NICK'S ODD PIC(S) OF THE DAY

Car Curiosities

2012-03-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Taken in California: Not exactly something you see every day...

A Paranormal Road

2012-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

It may look like any stretch of road in the English countryside. But...I assure you it isn't.

This particular road links the Staffordshire, England towns of Hednesford and Rugeley, and cuts right through the heart of the Cannock Chase - a locale I have written about on many occasions and which is an absolute hotbed of high-strangeness.

But, there's something about this specific part of the road that is particularly intriguing.

You'll see the bus-stop on the right of the picture.

It's right around here - where there is a downhill turning to the left which leads to the tiny old hamlet of Slitting Mill - that there has been a deep concentration of weirdness for years.

In 1972, a man named Nigel Lea saw a definitive ghostly black dog right here.

Three years later, a family encountered on the road what they described as a number of "hairy trolls."

And, in 1995, a woman named Jackie Houghton witnessed a large, shambling Bigfoot-type beast make its way across the road at the very place where I took the accompanying photo.

Although the Cannock Chase is undeniably weird - period - there are several "hot-spots" on the Chase, such as this one, which stand out and practically scream "Window Area" or "Portal"...

Taking the Heat

2012-02-21T04:39:00.000-08:00

Well, after a week and a half of pneumonia, feeling like hell, dropping 7 pounds, and looking as pale as a ghost, I'm up and running again - which means, of course, more photos from my collection, which varies from the intriguing to the absurd!

I'm not sure where, exactly, this picture fits in. But, what the hell.

This is what happens when you live near Dallas, Texas at the height of the summer: The squirrels will either collapse on your front lawn, or hide under your car to escape the heat. Or, in the case of this photo taken at our house, both!!

Puerto Rico's Supernatural Hound

2012-02-10T06:38:00.000-08:00

This particular photo was taken by me back in 2005, when I was racing around the island of Puerto Rico with Paul Kimball, and his Red Star Films crew, in search of the blood-sucking nightmare known as the Chupacabra.

It shows the scene from my hotel-room window, and as you'll note, where the waves are hitting the rocks, you can see a large, jagged piece of rock standing up like Nessie's neck.

Well, no it's not the neck of some ancient serpent of the water!

But, it does have a notable legend attached to it that is widely known on the island.

So the tale goes, centuries ago a fisherman headed out to sea at that very point and never returned.

The man’s faithful hound, however, waited patiently at the shore for his master to come home, but it was never to be.

Such was the dog’s devotion, his long and lonely years-long vigil resulted in the animal being turned into a solid block of stone, forever thereafter resigned to a lonely vigil in the waters...

Folklore? Of course! But, engaging folklore, nevertheless...

Crop Circles: Large and Small

2012-02-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Back in the 1990s, I spent a lot of time running around England in search of Crop Circles - chiefly in the circle-saturated county of Wiltshire, but sometimes elsewhere too.

One of the things that interests me is the perception that many people have of Crop Circles - namely, that they are huge, sprawling designs of intricate design. Well, yes, some of them are.

But, not all of them.

While the photo above shows a huge formation - taken by me at ground-level in the summer of 1997 - with Wiltshire's famous Silbury Hill in the background, the one below shows a very small Crop Circle, which I captured for posterity in a field in Staffordshire, England in the summer of 1999.

In this latter case, the "formation" (if you can call it that!) was brought to my attention by a local newspaper, after the farmer who owned the land stumbled across the intriguing little circle - which was no more than a few feet across.

A natural event? A Crop Circle of "Mini Me" proportions?

Whatever the answer, it raises a thought-provoking question: How many similar circles of the small kind are overlooked each year, simply due to the fact that - for the most part - they are almost impossible to see, unless you happen to have reason to be in the relevant field where it sits?

Perhaps, in a classic "not seeing the woods for the trees" scenario, the number of Crop Circles that manifest, appear or are made in England each and every year is far greater than we suspect.

But, while focusing on the huge formations that certainly make for spectacular photographs and that reel in the media and the tourists, we are missing the equally intriguing, but far smaller, ones...

The Caddo Creatures

2012-02-03T05:01:00.000-08:00

If you are going to look for Bigfoot, well, at least make the location an atmospheric one!

And, maybe, there's few better such places than Caddo Lake (which borders Texas and Louisiana), on which I took a boat-trip (and a Sasquatch-seeking trek) back in 2005.

Caddo Lake happens to be the largest natural freshwater lake in the south, covering approximately 26,800 acres.

Originally home to the Caddo Indians, the lake’s murky depths and incredibly dense black cypress trees today help to create a truly spooky atmosphere within which Bigfoot is said to firmly thrive.

Every now and again, I get reports of people encountering huge, ape-like animals in the area, including - very interestingly - several I have on-file of people seeing the beasts actually swimming in the lake!

Well, I guess even Bigfoot needs to cool off when the southern weather reaches 100 degrees-plus!

Pier 39 And A Texan Zebra!

2012-02-03T04:49:00.000-08:00

Nope: there's nothing even remotely paranormal, supernatural or Fortean about these two pictures.

But, I figured: Why not post them?

They are, after all, and in their own way, kind of odd.

The first shows a zebra.

So, you may well ask, what's so odd about that?

Well, I happened to see this stripey chap standing in a field in - of all places! - West Texas about 12 years ago when I was driving to Roswell, New Mexico.

I guess if Britain can have big cats on the loose, and there are alligators in the sewers of New York (perhaps...), then why shouldn't the wilds of the Lone Star State be home to a zebra or several?

As for this second picture, taken by me in the summer of 2001, it shows the resident sea-lion population at San Francisco's now-famous Pier 39.

Indeed, it's quite a sight - and a very weird one too! - to see so many large and lumbering animals sprawled mere feet from you!

Back in Black - Again!

2012-01-31T09:41:00.001-08:00

On a couple of occasions at this blog (specifically here and here) I have commented on the regular overflights of our house by military and unmarked helicopters. Well I just now - literally - took the accompanying photo, of yet another craft on one of its regular visitations...

Maybe one day they will parachute in for a cup of tea, or a beer or several...

A Brtitish Hangar 18?

2012-01-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

The buzzword that has been bubbling quietly-but-continuously within certain factions of the British UFO research community since at least the late 1970s is that the relatively innocuous-looking base known as Royal Air Force Rudloe Manor – which is situated within the English county of Wiltshire (Crop Circle country, as it's better known!) - sits atop a large, futuristic, underground installation, deep inside of which resides the holiest of all ufological prizes: alien bodies from a crashed UFO.

British authorities have long asserted that the stories are all arrant nonsense and little more than modern day folklore and mythology in the making. Needless to say, determining the truth of this seemingly endless affair has proven to be just about as problematic as the base is deep. Isn't it always, in such situations?

What we do know for sure is that until 1998, the Royal Air Force’s elite Provost and Security Services (P&SS) had their headquarters at Rudloe (a section of which is shown in the photo above), and their duties included the investigation of crime and disciplinary matters involving RAF personnel, the security vetting of employees, and the issuing of identity cards, passes and permits. Far more significant, investigators attached to the P&SS are also trained in the field of counter-intelligence (C / I).

Such training is undertaken at the RAF Police School. Prospective candidates for counter-intelligence work are required to take specialized courses in subjects such as computer security and surveillance. Before being considered for C/I work, personnel have to attain the rank of corporal within the RAF Police. C/I investigators are responsible for issues affecting the security of the RAF, which can include the loss and theft of classified documents, matters pertaining to espionage cases, and the protection of royalty and VIP’s when visiting RAF stations. Also situated within the headquarters of the P&SS is a division known as the Flying Complaints Flight, which primarily investigates complaints of low-flying military aircraft in Britain.

In addition, on October 17, 1996, the late Member of the British Parliament, Martin Redmond, who had a personal interest in the UFO puzzle and who was fully aware of the rumors linking Rudloe with aliens, asked a number of questions in Parliament that revealed further data on the workings of the Rudloe installation. Eleven days later, Redmond was informed by then Defense Minister Nicholas Soames that, RAF Rudloe Manor was home to a parent unit and five lodger units. Specifically these were:

(a) The Detachment of 1001 Signals Unit, which operated the British military’s communications satellite system;
(b) No. 1 Signals Unit, which provided voice and data communications for the entire RAF, Royal Navy, Army and Ministry of Defense;
(c) The HQ of the P&SS;
(d) The HQ of the P&SS Western Region;
(e) And the Controller Defense Communications Network, a tri-service unit controlling worldwide communications for the military. Not only that but the DCN was situated 120 feet underground and was capable of housing no fewer than 55,000 people in the event of a national emergency.

Soames very carefully refrained from mentioning anything specifically relative to UFOs.

In 2000, Rudloe Manor was placed under the control of the Defense Communications Service Agency – which was later replaced by the Information Systems and Services, itself a part of the Ministry of Defense’s Defense Equipment and Support organization.

A few of its underground areas have since been sold off, while some are now decommissioned. Notably, other areas, extending to very significant depths, remain solidly in the hands of officialdom, and are out-of-bounds to just about everyone else.

A British Hangar 18? Some say "Yes!" Others say: "No way!" The truth...maybe...is not "out there" but "under there."

Maybe...

Behind Closed Doors...

2012-01-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

No, it's not the entrance point to Hangar 18! Not so much Fortean in nature, but a minor bit of secrecy and cover-up.

This photo shows my dad, Frank, pointing at one of a number of large, thick, tall doors at the Cannock Leisure Center in the town of Cannock, Staffordshire, England (which has since been dramatically refurbished - this photo was taken back in 2000).

You may wonder, why on earth would a center dedicated to simply providing the people of Cannock access to exercise machines, a swimming pool, etc need such vast and powerful doors made of solid, thick wood?

They look like they might be able to withstand an earth-shattering explosion, right?

Yes...exactly!

Before his retirement at 65, my dad worked for his entire life as a carpenter (aside from a three year period in the British Royal Air Force, which he served when National Service - the Draft in the U.S. - was still in place).

And, being based in Cannock, the company he worked for got the contract to build and install these very doors. In fact, my dad helped put this particular door into place.

But, why?

Well, I'll tell you!

Unknown to the vast majority of the good folk of Cannock, back in the 80s, and in the event of a national emergency (such as a confrontation with the Soviets that might have escalated into a full-blown nuclear exchange between the super-powers), the lower-level of the leisure center was secretly singled out by officialdom to act as a refuge area that could allow for some continuation of local/regional government (while the rest of us would be left to fry in the above-surface radioactive nightmare...).

Hence the curious-looking, super-tough doors.

Of course, in reality, in an all-out nuclear war, such a place would have offered very little - if, indeed, any - real protection from the mighty power of the atom. And the doors, designed to provide some degree of protection to those behind them, would likely have been vaporized in an instant.

But, what I find interesting is that this was a Cold War secret that for years, and for all intents and purposes, was right under people's noses. Very few, however, ever realized the center's big secret and the reason behind the construction of those huge doors!

Well, now you do!

The Redfern Critter Collection!

2012-01-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I enjoy living where I do, is the massive presence of a wide and varied body of strange and over-sized critters of a type that I just never found back in England.

From blue-eyed toads to fat cats, and from mean-looking spiders to winged whatsits, it's all good! Well, aside for my wife, Dana, who recoils in horror every time I bring to her attention that latest beast on which I have stumbled!

Strangest of all was the severed possum head...and the nature of whatever had severed it during the night...

And here's a few photos of them, taken by me over the last couple of years:

The Truth Behind Cattle Mutilations...

2012-01-13T04:27:00.000-08:00

After years of searching, I have finally uncovered the terrible truth behind the cattle-mutilation puzzle: it's all part of a diabolical and nefarious government plot to create monstrous, hybrid entities that are part-cattle and part-machine.

After all, doesn't this photo of me and my dad, Frank, taken in 2009 at Fort Worth, Texas's famous Stockyards - about 20-minutes' drive from where me and Dana live - provide the undeniable, shocking evidence? Surely, it does!

Don't Be A Dummy

2012-01-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer of 1997, when the Roswell, New Mexico incident was all the news (due to the fact that the case - involving who knows what - was then precisely 50 years old), the U.S. Air Force came out with a somewhat bizarre and still-controversial report suggesting that the alleged "alien bodies" found outside of Roswell were actually crash-test-dummies used in high-altitude experiments.

The theory provoked a wealth of debate within the domain of Ufology, and even the mainstream media addressed the scenario with some doubt when it was demonstrated by eagle-eyed sleuths that the dummy tests didn't even begin until 1952 - five years after Roswell occurred!

No wonder the debate continues to rage.

