RCMP vs the Aliens!

Hello dear readers it's been quite some time since last you heard from me, your friendly neighborhood Fortean. I come today to weave you a short, albeit interesting, story of the RCMP and their unsuccessful search for ET. As usual I was on the always fascinating Above Top Secret when I found this thread that had just moments before appeared. Entitled “RCMP search for 'non-human entities' in BC”, it told a harrowing story of one couples narrow escape from something. Taken from the news link found in the thread the account is as follows:

Coquitlam Mounties responded to a call of a man and a woman screaming from their apartment on Wilson Avenue. When police arrived, the couple told investigators they had seen two “non-human entities” on their patio.

Several Mounties scoured the area in search of the spirited suspects, but turned up nothing.

RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung said there was no indication drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident, nor could he say whether or not the couple really believed they saw something other than a human.

“Anything is possible, I guess,” he told The NOW. “People see ghosts all the time — who am I to say ghosts don’t exist?”

Chung sent out this tweet Monday morning regarding the incident: “Strange but true. #cqrcmp went to a report of ET sighting in #PortCoquitlam in the early morning. Area searched and no aliens found.”

And unfortunately at the moment that's all we really know about what happened. Actually I'm hoping that someone that lives in the area might be able to dig up some more information about what went on that night. I spoke with RCMP Cpl Jamie Chung earlier on twitter hoping to find out a some more details about what had occurred.

It's hard to say what, if anything, the man and woman saw. We know for sure that they simply described what they had seen as “non-human”(as evidenced by Cpl Chung's response seen above). I wonder if perhaps the few media outlets that latched onto this story were a little hasty in declaring that “aliens” were seen. Then again, even in his original tweet about the event Cpl Chung himself described what they were looking for as “aliens”. Hopefully more information will be brought to light in the coming days about what the witnesses had actually seen that night.

This isn't the first time that the town Port Coquitlam has had dealings of a decidedly “alien” nature however. While on twitter earlier today someone pointed me to a CE-2 type UFO event that took place in Port Coquitlam back in August of 1974.

Three young boys; David Bates, Henry and Steven Tillie, were traveling home around 8 pm on August 16, 1974. While taking shortcut through some woods, the boys became aware of a strange high pitched sound which caused the cat that David was holding to struggle out of his hands and run away into the forest. As the cat made it's way into the woods, the boys were shocked to see the cat keel over as if it were sleeping. In fact they referred to it as “playing dead”. The story continues:

The boys then turned towards the source of the noise and saw an object approach over the trees, traveling south or north over the railway bridge spanning the river. The object had a red light on top and green and white lights at either end of its length. These lights flashed on and off. Traveling slowly, the object reversed its course and with an undulating motion headed for the small cleared area amongst the trees where the sandpit was situated. 

The intensity of the noise disturbed David so much that his friends said he placed his hands over his ears and called out for it to stop. However, David does not recall doing this.

The UFO began to settle down for a landing and the noise became a buzz, the children claimed. All this took place within a few brief minutes. At that point the terrified cat recovered and returned to its owner, clawing David when he picked it up. 

The long scratch on his arm was still visible when I interviewed him in September.

In a state of petrified amazement, the boys remained at their point of observation about 150 feet from the touchdown site. As the object settled down to land it gave off a blast of hot air that disturbed the ground so violently the boys were covered in a film of dust. 

Immediately prior to making contact, the object extended short legs, then some action on the part of the machine caused sand and stones to be sucked upwards towards it in a violent swirling manner. A few seconds later, the boys said, "blue sparks came up from the ground as the machine made contact."

Not long after this the boys are finally overcome with fear, or perhaps they came to their senses, and they ran back to the homes. The article goes into some great detail about the research and investigation that was done into this event by the author himself. I highly recommend that you follow this link in order to read it for yourself. Also be sure to check out the original news articles, 'Policerespond to ET sighting in Port Coquitlam' and 'TheTruth is out in Poco'. That's all I have for now Fortean faithfuls. Until next time; Stay Classy Internet!

Little Green Meme?

Almost a year ago I emailed an editor of one leading UFO magazine about potentially writing an article for them for publication. I sent some of my work that I had written up to that point and he seemed interested in me potentially expanding one of my original articles for Binnall of America. So with that in mind I worked somewhat diligently at the task for a few months. At the same time I commissioned my girlfriend Ashley to do artwork that would appear in the magazine. Eventually for reasons that I'm still not too sure of the article never appeared in the magazine (I think the editor quit and then the magazine folded or something) and because of this I've sat on the article for quite some time. But I've finally decided to share it with you guys, including Ashley's original artwork, to help me get back into the swing of regular updates as I'm out of school for the summer. Presented below is the article in it's entirety (be warned it's a bit lengthy, after all it was going to appear in a magazine). Hope you enjoy!

