Para-News

Quirky history

2011-11-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

Below you can read my "Quirky History" article that was published in issue 61 of Paranormal Magazine.

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Quirky History

By Richard Thomas

Since September of last year I’ve been writing a column for the South Wales Evening Post, entitled "Grand day Out". Originally a one off outing the column quickly morphed into a regular weekly feature for the weekend section of the newspaper and has involved me visiting different tourist hotspots in Swansea and surrounding south west Wales region. Some of the places I have visited have included Swansea Museum, Mumbles Pier, as well as Oakwood Theme Park and Folly Farm in Pembrokeshire.

While a paranormal connection to any of these popular tourist haunts might sound at first unlikely, in every case there has been at least a tippet of what might be called ‘quirky history’ attached to either the actual place itself or to the immediate vicinity.

Originally set up by the Royal Institution of South Wales (a local group who wanted to investigate all aspects of history, the arts and science at the beginning of the 19th century) Swansea Museum was completed in 1841 in the grand neo-classical style, and is the oldest museum in Wales.

The main museum on Oystermouth Road contains all kinds of unusual objects from Swansea’s past as well as the wider world. The building’s six galleries house everything from an ancient Egyptian mummy to a traditional Welsh kitchen. However, what few visitors realise is that the museum is allegedly one of the most haunted buildings in Wales.

I spoke with one of the staff there, Catherine Perrie, who told me she and two colleagues (Paul Giuffrida and Trish Nicholls) had seen a ‘dark-cloaked figure’ walking up and down the stairs.

When I interviewed Catherine further she told me that she saw the strange figure on top of the stairs twice, on two different evenings. While reading, she saw the outline of a figure on the top of the stairs. When she turned to see who (or what) it was, though, the apparition quickly turned and ran up the next flight of stairs leading to the "Cabinet of Curiosities" gallery room, where, according to Catherine, the strange activity in the building "seems to be mainly focused."

When I talked with another staff member who saw this ‘cloaked figure’ on the stairs, Paul Giuffrida, he shared with me two other strange experiences that he had had at the museum. The first of which took place in the "Cabinet of Curiosities" a few years ago.

Paul Giuffrida shared with me two other strange experiences he had had at the museum. The first of these took place in the "Cabinet of Curiosities" gallery. While putting a window in for one of the exhibits, "The Victorian Room" (where Catherine told me visitors had reported cold spots and a "presence"), Paul said he heard "a lot of noise ... tapping and banging" coming from the corner opposite the lift. Naturally, he assumed someone must have come upstairs but, on investigation, he discovered nobody had.

On another occasion, this time at the museum's collection centre at Landore, Paul told me that while he was working in the storage area he heard "loud whistling" in his hear.

In addition to these two accounts, Paul also related to me that when a medium had been brought in to investigate the strange activity at the museum, they were told the ghost of someone who committed suicide on the lightship "Helwick" now haunted the museum; this might even be the cloaked figure who had been seen on the stairs.

Roger Gale, Swansea Museum's Exhibition and Events Officer, wasn’t convinced about this, though, since he doesn't believe in the abilities of mediums and other psychics. Despite this, however, Roger did admit after some coaxing to seeing and experiencing things at the museum. Although a little embarrassed, Roger went into some detail about a full-bodied apparition he saw. It had "come out of the wall" and walked along a corridor before vanishing. Roger said the apparition was in view for at least 15 to 20 seconds and that it looked so lifelike that for a moment he thought it was one of his colleagues.

"It was as real as you are now," he said. I run into similar ghost stories at Mumbles Pier.

The gateway to the Gower Peninsula, an area of immense unspoilt natural beauty unparalleled in South Wales, Mumbles in Swansea is best known for its historic pier, castle, lighthouse and other popular seaside attractions.

What is less well known, however, is that holidaymakers risk getting more than they bargained for at "The Mumbles", as the old fishing village is slowly gaining a spooky reputation for haunted locations. But maybe this isn’t surprising as Mumbles has always been considered a place apart, as this old poem has it:

Mumbles is a funny place,

A church without a steeple,

Houses made of old ships wrecked

And most peculiar people.

The seaside town began its status as a popular tourist haunt when Mumbles Pier, designed by W. Sutcliffe Marsh and promoted by John Jones Jenkins of the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, first opened on May 10, 1898.

Stretching 225 meters out into Mumbles Bay, the Victorian built pier was once the only way to visit Swansea in style. The White Funnel paddle steamers of the Bristol-based P & A Campbell Ltd company would dock on the end of the pier unloading tourists who would then make their journey via the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, which was the world’s first passenger railway. And although in recent years the pier has fallen into a state of disrepair with a large section fenced off to visitors and other areas patched up to maintain safety; the bustling holiday magnet still welcomes thousands of visitors each year from across Wales and the world, all of them attracted to the beautiful beaches, pubs, restaurants and famed scenery of the Mumbles coast.

With such a happy history Mumbles Pier isn’t automatically the first place ghost hunters might think to look for proof of the paranormal. Nevertheless, there is at least one ghost story linked with the popular Victorian walkway. The figure of a young woman wearing a long dress and what looks like a scarf or shawl wrapped around her face has been seen walking on the pier late at night, long after closing at 8.00pm. The apparition allegedly disappearing before anyone can ask her who she is? Or why she is haunting the pier?

And Mumbles Pier isn’t alone. Oystermouth Castle (aka Mumbles Castle) built sometime around 1100 by William de Londres, and later rebuilt in the thirteenth century by the infamous de Breos family, after being burnt down by the native Welsh twice, also has a resident spectre. Known as the "White Lady of Oystermouth Castle". This apparition of a woman dressed all in white has been experienced many times by visitors to the battlement.

The "White Lady" is usually seen weeping, with the back of her dress ripped away and a series of brutal welts on her back. The woman then abruptly vanishes as if she had never existed before witnesses can offer her any help. Reports of the "Woman in White" allegedly go back centuries, leading some paranormal investigators to believe she might have died after being tied to the medieval whipping post - which still stands in the castle’s dungeon, and tortured.

When I visited Pembrokeshire I found evidence for torture of a totally different kind.

Pembrokeshire is best known for its rugged natural beauty and tourism magnets, including Oackwood Theme Park and Folly Farm. In recent years, however, the idyllic maritime county has made national headlines for quite a different reason. Mystery "big cats" have been sighted wandering the county, and leaving paw prints and the gory remains of mutilated livestock in their path.

As late as last January it was reported that a former police officer, Michael Disney, had had an encounter with an animal described as being similar to a "puma or panther". In a statement passed to the police, Mr Disney said he was travelling around 10 to 15mph on a single-track lane when the animal crossed just five meters in front of his car.

"I immediately stopped my vehicle and stared at this animal. It had a large cat-like head, muscular build and was approximately three feet tall … I am 100% certain that this was a puma or panther-like animal and was definitely not a dog, cat or any other domestic animal. It was not something I had seen before other than in a zoo," he said.

Mr Disney’s close encounter with an ABC or "alien big cat", which took place near the village of Treffgarne, six miles north of the market town of Haverfordwest, was touted by the Pembrokeshire council as being the "most definitive yet." However, big cat sightings in the region and throughout England and Wales are nothing new.

Members of this writer's own family have on occasion heard "growls" and once even saw what they thought was a puma or panther, "carrying a dead sheep in its mouth." And during the last decade there have been hundreds of similar reports of large big black cats roaming the remote hillsides and valleys of Wales - many of these sightings taking place in the Pembrokeshire region.

Between April 2004 and July 2005, 123 sightings in Wales were reported to the research group Big Cats in Britain. And in March of last year newly released documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that a government agency tasked with investigating more than 100 sightings across England since 2005, concluded that 38 were genuine.

But if these creatures are in fact real, and not just the stuff of myth and human imagination, where could they have come from?

The Centre for Fortean Zoology is the only fulltime scientific organisation in the world dedicated to the study of unknown animals. I subscribed to their journal Animals & Men and had an opportunity to interview their Zoological Director, Richard Freeman, about the evidence for a breeding population of big cats roaming wild in the British countryside.

"There is no doubt big cats are alive and well in the UK", Richard Freeman told me.

The former Zookeeper from Leeds adding: "A female puma was captured in Inverness in 1980."

"These are descendants of escapees and deliberate releases", he explained.

"Until the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in 1976 anyone could keep anything they wanted as a pet and up until the early 1980s any old duffer could start a zoo in their backyard! The nucleus of the current big cat population in the UK was from these irresponsible people."

When people normally think about the paranormal they tend think about big Hollywood films such as The Exorcist or Close Encounters, but do a little research and maybe you’ll find evidence of some "quirky history" in your own local area.

UFO over Hollywood?

2011-08-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

I had an email from someone called Roger Avery who claims to have recorded this video.

In his email Roger writes:

Richard,

We live in the Hollywood Hills. My wife started taping what I thought was a blimp in the sky. She said it suddenly just appeared. She started recording it, but it zipped away seconds later and scared the crap out of us. We looked around for another 20 minutes but it never came back.

I posted the video to youtube here.

please let us know what you think,

Roger

On YouTube Roger also gives the date and time of his alleged sighting.

This was yesterday at July 26, 2011 at 11:17 a.m. I want to know if anyone else saw it? Can you please comment here? Any other videos of it?

My first impressions are that this is an obvious hoax. The people talking in the video sound like they are acting to me. And the UFO seems to be following the script too. Just thought I’d post this to see if others have had the same email.

Para-News text interview

2011-07-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

In a special text interview posted at Binnall of America, Henry Baum of Disinformation turns the tables on me and asks me some questions about my new book PARA-NEWS - UFOs, Conspiracy Theories, Cryptozoology and much much more published by Bretwalda Books. Read it here.

The Appleby poltergeist

2011-07-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Appleby Poltergeist

By Rupert Matthews

Another late 19th century case that was well documented took place in a home near the village of Appleby in what was then Westmorland, but is now Cumbria. One of those involved kept a diary and wrote down the events as they happened, allowing us to follow the progress of this particular visitation in detail.

The house in question was a former flour mill which, like so many in England, was abandoned in the 1880s when cheap grain imported from North America and milled at dockside industrial mills took over the market for mills. In 1887 the semi-derelict old watermill was bought by a businessman from Manchester named Fowler to be a comfortable country home for his family. He would have to go to Manchester to work, and intended to stay in a small apartment over his business when he did so. At the time that family consisted of Mr Fowler, his wife and two daughters: Teddie aged 12 and Jessica aged 14.

Before the family moved in the old mill had to be converted to make it suitable for use as a house. Most of these changes were cosmetic, but one was more substantial and came to have relevance to what followed. The mill water wheel had formerly been linked to a large axle which entered the mill through the side wall overlooking the river. It was connected in the 'wheel room' to a mass of machinery, gears and so faorth that converted the motion of the wheel into movement that could be used by the milling machinery. The room was lit by a large window while a door gave access to some stone steps and a gangtry from which the wheel itself could be inspected and, if necessary, repaired. A door led from the wheel room into the kitchen.

Fowler hired workmen who removed the wheel and all the machinery. He then had the door bricked up, but left the window as it was. The wall separating the wheel room from the rest of the kitchen was torn down and replaced by a more flimsy partition that stood much closer to the wall with the window overlooking the river. This created a much larger kitchen with a storeroom occupying the reduced space of the wheel room - which however was still termed the wheel room.

The bilding work was finished in early May 1887 and the family moved in. About two weeks later, Teddie complained of feeling ill and began to run a slight fever. Her mother put her to bed and decided that she should rest there for a day or two. That evening the other three members of the family were eating supper in the kitchen when the sound of breaking glass came from the wheel room.

Mr Foster went into the room to find a pane of glass in the window had been smashed. At first he thought that a large bird might have flown into the window and broken it, but he soon decided that the pane had been smashed deliberately. He peered out but could see nobody. He then walked through the kitchen and out into his garden from where he could get a good view up and down the stream, and of the path that ran along the far side. Again, nobody was in sight.

Foster then returned to the wheel room and began clearing up the broken glass. He quickly found the missle that had smashed the window. It was a large stone identical to those found in the rocky bed of the stream, and it was still wet. It was obvious where the stone had come from, but who had thrown it was a mystery.

Ten days later the family were again at supper when the sounds of somebody knocking on the far side of the partition to the wheel room began. The knocking noises got louder and more insistent, then moved to the door that led from the kitchen to the storage room. Thinking some prankster was at work, Foster walked over and opened the door. The noises stopped at once. There was nobody in the room.

Three days later Mrs Fowler and Jessica were in the kitchen engaged in housework when they heard voices coming from the wheel room. The voices were not loud, and neither Mrs Fowler nor Jessica could catch what they were saying. They knew that nobody was in the wheel room and fled the house. They were standing in the garden wondering what to do when a man who worked on a neighbouring farm was seen walking down the lane. Mrs Fowler told the man that she was worried that somebody was in the house. The farmhand went in and searched diligently but found nobody.

That night the voices in the wheel room came again as the family were at supper. This time they were louder and could be heard to be a man and woman, though the words could still not be made out. There then came a sound like a saucer being dropped on the floor and broken. Mr Fowler quickly opened the door to the wheel room. The voices stopped. There was no broken saucer, nor anything that could have explained the noise.

Mr Foster knew that on the folowing Monday he would need to go to Manchester, and would need to stay there for several days to look after his business. He did not want to leave his family alone, but dreaded what would happen if he announced that the house was haunted. He sent for an employee named Dick Carter, whom he knew to be level- headed, and asked him and his wife to come to stay at the mill.

Before Carter arrived, Foster screwed two stout metal bars across the door that led from the kithen to the wheel room so that it could not be opened from either side. As he did so a stone smashed through the window in the wheel room. Foster then fixed a wire mesh over the window on the outside. On the Monday, Foster explained to Carter what had been going on and expressed his fear that the house was haunted. Carter promised to keep a close eye on things. Foster then left for Manchester.

That evening it was Mr and Mrs Carter, Mrs Foster, Teddie and Jessica who ate supper in the kitchen. The two women were clearing up when the manifestations began, this time far more dramatic than before. The first thing that happened was that a cup fell off the dresser, followed by a pair of saucers and another cup. Then a jug of beer tipped over and spilled its contents all over the floor. This was followed by the fire irons which began dancing about in their holder. The coal scuttle then began shooting out pieces of coal that flew across the room. The girls screamed and dived for cover, followed quickly by Mrs Fowler. Carter stood up and surveyed the mayhem around him. He had promised to keep an eye on things and was determined to note carefully everything that happend so that he could report to his employer. Suddenly everything fell still.

Then noises came from the sealed up wheel room. It sounded as if the boxes in the room were being thrown about. Then came the sound of hammering and banging. Carter ushered everyone out of the house, then got into a small boat and crossed to the far side of the river to get a good view through the window of the wheel room. He watched as packing cases moved back and forth. Then an empty pram was seen floating up to the ceiling, then moving off to one side. The pram drifted past the window five times. Then the movements and noises ceased. After 20 minutes of silence, Carter recrossed the stream and entered the house. All was quiet, so he waved the others in. Carter sat up all night in the kitchen while the others went to bed. Nothing much happened and Carter dozed off toward dawn.

Next morning, Carter got a ladder and climbed up to peer into the wheel room. All the packing boxes had been piled up against one wall. The pram was perched on top.

Nothing happened for the rest of the week, but when Fowler came home the disturbances broke out again. Once more the packing cases and pram were moved about the sealed room, loud hanmmering noises were heard. Then the voices came back. Again the actual words could not be heard but it sounded as if the man and woman were having an argument. This lasted an hour, then quiet returned.

Over the months that followed the disturbances continued unabated. There might be a few days when nothing happend, then the noises and movements would come back. Mr Fowler’s diary for two weeks in August are typical. The references to everyday life have been ommitted, but the entries relevant to the visitation read as follows:

Saturday Augsut 13Four jugs broken in kitchen. Several knocks on door. Scraping sound on wheel room window.

Monday August 15Cat frightened at something in kitche, and has run away.

Thursday August 18Five spoons found on floor of kitchen this morning, on dresser over night. Jess had a plate thrown at her. Noises in the wheel room.

Sunday August 21Queit, except for jug of water upset, and knives found in sink.

Friday August 26A noisy night last night. On guardoutside wheel room. They kept it up for nearly two hours. Ink bottles thrown to floor.

Monday September 5No sleep last night. On guard all night. Hell is in the wheel room. Wife stayed up part of time.

It is hardly suprising that the Fowler family felt like a holiday after such a summer. Mr Fowler had a married sister living on the Isle of Man and he arranged for them all to go to visit her for a couple of weeks in September. Before leaving he made a point of putting all loose objects away, locking every door and making a careful note of where everything was. He then asked a neighbour to keep an eye on the place, coming to check the outside doors and windows were locked every day.

The Fowlers were away for four weeks. When the time came to return home, Teddie asked if she could stay on with her aunt. So it was that Mr and Mrs Fowler returned home with only Jessica. They found that the house was exactly as they had left it. There were no further manifestations of any kind.

Once the trouble was over, Fowler felt mroe able to talk about the events. He talked to the local curate who agreed to do some reasearch. He discovered that one of the former workers at the mill had been a Welshman named Tom Watkins. Watkins had been employed to look after the machinery in the wheel room, and often slept in the room when the mill was busy. Watkins formed a friendship with a local woman, and the woman’s husband took exception to the way the 'friendship' was progressing. One night in the local inn a fight had broken out between Watkins and the husband, which ended with the latter dying from a blow to the head. Watkins was arrested, but let go after it became clear that the other man had attacked him first. Watkins and the widow had then moved off to Wales and their subsequent fate was unknown.

