Unlike the Roswell event, this incident had many civilian witnesses. There have been two books and one documentary dedicated to this event...but far less attention than the 1947 Roswell incident:
One of the most mysterious stories of a crashed UFO with alien bodies preceded the well know Roswell events by some six years. This case was first brought to investigators by Leo Stringfield in his book UFO CRASH/RETRIEVALS: The Inner Sanctum, Status Report VI
He opened a tantalizing account of a military controlled UFO crash retrieval which is still being researched today. The details of the case were sent to him in a letter from one Charlette Mann, who related her minister-grandfather's deathbed confession of being summoned to pray over alien crash victims outside of Cape Girardeau, Missouri in the spring of 1941. Reverend William Huffman had been an evangelist for many years, but had taken the resident minister reigns of the Red Star Baptist Church in early 1941. Church records corroborate his employment there during the period in question.After receiving this call to duty, he was immediately driven the 10-15 mile journey to some woods outside of town. Upon arriving at the scene of the crash, he saw policemen, fire department personnel, FBI agents, and photographers already mulling through the wreckage. He was soon asked to pray over three dead bodies. As he began to take in the activity around the area, his curiosity was first struck by the sight of the craft itself.
As he arrived back at his home at 1530 Main Street, he was still in a state of mild shock, and could not keep his story from his wife Floy, and his sons. This late night family discussion would spawn the story that Charlette Mann would hear from her grandmother in 1984, as she lay dying of cancer at Charlette's home while undergoing radiation therapy. Charlette was told the story over the span of several days, and although Charlette had heard bits and pieces of this story before, she now demanded the full details.
As her grandmother tolerated her last few days on this Earth, Charlette knew it was now or never to find out everything she could before this intriguing story was lost with the death of her grandmother. She also learned that one of the members of her grandfather's congregation, thought to be Garland D. Fronabarger, had given him a photograph taken on the night of the crash. This picture was of one of the dead aliens being help up by two men. - ufocasebook.com
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| 1999 Drawings by Charlette Mann Based on Her Memory of the 1941 Photograph |
Local UFO probe Researcher seeks answers to report of crash in 1941
A Virginia man is investigating the possibility that a UFO crashed near Cape Girardeau in 1941. "That would be six years before Roswell," said James Westwood of Centreville, Va., referring to the 1947 incident in which the government allegedly recovered and then covered up a UFO crash in New Mexico. "That would put Cape Girardeau County on the UFO map." he said.
Southeast Missouri already is known for UFO activity. Dr. Harley Rutledge, a former chairman of the physics department at Southeast Missouri State University who is now retired, has investigated reports of strange sights seen flying through the skies near Piedmont and other UFO reports.
"Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena" outlines Rutledge's research.
Westwood said Rutledge told him he has not heard of the 1941 incident. Westwood, a retired Navy man and engineer; is looking for people who may remember an incident from 1941 when some type of aircraft reportedly crashed approximately ~3 to 15 miles outside Cape Girardeau.
Westwood bases his investigation on an account by Charlotte Mann, a Texas woman whose grandfather, the Rev. William Huffman, was the pastor of Red Star Baptist Church from 1941 to 1944.
Leonard H. Stringfield, a renowned UFO investigator, recounted Mann's story in the July 1991 issue of his "Status Report," a monthly publication on UFO activities and investigations. Mann told Stringfield her grandfather got a call one spring night from police asking him to accompany them to the site of an airplane crash outside town in case the victims needed a clergyman.
"A car was sent to get him, but grandmother said it wasn't a police car," Mann said in Stingfield's recounting of the story. When Huffman got to the crash scene, Mann said, he noticed one piece of the wreckage that appeared to have a rounded shape with no edges or seams," and a "very shiny metallic finish."