Little Green Meme?

When the modern UFO era began after Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting of objects near Mount Rainier, Washington sightings of flying saucers began to be reported from all over the world. Not long after these sightings people also began to report seeing the occupants of the disks. People from all different walks of life were apparently sighting a myriad of strange creatures. In South America little hairy dwarves were sighted, while in other parts of the world the sightings of 9 foot tall monstrosities were reported. But whenever anyone refers to the occupants of these crafts, especially in the 'mainstream' media they only speak of “little green men”. The reason for this is the events of the Kelly-Hopkinsville Case, the aftermath of which is that the term “little green men” would enter the vocabulary of the population and became an infective meme that would be with Ufology for years to come.

On an August night in 1955, Billy Ray Taylor and his wife were visiting the family of Lucky Sutton. The Suttons; Vera Sutton, JC Sutton, Alene Sutton, and three Sutton children, lived in the rural town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Glennie Lankford, June Taylor and O.P. Barker were also visiting the Lucky Sutton house. Early in the evening Taylor went outside of the Sutton house in order to get some water from the outside pump. Just a few minutes later Taylor rushed back into the house exclaiming that he had just seen a flying saucer fly over the house, hover around the woods, and descend into a gully located nearby the home. No one in the family took Taylor's claim seriously as no one went outside to investigate.

An hour later the Sutton’s dog began to bark, so Lucky and Taylor grabbed their guns and went outside to see if they could find what was upsetting the dog. The frightened dog ran under the house and would not return until the following morning. While outside of the house, Lucky and Taylor were amazed to see a 3½ ft tall being approaching them with its arms raised up. They later described the being to researchers as having a large round head, long thin arms that extended nearly to the ground, and legs that did not appear to move. The hands of the being were out of proportion to the rest of its body, and looked more like the talons of a bird than human hands. While the being's eyes appeared to be glowing with a fire that was the shade of yellow.

Being the good country folk that they were, Lucky and Taylor decided to shoot first and ask questions later. When the bullets from their rifle and shotgun struck the creature it back flipped, landed on its feet, and ran back into the darkness. At this point the men went back into the house to check on the family and tell them what had happened. When they rejoined the group in the living room they were astonished to see the same, or similar to it, being at the window. Again, Lucky and Taylor took a shot at the creature. This caused the being to flip backwards and retreat into the shadows. At this time the men were certain that they had either killed or at least wounded the creature(s), so they went outside to see if they could locate the bodies.

Taylor walked outside, but paused on the porch for just a moment. Suddenly, from the roof, a talon reached down and grabbed his hair. Alene pulled Taylor back into the house. Lucky fired upon the creature which caused it to release Taylor and fall from its perch. At this point, it’s not clear who, but someone noticed that one of the beings was in the tree. So both Taylor and Lucky fired at the creature knocking it from the limb, however, instead of falling straight down, the being appeared to float in a falling leaf motion to the ground.

This attack lasted for a little while longer before the group could no longer stand it. Everyone ran to their cars and took off towards the police station in Hopkinsville. When they arrived and began telling their story, it was obvious to the officers on duty that something had happened to these people as they were clearly shaken. A few sheriffs’ deputies and the chief of police, Russell Greenwell, accompanied the Suttons and Taylors back to the house. Once the police arrived they searched for a long time, but could find no apparent trace of anything out of the ordinary. They did, however, see plenty of buckshot meaning that shots had been fired on the grounds of the home that night. The police couldn’t directly tie the buckshots to the sightings of the numerous beings, however in a few places that Taylor and Lucky had fired on the creatures there appeared to be a strange green luminescence on the ground, the source of which the police were never able to determine. A photograph was taken of the luminous patch of grass but a sample was not collected, upon returning the following day the patch had mysteriously disappeared. Police also interviewed neighbors that live close to the Sutton house, most reported not only seeing strange lights flying around in the sky that same night but also heard the gunshots that came from Lucky and Billy’s guns.

Ultimately unable to truly prove anything, the police left the family to resume their duties. A little later that night once the police had finally gone and the family tried to go to sleep, Glennie Lankford spotted another one of the creatures back at the same window and told her son Lucky. Of course Lucky wanted to shoot it, but Glennie told him not to as the creatures, although certainly bizarre, had actually done nothing to harm them that night. Lucky fired at the creature anyway and once again the bullet had no effect and the creature retreated back in to the darkness. The being’s presence at the home lasted until dawn.

