go back to his truck, he saw it suddenly engulfed in blue flame; in a matter of no more than 30 minutes, the truck and its normally non-flammable cargo were reduced to ashes and fused metal.
Two other motorists who stopped to watch witnessed the conflagration. Interestingly, according to the witness, two days after the truck was consumed by fire, metal fragments that had been collected spontaneously burst into blue flames and were reduced to ashes.
The witness related the appearance of the little figures to stories of little people of Mexican folklore, the Chaneques.
The investigators later learned that two other trucks were similarly destroyed and that in one case, UFOs were seen.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Ramon A Pantoja, Robert Freeman Bound, Fate.
[Ref. dj1:] DONALD JOHNSON:
Donald Johnson indicates that on May 22, 1973, at 8 a.m. Manuel Angle Gonzalez was driving a six-ton truck loaded with asbestos sheeting, cement, and steel, and he was in the vicinity of the town of Cintalapa in the State of Veracruz, Mexico when he noticed five little figures standing in the road ahead of him. They had their arms raised in the air, and they seemed to have appeared from nowhere. He slammed on the truck's brakes and came to a stop only a short distance away from them. At first he thought they might be children, but close up he could see that they were perfectly proportioned adults but only two feet tall. They had light brown skin and black hair, but he couldn't recall any details about what clothing they were wearing. As he got out of his truck the little figures began to scatter to the sides of the road, disappearing into the underbrush along the highway. When he turned to go back to his truck he saw it suddenly engulfed in blue flame, and in a matter of 30 minutes the truck and its normally non-flammable contents were reduced to ashes and fused metal. Two other motorists stopped to witness the conflagration. According to the witness, two days after the fire metal fragments that had been collected from the site spontaneously burst into blue flames and were likewise reduced to ashes. The witness compared the appearance of the little beings to stories of little people from Mexican folklore, called the Chaneques. Investigators later learned that two more trucks were similarly destroyed and that in one case, UFOs were seen.
The author indicates that the source is David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case 1973-13, citing Ramon A Pantoja and Robert Freeman Bound, Fate.
Some ufologists argue that UFO occupants are not extraterrestrial beings nor hoaxes neither confusions, but true hobbits or goblins or fairies from some "other realm" or other dimension, of a nature both physical and psychic; which, they say, call for a complete revision of all science claims to say of reality.
When reading this story, one might think that at last, there is such a case, in which the entities, human adults but of an abnormally short size, are just such goblins and obviously not alien beings. With the mention of "the investigators" and of additional witnesses of the strange fire, it could suggest that some solid case of goblins rests behind this summary.
Unfortunately, I had no memories of such fantastic case, and my search in ufological sources confirmed that not much more seems to be known about the extraordinary encounter. Obviously, the primary source is the article by Ramon A. Pantoja and Robert Freeman Bound, in Fate magazine, nobody else seemed to have known of the mentioned investigators, nobody in the spheres of ufology and forteana seemed to have checked further.
When trying to learn from the Internet who Ramon A. Pantoja and Robert Freeman Bound were, as those names do not seem to be part of the hall of fame of serious ufology, to say the least, I had the luck to stumble on an article entitled "A Jamesian Hoax", by Rosemary Pardoe, from the Ghost Story Society's All Hallows 1, 1989, at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveDemon.html.
The article happens to tell about the authors Robert Freeman Bound and Ramon A. Pantoja Lopez. I seems they published an article entitled "The Demon in the Cathedral", in the September 1977 issue of Fate magazine.
Rosemary Pardoe gives some clue about all this.
She says that their article was followed in the February 1978 edition, by a number of irate letters from readers, claiming that the authors had copied many details in their supposedly factual account from M.R. James' story "An Episode of Cathedral History" (1914).
She says the authors had written something about a demon who caused havoc in the Cathedral of Mexico City around 1629, including a sudden mysterious appearance of a marble sarcophagus in the Cathedral. And it appears that Bound and Lopez simply altered and plagiarized a similar story from England and rewrote it as having happened in Mexico City, until it appeared that it was one mysterious Professor Carrasco and his 'aide' Sr Jorge Zaragoza Carmona who gave them the altered and plagiarized story.
Of course, all this does not seem to be related to the truck-burning-goblins in Mexico. But it does show that the story cannot be trusted at all as their author are rather of the kind to simply write what they are told, and not "investigators" who would have checked the story.
Thus, until proven otherwise, I must consider this case as extremely dubious and totally unconfirmed. Isn't it just like any other fairy tale?
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | September 9, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Primary source not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Ufology | Severe | September 9, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Credibility of original author seems in doubt. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 3 | Ufology | Severe | September 9, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | No corroboration or trace of case from other sources. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Dubious story probably without base.
* = 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 | September 9, 2007 | Creation, [ar1], [dj1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 9, 2007 | First published. |
