Part Three: Close Encounter Cases 1924-1946

The last case in Part Two was of a reported incident in Detroit from 1922. As I continue sharing case summaries from the databases of close encounters of the 3rd and 4th kind, I will be filtering out more cases, because as Jerome Clark notes in the 2018 edition of The UFO Encyclopedia vol1, pg 263: “As the years move closer to 1947, the number of recorded CE3s increases. CE3s themselves may or may not have been growing in number. There is no way to judge. It is certain, however, that there were a greater number of living witnesses able to tell their stories now…”

In a pre dawn hour during the winter of 1924 in Saskatchewan, Canada a woman farmer was doing her chores when she saw “little green men” walking in the snow around a landed object. They get in the object and depart.

This sparsely described case is notable for the phrase ‘little green men”, a commonly used bit of shorthand to reference close encounter incidents with a dash of ridiculing. The published source is the 1979-published “UFO Occupants and Critters: The Patterns in Canada” by John Brent Musgrave. The HUMCAT entry is a sparse one liner with the source for that identified as as a personal message from Musgrave to Ted Bloecher, one of 2 Ufologists in the late 70s compiling the Humanoid Catalogue for the UFO Center.

An incident reported that occured around the year 1925 from LA Mancha, Spain was noted in a 1976 UFO Center publication of “A Catalogue of 200 Type-1 UFO Events in Spain and Portugal” by Vincente-Juan Ballester Olmos”. What we have are sparse details of a small four foot figure, attired in a greenish uniform and exhibiting rigid limbs as they stood on a moving disc. The witness described seeing this being holding a “blow pipe”.

An alleged incident from Bolton, Lancashire, England during November 1926 was shared in a 1995 Barnes and Noble book called “UFO: The Complete Sightings” by Peter Brooke Smith. This story involves young friends playing hide and seek when the reporting witness (named Henry Thomas) states that he went into a neighbor’s backyard. There he saw three figures dressed in suits that appeared to be made up of silvery grey tubes. Henry also saw that they were wearing transparent helmets with a tube extending to a tank on the back of each. They turned and looked at him. Their appearance was described as having pale heads shaped like a light bulb, a small nose, eyes dark and slit-shaped, and no visible mouth. Henry Thomas became afraid and fled when they started to approach. He heard one of them make a gurgling sound.

In the late 1960s a woman (Mrs. Pauline Berger) was shown a sketch in a 1968 issue of the Flying Saucer Review which apparently looked similar to what she had described witnessing during the summer of 1928 in Antsy Lane, England. Her story details were shared with the FSR in a letter which FSR published in it’s first issue of 1969, “Mail Bag: The Disappearing Scarecrow”.

The reference to a scarecrow is based on the witness’s first impression on seeing a five foot black entity with a large head, which the witness perceives as faceless. Because of this entity’s long, dangling arms, the witness had the impression of a scarecrow figure. She was a child then, in the midst of resting in a field with her father on a break from hiking. She noticed this figure, standing next to a large globe-shaped object on legs, when looking up from the book she was reading. She turned to wake up her father and when looking back saw that the being and craft had silently departed.

The next reported incident has a date, June 12, 1929, with the witness (Levis Brosseau) from Fermeneue, Quebec at 20 years old at that time. Brosseau was returning home when he saw resting on a hillside what looked at first like a dark cloud with an internal yellowish light. He stopped and walked over to take a closer look and was able to discern an object 50 feet in diameter with four or five small humanoid yellow-colored figures quickly moving about. Next, he sees the craft rising slowly, hearing also the sound of rushing air. He hears what sounds like two beings arguing as the craft departs. The HUMCAT entry source was noted as from pg 168 of Jacques Vallee’s “Magonia”, who cited a 1968 source.

