On March 2, 1965, a 66-year-old retired longshoreman named John Reeves was out snake hunting one afternoon in the scrub flats near his home in Brooksville, Florida, when he came upon a landed saucer that was “bluish green and reddish purple,” resting on four legs and roughly 30’ in diameter. As Reeves cautiously approached the craft, he encountered what appeared to be the pilot, a “robot-like” creature with a domed space helmet. After they stared down each other for a minute or so, the robo-creature pulled out a space camera, held it up to its dome and clicked, followed by a blinding flash. A startled Reeves turned to dash away, and in so doing became tangled up in a bush, stumbled, and fell to the ground, dropping his eye glasses.

The space robot—who it turns out wasn’t such a bad guy after all—bent over and retrieved the glasses, handing them to Reeves. The robot then rode an escalator like staircase back up into his ship and:

“A lot of little blades around the rim of the saucer started to move unison like the slats of a venetian blind. They opened and closed, then the rim started going around counterclockwise. It made a whooshing and rumbling sound as it speeded up its spinning. The staircase pulled up inside…Then the four stilts or legs retracted, and the saucer went straight up with that whooshing sound. I watched, and it was out of sight in less than 10 seconds in the cloudless sky.” 1

After the saucer zoomed away, Reeves examined the landing area and discovered a set of the boot prints, in addition to “two sheets of strong but very thin tissue, unlike anything I’d ever touched before. Both were covered with strange writings or marks that looked like Chinese.”

The following day, Reeves appeared on St. Petersburg radio station WFFB to share his amazing story. Afterwards, he met with Air Force investigators who accompanied him to the saucer site where he directed them to the robot’s boot prints. At this time, Reeves turned over the strange papers to the Air Force officers for analysis. Reeves later claimed that when the papers were returned, the Air Force pulled the old switcheroo, substituting fake papers for the real ones. The Project Blue Book Report stated that:

“Two papers that contained unreadable hieroglyphics were reportedly dropped by an occupant of the spacecraft. An analysis was made of these papers by the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin. This analysis indicated that the paper is composed of fibers which are common worldwide. The fiber composition corresponds to that used in lens and stencil papers. The hieroglyphics on one of the papers was deciphered by simple substitution and was determined to be the work of an amateur. The deciphered hieroglyphics read as follows: ‘Planet Mars—Are you coming home soon—We miss you very much—Why did you stay away too long?’ Since no other implications were apparent, it was not feasible for the Air Force to expend further time and money in deciphering the second sheet. Based on the above, it is the opinion of the Air Force that an attempt was made to perpetrate a hoax.” 2

On August 6, 1968, Reeves came across another landed saucer, but this time instead of a robot creature, he encountered a crew of beautiful space people, tall and thin with porcelain skin who informed him that they came from planet Moniheya, which we Earthlings know as Venus. The Moniheyans were outfitted in tight-fitting jumpsuits that accentuated their trim, thirty something hot looking bods. (Reeves later learned that his space friends were actually much older than they looked!) On this same occasion, Reeves was treated to a trip to the dark side of the moon, which transpired over the course of six hours. He described the inside of the spaceship as a glass room full of instruments with three-dimensional TV screens that were used for navigational purposes.

While moon-traipsing, Reeves scooped up a handful of lunar dust and poured it into a medicine bottle to smuggle home with him, as well as a large moon rock that he stuffed into his trousers. (“Well, hello there, Earthling. Are you just happy to see me or is that a moon rock in your pocket?”) However, Reeves never showed any of this moon dust to the authorities back on Earth because he was worried it would be confiscated in the same manner as his alien papers.

On another trip, Reeves visited Moniheya, which included viewing such natural wonders as two suns, a pink sea (with Loch Ness type monsters) and blue rain. Reeves spoke of two amazing modes of public transportation he encountered, one of which was moving sidewalks, and the other rockets that cruised around just above the ground, kind of like Volkswagens with wings.

While there, his space friends awarded him the official flag of Moniheya, which like his precious moon dust Reeves decided to keep locked away in a safety deposit box, only showing a few select Earth friends on rare occasions, although he did make a duplicate of the flag which he hung on a wall in his home for visitors to admire.

Reeves became known as “the Brooksville spaceman.” He would often set up a stand at the local shopping mall to show off his display of UFO photographs and news clippings. Reeves gained the reputation as a kind hearted fellow, who for many years ran a trailer park where he would feed people down on their luck or let them slide on rent if times were tight.

