By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” author of the international awards-winning “Venus Rising” series (Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, 2015-2023); also available on amazon.com
Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz (1924-2010), a prominent New Jersey psychiatrist who, starting in 1968, wrote articles in academic medical journals attesting to the credibility of UFO experiencers and the phenomena encountered by them. Photo source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58877556/berthold-e_-schwarz
Abstract: The following article provides a synopsis of Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz’ groundbreaking article on the reality of UFOs that appeared in a prominent Pennsylvania academic medical journal back in 1968, thereby rallying many in the global scientific community to seriously consider the phenomenon and the implications inherent in UFOs as physical and possibly extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Scientific Credibility
In October 1968, just one year before the infamous federal government-sponsored University of Colorado at Boulder’s infamous Scientific Study of UFOs was officially released, directed by that institution’s physics chair, Dr. Eduard U. Condon, and totally debunking the entire UFO phenomenon, a handful of scientists from throughout the United States had decided to join the conversation as to the reality of these mysterious objects and the as yet undetermined intelligence behind their evermore frequent appearances in our skies and their occupants, the so-called “ufonauts” alleged interactions with American citizens from all walks of life. Among these were Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer from Chicago’s Northwestern University and Air Force Project Bluebook consultant on UFOs, Dr. Jacques Valle, a French computer expert and long-time investigator of the phenomenon and author of several books on UFOs, as well as Dr. Ronald Leo Sprinkle, a prominent psychologist from the University of Wyoming at Laramie who also served as the first scientific consultant to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), the second largest civilian UFO investigating group in the world, then located in Tucson, Arizona.
Dr. Sprinkle, it should be noted, wrote the introduction to my first book in the Venus Rising series. In October 1968, I was a member of APRO, which unfortunately ceased operations in 1988. Much of the group’s UFO-investigating activities were assumed by the rival Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), then headquartered in Seguin, Texas.
The block of ice encasing the UFO phenomenon began to break even more in October 1968 when Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz, an assistant attending psychiatrist at Montclair Community Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey, joined the fray in publicly coming out in a prominent academic journal attesting to his conclusion that UFOs were “essentially real,” and not delusions or figments of anyone’s overactive imagination. In that month’s issue of the prestigious medical journal, Medical Times (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Romaine Pierson Publications, Vol. 96, No. 10), Dr. Schwarz’ article, “UFOs: Delusion or Dilemma,” October 1968, focused on four close-range UFO encounters which he personally investigated. Speaking to the UFO witnesses in person, the psychiatrist became convinced that there were no psychopathological reasons for these people to have had these experiences. He concluded that the UFOs involved in each of the four cases were “essentially real;” and hence the UFO phenomenon, in general, was a worthy subject for scientific inquiry.
Competition with Santa’s Sleigh
On Christmas Eve of 1966, a factory worker from Passaic County, New Jersey, Claude Coutant, photographed this UFO hovering over the Wanaque Reservoir, the site of intensive UFO activity for several months. The mayor, city councilmen, police officers, security guards, and many other credible witnesses reported a UFO emitting a blinding beam of nearly opaque light that would, when the reservoir was frozen over, melt circles in the ice. The UFO flap provoked a military presence in the area, where attempts were made to confiscate all photos of the Wanaque object and to pressure the UFO witnesses into silence. Fortunately, this photo escaped confiscation and many of the UFO experiencers spoke up about their encounters, believing strongly, like police sergeant Benjamin Thompson, whose account appears below, that the truth needed to be known.
Case Number One: Wanaque, New Jersey, 11 October 1966
Classification: CE-2
“Blinded by the Light”
Dr. Schwarz read numerous newspaper accounts about a flurry of UFO sightings taking place in the vicinity of Wanaque Reservoir in northwest New Jersey in late September 1966 through January 1967 and then decided to drive out to the area where he first spoke with Sergeant Benjamin Thompson of the Borough of Ringwood Police Department in Passaic County, New Jersey, where the reservoir is located. The police sergeant, respecting Dr. Schwarz’ medical and scientific background, was not as reluctant to discuss his UFO encounter as he was with reporters from sundry media, who tended to be more sensationalist in their approach to both him and the subject of UFOs. In his own words, as spoken into Dr. Schwarz portable tape recorder, Sergeant Thompson describes his UFO encounter that took place on 11 October 1966, starting at about 9:15 p.m.:
“It was diagonally 250 feet from me, out over the reservoir, as big as an automobile, or bigger. It was about 250 feet up in the air. When I got out of the police car, this thing was so bright that it blinded me so bad I couldn’t find the car. It was all white, like looking into a bulb and trying to see the socket, which you can’t do. I signed out of service (to the Borough of Ringwood Police) for twenty minutes because I couldn’t see, either the fingers of my hand or the lights of my jeep. I stood by the fence until my vision came back gradually.
