The Alien South

Story 1.

The Alabama Metal Man

When reviewing reports of supposed encounters with strange entities, it's easy to be skeptical.

However, the situation becomes more challenging when crucial witnesses can present seemingly compelling physical evidence to substantiate their claims.

Such was the case in an incident which occurred in the southern United States during the early 1970s: an alleged encounter with a mysterious figure known as the Alabama Metal Man.

In reported instances of extraterrestrial encounters, a common thread appears to be that there is a consistent disruption to human technology.

Those involved often recount how vehicles experienced abrupt shutdowns of both electrical and mechanical mechanical systems, accompanied by widespread power failures at the location in question.

Additionally, there are instances in which CCTV systems either failed to record crucial aspects of the encounter, or in some cases, were inexplicably damaged to an extent where footage could not be recovered.

In an era of ever-evolving technology, It's noteworthy that mobile phones, equipped with the ability to capture audio and visual evidence, often seem to fail.

Yet in the case we will be examining in this story, the camera in possession of the main witness operated flawlessly.

Rather than experiencing malfunctions, the individual involved captured a series of images illustrating what they encountered.

These photographs continue to be a source of debate amongst academics and commentators, adding intrigue to the ongoing discourse surrounding the the incident.

The images themselves appear to depict a being adorned in a metallic suit, which seemed to grant superhuman abilities to whoever or whatever was inside it.

A technology which bore no resemblance to anything known to exist at the time the photos were taken, and which has failed to be replicated over half a century since the alleged encounter took place.

During the latter half of 1973,

Jeff Greenhaw was serving as the chief of police in the small town of Fulkville, which is situated in northern Alabama.

On the evening of October the 17th, the 26-year-old was just getting ready to settle down for the night when his house phone unexpectedly began to ring.

Apologising to his wife, Greenhaw made his way into the kitchen to take the call, only to hear a hysterical female female voice sobbing on the other end of the line, which he did not recognise.

Between her laboured breaths, the distressed woman demanded that the chief and his officers hurry to a field situated just outside of the town limits, where, she stated, she had just witnessed the landing of a large and unidentified craft.

The field in question belonged to a local farmer by the name of Bobby Summerford.

For the next few minutes, Greenhaw had done his best to try and calm the unknown caller, before eventually relenting and promising to attend the location in person.

Hanging up the phone, he stayed his wife's protestations with reassurances that everything was in order, then grabbed his gun and various other items of equipment before heading out to his truck.

Having alerted the officer on duty at the local police station of his intentions, the chief had then driven out of town, heading towards the field described by the woman under an ominous moonlit sky.

He couldn't have known it at the time, but what he would witness in the vicinity of that field would forever change his outlook on the possibility of life beyond the stars.

Upon his arrival, He spent a good 15 to 20 minutes driving around the pasture, but failed to find anything out of the ordinary.

Deciding that he had been sent on a wild goose chase and resolving to find out the identity of the telephone prankster, he eventually began to head back home.

But just as he was turning to exit the field, Greenhaw brought his truck to a sudden stop, having caught sight of something out in the darkness.

Standing approximately 75 feet from his vehicle, at the end of a small gravel road, road, was the outline of a lone figure, which appeared to be intently watching him.

Initially assuming it was the owner of the property having come out to inquire what he was doing, the police chief manoeuvred his truck so the headlights now illuminated the entire track.

As he did so, he audibly exhaled in confusion.

for the observer was now fully revealed in the vehicle's high beams.

It wasn't Bobby Summerford Summerford waiting there.

In fact, outside of the science fiction movies he had watched growing up, it didn't look like anything he had seen before.

In the years following the incident, Jeff Greenhall would describe the figure he encountered that evening as almost childlike, around 4 feet tall and affecting an odd simian-like gait.

The figure appeared to be clad in a loose-fitting and wrinkly metallic overall, accompanied by a headpiece which seamlessly integrated with the rest of the suit.