In 1975 two women-sisters shared with UFO investigator George Fawcett and on radio a May 1930 sighting from Greensboro, North Carolina. This event also involved the parents of the sisters (one sister a retired school teacher in 1975). During the daytime that day in May 1930, the two parents and their daughters saw a dark, top-shaped object, 40 feet wide quietly land in a garden. Through some sort of window, they saw the top (above shoulders) of a being, appearing to wear tight-fitting clothes and a helmet. The object ascended and departed quietly after five to ten minutes.

There are next a couple of entries in the Humanoid Catalogue that aren’t necessarily UFO related, instead seeming visionary in nature with no UFO on scene. Example:

In finishing this paper, the ambiguous-in-nature cases from various compilations (ie HUMCAT and the more extensive Rosales body of work) will not be included.

There was an attempt by the witnesses in this next case to get their experience published in several Canadian papers and magazines but in the summer of 1933, when their experience occurred, their story was considered too out there. The scene was the far northwestern section of the prairie province Saskatchewan at Tobin Lake during the summer of 1933. The witnesses were two young men and a woman from the village of Nipawan. A Canadian ufologist (John Brent Musgrave) interviewed the two men in 1976 and published their account that year in the Flying Saucer Review.

The three young people went to this area because they were curious about reports over recent weeks of strange lights in the sky and near the ground there. As they were driving on approach to this area, they saw a glow and stopped to walk into the woods to check it out. After going a quarter mile, historian Jerome Clarke describes that “from their vantage point they could see a large oval-shaped craft resting on legs. From an open central doorway a bright orange glow emanated and a ladder like stairway extended, and a dozen figures moved up and down the steps. Dressed in silver suits or uniforms, wearing helmets or ski caps, and slightly shorter than normal men, they appeared to be repairing the craft”. (UFO Encyclopedia, vol one, pg 264). They watched for an hour and a half and went back to their truck to drive closer but the craft was gone. Two days later they returned and took photos of the landing traces. The photos were lost decades later when Musgrave interviewed the two male witnesses.

On April 5 1935 near Seville, Spain a farmer reported seeing a near landing of a round and brightly lit-up craft. It hovered just above the ground with several small entities appearing and moving around the object. The witness was noted in the 1976 published catalogue of Spanish cases by Vincente-Juan Ballester Olmos to have regarded this as some divine type vision. (This catalogue was published by the J Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.)

Also reportedly happening the spring of 1935 was something similar up north in Antwerp, Belgium. A Mr. Alerts is identified as the witness in the HUMCAT entry which was sourced from a 1975 UFO Register listing of early Belgian reports.

A very large bright circular object, described as shaped like an aluminum pan, was first seen above the roofs of houses and then on the ground. Two small humanoid beings wearing squarish helmets were seen in stilted, mechanical movements examining the exterior of the craft.

Another Spanish incident was catalogued by Mr. Ballester Olmos in 1976 for the Center for UFO Studies, sharing a report by a lieutenant and his aide. (The 4th issue of the Flying Saucer Review also published an account.) Their sighting and encounter took place late at night on July 25 1938. Given the developments of the time period, the witnesses assumed they had witnessed either a German or Soviet secret craft. They saw “a hovering, lens-shaped object more than 35 feet in diameter and 15 feet high. From underneath it a platform was lowered; on it were two moving figures. A blue beam from the parent object shined on the witnesses, who felt a sudden chill. The platform rose up into the UFO, which took on an intense white glow and flew away”. (Jerome Clark, pg 265 UFO Encyclopedia, Vol 1)

An incident from the summer of 1938 in Somerville, Massachusetts was shared by the witness, Malcolm Perry, to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena in April 1964. Mr. Perry at first thought he was seeing a blimp but upon closer observation he saw no features associated with blimps. He did see squarish portholes along the side and figures taking turns looking out at him. The craft disappeared behind some clouds.

In a letter to Dr. J. Allen Hynek dated in February 1974, Frank Sever shared an encounter experience taking place along a country road near St. Clair, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1940 or 1941. He says as he was walking on the country road he heard a loud noise in nearby woods and upon checking, he saw what looked like an aluminum building partially obscured by trees. He knew this area and that no building was there, confirmed in subsequent visits also. He fled the scene when when he saw 6 small figures, possibly (he thought) looking for something on the ground. He thought they were spooks.

