Posted On: July 4, 2022

The year was 1973. The place was Falkville, Alabama. A small town Police Chief had a close encounter with some kind of a spaceman. He took photos as proof.

On the soft, autumn evening of October 17, 1973, Jeff Greenhaw, then 26-year old chief of police of Falkville, Alabama, was just settling in with his wife for a well-deserved night of rest when he received an emergency call just after 10 pm. that would change his life forever.

The call was from a nearly hysterical, and, to this day, anonymous, woman who claimed that a Unidentified Flying Object had landed just outside of town in a field which was owned by Bobby Summerford. Thus begins arguably the second most bizarre case of an alien encounter to come out of the American South, in that very same month!

Although he was off duty, Greenhaw, abiding by his sworn duty to serve and protect, jumped up, snagged his keys, cuffs, revolver and, almost as an afterthought, his trusty Polaroid camera on the off chance that there might be something worth taking a shot of. He then hopped in his truck, radioed the call in and flew to the location of the alleged flying saucer landing.

When Greenhaw arrived on the scene he got out of his truck and patrolled the area, but claimed to find nothing out of the ordinary. The chief then returned to his vehicle and decided to take drive around the field before returning home. Greenhaw cruised around the perimeter of Summerford’s property, scanning the darkness for anything unusual, but saw nothing of merit in the murky blackness. He then turned down a narrow, gravel path for one final pass" that was when he came face to face with the unthinkable.

After traveling down the path for about a hundred yards, Greenhaw saw an entity that he described as a humanoid figure standing in next to the road, about 75-feet away. The chief got out of his truck and carefully approached what he still assumed to be a human being, thinking that it may be someone in need of assistance.

Greenhaw shouted to his strange companion, but it did not respond. As he got to within 15-feet of the being that was illuminated in his truck’s high-beams, the chief realized that something was very wrong. The entity appeared to be wearing some kind of silvery, metallic suit that resembled thick aluminum foil.

Some reports also indicate that its stature was somewhat child-like or simian, like a monkey in a spacesuit. Greenhaw described what he saw:

"It looked like his head and neck were kind of made together" he was real bright, something like rubbing mercury on nickel, but just as smooth as glass-different angles give different lighting" when I saw him standing in the middle of the road I immediately stopped the car and asked if he was a foreigner, but no sound came out of his mouth."

Greenhaw also noted that the thing had an antenna sticking out from the top of its head and that its movements were jerky and mechanical. This neck-less, wrinkled skin, antenna bearing, "robotic" description.

Quickly, the shocked Greenhaw realized that he was dealing with something unknown and, pushing his panic aside with years of police training, had the presence of mind to pick up his instant camera and shoot four photographs.

The first Polaroid shows nothing but inky darkness and a flash of silver, but the next three images hit the jackpot. In the photos one can clearly see a human-like figure wearing a wrinkly, metallic suit, which is reflecting the flash from the Polaroid’s bulb.

Perhaps believing that it was being attacked by a human with some kind of "light-beam" weapon, the creature almost instantaneously turned and began sprinting across the field at speeds far in excess of those capable by human beings. Greenhaw noted that it seemed to be heading in the general direction of Lacon, which is about three miles away from Falkville. The chief reacted swiftly, ran back to his truck and took off in pursuit of the metal man.

Greenhaw would state that he managed to accelerate his truck only to about 35 MPH due to the rough terrain of the field, but that he was still completely outrun by this unusual entity, which, not unlike Finland’s KINNULA HUMANOID or London’s notorious SPRING HEELED JACK, seemed to be able to defy the laws of gravity with its speed and spring-like jumps. According to Greenhaw:

"(He) ran in a bizarre way" seemed to have springs in the feet for propulsion, could cover about three meters in every way" He was running faster than any human I ever saw."

During this frantic off road pursuit, Greenhaw claims he lost control of his truck and slid into a ditch. At which point he watched as the creature slipped into the darkness never to be seen again. Leaving Greenhaw with only his haunting memories of the event and a single controversial Polaroid.

Within months of revealing his bizarre encounter, the Chief or police was terminated by the town council, his marriage fell apart and, just when it must have seemed as if matters couldn’t get any worse, his home was burned to the ground.