The material comprising the outer layers was remarkably shiny and polished, effortlessly reflecting the headlights being projected from his truck back towards him.

Rising up out of the centre of the headpiece, there appeared to be a slim metallic antenna of some kind, similar to those found on remote control vehicles.

Completely baffled and amazed by the sight before him, Greenhaw quickly reached into his glove box, taking hold of a Polaroid camera he habitually kept there.

Having then alighted from the truck, he began to walk at a brisk pace towards the watching figure, shouting out a friendly greeting as he did so.

When this mysterious character did not respond to his words, Greenhaw hesitated, eventually stopping in his tracks.

He then proceeded to take four pictures.

It was as the fourth of the Polaroid photographs was emerging from the camera's slit that the suited figure suddenly turned and began to run.

For the briefest of moments, as he watched the retreating silhouette disappearing into the distance, Greenhor had found himself too stunned to act.

Its stiff and awkward movements had been visibly laboured, almost as if it had never travelled with any kind of urgency before.

But somehow, and despite the fact its arms and legs did not seem to be operating in a coordinated manner, it was soon swallowed up by the looming darkness of the surrounding countryside.

Shaking off his confusion, Greenhaw had been quick to re-enter his vehicle and set off in pursuit.

Several minutes later, he spotted the enigmatic figure sprinting rapidly along the main highway towards the neighbouring town of Laken.

Despite accelerating to close the gap, the young police chief found himself perplexed once more by the seemingly inhuman abilities of his quarry.

Despite his best efforts, and having reached a speed in excess of 40 miles per hour, he was not able to gain any ground on the metallic figure.

whose movements defied belief.

Greenhall later estimated that each one of the figure's strides covered at least 10 feet, and coupled with its incredible speed, it was able to traverse long distances in a surprisingly short space of time.

Then, without warning, it suddenly began to change direction, leaping and bounding as it ran, reaching heights far beyond what it should have been capable of.

Desperately weaving from side to side to try and match the direction taken by the strange interloper, Greenhor found it impossible to keep his vehicle on the main highway.

Several minutes later, his truck lost traction, careening into an uncontrolled skid as it veered into a neighbouring field.

By the time he regained control and returned to the main highway, the mysterious figure had vanished without a trace.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the police chief had been somewhat reluctant to discuss the matter with his wife upon his return home.

But over the coming days, she managed to persuade him to share his experience with the rest of the staff at his office to try and make sense of what he had seen.

It was a decision which Greenhaw would immediately come to regret, as his description of the encounter was met with nothing but ridicule by his subordinates.

Any hope that he and his wife may have harboured that the Polaroid pictures in his possession may have alleviated this mocking would be dashed as the story then spread into the wider community.

Of the four photographs he had taken, one showed little more than a nondescript length of silver reflecting the camera's flash back at the device.

And of the individual depicted in the other three, there was no end of theories as to what he had seen, none of which supported the idea that it was a genuine extraterrestrial visitor.

Some speculated that the images showed a local youth wearing a modified Halloween costume as part of a prank on the local police department.

Others suggested that the individual was wearing a protective fire suit and that the police chief himself was in on the stunt in order to gain some degree of notoriety.

Within months of the incident, Jeff Greenhaw's life would be turned upside down, with elements of the local community commencing a campaign of harassment against him.

Initially this included mocking and disrespectful messages being left on his truck, before the vehicle itself was vandalised beyond repair.

His trailer home was then firebombed, with this act proving too much for his wife, who subsequently commenced divorce proceedings against him.

Finally, Greenhaw was summoned to a public meeting of the town council, which was also attended by County Sheriff John McBride and the town mayor Wade Tomlinson.

In response to a motion demanding that the police chief resign, both men refused to publicly support Greenhaw, leaving him with no option but to hand in his resignation.

A year to the day after his encounter with the bizarre metal entity, he came home to find that his garage had been broken into, with several items missing.