Anyway, for those who are interested, you can find one of the dummies in question on display at the UFO Museum at Roswell - and here it is (this photo was taken by me 6 or 7 years ago).

But, there is one interesting (to me anyway!) thing about the crash-test dummy story that very rarely - if ever - gets touched upon.

I have heard UFO researchers say time and again that it would be absurd to imagine that people could mistake dummies for aliens - chiefly because the dummies were all six-footers (or thereabouts), and the bodies at Roswell were only from three to five-feet in height.

And, I agree that the dummy scenario does not solve whatever it was that did or did not happen at Roswell.

But (yep, another but!), the dummy on display at the UFO Museum is not a six-footer. It's probably around five-foot-two or -three, or maybe an inch or two more. I'm six-foot-tall, and I tower over the one in the museum display!

So, even though I am not in the slightest bit persuaded by the theory that the Roswell bodies were dummies, contrary to what many UFO researchers have claimed, the dummies were not all big "guys."

That's one of the issues I have with many facets of Ufology (and Forteana in general): certain incorrect statements (such as this one about the dummies, the "95 per cent of all UFOs can be explained" statement, the "alien abductions began with Betty and Barney Hill" assertion, and the "Kenneth Arnold coined the term Flying Saucer" claim, etc, etc) are trotted out time and again, and without any independent attempt to confirm the statement.

Why? Easy! Because someone else said it, and someone else said it before them, and so on and so on. And it's easy and lazy not to do one's own research - for many.

So, no, in my view the dummies of Roswell are not the bodies of Roswell. And the dummies were certainly not dwarf-like in size. But, they were not all 6-footers either. In fact, nowhere near. If you don't believe me, go to Roswell, and have your photo taken next to the town's resident dummy.

If people want to say something about UFOs, and UFO events, they should investigate them. They should not be relying on what someone else said and simply assume its fully correct. Don't, in other words, be a dummy.

Flying the Flag of the Saucer People

2012-01-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

Yep, this photo is somewhat grainy, but it's one I particularly like, since it was taken during one of my early excursions to the United States (in this case, in 1998), and, thus, provokes a lot of good memories of transatlantic adventures.

The location was the UFO Congress at Laughlin, Nevada, and from left to right are... (A) one of the early players in the Contactee scene, Aleuti Francesca; (B) Contactee Wayne Aho, looking somewhat puzzled and muddled; (C) conspiracy ace Kenn Thomas, who appears with an appropriately suspicious look in his eyes; (D) Reverend Bob Short, a true character from the early years of Space Brother lore; (E) Guy Kirkwood/Mel Noel next to him; and, finally, (F), who I think is Bob's wife, Shirley.

Together, they raised a flag and toasted to those eras of Ufology now long-gone, namely those dominated by isolated desert encounters with human-looking aliens sporting distinctly odd monikers and long blond manes.

And, I was pleased to capture the moment!

TNT Terror!

2012-01-04T12:29:00.000-08:00

It's fair to say I have received some weird stuff through the mail in my time (such as the skull of an alleged Texas Chupacabra, and reams of material from a still-unidentified source claiming to have worked as a real Man in Black), but this is probably the weirdest of all. But welcome too!

No, it's not a bit of debris from the Roswell crash! Rather, it's a bit of chipped-off brickwork from the old TNT plant at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where the notorious, glowing-eyed Mothman hung out back in the 1960s.

Yep, it's probably a bit pathetic to get all excited about a piece of old stone but, hell, I don't care. It's about as close as I will ever personally get to the monstrous, winged fiend, so a bit of local stone instead is good enough for me!

Apocalypse!

2012-01-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

Well, given that 2012 is the year that the shit hits the fan, tsunamis pummel the planet, earthquakes decimate whole countries, comets slam into the Earth, and anarchy and chaos erupt everywhere (or so some would have us believe...), I thought I would get in on the act by posting this photo, which has a distinct apocalyptic flavor to it.

I took the picture out in California about a year or so ago, and (for me, anyway) the aging, rotting carcass of this old crane, digger, or whatever it was - situated in a messy mass of mud, and with a long stretch of water behind it - provokes thoughts and images of precisely the sort of things we might expect to see after things fall apart, in 2012 or anytime!

For the record, no I don't think anything of any significance will occur in December 2012, but I do think that, in the long term, the odds are most definitely stacked against us. It's good to think positive!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

Since I'll be pretty much offline for the next few days, me and Dana will take this opportunity to wish everyone a great, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year, and enjoy the rest of the holidays!

The Tower of Terror

2011-12-28T08:23:00.001-08:00

Situated on the fringes of the creature-infested woods of central England's Cannock Chase, is a large structure called the Pye Green BT Tower (about which, you can find more at this link).

But, what makes the tower stand out - aside from its size and height, of course - is that in the immediate vicinity of the tower there have been numerous sightings of everything from werewolf-style entities to Bigfoot-type beasts, large black cats to fierce-looking black dogs with glowing red eyes, and ghosts to aliens.

Are we looking at a classic window-area of a type that many Forteans believe exist?

Does the tower itself play a role in the events and encounters?

Or, are those theorists correct who believe that localized electromagnetic pollution may be provoking bizarre hallucinations in certain receptive people who stray too close to the tower?

Thoughts anyone???

Offline and Online, Offline and Online, etc etc...

2011-12-20T07:32:00.001-08:00

Due to the Christmas season, work, deadlines etc etc, posts may be intermittent-to-zero here until the New Year, so I'll take this opportunity wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2012!

The Stone-Faced Alien

2011-12-20T07:17:00.001-08:00

Taken by me in October at (of all places!) Devil's Gate Dam, Pasadena, California, where the legendary Jack Parsons did his thing all those decades ago, I came across this odd-looking rock embedded in the track to the dam, and which kind of reminds me of a classic alien "Grey" head.

Of course, the "face" is actually nothing more than a definitive piece of Pareidolia, the process by which the human brain can interpret random imagery as having some meaning or significance behind it.

A classic example being the way in which, at one time or another, most of us have seen faces in clouds. A few people may have seen the face of Jesus Christ in a cheeseburger, Buddha in a bagel, or Elvis in a pumpkin pie.

If you have, then that’s the result of Pareidolia, just like this!

Or, maybe, it's the Trickster at work...

The Angel Fire Monsters

2011-12-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

Back in September 2009, me and Greg Bishop traveled to Angel Fire, New Mexico (in definitive road-trip style), where we were both due to lecture at a weekend-long conference covering everything from crashed UFOs to underground bases, and Cryptozoology to the supernatural. Its name: The Paranormal Symposium.

But, as someone who spends much of their time investigating sightings and reports of strange creatures, what I found fascinating was that Angel Fire (the picture above was taken in town that same weekend) was an absolute hotbed of monstrous activity!

On the Saturday night, Greg and I headed into town and ate at a Mexican restaurant that served truly fine food and drinks. Our waitress, overhearing us talking about the conference, somewhat amusingly asked if we were “scientists” – we most certainly aren’t, I hasten to add! – and then told us of a number of Bigfoot sightings in the area. What was particularly curious, however, was that none of the creatures seen locally exceeded five feet in height. In other words, Littlefoot was on the loose.

There was also the woman who came up to me on the second day of the gig to relate how she had seen a giant, spectral, pterodactyl-type beast flying above a road just outside of town a couple of years earlier, and which eerily echoed a 2006 event at Wisconsin that indirectly led to my appearance on the History Channel's Monster Quest’s Mothman episode in 2009.

One of these days, I'm going to have to get back out to Angel Fire...

Stonehenge, UFOs, and the Supernatural

2011-12-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of on an "ancient sites" kick right now. So, after the last post on Silbury Hill, I figured why not one on Stonehenge (which, like Silbury Hill, is also located in the English county of Wiltshire)?

And just like Silbury Hill, Stonehenge has attracted a wealth of weird phenomena. Back in 1998, a British UFO researcher named Tony Spurrier invited me to give a coach-based tour around some of Wiltshire's enigmatic and paranormal hot spots, which proved to be very successful, and which took in trips to Stonehenge, Avebury, and various other locations in the ancient county of Wiltshire.

While at Stonehenge, one of the attendees on the tour - a former soldier with the British Army - told us of his late-night encounter at Stonehenge with a huge, black, "Flying Triangle"-style UFO that was hovering at a low-level over the old stones back in the early 90s.

Another told of seeing a very tall, black-cloaked figure moving amid the stones in the early 1980s who vanished before her eyes - and I do mean vanished...literally!

And, next year, in my June 2012 book, The Pyramids and the Pentagon, I'll be divulging what officialdom has learned about Fortean phenomena at Stonehenge...

The Secrets of Silbury Hill

2011-12-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite of all places to visit (particularly at night!) is England's Silbury Hill, which - as I have come to learn over the years - has become a veritable magnet for paranormal activity.

In 1997 (when the above photo was taken), I learned of two sightings of large "black panthers" having been seen at the foot of the hill at some time back in the late-1960s.

Two years later, I received details of a ghostly, ancient horseman seen behind the hill in 1974.

And in 2010 I was emailed concerning an encounter with what sounds very much like a Mothman-style creature - way back in the 1950s.

One of the days, I'm going to have to write all this up...

Cayce Weirdness

2011-12-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

This is weird. No, in fact, it's really weird. A week or so ago my wife, Dana, had to go to the dentist, and so she was up earlier than normal, as she had to make a 40-mile drive to Dallas for her appointment at 8AM.

While Dana was showering, I was still in bed, and - for a few moments, at least - lapsed into a semi-awake/semi-asleep state of what I would call definitive hypnagogic proportions.

Very oddly, I have strange memories of my mouth jabbering and babbling on (in typically odd, ridiculous, chattering, channeling-style) about Edgar Cayce being something like "the exalted one," and the most important psychic messenger of our times.

Now, before people get all excited and start shouting that I am on the way to becoming a Contactee-style Channeler, there's something else to be aware of.

Prior to and after the experience, I was working on the Bibliography for my book, The Pyramids and the Pentagon, which is due for publication in June 2012.

And not only does that book contain a great deal of data on Cayce, but the day before the experience I spent an hour or so checking out the references on Cayce that I needed to include in the Bibliography.

So, in other words, there was indeed a very good and absolutely undeniable reason for Cayce to have been on my mind.

But, I have to say the whole experience was a very odd one. And, I have to admit, I got the distinct feeling - in my semi-awake, hypnagogic state - that the data on Cayce was being "downloaded" to me.

Even though - very frustratingly - I can only remember the absolute barest fragments of what I was saying (if indeed there was an audible aspect to this at all, or it was all mind-based).

But, I do recall it was absolutely reeling out of my mouth at high speed.

I think - given that Cayce was a big focus of my attention yesterday in relation to the Bibliography issue mentioned above - it probably was some sort of odd hypnagogic experience.

But, given its very unusual nature, even I have to wonder...

And, no, this is not an early April Fool joke, or some book-promoting trip. This, for what it's worth, is how it happened. And I would be willing to swear to that.

Channeling? A hypnagogic experience? A strange combination of the two? Who knows? I'll keep you posted should more surface...

The photo above was taken by me in 2004 and shows Edgar Cayce's Virginia Beach-based Association for Research and Enlightenment.

Keep Out!

2011-12-02T06:36:00.001-08:00

Area 51, Hangar 18, the Montauk facility, and the Dulce Base.

These are just a few of the select, highly classified installations about which governments prefer that we, the general public, remain steadfastly ignorant.

And those same governments have excellent reasons for wishing us to remain in the dark. It is at these secret facilities that for decades clandestine research has reportedly been undertaken into crashed UFOs, deceased alien entities, bizarre creatures and unknown animals, lethal viruses, biological warfare, mind-control experimentation, and much, much more.

Whether situated deep under the oceans, far below the ground, or within the heart of remote, fortified desert locales, these and many other super-secret places are guarded with a near-paranoid zeal by those in power who wish to keep their secrets buried and locked far away from prying eyes.

And you can find all the information in my new book, Keep Out!, published right now by New Page Books.

Winona's Winged Wonder

2011-11-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago I headed up to Winona, Minnesota to investigate sightings of a Mothman-type beast said to be roaming around the area.

Certainly the most notable report came from a few locals who had heard a strange, years-old story of a giant, winged fiend perched atop this specific high peak that overlooks the town.

Monster-bird? Flying Humanoid? Spectral Pterodactyl?

I have no idea, and certainly the people telling the story were just as puzzled, too.

But, if you ever want to hit the road in search of winged monsters, Winona may be the place to go!

Meeting Bigfoot

2011-11-30T06:51:00.000-08:00

Who says Bigfoot doesn't exist...???

