ARCHIVAL UPDATES: ARE THE INVADERS COMING?

Steven Tyler's hopeful-but-skeptical UFO text Are the Invaders Coming? is now available to read and download at archive dot org! Whither our man of mystery? He wrote one more book on the paranormal and then disappeared into the unknown ...

Courtesy Tower Books, 1968.

THE TERROR by Michael D. Albers

Author Michael Albers goes into the nitty gritty of the late '70s cattle mutilation waves in this very rare title gifted with a beautiful cover from cheapie publisher Manor Books. Many of the names that would later turn up in 1984's doorstopper Mute Evidence are here, from the Stigmata newsletter to Officer Keith Wolverton to Dr. Leo Sprinkle. Gabe Valdez and the strange happenings around Dulce are also covered, as is the fraudulent testimony of convict A. Kenneth Bankston as to a secret blood cult killing cattle.

Unfortunately, after a good amount of granular setup, Albers stumbles later on, finishing with a generic summary of the '70s UFO scene and pretty much dropping any idea of interpreting the mutilation mystery. Too bad! The Terror is still worth reading as a time capsule and early, earnest attempt at wrangling a subject that's become a cornerstone of modern UFOlogy.

This was Albers' only book. The Terror is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Manor Books, 1979

ULTIMATE ENCOUNTER by Bill Barry

The true story of a UFO kidnapping ... the ULTIMATE ENCOUNTER! Author Bill Barry delivers a credulous account of Travis Walton's 1975 UFO abduction, released the same year as Walton's own The Walton Experience. Barry primes his book with heady quotes from giants like Twain and Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and John Milton, and brackets Walton's supposed saucer snatching with the groundbreaking Voyager probes launched in 1977, cutting edge developments pushing the boundaries of the unknown.

The man himself, Travis Walton

Unfortunately, the saga itself is looking thin as tissue paper 40+ years on, and Barry's attempts at downplaying any critical appraisal read as very clumsy. Say what you will about arch-skeptic Philip J. Klass, for example, but Barry's retort that Klass is the "real UFO buff" because he has the temerity to write skeptically on Walton's story instead of just accepting the tale comes across as weak, as does sniping about Klass's financial motivations for writing on UFOs in some feeble tit-for-tat against accusations of Walton and crew boss Mike Rogers' possible hoaxing for National Enquirer prize money. 

The Walton story has come back into the limelight recently due to a startling admission of hoaxing by Mike Rogers, which Rogers has since retracted! The critically minded UFO website Three-Dollar Kit features an in-depth reexamination of the Walton case which lays out some very convincing motivations for an abduction hoax committed by Walton and Rogers, with the other crew members as unwitting accomplices. It's worth noting that several "pro-UFO" researchers such as Karl Pflock, Raymond Fowler, and the group NICAP were doubtful of the case from the start and this isn't a simplistic split between so-called skeptics and believers. But as Barry presents things anyone doubting the ultimate encounter is either blinkered, mendacious, or just small minded - after all, isn't the universe enormous and unknowable? This is a time capsule presentation of the UFO mystery akin to In Search Of ... where answers are just around the corner and doubters need to get out of the way! Barry brings in cattle mutilations and fellow abductee Charles Moody for some more period flavor. It's an impressive edifice of mystery, provided you don't look too close ...

This book was owned by Marv or Mary Taylor.

Pocket Books, 1978

ABDUCTED! by Coral and Jim Lorenzen

Influential UFO researchers Coral and Jim Lorenzen give us this summary text of a few wild years when multiple people across America found themselves ABDUCTED! The Lorenzens and their UFO group the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization were among the first to pay serious attention to tales of flying saucer occupants, in a time when other researchers were writing close encounters off as contactee-level drivel. Persistence pays off though, and by the 1970s the UFO field was shifting to an acceptance of close encounters and a new term entered the lexicon: the alien abduction. Much of the foundation for these cases rests on hypnotic regression as practiced by doctors such as Leo Sprinkle, which is to say that things are off to a shaky start at best. But let's see just what the Lorenzens have to say about these astonishing, documented accounts of confrontations with beings from outer space ...