"Police officers, "plainclothes men" and "military officers were already at the scene sifting through the wreckage, Mann said. Laid to one side of the scene were "three bodies, not human," she recounted. "It was hard for him to tell if they had on suits or if it was their skin, but they were covered head to foot in what looked like wrinkled aluminum foil," Mann said. "He could see no hair on their bodies and they had no ears. They were small framed like a child, about 4 feet tall, but had larger heads and longer arms." Their faces had "large, oval-shaped eyes, no noses, just holes and no lips, just small slits for mouths," Mann said. Huffman was told by one of the military officers at the scene not to tell anyone what he had witnessed for security reasons, Mann told Stringfield. Huffman told his wife, Floy, and their two Sons what he had seen when he returned home from the crash site but never spoke of it again, said Mann.
Huffman died in 1959. His wife, who died in 1984, told Mann the story. A few weeks after the crash, Huffman was apparently given a photo of two men holding one of the corpses found at the scene. Mann's father loaned the photo to a friend but never saw it again.
Now Westwood, who read Mann's account in Stringfield's publication, is looking for other who may remember hearing about the crash. "What you need here is another source, at least one other person who says, I sort of remember this," Westwood said. "Even if it's second-hand account, you've at least got another source.
"Mann's account says the crash happened in the spring. Westwood speculates it may actually have happened in the fall because of the mention of a field fire caused by the crash. In the spring, he reasons, vegetation would have been too wet to burn easily. "But in the fall, it's very dry," he said.
He also speculates the military officers on the scene may have been called in from an Army Air Corps base in Sikeston at the time. If the crash happened, the military and police wouldn't have known what they were looking at, Westwood said, because Roswell and the other early UFO sightings hadn't happened. And the incident may have been covered up for military security reasons since the U.S. was gearing up for World War II, he said. "It wouldn't be implausible" for the incident to have been reported as an airplane crash, Westwood said.
Westwood began researching Mann's story at the beginning of the year. He has been in Cape Girardeau for the last week reviewing local records and looking for potential sources. He hasn't had much luck. So far; no one he has talked to has admitted to knowing anything.
"There isn't anything that I would consider even close," Westwood said. He found a report of a student pilot's airplane crash near Morley in Scott County in May 1941, and a local pilot told him about another crash near Oak Ridge that happened in spring 1941.
The other problem is the Huffmans left the area not long after the alleged crash. The Cape Girardeau city directory lists the Huffmans from 1942 to 1944, but they aren't listed in the 1945 directory. Records from the Southeast Missourian say Huffman became the pastor of the church in September 1941.
And Stringfield, who investigated hundreds of reports of UFO crashes and retrievals, died in 1994. His family has refused to release his files to other researchers.
Westwood says he has never seen a UFO or been in contact with extraterrestrials. "There's no doubt in my mind that UFOs are real flying objects from outer space," he said. He points to similarities in thousands of sightings and reports from people who have reported having contact with extraterrestrials as evidence that something is out there. But what he calls the "cultism" surrounding the study of UFOs and false reports by attention-seeking hysterics detracts from evidence given by witnesses or people who claim contact, Westwood says, "aren't any crazier than anybody else."
Tracing UFO reports is "an interesting kind of detective story," Westwood said. "It's a Sherlock Holmes kind of thing in which you have to sort through a lot of BS looking for those nuggets. In the end, some of the things fit, and some Things don't"
The Roswell crash and recovery isn't the only UFO crash in the annals of the study of UFOs, Westwood said. "It's just the best known," he said. - Peggy O'Farrel, Southeast Missourian (CSETI)
NOTE: Here is the MUFON pdf THE FIRST ROSWELL - Evidence For A Crash Retrieval In Cape Girardeau Missouri In 1941...Lon
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INTERVIEW WITH CHARLETTE MANN
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Non-Human
Craft and Bodies Retrieval in 1941
Charlette Mann, Spiritual Counselor, Tyler, Texas, and Granddaughter of Southern Baptist Minister William Huffman who began his ministry in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1941. "My father had this picture which I had seen I don't know when I saw it the first time. I've seen it many, many times. And it was a picture of a little alien being that was held up under the arm pits. There was a man on either side and they had one hand under the arm pit and then further out on the arm because the little guy had much larger, longer arms than we have. And I grew up seeing that occasionally at home. I didn't think much about it as younger. But as I grew older, I began to ask questions about it because I was always very fascinated with the eyes. I wasn't afraid of them exactly, but they haunted me.
