The 1954 "French UFO flap" -which may not have been a flap at all

 I would like to offer this page from Patrick Gross' Ufologie page.  It shows the results for an incident during the 1954 "French UFO flap" -which may not have been a flap at all (see Unidentified-Identified):

The 1954 French flap:

The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.

October 3, 1954, Marcoing, Nord:

Reference number for this case: 3-oct-54-Marcoing. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Reports:

[Ref. la1] "L'ALSACE" NEWSPAPER:

The newspaper reports on October 6, 1954, with no other information, that there was a sighting in Marcoing. The date is not given but the sighting is mentioned among others that took place on October 2 and 3, 1954.

See the article here.

[Ref. li1:] "LIFE" MAGAZINE:

MARTIAN MEN'S HEIGHT is shown by two bakers. Pierre Lucas (left) of Loctudy was going to well when, he said, orange ball fell from the sky. Suddenly a small bearded figure with one eye in the middle of his forehead tapped him on the shoulder. Serge Pochet (right) of Marcoing was approached by two small shadows.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

103. Location. Marcoing France Date: October 3 1954 Time: night Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information. Humcat 1954-67 Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports Type: E?

[Ref. dj2:] DONALD JONHSON:

Donald Johnson says that on October 3, 1954, a humanoid report occurred later than 6:45 p.m., in the night and did not involve a UFO sighting: young baker's apprentice S. Pouchet, was approached by two small shadowy beings, about three feet tall, in Marcoing, Nord, France.

The sources are noted as "Webb, David F. & Bloecher, Ted. HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case A0271, citing Life Magazine, November 1, 1954" and "Life Magazine, November 1, 1954".

[Ref. gn1:] "GNEOVNI" UFOLOGY GROUP:

In "Special notes" of their catalogue, the GNEOVNI group indicates that there exists in several books, such as Aimé Michel's "M.O.C.", Planète publishers in 1966, in which there is a number of observation cases in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais which are not included in their catalogue because there "remains much doubts as to their credibility." One of them is noted "3-10-54 Marcoing nord".

[Ref. ta1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

Location: Marcoing France Date: October 3 1954 Time: night Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information. Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports

[Ref. ub1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database recorded this case 9 times:

Case Nr.	New case Nr.	Investigator	Date of observation	Zip	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification	Comments	Identification
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	Night	CE III
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.30	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.30	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	20.00	NL
19541003			03.10.1954		Marcoing	France	Night	CE III

Explanations:

Not looked for yet.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Marcoing, Nord, Serge Pochet, entity, entities, dark, small, two

Sources:

[---] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.

• [la1] Article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse, France, October 6, 1954.
• [li1] Part of the article "Astral Adventurers - Frenchmen report meetings with unlikely creatures", in LIFE Magazine, USA, page 28, November 1, 1954.
• [---] "HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports", compiled by David Webb and Ted Bloecher, Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), USA, circa 1978.
• [ar1] "1954 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2001, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1954.shtml
• [dj2] "The Worldwide UFO Wave of 1954", electronic article by Donald Johnson, Ph.D., USA, page 5, 2009, at www.ufoinfo.com/onthisday/papers/Worldwide%20UFO%20Wave%20of%201954.pdf
• [gn1] "Catalogue Régional d'observations", by the Groupement Nordiste d'Etudes des Observations d'Objets Volants Non Identifiés (GNEOVNI), France, undated, circa 2009, at www.geru.fr/fr/catalogue-regional-observation-ovni-nord
• [ta1] "1954: October Sightings", catalog on the UFO website Think About It, USA, not dated, found 2014, at http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/8-1954-october-sightings
• [ub1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de

So what do you notice? Perhaps that someone notes that someone referred to this case...appearing in newspapers?  I am hoping that this sticks out like a ten feet (3m) high glowing red thumb. We have a case, once again, of 'investigation' by news-clippings.

Two reported incidents of alleged actual landings and entities and who turns up after -the press. There were people claiming to be flying saucer investigators but that amounted to noting down a news item on the radio or adding a newspaper clipping to the scrapbook. From the news clipping these people could pontificate and waffle on over pages.

I understand that there was no funding for flying saucer research but most of these people involved in the subject knew each other one way or another. There was a very real attitude, not just in France, that even if a report came from a mile or two away -why go investigate when the newspapers had all the information?