Jim and Coral lookin' fly

The abductees are:

George Wheeler, Wisconsin 1976. Police officer abducted while investigating a strange light he thought may have been a fire. Multiple witnesses testified as to something strange happening that night. Wheeler initially blocked out the memory of his experience, which the Lorenzens note as an emerging theme in alien abductions of the time, also mentioning the Hills and Antonio Villas-Boas.

Pat Roach, Utah 1973. Abducted with her children by medically minded aliens. Anonymized as "Patty Price, from a midwestern state" as Roach did not originally want publicity for her experience. Next year however she would appear on an episode of In Search Of. Longtime UFO researcher Kevin Randle takes some issue with her case, or more properly with her hypnotic regression performed by APRO investigator Dr. James Harder. According to Randle, Dr. Harder discussed details of the Hill's experience with Roach during her session, unduly influencing her recall. Randle was Harder's assistant on the case, but if he had these misgivings at the time the Lorenzens did not include them in their summary! Incidentally, Isaac Koi's website for Ufology has a very useful index for references to this case in the UFO literature.

Carl Higdon, Wyoming 1974. Abducted while hunting elk by Ausso the Alien, and given a tour of Ausso's craft. Ausso acts like a classic contactee Space Brother. He was able to stop one of Carl's bullets in midair before revealing himself. Leo Sprinkle investigated and arranged a polygraph for Higdon.

Higdon with wife Margery ...

She wrote the book on him!

Charles Moody, New Mexico 1975. Airborne Sergeant Charles Moody was abducted from Alamogordo after watching a meteor shower. His case includes classic features such as a car that dies or won't start, missing time and amnesia, and lingering health effects with a "heat rash" on his lower torso that developed afterwards. His case was investigated by the Lorenzens simultaneously with Travis Walton's. Moody's aliens would not use his nickname Chuck and insisted on calling him Charles - proper little fellas!

Moody and his friends

Sandra Larson, North Dakota 1975. Abducted while driving with her daughter and boyfriend. Other contemporary reports played up the bizarre beings, which Larson described as "mummy like" creatures with jointed arms like an erector set. They performed weird medical procedures on her such as rubbing her body with a clear fluid! Larson was hypnotized by Leo Sprinkle and the transcript is included herein.

David Stephens, Maine 1975. Also abducted while driving with a friend. A gigantic UFO shot a beam at their truck and then ... missing time, missing memories. Dr. Herbert Hopkins, who preformed Stephens' hypnotic regression, would later claim a visit from the Men in Black! An emotionally fraught case if there ever was one.

Travis Walton, Arizona 1975. This is the big one, the whole enchilada. Out of all the cases in this book Walton's had the staying power, and if you're not already familiar then I doubt I could do it full justice in this rundown. The Lorenzens are fully convinced of his truthfulness, while skeptics such as Philip J. Klass disagreed. My opinion? However you appraise Walton's character, actual evidence seems rather thin on the ground ... (Edit: see Charlie Wiser's convincing analysis of the case which concludes hoax.)

Two books on the Walton case

APRO was all in on Walton

Louise Smith, Elaine Thomas, and Mona Stafford, Kentucky 1976. A truly strange triple abduction! The ladies were taken while driving at night, and their case caused such a stir that THREE major UFO groups wound up tussling over the investigation: APRO as represented by Leo Sprinkle, Hynek's CUFOS, and MUFON! Eventually Sprinkle was able to hypnotize Mona Stafford and arrange a polygraph for all three ladies.

Louise, Elaine, and Mona

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, Mississippi 1973. The famous Pascagoula abduction. The Lorenzens saved it for last in order to trace the possible effects its major publicity had on the other cases. The next chapter starts to collate everyone's experiences, with the Lorenzens theorizing a plan of human experimentation by the UFO occupants. The authors are bullish on UFOs being nuts and bolts craft for ET, and poo-poo talk of interdimensional travelers - man has been to space, after all, but not yet to "another dimension," whatever that might even mean! Point taken, Jim and Coral.

We get two beefy appendixes, with a transcript of one of Travis Walton's polygraph tests and an article by Leo Sprinkle on using hypnotic regression for UFO cases. A long list of references follow, and what should catch my eye but a citation for Eric Norman's Gods, Demons, and UFO's? That's not a very reliable source, you guys! It seems we just can't escape the pulp origins of Ufology no matter how high we set our sights. We're dreamers in castles made of sand ...