The following day the story was repeated in the Kentucky New Era Newspaper and the Sutton Farmhouse became a huge tourist attraction. The family was interviewed about the events of that night and no matter how many times the story was recounted it was always the same. A man named Andrew Ledwith, who worked with WHOP a radio station in a nearby town, interviewed each of the seven adults involved in the incident separately and each told the same story and described the creatures almost identically. Except that the female witnesses thought that the creatures had a more husky build than what the male witnesses described. Ledwith, who was also an artist, was one of the first people to illustrate what the witnesses saw. As later newspapers picked up the story over the weeks and months that followed, they began to refer to the beings as “little green men” although the original descriptions had been that they were in silver suits or were silver themselves.

After the initial media attention, people began to swarm the Sutton house. If the Suttons believed that the worst of their ordeal was over they were sadly mistaken. They were inundated with people seeking proof, stories, or in some cases even autographs. Sadly this was not all that the Sutton family had to deal with. Local public opinion almost immediately labeled the incident as a hoax. Eventually the family could no longer take all of the negative publicity and they started to charge the thrill seekers that came to see them. This only fueled the charges that the family was hoaxing the entire event simply to exhort money from people.

The Sheriff’s department, to its credit, took the family at their word. Chief of Police, Russell Greenwell had a few things to say about what had happened that night. When he described his initial meeting with the Sutton Family the night of the events he said that they appeared to have been frightened “beyond reason, not ordinary”. He would also remark to Ufologist Isabel Davis that when he and the other officers arrived at the Sutton household that, “In and around the whole area, the house, the fields, that night, there was a weird feeling. It was partly uneasiness, but not entirely. Everyone had it. There were men there that I’d call brave men … they felt it too.”

The local police were not the only group to get involved in the investigations or to take what happened seriously. The US Air Force, upon hearing about the incidents, sent officers from the nearby Fort Campbell to do some investigations. Although the Air Force investigation also turned up empty handed for any kind of concrete evidence, this incident remains as an open case to this day. Project Blue Book, the official Air Force UFO investigation from the time period, never did an official investigation but kept a file on the incident none the less. They labeled the case as an 'unknown' which is something they were not very fond of doing at the time.

Eventually the family got completely fed up with all of the attention they were getting, so they sold the property to extended family and moved away. To this day, the surviving witnesses to the event are hesitant to ever talk to anyone about the case. Although on the rare occasion that they have told anyone their stories, they are exactly as they were on that late night oh so many years ago.

Persons that were skeptical of the case almost immediately came forward with alternative theories as to what the Suttons may have actually seen that night. One of the most obvious alternative explanations was that the family simply hoaxed the entire event. As it stands, although others may have also seen unidentified lights in the sky that night, only the families involved in the incidents ever claimed to have actually seen the beings. The local community seemed to accept this theory pretty readily at the time, as a matter of fact they wrote the entire saga off as a drunken hoax that had simply gotten out of hand. It's unlikely that this was the case as Glennie Lankford was known for not allowing the consumption of alcohol at her house, especially when young children were present.

In any event it wasn't too long before a member of the Air Force was ready to offer a very down-to-earth explanation for the strange firefight that had occurred on that August night just two years prior. Speaking in 1957 U.S. Air Force Major John E. Albert came to the conclusion that what Lucky and Taylor had been shooting at was none other than an escaped monkey from a circus that was dressed in silver. There are a few problems with this explanation however. While it is true that a circus was in town during the week of the sightings, the circus never reported losing a monkey. Additionally if Lucky and Taylor shot nearly as many times at the creatures as they have said, there would have been a body of some kind that was discovered by the Police or other investigators that night.

The most recent terrestrial explanation for what had occurred that night was first proposed by French Ufologist Renaud Leclet. He suggested that perhaps the beings the family had sighted that night, were in fact Great Horned Owls. The owls would match the descriptions of the beings 'glowing' eyes and would explain some of the apparent otherworldly abilities displayed by the entities. As the owls fly silently it is unlikely that either Lucky or Taylor would have heard the owls flying around from say a limb to the top of the porch. Another part of this explanation that would seem to solve this case, is that the Great Horned Owl aggressively defends its nest. Perhaps, the theory goes, when Lucky and Taylor first started firing on the beings they must have accidentally hit the owls nest causing them to attack for most of the night. The problem with this explanation is not unlike the circus monkey theory. Where are the bodies? At many times Lucky and Taylor apparently hit the beings dead on, so if they were simply misidentifying owls, bodies would or should have been found somewhere at the house. Not only that none of these theories can explain the luminescence patch of ground that was seen, nor the very eerie feeling that was reported by all present at the house the night of the siege.

As with most cases of UFO occupant accounts, the skeptics are still skeptical and the believers still believe in the basic validity of the story. No official explanation has ever been offered by either the police that investigated nor by the Air Force. The surviving members of the incident still maintain that the testimony that was given on that fateful night in 1955 is what actually occurred to them. The legacy of the case, besides offering yet another anecdotal story of human / non-human interaction, is the term 'Little Green Men'. The term has become a meme that has been picked up by people ever since. To this day you will still hear people mockingly refer to the occupants of UFOs as little green men. The next time you hear this, you can smile knowing where this term originated.