My grandmother became ill with cancer and so she spent a great deal of time in my home taking chemotherapy and staying with us until she was a little bit stronger. That was shortly before her death that I began to ask her questions. And I tried to make them very open ended. I didn't want to lead her into anything and I asker her if she recalled that evening when grandfather had received a call. And it took me quite a few days to even convince her after all these years and grandfather having passed away quite some time ago to break that bond or confidence that they had made. Grandfather and this is how it was related by my grandmother and then I knew if it came out of my grandmother's mouth, I knew it was correct.
WHEN WAS SHE ILL AND DYING, WHAT YEAR?
It was in 1983 to 1984 and passed away I'm not good with dates it was in the year of 1984, I believe. She was here at my home. She lived in Missouri at the time, but I brought her here and she stayed in my home.
IN TEXAS.
Yes.
AND DURING THAT TIME IN 1984 BEFORE SHE PASSED, THAT'S WHEN YOU WERE ABLE TO HAVE SOME KIND OF CONVERSATION WITH HER ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI IN 1941.
Right.
DID SHE EVER SUGGEST A MONTH OR A DATE?
We talked about it and she thought, and I still strongly believe, that it was the latter part of April. The reason being is that my mother and father were there visiting grandmother and grandpa and she was expecting my sister. My sister was born on May 3, 1941. And so, they had been there 3 or 4 weeks before Mother delivered.
OK, APRIL 1941. WHAT DID SHE TELL YOU ABOUT WHAT SHE REMEMBERED?
Well, they were sitting around visiting and it was 8 or 9 o clock of the evening. The phone rang and grandfather went to the telephone. He talked for a little bit and hung up the phone. What was said at that time was that someone from, had called the police department, or we assumed it was the police department, and they had reported what they saw was a plane crash, that the person whose property it was on had seen it. It had landed into a field and there was some fire associated. So, they asked if grandfather would be willing to go out with them to the scene in case there were some people who might need prayer or assistance because they weren't quite sure what they were headed to.
So, he agreed to do that and a car was sent for him. They picked him up. I don't know how long he was gone. She didn't ever tell me that, but for awhile. It was later because they stayed up late to wait. When he came back, he was very shaken and it took a lot to shake my grandfather. She said that he set down and told her, 'I'm going to tell you what has happened. You can never repeat it and I will never speak of it again.'
And he said that when he got out there that it wasn't a crashed plane at all. There were some civilians. We assume probably people who lived near the farm where it had crashed, near the people who had placed the call. Neighbors. I believe there was a newspaper man from the newspaper. I believe there might have been fire people at the time. But some civilian people.
Grandfather described what he saw was a saucer-shape that had broken in half and you could walk up to see inside. He saw a lot of panel of things he didn't know. Gauges, different things and small little seats that looked children-sized. The thing that seemed to impress him the most and intrigued him the most was there was a band around it of a type of metal that he was not familiar with. It looked as if it had hieroglyphic, like Egyptian-type, writing that he assumed was writing.
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| Southern Baptist Reverend William Huffman, witness to the crash in Missouri, began his ministry in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1941. Photograph courtesy Reverend Huffman's granddaughter, Charlette Mann, and Majestic-12 documents researcher, Ryan Wood. (credit: Genealogical Research) |
THE SYMBOLS WERE ON THE WALLS INSIDE THE CRAFT?
On the inside. And that there were three beings, thrown. They were on the outside and assumed they were thrown out (by the crash). One was still breathing, was not dead. Grandfather knelt down next to him and he expired, but he prayed over each and every one of them."
In 1999, Charlette Mann drew what she remembered seeing in the photograph that her father kept of the 1941 incident. Around her drawing, she wrote: "My Grandfather stated that the being was not alive at the time of this picture being taken. The picture was approximately 9 inches by 9 inches and had scalloped (white) edges. This is how the little Alien was being held in the picture I saw of my grandfather's (incident). There were some trees. The grass was ankle high and deeper in places. I was so fixed on his eyes I don't recall as much other details as I might have." She also noted that the man on the right in her drawing "had on dress slacks, wide brimmed hat. They both had white shirts on." The man on the right had "his sleeves rolled up. The other had a short waist coat jacket. There was no one else in the picture except these three."