High-Strangeness at Castle Ring

2011-11-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Located in the village of Cannock Wood, Staffordshire and inhabited around A.D. 50 by the Celtic Cornovii tribe, the Castle Ring is an Iron Age structure commonly known as a Hill Fort. It is 801 feet above sea level; its main ditch and bank enclosure is fourteen feet high; and, at its widest point it is 853 feet across. In other words, the Castle Ring is a fine example of what ancient man was up to thousands of years ago.

But beyond that, Castle Ring is a definitive "Window-Area," one filled to the brim with sightings of Bigfoot-type beasts, UFOs, spooks and specters, and even - back in the 1980s - a Gargoyle-type entity!

Why? I have no idea. Except to say: Window-Areas seem to pop up all over the world (a classic locale in the 1960s was surely Mothman/UFO/Men in Black-territory: Point Pleasant, West Virginia).

Doorways? Portals? Maybe. But doorways from where...?

Grapevine Weirdness

2011-11-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

Without doubt, one of my favorite places to visit is Grapevine Canyon, which can be found at Newberry Peak in southern Nevada.

Known to the ancient Mojave Indians as Avikwa’ame, or Spirit Mountain, the area has long been associated with paranormal phenomena - including sightings of Thunderbird and Pterodactyl-type creatures.

And, it's adorned with spectacular petroglyphs that represent the story of the creation of the world, as told in years past by Mojave shamans.

I took these pictures on my last trip on a Sunday afternoon a few years ago, while visiting the area with UFO researcher Ryan Wood. If you ever get the chance, check it out!

The Aurora Alien

2011-11-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting things about living here in Arlington, Texas is that you're never far from things of a Ufological, Cryptozoological, or conspiratorial nature.

Drive east for 25-minutes and you can be at the infamous Grassy Knoll in downtown Dallas where JFK got whacked in 1963.

Go north for 45-minutes and you can be in the town of Denton, the site of the Goat-Man bridge.

And, head west for about the same amount of time and you will reach the little town of Aurora - the alleged site of a UFO crash way back in 1897, after the craft is said to have collided with the windmill of a certain Judge Proctor.

Yep, this is the old tale of the people of the town supposedly burying - in the local cemetery - the dead alien said to have been found at the scene.

Whenever I have friends in town, they always want to see the cemetery, and of course I'm pleased to oblige! After all, whether or not there's anything to the tale, it has become an undeniable piece of Ufological history and legend.

A small plaque aside, the people of Aurora have chosen not to champion and promote the affair in the fashion that one sees on driving into Roswell, New Mexico. Which may not be a bad thing...

Back in Black

2011-11-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I wrote a post at this blog - and included a relevant photo - on the huge wave of sightings of so-called "Black Helicopters" that were occurring right over our house.

Here's the link to the original post.

Eventually, even I got sick of photographing the damn things, such was their regularity.

And, when they went away for a while, I forgot all about it.

But, as of this past week, they are back again, and in force, too.

The above-photo was taken just after noon today, from our back yard.

Helicopters that just happen to be black in color...or black helicopters...?

Pondering on the Assassination

2011-11-14T14:03:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite photos of my good mate, the Center for Fortean Zoology's Jon Downes. Taken last year at the infamous Grassy Knoll, Jon ponders on who the hell shot JFK...

Goat-Man Bridge

2011-11-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

The Old Alton Bridge, in the Texan town of Denton - which is about an hour's drive from where I live - has a very strange legend attached to it.

It concerns nothing less than a monstrous Goat-Man, of the type that have been reported from a whole variety of other locations across the U.S.

Probably the most infamous of all Goat-Men is that which allegedly surfaced in and around Lake Worth, Texas in 1969. But, what of its nearby cousin in Denton?

Well, on several occasions now I've been to the bridge that the Goat-Man is said to haunt - and that's it in the photo above.

The tale is known all across town, too, unsurprisingly. For example, on my second trip there in 2009, I parked my car on the open piece of land next to the bridge - where a cop was also parked, munching on his lunch.

I knew he was watching me, as I got my digital camera and camcorder off the back-seat, and he shouted something like: "Hey, what are you doing?"

I replied: "Looking for the Goat-Man."

His brief response was along the lines of: "Okay, well good luck!

As for the stories, one legend says that, many years ago, wannabe devil-worshippers in the area inadvertently opened up a portal to some hellish realm that allowed the vile beast open access to our world.

And now, today, and as a direct result of this reckless action, the Goat Man has no intention at all of returning to the twilight zone from which he appeared; hence his deep desire to forever haunt the old steel-and-wood bridge at Denton.

An even weirder story maintains that the Denton Goat Man’s origins can be traced back to a resident of the town who, decades ago, slaughtered his entire family, and was quickly hanged as a punishment for his terrible crime.

As the local legend tells it, at the moment he was hung, the man’s head was torn from his body by the weight of his blubbery form; and, for months afterwards, his spectral body returned to the world of the living with only one goal in mind: to find itself a brand new head – which it supposedly did by wrenching off the head of an innocent goat that had the great misfortune to be in the area at the time.

And so, the Goat Man of Denton was born. Was this merely a tall tale? Of course, it was!

But that does not take away the fact that local folk, on many occasions, have reported seeing the nightmarish, hoofed one roaming around the woods behind the bridge.

In other words, whatever the real origins of Denton’s Goat Man, there does appear to be a significant amount of substance to what many merely perceive as an entertaining piece of local hokum.

Bridges, as anyone with even a basic knowledge of Forteana will know, have been linked with paranormal phenomena for years. There's the Man-Monkey of England's Shropshire Union Canal, which I have written about at this blog already.

And, of course, there is Mothman and the tragic events of December 1967, involving the huge Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia that collapsed into the Ohio River, drowning dozens.

Is it simply coincidence that bridges and bizarre entities go together hand-in-glove style? Maybe not.

In her 2006 book, Mystery Big Cats, author Merrily Harpur writes of mysterious locales that she calls Liminal Zones: “These are the transitional zones between one area and another – the kind of no-man’s-land traditionally regarded as magical.”

Harpur notes that such zones include streams, gates, churchyards and...bridges.

Coincidence or portals to other realms? Whatever the answer, take care next time you cross an old, mysterious bridge. You never know what might be lurking around...

Fat Cat!

2011-11-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

It may just be a fat house cat, or perhaps something feral, but I suspect this is what was responsible for the animal killings in our yard. I photographed it last week on the front yard of the house opposite ours.

The reason I knew it was there: I was sat in front of my computer in my office and could hear a cat screeching, so I turned around to see through the window a regular-sized black cat miaowing at the top of its voice at this critter (which, I would estimate, was significantly larger than the black one), while laying flat-out on the ground, looking paralyzed with fear.

The Monster of the Pool

2011-11-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

During the summer of 2003, all hell broke loose when sightings began of a strange creature, or creatures, said to inhabit a sizable body of water in central England called the Roman View Pond (pictured left) – situated only a mile or so from where I grew up.

And, rather oddly, the location was within near-literal-spitting distance of where the infamous George Edalji lived - he of "horse-ripping" infamy who I have referenced in an earlier post at this blog.

And that Edalji's alleged crimes occurred 100-years prior to the sightings of the Roman View Pond "thing" only added to the strangeness. A monstrous anniversary indeed!

Local police, representatives of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and the nation’s media all quickly descended upon the scene, as they valiantly and collectively sought to ascertain the truth about what, at a local level, fast became known to one and all as the "Cannock Nessie."

Of course, the facts were somewhat more sober and down to earth.

As my good friends Jonathan Downes and Richard Freeman - of the Center for Fortean Zoology - demonstrated to practically everyone’s satisfaction when they visited the area at the height of the sightings, the “beast,” as the more sensationalistic elements of the press tirelessly insisted on calling it, was likely nothing stranger than a three-foot-long Spectacled Caiman – a crocodilian reptile found throughout much of Central and South America.

It was the conclusion of Jon and Richard that the unfortunate creature had probably been housed locally by an unknown exotic-pet-keeper – that is, until it grew to a point where it became completely unmanageable, and was then unceremoniously dumped in the pool late one night and under the protective cover and camouflage of overwhelming darkness.

Almost certainly, Jon believed, the creature would not survive the harsh fall and winter months that were destined to follow.

And, sure enough, as the English weather changed for the worse, sightings of the mysterious beast came to an abrupt end.

To this day, Jon is convinced that the bones of the crocodilian lay buried deep in the muddy floor of Roman View Pond. And he's almost certainly correct.

Whatever it was, the "Cannock Nessie" of Roman View Pond is long gone.

Halloween Antics...

2011-11-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

This is what happened in the Redfern household on Halloween - Dana dressed as a hippie-chick and I put on my favorite Vampira t-shirt.

Then we sacrificed a few unfortunates, prayed to the beasts of the Underworld, and cast a dark spell on our enemies.

Well, no actually.

The first bit is correct, but the latter part is a bit of an exaggeration.

What we did do was to hang out, eat dinner, drink some good wine, and watch 3 Hammer horror movies from years long-gone - Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, The Reptile, and (best of all) Plague of the Zombies.

Plus, we saved all the chocolate for ourselves. The neighborhood kids had to do without. Fuck 'em.

Gunning For Trouble

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

In my previous post - The Werewolf of Stone - I made mention of the fact that back in the summer of 2003 I had found a rusted old pistol on a stretch of Texas beach.

"Can we see it?" asked one emailer. Yes, you can, and here it is!

Me and Dana had gone on holiday for a week - to a place called Crystal Beach - and one morning, after a particularly bad storm the night before, I was walking our Shar-pei dog, Charity, along the beach, stepping over all sorts of rubbish that had washed up on the beach as a result of the storm.

Imagine my surprise when I found the aforementioned rusty shooter! So, I picked it up, and brought it home. It now sits on one of my book-shelves.

I showed it to a friend in the military, who thought it was pretty old.

But, whatever type of pistol it is, and from whatever era it dates, it's still pretty cool to find something like this!

Who knows: maybe it played a significant role in some old, unsolved crime, and was dumped at sea to prevent the truth from ever surfacing?

Maybe, it was the second gun in the JFK assassination. Nah, that would just be too good to be true. Wouldn't it......?

The Werewolf of Stone

2011-10-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

Paradise is a small Texan town, situated not too far from the sprawling city of Fort Worth, and is dominated by isolated homes, thick and somewhat mysterious woods, huge fields, numerous cows, and not much more at all.

Aside, that is, from a killer-werewolf.

Dawn had just broken on a particular day in September 1996, and Walter, a rancher who then made Paradise his home, headed out to tend his cows, which had the run of a large field at the back of his property.

Walter was not expecting to find the horrifying scene upon which he stumbled: one of his most valuable cows had been killed under cover of darkness.

And, by the looks of the cow, the killer had been some sort of vicious, powerful creature that surely had no place prowling the fields of Paradise.

The cow was disemboweled, with its throat ripped out and both back legs completely gone.

Although Walter wasted no time in contacting the police, this turned out to be an utterly fruitless task, since the only thing the responding officers could suggest to the irate and worried rancher was that perhaps a big cat was responsible and was still on the loose.

And, while this was certainly a major cause for alarm and a matter they would most definitely look into, it what not, technically speaking, a crime that required the attention of the police.

So, a wholly dissatisfied Walter decided to take matters into his own hands and elected to embark upon night-time vigils, in the hope that the beast might return and he, Walter, would have the opportunity to blow the creature’s head clean off its shoulders, and put an end to the matter before it risked spiraling wildly out of control.

Thus it was that at roughly 2.00 a.m. four days later, and while dutifully scanning the field with a night-scope that was attached to his high-powered gun, Walter became frozen with fear when he caught sight of a large, hairy figure striding across the field.

Around seven feet in height, very muscular and dark, it had the body of a man, yet the face, the ears and the muzzle of what looked like a large German shepherd dog or a wild wolf.

Rooted to the spot, Walter didn’t even think to fire his gun. Rather, he simply watched, dumbstruck with fear, as the beast covered the width of the field very quickly and vanished into the trees that bordered his property.

Rather ominously, only a short time later, and in the same exact spot where he first noticed the diabolical wolf-man, Walter found in the grass the small, stone, carved head of a large fanged monster with slits for eyes and flared nostrils.

Walter quickly became convinced that occultists had been secretly at work his field, engaged in some unholy act, and had quite literally invoked the beast from another realm of existence.

When Walter related the extraordinary tale to me, high up on his list of priorities was to finally get rid of the unsettling carved head.

Well, as someone whose office shelves are home to the skull of a coyote (or of a Texas Chupacabra – take your pick), the remains of a large stingray, a piece of brickwork from the Mothman-haunted TNT plant at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and even an old rusted pistol that I found on the shore of a stretch of Texan beach in the summer of 2003, I said to Walter something like, "How about I take the head off your hands?"