Bigfoot Dietary Habits

Following on the heels of my recent Interview with some Forteans, and in light of the upcoming premiere of 'The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching' film (see my review here), I'm going to try and bring you dear readers a Bigfoot related story every night or every other night. Tonight's entry is on the apparent dietary habits of the elusive cryptid. A woman from Michigan claims to have fed Bigfoot, among other things, blueberry bagels.

From the news article:

"They get fish every day, a bucket of fruit, a bucket of dry dog food," said Robin Lynn Pfeifer, a 47-year-old resident of Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. "Their favorite thing is blueberry bagels. If I'm not baking them, I go to different stores to buy them."
She said she has collected casts of many large footprints, but says the creatures are too shy and too clever for her to get a photograph. She describes the Bigfoots as ranging from six to nine feet tall and looking like humans, except for hairy coats and broad noses.

Even the famous cryptid can't resist this delicacy

Honestly, if you had asked me to guess I would have pegged Bigfoot as more of a blackberry bagel eater but what do I know right? More than just feeding the creatures however, she also is able to get castings of the creatures. But is unfortunately able to take a photograph of the elusive creature.

Be sure to follow this link for the full news article. And be sure to stop by The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching's Facebook page, especially if you live in the New York/Pennsylvania area to get tickets for this coming Saturday night (Oct 22) to see the second night of the world premiere of this soon to be classic film.

Until tomorrow night, be sure to keep those Bigfoot traps baited with all the blueberry bagels you can get your hands on!

Napoleon; Politcal Figure, Military Leader, Alien Abductee?

It's probably telling of my age and generation that when I think of Napoleon Bonaparte I immediately think of him travelling along side Wyld Stallyns in their time travelling phone booth. 

Pictured above the cast of the greatest movie ever

If I think back hard enough I could remember some stuff about Waterloo and him dying of a stomach ulcer. But I can honestly say I don't remember hearing about this in history class.

Alien Chip Found in Napoleon’s Skull?

PARIS – Scientists examining the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte admit they are “deeply puzzled” by the discovery of a half-inch long microchip embedded in his skull.

They say the mysterious object could be an alien implant – suggesting that the French emperor was once abducted by a UFO!

“The possible ramifications of this discovery are almost too enormous to comprehend,” declared Dr. Andre Dubois, who made the astonishing revelation in a French medical journal.

“Until now, every indication has been that victims of alien abduction are ordinary people who play no role in world events.

“Now we have compelling evidence that extraterrestrials acted in the past to influence human history – and may continue to do so!”

Dr. Dubois made the amazing find while studying Napoleon’s exhumed skeleton on a $140,000 grant from the French government.

“I was hoping to learn whether he suffered from a pituitary disorder that contributed to his small stature,” he explained.

I'm willing to go out on a limb and assume this isn't real. The whole thing reads like a Weekly World News article. But who knows? Stranger things have happened. Anyway follow this link to read the story for yourself. Thanks to Disinfo for the bringing it to my attention. Let me know what your thoughts are, because I will tentatively call BS on this one.

Now if you'll excuse me I have this sudden urge to go watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Later.

Case of the missing feet!

Fort was a famous chronicler of all things strange and I can't help but feel like this would be right up his alley.

Human foot washes up on beach near Vancouver for 11th time in four years

For the eleventh time in four years, a human foot washed ashore near Vancouver - baffling investigators who are at a loss to explain the grisly trend.

The foot, which was inside a running shoe, turned up along the British Columbia coast late Tuesday, according to police.
The body part, which was still attached to the lower part of the leg, was spotted by a passerby near the Vancouver's False Creek.
Police have no theories as to how the foot ended up in the water - but have not suggested that foul play is suspected.
Since 2007, nearly a dozen feet encased in shoes have appeared on beaches in the area, including a few over the border in Washington state.

Follow this link for the full article, although honestly there isn't much more information availiable at the link because as noted in the article the police are completely baffled. My favorite part? The police “have not suggested that foul play is suspected.”


Personally I have no idea what to make of this story. And to be completely honest it's pretty disturbing. Your thoughts?

Crop Circle enigma solved? Not likely.

Evidently this is Crop Circle week here at Forteania, which is odd given how I don't really find the phenomena all that interesting. I know different strokes for different folks. Anyway, as a follow up to last nights post; here is an interesting BBC news story that I found via an AboveTopSecret thread.

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

The article continues here.

Above: The work of wallabies that are "tripping" on Opium?

