It has been described as one of the most credible alien abduction stories in history.
Now, 50 years on, new evidence has come to light which UFO experts say proves a close encounter took place on Mississippi‘s Pascagoula river.
On October 11th, 1973, two fishermen were enjoying an after-work jaunt when they heard a bizarre sound and saw flashing blue lights, which they first thought belonged to a police car.
Instead, a hovering oval-shaped craft emerged. Out of it, they told investigators, came their captors – three ‘creatures’ with ‘robotic slit-mouths’ which took them on board and physically examined them.
Co-workers Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson managed to escape the ordeal, dazed, confused and with little more than pin prick injuries.
Their wounds have been described as ‘physical evidence’, which UFO enthusiasts say debunks sceptics’ claims that it was all in the men’s heads. And now, for the first time, photographs of the injuries have been made public.
Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson claimed they were abducted by aliens while fishing in 1973
‘Three puncture-type marks were noted on Charles Hickson’s left arm’, Dr Harder wrote after examining the men
On Parker, ‘puncture-type marks of the same fashion were noted on the inside of his foot, as indicated in the photos’
The never-before-seen photographs and testimony from the men have been published by UFO researchers who say they are ‘unprecedented’ evidence of extraterrestrial life forms coming to earth.
Philip Mantle has been studying UFO sightings for decades and said he finds Parker and Hickson’s case, now buoyed by the new evidence, the most believable he has come across.
‘I have been investigating UFOs for forty years and have never come across anything like this anywhere. It is unprecedented, physical proof that something happened that night,’ he told MailOnline.
Parker and Hickson were interviewed and examined by Dr James Harder in the hours after they were supposedly abducted and dragged into a ‘strange-glowing object by humanoid beings’.
In a paper Mantle says was typed up by Dr Harder, an engineering professor and UFO enthusiast, the men are said to have been left with ‘certain markings’ on their bodies ‘which both could not account for’.
The document, which Mantle says was shared with him by CUFOS, reveals the ufologist’s methods of examination and what he found on the two men.
‘Three puncture-type marks were noted on Charles Hickson’s left arm… a close examination revealed that the epidermis had been penetrated as if by a needle-like device… at the same time, certain sections of the epidermis had been removed in a circular fashion.’
No other injuries were found, it says. On Parker, ‘puncture-type marks of the same fashion were noted on the inside of his foot, as indicated in the photos.’
Again, ‘no other marks or rashes were noted on the rest of the body, except for naturally occurring blemishes and pimples.’
Ufologists have long been fascinated by an alleged close encounter on Pascagoula River, Mississippi, in 1973
Mantle is insistent that the tiny cuts on the men’s arms, feet and legs could not have come from any thicket or other rough surfaces they might have encountered on their fishing trip.
Mantle and fellow researcher Dr Irena Scott found the pictures after combing through the archives of various UFO groups, including the Center for UFO studies, who shared the documents with them.
Mantle has also extensively interviewed Parker himself, who sadly passed away last month aged 69.
Just 19 years old at the time, Parker was taken out fishing by a colleague, 42-year-old Charles Hickson, after his first day on a new job.
The men stayed until after sunset, and were about to collect more bait as they hunted for fish when they saw lights and the ‘object’ appear.
Out of the craft – which was said to be 30–40ft across, 8–10ft high and 2ft off the ground – came three creatures described as ‘humanoid in shape’ and around ‘five foot tall’.
‘Certain sections of the epidermis had been removed in a circular fashion,’ Dr Harder noted on October 13, 1973
In Mantle’s summary of the men’s various descriptions of their captors, he wrote: ‘The creatures’ skin was pale in colour and wrinkled, and they had no eyes that the men could discern, and slits for mouths.
‘Their heads also appeared connected directly to their shoulders, with no discernible neck.
‘There were three «carrot-like» growths instead – one where the nose would be on a human, the other two where ears would normally be.
‘The beings had lobster-like claws at the ends of their arms, and they seemed to have only one leg (Hickson later described the creatures’ lower bodies looking as if their legs were fused together) ending in elephant-like feet.
‘Hickson also reported that the creatures moved in mechanical, robotic ways.’
In a paper Mantle says was typed up by Dr Harder on October 13, 1973, the men are said to have been left with ‘certain markings’ on their bodies ‘which both could not account for
Both men said they were paralyzed and taken inside the UFO – where they underwent extensive physical examinations.
The men had originally wanted to keep their wild story under wraps, craving nothing more than a mundane life, with Parker’s wedding just a month away at the time.
But after a bit of thought and some convincing of his pal, Hickson, a veteran of the Korean war, felt it his duty to report what they had seen.
They called up the local air base to get in touch with Project Blue Book, the US Air Force’s UFO investigations programme, but were told that it was defunct.
Hickson was told to speak to the local authorities, and got in touch with Jackson County Sheriff’s office instead.
Dr James Harder, an engineering professor at Berkeley and UFO enthusiast, who examined Parker and Hickson after their alleged abduction
They were brought in to be interviewed separately and together by police, with the transcripts of the meetings revealing their terror.
‘We did everything we knew to try to break their stories,’ Jackson County Sheriff’s Captain Glen Ryder told The Washington Post in 1975.
‘If they were lying to me, they should be in Hollywood.’
Mantle also cites various other tests conducted on the men, and what he says are piles of witness testimony from the night in question.
The men were taken for radiation testing, which returned negative, Mantle admitted, but other tests performed he says back up their accounts.
Parker, who was remained convinced of what he saw until his dying day, said in an interview before his death: ‘We took polygraph tests, voice stress tests, been hypnotized three times, had more credible witnesses than any case around, and more credible people talkin’.
An artists’ impression of the ‘creatures’ Hickson and Parker described – with ‘robotic slit-mouths’, ‘lobster-like claws’ and ‘carrot-like growths’ on their heads
‘But see, back in the ’70s, people thought you was crazy to have done somethin’ or seen somethin’ like that.’
As naysayers continue to label the encounter a ‘hoax’ five decades on, Mantle said he will not give up hope that the evidence he has compiled will be taken seriously.
He added that he is open to skepticism and admitted that the UFO community needs sceptics to keep them rigorous in their research, inviting anyone who doesn’t believe the claims to read the evidence he has laid out in his new book, co-written with Dr Scott.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Pascagoula Alien Abduction, came out on September 1 and can be bought on Amazon.
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