The visitation was promptly put down to a haunting connected to these events. The ghost heard arguing in the wheel room were assumed to be those of Watkins and his lover.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Haunted Hampshire which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Chupacabras: zooform or cryptozoology?

2011-05-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

Over at Cryptomundo I’ve posted some excepts from my interviews with Nick Redfern, Neil Arnold, Mac Tonnies and Richard Freeman about their views on the Chupacabras. Read it here.

Richard Freeman interview: yetis, dragons, Doctor Who and more!

2011-05-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

At Cryptomundo I’ve posted an interview I did with Richard Freeman of the CFZ back in 2009, focusing on how the TV series Doctor Who inspired him to become a cryptozoologists. Read it here.

New ebook 'PARA-NEWS - UFOs, Conspiracy Theories, Cryptozoology and much much more' out now!

2011-05-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

My first ever book, well ebook "Para-News" is out now. I’ve been told the book has been uploaded to Kindle, Barnes and Noble and other ebook platforms and should be available to buy by 30 May, if not before. UFOMystic blogger Nick Redfern even did a short foreword for me, which you can read below:

When Richard Thomas asked me if I would be willing to write the foreword for his very first book, saying "Yes!" was not a problem at all. Over the last few years, I have followed Richard’s work at Binnall of America, and in the pages of Stuart Miller’s unfortunately short-lived Alien Worlds magazine. And not only have I followed his writing: I have also seen it grow and develop in scope, depth, subject-matter, and style.

Plus, as is very clear from his written output, Richard has a great passion and enthusiasm for those puzzles, people, and places of the outer-edge variety that he pursues. All of these are (or certainly should be!) essential character traits when it comes to investigating weird phenomena, and/or interviewing Fortean experts in their respective fields.

There’s nothing worse than tired, old has-beens, utterly jaded and worn by their time spent chasing the ufological, the cryptozoological, the paranormal, and the supernatural. Thankfully, Richard is none of these! What he is, is someone who is constantly striving to learn more, share his data with others, and to do the latter in an informative, entertaining and thought-provoking fashion.

So, if your interests include (A) strange and ominous beasts of a type that science says cannot, and do not exist, but that cryptozoologists say otherwise; (B) weird and enigmatic outer-space conspiracies; (C) the intricacies of time-travel; (D) spooks and spectres from the other side; (E) the way in which science-fiction and science-fact often cross paths to truly astonishing degrees; and (F) and the ominous Orwellian road that our society seems to be evermore traveling down, then this is most certainly the book for you!

You can read a free ebook sample of "PARA-NEWS The Very Best of Richard Thomas" by Richard Thomas.

"Like" the "Para-News" Facebook page.

Buy it now at ...

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Here is the product description from Amazon:

A gripping account of the very latest developments in the esoteric worlds of conspiracy theories, Ufology, paranormal investigations and the bizarre.

Most people will have heard of UFOs, ghosts and yetis, but what about the wilder shores of the paranormal, the conspiracy theorists and down right bizarre? In this book, one of the world’s leading and most prolific paranormal bloggers takes readers on a voyage of discovery like no other ever written.

The key players are interviewed, explaining their views on the JFK assassination, the shadowy and sinister Illuminati, the influential Bilderberg Group, allegations of an incipient New World Order, cover ups and how hidden messages can be found in Hollywood movies such as Blade Runner and TV shows including the X-Files. Dean Haglund, Richard Dolan, Steve Watson, Richard Holland, Nick Pope, Timucin Leflef, Bryce Zabel, Christopher Knowles and Nick Redfern are all here.

The book takes a critical look at timeslips, ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, mind control, aliens, disinformation, black-ops, the Bermuda Triangle and a host of other paranormal phenomena.

Endorsement
“If your interests include (A) strange and ominous beasts of a type that science says cannot, and do not exist, but that cryptozoologists say otherwise; (B) weird and enigmatic outer-space conspiracies; (C) the intricacies of time-travel; (D) spooks and spectres from the other side; (E) the way in which science-fiction and science-fact often cross paths to truly astonishing degrees; and (F) and the ominous Orwellian road that our society seems to be evermore traveling down, then this is most certainly the book for you!”
– Nick Redfern, author of The Real Men in Black and Space Girl Dead on Spaghetti Junction.

About the Author
RICHARD THOMAS is a freelance feature writer specialising in Fortean subjects. Richard has written for high street magazines, including Alien Worlds Magazine, Paranormal Magazine and UFO Matrix Magazine. He is also a blogger for UFOMystic and Binnall of America. In addition to writing about the paranormal and unexplained, Richard also writes a column entitled "Big Day Out" for the South Wales Evening Post, Wales’ largest circulation newspaper. His website is at www.richardthomas.eu.

Is there a secret US space program?

2011-05-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

Below you can read a revised version of my "Is There a Secret Space Program?" article from issue 4 of UFO Matrix Magazine.

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Is There a Secret US Space Program?

By Richard Thomas

In an article for the May 16, 2010 edition of the Scottish Sunday Express it was reported that the UK UFO hacker Garry McKinnon was - to quote the newspaper article - "set to avoid extradition and be tried in Britain." The 43-year-old, of course, made international headlines back in 2005 after he was charged with various counts of hacking into Pentagon and NASA computers, in search of what the computer wizard described as "free energy technology," which McKinnon believed the US Government had reversed engineered from recovered UFOs.

To the disappointment of the British UFO community, however, this news that McKinnon was set to face trial in the UK was never confirmed by British Government, and leaves us with more questions than answers. Why have the US Government fought so hard for so long to get McKinnon in the first place? Or, put another way, what might have Garry stumbled upon that warranted such a heavy handed reaction from the US authorities?

Up to "60 years in prison" seems a bit of an overreaction for someone who was simply searching for something which according to the US Government isn’t even supposed to officially exist anyway. Could have McKinnon really have found evidence of UFO crash retrievals, or, did the UFO hacker find something else entirely the US military-industrial-political complex would rather you didn’t find out about?

While the mainstream media largely concentrated on the US Government’s dubious claim that McKinnon caused some $700,000 worth of damages to its computers, some truly out this world comments the supposed 'cyber terrorist' made to the author of The Men Who Stare At Goats, Jon Ronson, in an interview printed in the July 9, 2005 edition of The Guardian were all but ignored. In particular, McKinnon’s assertions that while hacking into the US space command he discovered "lists of officers’ names" under the tantalising heading "Non-Terrestrial Officers" as well as records of what McKinnon called "fleet-to-fleet transfers" and even "a list of ship names."

Rather than extraterrestrials, though, the computer hacker told The Guardian columnist that he thought he had found evidence of a secret space program of some kind. When Ronson asked McKinnon "The Americans have a secret spaceship?" McKinnon answering, "That's what this trickle of evidence has led me to believe."

McKinnon’s suggestion that NASA and its 2004 "vision" to return to the Moon by 2020 (over 50 years after the Apollo 11 landing!) could just be a cover for a much more advanced and deeply clandestine or "black" space program might sound like just another conspiracy theory but McKinnon isn’t the first to advocate such a hypotheses. The concept of a secret space program first gaining some prominence in 1977 when the UK’s Anglia Television (now ITV Anglia) broadcast the now infamous Orson Welles War of the Worlds-style hoax documentary: Alternative 3. The plot, of which, revolved around a global conspiracy to resettle missing scientists onto the Moon and Mars in preparation for an imminent environmental cataclysm.

While Alternative 3 is obviously science fiction. Something the lengthy interview with a fictitious Moon walking Apollo astronaut "Bob Grodin" (played by Shane Rimmer) as well as the list of programme credits run at the end should make clear. It is at least interesting that today climatologists are alarmingly forecasting exactly the kind catastrophic global warming predicted in the mock documentary. A fact which has led to much speculation on the world wide web that the April Fools hoax might have started out as a genuine investigation before having the plug pulled by sinister dark forces … perhaps the same forces calling for the extradition of Garry McKinnon.

In Jim Marrs’ Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us, the underground bestselling author briefly considered the Alternative 3 controversy. Marrs writing in Alien Agenda of respected UFO investigator and television documentary filmmaker Linda Mouton Howe’s involvement in investigating the controversial docudrama:

"'I was curious,' Howe said, 'and I had a discussion with a BBC producer about it. I was told that the program began as a BBC documentary on the so-called British 'brain drain' of the 1970s. You might remember that a large number of British scientists were leaving, reportedly for better-paying jobs in America. I was told that the program never came off because the BBC could not locate any of the scientists once they left Britain. It was all very odd. It was like they disappeared.'"

Further, Marrs also writes in Alien Agenda that "Howe said writers Ambrose and Miles wrote a script for Alternative 3 based on real interviews conducted by the BBC."

Journalist and author of Science Fiction Secrets: From Government Files and the Paranormal Nick Redfern wasn’t convinced of this, though. When I asked the paranormal investigator about McKinnon’s comments in a 2008 interview for the popular esoteric website Binnall of America, Redfern telling me "Non-Terrestrial Officers is of course a provocative term that conjures up all sorts of imagery. I think, however, that like much of Ufology, we have a few fragments of a story with what McKinnon found. But what the term might mean is very much down to personal interpretation."

Other researchers, however, have been less sceptical about the possibility of a secret space program. Author of Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence and Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up Timothy Good even going as far as suggesting an extraterrestrial connection. "In addition to having reverse engineered some recovered alien vehicles, I believe that we’ve been given highly advanced technology – including spacecraft – by certain allied extraterrestrials. As Ben Rich stated at the University of California School of Engineering in 1993: 'We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects ... and it would take an Act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity.'"

And Good is not alone. Acclaimed UFO Historian and author of the definitive multi-volume UFOs and the National Security State, Richard Dolan, has also spoken out about the possibility of such a covert program indeed existing. Initially sceptical, the Oxford educated Historian writing in a special guest article for my website that "Slowly, by degrees, I have come to the opinion that there is a secret space program."

According to Dolan he was told by an individual with "impressive scientific and intelligence credentials" that he "should not dismiss" the supposed anomalies located in the Cydonia region of Mars, such as the famous "Face" and "City" photographed by NASA’s Viking 1 Orbitor in 1976. And that "there were in fact many people within the classified world who took them seriously."

Dolan writing, "That’s when I realized, very concretely, that the notion of space anomalies was indeed a serious topic. I began to consider: if there is covert interest in the anomalies on Mars, would there be a covert space program to investigate? To this day, I don’t know the answer with certainty, but over the years I have encountered no shortage of quiet, serious-minded people who tell me of their knowledge that there is such a covert program. One component of this, it appears, has to do with the Moon. Are there bases on the far side of the Moon? Again, I do not know for sure, but I cannot rule it out. More than once, people I consider to be informed insiders have steered me in this direction."

However, it isn’t just the opinions of credentialed but anonymous insiders about the possibilities of alien architecture on Mars and perhaps even the Moon that interests Dolan.

"There is another reason to suppose the existence of an advanced, clandestine space program. An enormous amount of video of space missions has been downloaded and is available for anyone to see. These include missions of NASA, the European Space Agency, Russia, and China. Much of this was downloaded and made available by a gentleman named Jeff Challender, who unfortunately died in 2007. Jeff spent an enormous part of his life downloading and reviewing – very carefully – video recordings of those missions. There can be no denying that there has been a great deal of activity in Earth’s orbit. Much of what was recorded undoubtedly has conventional explanations. But, frankly, many events do not offer easy explanations. I firmly believe there is something unusual going on in Earth’s orbit. Fortunately, after Jeff’s death, I was able to upload his entire site and attach it to my own. His site, known as Project Prove, now has a permanent home at keyholepublishing.com."

This cocktail of tempting space anomalies on the one hand, which if indeed artificial or extraterrestrial might offer whichever nation studied them first tremendous leaps in technology, and video evidence of covert activity in space on the other. Not to mention the US Government’s determination to extradite McKinnon after he was caught hacking into NASA, does seem to add up to good grounds for suspecting a covert space program as Dolan suggests. There is only one problem with all this speculation, though, how would the US Government or anyone else for that matter fund such a vast and deeply clandestine project – possibly for decades if any of the information presented in Alternative 3 is to be taken seriously – without anyone even noticing? Any space program along the lines of Alternative 3 or envisioned by Dolan with bases on the Moon would cost trillions of dollars, surely there would be evidence of such incredible spending?

The short answer is yes, there would be … and YES there is. In 2001, at the National Press Club, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld admitted to the media that amazingly "According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." What more, this took place somewhat suspiciously on September 10, the eve of the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, guaranteeing the story would get buried by the mainstream media and forgotten about the next day.

This is where things get more complicated. Up to now we’ve assumed that the US authorities wanted McKinnon because of what he might have stumbled upon in relation to UFOs or a secret space program. However, it’s worth considering that McKinnon was hacking during and in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. While the date of Rumsfeld’s $2.3 trillion admission is suspicious it is circumstantial evidence of prior knowledge at best, however, we must ask is it possible Garry stumbled upon something relating to the 9/11 instead? If so, McKinnon is remaining quiet. And with the extradition efforts of the US authorities dragging on, it might be some time before we find out more.

Sources:

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Hacker Gary McKinnon to be tried in Britain

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Hacker fears 'UFO cover-up'

Jon Ronson meets hacker Gary McKinnon | World news | The Guardian

Expert challenges UFO hacker's $700k bill - 9/22/2009 - Computer Weekly

Nick Redfern :: A Room 101 Interview - Richard's Room 101

The War On Waste - CBS News

A Room 101 Interview with Timothy Good - Richard's Room 101

Para-News: Richard Dolan muses over the possibility of a secret space program‏

Jim Marrs, Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us, (New York : Harper Collins Publishers, ©1997), p.260.

Swansea ghosts

2011-05-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Bevlylouise tells us about her ghost story.

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My Paranormal Story

By Bevlylouise

I'm not really interested in the paranormal (and I'm not really sure that I believe in a lot of stories) but I do have an awesome paranormal story for you. Between last christmas and new year I held a small party at my house. After everyone else had gone two of my closest (male) friends decided to stay up drinking. I was tired and it was about 5.00am so I went to bed and left them to the sofas. About two hours later, I could hear one of them (Jarrad) calling my name from the stairs. He'd gotten lost in the house and was in a real state and couldn't remember where my room was (note: it's not a big house; he was just very drunk and stupid). Once I calmed him down he told me that there were ghosts downstairs and I needed to come down and "sort it out". I went down in full sceptic mode to find my other friend (Mike) curled up in a ball in a corner. Apparently Mike had seen two old men and a young man who had appeared in the house and stood in the room questioning how my friends knew me and what was going on. My friend Jarrad's story changed frequently, but settled on him denying having seen them himself. However, he did say that one of the men had told him that their name (Tony). Both fully grown (quite masculine) men were visibly shaken and wouldn't be left alone. Neither boy would let me go back to sleep and would not be alone (even went to the toilet together). At first, I assumed that these were burglars and checked the house. Then I thought that maybe they were neighbours (but afterwards confirmed that they hadn't come into the house). I doubt that they were "guests" at the party since I myself locked everything up before going to bed and my friends would not have been scared if they'd let someone in. My mum pointed out later that when I was young the man living next door was my godfather and called Tony. My friends refuse to talk about it now (or when they do, they joke and put up a lot of bravado) so I guess I'll never know what happened.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Welsh dragons

2011-05-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

The below guest article is by Richard Freeman, Zoologcal director at the Centre for Fortean Zoology.

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Welsh Dragons

By Richard Freeman

GLAMORGAN

Penllin
Brilliantly coloured flying serpents were said to inhabit the woods of Penllin as recently as the mid 19th century. People who were old men and women at the beginning of the 20th century recalled them well from their youth. They were prone to raid chicken coops and as a result were hunted into extinction.

Penmark
Another colony of the winged serpents resided here. One old woman said her grandfather had killed one after a fierce fight. She recalled seeing the skin preserved at his house when she was a girl. To the horror of cryptozoologists, it was thrown away upon his death.

Cardiff
A worm was supposed to live at the bottom of a whirlpool in the River Taff. It was said to drown people and suck down their bodies to eat.

DYFED

Trellech a’r Betws
A gwiber is supposed to guard a prehistoric tumulus in the area.

Newcastle Emlyn
A flame-spewing wyvern lived in a ruined castle, and was covered in impenetrable scales. A soldier waded into the river with a large piece of red cloth. The wyvern reacted to the cloth like a bull (or a male robin) and swooped down to attack it, allowing the soldier to shoot it in its one vulnerable spot. Like the dragon of Wantley, the vital spot was its rear end!

Castle Gwys
In one of the strangest British dragon legends, the beast here was a cockatrice whose body was covered in eyes. For some unexplained reason the estates of Winston were up for grabs to whoever could look on the freakish thing without it seeing them.

One resourceful chap hid inside a barrel and rolled into the cockatrice’s lair. He shouted out “Ha, bold cockatrice! I can see you but you cannot see me!”

He was granted the estates. What happened to the multi-eyed monster is anyone’s guess.

POWYS

Llandelio Graban
A dragon roosted in the tower of Llandelio Graban church until a local ploughboy worked out a way of destroying it. He carved a dummy dragon out of oak, and had the blacksmith cover it with steel hooks and spikes. It was then painted red and erected on the tower whilst the dragon was away hunting.
Upon returning, the dragon saw what it thought was a rival and savagely attacked it. The real dragon coiled about its facsimile and tried to squeeze the life from it. The genuine dragon was fatally wounded, and both the monster and the fake dragon came crashing down from the tower to their ruin.

GWYNEDD

Betws-y-Coed
A monster known as the Wybrant gwiber terrorized the neighbourhood. An outlaw from Hiraethog tried to kill it, but it bit him, tore out his throat, and flung him into the river for good measure!