Look, I'm all for non-paranormal explanations to supposed paranormal phenomena. Just take a look at my recent post about the supposed Belgian Triangle UFO photo Hoax. But I think that alternative explanations need to be at least some what reasonable. I mean this almost sounds like a joke.

I understand that it might be possible for “stoned” wallabies to create some of the simpler Crop Circle patterns that have been seen from time to time, but others I doubt. I would be more willing to buy into the microwave theory I discussed last night for some of the more intricate designs. Besides, while this could explain away the Australian Crop Circles it would still leave the ones seen around the world. Unless of course the wallabies are going on extended “trips”.

Ashley takes on Ghost Adventures

Sometime back I mentioned that I was going to have a guest post up here at Forteania. Well that idea originally fell through, however tonight I'm pleased to introduce to you Ashley Ruff (who in the interest of full disclosure is my girlfriend). She has lovingly put up with this Fortean stuff for a number of years and tonight will be offering you her unedited opinion on a fairly well known paranormal TV show. 

The show in question is Ghost Adventures, which if you haven't seen before please check out this clip of some of their “best” evidence. So without further ado, I will let Ashley take it away from here.

Also here is the shows website, if you are interested in learning more about it. 

This past Saturday Tony introduced me to a television show on the Travel Channel called Ghost Adventures. The cast of the show consists of three men: Zak (what a douchey way to spell Zack), Nick, and Aaron. The main guy, Zak, looks remarkably like Ben Ten’s Kevin Eleven-stupid hair, bulgy muscles, tight t-shirts, and everything-complete butter face. Out of the three, I would probably rank Aaron as the dumbest. He’s supposed to be the camera man but he didn’t seem very capable of filming. At one point he was running around outside a parking lot in the rain and screaming. I don’t remember Nick.

Kevin Elevin                                                        Zak Bagans              

 In this particular episode the men locked themselves inside of dam which led to Zak making several unfunny puns. I can understand one, but after that he probably should have quit beating that dead horse. The dialogue of the episode consisted of Zak’s puns, the three men taunting the “ghosts” (Zak would say things like, “If you are here tweak my nipples.”), Zak flexing his muscles whenever he got the opportunity, and the men replaying their tape recorders and insisting that they had recorded EVPs, but don’t worry, if you didn’t catch the ghosts’ message they would replay each EVP three to four times.

My final thoughts:

1. I wonder if the guy who green-lit this show is still employed with the Travel Channel.
2. How much product is in Zak’s hair?
3. Overall if I ever want some Eye candy to look at, I know exactly where to go.

Cryptozoology meeting

Continuing on last nights theme of aquatic monsters, there was more cryptozoological news today from the Zoological Society of London. On July 12th they hosted a meeting entitled “Cryptozoology: science or pseudoscience?” This meeting apparently had a very large turnout for people who were interested in learning how cryptozoology could and should be considered as a part of biology and / or zoology. Follow the link to read more from one of the speakers that presented at the meeting. 

It has always seemed that Cryptozoology has been in a better position to be taken seriously by 'mainstream' science more so than any other Fortean topic. This is true for a number of reasons. One we have a precedence of finding weird or unusual creatures that were once thought to not exist. The Mountain Gorilla was once the stuff of legends, the Coelacanth was believed to have been extinct until oops it was found by some fishermen in 1944, and more recently evidence has (no pun intended) surfaced to prove the existence of giant squids. 

Looking good for something that's supposed to be extinct, right?

 It's probably for this reason that many cryptozoologists rarely like to delve into the more esoteric or paranormal aspects of mysterious creatures. Stories of Bigfoot vanishing right in front of witnesses eyes crop more often than not, as do sightings of said creatures in the vicinity of UFO flaps or waves. I can't really blame them of course. Everyone wants to be taken seriously and cryptozoology has a better chance than say ufology, assuming of course that what they are searching for is in fact a physical phenomena.

Maybe there is a physical aspect to the phenomena or maybe it's more paranormal in nature, who knows? It is nice to see that some aspects of the Fortean are being taken seriously by someone. I just hope that people don't fall into the same trap that befalls many ufologists. Where the researcher believes that they know the answer (ie that Bigfoot is a flesh and blood creature) instead of just letting the evidence lead to whatever the real answer maybe.

Alaskan Sea Monster!

Apparently I'm not the only one that has an aquatic monster in his area (See Local Lake Monster). News has come out within the last couple of days that footage may have been taken of a Sea Monster in Alaska. The creature is known as a Cadborosaurus willsi, which is derived from the name of the area it is most often sighted (Cadboro Bay) and the Greek word for lizard (saurus).

Creature from the footage

The creature, nicknamed 'Caddy' because apparently Sea Monsters need nicknames, has been sighted for many years and much like it's far more famous Scottish cousin, the Cadborosaurus has only been sighted in grainy photographs. But footage has surfaced from 2009 that purports to show the creature in action.

