Wendelle Stevens Dies

Wendelle Stevens as a Major at the Wright Air Development Center in Dayton, Ohio.




Retired USAF Lt. Col. and UFO researcher Wendelle C. Stevens, author of such books as 1986's UFO Crash at Aztec: A Well-Kept Secret, has died at the age of 86. He passed away on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, at 4:21 p.m. of a massive heart attack. Another source says he died at 4:44 pm in his home in Tucson, Arizona of respiratory failure. He is dead, which is for certain.

Wendell C. Stevens was born January 18, 1923, in Round Prairie, Minnesota.

After enlisting in 1941 n the US Army and he was transferred to the Air Corps in 1942. He was accepted for Aviation Cadet Training the same year and graduated from Fighter Pilot Advanced Training in 1943 as a very young 2nd lieutenant in the then U.S. Army Air Corps. After that he attended the first Air Corps Flight Test Pilot School at Kelly Field where he learned to fly all the aircraft in the Air Corps inventory at that time, and a few U.S. Navy Aircraft. He was assigned as the first commander of the First ARU Floating, an aircraft, maintenance squadron, in the Pacific theater. This continued until the war ended in 1945.

After the war ended Stevens was reassigned back to the Flight Test Division. He continued in this capacity until the summer of 1947 when he was rotated to Alaska, where he supervised a special highly classified team of technical specialists who were installing hi-tech data collecting equipment. It was there that the data collecting equipment onboard B-29s detected UFOs.

Stevens also served as US Air Attaché in South America. He retired from the USAF in 1963 and worked for Hamilton Aircraft until 1972. He retired as a Regular Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, which grade he still held in retirement.

Wendelle Stevens was actively involved in ufology for 54 years, first as Director of Investigations for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in Tucson, Arizona, where he retired.

Becoming disenchanted with the dearth of detail on contact events reported in contemporary books and journals of the time, several years ago, Stevens began preparing detailed reports of his own investigations of extensive and on-going UFO contact cases that came to his attention. These reports often ran to over 200 pages and some to over 600 pages, in length and were published in heavily illustrated permanent hard cover library style bindings.

He amassed one of the largest collections of UFO photos and investigated a number of contact cases, published in more than 22 books. His most famous one was the Billy Meier case in Switzerland.

In December 1997 he received an award for lifetime achievement at the First World UFO Forum in Brazilia, capital of Brazil. He was a founder and Director of the International UFO Congress and recently transferred his extensive photo collection, library and archives to Open Minds Production.


Wendelle Stevens (Photo by Maritza Keefe)

Stevens often expressed strong opinions. For example, Stevens included a section in his UFO Crash at Aztec book about the alleged crash of a UFO at Laredo, Texas on July 7, 1948, believing that the UFO was a top-secret U.S. experimental aircraft and that the burned body allegedly found was that of a large rhesus monkey. In a 2009 interview, Stevens said that, although he believed many UFO incidents do involve extraterrestrial spacecraft, he thinks the 1948 Laredo crash was really a secret experiment that originated at the White Sands, New Mexico missile range.

For serious ufologists, one of the most problematic associations that Stevens had was with Billy Meier, who most in ufology feel is a hoaxer. Wendelle C. Stevens' several volumes of Message from the Pleiades: The Contact Notes of Eduard Billy Meier, were the world's introduction to the citizen of Switzerland who claims to be a UFO contactee and the source of many controversial UFO photographs presented as proof Meier has had contact with space aliens.

Adamski Name Game Pops Up Again

The Sturgis Journal of Michigan is reporting that a man gathering sweet corn near Burr Oak, Michigan, in the southern part of the state, is the latest to have an unexpected encounter with an alligator. As noted at Cryptomundo, there have been several crazy croc encounters this summer.

In the latest incident, Jeff Adamski of Burr Oak said he was picking corn near the Michigan-Indiana border when two women who were a few rows over came running and screaming, saying they had seen an alligator.

Adamski told the Sturgis Journal that the alligator darted toward him and kept coming as he backed away. Adamski moved faster, but then he began to worry about a child being attacked by the nearly 3-foot reptile. He grabbed a 4-foot bar from his truck and killed it.

But St. Joseph County's animal control officer told the Detroit Free Press that Jeff Adamski's reaction was a "little extreme."

"Hopefully, this guy doesn't think he's a hero," Tom Miller said Friday.

Adamski, 45, said he asked his brother-in-law to come get the alligator and put it in a freezer.