“It made no sounds but left a heavy mist-like sort of fog. It really shook me up. When I got back into the car, switched on the red dome light and flasher, and then got out of the car and started walking toward it, it took off. It never made a sound. I would say that I observed it for about three minutes. I was totally blinded, by the light. It took away my voice and I was hoarse for two weeks after that.”
Nine months later, Dr. Schwarz interviewed Sergeant Thompson again, and his story did not vary even one iota in the details. The psychiatrist was convinced that Sergeant Thompson’s UFO experience was real because several other officers in the Ringwood Police Department confirmed his account and testified to Thompson’s outstanding reputation of never telling a lie or making up tall tales.
Case Number Two: Newfoundland, New Jersey, 15 October 1966
Classification: CE-2
“Flu-like illness induced by UFO encounter”
Here is another UFO encounter that took place in the vicinity of a reservoir in New Jersey. In this case, our UFO experiencer, Jerry H. Simmons was a 22-year-old gentleman from Montclair, New Jersey, a bedroom community of New York City, who was employed as a forester in Newfoundland, New Jersey, a small, unincorporated community in Passaic County, extending more to the eastern end of the county limits and situated in the north-central section of the Garden State. Simmons maintained that on Saturday, 15 October 1966, while driving to a campsite that he frequented in the nearby Split Rock Reservoir, between the hours of 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., his car was buzzed by an anomalous object.
Simmons informed Dr. Schwarz about the incident: “I was traveling north on the road into the campsite and noticed a very outstanding glow in the rearview mirror. I thought at first that my brake light was stuck because it (the UFO) had a very dull glow at the time I noticed it. I tried putting my foot under the brake pedal and pulling it up. It was at this point that I became aware of the orange-red glow becoming brighter.”
The forester then parked his car along the side of the road and lowered the window on the driver’s side so he could get a better look at the back end of his car. Then, from out of nowhere, came a “huge, glowing light” that seemed to be emerging from some type of “solid body or object” apparently approaching him. At this point of the encounter, Simmons noted that he began to “doubt my sanity,” adding, “I could not accept what my eyes were seeing; but it only took a few seconds for all doubt to leave my mind and for me to understand that what I was seeing was very real.”
Deciding to get back into his car and drive south back to the main road, Simmons was hoping that he could flag down assistance or even garner others who might come with him back to the campsite who could serve as witnesses to the UFO(s). He thought that perhaps the light might be a probe of some kind dispatched from the larger, but darker object. Unfortunately for him, the intelligence behind the UFO had other plans. As the object continued to slowly approach him, his car motor died out, thus leaving him stranded on a lonely country backroad.
“Without any warning,” asserted the forester, “all the electrical equipment quit working. My headlights, dash lights, and the engine quit. I don’t believe I have ever been so frustrated in all my life.”
Once the UFO was directly over his car, it passed over to the passenger side of the vehicle, thus allowing Simmons to turn the ignition and move the vehicle slightly forward down the road. This cat-and-mouse game between the UFO and Simmons occurred two more times, until the UFO intelligence seemingly tired of it and flew out over the reservoir once Simmons had gotten closer to it.
On 17 January 1967, Simmons was admitted to the Montclair Community Hospital for an illness that one of the doctors on staff diagnosed as the “flu.” The forester reported that symptoms of “fatigue, anorexia, generalized soreness and weakness of the muscles, drowsiness, chills, and a weight loss of 35 pounds” had all plagued him since his initial encounter with the UFO. Doctors and medical staff were concerned about the persistence and severity of these symptoms contributing to the “bizarre nature of the illness.” Therefore, arrangements were made for Simmons’ admission to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for a special analysis and study, free of charge. The forester, however, did not like the track where this was heading and declined to participate any further or go to the NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, across from Johns Hopkins Hospital. Fortunately for the UFO experiencer, all of these aforementioned symptoms disappeared on their own after a few months.
Pentagon doctors warn that not all UFO encounters are happy ones.
Artwork source: The Sun, U.S., subsidiary of The Sun, London, U.K.
