A mysterious aircraft crashes in a rural area. The FBI recovers strange bodies. The wreck is whisked off by the military. Documents are missing.
This isn’t the story of Roswell, N.M.
Linda Wallace was born in Sikeston, Mo., a town known for Lambert’s Café, the home of “throwed rolls,” and the Southeast Missouri Agricultural Museum. It’s not known for a UFO crash. Information Linda has uncovered may change that.
When Linda was young, her father worked at the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics in Sikeston and may have been privy to information of a downed UFO between Cape Girardeau and Sikeston six years before the alleged crash of a flying saucer at Roswell.
“I would like to think if your father knew something, he’d share it,” she said. “But I have no answers.”
In the spring of 1941, at about 9 p.m., Baptist minister William Huffman of Cape Girardeau was asked to deliver last rights to the pilot and passengers of an aircraft that crashed about 15 miles outside of town, in the direction of Sikeston, according to a letter from Huffman’s granddaughter Charlette Mann to UFO investigator Leo Stringfield.
When Rev. Huffman arrived, police, fire officials, the military and the FBI poured over the crash site of a disc-shaped craft. The pilot and passengers were “little gray people” with large, almond-shaped black eyes, according to Mann’s letter.
Huffman was sworn to secrecy. So, it seems, was everyone else.
Linda discovered Sikeston fire, sheriff and police have no records for 1941. No records exist for the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics. And stories have been removed from microfilm issues of the Sikeston Herald around the time of the alleged crash.
“I thought that was unusual,” Linda said. “I had gone to other dates and they did not have problems. And looking for an original for that paper, it’s not anywhere.”
So Linda did what any good researcher does. She started asking questions.
“One source spoke about ‘little people’ that died and were transported from the alleged crash site,” she said. “An unrelated source spoke about a fairly recent visit by a former associate of the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics. In her words, ‘There is a man – somewhat confused – who said he ‘picked up the bodies’ of crash victims from the base.”
Linda found that man in a locked wing of a Sikeston nursing home.
“I identified myself and my father’s name,” she said. “The man’s face went from a blank look to an ear-to-ear grin. ‘Your Dad was my crew chief – that was so long ago.’”
After a few questions, Linda was satisfied this man had known her father.
“I told the aging patient I would like to discuss the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics and the air crashes that were never reported,” she said. “The blank look returned to his face. ‘I do not know, I do not know.’ He was lost again and we did not reconnect.”
After the man died, she discovered this is the man who had spoken with the “unrelated source” about the bodies.
These are the interviews that keep Linda’s research going.
“I get bits and pieces of stories,” she said. “Evidence to either prove or disprove the event only leads to more questions. Two senior Sikestonians recall talk of the crash of an unidentified craft, others recall a meteor crash, and still others recall no incident. I continue the search.”
But not forever.
“I don’t think it’s within my ability uncover the truth,” Linda said. “I know this is not something one person can solve.”
You can contact Linda through her Web site, www.seekingmoinfo.com.
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it at jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number for verification only. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things Fortean. His book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri,” will soon be available at www.jasonoffutt.com and all major bookstores.
Copyright 2006 by Jason Offutt
Monday, October 23, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Electronic Voice Phenomena
Sitting at a table in the vast dining hall at Springfield's Pythian Castle, psychic Dawn Newlan of the Ozark Paranormal Society played voices the group recorded there in 2005.
Some of the voices were clear, some muffled, but all of them had something in common they were recorded when no one was home.
Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP, is an unexpected sound that appears on an audio recording. EVPs have been around since the 1920s when Thomas Edison tried to develop a machine to talk with the dead. Today, ghost hunters place tape and digital audio recorders in empty rooms to capture the voices of earthbound spirits.
And Pythian Castle is rife with spirits.
The castle, a three-story stone structure built in 1913, has been an orphanage, hospital, WWII Army headquarters where German POWs were interrogated Š and soon to be a bed and breakfast.
"In the basement, we've heard two or three different voices," Dawn said. "We've actually got voices on tape."
From Dawn's recordings come the moans, "I am not myself," "punish him" and "I'll kill him." Dawn also played whispers, laughter and the faint sound of a man hissing, "It's OK." All were gathered in empty rooms.
"Each one of the ghost hunting people have gotten something unusual here," said Tamara Finocchiaro, co-owner of the castle.