I actually almost choked on a swig of coffee when I read Italian investigators, who had not once even attempted to go and investigate Rosa Lotti's encounter in 1954 until the early 2000's, complaining and criticising newspapers and journalists for leaving out information and not doing a thorough job. Well, at least the reporters got off of their arses and went to see her.  There are literally hundreds of cases like the one above.

Writers -'ufologists'- are making money out of including these cases in their books and worst of all in their "data" or "sightings breakdowns" that make them look so good.  The truth is that they are producing nonsense: they have no data other that he wrote what so-and-so wrote who got it from whatshisname who found it mentioned in a newspaper clipping. That is then the solid data used by people like Jacques Vallee who does not actually check anything himself. 

The period 1947-2018 has literally achieved nothing when it comes to ufology other than over-hyped hysteria, bunko-men and...literally, huge volumes of trash.  Graham F. N. Knewstub's British Flying Saucer Bureau Technical Report No. 1 was in the 1950s, we all thought that we were seeing real science (I was fooled, too) when Vallee published his work on UFO Waves, Flaps and so on.  He included well known hoaxes, misidentifications of aircraft, meteors, weather balloons and much more in amongst the not investigated UFO cases. The data was useless.

Then we saw Ted Bloecher Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, published in 1967. This was an actual attempt at analysis and to piece events from that year together.  Published work that could be peer reviewed. It was as early as 1956 that Bloecher became intrigued by the growing number of “UFO occupant” reports and along with researcher David Webb, started to work on what would become the Humanoid Catalogue –HUMCAT: a collection of early “humanoid” sightings. I prefer not to use the term “Humanoids” as an all-encompassing term but the important thing is that the work began.

   Ted Bloecher’s major interest was always in occupant reports or Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K), as they would be called after J. Allen Hynek set out his categorisation of UFO sighting reports.  Bloecher had been one of the top thinkers in the Civilian Saucer Investigation group and after that became active with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and when  NICAP became “moribund”, Bloecher moved on to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS).  He was still concentrating his efforts on investigation of CE3K reports with David Webb. In 1978, CUFOS published his and Davis's Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, based on the investigation of the Kelly-Hopkinsville case.

   Bloecher could well be called the top authority on these cases in the United States by the 1970s and though he did everything he possibly could (see UFO Contact?) to get the Euporia, Mississippi landing/entity case prioritised and investigated it never was –presumably due to the prejudices of the two investigators.

   But being the top man does not come with a university grant or even financial funding and to keep records complete Bloecher filed away press reports.  This should have been the data base used for thorough investigation of the cases. Instead, ufologists just quoted Bloecher and that he, himself, was referencing newspaper reports.

   Then came the big excuse of the “Grey Abduction Paranoia” –if a case did not involve Greys then it was a fake or misidentification.  No need to bother. Or to use the much criticised US Air Force ‘excuse’ used so well by MUFON today: the amount of time that has passed negates any fruitful investigation.

Ufology does not “get the respect deserved”?  You earn respect.

Two cases from recent years I have tried to get more information on so I went to the site owners who reported on the cases.  In each I was told “I picked that up from (website) –best you contact him” and so I did: “I read that on (name of website) because it seemed interesting” and then I was advised to contact the “original source”. This original source turned out to have copied the item from some newspaper item and he could not remember which or the date. This is the most common response I get when following up old reports and today I more or less expect it.

Ufology is basing all of its claims on cases –including plain old “UFO” sightings- that were never investigated because it is much easier to sit in a chair and say “The evidence is all there” –it is not.

In the United States, France and Belgium I think there are enough ufologists with some credibility who can open cold case investigations on old CE3K/Alien Entity cases.  Once the witnesses, now in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are gone then so are all of the facts that they can tell us and to ascertain which, if any, of the CE3K/AE reports is genuine could provide us with the valuable data we need.

I am undertaking this work in the UK (though some prominent ufologists appear to not want this –I wonder why?) and I just hope and pray that someone out there will do likewise in their own country.  PLEASE!

You Tube and UFO False Info The Venezuelan UFO Wave of 1954: Invasion of the Hairy Humanoids

 The observer drew a picture of the UFO....not shown therefor NOT a piece of evidence.