Finding this footage, however seems to be pretty hard to do. I would imagine this is because Discovery Channel will be debuting the footage during a TV special tonight at 10 pm (EST). So you wont be able to see it until then. It had been avaliable on Yahoo! but it's now been taken down. If you didn't see it on Yahoo!, don't worry because you really didn't miss much. 

Artist's rendition of the creature

 I guess I will be watching the special just to see what they end up saying about this creature and the footage itself. I'm not normally a fan of “Monster” TV shows, but like I said I do want to get a chance to actually see the footage. Maybe it will be more productive than my own investigation into the local lake monster we have in my area. I guess we shall see.

Nothing tonight

I've got nothing. Sorry folks, I'm just about completely burnt out from summer courses. Don't worry though, I will be back tomorrow night with a regularly scheduled update here at Forteania. In the mean time the fine folks over at Who Forted? Have finally revealed there new secret project that I mentioned in a previous post. Head over to their site in order to check it out. Other than that I will have to see you guys tomorrow night.

Working on a 'secret' project tonight

Sorry folks no new post tonight, I am busy working on a Super Secret project with the people over at WhoForted? Speaking of which check out their site. Just to give you an idea of their shenanigans, here is a youtube video of their work.

The Mad Gasser!

For the next few days of posts I will be diving into the underbelly of the Fortean to find some really quirky creatures that have always fascinated me. First up tonight will be the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. A classic case of media induced mass hysteria or an actual Fortean creature? You be the judge.

On the night of August 31, 1944 a Mattoon, Illinois man woke up feeling quite ill and went to the restroom to throw up. He came back into his bedroom and asked his wife if she had left the gas on. She replied that she hadn't, and upon trying to move found herself unable to move.

September 1^st of that same year Mrs. Bert Kearney was awakened by a sickly, sweet odor in her bedroom. When the smell began to increase, Mrs. Kearney found that she was becoming more and more paralyzed. Her husband was on his way home around and hour or so later, as he pulled onto their street, he saw a strange man at the window. He would later describe him as a tall man wearing a dark clothing with a tight cap on his head. Mr. Kearney gave chase but the man escaped.

After this, many people from around the town reported to the police that they were also suffering from strange odors that would come into their bedrooms that was accompanied by paralysis from anywhere up to ninety minutes. The town soon turned to a full panic mode, many of the town's residents were angry that the police seemed unable (or unwilling) to deal with the 'Gasser'. Of course by this point, most of the police force was convinced (by the lack of substantial evidence) that the residents were suffering from mass hysteria rather than from the attacks of a Phantom Gasser.

One final visit from the Gasser would occur on the evening of September the 13^th. A witness reported seeing a women that was dressed in man's clothing, spray gas through her bedroom window. The next morning the lady and her son found a pair of high-heeled shoe prints outside of the window. All in all its a very strange story and I suggest that if you are interested in learning more you should pick up Jerome Clark's Unexplained!, which is where I first read about the story.

Hysteria or an actual attack? Personally I don't really know what to make of this story. On the surface it makes for a really cool, albeit bizarre, tale from the annals of the Fortean. It's possible, like my dad always used to say, that there is a kernel of truth at the heart of every myth. So maybe some burglar had really bad cologne on. Or some bizarre creature from the Nth dimension came to attack the residents of a small town in Illinois. Who knows? Your thoughts?

And now for something completely different

A good friend of mine, Scott Southall, has started a photography project to send you a Polaroid of a beautiful women's smile. What could be better? Scott and I have known each other for a number of years now and I owe him a quite a lot (he's the one that helped Ashley and I get together and he also got me started on Twitter, so if you follow me there you can blame him for it). So I thought I would give a him a plug and ask for you guys to help support this very worthy project. And like I said you will not be walking away empty handed as you will receive a picture of a pretty girl for your troubles. So follow the link below to check out the site for more information and a video.

What I've learned from the Phil Imbrogno fiasco

As I mentioned the other night, a then new thread had appeared on Above Top Secret that was authored by David Beidny. Rather than going back through it all, you can follow this link for my post about it or go to the thread at ATS for more info, I would like to spend a little bit of time telling you what this has taught me about the ufological 'field'. For the most part they are a bunch of bratty kids in a sandbox. All I have seen in that thread on ATS, is a good portion of veiled insults and misquotations and other such immature behaviors. I would say that I am shocked by this, but really I'm not.

Regardless of what comes of the Phil Imbrogno degree fiasco, I now have even less desire to be involved in the ufological issue. (Wonder why I prefer the moniker 'Fortean Philosopher'? It's not just that I identify with Charles Fort's world view) Now to be fair there are a good number of reasonable people that participated in (and are still participating in) that thread at ATS. But some bigger name people have been really just fighting back and forth about the issue. Not too shocking I know. I can't understand why people can't just disagree and still be civil.