Mental Health Survey Checks Out
In the Medical Times article, Dr. Schwarz reported: “A study of the forester’s past life, gleaned in several interviews lasting many hours, led me to believe that he never had any previous experiences like this. He had never had any emotional illness. He was an experienced outdoorsman who had camped in many of the states of the United States for some years. He was a high school graduate and had had two additional years of industrial arts.”
Perhaps Robert Martz’ encounter with UFOs on a rural Pennsylvania road in 1966 inspired this scene with Richard Dreyfuss in Steven Spielberg’s epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Columbia Pictures, Hollywood, California, 1977).
Case Number Three: Outskirts of Monroeton, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 25 April 1966
Classification: CE-2
“Stalled pickup truck engine and faded headlights”
While in the process of driving home with a friend, shortly after 8 p.m. on 25 April 1966, Robert W. Martz, a 73-year-old retired electrical contractor, sighted a “fireball-type UFO” in the vicinity of Monroeton, Pennsylvania. According to Martz’ testimony, as given to Dr. Schwarz, he and his friend’s attention “was drawn to the sky by a very awesome, huge, flaming body, which lit up a large area, and was visible for several seconds. It had a lengthy green and yellow tail.”
Soon after the appearance of the first UFO, a second object, cigar-shaped, came into view. Of this UFO, Martz noted that “A dim light could actually be seen coming from four ports on the craft. It looked like it was 250 feet in front of us and 250 feet up, and it could go at a terrific speed. It was about 25 feet in length and had a tail 35 feet long.” The retired contractor added that, “My pickup truck’s engine stalled and the headlights faded out. I was amazed and flabbergasted.”
Solid Psychological Profile
Dr. Schwarz believed Martz because of his solid psychiatric profile. The psychiatrist duly remarked: “Martz has never had any emotional illness. He and his friends do not use liquor or unprescribed drugs. There was nothing in the contractor’s history or behavior since the UFO event to suggest sociopathic behavior, brain syndrome, and the like.”
Case Number Four: Presque Isle Beach on the outskirts of Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania, 31 July 1966
Classification: CE-3
“Possible contact and monster sighting”
This CE-3 case involved multiple experiencers whose car was stuck in the sand on the Presque Isle beach, immediately to the northwest of Erie, in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, on the last day of July in 1966. It was around 10 p.m. when Erie Police Patrolman Robert Loeb, Jr., and fellow Patrolman Ralph E. Clark were making their nightly beach patrol in the Presque Isle Peninsula Park when they noticed an automobile bogged down in the sand and stopped to check it out. The occupants of the car were Douglas Tibbets, 18, Betty Jean Klem, 16, Anita Haifley, 22, and Gerald La Belle, 26, the owner of the car, whom the others informed the police had walked into town to try and get some help in removing the automobile from the sand, but who had not yet returned. Upon hearing about La Belle’s going for assistance, Senior Patrolman Loeb told the others in the car, “We’ll be back in another 30 or 40 minutes and we will check again if you are still here.”
Right after the policemen left, the two young women in the car rolled down the windows to look at the starry night sky when they spotted a bright pinpoint of light that continually seemed to increase in size and luminosity as it was swooping down and nearing their vehicle. Much to their dismay, the illumined, strange object from the heavens landed directly in front of their car, right behind a line of brushy trees. Betty Jean Klem later remarked to representatives of local media, concerning the UFO, “It was the size of a house. It was mushroom-shaped. I could even see lights on the back of it. The thing settled down on the beach about 100 yards from us. When it struck the ground, it then glowed bright red.” And Douglas Tibbets, in speaking to the same Erie reporter, added, “We felt the car shake and then there was a loud noise such as a telephone receiver makes.”
A few seconds after the landing of the UFO, all of the car’s occupants agreed that the glowing red light gave way to flashing rays of white light that seemed to be probing the beach and woods. Tibbets, in his police report of the incident, noted that “There were about a dozen lights and they seemed to be searching for something.” At the same time as the UFO began to probe the area, all of those inside the car heard scratching noises on the roof of their vehicle. Around 10:30 p.m., the patrolmen returned to the scene of the bogged-down vehicle, with their red lights flashing so that those in the car would know it was them on the returning patrol. After the patrolmen were back on the scene, Tibbets felt it was safe to get out of the vehicle, whence he found several scratches and a dent in the roof of the car. A conversation then ensued.