"I wasn't done picking corn yet," he told the newspaper. "And no one would have believed me. They'd say 'What time did you start drinking?' "

Alligators also have been seen in recent weeks in the Chicago River, a Boston suburb and New York City.



Within the realm of the "name game," it must be pointed out that the name "Adamski" has immediate association with ufology. George Adamski ~ pictured above ~ (April 17, 1891 – April 23, 1965) was a Polish-born American citizen who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he claimed to have photographed ships from other planets, met with friendly Nordic alien "Space Brothers," and to have taken flights with them to other planets.

Adamski was the first of the contactees of the 1950s, who styled himself to be a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher," though many of his stories were considered fictions and hoaxes. Also an author, Adamski wrote a 1949 science fiction book (ghost written by Lucy McGinnis) with a space travel theme, Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus, published by Leonard-Freefield Co of Los Angeles. In 1953-1955, he reworked parts of the fictional material from that previous book and included it as fact within his Inside the Space Ships and his revised best-selling Flying Saucers Have Landed, co-written with Desmond Leslie. On April 23, 1965 at the age of 74, George Adamski died of a heart attack in Maryland.

The moniker Adamski has, therefore, instant name recognition and been aligned to UFOs for almost 60 years.

In recent years, Adamski has been the name used by an English dance music producer, prominent at the time of acid house for his tracks "N-R-G" and "Killer" (a collaboration with Seal). He was born Adam Tinley, December 4, 1967, in the New Forest, England.

Burr Oak, Michigan is a location with some weird history of its own.

The Burr Oak cemetery in Michigan (a historically significant AfricanAmerican resting place) is said to be haunted, and unsubstantiated reports of gaunt, black tux clad figures lingering near the old gates adjacent to the tri-state on-ramp are in the literature. On November 28, 2005, two greenish blue UFOs were reported at Burr Oak, Michigan. On June 19, 2009, sightings of a crescent moon shaped UFO were recorded for Burr Oak, Michigan.

In early August 2010, WWMT reported that a "mystery cat" (a cougar) killed a goat and mauled another at a farm in Burr Oak Township, Michigan.

In terms of the name game with Burr Oak, the name is used extensively in the Salt Fork Park, Ohio, area, and recent Bigfoot sightings in 2006, 2008, and 2009, have occurred on the trail near the Burr Oak Lodge, and near Burr Oak Cove on the northwest tip of the Burr Oak Reservoir.

Burr Oak is a variant spelling of Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa). Bur oak is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus sect. Quercus, native to North America in the eastern and midwestern United States and south-central Canada. This plant is also called Mossycup oak and Mossycup white oak. The term "Burr Oak" can refer to some places in the United States:
Burr Oak, Indiana
Burr Oak, Iowa
Burr Oak, Kansas
Burr Oak, Michigan
Burr Oak Township, Michigan
Burr Oak, Missouri
Burr Oak, Nevada
Burr Oak, Ohio
Burr Oak, Wisconsin
Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois
Burr Oak State Park in Ohio

Baran Dies

Annette Baran, the famed open adoption advocate of California, has died at the age of 83. Her Los Angeles Times obituary may be found here.


I worked with Annette, along with filmmaker Dan Porter from the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School, to produce adoption conferences in the Seattle area and in SoCal, as well as a documentary and a book. We coauthored, Creating Kinship by Sharon Kaplan Roszia, Annette Baran, and Loren Coleman (Portland, ME: University of Southern Maine, 1995).

Annette was a kind and gentle woman, and her spirit will be missed. What she did for the adoption movement was remarkable.

Return of Momo?

Alisa Maier has been found alive. The news was good this morning.

Registered sex offender Paul S. Smith, a suspect in the abduction of four-year-old Alisa Maier, who shot himself has died. He was discovered by police repainting his car in Hawk Point, Missouri. Some, even without any direct link being proven yet, are calling him a "Missouri Monster."

Have you looked behind the headlines, at the location, the twilight language, and the names?

Alisa Maier was kidnapped from her front yard in July 2010, in Louisiana, Missouri.

Why does this location sound familiar?

In July 1972, Louisiana, Missouri, was the site of one of the largest hairy hominoid flaps occurring in the midst of the high strangeness times of the 1970s. I wrote about the sightings and the era in Creatures of the Other Edge and Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America.

The image of Momo is well-known.



Momo is the name of the area's local eastern Bigfoot, which is reported to live in Missouri. The name Momo is short for "Missouri Monster" and it is reported to have a large round head, with a furry body, and hair covering the eyes. It is reportedly a large, 7 ft (~2.1 m) tall, hairy, black, manlike creature that kills dogs and emits a terrible odor.