CLWYD

Llarhaeadr-ym-Mochant
A gwiber brought a reign of terror to the area until the surviving locals studded a huge megalith with spikes and hooks and swathed it in red cloth. The red colour enraged the gwiber who attacked, becoming fatally entwined on the hooks. The megalith is known as the Red Pillar, or the Pillar of the Viper.

Penmynydd
In this detailed story a rich nobleman invites a soothsayer to the celebration feast after his son’s birth. The sage foretells that the boy will die of a gwiber’s bite. The boy is sent away to England for safekeeping, and his father offers a reward to whoever can slay the last gwiber in the area.

A clever lad digs a pit on the path were the gwiber usually slithers. At the bottom he places a highly polished brass mirror. He covers the pit with sticks and grass then waits. The gwiber falls into the pit and sees its own reflection. Thinking it a rival, it attacks the mirror until exhausted; then they boy leaps into the pit and hacks off the gwiber’s head.

Years later the nobleman’s son, now a spoilt teenager, returns and is shown the gwiber’s skull. He contemptuously kicks it and one of its long, dead fangs slices through his boot. The fang retains traces of venom and, as prophesied, the boy dies.

Cynwch Lake
A wyvern dwelt in this lake beneath the slopes of Moel Offrum. It emerged to poison the countryside and devour whatever it could catch. The Wizard of Ganllwyd employed a group of archers to kill it, but the wyvern always eluded them.

One day a shepherd boy named Meredydd found the wyvern sleeping on the hill. He ran two miles to Cymmer Abbey and borrowed a magick axe. He hacked the wyvern’s head off while it was asleep.

Nant Gwynant
After the Roman Legions left, Vortigern became the first British king. He decided to build a stronghold on the Iron Age hill fort of Dinas Emrys. Every time work began upon Dinas Emry, it would be destroyed by earthquake-like disturbances. Vortigern’s wizards said that in order to stop these events, the ground should be sprinkled with the blood of the son of a virgin. A boy was found whose mother had apparently been magically impregnated by a spirit. He was about to be sacrificed when he went into a trance and announced that beneath the hill was a lake. In the lake dwelt a red dragon and a white dragon who perpetually fought.

Vortigern’s men dug down and found the lake. When the lake was drained they found a pair of dragons. The two great reptiles fought until, at last, the white dragon gave way and fled. Seeing this as an omen that his forces would defeat the invading Saxons, Vortigern adopted the red dragon as his emblem.

The boy was none other than a young Merlin.

Llyn-y-Gadair
In the 18th century a group of men were swimming across this small lake close to Snowdonia. One of them was grabbed and devoured by a worm.

Read part one and two of my interview with Richard Freeman for Binnall of America.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Author of Haunted Wales Richard Holland interviwed about his website Uncanny UK

2011-05-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

At UFOMystic I’ve posted an interview with Richard Holland, former editor of Paranormal Magazine and author of Haunted Wales. Read it here.

The Royal wedding: why I won't be celebrating the big day

2011-04-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

While I’ve always had an interest in the history of the British Monarchy I will not be celebrating William and Kate’s wedding today. Why? You ask. Well there’s a couple reasons really. To start with, do you remember what happened just before the last Royal wedding? Prince Charles muttering under his breath to members of the press, “Bloody people. I can’t bear that man. He’s so awful, he really is.”

But the big two reasons have to be the Windsors' Nazi connections and what happened to Princess Diana.

Prince Charles Press Blunder

Prince Harry's Racist Remarks Towards Fellow Soldier

Edward VIII The Traitor King

Secrets of the Royal Wedding Exposed!

Who Killed Diana

Princess Diana Death - Al Fayed accuses Royals

Diana Panorama interview

Robert Green exposing the Hollie Greig scandal

2011-04-16T02:50:00.000-07:00

Allegations of child abuse and murder that if proven could bring down the Scottish and British governments.

Please show your support by joining the Facebook group HOLLIE GRIEG NEEDS YOUR COURAGE AND STRENGTH NOW!

Conspiracy of Silence (Banned from tv)

Vincent Bugliosi seeking 'The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder'

2011-04-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

Vincent Bugliosi successfully prosecuted Charles Manson and several other members of his "family" for the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others. Now he is making the case that George Bush ought to be prosecuted for murder based on evidence showing that the President lied to take America to war in Iraq.

New World Order dystopian films: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Things To Come

2011-04-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Two future dystopian films every anti-New World Order activist should watch. Nigel Kneale’s 1954 TV play Nineteen Eighty-Four based on George Orwell’s novel, and the 1936 film Things To Come written by H. G. Wells.

George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty Four

H. G. Wells' Things to Come

British UFO mysteries

2011-04-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Churchill 'covered up RAF UFO encounter'

Files Released On 1974 'Welsh Roswell'

Alex Jones sci-fi themed videos

2011-04-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Two sci-fi themed Alex Jones videos I put together.

Alex Jones: A Message to the Future (Blake's 7 + Terminator interest)

Alex Jones' Endgame trailer - The Dalek Cut

Read my interview with the editor of Alex Jones' Prisonplanet.com, Steve Watson.

Alex Jones films: Bohemian Grove, the Bilderberg Group, 9/11 and false flag terrorism

2011-04-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Four of Alex Jones' best anti-New World Order films.

9/11 The Road to Tyranny

Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove

Terror Storm Special Edition

Endgame 1.5

Two sci-fi themed Alex Jones videos I put together.

Alex Jones: A Message to the Future (Blake's 7 + Terminator interest)

Alex Jones' Endgame trailer - The Dalek Cut

Read my interview with the editor of Alex Jones' Prisonplanet.com, Steve Watson.

The Stone Tape

2011-04-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

Nigel Kneale's 1972 TV play The Stone Tape.

Read my Room 101 column about the Stone Tape theory here.

Quatermass and the Pit

2011-04-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

Professor Quatermass hinting at Mars in Nigel Kneale's Quatermass and the Pit.

Read my Sci-Fi Worlds column entitled "We Are the Martians Now!" here.

Aldous Huxley narrates Brave New World

2011-04-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Aldous Huxley narrating a production of Brave New World.

Below you can see Aldous Huxley's 1958 appearance on The Mike Wallace Interview.

Building Gods Rough Cut

2011-04-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

A documentary about transhumanism.

Read my interview with the late transhumanist Mac Tonnies here.

Near death experiences segment in Jon Ronson’s documentary 'Reverend Death'

2011-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Jesse Ventura investigates JFK assassination deathbed confession

2011-04-12T02:07:00.000-07:00

Yeah it’s one sided but so are all those so-called "documentaries" on the Discovery Channel that just reiterate the same old Warren Commission nonsense about magic ballets. You can read an interview I did with Len Osanic, who appears in this episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, about the JFK assassination here.

Below is the final episode in the 9-part documentary series The Men Who Killed Kennedy. Entitled "The Guilty Men" the programme was shown only once on the History Channel before being permanently withdrawn.

What in the World Are They Spraying?

2011-04-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

New chemtrail documentary film.

You can see Timucin Leflef in the documentary film New World Order. Here is the trailer.

RFK Must Die filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan on BBC's Newsnight

2011-04-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

Here is an extract from a Room 101 column I wrote about Shane O'Sullivan’s film RFK Must Die:

"I recently watched a new documentary film about the Robert F. Kennedy assassination called 'RFK Must Die' by Shane O'Sullivan. I first heard about this documentary on the BBC's very high profile Newsnight programme, Newsnight showed a report by O'Sullivan made up of extracts from his film and interviewed him afterwards. In the report O'Sullivan showed new footage that he believed proved that three CIA agents were present on the night RFK was assassinated, suggesting these men were connected with the assassination in some way. In the film O'Sullivan suggests these CIA agents were perhaps handlers for Sirhan Sirhan, the alleged shooter, who may have been hypnotised to kill RFK or just cause a distraction while someone else shoots him."

Read my full column here.

Mad scientists discussing transhumanism

2011-03-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

Mad scientists talking about the decline of mankind and the rise of the machines. You can read a feature article I wrote for the debut issue of The Doomwatch Fanzine entitled “Transhumanism in Doomwatch” here.

H. G. Wells on 'Utopia' and the New World Order

2011-03-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

He might have been the “Father of Science Fiction” (maybe the Godfather might be a better word!) but H. G. Wells had some messed up ideas about how to govern the world. Read my Room 101 column entitled “H G Wells and the New World Order” here.

Did Philip K. Dick disclose the existence of 'The Matrix' in 1977?

2011-03-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Do we live inside a virtual reality universe somewhat akin to the one depicted in the 1999 film The Matrix, our only clue of this being the occasional sense of déjà vu?

Author of the of the original inspiration behind Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Philip K. Dick, seemed to have thought so. Read my Room 101 column entitled “Blade Runner: Electronic Owls and Illuminati Symbolism” here.

David Icke and Alex Jones on Project Blue Beam and UFOs

2011-03-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

Are NASA planning on staging a fake alien invasion? Conspiracy researchers David Icke and Alex Jones seem to think so, and Jones did predict 9/11 before it happened. Watch this.

UFOs in the 1980s

2011-03-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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UFOs in the 1980s

By Rupert Matthews

Back in the mid-1980s the world of UFOlogy was becoming dominated by two quite different facets of the phenomenon. Of the two the more mainstream were the abduction events that were beginning to be reported by an increasing number and range of people. The other phenomenon was popular with the media and general public, but less well favoured by serious UFO researchers: crop circles. Of the two, crop circles dominated the media - probably because of the impressive photos that could be printed in newspapers on slow news days to fill a half page at low cost.

Meanwhile, some researchers were beginning to suspect that some incidents that were reported by the witness as being an alien abduction were, in fact, psychological in origin. Researcher Margaret Fry in the UK produced a number of cases in which a witness reported being abducted and undergoing the usual types of experiences, while others reported that the person supposedly being abducted was, in fact, fast asleep or in once case being operated on under anaesthetic in a hospital.

At the time there was a huge amount of controversy over these cases. Some held that they disproved the entire alien abduction hypothesis and proved that those reporting abductions were simply hallucinating. Others sought to debunk the cases in order to prove the witnesses were lying or that the researchers had fabricated evidence.

Back in 1986 it does not seem to have occurred to anyone that those witnesses reporting abductions while quite clearly not being abducted were dreaming or hallucinating, but that this did not of itself disprove that alien abductions really did happen. It is well know that people often hallucinate that they are taking part in historic events, scenes from movies and the like. Perhaps the people in question had read about an abduction, and then hallucinated about it later on.

In hindsight the spat seems to have been a case of “sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

Equally pointless in hindsight were the press stories that sought to link the tragic crash of the Space Shuttle Challenger to a sighting of a UFO many miles away at the time of the crash. The two were obviously unrelated, and the link seems to have been invented by a journalist looking to boost sales of his newspaper. Sadly it served merely to undermine the credibility of UFO sightings in the minds of some members of the public.

The next year saw the damage to credibility repaired somewhat. The major US soap opera The Colbys featured a story line in which the character Fallon reported being the victim of an alien abduction. The story line had a few features that dramatised the events for a TV audience, but generally followed the sort of events that real witnesses had reported and did much to bring the idea of alien abductions to a wider audience in a sympathetic way.

That same year Whitley Strieber published his book Communion to rave reviews. The book retold what Strieber said were a prolonged series of encounters with a humanoid life form that physically resembled a “grey” alien. The book sold in vast numbers and was an international best seller.

The Colbys TV series and Whitley book launched the abduction phenomenon into the mass media. Suddenly the television, magazine and newspaper world could not get enough abduction stories. Many researchers took to hypnotic regression of witnesses in an effort to get more details and more coherent versions of events. Sadly some researchers had little or no training in hypnotic treatments and made some key errors of technique that would later discredit their findings. Nevertheless UFOlogy in the later 1980s became dominated by abduction stories obtained largely by hypnotic regression. It seemed that the answer to the entire UFO riddle might finally be within grasp of researchers.

The search for new, better and more dramatic abduction cases became increasingly frantic through 1988 and 1989. Publication followed publication as new reports cascaded out and researchers sought to find a pattern to the abductions and the apparently medical examinations and experiments conducted during them.

Thus far, the researchers had been concentrating on the UFOs and their occupants. But in 1989 a man named Bob Lazar came forward to claim that he had spent some time working at the highly secretive American military research base known as “Area 51”. He claimed that the US military were in touch with aliens - which matched the general description of “greys” - and were in the process of reverse engineering alien technology. The claims reignited ideas of a conspiracy between the aliens and certain human organisations (usually the US government in some form) which had lain dormant for more than a decade.

The new wave of conspiracy speculation would soon combine with studies of alien abductions to produce new ideas and theories that would dominate research in the 1990s.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Roswell which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Illuminati symbolism and architecture in sci-fi

2011-03-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

In my latest Room 101 column for Binnall of America I write about “Illuminati Symbolism and Architecture in Sci-Fi.” Read it here.

MK-ULTRA in the 1990s X-Men cartoon series?

2011-03-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Clip from episode 61 of the 1990s X-Men cartoon series. Entitled “Weapon X, Lies & Videotape” this episode explored the origins of the popular Wolverine character. Read my Room 101 column about MK-ULTRA and the RFK assassination here.

The 1977 Vrillon incident during ITV’s Early Evening News

2011-03-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of the 1977 Vrillon incident? I hadn’t until I read this brief extract from About Time: The Unauthorised Guide To Doctor Who Expanded 2nd Edition 1970-1974 (Seasons 7 to 11).

…in 1977, people watching ITV’s Early Evening News in the southern region had their transmissions interrupted, untraceably, for six minuets, by someone or something called Vrillon. He claimed to represent the Ashtar Galactic Command, and proceeded to order the peoples of Earth to abandon all weapons, give up money, grow daffodils, etc. At around the same time something similar happened on German TV. Nobody has ever claimed credit for the Vrillon incident, and nobody has ever satisfactorily proven it’s a hoax, yet you never hear anyone talk about it, even as a joke in the pub.

Early Bigfoot sightings

2011-02-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.

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Early Bigfoot Tales
By Rupert Matthews

The oldest contemporary account of a sighting that seems to be of a Sasquatch so far traced comes from the Watchman newspaper of New York state on 22 September 1818. This report states that a few days earlier, near Ellisburgh, a “gentleman of unquestionable veracity” saw “an animal resembling the Wild Man of the Woods”. This would seem to indicate that the supposed Wild Man of the Woods was already a well known figure of legend or rumour. The creature was described as being like a large man, but covered in hair. It walked out of the woods on to a road a few yards in front of the witness. Seeing the human, the creature turned and ran off, leaning forwards as it did so. The creature left behind footsteps that were human-like but very wide at the toes.

In 1851 two hunters out in Greene County, Arkansas, watched a Sasquatch apparently trying to catch calf from a herd of domestic cattle. They described the creature as being “an animal bearing the unmistakable likeness of humanity. He was of gigantic stature, the body being covered with hair and the head with long locks that fairly enveloped the neck and shoulders.” As soon as the creature realised that humans were in the vicinity it stopped chasing the cattle and instead stared at the hunters, then turned and ran off at high speed. It left behind human-like footprints that were 13 inches long.

The newspaper that reported the incident speculated that the creature was a human survivor of an earthquake that had taken place in 1811. It was thought that he had taken to an animal-like existence to survive and so had acquired animal-like hair and appearance. It was a not uncommon theory in the 19th century.

In the 1860s similar creatures were reported in Michigan newspapers as having been seen several times around the Lake Saint Claire region. In 1869 “wild men” were reported being seen in Iowa. In 1874 Pennsylvania newspapers carry similar stories, and Indiana newspapers carried reports in 1895 and 1897.

One of the most detailed and interesting of these mid-19th century reports was made by a hunter who had been out near Antioch, California, in 1869. He found a good area and pitched his camp. He soon noticed that while he was out hunting during the day something had come into his camp, scattered the ashes of his fire about and left footprints that looked like those of a man, except for their immense size. Curious, the man decided to secret himself in a patch of brush which gave him a good view of his camp from a distance of about 70 feet. After two hours of waiting he was rewarded when the mysterious intruder arrived.

“The creatures, whatever it was, stood five feet high and disproportionately broad and square at the shoulders, with arms of great length. The legs were very short and the body long. The head was small compared with the rest of the creature and appeared to be set upon his shoulders without a neck. The whole was covered with dark brown and cinnamon coloured hair, quite long on some parts, that on the head standing in a shock and growing close down to the eyes.”

After looking around carefully, the creature kicked the embers of the camp fire. It bent down and picked up a stick which it whirled around its head producing a circle of smoke. After the glowing end of the stick had gone out, the beast threw its head back and whistled. Then it picked up a second stick and again swung it around. After about fifteen minutes the creature “was joined by another – a female unmistakably – when both turned and walked past me, within 20 yards of where I sat, and disappeared into the brush.” Given the date of the encounter, the writer’s reference to the second creature being unmistakably female would probably mean that it had breasts.

The hunter concluded by saying that he had met one other hunter who had seen the creatures, and about a dozen more who had seen mysterious gigantic human-like footprints. This acceptance of the reality of the creatures by those who spent a lot of time in the forested hills is a feature of theses early cases that surfaces again and again. The educated townsfolk who wrote and read the newspapers were amazed by the stories of wild men, the hunters and trappers were not.

In 1895 a man named of Riley Smith was picking berries near Winsted, Connecticut, when his bulldog came dashing out of a patch of woodland whimpering and trying to hide behind Smith. Wondering what had caused this, Smith stood up to see “a large man, stark naked and covered with hair all over his body” emerge from the trees. The instant the “wild man” saw Smith it gave a terrifying yell, then turned and fled back into the woods. Smith later admitted that he had been paralysed with fear.