The Imbrogno thing, one way or another, is certainly gonna be an opportunity for Ufology to reassess itself. As I stated in the post the other day, if Imbrogno has or doesn't have the degrees that he claims to this doesn't make him any more or less qualified to go running around looking for UFOs. People, both inside and outside of the field, fail to keep in mind the fact that at the moment there is no 'Degree in Ufology'.

This will probably be the last time I bring this up until I see more information one way or another, because it ultimately doesn't change anything for me. In my reality tunnel, there still exists an actual, external and quite possibly Non-Human, element behind some UFOs. Whether Phil Imbrogno has  a degree doesn't change this for me.

Magazine article updates!

I've mentioned a number of times on this blog in the past that I had been working on an article for a UFO magazine. If published, it would be my first article in such a medium. Needless to say I was pretty excited to get it finished. In addition to writing the article I was requested to get some illustrations made, so I roped Ashley into doing those for me. Well last night (finally!) I was able to send off the article and illustrations, and at this point I am only waiting to hear back from the editor if it will indeed be published. If it does I will certainly let you guys know which one it is, also if this works out (and even if it doesn't) I have to say that the process has certainly been a learning experience.

Much like this blog and of course my article over at Binnall of America, I have been trying to both improve my writing skills (which I hope have gotten better) and perhaps learn a thing or two. Hopefully we will hear back, sooner rather than later about the article. If not, I will simply try again. Also I have recently taken the plunge back into the dreaded 'facebook'. You are more than welcome to friend me if you wish. I suppose that's about all I have for tonight.

Oh before I forget one last little thing, I'm just about half-way through reading Steve Volk's Fringe-ology (which I can't recommend highly enough) so expect a review here in the next couple of days. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, stay classy Internet!

Lizard Man Strikes Again!

Not too sure how I didn't hear about this one sooner: (found via The Anomalist)

New Lizard Man Scuttlebutt In South Carolina

On Ida Lane in rural Lee County, they’re struggling to explain what took place Monday morning.
“I ran into the house and told my wife to call the police because something happened to the car,” explained Leon Marshall.
“The tooth marks went completely through the fender,” added his wife Ada.
Early that morning the Marshall’s woke up to find their car mauled by something.
“That’s metal! And it just bent it up. Like it was a piece of tissue paper,” said Ada.
The question is by what?
“We have no idea. No idea. No idea what-so-ever.”

Visit the link for the full news article.

The best thing about this is that I don't live all that far from Lee County. Perhaps this is a chance for yours truly to do some actual in the field research. Which will hopefully turn out better than Messie.

-Tony

Fall from grace?

Earlier today I was browsing around Above Top Secret, as is my habit, when I came upon a thread that was started by none other than David Beidny himself. Since he left the Paracast, and it subsequently started going down the drain for the most part, I had thought he was all but out of the Ufological 'field'. Apparently he just got out of the public side of it, rather than just dropping out completely. Anyway back to the thread that he started, it was entitled 'Phil Imbrogno gone from field – he faked his credentials'.

The gist of the thread is that through some background checking Lance Moody has discovered that Phillip J Imbrogno apparently didn't attend MIT like he has claimed a number of times in the past. Imbrogno has been involved in Ufological and Paranormal research now for over 30 years having gotten his start by co-writing a book with J Allen Hynek called Night Seige. The book documents the strange Hudson Valley Sightings of the early 1980's. While Imbrogno definitely isn't a household name, like Stanton Friedman probably is, within the Ufological community he is at least fairly well known.

Most recently he had teamed up with Rosemary Ellen Guiley to write a book called The Vengeful Djinn, where they theorized that potentially some paranormal events may in fact be caused by the Djinn which are creatures from pre-Islamic Arabic religions that were eventually incorporated into Islam.

As of this moment Imbrogno has not said anything publicly one way or another to defend himself or to call the charges utter rubbish. So I am going to reserve my judgment until or unless he responds to the accusations. If true however, I can only say that I am terribly disappointed. Not because this revelation would some how discredit the ufological field (it does a good enough job of that on it's own), but because whatever positive effect he would have had is now nullified. It saddens me that someone like this would allegedly forge documentation or outright lie about their educational background.

Don't misunderstand me, it's not that he couldn't or shouldn't be taken seriously if in fact he doesn't have the degrees. That is not what the issue is here. I realize that some people can only take those with degrees seriously, but I don't think you should ignore someone who may not have a degree from a school. The real issue here would be the fact that he had lied about it for so long.