All of the above factors have thrown kerosene on the already brightly burning flames of the UFO conspiracy theories surrounding this event and, more to the point, give a clear indication as to why most contactees and eyewitnesses remain silent regarding their unusual experiences.

Some ufologists believe that the metal man was a robotic scout for an extra-terrestrial landing craft, while skeptics maintain that it was all a hoax perpetrated by Greenhaw and an unknown accomplice (likely a child) who was clad in a tin foil costume.

The images that Greenhaw snapped were collected and sent for analysis by Walt Andrus, a director of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network.)

Interestingly the negatives of the Greenhaw pictures that were studied by MUFON seem to show images of a "flying saucer" amongst them, although no one ever claimed to have photographed the object initially reported. Perhaps the pictures are from another alleged UFO case or maybe there’s more to this story than has been previously told.

While it is virtually impossible to ascertain whether or not his is a real close encounter or a fraud, it seems clear that Chief Greenhaw garnered no financial gain or positive notoriety (even though the encounter has been mention in numerous books detailing alleged alien encounters) due to his experience and, while he has managed to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, all reports indicate that he continues to regret his encounter with this unknown.

To this day, however, Greenhaw and his supporters insist that he had an actual encounter with an alien being.

Resources: cryptozoology.fandom.com.

My Take: The only choices here is 100% hoax or 100% something exotic. Who would have had a robot in 1973 that could out run a pickup truck?

---

1973: Army Helicopter In Near Collision with UFO

A day after Greenhaw's experience, on 18 October 1973, four Army Reserve crewmen in a Bell Huey helicopter had an alarming close encounter with a UFO in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio.

The pilot in command was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, and the other airmen were Crew Chief Robert Yanacsek, Co-pilot Arrigo Jezzi and Staff Sergeant John Healey. The Army Disposition Form, signed by the four witnesses, records the incident as follows:

"Army helicopter 68-15444 was returning from Columbus, Ohio, to Cleveland, Ohio, and at 23:05 hours east, southeast of Mansfield Airport in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio, while flying at an altitude of 2500 feet and on a heading of 030 degrees, SSG Yanacsek observed a red light on the east horizon, 90 degrees to the flight path of the helicopter. Approximately 30 seconds later, SSG Yanacsek indicated the object was converging on the helicopter at the same altitude at an airspeed in excess of 600 knots and on a midair collision heading. CPT Coyne observed the converging object, took over the controls of the aircraft and initiated a power descent from 2500 feet to 1700 feet to avoid impact with the object.

A radio call was initiated to Mansfield Tower who acknowledged the helicopter and was asked by CPT Coyne if there were any high performance aircraft flying in the vicinity of Mansfield Airport, however there was no response received from the tower.

The crew expected impact from the object; instead, the object was observed to hesitate momentarily over the helicopter and then slowly continued on a westerly course accelerating at high rate of speed, clear west of Mansfield Airport then turn 45 degree heading to the northwest. CPT Coyne indicated the altimeter read a 100 fpm [feet per minute] climb and read 3500 feet with the collective in the full down position.

The aircraft was returned to 2500 feet by CPT Coyne and flown back to Cleveland, Ohio. The Flight plan was closed and the FAA Flight Service Station notified of the incident.

"From a speed of 600 miles an hour, it abruptly slowed down to our exact speed of 100 miles an hour and hovered above us," reported Captain Coyne. Co-pilot Jezzi described the object as "cigar-shaped, metallic gray, with a dome on top" and Staff Sergeant Healey added that it was "about 60 feet long, without any portholes or intake openings that we could see. At first it was just showing a red light in the nose. Then a green spotlight at the back swept around and shone into our cabin."

The radio returned to normal ten minutes after the incident, having gone completely dead on both UHF and VHF frequencies just after Coyne had established contact with Mansfield control tower. Some witnesses on the ground reported seeing the helicopter as well as an object "like a blimp" and "as big as a school bus" hovering above the helicopter. When the UFO's green light appeared it was described by the witnesses as "like rays coming down. The helicopter, the trees, the road, everything turned green."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take: This is interesting. I wonder if the UFO was actually alien in origin or was it an ARV?