It seemed to be a child-sized being, probably 4 feet tall, maybe. It was difficult to tell if it had on a metallic suit or if its skin it kind of looked like crinkled aluminum foil, but soft. I stated in speaking about it since then, he looked as if he had no bone structure, but kind of like octopus tentacles would appear soft like that. Very large oval eyes. I have never ever seen anything like it until at one point several years ago, I saw Whitley Strieber's book cover on Communion, and that alien being, that face, was the first I had seen not exactly the same, but fairly close. Larger head. The dark oval eyes. Large eyes. It didn't really have a nose. It looked like two little dots, like someone had taken a pencil. and marked two dots. I don't recall the mouth. It was more as if you took a knife and slit across. No lips, nothing like that.
I can't recall the feet because I never could hardly get past those eyes. I do recall it had a small framed body. The arms were much longer than our arms. Their hands I don't know how many fingers it had exactly, but I do recall that it was not formed like our hand. But there were less fingers and much longer.
DO I UNDERSTAND THAT THE MEN ON EITHER SIDE OF THIS NON-HUMAN WERE NOT DRESSED IN MILITARY UNIFORMS?
Oh, absolutely not. They were there before the military got there.
WHO DO YOU THINK THEY WERE?
They were local people. The photograph itself was in a rural field-like country setting. In other words, it was grass that is grown up, or wheat or whatever happened to be in the field. I remember there being a large tree in one area of it. There were no other people who were visible. There were two men, one on each side, that were holding the alien up. Each one of them had one hand under the armpit and then had hold of the arm further out, not quite reaching the wrist, but fairly close.
AS IF DEMONSTRATING HOW LONG THE ARMS WERE, AS WELL?
I think so, because they went completely across their bodies and were still extended further out.
The alien, I don't know how to describe it exactly other than to say it actually did not look like it had on clothes, but there were no physical male or female features. And it looked crinkled, kind of shiny, if you will, as if it could have been aluminum foil and crinkled. So, I don't know if that was a suit or his skin, but it covered every part of him. You couldn't see seams or buttons or anything like that.
WHAT ABOUT THE NECK AND THE HEAD? WERE THEY COVERED AS WELL?
No, they were out just normal. As I said, the eyes were looked just huge oval with blackness. No expression.
NO EXPRESSION. WHEN YOU SAY AN OVAL, IT COULD BE VERTICAL IN THE FACE OR HORIZONTAL OR SLANTED. DO YOU REMEMBER IF THOSE EYES WERE SITTING HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL OR SLANTED?
Vertical, up and down.
I SEE, VERTICAL OVALS.
Yes. And two little dots for what I would have called a nose and a slit for the mouth.
AND NO EARS?
I don't remember no, no ears like we have ears. I can't say he had ears, no. I couldn't see a side view of where the ear might have been, so I don't know if he would have had the same little dots like for the nose. I don't know. But no, not ears like ours at all.
IF THIS CRINKLY PART THAT SEEMED TO BE SORT OF METALLIC LIKE CRINKLED TINFOIL WENT UP TO THE NECK AND THE FACE, BUT DID NOT COVER THE NECK AND FACE?
It did not actually that's why I say it's hard to know what you were looking at because there was no seam. It wasn't like if you have a suit and there is a collar with a seam. It just blended or moved into. I don't know how else to describe it.
DID THE NECK AND FACE COLOR IN THE B&W PHOTO SEEM TO BE SIMILAR TO THE COLOR YOU WERE SEEING AS CRINKLED TINFOIL OR WAS IT DARKER OR LIGHTER?
Being a B&W photograph, it's hard to distinguish. No, it was not darker. If anything, lighter.
WITH THE DARK OVAL EYES. AND IN TERMS OF THE FACE, HOW BIG DO YOU THINK THOSE OVALS WERE IN TERMS OF THE AREA THEY COVERED IN THE FACE?
Most of its face.
AT THE ENDS OF THOSE VERY LONG ARMS, WHAT CAN YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THE HANDS?