Meanwhile, newspaper reports were beginning to term these unusual creatures “gorillas” in deference to the newly discovered great apes of the African forests. The idea that the sightings were of men gone wild was gradually dropped in favour of the idea that they were gorillas or similar apes escaped from zoos or travelling shows. A newspaper report from Arkansas ended with the words “If this meets the eye of any showman who has lost one of his collection of beasts, he may know where to find it. At present it is the terror of all women and children in the valley. It cannot be caught and nobody is willing to shoot it. ”

This last comment is interesting as it is the first appearance in print of a feature of many later Sasquatch sightings. Several hunters have had a Sasquatch square in the sights of their rifle, only to find themselves unwilling to shoot. There is something about the Sasquatch that seems to be very human, which would make killing one something like murder. Others have been less squeamish and have blasted away at a Sasquatch without compunction but also, at least to date, without much effect.

For more informaiton on the Bigfoot see the book written by Rupert Matthews “Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.” The book is available from Amazon.

You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

East Coast Bigfoot sightings

2011-02-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.

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The Eastern Bigfoot
By Rupert Matthews

Some researchers draw a clear distinction between sightings of the classic Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, and those of the Eastern Bigfoot. While the classic Bigfoot looks and behaves like a real wild animal, its eastern counterpart behaves in a very different fashion. It frequents heavily populated areas, has a rather different appearance and - most disturbingly - is prone to attack humans.

A few sightings of the Eastern Bigfoot give a flavour of the odd behaviour of this cryptid - if that is what it is.

Lew Lister had been driving home the 18 year old girl who would later become his wife. The young couple pulled over at the side of the road that led to the girl’s farmhouse home near Point Isabel in Ohio. They saw an unnaturally tall human-like figure approaching over a field. The thing moved with a series of bounding leaps. Lew switched on the car’s headlights to get a better look at the creature. It was revealed to be tall, two-legged, covered with yellowish blonde hair and possessing enormous eyes that glowed a blazing orange.

As soon as the headlights came on the creature began running toward the car. It passed through a wire fence, rather than jumping over it and then began to attack. It reached in through the open window trying to grab at Lister, but he managed to duck aside and wind up the window. The girl, meanwhile, felt mesmerized by the creature’s orange eyes. The creature curled back its lips to reveal hideous fangs. Then it dropped down on to all fours, snarled and vanished into thin air.

Another apparent Eastern Bigfoot attack took place on 13 September 1965. Christine van Acker, aged 17, and her mother were driving through woods near Monroe in Michigan. It was a balmy night and the pair had the car windows down. Suddenly a hulking great figure stepped out of the trees to stand in the road. It was about 7 feet tall and covered in dark hair. Christine, a novice driver, tried to swerve past it and accelerate, but succeeded only in stalling the car. Seconds later the creature was beside the car and reached in. The smell was overpowering. It put a hairy hand on Christine’s head and banged her head against the steering wheel. Then it turned and walked off as another vehicle approached.

Even more terrifying was the Bigfoot encountered by James Crabtree when out squirrel hunting near Fouke, Arkansas, in 1965. He saw some horses bolting across a field and heard what he thought was a dog howling in pain. Going to investigate, 14 year old Crabtree found himself suddenly confronted by something 8 foot tall, human-shaped and was covered with reddish hair. The beast’s face was completely featureless, apart from a broad nose and masses of cascading hair. This hairy being began moving toward Crabtree with solid, lumbering steps. Crabtree raised his shotgun and blasted the creature at a range of about 25 feet. The shot had no effect, so Crabtree shot again. Again, it had no effect. This time the boy lifted the gun so that its barrel was pointing at the Bigfoot’s head at a range of under 10 feet and pulled the trigger. Still the beast came lumbering forward. Crabtree fled, and got away uninjured.

Equally odd, though reported in all good faith, was the 7 foot tall Bigfoot covered in glossy black fur that was reported to be strolling through a park in Morristown, New Jersey, on 21 May 1966.

For more informaiton on the Bigfoot see the book written by Rupert Matthews “Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.” The book is available from Amazon.

You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

The Bluff Creek Bigfoot case

2011-02-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.

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Bigfoot Hits the Headlines

By Rupert Matthews

The Bigfoot or Sasquatch is a cryptid (allegedly real animal as yet unrecognised by science) that lives in the densely forested wilderness areas of northwestern North America. Reports about this gigantic upright walking ape had been filtering out of the area for decades, but nobody really took any notice of it until events at Bluff Creek in 1958. The fact that the stories got such wide coverage was partly due to the fact that reports about the Yeti had been filling the international news media for some years. Cryptozoology – though the word had not yet really caught on – was an acceptable topic for coverage. It was also due to the dramatic and very photogenic evidence that was produced. Any reporter will confirm that a good photo will “give legs” to a story and ensure that it continues to run, while the same story without a photo would soon die down and lose public interest.

The trail of events actually began in 1957 when work began on building a road through the Bluff Creek area of northern California that was designed to aid the logging industry by opening the region up to heavy machinery. The head of the firm hired to do the job was Ray Wallace, who had his brother Wilbur as one of the team foremen handling the actual workteam tasked with clearing a flat roadbed through the rugged and densely forested terrain. The Wallace company was an established construction outfit in the area and was running more than one project.

With hindsight workmen at a Wallace site near Mad River remembered that in March 1958 they found some strange tracks. Nobody could recall exactly what they looked like, and at least one man said that they were bear tracks while another said that they were faked by some unidentified prankster who wanted to spook the workmen. At this distance in time it is impossible to state anything definitive about this event, except that it was odd but quickly dismissed at the time. It is only later events that have given it any importance.

On 3 August the workmen on the Bluff Creek Road turned up for work to find some of their equipment disturbed. A spare tire weighing around 700lb had been rolled about, causing the men to wonder who or what had been interfering. On 27 August the workmen found that the site had again been visited by something odd overnight, but this time it had left footprints.

It was Gerald Crew, known as Jerry, who found the footprints. They were impressed into the soft soil around his bulldozer. The footprints were later described as being exactly like those of a naked human foot, but much larger. At first Crew thought that they must be some sort of practical joke, but after following the tracks about and studying them move closely he became convinced that they had really been left by some huge man of some kind. He went to see his foreman, Wilbur Wallace, who came to look at the tracks. The other workmen also studied the prints. After some discussion it was decided to ignore the strange nocturnal intruder – so long as he did not turn up during daylight hours when the workcrew were on site.

On 21 September the local newspaper, the Humboldt Times, printed a letter from Mrs Jess Bemis about the events up at Bluff Creek. Jess Bemis was the wife of one of the workmen on the site. The letter was printed, and prompted the editor Andrew Genzoli to dig out some old stories along similar lines. Reporter Betty Allen then made the link between the mysterious giant footprints and the stories that had been circulating for years about a hairy man-ape that the white settlers and farmers called “Big Foot”. Allen went out to talk to people who had seen either the tracks of the man-ape itself. On 28 September she had a piece published about the creature she called “Bigfoot”, summarising the evidence known to that date. She also suggested that next time somebody found any footprints they should take a cast using plaster of paris.

Then, on 1 October, Jerry Crew and the work gang at Bluff Creek found more footprints that had been left overnight around their worksite. Two of the workers promptly quit. Wilbur Wallace sent for his brother, and boss, Ray Wallace to come up to Bluff Creek to inspect the situation and talk to the workmen. Meanwhile Jerry Crew had called an old friend of his, Bob Titmus, who went to see Betty Allen to get some plaster of paris and instructions on how to use it. On 3 October Titmus arrived at the worksite and, with Crew, poured the plaster into the clearest of the footprints.

The cast was taken down to the offices of the Humboldt Times by Crew. The man and the cast were photographed and the amazing photo used to illustrate an article by Andrew Genzoli. It was that combination of a stunning photo, solid evidence and well researched writing that propelled the “Bigfoot” into the national media. The story was taken up and reprinted across the USA and Canada, then filtered out to media in other countries.

Back at Bluff Creek, the excitement mounted when on 12 October two workers – Ray Kerr and Bob Breaezle – actually sighted the mysterious footprint maker. Driving along a local dirt road after dark, they momentarily caught a gigantic upright figure in their headlights. The creature ran off into the woods very quickly, but the two men described a hairy human figure well over 6 feet tall. Within 48 hours another 13 men had left their jobs on the road construction project.

Bob Titmus was meanwhile out in the forests looking for signs of the mysterious creature. So far as is known he was the first man ever to go out into the forests looking for Sasquatch. He found some more footprints, and took casts.

For more informaiton on the Bigfoot see the book written by Rupert Matthews “Bigfoot and Other Mysterious Creatures.” The book is available from Amazon.

You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

Splashing hooves at the Ford in Fulmer, Slough

2011-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Splashing Hooves
By Rupert Matthews

Of all the haunted sites in Buckinghamshire, few are as atmospheric as the Ford at Fulmer.

The narrow lanes around the village of Fulmer are lined by high hedges which are awash with wildflowers in the spring and summer. Birds rustle through the undergrowth and hatchlings call for their mothers. Come autumn and berries line the lanes where brambles twist between the hedges and fences, while old man’s beard sits gently on the branches. Even in winter these lanes are delightful places. The hedges shelter the walker from the chill winds while frost decorates the landscape with its sparkling white magic.

But the atmosphere quickly changes when you approach the ford. The trees crowd in upon the road, reaching to meet overhead in a dark embrace that blots out the sunlight. The road dips suddenly downward and at once the air is chill and dank. Silence replaces bird song and even the air seems still and silent in this shaded spot. There certainly does seem to be something odd about this place.

At night the atmosphere is even more marked. The overhanging trees cut off what light might come from the moon or stars and the ford is plunged into an almost solid blackness. It is at such times that the distant clump, clumpity, clump of approaching horses can be heard. As the horses draw nearer, the crunching rumble of carriage wheels becomes distinct.

Odd this, as the road is now metalled over with tarmac, but the hooves and wheels seem to be crunching through gravel. Then, suddenly, horse and carriage plunges into the ford. Water is splashed by the hooves and wheels as the vehicle drives through the waters of the Alder Bourne, then emerge again and push on up towards Gerrards Cross.

Odder still is the fact that although the sounds are quite distinct, nothing is to be seen. The horse and carriage which careers through the ford are quite invisible. It is, Ghosthunter has been told by one who has heard it, a most unnerving experience.

Fortunately it is not all ghostly gloom around Fulmer. The Black Horse, which stands beside the church in the village centre, offers welcome hospitality after an encounter with the chilling atmosphere of the ford. Visitors are welcome to park their cars in the ample car park beside the pub while the walk down to the ford, so long as they seek refreshment in the Black Horse afterwards. Ghosthunter can recommend the roast lamb shank, but a tempting array of other dishes are also on offer.

And you can learn the strange tale of local character Slippery Dickory while you are there.

The Ford lies just to the east of the village of Fulmer where Hawkswood Lane crosses the Alder Bourne stream. You can park your car beside The Ford if you wish, but the lane is narrow and you will be missing out on a very pleasant walk. Far better to park your car in Fulmer village and walk down the narrow Alderbourne Lane which leaves the village beside the parish church. After half a mile you come to a T-junction. Turn left down the hill into Hawkswood Lane. The Ford is just a hundred yards or so away from the junction.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Haunted Hampshire which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Ghostly cries at Upton Court, Slough

2011-02-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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“Why? Why?”
By Rupert Matthews

It is a disturbing phantom which haunts Upton Court and the adjacent Upton Court Park. More than one witness to the haunting has come away unable to sleep for some nights afterwards. For not only is this a particularly gruesome ghost, but its plaintive wail seems to penetrate the brain and haunts the mind as surely as the ghost haunts Upton Court Park itself.

If you want to encounter this disturbing ghost, then Friday evenings as the day turns to dusk are said to be the best time to visit. Not that those who see it would want to repeat the experience.

“I was taking the dog for a walk,” one witness told Ghosthunter. "I had covered a fair bit of ground and were coming back up the long walk that runs from the main road past the children’s playground. I saw a woman standing on the grass in a light-coloured coat. At first I took little notice. I thought she was someone else walking the dog or something. Then she turned to me and I saw she had spilled something down the front of her coat or dress. It was bright red and I realised it was blood. Then she started to sob and cry. It was really upsetting. I thought something must be very wrong. She looked off to one side and called out 'Why? Why', then began crying again. She called out 'Why?' one more time, then vanished.”

When asked how she vanished, the man said “She seemed to shake to pieces, sort of like if you are looking at something reflected in a pond and then splash the surface, but not quite like that. It was really weird.”

The gentleman at the Sough Council Parks Department knew about the ghost and was happy to confirm to Ghosthunter that it was of a lady in a pale dress. But he had not seen it. Instead, he was keen to emphasise the sporting and leisure facilities on offer in the park which are, indeed, impressive.

Who this ghost may be is unknown, but it is generally believed that she is connected in some way with Upton Court. She is said to appear most often close to the house and, on occasion, in the house itself. The oldest part of the house dates back to the 15th century when it was the central manor of a large estate owned by Merton Abbey.

It was blowing a gale on the Friday when Ghosthunter visited. A cold easterly wind whipped across the bare grassland and moaned in the trees. There were few people out in the park, apart from a couple walking their dog and they slunk off well before dusk. A few cars rumbled slowly down the narrow road towards the Cricket and Rugby Clubs, but these are at the far end of the park from Upton Court itself and far from the haunts of the lady with the bloodstained dress.

Suddenly something snatched at Ghosthunter’s shoulder and gripped firmly, but it was only a twig blown loose from a tree in the wind. The pitiful white lady was not walking that Friday night.

To find Upton Court and its Park, follow the A4 to the large roundabout where this road crosses the A412. Take the A412 south half a mile to a second roundabout where it turns sharp right and the B376 goes straight on. Upton Court is immediately on your left, set back from the road across a broad lawn. The building is now occupied by private offices and is not open to the public. To reach the Park, turn left at the second roundabout down Upton Court Road and park in the car park situated on the right after about 300 yards. A gate from the car park opens in to Upton Court Park. If using public transport, catch a train to Slough Station. Exit into William Street and walk south to the roundabout which forms a junction with the A4. Turn left and walk about 4 00 yards to the junction with the A412, then proceed as if you were driving. The walk from the station is just over a mile in length.


Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Haunted Hampshire which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

The Black Monk of Missenden Abbey, Great Missenden

2011-02-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Black Monk
By Rupert Matthews

The Black Monk of Missenden is one of the most active ghosts in Buckinghamshire. Stories about him in Great Missenden are legion. It almost seems that this phantom takes a positive delight in popping up around the village and giving locals - and visitors - a fright.

The centre of the hauntings is, of course, the Abbey which lies just off the High Street towards the southern end of the village. In medieval times this was a wealthy Augustinian monastery which owned vast estates in the area. As with all such religious houses, Great Missenden was founded on the principles of holiness, poverty and prayer. But the Black Monks of Missenden did not stick to their principles for long.

With increasing wealth and prosperity pouring into the Abbey, the monks acquired a taste for luxury and loose living. The monks were accustomed to slipping out of the Abbey by means of a secret tunnel which led to a tavern in the village. There they discarded their habits and dressed in fashionable clothing, before riding off to enjoy themselves in the fleshpots of London. The phantom Black Monk is said to be one of these spectacularly worldly monks.

By the 1530s the growing scandal could not be suppressed any longer. MIssenden found itself one of the first to be closed down by King Henry VIII in his dissolution of the monasteries.

The Black Monk most often wanders the grounds of the Abbey and the watermeadows to the south. Walking with downturned head and slow footsteps, he is seen plodding across the grass at all hours of the day and night. He is sometimes seen heading east towards the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Built in the 15th century, the church catered to the villagers, but the monks sometimes came here to preach. Some witnesses say he is carrying a sword, which would make him sinful even by the standards of the monks of the Missenden Abbey, but others say it is a staff.

The village itself also plays host to this wide ranging phantom. In the 1970s a glazier at work on a property in the High Street saw a figure dressed in black enter the room on which he was working, although the house was locked and empty. The streets just around the George Inn are a particular favourite for the ghost, though here he is most often glimpsed at night and only indistinctly. The George dates back to the 15th century, so perhaps this is the tavern where the monks would change their clothing.

Missenden Abbey is these days a Conference Centre and venue for weddings, birthday parties and the like and is not open to the general public. However, a public footpath does run around the grounds and from here you can see the meadows where the Black Monk is at his most active. To find the footpath, walk away from the village southward along the High Street, which becomes London Road. After about 300 yards there is a gravel road on the left which leads to an iron kissing gate. This is the start of the footpath which runs across the meadows flanking the River Misbourne before climbing the hill to the parish church and thence, down Church Lane, returns to the village centre. It makes for an enjoyable half hour walk which Ghosthunter thoroughly recommends.

Great Missenden is well served by both road and rail. The A413 runs by way of a modern bypass to the east of the village. If approaching by car, exit the A413 at the roundabout where the A 4128 heads off to the west. This road runs directly into the village centre and a small car park can be found just on the right of the road. If coming by rail, alight at Great Missenden Station and walk out into Station Approach and then turn right to reach the centre of the village. If you need refreshment after tracking the Black Monk around his usual haunts, you are not short of choices. Great Missenden has a number of pubs, each of which is most welcoming and serves very tasty food. It would be unfair to pick out one for recommendation at the expense of the others. Just take your pick. The Black Monk does!