A mightily relieved Walter was more than happy to give me the head, and I was pleased to place it next to the aforementioned stingray.

But, there was something very odd and disturbing about the head. When it was held up to the light, or when placed in a shadowy environment, its appearance seemed to change slightly – sometimes to a maniacal glare, and occasionally to what resembled a cruel sneer.

There’s absolutely no doubt that it was all just due to the light and the shadows – the head was not literally changing form. But, the fact that the shadows seemed to ensure the face took on such specifically gruesome appearances seemed beyond chance.

It was almost as if someone had ingeniously, skillfully, and deliberately, fashioned the head in such a way that its appearance had the ability to seem to change – radically so, even.

Today, I no longer own the skull. But that, as they say, is a story for another day...

Zero-Hour!

2011-10-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

When I'm doing radio interviews, I'm often asked how I got into the field of writing. Well, it was actually nothing to do with the paranormal at all.

I left school (actually I quit, walked out, stormed out - a long story...!) with hardly an academic qualification to my name, and those I did have weren't worth a damn thing.

And I had no idea what I was going to for work. That is, until I stumbled on an opening at a new magazine that was starting up in the area I was living at the time.

This was October 1982, I was 17, sported a Johnny Ramone-style bowl haircut, and was in love with Clare (Gregory's Girl) Grogan. And I needed money.

So, I applied for the gig and, to my amazement - given my abysmal record at school - got it!

Welcome to Zero: it was a regional magazine, focusing on such issues as music, fashion, local entertainment, equally local gossip, and so on.

Actually, Zero began as a definitive fanzine put together by 7 of us using a few old typewriters (yes, real typewriters, with ribbons - crikey!), loads of Letraset, and a battered old photocopier.

In fact, that was my happiest time spent with Zero - which, while it wasn't exactly the equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary, I like to think it came pretty close!

Zero eventually got picked up - and funded - by a local investor and became glossy and - shock! - was eventually filled with color photos, rather than poorly photocopies B&W images.

But, it didn't last. Two years later, it was all over.

For the next 5 or 6 years, I held down various jobs - van-driver, shelf-stacker in a paint and wallpaper warehouse, forklift-driver, the list goes on and on - but I knew all along that writing was what I wanted to do. And I have Zero to thank for that.

The picture above shows the front-cover of the first edition of the original fanzine version of Zero which, I still remember to this day, we put together on a cold, rainy Friday afternoon before heading off to the pub...

The image of Zero 1 accompanying this post may not be paranormal in nature, but it was certainly responsible for getting me writing on the paranormal!

Desert City

2011-10-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

While out in California late last year with Adam Gorightly, Andy Colvin, Greg Bishop and Robert Larsen, I was amazed to see this huge, sprawling and decidedly strange creation just sitting in a remote part of the desert.

Basically, it's a gigantic shrine to God, complete with various winding pathways, little cave-like rooms, and an abundance of rock-paintings and carved features.

I was trying to think what it reminded me of, but I think Robert Larsen got it spot-on when he said it looked like a multi-colored version of the ape-city in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie with Charlton Heston!

The Tower of Synchronicity

2011-10-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Back in November 2005, I traveled to Puerto Rico for a week, along with good friend Paul Kimball, and his Red Star Films crew: his brother, Jim, Findlay Muir and John Rosborough.

The purpose was to secure a decent amount of footage, interviews and more on - of course! - the Chupacabra.

On one particular morning, we were bound for the El Yunque rain-forest. It was a trip that subsequently resulted in a meeting of highly strange and unbelievable proportions. And it sparked off a classic case of synchronicity.

As we turned off the highway and onto a steep and winding road that led deep into the heart of the hills and the immense forest, I realized that we were on one of the roads that I had taken with Jon Downes the previous year when we were filmed for Proof Positive, a short-lived series for the SyFy Channel.

We headed for a large, stone tower, similar to what you would expect to see affixed to an old English castle, that was situated high in the forest, and that required a walk up a flight of what seemed like 1,000 steps to reach its summit.

John and Findlay set up the cameras, following which I was interviewed by our guide for the week - a local, and very knowledgeable researcher named Orlando Pla - about the Chupacabra attacks that had occurred within the rain-forest.

Findlay was securing some stunning panoramic shots of a type that could only be obtained from the top of the immense tower when something odd happened.

There were several people milling around quietly at the top of the tower as we filmed. And when the shoot was over, one of them - a young woman - asked me: "Are you from Wolverhampton?"

This was a reference to a bustling town about six miles from where I used to live in England.

Amazed to hear a local accent, I said that, no, I wasn’t from the town, but the picturesque English village I had lived in as a kid, Pelsall, was only a stone’s throw away.

"Oh, yes, I know Pelsall," she replied, matter-of-fact, adding: "My cousin and her husband live there."

It would later transpire that my dad, who also lives in Pelsall, actually knew the husband of the woman’s cousin, who lived only a few streets away from my dad’s house.

Paul and Findlay looked on with incredulity as this coincidence of epic proportions played out.

What were the chances, I wondered, of me bumping into someone – atop a remote tower deep in the heart of Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rain-forest on a November morning - whose cousin lived in the very same village I had grown up in?

I know some readers will conclude that this was all due to some weird coincidence of the type that do happen from time to time.

But, they seem to happen so often to me that, writing them off as coincidences, rather than labelling them as synchronicities, is something I find it harder and harder to do.

Of course, none of this explains why such synchronicities occur. If I knew the answer to that puzzle, there would be no need for this post!

Roswell Vs. Pterodactyl!

2011-10-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

No, that's not the title of a new Japanese monster-movie!

But, it probably is the strangest title I have ever applied to one of my blog-posts!

Back in 2005, I did some filming for a TV show on the world's most famous UFO event. Yeah, you know the one: the desert, little bodies, 1947. That one.

Anyway, for some odd reason that I don't think was ever really explained to me, the company chose to do the filming high in the mountains of Mexico.

I actually wondered afterwards if they had mistaken Mexico for New Mexico!

But regardless of the reasons behind the shoot-location, Mexico it was. And, for effect no doubt, the filming was done outside a small astronomical observatory that sat high in the mountains.

The photo above shows the crew setting up, while I wandered around, probably looking for exotic lizards or a bar. Or both.

Well, not long before we started filming, an American man - in his 50s or early 60s - strolled past, saw the cameras being set up, and engaged us in conversation.

When he heard that we there to film a show for a new mystery-based series, he asked - in totally casual terms - something like: "Oh, is it about the pterodactyl?"

The what???!!!

Yep, a pterodactyl. That got me much more interested than bloody Roswell ever could.

It may surprise many to know that for absolutely years numerous reports of creatures sounding suspiciously like pterosaurs have surfaced from the mountains of Mexico.

Controversial? Of course!

But, there's no denying such reports exist - and in sizable numbers too. Good mate Ken Gerhard - my co-author on Monsters of Texas - has collected dozens of such stories.

So, anyway, I asked the man for more information.

He explained he worked in the tourism industry and had heard - some two months earlier - a story of a visitor to the area who claimed to have seen a huge, leathery-looking flying monster only mere feet from where we were filming!

I asked the man how he knew the exact location, and he replied along the lines of: "The guy said it was right above the observatory in the hills."

Which is exactly where we were filming!

He proceeded to point to the direction of the mountains in which the monstrous creature disappeared - which is shown in the photo to the left.

The man knew no more, went on his way, and I tried to think of something new and worthwhile to say for the cameras about Roswell.

But to be filming a documentary on Roswell outside an astronomical observatory above which a pterodactyl was supposedly seen only mere months earlier was just plain surreal!

I suppose I should not have been surprised though. I have come to learn over the years that there's very little in this game that isn't surreal!

Agent Redfern and the "Secret" Vault

2011-10-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

I took this photo about 14 or 15 years ago inside the vaults of Britain's National Archive (which, at the time, was still called the Public Record Office).

Well, I used the photo in an article - on the British Government's UFO files - for a British-based UFO magazine around 98/99.

And what a controversy it caused!

Some paranoid lunatic sent a letter to the magazine claiming that "only government people are allowed in the vaults."

His near-inevitable conclusion: I was (and in Mr. Fool's mind, I probably still am!) working for the government.

Or "THEM," as they are known to one and all in Paranoia Land.

Had the idiot actually taken the time to check with me before firing off his letter, he would have learned that I was at the archives with the BBC - to film a documentary on UFOs and the British Government, and that the BBC had sought, and received, permission for us to film in the vaults.

Thus, a non-story was elevated to one in which I played a starring role as a "secret agent" of the Government - and all because I happened to take a photo in the vaults of the National Archive.

No wonder I sometimes despair of Ufology...

CHAOS!

2011-10-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it's not Fortean, but in terms of a photo, it's probably worth posting!

Late last night we had violent storms roll in that battered our windows, shook the walls, and generally pounded the whole area with wind and rain.

Typical storms, in other words!

But, as I was watching TV around midnight, there was a sudden almighty bang outside.

I raced to the back-door, quickly opened it, and was confronted by a scene of destruction.

Our big yard tree had taken a direct lightning strike, which had blown off two huge branches - each about a foot thick and around ten or eleven feet long.

Worse, they had come down on the fence, knocking posts clean out of the ground and damaging others.

Needless to say, with extensive wind and numerous smaller branches having been blown off too, the yard looks like a definitive war-zone!

Thankfully, no-one was hurt, which is the main thing. But, what a night!

The photo above shows a small part of the current chaos in the Redfern yard!

The Chicken Killer

2011-10-17T05:17:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have mentioned in various posts (at equally various blogs) over the years is the story of how, on one of my expeditions to Puerto Rico, I became immersed in a strange story of near-vampire-like qualities.

It was during the course of my 2004 expedition with Jon Downes - of the Center for Fortean Zoology - that I visited the farm of a man named Noel, who bred chickens.

On one particular night some time earlier, Noel's chickens had been slaughtered in a very weird fashion, and under highly peculiar circumstances.

So the story went, the cages in which Noel's chickens were held had been carefully opened by "something" that proceeded to slaughter the animals one by one.

The fact that that the cages had been opened (rather than torn apart) by something or someone familiar with fairly complex locks, suggested a culprit with a not-insignificant degree of intelligence.

And, of course, the most obvious culprit would have to be a human. But, what made this story even weirder was the way in which each and every one of the chickens were killed after the they were taken out of their cages.

First, there was the total silence that reportedly accompanied the deaths. Noel's chickens were held right below the windows to his home. And yet, there was no late night or early morning commotion from the chickens. Just quick and silent death.

And there was the mode of the killings too: a pair of puncture wounds to the neck that, Jon and I were told, led to the loss of significant amounts of blood reportedly confirmed by a local veterinarian.

As for the culprit, well, your guess is as good as mine. A Chupacabra? A deranged human with a compulsion to kill poultry in the dead of night?

All I can say about this particular story is that it made no sense at all. But that doesn't take away the fact that something peculiar occurred...

The picture above shows (from left to right) Noel the farmer (demonstrating how the cages were opened), Carola (our guide and translator on the expedition), Jon Downes, and our cameraman, Kevin.

PS: Although the photo above shows a date of 1992, it was indeed taken in 2004. I had an issue with the camera (long discarded!) that screwed up the date formatting, and which I gave up on trying to fix. Plus, I forgot to trim the photo when I scanned it for posting here, and I can't be bothered to edit it again. So, it remains as it was!

Meeting An Alien Hunter

2011-10-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009, I wrote a book titled Science Fiction Secrets that was a study of how, and under what particular circumstances, the realm of science-fiction (whether in books, on TV, or in big-screen films) had crossed paths with that of high-level government secrecy and conspiracy.

Doing the research for the book was something of a revelation for me: it demonstrated that there does appear to be some form of crossover between science-fiction and governmental shenanigans, suggesting the startling possibility that the world of Hollywood and the secrets of the Pentagon may be closer than we think. They may have even come together on occasion to help instill ideas about UFOs and alien life in the collective mind of the populace.

I elected to keep my own views and opinions out of Science Fiction Secrets, and instead I chose to provide the reader with just the facts. But, it’s fair and accurate to say that my personal interest in science-fiction reflects the kinds of things I wrote about in the pages of my book. I’ll tell you what I mean by that. Frankly, watching endless TV shows or films set in the depths of outer-space, in which laser-gun-wielding good-guys and bad-guys do battle with each other, while huge spacecraft soar across the starry skies, and human-looking aliens run around in silver-suits, bores me rigid. In fact, it bores me beyond rigid!