I do remember as if he had I don't remember seeing more than 3 fingers and they were very, very long, much longer than ours. I don't recall seeing any fingernails, but I can't swear to that because I was so taken with the face. But I do know he did not have 5 digits. That I can tell you. It seemed to be more like three and they were quite elongated and both hands were the same.
DOWN THE LEGS TO THE FEET?
I don't it's odd. I don't recall seeing his feet. I just was too taken with the face. I noted that he was, I know he had legs. But I can't describe the feet for you at all. I'm sorry, but I just didn't focus on them.
OK. DID YOUR GRANDFATHER SAY THAT HE KNEW THAT THIS BEING WAS DEAD IN THIS PICTURE WITH THESE TWO CIVILIANS HOLDING IT? OR WAS THAT AN ASSUMPTION THAT WAS MADE?
No, because he I think the picture was taken while he was ministering to the one who he said still seemed to be taking short breaths. And so, the other two were several said dead on impact. So, he knew it was one of those that the picture was taken of. How he came about he wasn't aware that that picture had been taken. But someone came to the house, this gentleman came to the house two weeks later and he seemed, Grandmother said, 'Very, very frightened.' And he wanted someone that he trusted to have a copy. Hew felt like someone should have a copy of the picture and he asked grandfather if he would take it and he did. So, that's how we came about to even having it."
Military Arrives and Orders Secrecy in the Interest of National Security
While this was taking place, all of a sudden, military just showed up, surrounded, and overran the place. Grandfather was taken aside as were several of them and they were told that they had not seen what had taken place, that it was high security as far as the government (was concerned) national security. So, they weren't to speak of it.
Nowadays, we probably wouldn't (obey). But in that day and time, if you said to my grandfather, 'This is about our country and this is important and it will be detrimental.' He truly never did speak of it again to our knowledge.
So, I think they (military) scared some of them much more than it did my grandfather. My grandfather seemed to be more shaken with the fact that there were alien beings. But anyway, they (military) dispersed them. Grandfather came home. That would have been that, except one of the men, a photographers had taken I guess a personal camera one of his own in addition to his professional newspaper camera. He had taken some pictures. That was the one I later saw.
THIS WAS OF TWO CIVILIANS OR FIRE WORKERS ...
No, they were not fire workers. They were definitely two civilian people holding up one of the deceased aliens.
THE BEING WAS DEFINITELY DECEASED?
This one, yes.
AND YET IT HAD ITS EYES OPEN?
The eyes appeared just yes, they did. I don't know if they have eyelids. I don't know. I can only tell you what I saw. I can't explain it. I don't try. I don't want to tamper with it. I just give the account that was given to me. The eyes were very visible.
DID YOU EVER HEAR ANY DETAILS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR GRANDFATHER COULD SMELL ODOR FROM THE BEING, COULD FEEL TEMPERATURE, COULD HEAR ANY SOUNDS OR HAD ANY MENTAL IMPRESSIONS AS HE BENT OVER THE LIVE BEING TO DO PRAYERS?
I don't think any of that in that kind of order was ever discussed. So, I don't know about smell. He did say about the breathing, that's why he believed him (alien) not deceased. There were a few short, shallow breaths. He did mention that. I can only say that grandmother said he was forever changed by it. He was a southern Baptist minister for 40 years of his life, but he became much less rigid, much more accepting of unexplained things after that. Now, that was relayed to me through my grandmother and my father. But none of the other that you speak of, I'm sorry to say.
WHERE DID THE MILITARY TAKE THE CRAFT AND THOSE BODIES?
We never heard anything else after grandfather came home and gave his account. There was never anything else mentioned.
BUT IF IT HAPPENED IN CAPE GIRARDEAU AND POLICE AND FIRE AND MILITARY WERE INVOLVED, YOU WOULD THINK THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAD HAPPENED.