If you know of any local ghosts or other strange phenomena, contact the Bucks Ghosthunter on: ghosthunter@bretwalda.demon.co.uk or 07721 455944.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Haunted Hampshire which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Phantom martyrs at the Chequers, Amersham

2011-02-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Phantom Martyrs
By Rupert Matthews

As one of the oldest buildings in Amersham, it hardly surprising to learn that the Chequers pub is haunted. But what is unusual is the nature of the ghosts to be found in this charming old inn and the frequency with which they are seen.

Because there is not one ghost in the pub, but nine! Some are more active than others, of course, but the welcoming landlord Stuart is happy to tell you about them all.

The main part of The Chequers was built in about 1450, and fifty years later the gruesome events which led to the haunting took place. In those days religion was not a subject to be trifled with. The Catholic authorities took a very dim view of Protestant ‘troublemakers’ who went around making outrageous demands such as wanting the Bible printed in English, or asking how paying a thick wadge of cash to the Pope could remit your sins in the eyes of God.

What these ‘troublemakers’ needed, the authorities believed, was a good burning at the stake. And one of the hotbeds of Protestant questioning was Amersham. Which brings us to the Chequers, for it was here that some hapless Protestants were kept under armed guard before being taken out and burnt.

The leader of the Protestants of Amersham was one William Tylsworth. He, together with six other men, were convicted of heresy and condemned to be burnt at the stake in nearby Rectory Woods. The men were kept locked up overnight in an outbuilding of the pub under the watchful eye of a man named Osman. Next day the men were led to their deaths. In a macabre twist, Tylsworth’s own daughter Joan was forced at swordpoint to light the fire that was to kill her father and take him to martyrdom.

It is hardly surprising that the moans and groans of the Amersham Martyrs have continued to disturb this building ever since. At one time the groans were so loud and persistent that it was difficult to sleep at the inn. The chamber where the martyrs were held lies to the back of the pub and can be identified by its old wooden door - the other outbuildings having more modern doors. The moans are today less disturbing than they used to be, which is just as well for the pub does a thriving bed and breakfast business.

There is, however, one small room where paying guests are not put, and with good reason. This room is occasionally visited by a hooded woman dressed all in white. She is said to be the unhappy spirit of Joan, returning to grieve for the father she was forced to kill.

“Actually, I quite like it up here,” Stuart the landlord told Ghosthunter when we visited the haunted room. “It has a very restful atmosphere. I can get on with my paperwork or have a nap without being disturbed by the noise from the bar.” A steely soul indeed to have a nap in the presence of a spectre.

And the bar itself is haunted by an equally persistent ghost. This is Osman, the gaoler who has been condemned to return time and again to the site where he sent innocent martyrs to their deaths. His cloaked figure is seen lurking near the fireplace in the front section of the bar. Not so long ago a new barman who knew nothing of the ghost asked the landlord about the man dressed in black he had seen apparently trying to climb the chimney. Was it a chimney sweep? No, it was Osman.

Ghosts apart, the Chequers is a fine example of an old country inn. The ancient fabric has not been too much altered over the years and the old timbers and beams add character to the bar. The ale is well- kept, as Ghosthunter can testify, and the omelette speciality is every bit as good. Ghosthunting can be hungry work, so what could be more convenient than to find good food in the very place where a haunting takes place?

The Chequers public house stands on London Road West, otherwise known as the A365. If you are driving, the pub has its own car park on just off the north side of road. If you are using public transport, take the train to Amersham. On leaving the station walk south down Station Road for about half a mile, then turn left at the roundabout. The Chequers pub is about 100 yards on the left.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Haunted Hampshire which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

The Mary Starr UFO case

2011-02-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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The Starr Case
By Rupert Matthews

Not too different was the sighting at Old-Saybrook in Connecticut, USA, on 16 December 1957. Mrs. Mary Starr, a retired teacher, was awoken about 2.00am by a bright light shining into her bedroom. She looked out the window to see a cigar-shaped object hovering about 15 feet away in her backyard.

The object was about 30 feet long and dark grey in colour. Along the side was a series of square windows from which a bright light streamed out. Through the windows, Starr could see two men walking about. The object was only about five feet tall, so Starr estimated the men to be about three feet tall, but that they were otherwise quite human. They seemed to be wearing jackets that flared at the waist and had on square helmets that carried a reddish-orange light on top.

Mrs Starr opened her window and leaned out to get a better look. At this point a third figure came into sight through the windows. Then the light inside was switched off and the outer skin of the object began to glow with a dull blue colour. What looked like a wire antenna then rose out of the top of the object and began to emit sparks.

After about five minutes the antenna slid back into the object, which began to glow more brightly. The UFO then moved off as a row of small, circular lights appeared around its centreline. After clearing the yard fence, the object tilted upward and accelerated out of sight.

Maryland UFO sightings

2011-02-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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Maryland Aliens
By Rupert Matthews

Another similar sighting was made barely a week later by Mrs. Suzanne Knight at Seat Pleasant, Maryland, USA. At about 9.30pm the newly married Knight was at home with her sister, her husband being absent on business. She was tidying up the kitchen when she heard a loud buzzing noise coming from the back yard. Looking out she saw what she at first thought was an aircraft diving down to crash into a field.

The object was shaped like an aircraft fuselage, though without wings or tail and was plunging down at a steep angle and high speed. As Mrs Knight watched in alarm, the object pulled out of its dive and came to a standstill, hovering at a height of about 300 feet some 250 feet from the house.

The sides of the object had what looked like square windows through which streamed a bright yellow light. Through the windows Mrs Knight could see several square objects that she later likened to filing cabinets with sloping tops. On top of the object was a dull red light or glow that seemed to be rather diffuse. Underneath the object was slung a long yellow tube or box which also had windows.

At the front of the object was a larger window through which Mrs Knight could see a man. He was sitting bolt upright and staring straight ahead without moving. He had on a hat or helmet of some kind. His skin and clothing appeared yellow, though Mrs Knight thought that this might be due to the yellow light. Otherwise he looked quite human.

After watching the object hover for what she thought was a minute or more, Mrs Knight left the window to phone the local newspaper and call her sister. The newspaper phone was engaged, and her sister did not reply to her shouts.

Mrs Knight then returend to the kitchen window in time to see the object climbing back into the sky. The internal lights had gone out and the object was now more reddish in colour than silver. It began to shimmer as if it were being seen through a heat haze, then it accelerated away.

Mrs Knight’s sister arrived at this point to ask why she had been calling for her. Mrs Knight told her of the UFO, but the sister merely laughed and said that she must have been dreaming. Her husband was more sympathetic and suggested she report the matter, which she did.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Roswell which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Close encounter in Pittsburg, Kansas

2011-02-14T17:26:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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Aliens at Pittsburg
By Rupert Matthews

Perhaps the first case of a close encounter of the third kind to be made at the time it happened, rather than in retrospect, occured on 25 August 1952. William Squyres, a radio worker in Pittsburg, Kansas, was driving to work through farmland at 5.30am along Highway 60. As he drove he saw something odd in a pasture field that usually held cattle. As he drew closer he saw the object was silvery grey in colour, about 70 feet across and 12 feet high. It was shaped, Squyres said, rather like two soup bowls placed rim to rim and then flattened somewhat.

Squyres drove up until he was alongside the field and only about 100 yards from the object. He then stopped his car and studied the object more clsoely. He could now see that the underside of the object had a faint bluish glow to it. Around the edge of the object was a rim or walkway. From this rose a number of vertical poles, each topped by what seemed to be a spinning propeller. The object was making a dull, throbbing noise.

At one end of the object there were what seemed to be opaque windows through which indistinct objects could be seen moving. At the other end was a completely clear window through which could be seen a man apparently fiddling with controls or instruments. So far as Squyres could make out, the man was entirely human.

Fascinated, Squyres got out of his car to get a better look. Instantly the object began to rise vertically, the throbbing noise increasing in volume as it did so. The object continued to rise slowly for some seconds, then suddenly accelerated and flew off at high speed.

Squyres reported the incident to the USAF in case he had seen some sort of advanced foreign aircraft. An Air Force officer turned up a couple of days later and asked to be shown the site. He found that in the centre of the field the long grass had been squashed flat in a circle about 60 feet in diameter. The grass stems had all been bent over, not broken, and formed a swirling spiral pattern. The officer collected samples of grass and soil and sent them off for analysis - which later found nothing at all unusual.

The sighting of the UFO was in many ways routine and shows many of the usual features of a close encounter of the second kind. The sighting of a pilot for the UFO inclined the Blue Book investigator to put the incident down as an hallucination, if it had not been for the flattened grass. In the event it was put down as unexplained.

The Dr. Enrique Botta UFO case

2011-02-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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The Botta Alien
By Rupert Matthews

Dr. Enrique Botta in 1950, though he did not talk publicly about the event until 1955 when persuaded to do so by friends. Botta was a former pilot aged about 40 who was in 1950 employed as an engineer working on a construction project in the rural area of Bahia Blanca some 75 miles from Caracas.

Botta was driving back to his hotel one evening when he saw a strange object resting in a field. He stopped the car to get a better look. The object was shaped like a domed disc made of a silvery metal. It had no legs or landing gear and seemed to be resting slightly askew. There was an open door on one side.

Getting out of his car, Botta walked over the field toward the object and peered through the door. Inside he could see a small, empty room lit by a vague glow and a flashing red light. As Botta touched the object he noticed that although it looked as if it were made of metal, the skin of the craft had a jelly-like softness. Walking inside, Botta passed to a second, much larger room.

In that room Botta saw a curved bench or sofa on which sat three figures facing away from him. Each figure was about four feet tall and dressed in a tight-fitting overall that reached to the neck. The heads were rather large and looked bald.

Botta stopped in alarm, but when the figures took no notice of him he approached them. As he got close he saw that the three figures were facing what he assumed to be a control panel. It was filled with guages, lights and what seemed to be meters. Above the panel floated a transparent sphere which rotated slowly.

As the figures still took no notice of him, Botta reached out and touched one. The humanoid was rigid and hard, while the skin had the texture of charred wood. Believing that the beings were dead, Botta fled. He dashed to his car and drove off to the hotel where he and fellow engineers working on the project were staying.

Botta blurted out his story to his two closest colleagues. One of these men had a gun he used for hunting, and suggested that all three men should return to the craft to inspect it further. It was by now dark, so the three men decided to go in the morning.

Next day the three men drove back to the site of the encounter, but the disc-shaped craft had gone. All that was left was a small pile of ashes. One of Botta’s friends stooped to touch it, but found it was hot and his hand turned purple, so he dropped the ash. Botta, meanwhile, had spotted a UFO circling high overhead. It was shaped like a cigar and pulsed with a red glow. After a few minutes it flew off and the men were left alone.

The encounter was not yet over. Later that day Botta collapsed with a fever and was rushed to hospital. His skin came up in a rash and began to blister. A test showed no sign of radiation and the doctors thought that a very severe case of sunburn was the most likely explanation, although Botta had not been out in the sun much due to his work. Botta recovered after a few days and returned to work. He decided not to talk about the incident, but later as news of UFO sightings became more common in South America decided to speak out.

Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings released

2011-02-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Paul Kimball's long awaited documentary, Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings, is now available to watch for free over at Paul's The Other Side of Truth blog. Watch it here.

Paul Kimball interviewed about his UFO films and conspiracy theories

2011-01-30T01:58:00.000-08:00

In an exclusive interview for UFOMystic I ask UFO filmmaker Paul Kimball about his views on the MJ-12 documents, the 1948 Aztec crash, Roswell, plus 9/11 and the Tucson shootings. Read it here.

Philip Mantle interviewed about UFO Matrix Magazine

2011-01-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

In an exclusive interview for UFOMystic I ask the editor of Britain's UFO Matrix Magazine Philip Mantle about the new magazine. Read it here.

Dark Skies creator Bryce Zabel interviewed about his new book A.D. After Disclosure

2011-01-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

In an exclusive interview for UFOMystic I ask Bryce Zabel about his new book with UFO historian Richard Dolan, A.D. After Disclosure. Read it here.

Keith Chester interviewed about WWII UFO encounters

2010-12-14T01:15:00.000-08:00

In my latest Room 101 column for Binnall of America I interview Keith Chester about his book, Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in WWII. Read it here.

Readers' UFO sightings

2010-12-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is where I’ll be posting readers' UFO sightings.

"The only sighting I had was 1 year ago it was night at 10 or 11pm, I was at the top floor of our new house when I saw 2 flashing red lights following a plane, at first I thought they were the plane lights, but then they started moving away from the plane then they moved to the right then left again and kept doing that for a while then suddenly disappeared, I’ve never seen an air craft that moves from right to left for almost a minute then disappear suddenly, I told my brother and my family but they didn’t believe me, I hope I see it again, next time I’ll use my camera like the tons of videos on You Tube uploaded every day."

Mohammed from Cairo, Egypt

"Briefly, in 2007 I took a sequence of photographs (6 in total) - at the end of July from my lounge window in Lockerbie, Scotland, of UFO's and a Mother Star ship in the sky. It is too long to inform you about all of the facts of that night and the night after, just to say that I submitted my photographs to an American Scientist who deals in UFO's - (Extra terrestrial in nature) - and he has informed me that, in his opinion, my photographs look like a "unique floating city in the sky" and from which there is a large amount of data to be gleaned. Since then I have had other sightings."

Lisa from Northumberland, England

If you’ve had a UFO sighting you’d like to share please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

UFOs over Swansea Bay?

2010-12-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Below you can read an account of a possible UFO sighting of my own I wrote up for the "experiences" section in issue 28 of Paranormal Magazine.

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Silvery-white over Swansea

By Richard Thomas

I saw my first UFO in Swansea Bay, an inlet of the Bristol Channel, in January 2003. I was about 17 years old at the time and my father was driving me and my younger brother home from town along the Mumbles Road, Swansea. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the exact time of the sighting, but it was probably the early afternoon. It was definitely still very light outside.

While we were stopped at a red light, my eyes turned to the relatively cloudless sky and I saw what at first glance I took to be an aeroplane. I quickly realised, by the strange way the object was moving, that it could not have been. As well as being very curious, I remember getting a bit scared at this point because I really did not know what I was looking at.

The object was moving up and down diagonally from right to left over and over again in the sky. It was a shining white line or rod, almost silver in parts, and appeared to have small round lights spaced out equally in a horizontal line along the centre of its body. I got the impression that the lights were moving around the object.

After registering that what I was looking at was very odd, I pointed the strange moving object out to my father and younger brother. For some reason it took them both a little while to find the object in the sky. After watching and discussing this unusual object among ourselves for a couple of minuets, the traffic light turned green again and we began to move off. As we were moving away, I continued to watch the object for another minuet or so until, most strangely of all, the object suddenly disappeared in a silver flash.

A few weeks later, on February 1, 2003 (the same day as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), me and my younger brother had a second daylight sighting - very different to the first. This was of a yellow and orange fireball and was probably just a conventional meteor.

Whatever these two sightings were, they definitely had a very real and lasting effect on me and were chiefly responsible for my general interest in UFOs turning supernova. Back then I think I only had two or three books on UFOs but now I have a bookcase full, so these sightings definitely fuelled the flames of my interest in a big way.

And here is a special text interview I did with Paranormal Magazine Editor, Richard Holland. Please visit the Paranormal Magazine website.

'Orb' photographed outside Swansea Museum?

2010-12-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

On March 27 I attended a paranormal investigation at Swansea Museum. You can read an article I wrote for issue 48 of Paranormal magazine about my experiences at Swansea Museum here. Below is a photo I took outside the front entrance of the museum just before leaving to go home that night. I used a Sony digital camera. Probably just lens flare or some other rational explanation, but thought it looked interesting and was worth posting anyway.

ORB PHOTO: Photo of the outside of Swansea Museum taken on March 27, 2010.

ORB CLOSE-UP: Spirit of the dead or camera anomaly?

If you have any “orb” photos you’d like to share please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardtomas.eu.

Timothy Good, Nick Pope and Nick Redfern interviewed about UFOs in the UK

2010-12-03T20:13:00.000-08:00

Below you can read an article I originally wrote for issue 45 of Paranormal Magazine.

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The UK UFO debate

By Richard Thomas

I live in South Wales so I was particularly excited by the incident which kicked off an enormous increase in interest in UFOs in Britain, and many more sightings subsequently being reported to the now defunct UFO desk at the MoD.

On June 8, 2008, a police helicopter was apparently forced to swerve sharply to avoid being hit by what the experienced crew termed an “unusual aircraft” near RAF St Athan, a military base near Cardiff. A few weeks later, another dramatic sighting was reported, this time by a member of the military. A soldier, along with three other witnesses, saw several “craft” spinning in the skies above his barracks near Market Drayton, Shropshire, just two hours before the South Wales UFO-helicopter incident - begging the question, could this sighting be related?

It would be hard to overstate the excitement generated, not just in UFO-circles, but in the general public and press, by these incidents. The UFO phenomenon was the hot topic of the day and even the official statements about Chinese lanterns failed to stem a tide of new sightings reported by the British public to the press and the MoD. This wave lasted throughout 2008, with The Sun newspaper its own online UFO page to cope with the correspondence, and it only began to wane during the latter half of 2009.

Despite this renewed interest and calls for official inquiries from the likes of Nick Pope, who ran its UFO desk for three years (1991-1994), the MoD has decided to take no more calls from the public - which might confirm in some people’s mind that there really is a cover-up going on.

So, in order to get a handle of what’s going on here, I tracked down the “three lions” of British ufology: the aforementioned former MoD investigator Nick Pope; prolific author and contributor to Paranormal Magazine Nick Redfern; and the master of UFO cover-up research and author of the “UFO Bible” Above Top Secret, Timothy Good.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Nick Pope was the most outspoken of the three. But he dismissed the idea of a possible conspiracy. He feels sure nothing more sinister than economic factors and the perceived proper use of resources are to blame.