Tibbets to the patrolmen: “There are some mighty weird things happening up the beach.” The patrolmen then walked with Tibbets to the area in front of the car. Betty Jean Klem, occupying the front passenger seat, leaned over and pressed the automobile’s horn, thereby emitting a shattering blare into the dark night.
Patrolman Loeb noted that “Miss Klem was hysterical, shaking and crying. She sobbed that a giant figure had approached the car.” This prompted Tibbets and the patrolmen to hurry back to the car.
Klem: “There’s something out there in the dark!” This is what she screamed upon seeing a dark creature approaching the front of the car. She further remarked that, “It did not appear human and it wasn’t like any animal I’ve ever seen. It was over six feet tall and I could not see any arms or legs. When I blew the horn, it slowly moved away and disappeared into the bushes.” Betty Jean Klem was of the opinion that the darkness of the night kept her from viewing other features of the creature.
Klem leaped from the vehicle once Tibbets and the patrolmen arrived back at the vehicle. Patrolman Clark reported that this is when, “She started to run away and I caught her,” thus preventing Klem from hurting herself, possibly tripping over a rotting log or some other artifact on the beach.
Anita Haifley, being in the back seat of the vehicle and huddling over her two small children, did not see anything, but could hear the scratching on the roof. For the sake of her children, she did manage to maintain her composure throughout the incident.
Park Police Chief Opines
Dan Dascanio, Park Police Chief, weighed in on this most unusual incident. “I know what people are going to say;” Dascanio remarked, adding, “but this girl (Klem) definitely saw something that frightened her badly. This is no joke, as far as we (of the Presque Isle Park) are concerned. The girl was a credible person. Of the two individuals involved, she was the most specific about what she saw. She made no attempt to fill in her story when she wasn’t sure. She was one scared girl when I first saw her. Her hands were shaking. Her face was trembling. Her speech was more inarticulate, and she had difficulty maintaining her composure. Her eyes were red and she kept shaking her head from side to side.” At Dascanio’s recommendation, on the following morning at 7:00 a.m. (1 August 1966) after the alleged UFO/alien encounter, two park patrolmen, Paul Wilson, and J. Robert Canfield, were dispatched to the site of the incident, which was taped off the night before by Erie patrolmen Loeb and Clark. Later that day, the site was also visited by Erie Patrolman Abert Gagnon, who also checked out the area for anything that Wilson and Canfield may have overlooked. Wilson and Canfield, immediately upon their arrival, noticed distinct impressions in the sand filled with a sticky, but colorless liquid. Samples were taken of this liquid, mixed with sand, and later delivered to the Erie Police Department lab for analysis. Nothing further has been revealed concerning the lab’s findings about the liquid, other than that it was mixed with silicon from the sand.
Spirit entities, like the alleged “Shadow People,” are sometimes associated with UFO phenomena. Betty Jean Klem’s facsimile of the “dark, shadowy, featureless creature” that scared her out of her wits during the UFO encounter. Sketch obtained from the files of the late premier ufologist, Timothy Green Beckley (1947-2021), a.k.a., “Mr. UFO,” as published in his column, “On the Trail of the Flying Saucers,” Flying Saucers magazine, Amherst, Wisconsin, Issue No. 67. December 1969.
Later Findings in the Presque Isle Case
Douglas Tibbets was taken to Hamot Hospital in Erie on the day after the incident where he was diagnosed with a slightly elevated temperature and an “inflammation of the throat.”
Anita Haifley, the young woman who remained in the back seat of the car with her two children, and who initially reported that she did not see the monster sighted by her friend Betty Jean Klem in the front seat, nevertheless reported that for three weeks after the incident, she was plagued with nightmares about being attacked by a very tall, dark creature. When Dr. Schwarz tried to question her about the incident and the subsequent nightmares, Haifley unfortunately refused to discuss the matters with him.
Erie Patrolman Gagnon, after his visit to the site, became ill upon returning home later that evening, also suffering from similar maladies as diagnosed for Tibbets in the Erie hospital. Gagnon explained that he had previously suffered no such illness as the one he experienced following his visit to the UFO landing site.