If I am going to watch (or read) science-fiction, then it has to contain a high-degree of conspiracy and cover-up, such as (a) the excellent 1998 movie Dark City and its attendant, menacing Men in Black-style aliens; (b) The X-Files (of course!); (c) the sadly-short-lived Dark Skies; and (d) David Bischoff’s superb UFO book trilogy of 1990-1991: Abduction, Deception, and Revelation (which, if you haven’t read them, then you really, really should!).

But, for me, my all-time number-one science-fiction/conspiracy product is, without doubt, the classic, paranoia-driven 1960s series, The Invaders, that starred actor Roy Thinnes as the alien-hunting hero of the show, David Vincent.

A great combination of the best parts of The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, Invaders from Mars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Outer Limits, The Invaders was a show years (actually, decades) ahead of its time, and one that easily eclipsed the simplistic, mindless and cheap to make, "shoot 'em up"-style science-fiction output that seemed (and still seems) so popular on certain TV channels.

Oozing a high degree of menace, a sinister atmosphere, thought-provoking plot lines, and – at the heart of it all – human-looking, hostile aliens bent upon the infiltration of our society and the ultimate destruction of the Human Race, The Invaders came across rather like a UFO-themed All the President’s Men mixed with The Parallax View, and then given a liberal shot of 24’s Jack Bauer.

I recall first watching the show as a young kid in the 1970s, utterly enthralled by David Vincent’s near-solitary quest to expose to the world the dark truth of the alien threat amongst us – while all the time pursued by definitive Men in Black-style extraterrestrial assassins. I thought: this is great!

The show was then repeated some time in my teens, and prior to recently purchasing the DVD set, I was probably in my late-twenties when I last watched the show. And, I’m pleased to say that, having now devoured the entire DVD collection, The Invaders still stands the test of time, more than 40-years after it first aired (the show actually ran for two-seasons: from January 1967 to March 1968).

It’s a great shame indeed that the show was cancelled before the story reached its conclusion. No: The Invaders did not come to an end because of some high-level conspiracy. Ratings were the culprit. But, that the series still commands a loyal following, that it’s now available for one and all to own, and that its legacy is an immensely notable one makes, in my view, The Invaders the definitive science-fiction work.

And there’s an afterword to all this: 4 or 5-years ago, I met actor Roy Thinnes while filming a TV show in New York. I’m very pleased to say he was happy to sit and talk with me backstage, while we waited to be called to the cameras. I had a fun 45-minute (or thereabouts) chat with Thinnes about The Invaders, as well as about his starring role in The Norliss Tapes – the 1973 pilot for a planned paranormal-themed series that was sadly never made, but which would have made a fine follow-on from The Invaders.

I’m also pleased to be able to say that Thinnes was refreshingly free of the tiresome egotism that affects so many Hollywood types, was friendly and talkative, and discussed his good memories of working on the show, and his thoughts on the UFO puzzle. As for me, well I knew I was hanging out with actor Roy Thinnes, but a part of me just could not help thinking: Holy Crap, I’m sitting next to alien-hunter David Vincent!

Paranormal HQ

2011-10-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Instead of working in the confines of a slightly chaotic office, I've always kind of liked the idea of having a "Paranormal HQ."

Sadly, I don't have one!

But, one person who does, is good mate, author and radio-host, Joshua P. Warren, of Asheville, North Carolina - shown in this photo taken by me in Josh's very own HQ in late 2007.

Bigfoot Tepees

2011-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

One of the more curious aspects of the Bigfoot controversy is that relative to what have become known as "Bigfoot Tepees." Basically, they are - as the name suggests - Tepee-like structures that have been found, on many occasions, in locations reportedly home to Bigfoot.

I've come across such formations on a number of occasions. The first photo at this post was taken at Lake Worth, Texas in 2005 when me and fellow monster-hunter Ken Gerhard were out at the lake, chasing down its legendary and notorious "Goat-Man" controversy.

As for the second image, that was photographed by me in early 2008 when, with Lance Oliver of the Denton Area Paranormal Society (DAPS), I traveled out to Lake Ray Roberts, Texas, where there had been a spate of Bigfoot activity, and where deep in the woods we found a number of such notable formations.

The particularly interesting thing about the second photo, is that these limbs were pretty thick and were either (A) still growing but had been bent over and "tied together" by something that must have exhibited a fair degree of strength; or (B) torn off other trees in the immediate area, where evidence of the tearing could still be seen.

Their purpose? No-one's really sure. Territorial markers, maybe? Warning signs to keep away? Your guess is as good as mine and everyone else's!

Welcome To Ghost Road

2011-10-08T08:47:00.001-07:00

If you're ever in Texas and you're into weird shit, I most definitely recommend a visit to the sprawling mass of forestland called the Big Thicket - and particularly so its famously nicknamed Ghost Road that runs through the area for around 8-miles.

To say that the place is downright strange is an absolute understatement! From deep within the Big Thicket come stories of ethereal, floating balls of light - not unlike the more famous Marfa Lights.

But, also allegedly in residence within the Big Thicket are Sasquatch-type creatures, wild-men-of-the-woods, and even - supposedly! - isolated pockets of Native American Indians whose tribe vanished into the woods in the 19th Century, never to leave, and who still call the place home.

Anyone wanting to learn more about all the above should most definitely read Rob Riggs' book, In the Big Thicket, which tells the entire, weird tale. I was fortunate enough to spend a weekend out there in the summer of 2005 with Rob, fellow author Paul Devereux, and S. Miles Lewis of the Austin, Texas-based Anomalies Archive, and a memorably weird weekend it was!

Greg at Work

2011-10-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

I've done Greg Bishop's radio-show - Radio Misterioso - on a number of occasions.

But, until last weekend, I had never actually been to the studio. But it was good to finally see it on Sunday night!

And here's the proof: Greg preparing for the show, in which the two of us took part, along with Walter Bosley and Paul Kimball.

The Roswell Plaque

2011-10-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

When it comes to Roswell, Ufology's premier case - or a saucer-themed equivalent of Jack the Ripper, in the sense that it's all so long ago it will likely never be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone - there is, rather surprisingly, one thing upon which we can all agree.

What's that?

That something came down on the Foster Ranch all those years ago!

But...weather-balloon, Mogul-balloon, UFO, a military experiment, aliens, Russians, Japanese, crash-test dummies? Well...who knows? And who can prove anything definitive even if they do know?

But, whatever the event involved, it has its very own celebratory plaque out at the Foster Ranch, which is actually a long and winding road from the town of Roswell, particularly so when one gets to the ranch itself and the "road" becomes very primitive, to say the least!

I took the above photo of the plaque on a snowy, freezing morning at the crash-site in January of this year.

Space Brother Central

2011-10-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

While out in California last weekend, me and Greg Bishop took a trip out to the Los Angeles office of the Aetherius Society, which - given my deep interest in the Contactee movement - was a real treat!

We were given an excellent tour of the place, provided with 20 or 30 minutes of very insightful chat about the society's founder (George King), and given permission to roam wherever we wanted and take photos of whatever caught our eyes - which is exactly what I did!

If you can't read it too well, the sign on the gate I'm leaning against reads thus:

"THIS GATE NOT TO BE USED UNLESS YOU HAVE PERMISSION OR BUSINESS IN SIR GEORGE'S BUNGALOW."

You have been duly warned!

And, finally, an interior shot...

At The Gate Of The Devil

2011-10-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

At his birth in 1914, Jack Parsons - a major player in the story told in my Final Events book - was given the memorable and unusual name of Marvel Whiteside Parsons and had a truly extraordinary life.

An undoubted genius, he indirectly led NASA to send the Apollo astronauts to the Moon in 1969.

Moreover, the Aerojet Corporation – which Parsons personally founded - produced solid-fuel rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle that are based on Parsons’ very own, decades-old innovations.

For his accomplishments, a large crater on the far side of the Moon was named in Parsons' honor, and each and every year, on Halloween no less, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory holds an open-house memorial, replete with mannequins of Jack Parsons and his early JPL cohorts known as "Nativity Day."

And, within the aerospace community, there is a longstanding joke that JPL actually stands for "Jack Parsons Laboratory" or "Jack Parsons Lives."

In fact, Parsons, who was so revered and honored by very senior figures within the U.S. space-program, was an admitted occultist, a follower of Aleister Crowley, and someone who topped even Crowley himself by allegedly engaging in bestiality with the family dog and sexual relations with his own mother, perhaps at the same time, no less.

And, before each rocket test, Parsons would undertake a ritual to try and invoke the Greek god, Pan.

Much of Parsons’ – and the JPL’s – initial rocket research in this period was undertaken at the appropriately-named Devil’s Gate Dam in Los Angeles.

Interestingly, the JPL was itself established at this very locale in 1930 by the California Institute of Technology.

The dam had been constructed a decade earlier by engineers from the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and took its title from Devil’s Gate Gorge, a rocky out-cropping that eerily resembles a demonic face.

Well, this past weekend I spent a day hanging out with good mate Greg Bishop, and we took a drive out to the infamous locale, and where I took the pictures you can see right here.

The three pictures above are self-explanatory. But if you're wondering what that large, sprawling installation is on the final photo, it's the JPL itself, taken from the top of Devil's Gate Dam.

Offline

2011-09-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Offline for a few days, back online Tues/Wed.

Cemetery Strangeness

2011-09-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Without doubt, one of Britain's biggest hot-spots for very weird activity of a definitively Fortean variety is the Cannock Chase German War Cemetery, located in the county of Staffordshire.

The cemetery can be found in the sprawling mass of woodland and heath known as the Cannock Chase (hence its name).

If you're wondering, the cemetery takes its name from the fact that it's the final resting place for (a) many of the German prisoners-of-war who died on British soil during the Second World War; and (b) the remains of a number of crews of German military aircraft shot down over Britain during the same war, as well as a handful from the First World War.

You can find out more about the cemetery right here.

But what you won't find at the above-link are the many and varied stories of werewolves (and over-sized wolves), huge black cats, ghostly figures, small hairy humanoids, and much more of a very odd nature that has elected to call the cemetery "home" for years.

I grew up very close to the German Cemetery, and I can say for certain that it's an odd place indeed!

Head-Hunting

2011-09-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Something weird has been going on in our back-garden (or, back-yard, as it's called in the US!) for some time now.

And, it's probably a good idea to bring it to people's attention, as it's still on-going.

About three weeks ago, I found a decapitated mole in the grass, which I thought was kind of odd, and which Ken Gerhard saw when he came to visit shortly afterwards. Then, about two weeks ago, I found a large, skinned bone on the lawn - yep, picked entirely clean of meat.

But, there was far more - and much worse - to come, as the photo above shows.

Last Saturday morning, me and Dana were sitting outside when D suddenly gave out a huge scream and pointed to a paved area about eight-feet from where we were sitting.

As the photo graphically shows - and as became clear when I went over to take a close-up look at it - it was the head of a possum, which had clearly been pretty savagely torn or bitten off.

And, it was made all the more strange by the fact that this is the precise position the head was in when we found it. In other words, I didn't carefully position it for the photo. In fact, handling the ant-infested head was the very last thing I wanted to do!

The culprit? Well...I'm not sure...

But, what I can say for sure is that twice in the past year we have seen a Coyote in the street outside our house. The first time was in June of last year, when we came back from my mum's funeral in England and it raced across the road in front of us, around 8.30 at night.

The second time we saw it was during a very violent thunderstorm in May or June of this year, when - again - it was racing along the road outside our home.

Plus, although we live in a city (Arlington, Texas, just outside Dallas and Fort Worth) behind our house is a huge stretch of field that extends for hundreds of feet (both length and breadth-wise). The ideal place for a predator, perhaps.

I'm inclined to think the Coyote was the culprit (and that the mole and the bone issue were part of its actions too), but if you have any other ideas, let me know...

Worms and Stones

2011-09-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Take by me in the early summer of 2001, this photo shows one of the famous standing stones at Avebury, England. But, there's an interesting story attached to this particular stone.

In the early 1960s, a local resident claimed to have seen a strange, ethereal ball of floating light in front of this very stone that - allegedly, at least - suddenly "shape-shifted" in a flash of light into a coiling, worm-like beast of about 6-feet in length that shuffled across the ground in peculiar fashion.

The horrified witness - this much we know as fact - quickly contacted a local Royal Air Force base, who soon dispatched an investigator to secure a report. Aside from finding remnants of a slimy substance at the scene, nothing concrete was ever determined.

The result: the story and the documentation continues to languish within the vaults of officialdom. As for the worm? So far as can be determined, just like the ghost-light, it never returned...

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2011-09-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

As this photo shows, even as a 3- or 4-year-old, I was carefully scanning the skies for all-things weird and wonderful.

