El Taire UFO Crash and Retrieval: Bolivian Roswell

Over the past week or so, Scott Corrales has been reporting on a teardrop shaped object that crashed in Argentina and witnessed by a large group of residents. There was a previous crash of an unknown object in Bolivia in 1978 that created a bit of a stir since it was thought that the object was retrieved by the U.S. military. Some have referred to this incident as the 'Bolivian Roswell'.

On May 6, 1978, at about 4:15 p.m., an unknown object crashed into a mountain near El Taire on the Bermejo River, the border between the Bolivian province of Tarija and Argentina. Thousands of people saw this happening and later described the object as being cylindrical in shape with a flaming tail. It had caused a supersonic bang that was heard up to 150 miles away. The next day, the papers were speculating on what had come down in that godforsaken place. The explanations ranged from meteorites to UFOs and belated reentry of some Apollo capsule. All of them referred to statements of eye witnesses.

Then it was announced that the Argentinian authorities had sent the 20th unit of the border police to the area in question to look for wreckage on their side of the border. The search in that mountainous country could last for weeks, so swarms of reporters went to the nearest big town, Aguas Blancas, to take up quarters there and await further developments, as well as to interview eyewitnesses in the town. And in fact, there were a number of witnesses who claimed to have seen the object. Most of them described it as oval or cylindrical and metallic. The army, too, seemed to be convinced that it was a UFO. Corporal Natalio Farfan Ruiz, the commandant of a small border police unit at the little village of La Marmora (800 inhabitants), confirmed the crash to Argentinian reporters saying: "It was about 4:30 p.m. when a cylindrical object made the earth tremble. Just imagine what would have happened if the UFO had fallen on the houses!" Policeman Juan Hurtado had also seen what had happened: "It looked like a gigantic wine container emitting a trace of white smoke. I saw it clearly. It flew directly above my head. I was on duty and at that moment was talking with three engineers from the mine in La Paz, when we saw the object crashing into the El Taire mountain. The impact was so strong that it threw me to the ground. The earth trembled at that moment."

Finally, the Bolivian Air Force sent three single-motored AT6 airplanes—a model from World War II—to the area and discovered the crash site on the southern slope of the El Taire mountain. Whereas the pilots found it impossible to land anywhere near it, the newspaper Clarin of Buenos Aires announced on May 14, that the object had been found. As proof, they quoted the police chief of Tarija: "Our men have discovered the object and inspected it, but have received no instructions for further action. It is a dull metallic cylinder twelve feet long with a few dents. No one knows what is inside it, and we are awaiting the arrival of various technical commissions. A NASA expert is also expected to arrive tomorrow morning."

As a matter of fact, no NASA expert came at Tarija. Instead, two U.S. Air Force officers, Col. Robert Simmons and Maj. John Heise arrived. According to a newspaper, although these officers were officially on leave, they had been instructed to take the object to the United States in a Hercules C-130 transport machine, which was waiting for them at La Paz. When other newspapers made inquiries at the American Embassy regarding this secret mission of Simmons and Heise they were met with a denial. Only two years later, 5 relevant documents were released by the U.S. State Department: they revealed that Simmons and Heise had been assigned to the military attache of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz and did, in fact, fly to Tarija accompanied by an officer of the Bolivian Air Force, in connection with Project Moon Dust.

The first of these documents was a telex sent by the U.S. Ambassador in Bolivia, Paul H. Boeker, to the State Department. In that, he quoted newspaper reports and requested the department "to ask the relevant agencies whether they could explain what this object could be," adding "during the last week, more and more UFO reports are coming from this region." The answer was a telex classified "secret" dated May 18 in which the U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance personally declared: "Preliminary information has been checked with appropriate government agencies. No direct correlation with known space objects that may have reentered the earth's atmosphere near May 6 can be made. However we are continuing to examine any possibilities."

He then referred the embassy to "State aerogram A-6343" of July 26, 1973, classified 'Secret,' "which provides background information and guidance for dealing with space objects. In particular any information pertaining to the pre-impact observations, direction of trajectory, number of objects observed, time of impact and detailed description, including any markings would be helpful." The next document was a "Moon Dust Message" of the office of the U.S. military attache, dated May 24, addressed to the Division for Foreign Technologies at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon, classified as "confidential NOFORN (No Forwarding To Foreign Nationals)." Under reference Moon Dust, the military attache at La Paz reported that "they had taken pains to verify the press reports. " In addition to that, they had asked the general staff of the Bolivian Air Force and the chiefs of the Bolivian Army who had declared—apparently after a first unsuccessful attempt— "we have sent search troops to the area in question but have found nothing. " The army came to the conclusion that there could have been an object there, or maybe not, but to date they had found nothing. The attache added that he would send two officials to Tarija and promised, "We will keep you informed if anything turns up. " These "two officials," we can assume, were Simmons and Heise.

(NOTE: The explosion on the slope of El-Taire received “confidential” status. After the mountain was cordoned off with the troops, a special commission was established to investigate the causes of incident. An object of cylindrical shape with a deformed body was found on El-Taire. No explanation followed: either one object exploded, or the second one was found on the slope. The object caused this powerful explosion, but somehow survived. The survey and the conclusions about the nature of the explosion have never been published.

People in the mining town at the foot of El-Taire just heard a rumor that the deformed shell of the UFO was delivered by helicopter to the Bolivian airport, and from where it was sent with a military transport aircraft to the U.S. - Margarita Troitsyna - Pravda.Ru)

Regrettably, no further reports concerning the Simmons-Heise expedition were released and, to get a picture of what happened, we are forced to rely on reports in the Argentinian press. Apparently, however, nobody came to the conclusion that a meteorite had hit the earth. At the world-famous Smithsonian Institution there is a data bank of scientific occurrences, or an "alarm network," that keeps track of every volcanic eruption, every earthquake and every meteorite collision since 1973 with painstaking accuracy. The data bank reveals no mention of a meteorite falling during May 1978 at the Bolivian-Argentinian border. The Air Force documents reveal that the 1127th field activities group, which coordinated Project Moon Dust, was interested in another task besides the recoveiy of UFO wrecks and other space objects, represented by the code name HUMINT. This code name, short for Human Intelligence, means the collection of information from human sources through clandestine undercover methods—in contrast to interrogations, reading through files and correspondence, etc. In other words, it meant the collection of information about UFOs from reliable sources through a game of deceit. The method which was chosen to achieve HUMINTs goals was so bizarre that nobody outside the UFO community would believe it. - Michael Hesemann

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Some researchers believe that there are specific areas on Earth where UFOs land on a regular basis. Often these alien “cosmodromes” sit on top of or inside mountains. One of those mysterious places is Mount El-Taire in Bolivia.

“The mountains here in Bolivia, like in neighboring lands, are rich in mineral deposits,” Yuri Suprunenko, Ph.D., told Pravda.Ru. “There are deposits of tin, tungsten, zinc, lead, antimony, silver, and precious metals.

But it so happened that hundreds of miners have witnessed rare metals that have fallen from the sky. Not just rare, but extraordinary and unprecedented alloys! But these were not meteorites. The events took place in the Bolivian village of La Mamoru Tarija, near the foot of Mount El-Taire, in May of 1978."