Posted On: July 4, 2022

The year was 1973. The place was Falkville, Alabama. A small town Police Chief had a close encounter with some kind of a spaceman. He took photos as proof.

On the soft, autumn evening of October 17, 1973, Jeff Greenhaw, then 26-year old chief of police of Falkville, Alabama, was just settling in with his wife for a well-deserved night of rest when he received an emergency call just after 10 pm. that would change his life forever.

The call was from a nearly hysterical, and, to this day, anonymous, woman who claimed that a Unidentified Flying Object had landed just outside of town in a field which was owned by Bobby Summerford. Thus begins arguably the second most bizarre case of an alien encounter to come out of the American South, in that very same month!

Although he was off duty, Greenhaw, abiding by his sworn duty to serve and protect, jumped up, snagged his keys, cuffs, revolver and, almost as an afterthought, his trusty Polaroid camera on the off chance that there might be something worth taking a shot of. He then hopped in his truck, radioed the call in and flew to the location of the alleged flying saucer landing.

When Greenhaw arrived on the scene he got out of his truck and patrolled the area, but claimed to find nothing out of the ordinary. The chief then returned to his vehicle and decided to take drive around the field before returning home. Greenhaw cruised around the perimeter of Summerford’s property, scanning the darkness for anything unusual, but saw nothing of merit in the murky blackness. He then turned down a narrow, gravel path for one final pass" that was when he came face to face with the unthinkable.

After traveling down the path for about a hundred yards, Greenhaw saw an entity that he described as a humanoid figure standing in next to the road, about 75-feet away. The chief got out of his truck and carefully approached what he still assumed to be a human being, thinking that it may be someone in need of assistance.

Greenhaw shouted to his strange companion, but it did not respond. As he got to within 15-feet of the being that was illuminated in his truck’s high-beams, the chief realized that something was very wrong. The entity appeared to be wearing some kind of silvery, metallic suit that resembled thick aluminum foil.

Some reports also indicate that its stature was somewhat child-like or simian, like a monkey in a spacesuit. Greenhaw described what he saw:

"It looked like his head and neck were kind of made together" he was real bright, something like rubbing mercury on nickel, but just as smooth as glass-different angles give different lighting" when I saw him standing in the middle of the road I immediately stopped the car and asked if he was a foreigner, but no sound came out of his mouth."

Greenhaw also noted that the thing had an antenna sticking out from the top of its head and that its movements were jerky and mechanical. This neck-less, wrinkled skin, antenna bearing, "robotic" description.

Quickly, the shocked Greenhaw realized that he was dealing with something unknown and, pushing his panic aside with years of police training, had the presence of mind to pick up his instant camera and shoot four photographs.

The first Polaroid shows nothing but inky darkness and a flash of silver, but the next three images hit the jackpot. In the photos one can clearly see a human-like figure wearing a wrinkly, metallic suit, which is reflecting the flash from the Polaroid’s bulb.

Perhaps believing that it was being attacked by a human with some kind of "light-beam" weapon, the creature almost instantaneously turned and began sprinting across the field at speeds far in excess of those capable by human beings. Greenhaw noted that it seemed to be heading in the general direction of Lacon, which is about three miles away from Falkville. The chief reacted swiftly, ran back to his truck and took off in pursuit of the metal man.

Greenhaw would state that he managed to accelerate his truck only to about 35 MPH due to the rough terrain of the field, but that he was still completely outrun by this unusual entity, which, not unlike Finland’s KINNULA HUMANOID or London’s notorious SPRING HEELED JACK, seemed to be able to defy the laws of gravity with its speed and spring-like jumps. According to Greenhaw:

"(He) ran in a bizarre way" seemed to have springs in the feet for propulsion, could cover about three meters in every way" He was running faster than any human I ever saw."

During this frantic off road pursuit, Greenhaw claims he lost control of his truck and slid into a ditch. At which point he watched as the creature slipped into the darkness never to be seen again. Leaving Greenhaw with only his haunting memories of the event and a single controversial Polaroid.

Within months of revealing his bizarre encounter, the Chief or police was terminated by the town council, his marriage fell apart and, just when it must have seemed as if matters couldn’t get any worse, his home was burned to the ground.