Was it, therefore, destiny or fate that led me to become a seeker of saucers years later? Or just random chance? Who knows? Who cares? Nice head of hair though!

Yep, I really did have hair! In fact, I still do! Granted, it's not as thick as it was when I was in my teens and twenties.

But, it still amuses me when - if I'm on the road for a week or so, and there's nowhere to partake in my daily head-shaving ritual - people express shock that after one day I have stubble, then on day two there's more, and on the third day, the hair starts to come back in noticeable fashion LOL.

Some ufological dunderhead once had the nerve to say words to the effect of: "I thought you had some weird disease that made it all fall out!"

Er...no, actually. My appearance comes from shaving my scalp every morning, and when I'm going out at night it gets a second shot of the razor.

And why am I mentioning all this? Dunno, beats me! The answer to that question - just like my hair - is lost on me!

Crashed UFO Tourism

2011-09-23T12:48:00.001-07:00

Roswell, New Mexico is not alone in celebrating its status as a place with a Ufological past.

Much the same can be said about Aztec, New Mexico - Roswell's "little brother" in the crashed saucer stakes.

Just as Roswell has come to realize that the legendary event of July 1947 brings in the crowds, the people of Aztec have too!

Granted, the sheer, and astonishing, level of tourism that exists in Roswell is not in evidence at Aztec, but it does exist. And, take a drive out to the old, alleged crash site of March 1948 at Hart Canyon, and you'll find this sign commemorating the claimed crash.

I took this photo back in 2003, and unless some obsessive-compulsive collector of crashed saucer-connected memorabilia has stolen in, I'm presuming it's still there...

A Seance of the Roswell Kind

2011-09-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Something happened outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947.

And - in my view - it didn't involve a weather-balloon, a Mogul-balloon, or crash-test dummies.

Do I think there's a good chance that bodies (human, alien, or otherwise) were found within, or near to, the large field of wreckage stumbled upon by rancher Mack Brazel on that legendary day back in July 1947?

Yes, I do!

So what, you may ask, does any of this have to do with the accompanying photo that looks suspiciously like a seance is about to kick-off? Well, first, that's exactly what it shows!

And if you're wondering where it was taken, I'll tell you. The location was Hangar 84 at the old Roswell Army Air Field where, some have alleged, the bodies from the Roswell crash were briefly held after their discovery on a remote part of the (equally remote) Foster Ranch.

The reason for me being at the old hangar was as simple as it was bizarre: I was there with several psychics who planned on trying to contact the souls of the Roswell-deceased to determine who they were, where they were from, and what happened to them.

It was around the witching-hour on an appropriately dark, chilly and wind-filled night in December 2005 when the seance began, and which lasted for around 40-minutes, or thereabouts.

With their minds trained, the psychics said that they felt the presence of something (souls, in other words), that they had imagery of some sort of vehicle violently crashing to earth on the harsh desert floor, and of the bodies of the crew being strewn around the area, and well and truly pummelled in the process.

Okay, much of that we know already. But to hear it during a seance, at midnight, in a hangar - or, rather, in that hangar - at Roswell was memorable in the extreme.

Granted, not exactly the most conventional of all investigations into the Roswell bodies, but I'll bet there has not been a stranger one!

In The Beginning...

2011-09-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

People often ask me how I got involved in the weird world of Forteana.

Well, there were a couple of particular reasons: (1) my dad worked on radar while in the British Royal Air Force in the early 1950s and was involved in a couple of UFO incidents which, eventually, he chose to tell me about; and (2) when I was a little kid, my parents took me to Loch Ness for a day, and, as a result, I became fascinated, excited and enthralled by the mystery of the monster.

But, there was another reason too. I grew up literally only about a five-minute drive from the scene of one of the most notorious events in early 20th Century British history - the strange affair of one George Edalji.

A resident of the town of Great Wyrley, Edalji was convicted of slashing and maiming horses in 1903 - events that provoked outrage and fear, and even attracted the attention of none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who firmly believed Edalji to be innocent of the attacks.

But, there were a lot of Fortean aspects to the Edalji affair too. Rumors flew around the area at the time that the attacks were the work of a "hypnotized ape;" "a malicious aviator" or huge bird; a pack of trained wild-boar (yeah, I know that's an oxymoron of the highest order!); or diabolical occultists.

The photo above (taken by me in June 2010) shows St. Mark's Church, Great Wyrley, at which George Edalji's father, the Reverend Shapurji Edalji, was the vicar.

Who would have guessed that such a pleasant-looking place would be so tied to such dark secrets and diabolical events?

Whatever the truth of the matter, the story of George Edalji became legendary - and still is to the people of Great Wyrley. And, growing up just down the road from where all the old carnage, killing, and high-strangeness occurred is yet another - little-known - reason why I gravitated to the world of all-things weird...

Hanging By A Thread...

2011-09-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

When I was about 5-years-old, my dad made me a model Flying Saucer out of balsa wood, an old plastic breakfast-cereal bowl, silver paint, and plastic bottle lids (the latter for the "landing gear").

He then hung the Venusian scout-craft on our clothes-line and snapped the picture.

You can just see a bit of the clothes-line top right.

The picture remained in a cupboard at my dad's house for years, until he brought it over to me a couple of years ago on one of his visits to see us. I think it looks pretty good, and no sign of the wire (or whatever it was) holding it up!

Of Snails and Saucers

2011-09-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know this thing in the hand of the Center for Fortean Zoology's Jon Downes looks like a mini-Flying Saucer (possibly, you might think, complete with diminutive extraterrestrial crew).

But, of course, it's nothing of the sort - although it would be wonderful if it was! (Click on the photo for a closer look.)

Nope, it's actually a particularly UFO-looking type of snail that can be found on the island of Puerto Rico - which is where the photo was taken when, in 2004, me and Jon were trekking around the island's El Yunque rain-forest in search of the Chupacabra.

Of course, that probably won't satisfy some paranoid souls, who will no doubt claim that the snail story is actually a cover to "hide the truth" of the tiny aliens of El Yunque. Ho-hum, such is Ufology...

Karl's Cap

2011-09-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Taken by me at Aztec, New Mexico in 2003, this photo shows the late Karl Pflock, with who I once planned to write a book on the notorious Silas Newton of "Aztec UFO Crash" infamy.

We actually got quite a bit of research done, and even put a book-proposal together. Newton was such a larger-than-life - and very shady - character that Aztec's crashed saucer saga was actually only going to be just one of many sections of the book.

Indeed, if you want proof of Newton's outrageous actions of the conman variety, check out his FBI file.

As for the rest of the story me and Karl were researching? Well, maybe one day it will all come tumbling out - including (in full) the mysterious story of Karl, Newton's early-1970s journal and its crashed UFO-themed entries, and a clandestine and cloak-and-dagger informant who kicked-off this aspect of the puzzle.

But this was all obviously curtailed, and ultimately came to a halt, when Karl got sick and very tragically passed away back in 2006.

But, I like this photo, as it shows Karl in his CIA cap.

And, unlike some of those controversial characters within Ufology who have claimed CIA backgrounds that are ultimately unverifiable, Karl - as a former employee of "The Company" - really was entitled to wear such a cap!

An Interplanetary License Plate?

2011-09-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

About ten-years ago, I spent some time in Taos, New Mexico and met with an interesting character named Dan Salter (see his book: Life With A Cosmos Clearance).

Dan claimed to know the inside story of Roswell, crashed UFOs, dead aliens, and high-level conspiracies of truly dizzying varieties. Dan also claimed to be a recently-retired employee of the ultra-secret National Reconnaissance Office.

When I met Dan at a diner in downtown Taos on my second morning in town, I felt sorry for the guy: he was elderly and frail, had then recently suffered several strokes, both his physical health and his speech had been impaired to a considerable degree as a direct result, and here I was about to intensely grill him on UFOs for three hours.

Nevertheless, and thank goodness, Dan fully retained his mental faculties, and was highly motivated and upbeat. And, over a wonderful Mexican meal and Margaritas, he regaled me with entertaining tale after entertaining tale about his alleged out-of-this-world exploits and decades-long career as a Fox Mulder-like 007.

Yes, UFOs were real, Dan told me. Yes, an alien spacecraft had crashed at Roswell, and both it and its extraterrestrial crew were recovered by the American military. Yes, sinister aliens were abducting American citizens and implanting them with tracking devices for diabolical purposes that could only be guessed at. Yes, people had been killed by the government to hide the horrible truth.

And, yes, there were a number of "underground bases" in New Mexico where the aliens were undertaking all manner of horrific experiments on people for purposes so terrible that the Government, powerless as it was to intervene, dared not reveal them to the oblivious masses.

And Dan, he assured me, as a direct result of his work with American intelligence, was privy to these, the most guarded of all UFO secrets.

However, it was not just the interview itself that fascinated me, but something else, too. After exiting the restaurant around 2.00 p.m., Dan and I climbed into his vehicle and headed to the home of one of his friends. I could not help but notice as I headed towards the vehicle that its license plate was very different from any other that I had ever seen.

Instead of being made up of a conventional combination of numbers and letters, it read: HQ INTERPLANETARY PHENOMENON SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COUNTERINTELLIGENCE WA 25, D.C.

With Dan's permission, I took some photographs of this curious piece of evidence in the strange saga.

He explained to me that the license plate was a reference to a secret, military organization called the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit, and was a retirement present from his friends and colleagues at the National Reconnaissance Office.

As Dan said to me: "I know you saw my license plate on the car. I saw you looking at it. That was on the vehicle I had on base at the NRO, and it was given to me when I retired. I asked if I could show it to people and they said, 'Well, if we didn’t want you to show it to people, you wouldn’t have it.' So, I guess, that means I can show it to people. But those vehicles with the plates were never allowed off base."

As we concluded the interview, Dan had these parting words for me: "Nick, we've got to know each other over these last few days and I feel comfortable talking because I know you just want answers. There are other things I can tell you. I have to speak with a few people and you might get some other old-timers speaking to you in the next few weeks."

Evidently, the "Okay" never came. And I never heard from Dan Salter again. But I do still have that curious photo!

The Return of the Dinosaurs

2011-09-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

I got an email yesterday that read: "Do you have any more pictures of those desert dinosaurs you took?"

Well, yes I do! And that's one of them! For those who are interested, the location is right around Joshua Tree, California.

Tracking Bigfoot

2011-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Before you start jumping up and down with excitement (or, if such things aren't your cup of tea, barely raising an eyebrow!) it's not a real track of Bigfoot, of the Yeti, of Orang-Pendek, or even of the Big Gray Man of Ben Macdhui!

Rather, it's one of many carefully-carved "feet" that adorn the back-garden of Jon Downes' home (and which is also the HQ, of course, of the Center for Fortean Zoology) in Woolsery, England.

Most people tend to decorate their gardens and yards with far more down-to-earth items.

But, fortunately, Jon is not "most people"!

And, that's a very good thing, too! More power to Jon for ensuring that his garden stands out from the crowd!

The Shugborough Inscription

2011-09-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Taken by me about 10 or 11 years ago, this photo shows the mysterious "Shugborough Inscription," at the old and historic Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire, England - situated about a 20-minute drive from where I used to live.

So, what is the Shugborough Inscription? Well, you can find all about it right here. But, basically, it's perceived by many as being some sort of deep and dark secret code that, at various times, has been linked to Canada's Money-Pit, the Holy Grail, buried treasure, and has attracted the attention of wartime code-breakers, authors, the media, and many more!

Not only that - Shugborough Hall is a definitively odd and distinctly Fortean locale, too. There have been at least three sightings of spectral, hairy-man beasts roaming around the nearby woods, as well as (in the 1980s) a series of unsettling animal mutilations in the area.

In addition, "Shug" is an old English term for demon. Shugborough: The borough of the demon.

Man-Beasts, secret-codes, the Money-Pit, Mutes and more - someone needs to write a book or do a full-blown documentary on Shugborough! In terms of high-strangeness stakes, this place has just about everything!

The Canal Creatures

2011-09-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's just a stretch of canal, photographed on a warm, sunny day, right?

Well, yes it is!

It's actually a part of the winding waters that make their way through the English city of Birmingham.

But there's more...

Along this very section (and several other parts, too) of the old canal reports have surfaced, since at least the mid-1980s, of very large and sometimes-violent eels on the loose.

I'm writing about this little-known saga in my forthcoming book, Monster Diary, and a weird and ominous saga it is, too...

The Metal Monster

2011-09-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

I photographed this metallic, brightly-colored "thing" somewhere in New Mexico a couple of years ago.

A robotic-cryptid?

A Chupacabra/Octopus/Giant Spider-cyborg?