That day, according to Yuri Suprunenko, local residents saw something unusual. A bright lit object in the form of a cylinder with a cone-shaped front part appeared in the sky. It was approximately 6 meters long and 4 meters in diameter. It had no wings. There was not much on its surface and no hatches or portholes. A bluish flame came out from its tail. It made a whistling sound as it was no more than a hundred meters from the ground to an object, but it descended at a speed of 300-400 km/h.

According to some eyewitnesses, a second similar object came flying right after the first one. Meanwhile, the first one, without reducing its speed, had crashed into a mountainside of El-Taire. At the moment of impact, a bright flash of light appeared, illuminating the area in a radius of 150 km around, there was a terrible roar. The tremors were felt even in the neighboring Argentina. A rpessure wave blew out windows in homes in a radius of 70 km. The blast has formed a crater about 1,500 meters long, 500 meters wide and 400 meters deep.

Local authorities did not provide any explanation and ordered to immediately cordon off the area of Mount El-Taire with troops and declare it a forbidden zone. However, local people, tourists and researchers discussed the theories of a UFO crash.

Incidentally, crashes of alleged unidentified flying objects with “evidence” occurred in the past. For example, in neighboring Brazil, near Sao Paulo in 1957 a shiny disc flying at high speed was observed. In front of a witness, it suddenly began to decline, then stopped, rocked and exploded, scattering thousands of tiny pieces.

On a clear day glowing fireworks soared in the sky. Part of the fallen debris was collected by local residents. The material was light as paper, with a rough surface. Several Brazilian laboratories conducted a spectral analysis of these fragments. It showed the presence of magnesium with special crystal structure impossible to obtain in terrestrial conditions. Metallographic and microscopic analysis, in turn, revealed a significant content of strontium, which is usually not combined with magnesium.

"The Brazilian incident is recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which usually does not dare publish unverified facts. In the postwar years, several dozen of similar cases were recorded in different parts of the world!” says Yuri Suprunenko. “Over 70 thousand UFO photographs were made, and over 120 video clips were recorded.

Today, many of this documentary evidence are available to the public. But until recently the information was classified “Top Secret,” “Restricted,” “Highly Confidential” and “View-Only”... The main reason for this super-secrecy was the rivalry of countries in the area of weapons.

"Maybe with time we will learn more about the incident in the El-Taire," says Yuri Suprunenko. - Margarita Troitsyna - Pravda.Ru

NOTE: the bottomline is that these crashes of 'unknown objects' most likely occur on a regular basis. There is really little evidence of how many of these incidents have happened in remote locations thus making the job of retrieval that much easier...and outside the public eye. Here is a link to a site with lots of information on this incident. Scroll down a bit for the English text...Lon

Project Moon Dust:: Beyond Roswell--exposing The Government's Covert Investigations And Cover-ups

The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos , and The Face on Mars

Human Intelligence Collection: A Standard Operating Procedure for Interrogation Operations, Liason Operations, and Military Source Operations

UFOs the Secret History : The Secret History

Beyond Roswell: The Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, & the U.S. Government Coverup of Ufos

Just the Facts? Celebrity Doppelgangers, Tennessee Shaking and Spooky Image Goes Viral

John Travolta...Doppelganger?

He is a member of the Church of Scientology, which believes in reincarnation and asks some members to sign one billion year contracts of service.

And one photograph collector in Ontario, Canada, claims he has found a picture of John Travolta from a previous incarnation in 1860.

The 150-year-old photo of a man who looks remarkably like Travolta has been put up for sale on eBay.

'I've had this interesting photograph for years and I've been unable to part with it,' the seller said on the auction site.

'When you look at it and into the eyes of the sitter you will see what I mean!

'I believe this is the photograph of a very young John Travolta taken around 1860... This is a ruby glass ambrotype photograph and it is one of a kind.

'It hasn't been changed, tampered with or altered in anyway. It is clear and is as nice as the day it was taken roughly 151 years ago.

The photo is listed at $50,000 or nearest offer, and while it has a large price tag comes with free shipping and gift wrapping. - dailymail

Nicolas Cage and his doppelganger

NOTE: Travolta and Nicolas Cage were in the film 'Face Off'...who both changed their identities to the other and had face transplants. Truth may be stranger than fiction...Lon

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Tennessee residents terrified by mysterious shaking

Adrienne Hooker doesn't feel safe at home. Her Blount County neighborhood has a problem - it shakes.

For 2 days, the house rocks every few hours. It can sound like an explosion.

She describes it like this: "Tiny earthquakes, makes the whole house shake it makes everyone wake up if they're sleeping."

They've called the U.S. Geological Survey, but no earthquakes have been reported.

They thought it might be construction at a nearby house, but the Blount County Sheriff's Office checked. Another dead end.

The "what" isn't all that important, they just want it to stop. - volunteertv

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Spooky image goes viral

CCTV footage posted on YouTube appears to show the 'ghost' of a young girl haunting a well-known mobile phone store

A spooky-looking female figure can be seen walking past a doorway at the back of the store, pausing to turn her head and look straight into the recording surveillance camera.

The opening credits state that today's shop was "built on the site of a Victorian orphanage" — suggesting that the 'spirit' is one of its dead orphans.

The credits add that this is an authentic ghost sighting: "This is genuine footage which has been examined by experts.

"They were unable to provide any answers."

Andrew Dasilva, who came across the video and posted it on YouTube, said: "I couldn't believe this when I saw it, it freaked me out.

"I said to my mate that we had to put it out there so people could make a judgement for themselves.

"I still don't know what to think of it. It's absolutely surreal." - thesun

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Mystery as beached whale found in field in Yorkshire

A young whale which died after it beached in the Humber Estuary is probably of a species rarely found stranded on the British coast, conservationists have said. Experts examining the 33ft (10m) long animal, which died about 875 yards (800m) from the shoreline, say they are 95% sure it is a female sei whale.

The animal was trapped in shallow water near the East Yorkshire village of Skeffling, on the north bank of the River Humber. Andy Gibson, of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said Sei whale strandings were very rare. He said there had only been three strandings of this species in UK waters in the last 20 years.

''It is sad. It was in shallow water of about 1.2m (4ft) to 1.6m (5.25ft), making contact with the bottom,'' Mr Gibson said. ''This was about 800m offshore. When it gets in that situation it rolls onto its side and it can cover its blow hole.'' But Mr Gibson said: ''It is sad but we will be able to learn a lot from it.''

The whale is the latest of a number to have died in the Humber estuary area recently. Whale experts admit they do not know why there has been an upsurge in sightings and strandings. Some believe it could be due to changes in ocean currents bringing colder streams of Arctic water into the shallow North Sea. - telegraph

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Give 'Phantoms and Monsters' a Helping Hand
Shop for anything on Amazon.com

Whatever you need, you'll find it on Amazon.com...and you'll be helping 'Phantoms and Monsters' as well. Thanks...Lon

Just the Facts? Another Satellite Crashing to Earth, Finger For Sale and UFO Landing Sites

Another dead satellite crashing to Earth

A defunct NASA satellite that fell to Earth last week sparked some worldwide buzz, but it's not the only spacecraft falling out of space.

