"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), "
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