In 1972, at 3:30 p.m. July 11, Momo was first reported by Edgar Harrison's children, Terry (8), Wally (5), and Doris (15), crossing through their front yard, carrying a dead, bleeding dog. The series of sightings lasted for about 2 weeks, and tracks were found. Edgar Harrison, a church deacon and the owner of a family business in town, became so obsessed with finding the creature, he camped out for 21 straight days at the bottom of a local hill where Momo was frequently seen.

Now comes the abduction and return of this little Louisiana, Missouri girl.

Investigators believe a man snatched Alisa Maier, the four-year-old girl from her front yard on July 5th, which prompted an Amber Alert. She was found more than 24 hours later on Tuesday night, July 6, near to a car wash, next to a Phillips 66 gas station. Talk about number games.

"I can't find words -- it's unbelievable. God was watching over that baby," said Kathy Tepen, Alisa's great aunt.

Alisa was found wandering at a gas station car wash in the 600 block of Gravois Road in old town Fenton, Missouri, around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday. St. Louis County police said witnesses contacted them to report seeing a young boy unattended. The boy turned out to be the girl, due to the fact her hair had been cut.

What was Alisa's mother's name? Kimberly Harrison. It is not a stretch of the imagination to think the family of this victim is related to the victimized, traumatized children of Edgar Harrison.



Two photos above show Roy Harrison, the grandfather of Alisa Maier, 4, who smiles while speaking with reporters at Maier's home in Louisiana, Mo., Wednesday, July 7, 2010. Maier was abducted Monday night from the yard of her home.

So, how closely related are these Harrisons to the 1972 ones in Louisiana, Missouri?

Connection confirmed: See the followup blog by clicking here.

Also, as noted privately to me by a cryptopolitical observer, regarding Louisiana, Missouri: "Pike County; the girl found in the St Louis area [that’s two 'Louis' roots, with Louis (or Lewis) of course important in Masonry as both a hereditary Mason and the device used to hoist worked stone blocks into position], plus the telltale cutting of the girl’s hair....It [was also] revealed that a carnival had been in Louisiana [Missouri] at about the same time, which suggests the possibility of, wait for it, clowns."

Del Taco Hit

The mixture of a date, a name, and a location come rushing at us in the news today, to remind us to not let our twilight language guard down.

On June 19, 1982, the dead, limp body of God's Banker, Roberto Calvi was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.



Before George Jo Hennard crashed his truck into Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, on October 16, 1991, and sprayed it with gunfire. killing 23, including himself, wounding 20, he had watched a documentary video at home about a similar scenario carried out by James Oliver Huberty, who killed 21 people and wounded 19 at a San Ysidro, California, McDonald's on July 18, 1984. Huberty was shot dead at the McDonald's by law enforcement personnel.



On March 1, 2000, a man opened fire at a Burger King and a McDonald's in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, killing 3 and injuring 2 others. On May 24, 2000, a Queens. New York, Wendy's was shattered by gunfire that left 5 dead and 2 wounded. On January 20, 2003, a man walked into a Burger King in Pomona, California, killed 2 and was shoot by police, in what was called a "suicide by cops."

The ripples continue.

A man walked into a Southern California fast food restaurant and shot his stepdaughter and her family of four as they ate lunch together, killing the woman's husband and 8-year-old son before fatally shooting himself Saturday afternoon, June 19, 2010, one day before Father's Day.

The gunman, who was identified as Jimmy Schlager, 56, of Lancaster, rode a bicycle to the Del Taco restaurant restaurant in San Bernardino, California, before opening fire at his family, who were having lunch. The name Schlager is German, and is loosely translated as a "hit," formerly, as in a "musical hit." There are apparent records of Schlager having a criminal record of some violence.

Both his stepdaughter, 29, and her five-year-old son sustained multiple gunshot wounds and were taken to hospital in critical condition. His stepdaughter's 33-year-old husband and his six-year-old son died from their wounds.

Schlager arrived at the Del Taco restaurant in San Bernardino on a bike at about 1 p.m., walked over to a table and opened fire on his stepdaughter, her husband, and their sons, San Bernardino police Lieutenant Jarrod Burguan said. While the motive remains unclear, authorities believe "there’s a domestic connection," Burguan said.

Witnesses offered the police "very vague" accounts of what Mr. Schlager said to the family, Burguan said: "Something to the effect of, ‘Well, what do you think of me now?’"