The decommissioned German X-ray space observatory, called the Roentgen Satellite or ROSAT, will tumble to Earth sometime in early November, but it's still too early to pinpoint exactly when and where debris from the satellite will land, according to officials at the German Aerospace Center.

The 2.4-ton spacecraft's orbit extends from the latitudes of 53 degrees north and south, which means the satellite could fall anywhere over a huge swath of the planet — stretching from Canada to South America, German Aerospace officials said.

The latest estimates suggest that up to 30 large pieces of the satellite could survive the intense and scorching journey through Earth's atmosphere. In all, about 1.6 tons of the satellite components could reach the surface of the Earth, according to German Aerospace officials.

The re-entry will be similar to NASA's 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which plunged into the southern Pacific Ocean on Saturday (Sept. 24).

ROSAT coming home

In 1998, ROSAT's star tracker failed, which caused its onboard camera to be pointed directly at the sun. The event permanently damaged the spacecraft and ROSAT was officially decommissioned in February 1999. - The Restless Universe: Understanding X-Ray Astronomy in the Age of Chandra and Newton

Scientists are actively tracking the dead satellite, but many of the details will remain uncertain until roughly two hours before it hits Earth.

"It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT's re-entry," Heiner Klinkrad, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency, said in a webcast posted on the German Aerospace Center's website. "The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches. It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact."

It will, however, be possible to rule out certain geographical regions from the potential drop zone about a day in advance, Klinkrad said. The largest piece of debris is expected to be the telescope's heat resistant mirror.

"Generally speaking, whenever a satellite re-enters the atmosphere, about 20 to 40 percent of its mass actually reaches the Earth’s surface," Klinkrad said. "In the case of ROSAT, this figure could be slightly higher because one of its characteristic features is that it carries heat-resistant mirror structures on board." [Related: Falling Satellites & Space Junk: Q&A with Orbital Debris Expert]

Small risk to public

Fragments from ROSAT could fall back to Earth over a 50-mile (80-kilometer) wide path, but despite the uncontrolled nature of ROSAT's re-entry, the odds of personal injury or property damage are extremely remote, German Aerospace officials said.

When NASA's UARS satellite fell to Earth, for example, NASA said the chances of parts of the spacecraft striking any one of the nearly seven billion people on the planet were about 1 in 3,200. The actual personal risk of being hit for an individual person, however, was about 1 in several trillion, NASA officials said.

To date, there have been no reported serious injuries or casualties from falling space debris, NASA scientists have said. - space

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Squatchmaster calls it quits...may start ghost hunting

Click for video

Statement from the Squatchmaster: I wish to thank all my loyal friends on You Tube that have supported our research for the past year and a half. For the most part it has been a very rewarding experience. But, it is time to hang up the hiking boots and to quit picking briers out of my legs. Our final day on this research was culminated with one of our videos being picked to be tested by professionals. It was by far the best time I've ever had doing this. These folks do this full time and have mountains of good hard evidence to support their belief in Bigfoot. To all my true friends out there...we love you all and thank you for your support. Take care, be well and have fun. Goodbye.

NOTE: this is the guy who said he observed a Bigfoot pulling down a tree - click here for the video - in Salt Forks State Park, Ohio. Here is the link to his website - SasquatchEvidence. Lon

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Man auctioning his severed finger...attempts to save haunted railroad museum

Since 1976, John Baker has run the Bakers Junction Railroad Museum in Smithville, Indiana. The museum — which operates a haunted house in old railcars — has fallen on tough financial times, so Baker's turned to an unusual source of fundraising capital. That is, his own severed finger.

Here's John's story: "YO! It is a real finger key chain. I no it's real it's off my right hand. I cut it off working on Bakers Junction Railroad Museum. It can be seen at The Haunted Train fund raiser for Bakers Junction Railroad Museum. I am a 100% disabled Veteran, I cut my finger off with a skill saw when I was cutting over my head standing on one leg, because I only have one leg.


"I was cutting in a bad place and had to hold the saw in my left hand and the saw jammed up and jumped out and cut my finger off as I fell down. They could not sew it back on so I put it in my pocket. I mummified it and put it in plastic. The money goes to paying for the new medal roofs on the 2 century old train station at Bakers Junction Railroad Museum."

According to John, his money troubles stem from a conflict with the "Commie zoning board" of Bloomington, Indiana.

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Several UFO landing sites around Ojai, CA

(Unedited despite the awful spelling): iv seam to be connected to them for some time now.every time i scope the mountians out i see 4 to5 ships on the ground 1 to7 days after that there are gone but then i see new ones in different plases. 5 days ago i saw one that blinded me for about 1 hour with a gold light.the nex day it was gone. i realy dont understand it all 2 days ago i talk to the police about them one said to call them when i have one so i called the police becuse i found one they told me to call a ufo network so that is what i am doing. i found that there is a place in the foot hill in ojai that there area number of them that they are there when i get close to a ship on the ground there are several reasons i cant get close enought to touch then,one is my feet are glue to the ground ten feet away, another is they fill my mind with terrer as if i am going to be eating by something other than they earth a garding that is pertecting them. i under stand that if i get beon there gard and get close enough to tough one of there ships that maybe i might be able to connect to them a may be one with them and to under stand why i am so atracted to them. all i can do right now is to keep a eye on them and wate for the opertunaty for them to have me for there guest but untill then i going to have that barrier.one day they will come for me i will disapeir people will look for me for a wile then they will give up and forget me.i use to worry about it but now i am ready for them to take me i know now that i am ready to give up my life if that is what it takes to be able to be with them to travel to space but i hope that i wantto be in my body alive and well but now i am ready for what ever they want of me. thanks for lissening to me for what i have to say i dont know any more i was told not to mess with them buti cant stand it any more to see them and no one belives me. as of today every time i see one i well do everthing i can to tough them even if it kills me i dont care any more i wont be afraid of them any more i have nothing to live for anymore - MUFON CMS

Fallen From Grace: The Ghosts of the Tower

During it's long and eventful 900 years, The Tower of London has developed a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in Britain. It has been the scene of beheadings, murders, torture and hangings, as well as being a prison to the noble class.

Thomas A. Becket is the first reported sighting of a ghost at the Tower of London. During the construction on the Inner Curtain Wall, Thomas appeared apparently unhappy about the construction, and it is said he reduced the wall to rubble with a strike of his cross. Henry III’s grandfather was responsible for the death of Thomas Becket, so Henry III wasted no time building a chapel in the Tower of London, naming it for the archbishop. This must have pleased Thomas’ spirit because there were no further interruptions during the construction of the wall.

 

The Tower of London is reputedly haunted by other famous entities. Anne Boleyn, beheaded in 1536 for treason against Henry VIII, allegedly haunts the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, where she is buried, and has been said to be walking around the White Tower carrying her head under her arm. Other ghosts include Henry VI, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole, and the Princes in the Tower (Prince Edward and Richard).