 Photograph was taken of the UFO in two or three cases. "Never published" or they did not exist?  All of the American and South American Ufologists who copied and reprinted the news stories but not one got a copy of any of the photos?  Oh it was an "official cover up" not down to the fact Ufologists founded it less work to just reprint news items -standard from 1940-2000s.

Hundreds of observers (if we take just one case) so where are the gathered statements as evidence?  Surely APRO had as many gathered as possible? No.

One man identified as the translator of the items and we do not even have his real name.

The French 1954 UFO wave was no such thing. Assessing all of the material, including from French language sources, we see that meteorites, aircraft, helicopters and even a man repairing a broken down bus were all mixed into the pot. 95% at least of the "Wave" was false. People like Jacques Vallee know this but ...

We are NOT being presented with "irrefutable proof" in these videos just stories. Some of the entity cases I have dealt with in my books  (Contact) and they are impressive because something obviously DID happen.

I, personally, observed a 7 feet tall carrot-like  entity and UFO in my back garden. 20 other people saw it all. Prove that statement false. Only my confession to a false statement would be evidence.

The use of some outright stupid AI images/clips only helps take away any credibility because  they are so laughable and "if he resorts to this AI trash how far can he be trusted?"

I've spent over five decades looking at the subject of AE/CE3K encounters and assessing the evidence and reporting on them. People will ignore that because some hack has posted utter rot on You Tube with really awful AI.

Witness to Aliens Repair of Craft — Revisited: New Scientific Models Cas...

Unfortunately, video producers tend to ignore the actual facts in favour of 'proof' from science that 'adds' to the cases. The cases then become accepted as genuine. Add something "similar" between the case and another" -more 'proof'.  "Multiple witness case"....no. An alleged double witness observation of a UFO at best. But two do not become "multiple witnesses".

This is a 2004 statement from Anders Liljegren, who investigated the case thoroughly:

"I most certainly have further info on the classic Swedish Gideon Johansson case! "I wrote an article on the case for Britain's Flying Saucer Review in 1970 (Nov/Dec 1970 pp.14-17). Today I must admit that the case was much overrated at that time. "My own evaluation today is that this case should (must) be labeled as 'psychological'. Gideon Johansson was a man who saw many things in his lifetime (ghosts, revenants, 'UFOs' (five or six times), etc). He even reported seeing a small Santa Claus-like figure in the industry area where he worked prior to the saucer landing. And he heard voices speaking in Russian from large tanks at the industry area where he was working. No one else heard the voices. "Following up on the case, I have read local newspapers of the time, interviewed about fifty of Mr. Gideon Johansson's workmates, neighbours, relatives and inhabitants of Mariannelund. I have also talked with Gideon's son Rolf, who was a witness together with Gideon, but who only confirms the FIRST phase of the sighting: a brilliant light over the nearby three-storied building. The supposed two other witnesses except for Gideon and Rolf have never been found and interviewed by anyone. "I have been able to prove beyond any doubt that Gideon was and overenthusiastic UFO believer before the claimed landing (with EM effect) in 1959. The case was 'the master case' of Swedish ufology in the 1970's. Big shame on us! "Gideon had had a 'UFO' sighting in the summer of 1958 which can very certainly be traced to a bright bolide seen over half of Sweden. Most other witnesses saw two streaks of light going towards the northwest while Gideon saw a 'flying telephone receiver' and sent detailed and colourful accounts of this sighting to anyone interested. Despite the great distance (8000 meters of more) Gideon was able to see details no one else saw. He first reported this first (meteor) case to Mr. Sven Schalin, NICAP representative for Sweden, in a letter to Schalin in January 1959, nine-ten months prior to the landing. "Mr. Schalin visited Gideon at his home in August 1959, just six weeks prior to the 'landing'. Mark Rodeghier kindly digged out Schalin's orignal report on the meteor from the NICAP archives at CUFOS for me. In spite of Schalin's visit -- Schalin's interest in UFOs was widely published by Swedish media after the Domsten affair (now known as a outright hoax) -- Gideon did not contact Schalin to report the landing just six weeks later. This is extremely curious to me! In fact he waited until 1967 to send his detailed report to K. Gosta Rehn (APRO representative). "Of all Gideon's workmates -- and I have interviewed all of his closest mates at the electrical department of the factory as well as many others who knew him well -- no one had heard about the landing until after K.Gosta Rehn wrote about it in his 1969 book. The local newspaper reporter (who moved from the town in 1964) had never heard of the story when I phoned him in 1996. Gideon's story grew in size as the years went by. In fact, most people I have talked to regard Gideon as a storyteller, not just because of his UFO reports. "In the contemporary autumn 1959 local newspapers I found several interesting things: "There was a large military exercise -- involving more than 900 infantry soldiers close to Mariannelund alone -- at almost the exact reported time of the landing. In fact the exercise was all over eastern Sweden and involved hundreds of Swedish Air Force planes swarming also over Mariannelund. It is reported that a council meeting in the town had to be postponed, the day before the reported landing, because of the repeated noice of air force jets. None of the soldiers saw anything, no 'UFO' reports. There are no reports of a saucer at this time in the military archives we have copied. This makes me suspect that what Gideon and his son really saw was a military parachuted light or some other light connected to the exercise which was going on right in the direction where the light was seen. In fact Gideon's son today says that Gideon's landing and humanoids was an effect of his great immagination. "The William Gill sighting was published, as a short notice, by the newspaper Gideon was reading daily (a newspaper called Smalandstidningen), just about one week before Gideon should have seen his saucer. "The Gill sighting - as reported then in Sweden - has many elements common to the Gideon sighting: humanoids, the witness waving to the humanoids, UFO vehicle being 'repaired', etc. To me the Gill sighting was one source of inspiration, as was the contemporary Swedish UFO literature (Adamski, etc) and, possibly, Schalin's visit to Gideon's home just six weeks prior to document the meteor case for NICAP. "There is no documentation at all of an electric blackout at the factory. The local newspaper reported about the lack of water in the local river, which almost prevented pulp production at the factory where Gideon was working, but said not a word about an electric blackout, or for that matter damages to power lines. "Archives for UFO research [www.afu.info] has saved many correspondence files (early ufologists like K.Gosta Rehn, Sven Schalin and Lars Andersson) which give unique insights into the case and Gideon's personality. This spring I prepared a 30-page document on the Gideon case for the upcoming UFO-Sweden CD on ufology. We have used the case as an instructive example at the regular two-day training courses for the chain of UFO-Sweden field investigators. "It was originally my intention to let 'The Gideon saucer' become my contribution to the Hilary Evans-Denis Stacy collection published this year by John Brown (Fortean Times) but lack of time prevented this. I hope to make a special issue of the AFU Newsletter some time in the future but I don't know when this can happen. Anyway, the case is most instructive as an example of a psychological explanation. "The Gideon saucer case should be regarded with very great caution. I repeatedly see it here and there, but it would take a lot of effort to stop that tide. It only makes one suspicious of so many other similar cases reported from near and far. "Best regards to you all, Anders Liljegren, Archives for UFO research (AFU), "

The Brooklyn Bridge UFO | The Weirdest Story You'll Ever Hear

Sadly, it has to be said that no one (however sceptical they might want to appear) is willing to just outright state this case was a hoax and Linda may have pulled friends or family intro it -her husband being one of them.

When I first read Witnessed I thought Hopkins had decided to write a novel! Hopkins has been exposed for ignoring facts but stacking the deck -and his weekly Intruder Foundation meetings allowed alleged abductees to share stories so that each one picked up on things that eventually appeared in their next sessions. If Hopkins was being unbiased and logical he would KNOW that would happen/  In fact it all strengthened his stories to try to silence critics because "how can so many unrelated people report the same thing?"

Because Budd Hopkins made sure they all talked freely and he guided them in hypnotic sessions and even in cases not his own; once he used hypnosis out popped similarities to his creation.

Ufology still considers Hopkins and Neapolitano and the case as genuine.  But, then, Ufology is basically made up of fakers, grifters and people generally out to sell somethingso noi one gets out of this clean.