As a monument to his outer space friends, Reeves erected a full sized model of the Moniheyan spaceship in his front-yard with a plaque that read: “The spaceship that took John Reeves to planet Moniheya, millions and millions of miles from planet Earth, landed here October 5, 1968.” As Douglas Curran wrote in In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space:

“Harassed by vandals and county tax collectors, Reeves sold his property in 1980 to the state, which razed his house and UFO monument. Letters of protest poured in from throughout Florida objecting to the ‘desecration of John Reeves’ expression of hope.’ Now eighty-six years old, Reeves lives in a trailer on a side street in Brooksville. His newspaper clippings are kept in an old suitcase that he hauls out for anyone who wants to see. A dog-eared book contains the autographs of people who came to see his UFO monument, among them Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Pat Boone, and Tuesday Weld.” 3

For more amazing saucer stories, pick up a copy of “A” is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees available now while supplies last!

1 Clark, Jerome. 1998, The UFO Encyclopedia: the phenomenon from the beginning. 2^nd ed. Detroit: Omni Graphics. (Pg. 162)

2 http://www.bluebookarchive.org/

3 Curran, Douglas. 2001. In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space. New York: Abbeville Press. (Pg. 110)

In 1947—while working as a sign painter in Long Beach, California—Allen Noonan was purportedly transported up into a Galactic Mothership operated by Extra Territorial Intelligence (ETI). At this time, Noonan was selected to fulfill the role of New World Comforter and human channel for the Everlasting Gospel of the Space Brothers. On direction from on high, he changed his name to Allen Michael, which you must admit is a lot cooler name than Allen Noonan. 1

In 1956, during a visit to Giant Rock, Michael was treated to a second ET experience when a flying saucer appeared with three beings named Favelron, Celeste, and Jameston, who—after introducing themselves—threw Allen kisses before accelerating away in a flash of light.

During the 1960s, Michael started a communal experiment called “The One World Family Commune”. In 1967, Michael’s commune opened a vegetarian restaurant called Here and Now in San Francisco. In 1970, the group moved across the bay to Berkeley and opened a second restaurant/co-op called One World Family Natural Food Center. It was there that Michael started once-a-week public channeling sessions with the space brothers and on one occasion several members of his group joined him on a trip to the planet Altamira. LSD sessions apparently played a large role in these experiences, which explains a lot. At the 2007 Roswell UFO Festival, Allen Michael’s son, Dennis Noonan, informed me that during the 1970s the group conducted successful UFO “summoning rituals” at Mount Tamalpais under the influence of acid.

In 1970, the FBI arrested Michael for selling eighth of an ounce of marijuana and he was sentenced to six months in prison. After his release, Michael moved his gang of acid tripping space cadets to a mansion in Stockton, California. During this period, the group explored the ideal of “Uni-Communism” promoting monogamous love, natural food, and vegetarianism.

As a further means of promoting the ET message, Michael founded the “Utopian Synthesis Party…the party to end all political parties and have a real party!” as part of a presidential run launched for the 1980 election. (Your humble author, who wasn’t thrilled with either candidate that year, Carter or Reagan, actually voted for Michael in the general election as a write-in candidate. I shit you not.)

Michael and his One World Family even tried their hand at rock music with an LP entitled Quasar. According to my esteemed contactee research colleague, Greg Bishop, writing at the WFMU blog:

“In 1976, they went into the studio to record music based on Michael’s space age philosophy. Since it was the mid-1970s, the music was ‘white people funk.’

This is most evident on the first track ‘Share the World’ which opens with a standard wah-wah guitar, and assures us that ‘We can all share the world/ It’s the grooviest thing.’ The second track, ‘Sound’ is the standout. Michael riffs on the word in glorious echoplex, obviously delighted with studio effects and what was being done with his voice. ‘My words go forth to fulfill the things for which they are sent…Call forth those who travel on instant, weightless, timeless lightbeams of sound…SOUND…SOOUUNNDD!!’ ‘Man and Woman’ appears to be standard new age fare glorifying the roles of the sexes, accompanied by an inexplicable accordion intro and break. On ‘One World Bill of Rights,’ Michael’s (or the Space People’s) words are read by a young woman. Perhaps Michael thought that people would be more apt to listen if a female voice read the new plan for a perfect society…”

During the 1990s, Michael hosted a public access TV show called Galactic Messenger. His group maintains a website at www.galacticmessenger.com

1 Allen, Michael. 1977. UFO-ETI World Master Plan, Santa Rosa, California: Starmast Publications.

In May 1957, Helen and Betty Mitchell of St. Louis, Missouri, were approached at a coffee shop by two men named Elen and Zelas who said they were from Mars. The manly Martian duo further informed the Mitchell sisters that they’d been monitoring them since birth (for a special mission on Earth!) 1

At first, the Mitchell sisters were a tad suspicious, but when the two purported men from Mars recounted several childhood incidents that had occurred to the Mitchell sisters—that no one could have possibly known about outside of immediate family members—Betty and Helen became suddenly convinced that the mystery men were on the level and most assuredly from the red planet!