Really though it shouldn't come as a complete shock to me as this field has a long history of charlatans, liars, and con men. Hopefully Imbrogno will come forward and ultimately set the record straight. Until then I will hold off passing judgment on him. How about you? What are your thoughts on this situation?

Odds and Ends

Tonight is a very slow night for me. I had a test earlier in my religion class and then I had to come home and start work on my presentation for my psychology class. We have to give a 5 to 7 minute presentation on a disease, in my case I will be presenting on Alzheimer's Disease. It doesn't sound like a lot, the 5 to 7 minutes part, but I almost always end up having stage fright right before I get up to do a presentation. Which is funny because people tend to think that I am quite naturally happy in front of a group. And depending on the location, and my familiarity with the topic I can be. But I just have a bad feeling that I will get nervous and mess up somehow. Inevitably I will just sike myself up and get it over with as early as possible. Luckily I have to present on the first day, so I will probably go like 2^nd or 3^rd (never first because I like to gauge the classes reactions to other people's presentations first).

The start of the summer semester coincided almost perfectly with my decision to begin blogging again. I had originally started blogging back in October of 2010, which was also when I tried my hand at podcasting (which if you really want to you can find those episodes here). For one reason or another though I quit working on the blog and didn't really think anything more about it until earlier this year when Tim Binnall gave a call for new writers for his site, Binnall of America. As I was sitting at work listening to the podcast, I suddenly said 'Fuck it, why don't I try to write for BOA'. This caused many curious stares from my coworkers that apparently had never heard of 'BOA' before. Long story short after I wrote my first couple of columns for BOA, I sorta put it all out of my mind and went on about my

business as usual. But for some reason on a Sunday in May, May 8^th to be exact, I decided to start blogging again. I figured a couple of things; 1) that people must obviously care what I have to say, 2) my insights would be unlike any other ever in the history of the Fortean, 3) it can't be that hard to blog.

I was wrong on literally every single one of those points. Well not entirely wrong, rather I was just naïve about the whole process. The first thing I learned was that blogging was not nearly as easy as I had originally assumed it to be. Especially because I set the bar fairly high for myself. I was going to have new quality posts every single night. After all the sites that I like to frequent are the ones that, you know, update daily. To top it off, I couldn't have picked a worse time to start blogging. Less than a week into the venture, I started back at school. That would be night classes of course. And so most evenings I have to juggle between homework, the blog, reading (my ever growing reading list is evidence I can't spend much time with books). Typically I manage to get out a fairly decent post every now and then. But it can be pretty tough sometimes.

But if it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not. Really I have enjoyed working on this blog. It's been a crazy experience over the last couple of months. Watching the readership grow, seeing my blog listed on other people's sites. Especially sites of those that I admire and have a lot of respect for. Plus I've gotten a chance to talk with people I probably wouldn't have otherwise. So while it can sometimes be a huge pain in the butt to work on this blog, it's definitely a labor of love. It's come pretty far in just the two months that I have been posting at it, I can't wait to see were it will be by the end of the year. Or even the next year. It's success is thanks to you, whoever you are reading this right now. Maybe this is your first time here at Forteania (and if so let me say thanks for stopping by!) or you have been here for a little while. Thanks for sticking around and thank you to those that have commented.

In the end however I'm really doing this blog for selfish reasons. I think that I am hoping to learn something by doing this. Other wise whats the point right? Well that's all for tonight, this post was a bit rambling and I apologize for that. I just had to get these thoughts out, you know how it goes. I need to get going, because I actually have some down time so I can try and make a dent into my ever-expanding reading list. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying “Where's the beef?” (That can't still be copyrighted can it?)

Something a little positive for a change

Here is a something a little different to start off the day at Forteania. Take a few minutes to watch the video and reflect on some of the decisions that you may make throughout the day. We have a very beautiful planet, lets just hope it stays that way for years to come.

Monday night blues

Well dear readers allow me to apologize for tonight. For whatever reason I can't seem to get focused enough in order to do a proper post. I will most likely be going to bed now as I am quite tired. Between work, class, the blog, and working on that magazine article (yes that is still in the works believe it or not), I have just about run myself completely down. It's possible that either tonight or tomorrow night there will be a guest blog by another blogger. I will be giving her the chance to write a post for you guys.

Other than that I don't have too much to say, today is definitely one of my off days. They happen every now and then. You know where its really hard to focus on anything? Yeah one of those. Oh and as a follow up to this post here, Greg Bishop interviewed Jeffrey Gonzalez on his Radio Misterioso show yesterday. And now the podcast is up for you to check out here. I suggest giving it a listen and then deciding for yourself what to make out of Gonzalez group's claim about their Bigfoot 'evidence'. Well that's all for tonight, until tomorrow night remember "No mystery is closed, to an open mind." Tim White (the sign off from Sightings)