Agent Provocateur

A Key Witness in the Linda Cortile UFO Abduction Case rev 022214

Budd Hopkins on the Brooklyn Bridge - The Linda Case..mov

The Two Major Players of Budd Hopkins' Witnessed Case

1996 Budd Hopkins Hears of New Danger from Linda Cortile rev 022214

1996 Symbols Revealed as Evidence of Alien Abduction rev 022014

Something Answered — The Schneider Encounter (1968)

Jade Ekstrom (Anna)

 

We flew in from the east

One of the most difficult and controversial parts of ufology is the contact cases. Here too, one must try to use the ideological basis of UFO-Sweden – the ufology of the third way. After more than fifty years of investigations and studies of contact cases, I can state that most of them are about inner experiences with a probable psychological explanation. But some cases in my archive are of a completely different caliber, encounters with physical and concrete “strangers”, who obviously live among us.

In the book Strangers on our Earth. Ufokontakter i Sverige (pp. 108-11), there is a short account of the case of “Anna”. An English version in two parts can also be read on my blog. Since “Anna” was a person who moved in so-called high society circles, I promised not to reveal her real name as long as she lived. But after her death in 2018, I consider it ethically defensible to present my entire documentation of the case today with all the names involved.

Anna's real name was Jade Ekström and she was born in Stockholm in 1920. She spent a large part of her life abroad in countries such as the USA, England and France. For several years Jade lived in Mexico with her then husband, the German-born Frank Gebhart. He was the manager of the American company Combustion Engineering in Mexico. They married in 1958. Jade lived much of an upper-class life with diplomats, kings, presidents and movie stars as friends. A good friend during the Mexican period was the movie star Dolores del Rio. They met at a party with the Mexican president. Dolores del Rio and her husband were very interested in UFOs and Jade was invited to their residence in Mexico City. There she met several people who told about their own UFO experiences.

After returning to Stockholm in 1966, she worked for Prince Sigvard Bernadotte, which also included bridge evenings with Sigvard and his third wife Marianne. Jade was a member of The American Club of Sweden for five decades. The 1970s and onwards saw an increased interest in various new age ideas, which resulted in a small spiritual seeker group in Stockholm called Liljorna. During the 1980s, Jade became the Swedish representative for the organization Planetary Initiative for the World We Choose and participated in the conference in Toronto 17-21 June 1983. During the last years of her life, she published the book Who am I within me (2011).

Jade Ekstrom (Anna)

Jade often gave lectures in various contexts and was also open about her interests in paranormal phenomena, which emerged in an interview in Hemmets Veckotidind no. 22, 1975. But it was a series of experiences she never spoke about publicly and which I promised not to mention her involvement in until after she left this world. However, Jade appreciated the short summary I published in Strangers on Our Earth. In a letter dated July 26, 2009, she writes: “I am glad that you have written it to open people to the different dimensions we now live in from the bottom to the top.”

Through my good friend Christian Bratt I came into contact with Jade Ekström and did a longer taped interview, probably in 1982. Unfortunately I forgot to note the date of the interview. To make the presentation more vivid I will let Jade herself tell the story with quotes from the interview. These are two experiences with a very special connection. To understand the context, here is the first UFO incident on Vindö in the Stockholm archipelago sometime in 1947-48.

Jade second from the left at the bookstore Aquarius May 1977

Jade: We had guests, there were about twelve of us who saw this. It was in the late 1940s. I only know that it was in August. It wasn't 1949 at least. It could have been 1948 or 1947. It was very strange. I went out to get something from our basement and suddenly I saw a light coming over Kanholmsfjärden. It was coming from the west. We were on Vindö. I wasn't sure what it was and rushed in and said, you have to come out. Everyone rushed out and then they looked at this amazing thing and we said it must be a flying saucer.

Håkan: You already said that then?

Jade: Yes, we said that and I thought it was crazy exciting but somehow I felt scared that time too. I don't know why but I can only say that that was the experience I had. My husband he was definitely going to go down to the dock and take a closer look at it. It wasn't exactly over our house but it was... It just came straight at me like you see a cannonball and then it stopped down there by the bay. Then I got scared and said, no you can't do that and it ended up disappearing straight up at that angle. As we saw it it seemed straight up but it didn't come from above but straight in front. Then it stopped and then it stuck straight up.

Håkan: Didn't you see any details or shape?