Shortly after their initial encounter, Helen and Betty returned to the coffee shop to meet again with Elen and Zelas and at that time were given instructions on how to build an advanced communication device to remain in constant contact with a Martian mothership piloted by Commander Alna.

In November, Helen was taken aboard said mothership and “told the magnetism of the craft would not affect my watch since it would be balanced by the magnetism of my own body. However, while in the mother craft the magnetism of it caused my watch to stop, and it was de-magnetized in a small machine before I left.” It’s the little details that matter. After Helen got the whole magnetism thing figured out, the Martians shared with her advanced scientific information and then demonstrated a space-age version of shuffleboard controlled by psychokinetic powers.

In the aftermath of Helen’s excellent mothership adventure, the Mitchell sisters maintained communications with their Martian friends, which included information on a wide variety of stuff they were instructed to pass on to the people of Earth. Martians—like their Venusian counterparts—apparently spent a lot of time obsessing over atomic bombs and how the people of Earth might end up doing to our current civilization what the Lemurians did to theirs. (Or to quote George Adamski’s friend Orthon: “Boom Boom!”)

Beaming with the space brother’s message, the Mitchell sisters made the scene at saucer clubs and UFO conventions, where they preached to the contactee choir about atom bombs and Atlantis and the dawning of a new age where mankind needed to get its act together and transcend our war-like ways.

At a meeting of the Kansas City Saucer Club, Helen Mitchell shared her knowledge of interplanetary languages by presenting this example: “Me! Bez de Son. Ras, de ta ol de leon qua sone twila urn bon-ta-bon Zabat dar um ta daga de tra-ce-te de tai o um bont. Zabat rma zabat ott tar ma qua zabat gavon-ta-bon um-quat que. Ban gav ban um ta ban ta zabat, nas qua pa qua zabat ta ol dat urn ta rama. Mel Bez de son.”

According to Helen, the above translated to: “Peace be with you. Beloved, in the light of mind evolveness one chooses to serve, and so doing turns the forces of Love in this attraction toward him. When searching is difficult it proves advancement, for adversaries must work strongly to prevent involvement. Let darkness fade to the nothingness that it is, not potential or manifesting as is the light which takes its place. Peace be with you.” Unfortunately the translated message seemed almost as incomprehensible as the un-translated version.

In 1965, the Mitchell sisters turned up missing, which suggested to some they’d been taken on an extended trip to Mars. 2

For more fun stuff like this check out “A” is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees.

1 Mitchell, Helen & Betty. 1959. The Space People We Met: The Story of the Mitchell Sisters. Clarksburg,WV: Saucerian Books

2 Beckley, Timothy Green. On The Trail Of The Flying Saucers, June 1969 issue.

In July 1952, Karl Hunrath—a resident of beautiful Racine, Wisconsin—contacted the local police department to report an encounter he’d experienced late one night with a man dressed in a black suit who had entered his home, injected him with a tranquilzer, and proclaimed: “I am Bosco.  You have been chosen to enter our brotherhood of galaxies.” 1

Not long after his curious encounter with a purported Man-in-Black, Hunrath invented a contraption he dubbed “Bosco” apparently in homage to his mysterious dark-clad visitor. Encased in a black box, Bosco was said to duplicate the magnetic field of UFOs and could ostensibly “call them down.” At the time, Hunarth was emplyed as a “project engineer” with Oster Manufacturing Co. 2 Known for its Sunbeam brand of small electric appliances, during the war Oster branched out into avionics, which is where Hunarth might have developed certain skills that aided with the invention of Bosco. One of Hunrath’s fellow employees at Oster, and the co-inventor of Bosco, was Wilbur “Jack” Wilkinson, an assistant foreman at the company, who would subsequently follow Hunrath into infamy.

In November 1952, Hunrath quit his job at Oster and relocated to Southern California where he hooked up with George Adamski and gave the “Professor” (as Adamski was sometimes called) the lowdown on how Bosco not only attracted flying saucers, but could also produce enough free energy to provide all the electricity needed to power Adamski’s burger stand at Palomar Gardens. 3 The only hitch was that Bosco was stored in safekeeping in Wisconsin, and Hunrath was going to have his co-inventor, Wilkinson, bring it out to California, so there was going to be a bit of a delay on all the free energy soon to flow Adamski’s way. All of this Bosco business seemed fine with Professor Adamski until—during a Palomar Gardens wine drinking soiree—Hunrath went off the rails about how Bosco could disable flying saucers, causing them to land against their will, and potentially even crash. 4

Why Hunrath wished to bring down the kindly space brothers is anybody’s guess, but this business about crashing saucers so alarmed the good Professor that he told Hunrath to get the hell off his property—that there’d be no disabling flying saucers if he had anything to say about it—and take that infernal Bosco with him! Part of Adamski’s concern was that if Bosco could bring down UFOs then it could most likely mess with military aircraft as well, to which Hunrath replied:”WHO CARES? WE WANT THE SAUCERS!” 5