No, but it's still kind of interesting!

Mothman on the Mountain

2011-09-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone has heard of the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, right?

But what of the Mothman of Trempealeau Mountain, Perrot State Park (so named after Nicolas Perrot, a French explorer), Wisconsin?

Not quite so well known, perhaps! But, it does - allegedly at least - exist.

It was to this monstrous mount that I traveled in late-2009 with the History Channel's Monster Quest team, in search of the legendary beast. And although the winged fiend eluded us (of course!), abundant eyewitness testimony most assuredly did not.

Indeed, as I found out when I roamed around the nearby town of Winona (which we used as our base of operations), the area was an absolute hotbed of tales of the flying monster.

If anyone reading this is looking to write a book on a 21st Century equivalent of Mothman, I'd say this: get yourself to Wisconsin! There's a definite story here that's well worth telling!

Paying Respects

2011-09-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

In September 2009, me and Greg Bishop (left) visited the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based National Cemetery, where a man named Paul Bennewitz is buried.

Bennewitz’s life, career and UFO investigations – that so worried the U.S. Air Force and the National Security Agency in the late-1970s and early-to-mid-1980s, to the extent that they drove him nearly insane and to the point of nervous-breakdown and beyond, as they sought to bring his flying saucer studies to a halt – were the subject of Greg’s 2005 book, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, which is essential reading for anyone with an interest in how and why the world of officialdom has coldly and callously manipulated the UFO research scene, and those in it.

On locating the cemetery, we drove in carefully, and finally located Bennewitz’s grave.

I set up my digital-recorder, while a visibly-moved Greg could not help but ponder upon how Bennewitz’s passing was very likely hastened by the stress and anxiety generated by the Air Force and shadowy elements of the NSA.

Greg said, somberly: "I wish I could have told him 'thanks,' for having the story there to be written, and that I’m sorry he had to go through what he went through."

Amen to that.

Evil-Eyed Crop Circles

2011-09-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Built on land that had come into the possession of the Earls of Chester as far back as the end of the 11th Century, Chartley Castle – which can be found in the county of Staffordshire, England, where I grew up - is a stone fortress founded in the thirteenth century by Ranulph Blundeville, the then Earl of Chester.

And, in the summer of 2006, a striking Crop Circle was found in a field directly next to the old castle.

When word got out about the creation, my wife, Dana, and I were in England for three months, and drove out to the site. The Crop Circle was both huge and intricately designed.
Not only that, as we clambered down a steep, grassy embankment towards the formation, and made our careful way through thick brambles, lush bushes and a barbwire fence, we could not fail to see something highly strange strewn around the fringes of the Crop Circle: namely, a not inconsiderable pile of large and spectacularly colorful peacock feathers that were laid out in the form of a five-pointed star.
And what was the deal with all those peacock feathers? One person I spoke with asserted she knew all too well. Before I get to her story, however, it is vital I first point out that the peacock has a highly intriguing place in both history and mythology.

The 1898 edition of the book The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable recorded that: "The peacock’s tail is the emblem of an Evil Eye, or an ever-vigilant traitor. The tale is this: Argus was the chief Minister of Osiris, King of Egypt. When the king started on his Indian expedition, he left his queen, Isis, regent, and Argus was to be her chief adviser. Argus, with one hundred spies (called eyes), soon made himself so powerful and formidable that he shut up the queen-regent in a strong castle, and proclaimed himself king. Mercury marched against him, took him prisoner, and cut off his head; whereupon Juno metamorphosed Argus into a peacock, and set his eyes in its tale."

With that information in hand, allow me to now introduce to you the one person who claimed to know the real story behind the out-of-place peacock feathers at the site of the Chartley Castle Crop Circle. Jane Adams, who passed away in 2008, was a student of Wicca who I met back in 1997 – in a Wiltshire-based Crop Circle, as it transpires.

An old, wizened and disturbingly odd character with staring eyes and long black hair, Adams had a decidedly unsettling air about her that was detectable to practically anyone and everyone upon first meeting her. When I telephoned Adams from within the Chartley Castle Crop Circle to tell her where we were and what we had found, she surprised me by immediately offering an intriguing scenario to explain the peacock feathers.

According to Adams, the presence of the feathery star-formation at the site was evidence that those people she believed were guilty of making Crop Circles had been using the peacock’s "Evil Eye" in "black ceremonies." She added that such ceremonies had been held, under cover of darkness, on a number of occasions within British-based Crop Circles, and ancient stone circles too, and that the people responsible were endeavouring to “create negativity” and conjure up bizarre, life-threatening creatures from darkened realms that co-exist with ours.

The reason: to harness the beasts and utilize them in, as she termed it, “psychic assassinations” of people who were either opposed to the activities of the group, or who were trying to expose their actions.

I know not if the story has any truth to it, but of one thing I am sure: the whole thing was very, very weird!

Underground Monsters

2011-09-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

One of the more interesting - and seldom-discussed - issues relative to Puerto Rico's Chupacabra phenomenon suggests that the beasts negotiate the island via extensive, deep, underground tunnels and caves. And, so the stories go, maybe they even dwell there too.

True? Who knows? But, what I do know is that it's a theory I've heard on several occasions while visiting the island and interviewing eyewitnesses to the Chupacabra.

And this picture shows one such cave on Puerto Rico, in which me and Jon Downes were filmed in 2004 for a show on the SyFy Channel called Proof Positive, and where, it was rumored, one of the goat-sucking beasts had been seen prowling around.

People have spent years searching the El Yunque rain-forest for the legendary (some would certainly say mythical) beasts, but if they truly exist, then maybe we've been looking in the wrong place.

Perhaps we should be looking below for the answers...

Lair of a Beast?

2011-09-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's debatable whether or not the legendary, ghostly, blazing-eyed black dogs of history and folklore should fall into the realm of the paranormal or that of cryptozoology. Hell, I don't know! But what I do know is that the phenomenon is certainly a real one.

This photo - taken by me in 2007 - shows a large cave at Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, Texas, outside of which just such a spectral, fiery-eyed hound was seen on a number of occasions in that same year, and also in 2009.

What was it? I have no idea, but whatever it was, it briefly caught the attention of the people in the area, before moving on to pastures new to torment its next victim...

Blowing Smoke

2011-09-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

This photograph was taken by my dad, Frank, back in the late-1960s, and it shows nothing stranger than a smoke-ring at an air-show in England.

On three occasions in the last decade or so, however, people have sent me near-identical images to this one, claiming they have something to do with UFOs. They don't! At all!

You can see such rings all the time at air-shows - as evidence, click on this link.

And if anyone tells you the rings are linked with UFOs, tell them, no they are not. Then tell them to go away.

Great Balls of Fire!

2011-09-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's just an old English church, right? Well, yes it is. But this one is a bit different.

Like so many other villages in the ancient county of Devon, England, Widecombe-in-the-Moor has a curious history attached to it.

On October 21, 1638, the village church, St. Pancras, was badly damaged by a lightning strike that killed four people and injured sixty-two.

It transpires that there is far more than initially meets the eye with respect to this particular lightning strike.

At the time of its occurrence, the clergyman was one George Lyde, who was born at Berry Pomeroy in 1601, and who was standing in the pulpit when the lightning struck. Fortunately, he narrowly avoided serious injury – if not death, even.

Interestingly, although at the time the event was seen as the work of the Devil, there's a school of thought that suggests the event was caused by that rare aerial phenomenon known as ball-lightning.

Indeed, the phenomenon that led to both death and severe injury in the church was said to have been provoked by nothing less than a "great ball of fire." Goodness gracious...

Strangely enough, this event had eerie parallels with a very similar incident at St. Mary's Church, Bungay, Suffolk, England, on Sunday 4 August 1577, when an immense, spectral, fiery-eyed black hound materialized within the church during a powerful thunderstorm and mercilessly tore into the terrified congregation with its huge fangs and claws.

So powerful was the storm that it reportedly killed two men in the belfry as the church tower received an immense lightning bolt that tore through it and shook the building to its very foundations.

According to an old, local verse: "All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew. And, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew."

Then as suddenly as it had appeared, the beast bounded out of St. Mary’s and was reported shortly thereafter at Blythburgh Church, about twelve miles away, where it killed and mauled even more people with its immense and bone-crushing jaws – and where, it is said, the scorch marks of the beast’s claws can still be seen imprinted on the ancient door of the church.

Ball-lightning, churches, storms, ghostly black-dogs, deaths, injuries - what was going on?

I have no idea, but I do have one final thing to add.

When I took the photo above (in the early summer of 2001), I was actually in the village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor for an entirely different (but equally odd) reason, namely to arrange an interview with an elderly doctor who claimed knowledge of a so-called "hairy wildman" seen roaming around the county back in the 1940s!

Devonshire is, truly, a strange place, indeed...!

Pinning The Goat-Man

2011-09-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

The story of the notorious white-furred Goat-Man of Lake Worth, Texas (only a short drive from where me and Dana live) is as notorious as it is controversial and downright bizarre.

But, there can be no doubt that - at a local level - both the beast and its alleged antics are celebrated and revered.

Hell, if you're so inclined to indulge in such dark and disturbing activities, you can even go into town and play pin the tail on the Goat-Man...

I think I'll pass on that one.

Integratron Orbs

2011-08-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

In early 2008, I spent a weekend at Contactee George Van Tassel’s Integratron – where I was lecturing on the subject of how and why the FBI of the 1950s was so concerned by, and interested in, the cosmic-claims of Van Tassel and fellow Space-Brother champion, George Adamski.

While at the Integratron, I took a number of photographs in its upper-chamber, several of which displayed clear and graphic imagery of countless, small floating balls of light.

In research circles, such small illuminated spheres, captured on-film, have become known as Orbs.

Of course, the phenomenon has both its supporters and those who maintain that the entire issue can be explained away in wholly down-to-earth terms (see this link, which outlines both points of view).

My view? I dunno. But for what it's worth, the photos exist, and that's one of them above!

Storing The Roswell Debris

2011-08-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Why, you may ask, have I included in this post interior and exterior shots of an old building, in some desolate desert locale?

Well, I'll tell you why!

This is the very building into which none other than rancher Mac Brazel hauled - for safe-keeping - a bunch of anomalous debris found on the Foster Ranch, New Mexico in the summer of 1947.

Yep, that's right: Roswell.

I had the opportunity to spend some time at the crash-site itself in January of this year (nope, I didn't find anything weird unfortunately!), and was very pleased when I was invited to check-out this seldom-seen construction that played such an integral role in Roswell - regardless of what did or did not happen on that fateful day.

And,correct me if you think I'm wrong, but if aliens really did crash on the Foster Ranch, isn't it maybe time for permission to be sought to tear down the building and do a full search of its foundations and immediate surroundings?

You know: just in case...

Sasquatch Graffiti

2011-08-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

I'm still not sure if the message on this old building is intended for Bigfoot, or if we're supposed to believe that Bigfoot actually wrote it!

Anyway, whatever the truth, I photographed it just before last Christmas - somewhere in the desert.

Give humanity a chance? Whoever knew Bigfoot was such a flower-waving hippie?

Could it get any worse? Probably - this is a good indication that Bigfoot listens to folk-music or some such similar puny acoustic nonsense. The hairy chap has definitely gone downhill, in my estimation.

The M5 Giant

2011-08-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

A Goliath-sized British Bigfoot out for a stroll? A giant alien stretching its arms and legs after a long flight from a far-away star-system?

WRONG!

It's actually a statuesque, cool and slightly enigmatic creation that stands in a large field as you zoom along England's M5 Motorway!

Bodies in the Hangar

2011-08-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, this photograph isn't evidence that I managed to secretly penetrate the inner depths of Area 51 or the legendary Hangar 18.

It's actually part of a very elaborate scene for a UFO documentary I was filmed for in December 2005, but that was never broadcast.

And given that the location of the filming was inside a huge, sprawling hangar at the old Norton Air Force Base, California, I have to wonder if the sight of these crates and "bodies" being brought on-site for filming purposes, actually provoked more than a few tales and rumors of real crashed UFOs amongst the people living nearby!

Indeed, if you ever hear any stories about "alien bodies" taken to Norton in December 2005, it was almost certainly these!

The Beast of the Bridge

2011-08-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

When is a bridge not just a bridge? When it's the home to a spectral, glowing-eyed, ape-man, that's when!

This photo shows the old Bridge 39 on England's equally-old Shropshire Union Canal, where, since at least 1879, sightings of a British Bigfoot-type entity have been reported.