Jade: No, it wasn't close enough. It was just up there in the air. We saw it above the treetops. We had fruit trees between the villa and our dock. It was too high for us to say it was a flying saucer. We assumed it was a flying saucer. It was a white light, it was dusk but it was still quite bright. It was almost like a star coming flying. It was so dark that you could definitely see the light. Then we went inside and there was a wild discussion about what we had seen. I was filled with this.

Jade moved to Mexico in 1966 where she married her second husband, engineer Frank Gebhart, in 1958. He looked so much like actor Danny Kaye that people stopped him on the street to ask for an autograph. During a conference in Guatemala through his work, Frank Gebhart met an interesting colleague, Ben Austin, to whom Jade and Frank were invited in November 1958. They were picked up in Mexico City by Austin's servants and taken to a location in Guatemala.

Jade: It was pure jungle. We drove as long as there were roads, then we switched to a jeep and eventually we got there. So there were no proper roads.

Håkan: When did the incident occur?

Jade: I met my husband in 1957 and we got married in 1958 and my boy was born in 1959. It must have been 1958 after we got married. We got married in October so November 1958 this happened. It was a good two hour drive on the highway and then the rest was by jeep.

Håkan: From Guatemala City?

Jade: Yes, it was. I must admit that I don't remember at all which direction we went. I know that it was in November because it was a French diplomat's wife who was supposed to look after our children, that is, my children from a previous marriage.

Håkan: But you were stationed in Mexico City?

Jade: Yes, we were.

Håkan: Where your husband worked?

Jade: Yes, exactly that and he came to my house one day and said he had met an amazing, super intelligent, incredibly sharp man and you have to meet him at some point. And I said, well that would be fun. Why don't you invite him over? Well, but he's not here, he lives in Guatemala. So I said maybe we could go and visit him at some point. Then quite soon afterwards there was an opportunity and my husband was actually out on business and he was going to take the opportunity to meet this guy but we met other businessmen too. When we got there he called the hotel because somehow my husband had gotten a message to him and we were going to come at this time so he called the hotel and invited us and my husband said it would be great fun. Then we went in that car and then the jeep and then we had dinner there and it was after dinner that he suddenly says this: you're interested in UFOs.

Håkan: He tells you that?

Jade: Yes, and then I said no, I'm not. Well, you certainly are.

Håkan: He spoke English?

Jade: Yes, that's right and he spoke a very strange English. He spoke some kind of Scottish-English. I denied it but then he said you've even seen a UFO. No, not in Mexico as far as I know, I said. So he said, no that's right because it was in your home country and we flew in from the east to your country house in the Stockholm archipelago. That's exactly what he said.

Håkan: How did you react then?

Jade: I was completely frozen with fear. I was scared, I was really scared. I found it so uncomfortable, especially when I had never talked about this to my second husband, because my experience was with my first husband. So my husband had no idea about this. So he couldn't have talked to this person about this and I think out of consideration for husband number two, you shouldn't keep talking about it earlier. It's a complete consideration and I was upset in many ways because he was completely straight to the point, just firmly saying it. Then my husband ended up saying, is it really true. Then I said, it's true.

Yes, I hadn't mentioned all this to my second husband and so we're sitting with this man in Guatemala who claims to have seen a flying saucer. Then he suddenly says: would you like to take a trip around Venus?

Håkan: He says Venus?

Jade: Yes, and then I said I don't want to because I have my children in another country where no one else speaks their language and I don't want anything to happen to them without taking a raincheck. Then he turns to my husband and says, imagine your wife is so hairy. Wouldn't you like to come along? He says yes. No, I say straight away, we're both staying. I couldn't get my husband to agree but he absolutely had to come along.

Håkan: He wasn't interested in UFOs?

Jade: No idea, but he was technically curious like all men are so he was eager to go along. It turned out that I had to go back to the hotel and then I got a promise that my husband would be back at the hotel at six in the morning in Guatemala City. Then I started to wonder. I could have at least said that I wanted to see the craft but now I'm sitting here regretting it and I just felt uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep much. Just as the clock strikes six my husband comes in and he's completely pale. He had absolutely no color in his face and he looked completely staring. Of course I was excited and said tell me, tell me. He said, it was incredible, it was absolutely incredible. Something that was really interesting, he said, can you imagine this started on something as small as this piece of sugar. They apparently had some kind of starter motor. After the moment of starting there was no engine sound at all.