He said: “Two factors led to the termination of the MoD’s UFO project. The first is cost. The defence budget is under huge pressure and savings targets have been imposed across the department. Cutting posts is one way to meet these targets and the UFO project was an easy target for MoD finance staff. The second factor is the MoD’s corporate irritation with the subject.”

“Sighting reports are at a ten-year high and the vast majority are clearly misidentifications of ordinary objects and phenomena. Additionally, the MoD receives more Freedom of Information requests on UFOs than almost any other subject. Terminating the project, when seen in conjunction with the ongoing process of releasing the UFO files to the National Archives, enables the MoD to disengage from a subject that it has struggled with for many years.”

Nick Redfern added: “The MoD’s statement that it intends to cease its study of UFO reports is not quite so clear-cut as it seems. By the MoD’s own admission it will continue to investigate - via radar and the scrambling of aircraft - any penetrations of British airspace by unidentified sources. And, who knows if some of those potential threats might remain unresolved and unidentified? If they do indeed remain unresolved and unidentified, then by definition the MoD is still investigating UFOs.”

“I suspect, however, the MoD clearly realizes this, and its statement actually means that officialdom doesn’t want to be bothered by members of the public sending in letters or phoning the MoD switchboard to report sightings of flying saucers, little grey (or green) men, etc etc anymore, and this is their way of getting out of handling a subject they really don‘t understand - or have any interest in understanding or appreciating.”

Timothy Good shares this view. He told me: “Closing the UFO project won’t make the slightest difference. Most witnesses don’t bother contacting the MoD anyway, and classified investigations by the military will continue as before.”

Nick Pope agreed that the closure of the UFO project doesn’t signal the end of UFO investigations but he feels that it’s an ill considered decision nonetheless.

“Clearly, if a pilot reports a sighting or if something unusual is detected on radar, this will be looked at,” he said. “But this will be done on an ad hoc basis, outside of any formally-constituted project. Arguably, therefore, all that’s really happened is that the public has been cut out.

“I think this is a mistake, because it’s based on the erroneous assumption that a sighting from a member of the public could never involve anything of defence interest.”

Perhaps Chinese lanterns are to blame - they seem to account for most of the recent sightings. But was I wrong to feel that the incident with the helicopter was of defense interest? What do the Three Lions think of the rash of sightings over the last two years?

“The Welsh case is interesting,” confirmed Nick Redfern, “but I think on examination many of the others were simply lanterns. That’s not me being a sceptic. Rather, while I believe there is indeed a genuine unsolved UFO presence among us, the fact is most cases can be explained. And I put much of the recent UK wave in the second category.”

Nick Pope, who you’ll remember called for a public inquiry into UFOs in 2008, feels more strongly.

“My call for a public inquiry was not the result of a single sighting, but a response to the wave of sightings over the UK that summer, coupled with unprecedented media and public interest,” he said. “Some sightings have clearly been caused by Chinese lanterns, but the MoD appear to be using this as an excuse not to investigate. It would be simple to ensure that witnesses are interviewed, photos and videos analysed and radar tapes checked, yet these basic things are not happening. This is why we still need an inquiry. Whatever one believes about UFOs, cases such as the police helicopter show that there are air safety issues involved.”

One might be tempted to think that the former MoD investigator, who has always steadfastly maintained in interviews that he doesn’t believe his former employers are involved in any sort of UFO cover-up, is now hinting that the government’s real Men in Black might be using lantern sightings as an excuse not to investigate potentially much more serious sightings, such the Cardiff UFO-helicopter incident. Conspiracy theorists might conclude that the Shropshire sightings - which were reported by military witnesses - could have been an attempt to distract the public from, and ultimately discredit, the Cardiff event.

Nick Pope immediately poured cold water on that suggestion. He said: “I never got any indication that there was any clandestine UFO group operating in the UK, having access to material that was somehow being withheld from me and my colleagues in the Defence Intelligence Staff.”

Nick Redfern, on the other hand, discussed the possibility of an ultra covert British UFO group - which he named MJ-UK - in his 1998 book Cosmic Crashes. In his book Redfern devoted a chapter to the strange rumours of alien technology being stored at Rudloe Manor, a Royal Air Force station located south-east of Bath and which closed in 2000.

“The whole Rudloe-UFO saga has been a puzzle,” he told me. “There's no doubt that the RAF's Provost & Security Services (who were based at Rudloe for two decades) have played a role in official UFO investigations. There are even a few declassified files available at the National Archive, Kew. But the big question is the extent, or otherwise, of those investigations.

“Some researchers have suggested - and particularly Matthew Williams in the mid-to-late 90s - that Rudloe's role went far beyond that officially admitted by the MoD. Others merely see it as a minor aspect of official UFO investigations that got blown up out of proportion by the UFO research community. I still get accounts now and again from people talking about how, at one point at least, Rudloe was involved at a far deeper level. But I will concede that actually proving this has not happened yet.”

In relation to the possibility of an “MJ-UK” organisation, Timothy Good told me he believes that: “probably an equivalent team was set up, but I have no specifics. The top-secret "Flying Saucer Working Party" (1950-51) would qualify in many respects.”

Then he added an intriguing implication:
“Whatever the case,” he said, “the UK is subservient to the US regarding these matters.”

If a UFO crash has taken place in the UK, providing RAF Rudloe with its alleged alien technology, it didn’t happen on Nick Pope’s watch.

He told me: “I believe that as the Subject Matter Expert, I would have been told [about a crash]. I would then have briefed up the chain of command to Service Chiefs and Defence Ministers. A key priority would have been to bring in MoD scientists to ensure there was no biological or chemical hazard.”

Redfern is intrigued by stories of UFO crashes taking place in Britain during World War 2.

“There have been rumours for many years of an alleged UFO crash - or Foo Fighter crash - in Britain at some point during the Second World War,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the details are very brief and no-one has really been able to pinpoint with any real accuracy what exactly happened, where and when. However, there are stories of elements of the British Government and military supposedly examining such a device - and crew - at some point prior to 1955.”

Timothy Good believes official UFO cover-ups began even earlier than World War 2, however, and not in Britain but elsewhere in Europe.

“The UFO cover-up seems to have begun in 1933 with the top-secret RS/33 group in Mussolini’s fascist Italy, he said. “Other governments – that of Sweden in particular – also became concerned about intrusions of strange flying machines that year.

“Unfortunately we don't have an actual description of the type of unknown aircraft which came down in Italy. I think it possible that a UFO did crash, but I have no definitive information on that particular case. However, the RS/33 documents – which include descriptions of unexplained craft seen by pilots in 1936 - are evidently genuine.”

Whether or not a policy of UFO cover-ups exists, the conclusion regarding the closure of the British Ministry of Defence’s UFO desk is that it really won’t make that much difference. Investigations will continue as before but only those that are more clandestine. The tragedy is that the British public will be left without any official channels to investigate their sightings.

Without the UFO desk the British people won’t even enjoy the dubious courtesy of being told that all they’ve seen are Chinese lanterns.

And here is a special text interview I did with Paranormal Magazine Editor, Richard Holland. Please visit the Paranormal Magazine website.

Jim Marrs on JFK and 9/11 conspiracy theories

2010-12-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

At Binnall of America you can read my interview with conspiracy researcher and bestselling author Jim Marrs, whose latest book is The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy: How the New World Order, Man-Made Diseases, and Zombie Banks Are Destroying America. Read it here.

Hampshire ghosts‏

2010-12-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Monk at Winchester Cathedral
By Rupert Matthews

Winchester Cathedral is surely the most popular building in the city. It is among both the largest and the oldest of Winchester’s many tourist attractions, it has been celebrated in music and has featured on postcards sent to almost every country on earth.

So popular is it, that visitors come back time and again to wonder at its beauty and majestic setting. Some come back more often than others. One has been coming back at intervals for the past 600 years. He simply cannot get enough of the Cathedral.

The phantom in question, for a ghost he undoubtedly is, is that of a monk. He seems to feel the attractions of the Cathedral more strongly at some times than at others. He was seen frequently in the post-war years and again in the 1970s, but at other times rarely puts in an appearance more than once a year.

If the frequency of his appearances are irregular, his habits - if you will pardon the pun - are not. He slowly materialises out of nothingness in the southern end of the Close, close to house No.11. Having become solid, the phantom moves across the Close towards the arch which forms a roadway to gardens near the South Transept.

But this ghost does not glide in the approved fashion of ghosts. He limps. And he limps quite badly. No footsteps are heard, but those who have seen the ghostly monk notice that he almost drags his right foot as he moves across the Close. Continuing has painful progress, the monk approaches the arch and then fades from sight. Some claim he passes through the arch, others that he shimmers and slips away into a misty form that fades from sight.

I came to the Cathedral on a bright spring day when there was still a hint of winter in the chill breeze. Office workers and shop staff were munching on sandwiches in the Cathedral Close and on the Green in front of the great West Front. There were some tourists too, but they were intent on getting into the Cathedral, or out again and on to the next tourist site.

Most of the sandwich scoffers knew little or nothing of the ghostly monk. Though one young woman ventured “Oh, yeah. Some chap took a photo of the ghost in the Cathedral. I’ve seen it in a book.” This, in fact, was a quite different ghost entirely - of a medieval workman, but that is another story.

Finally, I found someone who knew of the spectral cathedral monk. “My brother saw it once,” declared a middle aged gent in a well-cut tweed jacket. “Nothing very frightening about it though. Just a monk walking to the cathedral. He didn’t even have his head under his arm.” But then very few ghosts do appear as the popular stories would have us imagine. When was this? “Oh some years ago now. The 1970s? Could be, could be.”

Quite how old the phantom might be is rather unclear. Winchester Cathedral is one of the oldest religious foundations in England. As the centre of the old Kingdom of Wessex, Winchester was the home of the kingdom’s most prestigious religious building since the conversion of Wessex in the 7th century. The foundations of the Saxon cathedral can be seen traced out on the green just north of the present building.
The mighty cathedral we see today was largely the work of the Normans, who tore down the old church and erected their own to mark in majestic stone the start of the new regime. The church was extended in the 13th century and in the 14th was remodelled in the then fashionable Perpendicular Gothic. Throughout all this time, the Cathedral was served by monks. Only after Henry VIII’s Dissolution in the 16th century did the monks leave the cathedral to the clergy. In theory the phantom monk might date back to any century from the 7th to the 16th.

But there is one clue. During one of the periods of alterations that take place around the cathedral from time to time a number of burials were unearthed in what is now a private garden, but was evidently then part of the cathedral precincts. The bodies were all male and date to about the 14th century. They were probably monks.

What does this have to do with our phantom? Well, one of the bodies had a grossly deformed arthritic right knee. It would have given him a very bad limp.

Having explored the Cathedral and its Close thoroughly, I felt it was time for some refreshment. Luckily the Old Market Inn was at hand. The ancient bar played host to a wide variety of local ales, and one of these was swiftly consumed. Meanwhile the menu carried some truly exotic dishes from the Mediterranean. Being something of a traditional chap, I resisted the temptations of linguini, penne or prosciutto and instead plumped for the Old Market Mixed Grill. And jolly good it was too!

Winchester Cathedral is easy to find. If arriving by car, park in one of the town centre car parks. If coming by public transport, alight at the central Winchester stops. Either way, you should then follow the tourist brown and white signs to the Cathedral. The Close lies south of the Cathedral and can be reached on foot from the green which lies in front of the great west front. The Old Market Inn stands just to the north of the same green.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book “Haunted Hampshire” which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Ghosts of the English Civil War

2010-11-30T16:35:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Ghosts of Battle - Alton
By Rupert Matthews

The Hampshire town of Alton has spent most of its centuries-long history slumbering in gentle tranquillity. But on one violent and bloody day in 1643 it leapt to national fame. The fame may have gone, but the marks of the violence remain - both physical and spectral.

During the 1640s, England was torn apart by the Civil War that would see King Charles I sent to the scaffold and end in victory for the Parliamentarian roundheads of Oliver Cromwell. But in December 1643 the war had only just begun. The King had raised an army from the Midlands and the West Country, while Parliament hold London and East Anglia.

The townsfolk of Alton were fiercely Royalist, so they viewed the arrival of a Parliamentarian army in Farnham with unease. Help was at hand, however, for a regiment of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, led by Lord Crawford, rode into town to hold it for the King. Crawford bivouacked his troops in the hopfields that then surrounded the town and converted the Church of St Lawrence into his command post. Firing platforms were built inside each window, allowing musketeers to fire through the glass. He then sent scouts out towards Farnham to keep an eye on the Roundheads.

The Parliamentarian commander, however, was the notoriously wily Sir William Waller. He allowed Crawfords scouts to see his men encamped around Farnham and foraging around Bentley. Then he marched his main body of men northwest, swinging north of Alton to attack the town down what is now the A339.

Crawford was taken by surprise and hurriedly gave the order to retreat towards Winchester. He left in the town a rearguard of about 100 infantry under Colonel John Boles with orders to delay Waller’s 3,000 men as long as possible before running for it or surrendering.

Boles skirmished through the streets of the town before making his final stand in the Church. For several hours his crack musketeers held off the Roundheads, shooting down any that dared to cross the churchyard. But eventually the ammunition ran out and the Roundheads were able to batter down the church doors and burst in.

The enraged Waller gave little quarter and only a few Royalists were taken alive. Colonel Boles was not among them. He took his stand in the pulpit with pistols and sword. It is said he killed 6 Roundheads before he was cut down. But he and his men had not died in vain. The main Royalist force had slipped away from the trap to regroup in Winchester.

The marks of this fight are still seen in the Church. The South Door has a loophole cut in it from which Royalist musketeers fired at the enemy, and it is pitted by bullet holes. Elsewhere the stonework, especially around the windows, is pockmarked by bullets, some of which remain embedded deep in the stones. When the roof was repaired in the 19th century dozens of bullets were retrieved for the old timbers, some of which are on show in a glass case in the church.

But I was more interested in the less obvious relics of the grim battle. The ghosts of Boles and his men are said to return to fight their last battle time and again in the Churchyard and in the Church itself. Several people have reported hearing shouts and cursing as well as the slash of metal on metal and the unmistakable “phut-bang” of ancient muskets being fired. Some have even reported the smell of burnt gunpowder. The noises of battle begin outside, then move inside and end at the pulpit, still standing, where Colonel Boles died so valiantly. Nothing, however, is ever seen.

I came to Alton on a calm spring summer’s day after an hour of sunshine had dried up the water left by a torrential downpour. Nobody much was about, perhaps fearing another heavy shower. He heard no gunfire, nor smelt gunpowder. The Church of St Lawrence stood peaceful and serene within its great churchyard.

This is, perhaps, how it should be. The Church dates back to about 1070, having been built in the exciting new Norman style within a few years of the Norman Conquest. This original church remains, though it has been extended to north, west and east over the years. It has not, however changed much since the day of battle. The West Door has been bricked up, but otherwise it stands pretty much as it was when repairs after the battle were completed in 1646.

Whether you are hunting ghosts, looking for a historic church or just after somewhere for a quiet moment of peace, the Church of St Lawrence in Alton is well worth a visit. I recommend it.

The Church of St Lawrence is one of the most imposing buildings in Alton. The town lies just off the A31 and is well-served by carparks. The train service on the London-Portsmouth line is frequent and the train station close to the centre of the town. From the High Street take the side street which runs beside the Crown Hotel. The Church lies off the left of this road, as it bends to the right, after about 200 yards.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book “Haunted Hampshire” which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Rupert Matthews hunting ghosts in Hampshire

2010-11-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Haunted Hampshire.

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The Miser of Braishfield
By Rupert Matthews

If you haven’t won the National Lottery this week, nor managed to get on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, you could do worse than take yourself down to Braishfield for the day.

It’s not that there are any big prize game shows going on in this charming village. Nor are there any well-paid jobs on offer. But there is a ghost. And this ghost brings with her the promise of great riches. But only if you are brave enough.

A century ago, when King Edward VII sat on the throne, a very rich old woman lived in Braishfield. The scale of her wealth was legendary, as was her meanness. The locals called her “the Miser of Braishfield” and wondered why on earth she did not spend more of her money.

The old woman shuffled about the village in worn and patched old clothes. Her dresses were so old-fashioned that they dated back to when the dead Queen Victoria had been young. She never took out her carriage, although she had one, if she could walk instead. Shoe leather was cheap enough, but if she took out the carriage she might have to pay her oddjob man extra for the work.

And that was another thing. She had no live-in servants, though most people o of a fraction her wealth did so. Instead she hired a local woman to come in twice a week to deal with housework. For any heavy work she had a man from the village who would come in when required.

From time to time both these staff would tell tales about the old woman her money. Sometimes she would sneak into the house carrying a leather bag or small box which had earth and mud stuck to it. Clearly it had just been dug up. The old woman would retire into her parlour and then would come the steady chink-chunk of heavy gold coins being counted out.

Back in the early 20th century gold sovereigns were still in circulation and it was not at all unusual for people to have gold on hand. But nobody has as much gold as the Miser of Braishfield. And it was all divided up in small bags and boxes and buried.

The day came when the old miser died. A nephew came from some miles away to sell the house and contents and to arrange the funeral. But no matter how hard he searched the house nor how thoroughly he dug up the garden, he never found any gold. So he buried his miserly aunt and left

And that was when the ghost began to walk.

On bright afternoons, dull evenings and even late at night the shuffling figure of the Miser of Braishfield was seen moving around the lanes of the village. Sometimes she was seen poking about in hedges, or thrusting her stick into hollow trees. Thinking the ghost was looking for her lost gold, the villagers tried digging where she was seen. But no gold has been found. At least, none that anyone will talk about.