Well, I would have thought that until the last few years in finding out what I have about our government and our news media. If you can keep the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima a secret with the number of people involved and the number of people who worked on that, then I'm convinced they can keep, they can really quell a story if they desire to. And I think it wasn't just their ability, but how it was presented to the people and how they accepted that responsibility at the time. I don't believe it was covered in the newspaper as what it actually was. I don't know if you went back and traced the papers if there would be a mention of a plane crash or I don't know because granddad knew it had happened. He didn't need proof for himself and he wasn't going to talk about it. And my dad just didn't go after the facts. I'm not sure you have to be kind of a researcher to know how you do that and I just don't know that he knew. I guess it's just if you have seen the picture, and we had that, we didn't need any proof and we weren't, my intent has never been I'm not out to prove anything to anybody. I can't answer all the questions correctly. I can only give the account of the picture I saw and what was related to me." - Genealogical Research / Southeast
Missourian
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East Texans Shares "Family Secret" Of UFO Sighting
"I was not a big UFO person, didn't know much about it other than my own experience." Sitting in her Tyler, Texas home, Charlotte man tells us about her experience, which she calls the "family secret," many of the details discovered on her grandparents deathbeds.
It was April, 1941 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Around 9:30 p.m., Charlotte's grandfather, Reverend William Huffman, got a call about a plane crash and was asked to help. "When they got out there, it wasn't a plane crash at all. It was a saucer, was how he described it," says Charlotte.
According to the story, 3 alien bodies lay on the ground next to the spaceship; two already dead. "However, granddad said the third one when he got to him, he was breathing very shallow and so he did pray with him. He did expire as he was on his knees praying for him. He then went to the other two and prayed over them."
Charlotte's grandfather then took a closer look at the spaceship. "What he was most impressed with was in the inside there were writings, but he did not recognize it. He said it looked similar to hieroglyphics. The Egyptian hieroglyphics," explains Charlotte.
Quickly, the scene was covered with military personnel and Reverend Huffman was sworn to secrecy. Charlotte says, "He was told, 'This did not happen. You did not see this. This is enormous national security. You're not to ever speak of it again.'"
But the enormity of what he had witnessed was too much for a man. The shock on his face told what his words, at first, did not. Then after gaining their promise, he shared with his family what had happened. "Granddad was a quiet man to begin with but grandmother said the look on his face was different," says Charlotte.
A few weeks after the UFO crash, Reverend Huffman was given a picture taken that night by a local photographer. "He felt like someone else besides himself should have a copy and granddad was the only one he trusted. So he gave him a copy of the picture. So I had seen that picture all growing up." Charlotte goes on to say, "You couldn't see those big eyes and not be affected. It wasn't anything I had ever seen."
That picture went missing years ago after her grandfather loaned it to a friend, who never returned it. But seeing that picture and knowing the integrity of her grandfather, Charlotte believes the story is true. But, she never had any proof until a few years ago while doing research for a documentary on the crash.
"We got validation by going to the archives in Washington D.C. And to see a top secret declassified document that stated that there was in fact a crash retrieval in 1941 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for me, I have not forgotten holding that paper in my hand and realizing that my family's story was real, was solid, and for me was just an answer to a long time question."
But Charlotte knows some people will still be skeptical. "That's OK with me. I don't have to convince anybody. I just have to know what's true for me. I think it's arrogant to think that a God that we have that is so awesome, created just us. I also don't think that we have to worry about a huge threat from them because if that were their intention, that would have happened a long time ago."
Charlotte's story is one of many involving UFO's and she's quick to point out, it won't be the last, saying the next extraterrestrial visit is not far away. "I don't think that's a thing of the future. I just think we're going to see more of it and Stephenville is just the beginning of it happening everywhere. I think there will always be things that we are not aware of but we should always keep an open mind for possibilities."
The UFO crash of 1941 in Missouri continues to be researched and investigated today. So far, the story has been included in two books and one documentary. - KLTV
Suggested Reading:
UFO CRASH/RETRIEVALS: The Inner Sanctum, Status Report VI
Flying Saucers and Science: A Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of UFOs: Interstellar Travel, Crashes, and Government Cover-Ups
Crash: When UFOs Fall From the Sky: A History of Famous Incidents, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups
Dark Object: The World's Only Government-Documented UFO Crash
UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973
It Didn't Start With Roswell: 50 Years of Amazing UFO Crashes, Close Encounters and Coverups