After witnessing this heated exchange, one of the Adamski’s followers, Lucy McGinnis, notified the authorities that Hunrath’s black box thingy could potentially disable military aircraft! Not long after, both the FBI and Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) paid a visit to Palomar Gardens to question Adamski on the matter. In response, the professor informed them, in no uncertain terms, that his former colleague (Hunrath) had gone off the deep end and was quite possibly possessed by otherworldly demons. Adamski referred to Hunrath as an “uncontrollable monster” who practiced “occultism.” 6

Before his relationship with Adamski went south, Hunrath—along with fellow saucer enthusiasts George Hunt Williamson and Jerrold Baker—formed the short-lived “Adamski Foundation,” an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the works of the good professor.

In August 1953, Bosco co-inventor Wilbur Wilkinson joined Hunrath in California. During this period, Hunrath had apparently fallen under the spell of George Hunt Williamson and his supposed ability to channel entities from other planets. Hunrath, Wilkinson, and Baker spent considerable time at Williamson’s home in Prescott, Arizona, where a pseudo-scientific laboratory had been set up. To this end, Williamson and crew enlisted a diverse array of ET contact methods that included short-wave radio, telepathy, use of an Ouija board as well as the ingestion of mescaline that allowed the men to enter altered states and ostensibly enhance their otherworldly communications. 7 Around this time, the men adopted space brother names: Hunrath was Firkon, Wilkinson was Ramu, Williamson was Mark III, and Baker was Markon. Whether the men actually believed they were aliens, or channels for aliens, or whatever their intent was, isn’t entirely clear, but some of these very same alien names (Firkon and Ramu) later appeared in Adamski’s book Inside the Spaceships. 8

That summer, Hunrath and Wilkerson moved to Los Angeles to seek employment in order to fund their many flying saucer investigations, landing jobs as electricians. Wilkinson settled his family into a rented home near Echo Park, while Hunrath found accommodations at a rooming house in downtown L.A.

On November 10, 1953, Hunrath phoned Hollywood based ufologist Manon Darlaine, alerting her that he and Wilkinson were planning to meet up the next day with a landed saucer and invited her to tag along. Manon politely declined, fearing the men weren’t operating with a full set of dilithium crystals.

The next day, Hunrath and Wilkinson rented a light plane from the now defunct Gardena Valley Airport, and with three hours of fuel flew off into the great unknown, never to be seen again. For some reason, the men neglected to file a flight plan, which made subsequent search and rescue efforts all the more challenging.

Hunrath—who was at the controls of the plane—was not an experienced pilot, and only a week before their flight had taken a refresher course. It was rumored that the men planned to fly in the direction of Prescott, Arizona, a flight line which would have taken them over the remote Southern California desert mountains where it was presumed they had crashed.

Following their disappearance, a Los Angeles Mirror article featured the alarming title PLANE VANISHES IN MYSTERY: Wife Fears Hubby in Flying Saucer Kidnapping in which Mrs. J. Wilkinson of 1933 ½ LeMoyne Ave. stated that her husband might have been nabbed by “interplanetary invaders in a flying saucer.” Mrs. Wilkinson described her husband Wilbur as an “avid believer in flying saucers” and that he and Hunrath “believed the end of earth was nearing and that strange little men from the planet ‘Maser’ were ready to invade.” Mrs. Wilkinson took the Mirror reporter on a tour of her husband’s “den” which was lined with “flying saucer pictures, weird signs, and formulas…” One of the messages on the wall was from “Prince Reggs of the planet Maser.” Mrs. Wilkinson recalled that her husband played her tape recordings that featured “conversations with men, presumably from other planets, who landed here in saucers.” 9

Afterwards, reports surfaced that the FBI had looked into the case of the missing men and came to suspect they may have high-tailed it to Mexico to escape “personal problems” unrelated to UFOs or Bosco. 10

1 Nick Redfern

2 Racine City Directory

3 Barker, Gray. 1965. Gray Barker’s Book of Saucers. Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Books. (p. 36).

4 Moseley, James. 1971. The Wright Field Story. Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Books. (p. 24).

5 Barker, Gray. 1965. Gray Barker’s Book of Saucers. (p. 36).

6 James W. Moseley, “Some New Facts about Flying Saucers Have Landed,” Nexus (Jan. 1955).

7 Redfern, Nick. 2014. Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind. New Page Books. (p. 62).

8 Moseley, James. 1971. The Wright Field Story. Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Books. (p. 25).

9 “Wife Fears 2 Killed by Flying Saucers.”  Racine Journal-Times (2 Dec. 1953)

10 Moseley, James & Karl Pflock. 2002. Shockingly Close To The Truth: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist. New York: Prometheus Books