It was a brilliant spring day when I came to Braishfield to look for the miser. The sun shone bright, though there was still a chill nip in the wind that blew down the lanes where the ghostly miser wanders. One passerby knew of the phantom.

“Oh her,” he chuckled when I stopped him. “Yeah, she’s around somewhere. Not that I’ve ever found any gold. But good luck. If you find the treasure you can buy me a drink. I’ll be in the pub having lunch.”

I spent a happy half hour strolling the lanes around Braishfield. It really is a very pretty place and there is a comfortable bench beside the pond where you can rest or a quaint church to look around if you prefer.

But by then I felt it was time for lunch and made his way to the Wheatsheaf near the centre of the straggling village. The landlord, Peter Jones, was most welcoming. And he had news for me.

“You don’t want to waste your time walking around the village,” he said. “We’ve got our own ghost here.” He pointed at a table in the corner of the front bar. “Early in the morning we sometimes see a shape lurking over there. Not sure what it is. Just a shape. And sometimes the table and chairs have been moved overnight as if phantom revellers have been sitting there eating or drinking.”

And well they might for the pub offers some tempting dishes. I treated himself to a sirloin steak stuffed with stilton and served with chips. But he had to pay with boring modern notes for he had found no gold coins belonging to the Miser of Braishfield. But you might have more luck.

Braishfield lies west of Winchester. Take the A3090 from Winchester towards Romsey. You can leave this road at Standon and follow the lanes to Braishfield, if you know the way. It is less confusing to stay on the A3090 until you are almost in Romsey,w hen a road to the right is signposted “Braishfield”. Follow this road for about 2 miles and you pass the sign advising you that you are entering the village. Braishfield is a spread-out straggling village, but you soon find the Wheatsheaf on your right. The pub has a convenient car park from which you can walk around the village to find the pond and the church.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book “Haunted Hampshire” which is published by the History Press (ISBN 978-0752448626) and available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Jim Marrs on chemtrail conspiracy theories

2010-11-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

The following guest article is by conspiracy researcher and bestselling author Jim Marrs, whose latest book is The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy: How the New World Order, Man-Made Diseases, and Zombie Banks Are Destroying America. You can find his website at www.jimmarrs.com.

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The Chemtrail Conspiracy

By Jim Marrs

The chemtrail issue is to me one of the most puzzling conspiracies going. To begin with, unlike most, it is not hidden. It is in plain sight. All one has to do is look up and take note of the long-lasting crisscrossing trails high in the atmosphere. Yet many people refuse to notice and when they do, they, shrug off the phenomenon as simply aircraft vapor trails or, more correctly, condensation trails.

Condensation trails, or contrails, have been a fixture in the skies since World War II when high altitude bombers would leave a trail of condensation behind their engines.

Any aircraft engine, jet or piston, produces warm, moist air which, when injected into the cold dry air of the upper atmosphere, results in a trail of water vapor or ice crystals that stream out behind the craft. Once these particles return to a cooler state, they evaporate back into the air. This vaporization can take place within 10 seconds or stretch to more than an hour depending on the temperature and humidity in the atmosphere. Since contrails primarily contain water, they present no real hazard to the population. Contrails do not normally occur under about 30,000 feet.

Chemtrails present another story. These trails do not evaporate but spread out and eventually form a cloudy haze over the entire sky. As World War II veteran David Oglesby noted after observing chemtrails in the sky above his California home: “The trails formed a grid patter. Some stretched from horizon to horizon. Some began abruptly, and other ended abruptly. They hung in the air for an extended period of time and gradually widened into wispy clouds resembling spider webs. I counted at least 11 different trails.”

The official debunking line that all observed trails in the sky are simply condensation trails falls apart when, as described by numerous observers, a short contrail and a lengthy chemtrail are seen simultaneously in the same portion of sky and at approximately the same altitude. As one Above Top Secret forum member put it: “Keep looking up and you’ll eventually see contrails and chemtrails side by side in the air and once you see two planes of similar size laying trails at the same altitude and they don’t match, then you know something is amiss.” Another asked, “How come one day there are numerous trails crisscrossing each other in the sky but on the next day, with no change in the climate, there are no trails in the sky. Did all aircraft suddenly stop flying?”

A Harvard School of Public Health study determined that respirable suspended particles can be inhaled and can transport carcinogens and other toxic substances deep into the lungs resulting in respiratory illnesses like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma.

High levels of Barium, along with aluminum oxide, already had been identified among the contents of chemtrails by tests. During a three month period in 2002, three separate rainwater and snow samples from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were collected and submitted for formal double-blind laboratory analysis. Therese Aigner, an accredited environmental engineer, found significant amounts of barium, aluminum, calcium, magnesium and titanium in the samples, all of which had a verified chain of custody. Ms Aigner concluded that that the consistency of the findings indicated “a very controlled delivery (dispersion) of chemtrails by aircraft in your area.” She added that whoever was responsible for the chemtrails was violating more than a half dozen federal laws and regulations.

A 1974 classified study made by the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger in 1974 entitled, “National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM) 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” This study, also known as The Kissinger Report, stated that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries represented a serious threat to U.S. national security. The study was adopted as official policy in November, 1975 by unelected President Gerald Ford and implemented by Brent Scowcroft, who had replaced Kissinger as national security adviser. NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in Third World countries through birth control, war and famine. Then CIA Director George H. W. Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.

In a 1981 interview concerning overpopulation, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ranking Council on Foreign Relations member Maxwell Taylor, after advocating population reduction through limited wars, disease and starvation, blithely concluded, “I have already written off more than a billion people. These people are in places in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We can’t save them. The population crisis and the food-supply question dictate that we should not even try. It’s a waste of time.”

Voicing the same philosophy as Taylor and other globalist members, England’s Prince Philip in People magazine stated, “Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed— not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they'll consume, the more pollution they'll create, the more fighting they will do. We have no option. If it isn't controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war.” Years later, Philip mused, “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.”

Supporting this eugenics policy of involuntary depopulation was a young academic who helped anti-natalist guru Paul Ehrlich and his wife Anne write the book Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment. This work states, “If some individuals contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children, and if the need is compelling, they can [could] be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility – just as they can be required to exercise responsibility in their resource-consumption patterns….” The book went on to express the desire for “a Planetary regime” for controlling all human economic activity and interactions with the environment. The authors suggested the “power to enforce the agreed limits” on population growth by whatever means necessary. This includes involuntary sterilization, abortion, or even mass involuntary sterilization through the infiltration of sterilizing agents into public water supplies and even into the air.

The young academic who helped author this call for involuntary population reduction was John Holdren, now the US “Science Czar,” advising President Obama on science matters.

So, it appears that the chemtrail issue has become less of a philosophical concern and more of an urgent self-defense issue.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Mark Pilkington interviewed about Mirage Men

2010-10-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

In my latest Room 101 column for Binnall of America I interview Mark Pilkington about his new book Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs. Read it here.

Odd contrail photos

2010-10-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

In response to my "Chemtrails over Swansea?" post, Brian from Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada sent me the following email and photos:

Taken on an almost cloudless, sunny fall day, with a slight wind, @ playground/park in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada (taking photos of my 3-year old grandson then noticed this strange set of contrails appearing overhead)...

If you have any pictures you'd like to share please send them to richard@richardthomas.eu.

Chemtrails over Sawansea?

2010-09-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Just some photos I took outside my home in Swansea, South Wales. Chemtrails or just normal airplane contrails?

The truth behind Roswell

2010-08-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

The Roswell UFO Museum

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The Truth Behind Roswell

By Rupert Matthews

When I first started investigating the Roswell UFO Crash in detail there were two aspects that really surprised me. The first was the date on which the Flying Saucer was alleged to have crashed into the desert near Roswell: July 1947. The second was the date on which the investigation into the apparent crash had begun: 1978.

My previous reading on the Roswell Crash had, I must admit, been rather sketchy and had been restricted to secondary sources such as magazine articles or books written by people who had not been there. I had somehow come to form the impression that the crash had taken place in the 1950s and had been investigated at the time. Shows how wrong you can be.

As I started to work my way through the assorted eyewitness accounts given in interviews, written as letters or in books I was in for another surprise. Nobody had claimed to have seen a UFO crash near Roswell at all. One person had seen a UFO. Another had heard a loud bang and seen some scraps of debris. A third had seen the US military cordon off a large area of ground. A fourth had seen a crashed aircraft of some kind. A fifth had seen some dead bodies.

However, when all the various accounts were put together they did form a cohesive story that held together pretty well. Quite clearly something very odd and unusual had fallen from the skies on to the desert near Roswell in early July 1947. The United States Air Force had moved quickly to recover the object and had thrown a veil of secrecy around the whole incident. Those who had seen debris from the crash all agreed that it was composed of very odd materials that they did not recognise and that it had some odd properties.

But I kept getting pulled back to the two initial surprises. The early date bothered me. July 1947 was a long time ago, even further in terms of UFO research. The epochal sighting by Kenneth Arnold that propelled Flying Saucers into the international media had taken place on 24 June 1947 - just over a week before the alleged crash at Roswell. That timing had two important impacts on the Roswell story.

The first is that Flying Saucers (or Flying Disks as they were also termed in 1947) were a major news item across the media at the time. Everyone was talking about them, far more than is the case today. The second was that there was no generally agreed description of what a UFO was like (and even the term UFO had not been coined). These were very early days indeed. It was possible that almost any unusual object in the sky or falling to the ground would be described as being a Flying Saucer. So just because the people who saw the object that fell at Roswell called it a Flying Saucer does not mean that it was what we would today term a UFO.

Reading the very few descriptions of the object given by those who claim to have seen it, does not read like more recent witness statements of a UFO. The object was said to be roughly triangular or conical in shape with stubby little wings or fins. There does not seem to have been anything terribly odd about it all, it sounds very mundane.

The fact that investigations did not begin until more than 30 years after the event also bothered me. Several of the key witnesses had died over the years. Their accounts survived only second hand. A neighbour remembered what one man had told him 30 years earlier. A son recalled what his father had told him. Such accounts are intrinsically vague and lack detail. Crucially the person is not there for the investigator to ask for more detail or to seek out cross references. Other witnesses were still alive, but they were being asked to recall events more than 30 years old. The human memory is a notoriously frail and deceptive thing. Dates can be blurred and details merged. One of the witnesses who was able to give a very good and clear description of dead bodies could not be certain when he had seen them - he did not even know which year never mind the precise day. Even more alarming is the fact that we humans are rational creatures and we seek to rationalise events. We are all capable of misremembering events so that they fit into an accepted pattern better than what we actually saw. After 30 years all sorts of details could easily be forgotten or remembered incorrectly.

By the time I was half way through my research I had almost given up hope of ever finding out what had really happened at Roswell back in 1947. There were so many contradictions in the evidence, so many details that did not match, so many accounts that were vague.

But then I decided to take a step back from all the mass of fine detail and look at the bigger picture. There was one thing that all those people who had been in Roswell in 1947 did agree on. Something had happened and that something had been very odd indeed. True, some witnesses contradicted each other. True, some details that at first seemed linked to the crash turned out to be quite unrelated. True, some apparent facts turned out to be nothing of the sort.

But in the final analysis something fell out of the sky in early July 1947. The United States Air Force did move quickly to collect the wreckage, then quickly launched a determined effort to kill the story and keep the find secret.

Can I tell you what it was that fell from the sky? No. There are several possibilities that would fit the evidence - and an alien spacecraft is but one of those.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Roswell which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Paranormal happenings at Swansea Museum

2010-08-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Below you can read an article I originally wrote for issue 48 of Paranormal Magazine.

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Swansea Museum

by Richard Thomas

Originally set up by the Royal Institution of South Wales (a local group who wanted to investigate all aspects of history, the arts and science at the beginning of the 19th century) Swansea Museum was completed in 1841 in the grand neo-classical style, and is the oldest museum in Wales.

FRIGHTS IN THE MUSEUM: Swansea Museum, where several members of staff as well as visiting members of the public have experienced spooky phenomena.

The main museum on Oystermouth Road contains all kinds of unusual objects from Swansea’s past as well as the wider world. The building’s six galleries house everything from an ancient Egyptian mummy to a traditional Welsh kitchen.

In addition to this treasure trove of both ordinary and extraordinary exhibits the museum also has three floating exhibits in its collections which are kept at the marina: the lightship "Helwick," a tug boat called "Canning" and the "Olga," a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter built in 1909. Other popular items kept at the museum’s collection centre in Landore include old vehicles like a travellers' van, lorries, a fire engine and two lifeboats, the "Naomi Beatty" and the "William Gammon."

On March 27th, I attended an evening investigation at Swansea Museum. With so much history surrounding not only the main building itself but more significantly the items within it, I was hopeful for some activity. And although most of the night was admittedly very quiet, I did experience what might be interpreted as paranormal activity.

Most significantly, while I was downstairs with three others, we could hear clear and distinct footsteps and knocks coming from the library room above us when nobody should have been in that location at the time. Also, later in the evening one member of the investigation team I was with felt someone pinch his backside. I was standing directly behind this person at the time and can say definitively it wasn’t me!

However, if anyone was to have experienced anything out of the ordinary at the museum - just as with any allegedly haunted location - surely it would be the staff that work there day in day out. During the investigation, I spoke with one of the staff, Catherine Perrie, who told me she and two colleagues (Paul Giuffrida and Trish Nicholls) had seen a "dark-cloaked figure" walking up and down the stairs. Intrigued, I arranged to return to the museum in the daylight hours to see if I could find out more. I wasn’t disappointed.

When I interviewed Catherine further she told me that she saw the strange figure on top of the stairs twice, on two different evenings. While reading, she saw the outline of a figure on the top of the stairs. When she turned to see who (or what) it was, though, the apparition quickly turned and ran up the next flight of stairs leading to the "Cabinet of Curiosities" gallery room, where, according to Catherine, the strange activity in the building "seems to be mainly focused."

STAIRCASE MYSTERY: Catherine Perrie at the foot of the staircase where twice she has seen a ghostly figure in a black cloak.

When I talked with another staff member who saw this "cloaked figure" on the stairs, Paul Giuffrida, he shared with me two other strange experiences that he had had at the museum. The first of which took place in the "Cabinet of Curiosities" a few years ago.

Paul Giuffrida shared with me two other strange experiences he had had at the museum. The first of these took place in the "Cabinet of Curiosities" gallery. While putting a window in for one of the exhibits, "The Victorian Room" (where Catherine told me visitors had reported cold spots and a "presence"), Paul said he heard "a lot of noise ... tapping and banging" coming from the corner opposite the lift. Naturally, he assumed someone must have come upstairs but, on investigation, he discovered nobody had.

On another occasion, this time at the museum’s collection centre at Landore, Paul told me that while he was working in the storage area he heard "loud whistling" in his hear.

In addition to these two accounts, Paul also related to me that when a medium had been brought in to investigate the strange activity at the museum, they were told the ghost of someone who committed suicide on the lightship "Helwick" now haunted the museum; this might even be the cloaked figure who had been seen on the stairs.

Roger Gale, Swansea Museum's Exhibition and Events Officer, wasn’t convinced about this, though, since he doesn't believe in the abilities of mediums and other sensitives. Despite this, however, Roger did admit after some coaxing to seeing and experiencing things at the museum. Although a little embarrassed, Roger went into some detail about a full-bodied apparition he saw. It had "come out of the wall" and walked along a corridor before vanishing. Roger said the appirition was in view for at least 15 to 20 seconds and that it looked so lifelike that for a moment he thought it was one of his colleagues.

"It was as real as you are now," he said.

When people think of haunted locations, they tend to think of ancient castles, theatres or pubs. But with so much history surrounding them, museums should not be overlooked when considering haunted hot-spots, as the experiences of the staff at Swansea show.

And here is a special text interview I did with Paranormal Magazine Editor, Richard Holland. Please visit the Paranormal Magazine website.

British UFO crashes

2010-06-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

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UFO Crashes in Britain
By Rupert Matthews

The evidence for UFO sightings, and landings, in the UK is widespread, numerous and often compelling. But when it comes to UFO crashes, I find that most people simply shake their heads. “You mean Roswell,” they say. But I don’t mean Roswell. I mean UFO crashes in Britain.

Now, I would be the first to admit that the evidence pointing to the fact that any UFO had ever actually come down in Britain is nowhere near as impressive as that for UFO sightings or voluntarily landings, but that does not mean that it does not exist.

Take, for instance, the events at Conisholme, Lincolnshire, in January 2009. In the winter’s evening several locals reported seeing two orange-red spheres flying over this small village some miles northeast of Louth. The objects were trailing what appeared to be yellowish arms or threads behind them. Suddenly there came the most almighty bang, followed by a vicious whirling noise. Before long police were on the scene, cordoning off access to the nearby wind farm. Something had hit one of the enormous wind turbines, smashing one 65-foot long blade and mangling a second. Whatever had hit the turbine had not only done some impressive damage, it had also left behind a small quantity of lightweight material.

Opinions differ as to what had happened. The company that runs the windfarm, Ecotricity, refused to speculate. They merely confirmed that a turbine had been damaged and was being repaired. Some locals thought that a stealth aircraft from one of the nearby air bases had been to blame. Others said they knew what a stealth aircraft looked like at night - or rather what its jet engines looked like - and that the orange balls had not been that. They blamed a UFO.

Even if the wind turbine at Conisholme had been destroyed by a collision with a UFO, I am not sure that this truly counts as a UFO crash. Nobody reported the object having actually impacted the earth at all.