A Berkeley Medallion Book, 1977

 

WHAT WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT FLYING SAUCERS by Otto Binder

What a difference a year makes! Binder put out this fantastic flying saucer guide just one year before his awful piece of Ancient Astronaut hackwork, Flying Saucers Are Watching Us. I guess a man's gotta eat. This time around Binder quotes extensively from NICAP's "UFO Evidence" report, compiled by Richard Hall, which results in reams of data not normally found in cheapie UFO paperbacks such as Binder's very next book! Some charts and diagrams are also reproduced (see two images below). The full report is available for download on NICAP's website, along with some other classic UFO titles. 

Binder excludes contactees entirely from this volume, and only just touches on the Ancient Astronaut "theory" as one of several UFO ideas floating around. Next year von Daniken's bestseller Chariots of the Gods? would blow the field wide open for copycat cash-ins but for now, in the calm before the storm, sober scientific appraisal appeared to be winning out over the "UFOnuts." That's John Keel's own term for the lunatic fringe, from his introduction. Of course Keel himself was no stranger to the wilder side of the weird, so perhaps this slip-sliding tension was inevitable in the field. For what it's worth here Binder does a capable job sticking to just the facts, ma'am.

The photos included are of mostly indeterminate pedigree, excepting the Trinidade Island sequence recorded by the Brazilian Navy. A few confirmed hoaxes do sneak through, like one of Paul Villa Jr.'s spiffy saucer models and the very respectable McMinnville UFO photographs.

Paul Villa Jr. - too good to be true!

The McMinnville photos - ditto!

Some fringe ideas filter in as well, represented here by our pal Brad Steiger's large format special from Award Books, The Flying Saucer Menace. Binder mentions this text in his chapter on health effects from UFO sightings. Ray Palmer, Maury Island, and the Shaver Mystery are also mentioned for their fringe qualities. Brinsley Le Poer Trench is quoted on prehistoric UFOs, as are Carl Sagan and Fred Hoyle. The 1917 Fatima visions in Portugal come up as possible pre-Arnold UFOs. For the most part though, Binder avoids the wild speculation that was Steiger and Co.'s bread and butter. 

Flying saucer occupants are recorded as reported, including that other pair of Venezuelan dwarfs, merely one of a host of little men popping up in the '50s. Binder notes that reputable sighting reports of saucer occupants are frequently "frustrated" in one way or another, as if the UFOnauts are perpetually just out of reach, and connects this with Vallee's theorizing on the continuity between flying saucers and fairy folk. He does point to Betty and Barney Hill as the single credible UFO contact experience amid a field of contactees. The word "abduction" was not yet in currency, by the way, showing how different the UFO field really was in 1967 from our modern construct. And while the Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax gets a mention, with Binder rejecting crashed saucers as hoaxes and wild rumors, there's not a word on Roswell. That only makes sense, as that now-iconic lore wouldn't be popularized until the '80s.

The most noticeable difference between this text and Binder's sloppy work from next year is his attitude toward the US Air Force. Next year Binder would present the standard conspiratorial picture of a omnipotent government coverup. Here now Binder is quite perceptive, pointing out the USAF's "vacillation" on the flying saucer question and its almost schizophrenic attitude, sometimes debunking and sometimes encouraging sighting reports. It's a smart appraisal of a gigantic government bureaucracy being pushed and pulled by multiple agendas and occurrences, and a necessary level of analysis if one wants to make any progress at all on UFOs.

Binder's so serious about wrangling his saucer facts that he gives us a helpful summary towards the end of the book, allowing us to take an overview of the ideas presented thus far:

As you can see above he also reprints the USAF's form for reporting UFO sightings, another useful thing to have on hand. A rundown of UFO types by Jacques Vallee follows, and Binder finishes the appendix section by summarizing John Keel's "Project B" appraisal of UFO data for 1966. And so we end on an uneasy note, surrounded by scientific data but dogged by the Men in Black - or at least, the man who most popularized them.

Thankfully, this is the book Binder chose to dedicate to his deceased daughter Mary Lorine Binder. It's a suitable honor, because as a UFO reader, as a time capsule, as a fascinating journey, this title is recommended.

What We Really Know About Flying Saucers is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1967