The woman's husband, 33, was declared dead at the restaurant and the 8-year-old was declared dead at a hospital, San Bernardino Fire Department spokesman Steve Tracey said.

The woman and the 6-year-old boy were hospitalized in critical condition, Tracey said.

Police said several other people were in the restaurant, but the gunman clearly walked in seeking the four victims. They said the gunman had a long and violent criminal record, but did not give further details.

Owners of nearby businesses said horrified patrons streamed out of the restaurant after the shots were fired.

"I saw some people yelling and all of a sudden I heard 'boom, boom, boom, boom'," Jorge Garcia, who works at a recycling trailer in the same parking lot as the restaurant, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "I saw two employees run out of the employee door and then I saw eight or 10 people run out of the restaurant and across the street."

What will the next week deliver to our consciousness via forthcoming breaking headlines?

Real Killer Clowns

According to the UK's Daily Mail:

More than 100 professional clowns marched through the Salvadoran capital [on June 9, 2010] to protest against the killing of a bus passenger by two imposter clowns.

A man was shot five times in the face and stomach on Monday when he declined to give money to two assailants dressed as clowns who boarded a public bus in San Salvador. No-one has been arrested. Clowns make money by performing on public buses in the city.

Wearing oversized bow ties, tiny hats and big yellow trousers, the protesters...marched down San Salvador's main street in an effort to both entertain and educate passers-by. Several held signs insisting that real clowns are not criminals.

Ana Noelia Ramirez, a professional clown, said: 'We are protesting so that people know we are not killers.

'The people who did this are not clowns. They unfortunately used our costume and our make-up to commit a monstrous act.'



Clown union leader Carlos Vasquez said he plans to issue IDs to all real clowns and urged police to detain those who do not have them.

About a dozen people are killed daily in El Salvador, murders police attribute primarily to gang members, drug traffickers and other organized crime.

More than six million people live in the Central American country.

"Killer Clowns" by brownsk8ermm (deviant art).

Bird Killings

A mass shooting and the shooter's suicide have occurred in the United Kingdom.

At least 12 people are dead and 25 are wounded after a gunman opened fire in small, picturesque villages in northwest England on Wednesday morning, June 2, 2010, British police say. The rampage, in a region famed for its tranquil beauty, shocked a country where handguns are banned and multiple shootings rare. It was Britain's deadliest mass shooting since 1996.

Cumbria police released this picture of Derrick Bird, 52, considered the main suspect in deadly shootings Wednesday morning. (Cumbria Constabulary)

Police have found the body of a man believed to be the alleged gunman, Derrick Bird, 52, a taxi driver described as quiet but friendly. They found the body in a wooded area near the Lake District village of Boot, where it was believed Bird had fled. They also found a gun alongside the body.

The discovery ended a harrowing morning for residents of the country's West and Central Lakes areas, whom police ordered to stay indoors as the search for Bird ensued.

"Police are asking those who were sheltering to now go about their normal day-to-day activities," the Cumbria Constabulary said on its website. "[We] thank them for their patience in incredibly difficult circumstances."

The shootings began at about 10:30 a.m. local time in Whitehaven, a town in Cumbria county about 560 kilometres northwest of London.

The BBC reported there had been shootings in 11 locations, not all of them fatal. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting out the window of his car.

Peter Watson, a witness, told the BBC he had seen a body lying in the road. "When I first got here, it must have just happened. There was a man lying on the ground with police [standing] over him and a jacket on him," he said.

Another witness, Alan Hannah, told the Sun newspaper he was driving in Whitehaven when he "saw all these officers running out." He then "saw a man with a large shotgun" pull up to a stoplight in a car with a smashed windshield.

"I drove through the red light to get ... out of the way," Hannah, 68, told the newspaper. "I got home safely but was very shaken."

Soon afterwards, a farmer was believed to have been shot dead in Gosforth, several kilometres to the east, according to BBC reporter Chris Stewart.

Police are asking other possible witnesses to come forward.

They have not released the names of those killed.

Sue Matthews, who works at A2B Taxis in Whitehaven, said Bird was self-employed, quiet and lived alone.

"I would say he was fairly popular," Matthews said. "I would see him once a week out and about. He was known as Birdy.

"I can't believe he would do that — he was a quiet little fellow."

Deadly shootings are rare in Britain, where gun ownership is tightly restricted and handguns are banned.

In 1987, gun enthusiast Michael Ryan killed 16 people in the English town of Hungerford. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at a kindergarten in Dunblane, Scotland.