Psychiatric Analysis by Dr. B. E. Schwarz
According to the prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz: “On 5 and 6 January 1968, Miss Klem and Mr. La Belle, the fourth witness, were examined psychiatrically. Their accounts of the events and specific chronology were entirely similar to the many published accounts and other records in Chief Dascanio’s files. Miss Klem and Mr. La Belle, before the Presque Isle episode, had been nonbelievers in UFOs; and neither of them had read more in the popular press than perhaps the average person. Interrogation of three of Miss Klem’s friends of several years standing, as well as her husband, supported her reputation for truthfulness. Miss Klem seemed to be above average intelligence. She answered questions in a straightforward, open way. She appeared to be healthy, her only defect being myopia, which was completely corrected with glasses. There was no evidence of any past or present sociopathic behavior or neurotic character traits. In the presence of her husband, she was induced into a hypnotic trance; and the salient details of the alleged UFO experience were fully confirmed. There were never any variations in her account.”
Unidentified Submarine Objects (USOs) are frequently sighted both descending into and emerging from Lake Erie. Artwork source: http://farfuturehorizons.blogspot.com/
Ancillary Reports Point to “Saucer Nest” In or Near Erie, Pennsylvania, or Unidentified Submarine Object (USO) Base Underneath Lake Erie
On Wednesday, 3 August 1966, the Erie Daily News published an article concerning reports of UFO activity to the south of Erie, Pennsylvania, that had been investigated by some of their reporters. One rural couple denied the Daily News permission to reveal their names in any forthcoming stories insofar as “they are already suffering because of their having told neighbors about the sighting.” According to the newspaper report, the couple stated that they had observed a cigar-shaped object “shortly after the Fourth of July.” The Daily News article declared that their news desk received numerous reports during the prior two weeks of a similar type of UFO in the vicinity of Erie and also out over the lake, thus lending credibility to the anonymous couple’s account.
Apparently, the plethora of UFO sightings in the area caught the attention of United States Air Force personnel. One gentleman from Erie claimed that an Air Force investigator visited his neighborhood after several calls were made from him and his neighbors concerning the sighting of the cigar-shaped UFO. After checking out the UFO report, the military investigator “warned people to stay away from the object, if it should reappear.”
Gabriel Green (1924-2001), the president of a civilian UFO research group in Los Angeles, California, the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America (AFSCA), asked some of his organization’s members in the Erie, Pennsylvania, area to check out the sightings and provide him with a report for later publication in the pages of their group’s official monthly organ, UFO International.
What Green learned from the AFSCA investigators was that “Erie residents have been seeing strange things in their skies for several years. On 15 May 1964, Mrs. Richard Gross said that her two boys noticed a strange object in the sky as they were preparing for bed. Another young boy sighted a ‘chrome thing that went put-put’ near his home in Kearsarge, a township in Erie County. An anonymous individual called the Daily News office to report a tripod-shaped craft landing at a picnic area near Erie.”
From all of this data, Green concluded that “There may be a flying saucer ‘nest’ somewhere near Erie.”
Marcus Lowth, one of ufology’s leading lights when it comes to the investigation of unidentified submarine objects (USOs) or unidentified underwater objects (UUOs), as well as numerous other types of paranormal phenomena, has cataloged hundreds of sightings of strange lights and craft emerging from, or descending into the seas, oceans, and lakes around the world. Some USO researchers and investigators, like Lowth, even claim that there are underwater alien bases present in the vicinity of the locales where these aquatic sightings have occurred.
Lowth notes a unique case from Erie documented in the 2011 book Eerie Erie: Tales of the Unexplained from Northwest Pennsylvania by Robin Swope (Charleston, South Carolina: History Press), which examines and investigates numerous Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) reports. Many of these reports speak of USOs seen “crashing” into the water of Lake Erie. The incident in the book that caught Lowth’s attention took place in 1988 and alleged that a strange craft landed on the lake when it was iced over. The landing was witnessed by Sheila and Henry Baker of Erie, Pennsylvania, who filed a report with the local Coast Guard. As the mysterious craft landed, there were strange creaking and cracking sounds heard coming from the ice as well as a series of blue and red lights being emitted from the craft itself. There also appeared to be several strange triangular objects that were deployed from the USO as it was descending. These triangles moved purposely around in all directions along the iced over surface of the lake. Suddenly, the sounds on the ice stopped, and the craft and the mysterious triangles vanished. Both Lowth and Swope suggested that the main USO and its ejected probes had indeed found their way below the ice and under the water.
My friend, William Dale Harder, the director of the North Coast Aerial Phenomena Project (NCAPP) in Cleveland, Ohio, is also of the opinion that there is a saucer base under Lake Erie due to the significant amount of USO reports coming in, and out of Lake Erie waters in the Greater Cleveland area his organization consistently receives and investigates.