All of the above factors have thrown kerosene on the already brightly burning flames of the UFO conspiracy theories surrounding this event and, more to the point, give a clear indication as to why most contactees and eyewitnesses remain silent regarding their unusual experiences.

Some ufologists believe that the metal man was a robotic scout for an extra-terrestrial landing craft, while skeptics maintain that it was all a hoax perpetrated by Greenhaw and an unknown accomplice (likely a child) who was clad in a tin foil costume.

The images that Greenhaw snapped were collected and sent for analysis by Walt Andrus, a director of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network.)

Interestingly the negatives of the Greenhaw pictures that were studied by MUFON seem to show images of a "flying saucer" amongst them, although no one ever claimed to have photographed the object initially reported. Perhaps the pictures are from another alleged UFO case or maybe there’s more to this story than has been previously told.

While it is virtually impossible to ascertain whether or not his is a real close encounter or a fraud, it seems clear that Chief Greenhaw garnered no financial gain or positive notoriety (even though the encounter has been mention in numerous books detailing alleged alien encounters) due to his experience and, while he has managed to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, all reports indicate that he continues to regret his encounter with this unknown.

To this day, however, Greenhaw and his supporters insist that he had an actual encounter with an alien being.

Resources: cryptozoology.fandom.com.

My Take: The only choices here is 100% hoax or 100% something exotic. Who would have had a robot in 1973 that could out run a pickup truck?

---

1973: Army Helicopter In Near Collision with UFO

A day after Greenhaw's experience, on 18 October 1973, four Army Reserve crewmen in a Bell Huey helicopter had an alarming close encounter with a UFO in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio.

The pilot in command was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, and the other airmen were Crew Chief Robert Yanacsek, Co-pilot Arrigo Jezzi and Staff Sergeant John Healey. The Army Disposition Form, signed by the four witnesses, records the incident as follows:

"Army helicopter 68-15444 was returning from Columbus, Ohio, to Cleveland, Ohio, and at 23:05 hours east, southeast of Mansfield Airport in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio, while flying at an altitude of 2500 feet and on a heading of 030 degrees, SSG Yanacsek observed a red light on the east horizon, 90 degrees to the flight path of the helicopter. Approximately 30 seconds later, SSG Yanacsek indicated the object was converging on the helicopter at the same altitude at an airspeed in excess of 600 knots and on a midair collision heading. CPT Coyne observed the converging object, took over the controls of the aircraft and initiated a power descent from 2500 feet to 1700 feet to avoid impact with the object.

A radio call was initiated to Mansfield Tower who acknowledged the helicopter and was asked by CPT Coyne if there were any high performance aircraft flying in the vicinity of Mansfield Airport, however there was no response received from the tower.

The crew expected impact from the object; instead, the object was observed to hesitate momentarily over the helicopter and then slowly continued on a westerly course accelerating at high rate of speed, clear west of Mansfield Airport then turn 45 degree heading to the northwest. CPT Coyne indicated the altimeter read a 100 fpm [feet per minute] climb and read 3500 feet with the collective in the full down position.

The aircraft was returned to 2500 feet by CPT Coyne and flown back to Cleveland, Ohio. The Flight plan was closed and the FAA Flight Service Station notified of the incident.

"From a speed of 600 miles an hour, it abruptly slowed down to our exact speed of 100 miles an hour and hovered above us," reported Captain Coyne. Co-pilot Jezzi described the object as "cigar-shaped, metallic gray, with a dome on top" and Staff Sergeant Healey added that it was "about 60 feet long, without any portholes or intake openings that we could see. At first it was just showing a red light in the nose. Then a green spotlight at the back swept around and shone into our cabin."

The radio returned to normal ten minutes after the incident, having gone completely dead on both UHF and VHF frequencies just after Coyne had established contact with Mansfield control tower. Some witnesses on the ground reported seeing the helicopter as well as an object "like a blimp" and "as big as a school bus" hovering above the helicopter. When the UFO's green light appeared it was described by the witnesses as "like rays coming down. The helicopter, the trees, the road, everything turned green."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take: This is interesting. I wonder if the UFO was actually alien in origin or was it an ARV?