The October 1976 MUFON Journal detailed a case (“New Time Lapse Case”) coming to surface after the encounter experiencer (Albert Lancashire) had some UFO sightings and bedroom visions in 1967 that vividly brought back an experience he had during the late summer of 1942 in England near Newbiggen-on-Sea, Northumberland. Albert contacted British Ufologists who found him sane and credible.

He was guarding a radar station when he saw a light (shrouded in a cloud) coming in from the sea and then descending. He then reports he was drawn up into a beam where small beings took hold of him and brought him into a craft. There he also saw figures the size of humans wearing thick goggles and leaning over a table. Albert had only vague onboard memories altogether but thought he underwent a medical exam. His next clear memory was of being back at his guard station.

There is no craft mentioned in this next case from 1942 and referenced in the HUMCAT catalogue. (HUMCAT compilers found in unpublished manuscript called The Humanoids in France by Jean Luc Rivera.) In 1942 around 1 am (month not identified) a woman in Prouvy, France stepped out into her garden, with a nearby bomb shelter, and encountered three small beings. They were described as wearing tight one piece silvery suits that extended over their heads and leaving only their faces exposed. Their heads were large and round with large and luminous yellowish eyes. The beings rigidly stared at her as she ran inside to get her husband. They were gone when she and husband went outside.

The Flying Saucer Review issue #12 from December 1972 relates an incident witnessed during a summer day in 1944 at Verger, France. The witness (Madeleine Arnoux) at the time was 13. She was berry-picking alongside a diet road when she encountered a few hundred yards away the sight of several small beings (a little over 3 feet tall) dressed in brown overalls. The beings were gathered around a gray object the size of a van. The girl felt paralyzed initially. The beings departed in a craft, stirring up a big gust of wind in doing so.

Two investigators for MUFON published 2 special reports at the end of 1973 and start of 1974 relating the story of Mrs. E. M. Church during an incident in late August 1944 at Christchurch, New Zealand. Australian researcher Bill Chalker also published an account in 1996.

The witness of this reported sighting was a nurse walking to a team station late in the afternoon. She described seeing an “upturned saucer” (20 feet diameter, 9 feet high) the ground near the road. There were two four foot tall beings visible inside thru a window and one standing motionless by an open door. The beings appeared fixated on the lights of a nearby fairgrounds. Their heads were very large and took up half the size of their bodies which altogether seemed encased in a transparent rectangular-shaped substance. The nurse moved closer and the being at the door noticed her after she made a noise. The being’s helmut spontaneously “flipped over” and he drifted into the craft through the opening. The craft lifted vertically and disappeared into the clouds.

This next case involved a whole family in October 1944 outside Rochester, NY in an isolated area. The main witness (Otto Ruhe, the father/husband) shared this story with J. Allen Hynek in two letters sent in 1980.

The family was awakened by a loud noise and a flash of light which the father got up to check. At the door he saw a being adorned in a brown robe and about 4 and 1/2 feet tall and near that being five others of a similar height but adorned luminous brown suits. All the beings had a glow around them. They had large heads, arms long with long thin fingers, mouth a mere slit. The robes being and two others stepped inside and escorted him to craft that had landed near his house. That’s the last thing he remembered until the next morning. Not sure if had been dreaming, he checked the landing site, which was evidenced by a burnt circle 25 feet in diameter 20 feet from the house. The witness noted it would be some time before the family talked with each other about the incident.

A case in the files of the Center for UFO Studies involved a couple driving a rural road near Bryan, Ohio in October 1945. They saw an oval-shaped craft, 35 feet estimated diameter, hovering 50 feet above the ground near a power pole. The craft was surrounded by amber colored lights and was internally illuminated. One of the witnesses reported seeing moving shadows within. The craft departed rapidly towards a nearby wooded area, then shot up vertically.

