Pascagoula Abduction
| Charles Hickson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1931 |
| Died | September 9, 2011 (aged 79–80) |
| Known for | Alleged abduction |
| Calvin Parker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954 (age 62–63) |
| Known for | Alleged abduction |
| Location | Pascagoula River, Mississippi |
|---|
The Pascagoula Abduction is a purported UFO sighting and alien abduction alleged to have occurred in 1973 when co-workers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed they were abducted by aliens while fishing near Pascagoula, Mississippi. The incident earned substantial mass media attention.
On the evening of October 11, 1973, co-workers 42-year-old Charles Hickson and 19-year-old Calvin Parker told the Jackson County, Mississippi Sheriff's office they were fishing off a pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi when they heard a whirring/whizzing sound, saw two flashing blue lights and an oval shaped object 30-40 feet across and 8-10 feet high. Parker and Hickson claimed that they were "conscious but paralyzed" while three "creatures" took them aboard the object and subjected them to an examination before releasing them.
Within days, Pascagoula was the center of an international news story, with reporters swarming the town. UFOlogists James Harder of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and J. Allen Hynek interviewed the two men. Harder attempted to hypnotize them and concluded Hickson and Parker “experienced an extraterrestrial phenomena”, while Hynek believed they had “a very real, frightening experience”. Hickson later appeared on talk shows, gave lectures and interviews, and in 1983 authored a self-published book UFO Contact at Pascagoula. Hickson claimed additional encounters with aliens in 1974, alleging that the aliens told him they were "peaceful". Parker later attended UFO conventions and in 1993 started a company called "UFO Investigations" to produce television stories about UFOs. Charles Hickson died at age 80 on September 9, 2011.
Aviation journalist and UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass found "discrepancies" in Hickson’s story. When Hickson took a polygraph exam, the examiner determined that Hickson believed the abduction story, but Klass argued that the test was administered by an “inexperienced” operator and that Hickson refused to take another by more experienced police operator. Klass concluded the case was a hoax based on these and other discrepancies. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell wrote that Hickson's behavior was "questionable" and that he altered or embellished his story when later appearing on television shows. Nickell speculated that Hickson may have fantasized the encounter with aliens during a hypnagogic “waking dream state", adding that Parker's corroboration of the tale was likely due to suggestibility since he told police he had "passed out at the beginning of the incident and failed to regain consciousness until it was over".
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