The Wakefield Tower is haunted by that most tragic of English monarchs, Henry VI, whose weak and ineffectual reign ended here with his murder “in the hour before midnight” on 21st May 1471, as he knelt at prayer. Tradition asserts that the knife with which he was “stikk’d full of deadly holes” was wielded by the Duke of Gloucester (later the infamous Richard III). On the anniversary of his murder, Henry’s mournful wraith is said to appear as the clock ticks towards midnight, and pace fitfully around the interior of the Wakefield Tower until, upon the last stroke of midnight, he fades slowly into the stone and rests peacefully for another year.

A memorial on Tower Green reminds all of those unfortunate souls who have been executed here over the centuries. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey are both said to return to the vicinity, whilst the ghost of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and last of the Plantagenets, returns here in a dramatic and alarming fashion. At the age of seventy-two she became an unwitting and undeserving target for Henry VIII’s petty vengeance. Her son, Cardinal Pole had vilified the King’s claim as head of the Church in England. But he was safely ensconced in France and so Henry had his mother brought to the block on 27th May 1541. When told by the executioner to kneel, the spirited old lady refused. “So should traitors do and I am none” she sneered. The executioner raised his axe, took a swing at her and then chased the screaming Countess around the scaffold where he, literally, hacked her to death. The shameful spectacle has been repeated several times on the anniversary of her death, as her screaming phantom continues to be chased throughout eternity by a ghostly executioner.

The Bloody Tower, the very name of which conjures up all manner of gruesome images, is home to the most poignant shades that drift through this dreadful fortress. When Edward 1V died suddenly in April 1483, his twelve year old son was destined to succeed him as Edward V. However, before his coronation could take place, both he and his younger brother, Richard, had been declared illegitimate by Parliament and it was their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester who ascended the throne as Richard III. The boys, meanwhile, had been sent to the Tower of London, ostensibly in preparation for Edward’s Coronation, and were often seen playing happily around the grounds. But then, around June 1483, they mysteriously vanished, and were never seen alive again. It was always assumed, that they had been murdered on Richard’s instructions and their bodies buried, somewhere within the grounds of The Tower. When two skeletons were uncovered beneath a staircase of the White Tower in 1674, they were presumed to be the remains of the two little princes and afforded Royal burial in Westminster Abbey. The whimpering wraiths of the two children, dressed in white nightgowns, and clutching each other in terror have frequently been seen in the dimly lit rooms of their imprisonment.

Sir Walter Raleigh lived quite comfortable compared to others who were imprisoned within the walls of the Bloody Tower. His "rooms" are still furnished as they were in the 16th century, and can be seen when visiting the Tower today. He was executed by James I, and has been seen looking exactly as he does in his portrait hanging in the Bloody Tower.

At one time the Tower of London was home to the Royal Menagerie. Lions, leopards, bears, birds, monkeys and an elephant, that was a gift from the King of France, were kept on exhibit. It was here that a sentry encountered a huge phantom bear, before dying of shock two days after the frightful incident in which he speared the creature with his bayonet, only for the blade to pass right through.

Mr Edmond Lenthal Swift was the Keeper of the Crown Jewels, at the Tower Of London from 1814 to 1842. Mr Swift also encountered a terrifying apparition. It was during the October of 1817 when Edmond settled for an evening meal with his wife, their young son, and sister-in-law in the sitting room of the Jewel House. The room was dimly lit by flickering candles, the adults enjoying a glass of wine to relax, when suddenly Mrs Swift yelped, “Good God, what is that?” It was then that the weird spectre came into view...a figure of sorts, but tubular and the thickness of a man’s arm. The weird spook was hovering ominously above the table, its substance and colour seemingly akin to a thick cloud as it swirled.

The witnesses froze in horror as the thing moved slowly around the table, passing before Edmond and his son, before stopping near the right shoulder of Mrs Swift, when she suddenly screamed, “Oh Christ! It has seized me!”

Mr Swift’s reaction was to immediately approach the form and strike it, but his blow seemed to merely hit the wall. The phantom then eerily floated towards the end of the table before vanishing in the area of the nearby window.

Edmond sprinted upstairs to speak to the nurse who was present, and other people from the tower also rushed to Edmond’s aid, whereupon the shaken Mrs Swift retold the encounter.

Something unseen and terrifying resides is in the Salt Tower. This is one of the most haunted areas of the Tower of London complex. This is a very old section, dogs will not enter this ancient building, and ever since one of the Yeoman Warders was nearly throttled by an unknown force, they will not go in the area after nightfall.

In 1864, a soldier whose post was to guard the Queen’s House at the Tower of London, saw a apparition so real, that after ignoring the soldiers three challenges, he charged with all his might at the intruder with his bayonet, only to go straight through the figure.

He was found unconscious at his post and was court-martialled for neglecting his duty. Luckily there were two witnesses who corroborated his story. The soldier was eventually acquitted.

While imprisoned, Henry VIII's ex-queen Catherine Howard escaped from her room in the Tower. "She ran down the hallway screaming for help and mercy. She was caught and returned to her room." The next day she was beheaded. Her ghost has been seen still running down the hallway screaming for help.

Other strange sightings at the Tower of London have been "Phantom funeral carriages" and “A lovely veiled lady that, upon closer look proves to have a black void where her face should be."

Sources:
haunted-britain.com
londonist.com
guide-to-castles-of-europe.com
mysteriousbritain.co.uk
castles.me.uk
Ghosts of the Tower of London
The Tower of London: Past and Present
Tower of London: England's Ghostly Castle (Castles, Palaces & Tombs)
The White Tower
hrp.org.uk
Allen Brown, Reginald; Curnow, P (1984), "Tower of London, Greater London: Department of the Environment Official Handbook, Her Majesty's Stationary Office"

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The Enduring Ghost of Anne Boleyn

The ghost of Queen Anne Boleyn is quite a unique phenomenon in the world of the paranormal. Unlike most ghost who haunt a certain locality, Queen Anne Boleyn's ghost is said to haunt a number of different locations through out the UK. Her spirit seems to have left a permanent imprint on the fabric of her surroundings, which is perhaps down to the impact she made in life and her traumatic death as to why her ghost still persists more than 500 years after her execution.

Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII, with their marriage changing the course of English History. King Henry was already married to Catherine of Aragon and could not obtain a divorce from the Roman Catholic Church. In order to obtain his divorce he therefore created a reformed version of the Church, putting himself at the head - a direct challenge of authority to the Pope.

Having obtained his divorce and married Anne, the King's most important desire was for Anne to conceive a male heir. His previous queen had only given him a female heir, Princess Mary. On 7th September 1533 Anne Boleyn gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth (who was later to become Queen Elizabeth I). After her birth, the relationship between the King and Anne Boleyn deteriorated, and he began to court a new queen in Jane Seymour.

However, Anne became pregnant again, and there was a brief reconciliation, but the child was stillborn. Henry determined to get rid of Anne Boleyn and came up with a charge of treason, arresting and confining her to the Tower of London. Her execution had been scheduled for 18 May 1536 but actually took place the following day as there had been a delay while a skilled executioner was brought in from France.