Håkan: Did he describe the craft?

Jade: Yes, it was round, it was small and there were windows all around. So not all the way around but a little here and there but there were windows everywhere, east and west. Then I said, did you really go around Venus? Then he looked at me and said, don't you think so. And I had a really hard time believing it so I said, maybe you didn't? Well, if you don't believe it then I'm not going to say a single word more and so he got really angry and just went to bed and slept. Then I tried to get him to tell me. But he said, you don't believe it so he never told me about it ever since. I never got a sound out of him. But what was strange was his behavior pattern, it was so completely different. He became threatening and it was unpleasant.

Håkan: Did it come right afterwards?

Jade: Yes, it did. That exact thing of turning around and he didn't say a word and his manner then lasted throughout our marriage. The strange thing is that I met the man after the divorce and now he's the same as before but he was very brutal and strange, wife abuse and so on. I thought for a while that he was possessed. I didn't understand anything. Then I started to wonder if maybe he had never been in a flying saucer but had been hypnotized and that's why he's so strange. I still don't know to this day if he was outside his garage, that guy down there. I can only tell you how it happened. I absolutely can't guarantee that my husband has been in outer space. He became harder as a person and we became afraid of him. The same feeling I felt about this other man. It was so awful. He went from extremes and then he became himself sometimes. Now he seems to be himself constantly but he wasn't then. Since then I've only met him to discuss our son.

Håkan: Did Ben Austin work for the same company?

Jade: No, not at all and what would a man like that be sitting out in the bush doing? He said he was out to see what humanity was up to. I think he had this as some kind of station, some kind of base. He was small, smaller than me. I'm 5'6". He might have been 5'5", short and stocky with a very rough appearance. He didn't look nice. He wasn't fat but muscular. But he was polite and nice so you couldn't dislike him. Dark hair but more brown than black, no beard, indeterminate eyes but he definitely wasn't brown-eyed.

Håkan: What nationality could he belong to?

Jade: Yes, I asked him about nationality and then he didn't answer it but said, I have a Scottish passport. How did you get it? Well, he said, if we can build flying saucers, we can also fix such a small detail. Why did you choose Scotland, I said. Then he said, I have language difficulties and there are so many Scottish dialects that no one can really hear. We check what people are doing so that you don't set this planet on fire or other stupid things. It might bother us. I don't know why I felt that fear. My whole inside felt that something was wrong here.

Håkan: You said he wasn't handsome. Did he have any direct defects?

Jade: No, he was wearing a white shirt. You know, even in the tropics, when they invite people to dinner, they wear a tie. He didn't have a long neck, not long hair, but he had pretty nice, well-shaped ears. Well-groomed, but not handsome. His skin color was a little dark. Not at all that blond type. Not as dark as the Guatemalan Indians, but like a tanned, white person. But it wasn't like that because the tan always looks so fresh, but he didn't look fresh. A little gray under the brown color. He wasn't fresh. In his manner, he was just like any ordinary Scotsman.

Håkan: How did he live? How did he seem to live socially?

Jade: He had no family and was completely alone there. He had servants but he sent them away so we were alone all evening. The servants were ordinary natives and they had no relation to him in any way. There were books, there was everything. But now I can't say it was his home. He could have rented this. It was just like any ordinary house, neither beautiful nor not beautiful, bungalow type.

Håkan: There was no village there?

Jade: No, there was nothing. I'm used to walking in the jungles down there and you can walk for as long as you want without meeting a person. The servants came and picked us up in his jeep. There was a coffee plantation nearby. There were also large areas of corn fields. My husband told me that the craft was just standing there in the back, surrounded by some bushes and trees, so it was almost impossible to see it. It looked like a regular flying saucer. It was just that it seemed smaller than you would think it should be. I remember he said that you went into it from below. It stood on high feet. Higher than my husband because he could walk straight under. He also said that those feet could be extended and shortened so it didn't matter what the ground looked like. It wasn't really built for that little guy. He mentioned that the time they flew in over Kanholmsfjärden there were a lot of them in the craft because he said we. The strange thing is that these are the only two times in my life when I have been afraid. I wasn't even that scared during an earthquake in Mexico. I have never been scared in a storm. I am a Capricorn and no one can believe that. Unusual things like this always etch themselves very strongly into a person's consciousness, especially when you have been scared. When we were in the country and sat and ate, this was just a funny interlude, but as far as I know I was the only one who felt afraid then. I think I was 38 at the second incident. I can only say that he claimed to be one of these space people. I cannot guarantee the truth of what he has said, but I can only say that this is how I experienced it.