Other events reported in the press as being a “UFO Crash” turn out to be more or less routine sightings dressed up to make the headline more exciting. On 26 January 2009, for instance, a woman walking her dog along Baytree Road in Clevedon, Somerset, saw a cigar- or rocket- shaped UFO plummet to the ground accompanied by a shrieking or howling noise. The object came down in the playing fields of a school, rested there for a while, then the noise restarted and the object took off at high speed heading west. Dramatic stuff, but quite clearly the object did not crash - as the newspaper headlines next day had it - but had landed and then taken off again.

Rather better known is the Berwyn Mountain Incident of 1974. On the evening of 23 January several people in northern Wales and adjacent areas of England reported seeing green lights in the sky. The lights were reported to be spherical or saucer shaped and to be moving erratically in odd patterns and formations. Then, at 8.38pm, residents around the Berwyn Mountain in Wales heard a deafening rumbling explosion and the ground shook. People came out into the streets. One man said he had seen lights over the mountain just before the crash and speculated that an aircraft had crashed. Phone calls were put through to the emergency services. While waiting for more help to arrive, the local policeman rounded up a nurse and went up on to the mountain to see if they could help.

Not long afterwards a convoy of army trucks arrived, the men cordoned off the mountain and refused admittance to anyone. The policeman and nurse came back down under army escort. They said that they had seen lights and debris as if from a crash, but had been instructed to leave. The nurse would later say that she had got close to the crash and seen bodies that did not seem to be human.

The official explanation for the events at Berwyn are that an unusually large meteor hurtled across the sky at the same time that an earthquake struck Berwyn. Some geologists have speculated that the lights were the rare, and largely unexplained phenomenon, of earthquake lights which are sometimes reported in the air just before earthquakes strike. Others remain convinced that it was a UFO that crashed at Berwyn, though very little of the craft seems to have survived the impact.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Roswell which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Rupert Matthews on haunted museums

2010-06-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Poltergeists.

Bridport Museum

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Bridport Museum
By Rupert Matthews

I have heard a lot of stories about haunted museums, curses in museums (usually related to Egyptian objects) and so forth. Let's face it, museums can be spooky places with all that old stuff sitting around, and after they close they can be double spooking. The only first hand experience I have had concerned the Bridport Museum in South Street, Bridport. Here is what my report said about it:

"Considerably more welcoming is the genial old gent who haunts what is now Bridport Museum in South Street. The building is more than four centuries old, having been built as a coaching inn but later doing service as a bank, a club and a private house. It is the owner of the building from Edwardian times, one Captain Albert Codd, who haunts the place. He is seen dressed in what was his favourite smoking jacket of bright yellow hue and black trousers. Captain Codd loved his house, and left it to the town council to serve as a museum. He is presumably happy with the results for his ghost seems to be most at ease and relaxed. In 2006 he appeared to a member of staff in January. The old boy smiled gently, then turned and walked around a corner to vanish completely.

"The museum may also have a haunted fireplace. The chimney from the grand fireplace in the main room on the ground floor is blocked off and no fire is ever lit there, the building having efficient central heating. Despite this visitors sometimes see a fire blazing merrily in the grate and sometimes a young lady in Victorian costume warming herself by the flames.

"In 2005 the museum acquired a new and rather sinister exhibit in the form of a haunted dress. The beautiful 17th century gown was left to the museum and is undoubtedly a fine example of the work of local seamstresses. However it also attracts a young lady ghost who walks about the vicinity of wherever the dress is at the time. She seems to be rather protective of the garment, as if it holds some special memories for her. She is no real bother, except for the fact that she appears with startling regularity. No wonder the dress was bequeathed to the museum."

The member of staff did not want their name in print, so I left it out. She was actually the receptionist and was very informative. The sighting took place at 8.40am one morning when she was getting the reception desk ready for the museum to open to the public at 9am. She was pottering about tidying up the postcard display when she saw somebody enter the reception area from the door leading to the staircase. There were a couple of other members of staff in the building at the time and she assumed that the new arrival was one of them. She said something, small talk like "chilly this morning, isn't it", then she turned to see who it was. And there was this man she did not recognise. She was very surprised, thinking that a member of the public had got into the museum somehow. She was about to call out for another member of staff when the old man smiled at her and she suddenly thought that he was not threatening and seemed to belong there, not to be a member of the public. Then he turned and walked off. Only after he had gone did she think it might have been the ghost. She called her colleague and asked him what the ghost was supposed to look like - old man, yellow jacket etc - and she realised it had been the ghost.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book "Poltergeists" which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Richard Dolan muses over the possibility of a secret space program

2010-06-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by UFO historian Richard Dolan, author of the book UFOs and the National Security State, Volume 2: The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973-1991.

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Musings on a Secret Space Program‏
By Richard Dolan

Slowly, by degrees, I have come to the opinion that there is a secret space program. I recall, for instance, wondering about the alleged anomalies on Mars early on in my research. Back then, I was in correspondence with an individual who had impressive scientific and intelligence credentials. Attempting to feel him out on the topic, I wrote something a bit flippant about Mars, primarily to see what his reaction would be. Sure enough, he replied soberly that I should not dismiss these anomalies, that there were in fact many people within the classified world who took them seriously.

That’s when I realized, very concretely, that the notion of space anomalies was indeed a serious topic. I began to consider: if there is covert interest in the anomalies on Mars, would there be a covert space program to investigate? To this day, I don’t know the answer with certainty, but over the years I have encountered no shortage of quiet, serious-minded people who tell me of their knowledge that there is such a covert program. One component of this, it appears, has to do with the Moon. Are there bases on the far side of the Moon? Again, I do not know for sure, but I cannot rule it out. More than once, people I consider to be informed insiders have steered me in this direction.

There is another reason to suppose the existence of an advanced, clandestine space program. An enormous amount of video of space missions has been downloaded and is available for anyone to see. These include missions of NASA, the European Space Agency, Russia, and China. Much of this was downloaded and made available by a gentleman named Jeff Challender, who unfortunately died in 2007. Jeff spent an enormous part of his life downloading and reviewing – very carefully – video recordings of those missions. There can be no denying that there has been a great deal of activity in Earth’s orbit. Much of what was recorded undoubtedly has conventional explanations. But, frankly, many events do not offer easy explanations. I firmly believe there is something unusual going on in Earth’s orbit. Fortunately, after Jeff’s death, I was able to upload his entire site and attach it to my own. His site, known as Project Prove, now has a permanent home at http://keyholepublishing.com/.

Look at it this way. If you believe there are anomalies on Mars, and if you acknowledge strange activity in Earth’s orbit, you would have a very good reason to initiate a secret space program, would you not? You would want a way to investigate these things in a way that would not be seen by the prying eyes of the public.

I’ve also come to the opinion over the years that part of the classified world – the part that deals with the ET reality – has essentially “broken away” from our own conventional civilization. That is, utilizing the jumpstart they received by studying exotic, alien technology, they have very likely achieved scientific breakthroughs that they have not shared with the rest of us. I think that these breakthroughs have enabled them to employ technologies substantially beyond what we are using, and that in all likelihood this too has contributed to their secret space program.

It’s important to emphasize that the above is primarily conjecture on my part. I consider it my working hypothesis. Proving it will to take a great deal of effort and dedication. It also means not being sucked in by every new person who has claimed to have traveled to Mars. We need to remain clear headed.

Richard Dolan
Rochester, New York
June 3, 2010

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

Karyn Dolan on young people in UFOlogy

2010-06-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Women of Esoterica contributor Karyn Dolan. You can find the Women of Esoterica website at www.womenesoterica.blogspot.com.

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Young People and UFO Research

By Karyn Dolan

I’ve been attending UFO conferences around the world since 2001. Wherever I go, I hear the same question discussed: Where’s the next generation of researchers? Everyone’s worried that when the present crop of researchers decides to hang up their Geiger counters and laptops, no one will carry the torch, apathy will set in, and the whole UFO question will fade into the twilight.

Why does this matter? After all, many people consider it a kooky hobby, a little wacky but probably harmless. They certainly wouldn’t see why anyone should care if UFO research fizzled out like pog collecting. (That did fizzle out, right?)

Most of the UFO researchers I know have asked themselves that same question, in one form or another, at some time in their lives. Yes, we know it’s a little "out there." We’re used to seeing people at work roll their eyes when we ask for time off to attend the Roswell UFO Festival, or the International MUFON symposium. Despite all the skeptics who say we’re all in it for the money, this is not a field one enters in order to get rich. Let’s face it, this is not a field one enters in order to get respect, either; at least not outside our own field. We all have moments when we ask ourselves why the heck we keep at it.

The thing is, there’s a larger issue at stake. We’ve all looked at the evidence for the existence of objects that have yet to be identified. It’s there. Sure, there are lots of cases that have been identified as atmospheric phenomena, as misidentified aircraft, as many other unusual things. But enough anomalies remain to convince anyone who honestly considers the evidence that there’s more out there than we know.

There are plenty of official statements explaining away the anomalies. The problem is that many of these excuses are far less plausible even than the idea that an object may in fact be unidentifiable. Consider the case of the Phoenix Lights. In 1997, thousands of people witnessed lights in the sky over Arizona, moving slowly in a V-shaped formation. One of the official explanations of this event was that flares had been dropped from conventional aircraft. Witnesses were dumbfounded at the suggestion that they had somehow mistaken flares, which fall at varying speeds, individually rather than in formation, and give off clouds of smoke, for a row of stationary lights on a slow-moving, V-shaped craft which moved horizontally rather than vertically and gave off no smoke at all. Another suggestion put forward to explain the Phoenix Lights, which were visible over a period of about three hours on this occasion, was that city lights were reflecting off the bellies of migrating geese. While geese are indeed known to fly in a V-shaped formation, and do in fact have light-colored feathers on their undersides, this explanation was just as ridiculous as the first.

Such cases as this prove to many people that not only are UFOs real, but that our authorities don’t want us asking about it. That immediately raises hackles for many people. We don’t like being treated like children who need to be protected from the truth. If something is going on, we want to know about it. I am a parent, and I understand that my kids don’t need to know about every upsetting thing that goes on in the world. But I also understand that they do need to be allowed to face facts, and to learn to live with the world as it is, not as someone else wants to pretend it is. Our government and military leaders need to be held accountable, to be prevented from patronizing us in this way. They need to stop keeping secrets from the people they serve; from us.

With that in mind, and recalling the question many of my friends and colleagues were asking about where to find the next generation of UFO researchers, I decided to ask my kids and some of their friends to join me on my weekly radio program to discuss the question. In the end, one friend was able to join my son and daughter on the show.

Now, I have to mention that all three of these young people, whose ages range between eleven and fifteen, have been homeschooled, and are very critical thinkers. My own two kids have grown up in an unusual household: my husband wrote a history titled UFOs and the National Security State, a projected three-volume work of which two are completed and published. We travel to UFO conferences nearly every month, and even took them with us to one where they met and spoke with astronaut Edgar Mitchell. I host the above-mentioned radio program that deals with UFOs and paranormal topics.

By contrast, their friend comes from a household with a more down-to-earth (literally!) approach to life, where UFOs are not a regular topic of dinner table conversation. He was unfamiliar with much of the UFO literature and evidence, and asked me to explain the cases I asked them about. Admittedly, I accept the existence of UFOs and he knows it, but I still tried to present information fairly, sticking to the facts.

The results of this conversation were heartening. All three asked excellent questions about the cases I mentioned, and all thought over my answers before responding. They didn’t respond with knee-jerk agreement, or with automatic rejection of any piece of evidence. They told me when they thought certain things were unlikely, or when they disagreed with a statement. But all three of them said that logically, they couldn’t see why life wouldn’t exist anywhere but on Earth; and if there is life elsewhere, they could find no reason why it shouldn’t eventually come here. They were fascinated by witness accounts and evidence, and quick to dismiss statements that had no supporting evidence.

I believe we have our next generation of researchers. I think we have a generation of thoughtful, intelligent people growing up and watching what’s happening in the world around them. When the time comes, they won’t hesitate to hold our leaders accountable for their statements and their actions concerning what has been called the truth embargo concerning UFOs. If by the time we are ready to retire, we haven’t yet broken open the vault of secrecy on this subject, they’ll be there, ready and willing to take up the task and continue to press on. And that’s what it’s all about.

Karyn Dolan hosts "Through the Keyhole" each week on the Paranormal Radio Network. For more information on her work, go to www.keyholepublishing.com/karyndolan.htm.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.

RAF Rudloe Manor and UFOs

2010-05-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

The following guest article is by Rupert Matthews, author of the book Roswell.

RAF Rudloe Manor

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RAF Rudloe Manor and the UFO Files
By Rupert Matthews

I think I first heard about the highly secretive military base at Rudloe Manor when I used to go down to visit relatives in Bath. That would have been sometime in the 1970s. We went to visit local sites, including Lacock Abbey, Solsbury Hill and Bath Abbey.

One time we went to see the Box Tunnel - that great engineering marvel of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As we stood watching the trains thundering up and down the main line from London to Bristol I noticed a high wire fence topped by barbed wire and hung with notices indicating that dire penalties would come to anyone who strayed over the fence.

"What’s over there?" I asked my uncle.

He glanced at the fence. "Oh, some RAF place," he replied. "Very hush hush." And we went back to watching the trains.

That was during the Cold War, of course, and everyone who knew about Rudloe Manor assumed that the highly secretive things that went on there had something to do with tracking Soviet aircraft, intercepting Soviet radio messages or some other top secret defensive purpose. It never crossed our minds back then that Rudloe Manor had anything to do with UFOs.

It was not until some 20 years later that I began to hear rumours that the well guarded base at Rudloe Manor might have some UFO link. One of the boys I had been at school with was by then a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF. One time when he was on leave and we were down the pub I mentioned about RAF Rudloe Manor. He fixed me with a cool stare.

"I don’t know what goes on there," he said. "And I suggest you don’t ask too many questions. Brass hats can get very touchy about places like that."

"Interesting," I thought.

By the later 1990s the rumours had begun to take a more definite form. All the information came from serving or former RAF personnel who had worked at Rudloe Manor. Understandably, these people preferred to remain anonymous as they feared the government might prosecute them for breaching the Official Secrets Act. A perfectly reasonable concern, but it had the effect of making it impossible to check whether these witnesses had ever worked at Rudloe Manor and, if so, in what capacity. Inevitably this led some to suspect that the stories were not as reliable as they might be.

According to these reports, there was a vast underground complex beneath the apparently innocuous barracks and office buildings scattered in the grounds of the old manor house. This much could be checked out and was accurate. The manor had been taken over by the RAF at the start of World War II precisely because these huge underground caverns existed. They were the abandoned workings from which the much prized Bath Stone had been quarried out in the 19th century. Being deep underground the tunnels and caves were, of course, proof against German bombing. From 1940 onward a whole range of government and military units and installations were located in the tunnels of Rudloe Manor where they would be safe from the Luftwaffe. Much of what went on there at the time is now well known and while it was all vital to the war effort is hardly controversial.

When the war ended, however, the government did not return Rudloe Manor and its underground caverns to its prewar owners as happened to most wartime acquisitions. It was kept by the government. And it was kept very secret. It has since been revealed that one function of the caves was to house a government communications centre that would be activated if a nuclear war began. Other uses of the caves remain highly classified and top secret.

One of these top secret purposes is the Central Computer Complex (CCC). Quite what the CCC does is not entirely clear. Some say it controls the Trident nuclear missile firing systems, others that it has a role in 'sigint' or signals intelligence. Nobody really knows. One of the most intriguing of the few facts to come out of CCC is that there is another section of the caverns under Rudloe Manor that is accessed only through CCC (itself heavily guarded and accessed only by those with high security clearance) by way of a door that is guarded 24/7 and that only a few of those cleared to enter CCC are permitted to pass.

Now what can be behind that door? Obviously something highly sensitive.

Back on the surface, Rudloe Manor has long been the HQ of the RAF Provost & Security Services (PSS), which is responsible for all aspects of security affecting the RAF. It includes personnel from MI5 and MI6 who liaise with the PSS and - at least from time to time if not permanently - CIA personnel as well. We know from declassified government documents that the PSS collated and sifted UFO reports for several decades. They binned any reports that they felt could be explained as sightings of aircraft, birds, planets and so forth, then investigated those that remained unexplained. Several of those unexplained reports were swiftly taken off the desks of the lowly staff at PSS and sent for analysis "elsewhere" - to behind that door in CCC apparently.

In the early 1990s UFO investigators in Britain began to notice that there was a cluster of high quality sightings over the Box-Rudloe-Corsham area of Wiltshire. This reminded some of a similar cluster of sightings over Warminster, a few miles to the south, in the 1960s. Intrigued, investigators began paying more attention. The sightings were found to centre over Rudloe and to consist largely of UFOs without wings that pulsated with colours of blue, red or green. Often they were said to be diamond or conical in shape.

So what can we say with confidence about RAF Rudloe Manor. Well, it is top secret, contains vast underground caverns that are off limits to all but a very few people with top level security clearance, has been part of the RAF UFO investigation process and is a centre for UFO sightings. Beyond that we really don’t know. Some claim that the place is a liaison venue for the British government to interract with aliens. Others that objects retrieved from UFOs are stored there.

Perhaps one day we will know the truth.

Rupert Matthews is the author of the book Roswell which is available on Amazon and from all good bookshops. You can find Rupert’s website at www.rupertmatthews.com. He also maintains a blog about the unexplained at www.ghosthunteratlarge.blogspot.com.

If you would like to contribute a guest article for the website please contact Richard Thomas at richard@richardthomas.eu.