Queen Anne Boleyn is one of the most enduring ghosts at the Tower of London. Queen Anne is buried under the chapel's altar, with her ghost being spotted there on many occasions. Anne Boleyn has also often been seen standing at the window in the Dean's Cloister at Windsor Castle.

Anne Boleyn's ghost also appears in the grounds of Blickling Hall dressed all in white, seated in a ghostly carriage that is drawn by headless horses, spurred on by a headless coachman. Anne too is headless, holding her severed head securely in her lap. On arrival at Blickling Hall the coach and driver vanish leaving the headless Anne to glide alone into Blickling Hall where she roams the corridors and rooms until daybreak.

The magnificent Blickling Hall was built during the reign of King James I, by the Holbert Family, on the ruins of the old Boleyn family property. Blickling Hall in Norfolk has recently topped a National Trust poll as the Trust's Most Haunted Building. Blickling Hall was in the possession of the Boleyn family between 1499 and 1507. There is a statue and portrait of Anne Boleyn in the Hall, the statue is inscribed "Anna Bolena born here 1507".

Her brother, Lord Rochford, also appears on the same night, he too is headless although he doesn't enjoy the comfort of a carriage, for he is dragged across the surrounding countryside by four headless horses.

Sir Thomas Boleyn, who stated his belief of Anne's guilt at her trial has not found peace in death. Every year, for a thousand years to do as penance, tradition says he is obliged to drive his spectral coach and horses over twelve bridges that lie between Wroxham and Blickling.

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn (Random House Reader's Circle)

Just the Facts? Part-Vampire...Part-Werewolf, Voices From Mars and Questions For JonBenet 's Brother

'I'm part-vampire and part-werewolf'

A Florida teen at the centre of a gruesome murder case has revealed her possible bloodlust brought on by the fact she's a vampire and werewolf.

Stephanie Pistey, 18, was arrested earlier this month and charged with accessory to murder in the death of 16-year-old Jacob Hendershot.

Hendershot was missing for weeks before his naked body was discovered in a storm drain in the town of Parker last month.

Cops said the suspects invited him to a home in July and he was killed by Miss Pistey's fiancé and others after she claimed Hendershot raped her.

A police report obtained by the Panama City News Herald said Hendershot’s throat was cut and he had been choked to death.

In an 18-minute jailhouse interview with news station WJHG, Miss Pistey revealed her relationship with the victim and the murder suspects.

She said she briefly dated Hendershot after she had broken up with one of the murder suspects, William Chase, but then got back together with Chase and got engaged.

Posts on Pistey's Facebook page prompted questions about whether the suspects were in a vampire cult, but she said it’s something else entirely.

Cracking a smile, she said: 'I know this is going to be crazy. But I believe I’m a vampire - part vampire and part werewolf, so it’s not really a cult, it's more just like my personality.'

While she refused to speak about the events surrounding Hendershot’s murder, she talked at great length about her supernatural background.

'Some people have called me a bavie before - a bio-experiment vampire.'

Miss Pistey claimed she has drunk the blood of her fiancé, 17-year-old Chase, who doesn’t share her 'curse.'

'William is more of a wannabe. I don’t even know how we came to like each other.'

Miss Pistey, knows that she faces life behind bars, and said she’s OK with it.

She said: ‘My dad did say since I was about 10 that I’m going to be in jail, and live in jail and rot in jail.

'Now that I’m here, I’m pretty much figuring out that I’m just going to stay here the rest of my life.'

Hendershot’s mother, Nancy Robinson, told the Panama City News Herald that she believes Miss Pistey was the 'ringleader' in her son’s death.

Miss Robinson, who lives in the same apartment building as Pistey, said the suspect tormented her about her son.

She told the paper: 'It took all I had to keep from yanking her blue hair out.'

Pistey claims she was present at the time of Hendershot’s murder, but not involved. She said: 'I was just the babysitter.'

But her Facebook account tells a different story.

On August 20, days after changing her relationship status to 'engaged,' she posted: 'Yea were merryied and hes going to die hes the one that killed jacob hendershot well i let him i wanted the blood.'

She claimed her account had been hacked. - dailymail

Click for video


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Voices from Mars

Dr. Richard Lawrence, the executive secretary of The Aetherius Society in Europe, visited Studio City last week to play rare tapes of the society’s founder Dr. George King who said he channeled a voice from Mars.

A video showed King going into a trance and then speaking in a measured voice to talk about spirituality and peace. These are a part of more than 600 collected Cosmic Transmissions that King made before he died in Santa Barbara in 1997.

Lawrence said he goes beyond teaching about UFOs and tries to explain the profound mystical implications of alien encounters. He wrote UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Message and holds lectures around the world.

“These benign beings might offer humanity a rare opportunity for spiritual evolution,” said Lawrence, who described his personal encounter seeing five objects in a circle in the skies of Great Britain.

He spoke to a crowd of about 80 at the Mutual UFO Network which meets at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Studio City.

“MUFON is known throughout the world as a research source, but I look at it from spiritualization standpoint,” Lawrence said. He pointed out that the description of an air-borne piece of crockery, a “flying saucer,” was described in ancient Japanese and early Hindu writings. He also said he believed that descriptions in the Bible are actually encounters with alien beings.

“We know that you can’t follow a star, so it’s possible that the object in the sky that these three wise gentlemen were following may have been an alien craft hovering over a stable and guiding them to the birth of a cosmic being,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence said he has given speeches throughout the world for more than 30 years.

“Back in the 1980s when I lectured and told people that government was keeping back information, people thought I was a nutter, but now if I were to say that the government is telling you the whole truth, people would think I’m a nutter,” he said. “That is how people have evolved in their thinking.”

Lawrence gives a workshop that includes 30 mystical and yoga practices and also authored a book, Gods, Guides and Guardian Angels. - studiocity.patch

Unlock Your Psychic Powers

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Police Hope JonBenet's Brother May Yield Clues

The author of a book about the slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey says police want to reinterview her brother, who was 9 when the young beauty queen was killed in 1996.

Burke Ramsey, now 23, graduated from Purdue University in Indiana last year and lives in Atlanta, according to his Facebook page.

He was exonerated by DNA testing after JonBenet was strangled in the Ramsey family home in Boulder, Colo., but authorities are reportedly hoping that he may remember additional details.

Lawrence Schiller, author of a book about the Ramsey case titled Perfect Murder, Perfect Town : The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the Grand Jury's Search for the Final Truth told CBS's "The Early Show" on Tuesday that his sources had told him police were hoping to question the young man.

"They said the police had sent on their business cards and asked Burke, if his time permitted, if he could get in touch with them," Schiller said.

Boulder police refused today to confirm the report.

"We are not going to publicly reveal details about the investigation unless doing so would further the needs of the investigation," Police Chief Mark Beckner said in a statement.

After a seven-year hiatus, Boulder police became involved in the case again last year, creating a task force to review details and make recommendations. Beckner said at that time that advances in DNA testing and linguistics technology might help solve the case. He said agencies participating in the task force were the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado attorney general's office, the Denver district attorney's office, and the Boulder County and Jefferson County sheriff's departments.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly told AOL News today that he had not heard of any developments in the case. Ramsey could not be reached for comment. His phone number is unlisted.