Ghost hunter Ryan Straub also records EVPs. Ryan has picked up EVPs in desolate Hazel Ridge Cemetery near Brunswick.
"I sat it just like that," he said, placing a recorder atop a weatherworn tombstone. "And we walked away from it. The next morning we listened to it and it sounded like chipmunks. I slowed it down and it was a little girl singing 'Ring Around the Rosie.'"
The tombstone was next to the graves of children.
Carol Mullins has worked for the University of Central Missouri's housing department for five years, mainly in Laura J. Yeater Hall. Legend has it the building is haunted.
The ground floor of Yeater is empty, and its banquet room generally remains quiet. That's where Carol likes to collect EVPs.
"I put my tape recorder in there and there was a moan," she said. "It wasn't the windŠ It was a moan. It was a moan of pain.
"A lot of people say that's the radiator, but the radiators aren't on here over the summer."
Carol has also collected EVPs in her Yeater Hall office at night.
"There were like a dozen girls giggling outside my door," she said. "It was the summer. How were there girls giggling outside my door?"
What are the voices picked up by these ghost hunters? The sounds of restless spirits? Demons? Past events seeping into the present? Or is someone just playing?
"All the tape recordings, it's just weird," Carol said. "I can't explain it."
Want to capture an EVP? Place a tape recorder in your living room, hit "record" and leave the house. But later, as you're about to press "play," just remember, you might not like what you hear.
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn't identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number for verification only. Your story might make an upcoming installment of "From the Shadows."
Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things Fortean. His book of ghost stories, "Haunted Missouri," will soon be available at www.jasonoffutt.com and all major bookstores.
Copyright 2006 by Jason Offutt
Some of the voices were clear, some muffled, but all of them had something in common they were recorded when no one was home.
Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP, is an unexpected sound that appears on an audio recording. EVPs have been around since the 1920s when Thomas Edison tried to develop a machine to talk with the dead. Today, ghost hunters place tape and digital audio recorders in empty rooms to capture the voices of earthbound spirits.
And Pythian Castle is rife with spirits.
The castle, a three-story stone structure built in 1913, has been an orphanage, hospital, WWII Army headquarters where German POWs were interrogated Š and soon to be a bed and breakfast.
"In the basement, we've heard two or three different voices," Dawn said. "We've actually got voices on tape."
From Dawn's recordings come the moans, "I am not myself," "punish him" and "I'll kill him." Dawn also played whispers, laughter and the faint sound of a man hissing, "It's OK." All were gathered in empty rooms.
"Each one of the ghost hunting people have gotten something unusual here," said Tamara Finocchiaro, co-owner of the castle.
Ghost hunter Ryan Straub also records EVPs. Ryan has picked up EVPs in desolate Hazel Ridge Cemetery near Brunswick.
"I sat it just like that," he said, placing a recorder atop a weatherworn tombstone. "And we walked away from it. The next morning we listened to it and it sounded like chipmunks. I slowed it down and it was a little girl singing 'Ring Around the Rosie.'"
The tombstone was next to the graves of children.
Carol Mullins has worked for the University of Central Missouri's housing department for five years, mainly in Laura J. Yeater Hall. Legend has it the building is haunted.
The ground floor of Yeater is empty, and its banquet room generally remains quiet. That's where Carol likes to collect EVPs.
"I put my tape recorder in there and there was a moan," she said. "It wasn't the windŠ It was a moan. It was a moan of pain.
"A lot of people say that's the radiator, but the radiators aren't on here over the summer."
Carol has also collected EVPs in her Yeater Hall office at night.
"There were like a dozen girls giggling outside my door," she said. "It was the summer. How were there girls giggling outside my door?"
What are the voices picked up by these ghost hunters? The sounds of restless spirits? Demons? Past events seeping into the present? Or is someone just playing?
"All the tape recordings, it's just weird," Carol said. "I can't explain it."
Want to capture an EVP? Place a tape recorder in your living room, hit "record" and leave the house. But later, as you're about to press "play," just remember, you might not like what you hear.
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn't identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number for verification only. Your story might make an upcoming installment of "From the Shadows."
Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things Fortean. His book of ghost stories, "Haunted Missouri," will soon be available at www.jasonoffutt.com and all major bookstores.
Copyright 2006 by Jason Offutt
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