Other UFO Reports from Erie and Northwest Pennsylvania
APRO Pennsylvania State Section investigators also collected other UFO reports from Erie and the northwest Pennsylvania area taking place around the same date as Betty Jean Klem’s encounter with the UFO and shadow creature. These reports were published in the September-October 1966 issue of the A.P.R.O. Bulletin (Tucson, Arizona). A brief summary of the UFO flap follows:
On the evening of Friday, 29 July 1966, at approximately 8:30 p.m., a witness who wished to remain anonymous told an APRO investigator that he had seen a six to eight-foot-long silver object passing over Erie, Pennsylvania at an estimated speed of 300 miles per hour.
On the same evening, another anonymous witness claims that he had discovered a series of “three-toed footprints” outside of his Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, residence, which is about 120 miles south of Erie. The unusual prints measured six inches long by six inches wide.
And on the following day, 30 July, a staff photographer for the New Castle News of New Castle, Pennsylvania, about 75 miles south of Erie, photographed an “angular flying object” quite similar to the description of the UFO provided by Tibbets on the evening of the 31 July.
Even on the very night of the Tibbets-Klem encounter, at around 10:30 p.m., an Erie doctor living about one mile south of Presque Isle, near the coast of Lake Erie, reported seeing a “circular path of orange light about the size of a baseball (as if held at arm’s length) traveling at a high rate of speed at an estimated altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet.”
At 1:00 a.m. on 1 August, an anonymous witness also observed a bright light over Lake Erie for a duration of some 90 minutes.
Return of the Same Creature?
To top everything off, at around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 3 August 1966, an “unusual creature” was reportedly seen on the streets of Erie, Pennsylvania, by a female witness who wished to remain anonymous, but who, nevertheless, agreed to be interviewed by the world-renowned paranormal investigator, John A. Keel, the author of many books on cryptids, ghosts, monsters, and UFOs. Keel’s report to APRO states that the woman experiencer was awakened that morning by the barking of neighborhood dogs. Upon looking out her bedroom window to see what all the commotion was about, she saw what she described as a “human-shaped being about five feet, six-inches tall.” She further noted that “It was clothed in yellow jacket and yellow trousers, with no discernable pockets, belts or other features. The head was huge and moon-shaped and when seen from the side, the back of its head appeared to be flat. This head was covered with straggly brown hair of a muddy color. The creature had very big shoulders and a slender build. It moved with a still, jerky, mechanical motion, holding its arms close to its sides. They (the arms) did not move at all. Its legs did not bend at the knees. He moved like a mechanical, wind-up toy.”
While the local dogs were barking and nipping at the creature’s heels, it did not seem to be bothered by them. Our witness then, being quite frightened, decided to wake up her husband, calling him to the bedroom window. When he looked outside, however, all he could see was some movement in the bushes along their property line.
The creature was also spotted again that night across from the United Oil storage tanks on West Third Street in Erie, also walking stiffly and out of sight behind some of the larger tanks.
The Flap Continues
At 11:45 p.m., on Wednesday, 3 August 1966, Clebert Steff, an advertising department employee of the Erie Times-News, witnessed a bright flying object in the skies over Erie through binoculars displaying red and white lights. The object traveled from west to east at an estimated angle of 30 degrees. The UFO’s flight path was highly erratic and no clearly defined shape could be seen. Steff did note that the UFO did not seem to move like a conventional aircraft.
Around the same time that night, an Erie electrical engineer from a large plant was getting off from his shift when he sighted some “unusual sky objects” in a seeming V-formation, which he managed to get an even better view of after getting a pair of binoculars that he kept on the back seat of his car for weekend hunting trips. Upon focusing on the UFOs with the binoculars, however, he soon discovered that it was actually one object “with a V-shaped bottom, all lit up,” which flew from south to north for a period of 42 seconds before “just blinking out of sight.” From the electrical engineer’s perspective of looking at the UFO through the binoculars, it emitted an orange glow and left no trail.
HAVE A COMMENT? GO TO OUR SUBREDDIT AND POST YOUR THOUGHTS
Feel Free to Post PHANTOMS & MONSTERS DIRECT LINKS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE. Thanks For Your Support!
.jpg)
Your financial support of Phantoms & Monsters and our other pursuits is much appreciated. Please click the banner above. Thanks.
.jpg)