Home Weekly No. 22, 1975

After the interview, I kept in regular contact with Jade Ekström for most of her life. Every now and then she would tell me more details about the events. Her husband in Mexico was kicked out of the company in 1975 after twenty years. Probably because of his hot temper. He then ran a commercial garden and continued to live in the half-million dollar villa in Mexico City. They only met once after the divorce in 1966. It was in 1998 at the funeral of their son Frank. After the UFO incident in 1958, her husband's eyes turned black-gray, but at the funeral they were blue again. He said then that the incident in 1958 ruined his life. He wanted to forget that part of his life.

Regarding the saucer, her husband had said that the starter motor was pyramid-shaped and the size of a small sugar cube. A faint sound was heard from the craft at start-up but then completely silent. There was only room for two people. Frank Gebhart himself believed that such craft would be manufactured on Earth.

Jade regretted many times that she didn't look behind the house to see the saucer for herself before the trip back to the hotel. She has sometimes wondered if the plan was that she would actually be the one to go with the saucer, since there was only room for two. Jade assumes that her husband has somehow been psychologically affected by Ben Austin. She wonders if these individuals are somehow vampirizing us.

Because of my promise to Jade, I didn't dig into the case much during her lifetime. However, I checked with the Stockholm City Archives to make sure various personal details matched. Today, it would require extensive international detective work to possibly make any progress.

How should one judge this complicated story? I found Jade to be very honest and curious and questioning about the whole incident herself. Even though she became something of a new age mystic in the later part of her life, she was very concrete and questioning about the early UFO experiences. So who was the enigmatic Ben Austin – if that was his real name? He hardly appears to be an alien. If the group he belongs to represents some kind of Earth-based aliens, the ultimate question remains: Earth-based – where?

(Published in Rapport-Nytt no. 4, 2022). 

Earth: The 'Lost' Contacts

 

Pages

414

Binding Type

Paperback Perfect Bound

Interior Color

Color

Dimensions

A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm)

£30.00

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There have been many claims of UFO landings and encounters with alien entities since 1947 and while some such as that of Betty and Barney Hill and Travis Walton may be well known they were not the first and certainly not the best incidents. Encounter claims are a world wide phenomenon and not confined to the United States. After 50 years of the CE3K/Alien Entity Study, For this fifth book looking at CE3K/AE reports Terry Hooper has chosen some of the best and least known reports as well as some that might be known but adding much detail; Aveley, Ewloe, Kingfield and others deserve to be better known as does the case of Elsie Oakensen, Bronte Lloyd, Chapters include:

The Buckfastleigh Mystery

The Jose C. Higgins Close Encounter 1947

The 1973 Onilson Patero UFO encounter/Abduction Case

Villa Santina 1947

Pontejos Santander Spain -6th January, 1969

The Näslund and Nilsson Encounters

Mrs. Church and the Green ‘Japanese’

Never Trust Child Witnesses?

Starry, Starry Night -The Silbury Hill Encounter

The 1977 Lindley, New York UFO Incidents

The Boy Who Encountered Creatures At Vilhelmina

Just The Daily Drive Home From Work

The “Is That It Then?” Reports

The Bronte Lloyd Lost Encounter

The Puchetta Encounter

Ronald Wildman: A Man “Muddled Up About Time”

The Kingfield Enigma

The Lorry Driver

What Was At The Window?

The Multi-Witness Abduction That Did Not Happen -But It Did

The Shamrock Cafe Abduction -The Best UK Case?

Lynda Jones: The Abduction Ufology Knew About -Sort Of

What Happened At Black Brook Farm?

The “Mince Pies” Martians

There Was Missing Time and more

If you want to read factual, researched accounts rather than fiction then this book will educate you on these contacts -many ignored by Ufology, mishandled or plain ignored.