Last year, Beckner said authorities had investigated 140 people as potential suspects. He said in his statement today that based on recommendations from the task force, there has been additional contact with those who may have information pertaining to the case. Authorities refused to elaborate.

JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's house on Dec. 26, 1996. A ransom note seeking $118,000 was also found in the 7,000-square-foot home.

Boulder, an affluent community 35 miles northwest of Denver, was shaken by the crime, the only murder in 1996. Initially, prosecutors said JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy, were under "an umbrella of suspicion." A grand jury refused to indict them, but they weren't officially cleared until 2008.

Patsy Ramsey died in June 2006 of ovarian cancer. Less than two months later, John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher in Thailand obsessed with JonBenet's killing, was arrested after making bizarre, detailed confessions in her death. He was brought back to the United States, but he was released after authorities said his DNA did not match evidence in the case. No one has ever been tried for the crime.

John Ramsey, who now lives in Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004. - aolnews

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Two-faced cat has beat the odds

We all know cats have nine lives. But this very special and much loved cat was born with two faces.

Frankenlouie, who lives with his owner in Milbury, Massachusetts, has a genetic birth deformity which caused him to grow the extra facial features.

The extraordinary feline's two faces were caused by a condition called Janus, which normally causes cats to live for only a few days.

But the unusual pet has beaten the odds to live long enough to celebrate his 12th birthday.

Now the feat of survival has earned him a place in the Guinness World Records.

Frankenlouie is already an internet star who has notched up thousands of hits on You Tube.

And the one-in-a million mog has featured on TV shows such as 'Strange, Freaky, True'.

The cat's owner is former veterinary nurse who does not want to be identified. - dailymail

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Fire ants invade during football game

Just when you think you have seen everything in sports, along comes a high school football game that is postponed because of fire ants. No kidding. It happened Friday night at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler High.

Minutes before kickoff between Hunter-Kinard-Tyler and Calhoun County, referee Steve Hook concluded the field was unplayable. His customary pregame inspection of the grounds found 15 to 20 large, active fire-ant piles.

So Hook called the two coaches — Calhoun County’s Walt Wilson and H-K-T’s Jermaine Derricott — together. Hook informed the two that the safety of players, coaches, officials, even the chain gang, would be at risk if the game were played.
fire ants.

“Huh?” Wilson recalled saying to Hood. Then Wilson walked the field himself and could not believe what he saw.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a country fella, so I don’t know all about these things,” Wilson said. “I don’t like science too much, either, so I don’t know all about that. But I know there were a lot of ants on that field.”

Derricott was upset by the decision.

“I don’t see how you can keep ants off the field,” he said. “We live in South Carolina. It’s not like we’re in New York or something. We’re in South Carolina. We have ants here. … I don’t think there’s a (football) field in South Carolina that doesn’t have ants.”

As anyone who lives in these parts knows, fire ants are annoying insects. They sting and inject venom called solenopsin into their target. It is bad stuff. Fire ants have been known to kill small animals and can be deadly to sensitive humans as well.

“It was a safety issue, and (the officials) took care of it,” said Bruce Hulion, commissioner of football officials for the South Carolina High School League. “I applaud them for doing that because, after the fact, when they have the teams and the officials come up with welts on their arms and legs with hand bites, that’s not the time to say, ‘We wish we had done this.’ ”

Derricott saw it differently. Calhoun County had made the 30-minute bus ride west through Orangeburg to Neeses, which is located about 30 miles south of Columbia. The teams had warmed up and were prepared to play a key Region 4-A game. Calhoun County is 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the region. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler is 1-3, 1-1.

With the home crowd settled into its seats, the last thing Derricott wanted was the game to be postponed. So he went to work attempting to get the field in playing order. School and athletics officials chipped in and attempted to dig the fire-ant piles out of the ground.

“That just made ’em mad,” Wilson said. “If you top off an ant hill, you just set off thousands of ants. That’s how it looked.”

Derricott said officials next poured salt into the ant hills but to no avail. Finally, a Hunter-Kinard-Tyler fan came out of the stands to offer assistance. He asked for a few minutes to go home and returned with fire-ant poison.

“Obviously, that’s not going to be an immediate answer,” Hulion said.

After about 30 minutes, Hood ruled that the game was to be postponed. He filed his report with the SCHSL, and all parties concerned spent part of Sunday and Monday attempting to find a makeup date.

By late Monday, the game was set to be played tonight at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler but only if the fire ants have been cleared to the satisfaction of game officials.

No word on whether Hunter-Kinard-Tyler has installed its new “fire ants” defense for the game. - thestate

New Hampshire Wood Devils

I received the following anecdote from Will, a longtime resident of northern New Hampshire:

Hello - I enjoy reading your daily newsletter. I thought I'd write to you about an experience I had back in 1991. I enjoy photographing the outdoors and try to get out at least once during each season. It was the Fall of the year and I had seen several moose along the Pontook Reservoir and the Androscoggin River, so I decided to try and get a few photographs.

I parked off of Berlin Rd and walked into the woods east of the dam. I walked about 1000 feet or so. It was very dense and the light was low so I decided to get closer to the lake where I could pick up some better light. As I turned north I heard a cracking sound behind me. I turned to see what it was but saw nothing so I started to walk toward the area where the sound came from. I hadn't walked far when I saw something tall and thin dart from behind a sugar maple tree and quickly disappear. I stood for a minute and again this thing came from behind a large maple tree and then vanished again. I tried to get a photograph but the darn thing was fast and nothing every showed up on the shot. It didn't show itself anymore that day.

I went back to the location a couple more times but never witnessed this thing again. There are a lot of legends my father would tell us as kids but I really never gave it much thought. Some of the people around here used to talk about wood devils in the White Mountains but I've never heard about anybody seeing one or anything similar to what I saw.

The thing was about 7 foot tall, dark thick fur or hair and thin. Much thinner than a normal man at that height. Like I said it was very fast and nimble. I never heard a sound other than the footsteps it made when moving.

That's really all I have to say on this. I've seen many unusual things in my 76 years but this thing was the strangest. What do you think I saw? Will W.

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This is what I found on 'wood devils':

This was posted on the USENET several years ago and posted on a forum: Many years ago I lived up in Coos County in New Hampshire. Some of the old men would talk about things called "wood devils" that live in the woods. There apparently were a lot more of these creatures back in the 1930's than there are now.

These Wood Devils were tall and very skinny. They are gray colored and very hairy. I guess that people saw them mostly when they didn't expect to. They stay in the deep woods. They can move very fast. When a person walked through the woods he would nearly walk into one before he spotted it. They hide by standing upright and still against a tree. As a person approaches it, the creature will stand against the opposite side of the tree. As the person passes it will move so that the tree is always between the person and the tree. If it cannot hide it will still stay perfectly still until it knows the person sees it. They make awful screams. They have a semi human shape, but their faces don't look at all human. I have never seen one, but the people who said they did were regular churchgoers and would strap their kids for lying. I don't think they would carry on discussions of things they made up.