I'll be the first to admit - given that I grew up only a very short drive from the lair of the beast - I have somewhat of an obsession with the Man-Monkey (as it's known locally), as well as with the sightings, theories, and folklore surrounding the whole affair - as I noted in my book on the matter, Man-Monkey: In Search of the British Bigfoot.

Whenever I'm back in the UK, I always take a drive out to the old bridge, and sometimes hang out their overnight, patiently waiting for something monstrous and diabolical to come screaming out of the thick trees that surround this particularly unsettling stretch of the canal...

Rendlesham at 20

2011-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

December 2000 marked the 20th anniversary of the famous UFO landing at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England. To celebrate the event, a bunch of us - including Larry Warren (co-author with Peter Robbins of Left at East Gate) - descended on the old base to highlight the anniversary, hang out, discuss the affair two decades later, and generally ensure the case remained in the public eye. That's Larry on the left. And, yes, it was as cold as it looks!

A Hollywood Monster

2011-08-27T08:28:00.001-07:00

What's a person to do when hanging out in Hollywood for a few days? Take photos of some anorexic/bulimic movie-goddess? Nope. Drive around the posh areas trying to spot a "star"? Not that either. What then?

Well, how about getting a photograph relative to the greatest monster in the world of cryptozoological fiction? Yes!

And here's the evidence - my way of paying homage, in 2005, to the mighty Tokyo-shattering Godzilla!

Flying High in Contactee Land

2011-08-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Probably my favorite photo of good mate (and Project Beta author) Greg Bishop, this one (left) was taken by me about 8 months ago and shows Greg getting ready to take to the skies in his flying contraption, while George Van Tassel's legendary Integratron looms in the background.

And here's Greg - doing his best Mothman impression - during that same trek around Contactee land:

The Beastly Bench

2011-08-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

While I certainly go out looking for a lot of strange and monstrous beasts, I usually draw the line at trying to sit on them! But, occasionally, I'll make an exception.

While lecturing at a library near to where I used to live in England about 12 years ago, I was very pleased to find that rather than having normal benches for people to sit on outside, theirs were fashioned as long-necked creatures from the dinosaur era!

And here's one of them - a highly refreshing alternative to the dull, unimaginative, humorless state of mind that usually dominates the world of governmental bureaucracy.

In fact, I'm surprised that some grim-faced, jack-booted member of the "Nanny State" didn't demand its removal, just in case someone tripped over the tail and chipped a toe-nail.

Tongue-Tied With A Chupacabra

2011-08-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

A warning to all future and upcoming monster hunters: if you go to Puerto Rico in search of blood-sucking vampires, and you drink far too much Tequila on a stomach earlier ravaged by Tuna-induced food-poisoning (ask Paul Kimball...) this can be the shocking result...

She wasn't a bad kisser though...

And, no: we don't keep in touch! This really was a case of love 'em and leave 'em!

MJ12 Goes Backwards

2011-08-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

It was late one night in the early summer of 2005 when good mate and Canadian filmmaker Paul Kimball, of Red Star Films, with who I had worked on a number of earlier projects, phoned me with a proposition.

His company, Paul explained, had just been commissioned by Canada’s Space Channel to make a documentary titled Fields of Fear, the subject of which would be animal mutilations: in the United States, in Canada, and on Puerto Rico.

Paul knew that I had been to the island previously, that I had established good contacts and leads there, and that I had written about official, FBI files on animal mutilations in my 2003 book, Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown.

As a result, Paul hired me as both a consultant to, and a participant in, the show. And so, I was soon airborne once again for the island of mystery.

Paul, in an earnest, and presumably successful, effort to save a fistful of dollars, had me on a bizarre flight-path. In 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel had me flying on a sensible, direct journey from Texas, to Florida, and finally on to Puerto Rico. But that was not good enough for Paul: he apparently spent hours tirelessly burning the midnight oil and surfing the Internet to find the very best deal possible!

The result was a money-saving flight that took me from Dallas to Puerto Rico via, of all places, Chicago! But it was a journey that would not be without its curiosities.

As we sat on the tarmac, waiting for the Puerto Rico-bound plane to take off from Chicago’s airport, I got chatting with the guy who was sat next to me. It transpired that he served with the U.S. Army, and had a fiancé who lived on the island, who he was going to visit.

They were due to marry in 2006. Bob was his name and, after I told him of my reasons for traveling to Puerto Rico, we got into a brief, but deep and entertaining, discussion about all things paranormal and mysterious.

Bob told me that he had heard all sorts of odd stories on the island about the Chupacabras, about aliens, and about underground bases. He then asked me about my opinions on Roswell.

I told him that, in my view, Roswell may have had more to do with diabolical human experimentation than it did with aliens, and he listened intently. The always slightly paranoid part of me wondered if he was, perhaps, listening too intently. And, perhaps, the reason why he, a military man, was conveniently sat next to me was to pump me for information. I made sure he never had the opportunity to surreptitiously drop anything of a deadly nature into my whisky.

We were still sat on the runway when Bob asked me: “Wasn’t there a secret group that supposedly hid the Roswell story? And didn’t some files supposedly surface from them a few years back?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “It was called MJ12, which was supposed to be this group of high-fliers in the Government and the military who were keeping it all under wraps. But I think that the files were disinformation to hide the human experiment angle.”

I added: “The MJ12 researchers have got it all back-to-front.”

No word of a lie: at the exact moment that I uttered those words, an aircraft passed us slowly on an adjoining runway; and, out of the window, I could see that its tail-numbers ended: 12MJ. I stared, utterly startled.

12MJ: MJ12 back-to-front.

The gods of synchronicity were certainly playing strange mind-games with me that day...

Meeting An Alien

2011-08-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's official! I have now met an alien! Yep, a close-encounter, finally!

Or...maybe not.

Yep, this is just an on-screen alien, specifically a Dalek from the BBC TV show Dr. Who.

I ran into this metal chap in England in the summer of 2010, but he hardly seemed excited by the experience. In fact, he just stood there, cold and unsmiling. Then again, that's what Dalek's are like, so I should have expected nothing less.

I haven't watched Dr. Who since I was a kid, but it's good to see these human-sized pepper-pots are still roaming around. And, no doubt, they still have the same, grating, headache-inducing voices.

Car-Henge

2011-08-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

No, it's not exactly Fortean, but it is kind of weird. It's Amarillo, Texas' very own equivalent of Stonehenge: Car-Henge!

Taken about 4 or 5 years ago while I was in the area actually pursuing a weird story of a blazing-eyed, ghostly black-dog.

So, in that respect, there is a Fortean tie-in...kind of...

The Norton Spaceship

2011-08-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to wander around a desolate part of what was once Norton Air Force Base, California.

Imagine my surprise when I came across this: a huge painting of a futuristic spacecraft hovering over one of the moons of Jupiter.

Given the fact that Norton has long been associated with UFOs (see this link), should we consider this somehow relevant? Or, maybe, it was just created to add a bit of color and interest to the working day. Either way, it's a cool thing to see!

Nick Vs Alien

2011-08-23T05:40:00.001-07:00

What's the difference between me and this alien? The answer is simple: there isn't any difference!

UFOs At Roswell?

2011-08-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

I took this photo back in the summer of 2001 - at the old base at Roswell, New Mexico where, it has long been maintained, alien bodies and the remains of their craft were taken after crashing in the desert outside of town. Well, of course, that much we all know!

But, how many people know that strange-looking craft were still housed at Roswell as late as 2001?

Here they are!

Well...okay...I can't lie. They aren't real UFOs. Nor are they even sophisticated remotely-piloted vehicles (RPVs) of the military.

It's a shame to burst the conspiratorial bubble, but the far more down-to-earth truth is that they are just mock-up-style tributes to the Roswell saga created by some of the staff that leased one of the old hangars a decade ago.

My favorite? Without doubt, the Space-Brother-style, 1950s Flying Saucer on the left.

The Real Lone Gunmen

2011-08-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Lone Gunmen were a trio of conspiratorial characters who made guest appearances on television’s most paranoid and paranormal sci-fi show of the 1990s, The X-Files. They were: Melvin Frohike, John Fitzgerald Byers, and Richard Langley.

So popular were The Lone Gunmen with the fans of The X-Files that, in 2001, they received the ultimate accolade after years of playing second fiddle to Mulder and Scully: namely, a short-lived, spin-off series of their very own on the Fox network starting on March 4, 2001.

I like to think that the world of Forteana has its very own Lone Gunmen, and that's them in the photo above. From left to right: Rob Sterling (of The Knoformist), Kenn Thomas (of Steamshovel Press and Maury Island UFO, among others) and Greg Bishop (author of Project Beta and host of Radio Misterioso).

I took this photo of the conspiratorial trio at Laughlin, Nevada in 1998, and even to this day they still remind me of The Lone Gunmen!

Posing With A Vampire

2011-08-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

If you're thinking of heading to Puerto Rico to seek out the deadly, vampire-like Chupacabra, it's always best to go fully prepared - as Jon Downes and I certainly did in the summer of 2004.

As this photo shows, I decided to firmly tone-up my six-pack, while Jon indulged in a few new items of clothing. And, as you'll see, so delighted was the Chupacabra by our new appearances, it even posed for a photo with us!

Sadly, things were inevitably not destined to last - my six-pack very soon gave way to a far better form of six-pack (one consisting solely of cold beer, of course!), while Jon traded in his bikini for a cool "Our Man in Havana" look.

The Chupacabra, not happy at all by the change, headed off to the El Yunque rain-forest and drowned its sorrows in a pint of goat's blood.

Night of the Living Bed

2011-08-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Me and Dana don't have kids, and don't have any pets - but we do have a house-trained zombie. Here it is, struggling to get out of the duvet in one of our bedrooms!

Stuart Miller RIP

2011-08-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

This is the sort of blog-post no-one ever, ever wants to write. I learned today that English UFO researcher Stuart Miller has died.

If you didn't know, Stuart (pictured on the left of this photo taken in 2006 by Paul Kimball of Canada's Red Star Films, with me on the right) was the brainchild behind both the online magazine, UFO Review and the sadly-short-lived newsstand mag, Alien Worlds.

This is terrible, terrible news - chiefly, of course, for Stuart's family and close friends, with who our thoughts and condolences should very much be right now.

But, for those of us within Ufology who came to know Stuart as not just a colleague but also as a friend, it's truly shocking, too.

I first crossed paths with Stuart in mid-2005 when he interviewed me in a lengthy transatlantic phone-call about my book Body Snatchers in the Desert. Then, a few months on, in late-2005, I finally got to meet Stuart in person while I was briefly back in England, where we hung out for an afternoon and yet another interview of the UFO variety.

But, the highlight - for me - was in the summer of 2006, when me and Dana moved back to England for a few months. Our trip coincided with a UFO conference that Stuart planned on holding in his home-town of Altrincham, a market-town in Greater Manchester.

When Stuart asked me if I was willing to speak at his Saturday conference, my answer was a resounding: "Yes!"

At the time of the gig, Dana and I didn't have access to a rental-car, so early on a Friday afternoon Stuart - exhibiting incredible generosity - drove down from Manchester to the West Midlands area of England (where we were staying at the time), picked us up, and drove back to Manchester so that I was able to do the gig.

Attendance-wise the conference wasn't a success; but, in terms of forging and reinforcing friendships it was a resounding success. Particularly memorable were the Friday and Saturday nights - before and right after the event - when me, Dana, Paul Kimball, and Stuart and his wife, Denise, were all able to hang out into the early hours over a delicious dinner cooked by Denise, and much flowing, cold beer.

Then, if that wasn't enough, on the Sunday morning, Stuart drove me and Dana back down to the Midlands, hung out for a while, then headed up to Manchester again and home.

I never saw Stuart again, but I stayed in touch with him regularly for the next few years, particularly so when I began to write for his final, and most ambitious, of all UFO projects: Alien Worlds, which proved to be a fascinating breath-of-fresh-air on the UFO scene.

But, now that's all over. And Stuart - who was a witty, friendly, well-read character with a fine ufological bullshit-detector - is gone. But, he most assuredly won't be - and certainly should not be - forgotten. Rest in peace, mate.

In Search of Parsons' Ghost

2011-08-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well, in the immediate wake of yesterday's rock 'n' roll post, here's another - and this one does have a Fortean angle to it.

Late last year, I spent a day or two in the town of Joshua Tree, California, and got to spend a night in the motel-room where none other than Gram Parsons died.

His music does absolutely nothing for me, but it was very cool to see the room, and all the various items, memorabilia etc that can be found within its cramped confines. Not only that: the room is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Parsons himself!

So, I settled down for the night with a huge sandwich and a 6-pack of Heineken and waited...and waited...and waited.

Sadly, no ghost! But, it was a cool and memorable experience nevertheless!