On October 11, 1973 two men, nineteen year old Calvin Parker and forty two year old Charles Hickson, both of Gautier Mississippi, went fishing on the Pascagoula river.
What they thought was going to be a quiet, pleasant evening, turned into one of the most famous UFO cases of all time.
Shortly after both men dipped their lines into the water, they heard a strange buzzing sound. Suddenly, they were startled to seea ten foot wide, blue-glowing egg shaped object above them. As the men froze with fear, a door opened on the underside of the object and three strange beings descended out of it floating above the river and just under the object.
The men said the beings were around 5 feet tall with with arms and legs but they did not use their legs. They were also described as having bullet shaped heads, slits for mouths, and where noses or ears would be they had conical objects sticking out. They had no eyes, gray wrinkled skin, round feet, and clawlike hands.
Two of the beings seized Hickson and when the third grabbed Parker he fainted from fright.
Hickson claimed that when the beings touched him his body became numb and then they floated the two men into the waiting UFO.
Hickson claimed they were floated into a room with no tables and remained suspended in mid-air while some kind of medical examination were performed on him and Parker.
At the end of Hickson's examination, the beings then turned their attention to Parker. Twenty minutes after first observing the UFO, Hickson was released and floated back outside.
There, he found Parker weeping and praying. Moments later, the object rose up and shot out of sight.
The men debated privately whether or not they should tell someone fearing ridicule if they did. After initially keeping quiet, they decided the government might want to know about it and so they phoned Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
A sergeant there told him to contact the sheriff. The sheriff listened to their story and didn't believe a word of it. He decided to make a plan to catch the men in their obvious lie.
The sheriff placed a wire-listening device in the interrogation room and left the men to talk among themselves while secretly recording the conversation believing that the two men would speak among themselves and reveal the hoax privately.
It didn't happen.
The local press reported their story, wire services picked it up, and the Pascagoula Incident was major news everywhere.
Hickson and Parker both passed lie detector tests.
In 2001, a previously unknown witness came forward. Retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Mike Cataldo revealed that he saw an unusual craft at dusk on the same date. He was traveling with crew mates Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna on US Route 90 from Pascagoula to Ocean Springs when a large tambourine-like object with small flashing lights approached from the northwest and crossed the freeway before hovering over the treeline and disappearing.
As he approached his home in Ocean Springs, the craft made a second appearance at lower altitude.
On September 9, 2011 Charles Hickson passed away at age 80.
He never backed off of his claims of the events of that night.
What they thought was going to be a quiet, pleasant evening, turned into one of the most famous UFO cases of all time.
Shortly after both men dipped their lines into the water, they heard a strange buzzing sound. Suddenly, they were startled to seea ten foot wide, blue-glowing egg shaped object above them. As the men froze with fear, a door opened on the underside of the object and three strange beings descended out of it floating above the river and just under the object.
The men said the beings were around 5 feet tall with with arms and legs but they did not use their legs. They were also described as having bullet shaped heads, slits for mouths, and where noses or ears would be they had conical objects sticking out. They had no eyes, gray wrinkled skin, round feet, and clawlike hands.
Two of the beings seized Hickson and when the third grabbed Parker he fainted from fright.
Hickson claimed that when the beings touched him his body became numb and then they floated the two men into the waiting UFO.
Hickson claimed they were floated into a room with no tables and remained suspended in mid-air while some kind of medical examination were performed on him and Parker.
At the end of Hickson's examination, the beings then turned their attention to Parker. Twenty minutes after first observing the UFO, Hickson was released and floated back outside.
There, he found Parker weeping and praying. Moments later, the object rose up and shot out of sight.
The men debated privately whether or not they should tell someone fearing ridicule if they did. After initially keeping quiet, they decided the government might want to know about it and so they phoned Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
A sergeant there told him to contact the sheriff. The sheriff listened to their story and didn't believe a word of it. He decided to make a plan to catch the men in their obvious lie.
The sheriff placed a wire-listening device in the interrogation room and left the men to talk among themselves while secretly recording the conversation believing that the two men would speak among themselves and reveal the hoax privately.
It didn't happen.
The local press reported their story, wire services picked it up, and the Pascagoula Incident was major news everywhere.
Hickson and Parker both passed lie detector tests.
In 2001, a previously unknown witness came forward. Retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Mike Cataldo revealed that he saw an unusual craft at dusk on the same date. He was traveling with crew mates Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna on US Route 90 from Pascagoula to Ocean Springs when a large tambourine-like object with small flashing lights approached from the northwest and crossed the freeway before hovering over the treeline and disappearing.
As he approached his home in Ocean Springs, the craft made a second appearance at lower altitude.
On September 9, 2011 Charles Hickson passed away at age 80.
He never backed off of his claims of the events of that night.