This was posted at burlingtonnews.net:

Wood devils (Eastern United States NA): A major part of Appalacian folklore, wood devils are tall, skinny humanoids with an almost "stick-man" appearence, due to their gracile build. Are considered hostile by the locals, and are much feared. Possibly a modern descendant of the gracile Au stralopithecines, or perhaps a race of the other eastern hominid.

Karl Shuker explained: According to the settlers inhabiting Coos County in New Hampshire, the deep woodlands of this New England state harboured elusive, fleet-footed beings known as wood devils. Although superficially humanoid in appearance, they were very tall, hairy, and thin, with grey skin. They were able to emit piercing screams, and their faces were not those of humans at all. Occasionally, a human would unexpectedly encounter one of these mysterious man-beasts, but if a wood devil became aware of a human's approach, it would conceal itself by standing upright and perfectly still against a tree, moving slightly to one side if necessary in order to keep the tree's trunk between itself and the oncoming person. All of these details are consistent with modern-day reports of the bigfoot.

The following is posted on the BFRO website:

YEAR: 1930's

SEASON: Unknown

STATE: New Hampshire

COUNTY: Coos County

OBSERVED:
Many years ago I lived up in Coos county in New Hampshire. Some of the old men would talk about things called "wood devils" that live in the woods. There apparently were a lot more of these creatures back in the 1930's than there are now.

These Wood Devils were tall and very skinny. They are grey colored and very hairy. I guess that people saw them mostly when they didn't expect to. They stay in the deep woods.

They can run very fast. When a person walked through the woods he would nearly walk into one before he spotted it. They hide by standing upright and still against a tree. As a person approaches it it will stand against the opposite side of the tree. As the person passes it will move so that the tree is always between the person and the tree. If it cannot hide it will still stay perfectly still until it knows the person sees it. They make awful screams. They have a semi human shape, but their faces don't look at all human. I have never seen one, but the people who said they did were regular church goers and would strap their kids for lying. I don't think they would carry on discussions of things they made up.

NOTE: so...what is this 'thing'? Is is a Bigfoot? Here is a link to a video of a similar sighting - Click for video - Wood Devil...Lon

Bigfoot Encounters in New York & New England
Bigfoot Across America

UFO Electro-Magnetic Radiation Effects On U.S. Navy Vessels - USS Edenton / USS Memphis

UFO Seen From US Navy Ship

While in the US Navy in the summer of 1986, I was standing lookout aboard the USS Edenton ATS 1 (currently decommissioned). The lookout watch, stood outside on top the bridge of the ship, and was responsible for reporting all contacts seen both in the water and sky. It was around eleven p.m. one clear night at sea, located about fifty miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.

During one of my scans of the night sky, out of know where, four red circular lights appeared. The lights where hundreds of yards apart from each other and formed a square. At first, I thought it was four separate air craft, such as, military helicopters because the lights were stationary; however, due to the distance from the ship, the lights where too large to be aircraft running lights.

There were also no other normal running lights like green and white, which make-up the normal outline of an aircraft seen at night. The lights where located about twenty degrees above the horizon and about a mile away from the ship. Again, these four red lights were each about the size of a small plane, which were very bright and visible in the night sky. The night sky was also clear, moon lit, and a moderate amount of stars were visible, which also aided in calculating the distance and size of these lights.

As stated, when I first saw these lights they were all stationary in the sky and appeared out of know where. Once I noticed that these were not normal lights, grouped in a square and not moving, I called down to the bridge over a salt and pepper line informing the conning officer of a possible UFO sighting. This brought laughter across the wire at first, but I relayed the contact again in a stern but excited voice, which succeeded in getting the bridge officers attention. After relaying the contact information a second time, the four lights, in a flash, darted towards the horizon amazingly fast. The lower two lights in the square went first, with the top two lights following directly behind them in a curved swooshing motion and there was no sound.

Then all four shot straight up into outer-space and out of sight, all within a split second. At this point, I felt very excited and shocked, and was personally praying someone on the bridge had seen what I just saw. Having been an avid watcher of the night sky, seen shooting stars and a believer in that life has to exist somewhere out there, I become even more excited because I knew, I just saw my first unidentified flying object(s).

To my amazement, when I returned to the bridge after my watch, I was very pleased to learn that the conning officer and everyone else on the bridge had seen this sighting and logged it into the ship’s log as a UFO sighting.

Next, after a half hour had passed since the sighting, the radiation detection system (gamma roentgen meter) on the bridge started making a loud clicking sound. At first, no one seemed to know what was making this sound then a very loud bell went off notifying us as to what was going on, we were being radiated.

When the instrument stopped clicking, it indicated we had taken a hit of 385 roentgens in the period of about one minute. At this point, the captain of the ship was awoken and called to the bridge, as well as the chief in charge of the radiation metering equipment onboard ship.

The captain was not impressed with an entry of a UFO sighting being placed in the ship’s log, and at first, took the roentgen meter as being defective. However, the chief informed the captain that the meter had been serviced and calibrated the day before and that other like meters throughout the ship had just gone off indicating the same amount of roentgens received as the bridge.

The captain stated not to log the instance concerning the radiation exposure and left the bridge. During the rest of my watch duty that night, no officer or enlisted person spoke of what happened, and also acted liked nothing happened. This experience, however, was etched into my memory as if it happened yesterday and I have told this story to only a few people, people who I thought would believe me. This is also the first time I have documented the events of this night.

In conclusion, as an indication of the strength of gamma radiation, I and others received that night; all the personnel during the Project Trinity experiments conducted in 1945 at ground zero, only received between 1 and 6 total roentgens of gamma radiation. This leads me to believe, we traveled through the wake of radiation produced by the UFOs seen thirty minutes earlier. - MUFON CMS

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Large 'V' Shaped UFO Encounter With US Navy Nuclear Submarine

A sailor reports about the UFO sighting he had while in the Navy. "I was assigned to USS Memphis (SSN-698), Homeport - Titusville, FL. (Cape Canaveral.) Our mission was Special Assignments which meant we protected the Space Program. We would go to sea and patrol while the shuttle was on the pad. Nine years ago, on October 24 and 25, my ship was on patrol about 150 miles of the Florida coast. We were cruising at about 500 feet when the submarine started experiencing electronics problems. The ship was malfunctioning, our tanks were blowing out of control, we were losing navigation ability and the communications area was totally lost. We went to all stop and tried to access what was happening. The controls in the reactor area started to malfunction. This presented a serious danger to our safety, so the captain ordered us to shut down the reactor, surface and go to diesel motors. When the ship surfaced I went to my watch station. The ship was still experiencing electronic difficulties but the mechanical devices such as diesel engines, cook stoves, and turbines were fine. It was raining and the entire sky was red like a red neon sign. I saw a large inverted V-shaped UFO off the port side. The executive officer told me to stand fast and he would speak to the captain. In a minute, the captain appeared on the tower and asked me for a distance to the craft. The laser range finder determined the closest point was 200 meters and the farthest point was 1,000 meters off the port. The UFO was not perpendicular to our ship but at about a 45' angle. This huge vessel was over a half mile across. The UFO made a half circle around our ship then passed across the stern causing our electronics systems to go crazy. We had permanent damage in communications and the sonar room. As the craft flew over the stern, I could see the rain stop under its red glow. The water seemed to rise almost a foot as the UFO passed over silently. When the UFO finished its swing across the stern it paused - the sky got brighter red and it simply moved off at tremendous speed inside 15 seconds. When the UFO left our boat returned to normal with the exception of the radio and sonar. We did a quick system check and the captain ordered us to return to reactor power and get underway.