In 1976 the Irish UFO Research Center received an anonymous letter which they would quote in an edition of the Irish UFO News. This alleged wild incident was said to have occured on Christmas day in 1945 on an island off the west coast of Ireland. A man was on the shore in the midst of a blizzard waiting for a ferry boat. He saw a craft (described in HUMCAT entry as a “silver dome with a square base”) descend, briefly landing on the water and then moving on shore in a field, crushing two cows in the process.

The top of the craft opened and two humanoids “with squarish legs, wearing gray-black rubber suits” came out. One walked onto the sea (floating?) and place a large vial there. The other being “fired a ray at a cow, burning a hole through it”. When a dog owned by a farmer came up barking, the being pointed a box with lights and antenna at it, seemingly hypnotizing the dog who was escorted into the craft. As a mist enveloped the craft, the beings floated in. The witness is noticed then and when a being waves at him he flees, frightened. The farmer residing there later urges him to remain silent.

An investigator who knew the then deceased witness published early 1976 in the Northern UFO News an account where a craft 25 to 35 feet in diameter approached the witness slowly at a height of 50 feet, coming within 75 yards. The witness provided the investigator a sketch, revealing that through a transparent blue green window he could see 2 sitting beings with short hair and appearing over six feet tall and wearing one piece suits.

In 1971 a prominent Swedish industrialist named Gosta Carlsson reported an experience from May 1946 that was published in the Flying Saucer Review in 1972. He reported being out walking one night when he enountered a disc-shaped craft, 50 feet or more in diameter, with a cupola on top and oval windows. Jerome Clark provides the details, pg 266 in volume one of the 2018 UFO Encyclopedia: “A man dressed in a white, one piece outfit gestured to Carlsson to stop. Ten other occupants, three of them women, all wearing suits and transparent helmets, were nearby. One of the male occupants pointed a box like device at the witness. Carlsson left the scene but returned via a different route half an hour later, just in time to see the UFO depart.”

A witness named Margaret Sprankle from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma shared her experience with MUFON in 1974. Ted Bloecher wrote a special report for MUFON in May 1974. Ms. Sprankle, at the time a young civilian employee working at Tinker Air Force Base related that upon returning home she saw that at about 100 yards in the distance she could see a very large (75 feet diameter) lens-shaped metallic object with a dozen or so square windows evident in the lower right of this object. She could make out figures from the shoulders up, who she felt may have been looking at her. She described to MUFON investigators what she could discern at the 100 yard distance: beings with either very round heads or wearing helmets and apparently bald. Finally, she witnessed the craft rotate 90 degrees on it’s axis and then move on, disappearing in seconds.

In Antwerp, Belgium also in August 1946 there was a sighting by a young man of a pan-shaped craft seen hovering just above the road and with a small being, holding an acacia branch entering the craft through an opening on the underside. He shared this experience in 1975, when it was shared publically in the UFO Register (chronicling Belgium cases).

A case arising from Johannesburg, South Africa during the summer of 1946 would be detailed in the March 1979 issue of Flying Saucer Review 24, no5. The alleged incident was shared by two women who had their experience while on an evening walk. They saw a saucer shaped craft hovering just a few feet above the top of the hotel. In the middle of the saucer was a golden ball. After hearing clicks, they saw the ball descend and become level with the top of the hotel. Then, with clicking sounds heard again, the ball ascended, going through the saucer (despite no opening being seen) and rising above a short distance. Between the ball and the saucer, they could now see two tall (7 feet) human-looking beings who looked like each other: broad shoulders, short wavy hair, wearing white uniforms and broad belts at the midriff. The beings were motionless, appearing to stare at the women who lost sight of the craft as it drifted to the other side of the hotel.

Finally, there is on record (initially published in Vimana in October 1954) a case from suburban Detroit experienced by Mary Ackerman 3:30 in the morning on an unidentified date in 1946. She had been awakened by bright light shining in her bedroom. She saw a large, luminous oval with a band across the middle hovering in her neighbor’s back yard. She could see a single humanoid being inside. The craft quickly left.