The captain took two petty officers, the executive officer, and myself into the wardroom. He told us to not spread any rumors until we had a chance to talk to Commander Submarine Fleet - Atlantic. We reached port in about 7 hours where I was taken into "protective custody." Two enlisted men and myself agreed we had witnessed a real UFO. I was the one who shot it with a laser range finder so I was the only one that had its exact sizes. I shot that vessel as it hovered and I got solid readings not spotty like I would on debris. We were in holding for about three hours when an officer from the Air Force arrived and gave us a line of bull about an exploding weather satellite. The Navy then transferred virtually everyone on the crew to new assignments. This included the her captain, the executive officer and the entire crew. They were split up which almost never happens unless one of them gets a promotion or a new command, neither of which happened. The military just split up a 4 year team. I was watching a program tonight that gave me the courage to share it. - MUFON CMS - Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown

Just the Facts? Squid Invade California, 'Clawed Man' Attack and White Sphere USO

Squid invade California coast

The ocean off Orange County has become alive with two- to three-foot squid, to the delight of anglers who don't mind being squirted with water and ink, and of landing operators who had been enduring a slow period of sportfishing.

Boats from Long Beach to Dana Point began targeting Humboldt, or jumbo squid after an image surfaced last week showing hundreds of the deep-water denizens washed ashore at Blacks Beach in San Diego County. (Hundreds more washed ashore Thursday at San Clemente.)

Humboldt squid, which can measure 7 feet and weigh more than 100 pounds, appear off Southern California every four or five years, spurred by a warm current or some other anomaly. Their historic range was off South America, but for years they've been entrenched in the Sea of Cortez off Mexico.

Recent invasions off California and even beyond, off the Pacific Northwest, caused scientists to become concerned that the voracious squid, which could be harmful to other fisheries, are expanding their territory to include West Coast waters.

Strandings of squid on beaches have historically preceded infestations in localized areas, and it's apparent that such an infestation is occurring off Orange County. This might have something to do with a considerable decrease in blue whale sightings in the same areas during the past two days.

The crew of the Freedom out of Davey's Locker in Newport Beach reported the capture of 1,300 squid on Thursday night alone.

Blacksbeachsquid Anglers aboard the Sum Fun out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing had trouble locating the squid, which typically inhabit depths of 650-3,000 feet, until about 9:45 p.m.

"Then all of a sudden they just attacked the boat," said Donna Kalez, who manages the landing. "They bit for 45 minutes and the anglers caught over 400 squid."

While Humboldt squid are easier to locate at night, by using bright lights to lure them upward, anglers aboard day boats have been getting them, too.

There are even reports that fishermen off the Dana Point breakwater have seen squid chase game fish as they're being reeled in.

Kalez said the last time squid were off Orange County they stayed for three weeks, allowing anglers to load up on calamari steaks.

She's billing her nighttime trips, which cost $25, as family-friendly. After all, what kid wouldn't appreciate a creature with slithering arms and tentacles, capable of squirting ink the width of a boat?

As for crew members who have to clean the boat, they might be of a different opinion. - petethomasoutdoors

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Boy attacked by bizarre 'clawed man'

A 15-year-old boy was scratched in a bizarre 'claw' attack as he walked to school.

The attack happened in an alleyway in Quedgeley off Church Drive at around 7.55am on Tuesday, September 20.

The boy, a pupil at Severn Vale school, reported that he was walking towards School Lane when he turned around and saw a man lash out with his hand and use an unknown implement to inflict five scratch marks on his right cheek.

The offender lashed out again and scratched the boy’s forearm before the boy managed to run away.

The offender is described as white, between 50 and 60 years old, 6ft to 6ft 4ins tall and with grey hair.

Patrols are being increased in the area as a result of the incident and police are urging anyone with information to call the new non-emergency number 101, quoting incident 161 of September 20.

Severn Vale School headteacher Peter Rowland said: “I was shocked to hear his report, and was happy to liaise closely and quickly with the local police and repeat the warnings about stranger danger we regularly give our students. It’s a highly unusual situation which we must take most seriously.” - thisisgloucestershire

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Croc turns orange

Owner Tracey Sandstrom, who runs Roaming Reptiles, In Victoria, Australia, said Snappy the crocodile made a meal out of the filter in his water tank. "I think it caused the pH levels in his water to soar which has led to the change in colour."

She was stunned when her prized pet turned bright orange. "Snappy's pretty territorial and he attacked the filter one day and a few weeks after that, I noticed he was orange," she said.

The 2.5m croc stays warm at night in his heated indoor tank before moving outside through his "croc flap" to bask in sunshine by day. "It doesn't seem to have affected him at all. He's still got a healthy appetite, he is normally aggro and doing everything he always does," Ms Sandstrom said.

Darwin croc expert Grahame Webb examined the photos and confirmed Snappy was a picture of health.

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What was that thing?

White Sphere Sweden

A mysterious unidentified submerged object was filmed off the coast of Sweden this month.

The encounter has hit headlines in Sweden and generated interest elsewhere, with talk of secret underwater vehicle developments and even alien visitation being considered as a possible explanation. Sweden's armed forces have been involved in trying to determine what the object could have been and if it represents a threat.

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DAILY 'PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS' NEWSLETTER STATUS

Hi folks....well, a survey of finances and revenue for the blog was conducted the past several days and I have been given some interesting results.

Since the newsletter and feed readers rarely come to the blog site those people do not use the advertising offerings that are posted there. In other words, they receive the posts by email or feed reader and are not subjected to the product advertisements that create revenue.

According to the person who administered the analytics, I am losing about $4400 each year in lost advertising revenue including other out-of-pocket expenses.

Though I do not want to stop the newsletter or charge a fee for this service, I am left with only one option...limit the amount of subscribers.

Those subscribers who are currently receiving the newsletter will continue to do so. I will continue to allow new subscriptions...but there will be an eventual cut-off point in order to maintain a maximum number of subscribers. I am also going to go into the subscriber list and remove those email addresses that have (1) stopped receiving emails, (2) continue to return mailings and (3) forward the newsletter to other addresses. If you unsubscribe please be aware that you may not be able to reestablish a future subscription.

I feel this is the only fair solution since many readers have made prior donations and I want to honor their loyalty. If you wish to contribute with a donation, there is a 'DONATE' button located on the blog at www.phantomsandmonsters.com or you can go to PayPal.com and use our email address (lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com) as the donation recipient.

Thanks again for reading...Lon