Everything that had been taken somehow related to his alleged encounter with the Metalman, whilst items of greater value had been left untouched.

Amongst these were his service revolver and shotgun, which he had retained after his resignation as a police officer, as well as the four Polaroid images which he had taken on the evening in question, but kept hidden away given how they had created such an adverse effect on his existence.

In the years that followed, Jeff Greenhaw did agree to participate in media interviews about what had taken place, but never sought to profit financially from the event.

Having retrained and started a new business as a carpenter, and with the furore surrounding the incident now long behind him, he went on to remarry and move on with his life.

The Alabama Metal Man remains one of the most divisive alleged alien encounters in American history, evoking strong feelings from both believers and critics.

Many commentators continue to assert that the incident must have been a prank, orchestrated by the young police chief for unknown motives.

They point to the convenience of having the Polaroid camera with him at the time of the incident, and the fact that the alleged woman who contacted him had never been identified.

Questions have also been asked as to why the police chief seemed happy to cooperate with journalists of local newspapers and media outlets, who were the eventual instigators of his resignation.

One surprising factor that seems to support this side of the argument comes from the most unlikely of sources, the UFO monitoring network, MUFON.

In the aftermath of the incident, Greenhaw had sent the four Polaroid images to the organisation in a bid to find out exactly who or what he had encountered.

In a shattering move, these were then returned by the network, who expressed their belief that the incident was a hoax and that what he had encountered was a prankster in a suit.

And yet, it seems this rejection of Greenhaw's evidence by Mufon has also proven to be something of a double-edged sword.

with others claiming their swift judgment in fact vindicates him.

While sceptical of the source of the images, the MUFON analysts were clear that the Polaroids themselves had not been interfered with or adapted in any way prior to submission.

They were also certain that the distances described by Greenhor at which he had taken the images matched the size and perspective of the Metal Man in each of the four pictures.

Given that Greenhorn made any money from his report and lost his marriage and livelihood, it seems difficult to argue that he is guilty of orchestrating the incident, unless of course he wasn't anticipating such a vehement backlash.

The encounter is itself notorious for its similarity to others very much like it, which involved what appeared to be robot entities near the scene of UFO sightings.

Five years after the incident in Alabama, An almost identical figure was encountered by a member of the public near to an atomic energy site in Risley, Greater Manchester.

The only difference was the respective heights of each being, with the one at Risley standing at over 7 feet tall.

Even so,

that entity was able to incapacitate the vehicle being driven by the witness, producing beams of light from its eyes before then disappearing into the darkness.

Years earlier in 1964, Hunter Donald Schrum claimed to have been attacked by a group of odd-looking creatures which emerged from a flying saucer he had witnessed landing in Sisko Grove, California.

Their number consisted of several small humanoid life forms and two much larger entities which appeared to be robotic.

These metallic beings were able to render the hunter unconscious for short periods of time, utilising an unknown gas which they were able to project from their mouths.

Both of these encounters seemed to suggest that perhaps Greenhaw was fortunate in that the entity he encountered did not choose to engage with him.

But what perhaps makes the case of the Alabama Metalman so notorious is its apparent proximity both in terms of time and distance to a far more distressing event.

One which had been reported only six days prior, having allegedly taken place within the neighbouring state of Mississippi.

An experience in which two men claimed to have encountered horrifying creatures and were subsequently taken aboard their extraterrestrial craft.

An event that would become known as the Pascagoula Incident.

Stay tuned for that story.

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AKA Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

Story 2.

The Pascagoula Incident

This week on Bedtime Stories, we visit one of the most high-profile alien abduction stories ever to have been made public.

We will examine the astounding testimony of those involved, as well as independent evidence which has surfaced in the years since, which seems to support their claims.

Join us as we delve into the disturbing circumstances of the Pascagoula incident.

The peaceful and unassuming community of Pascagoula lies on Mississippi's southern coast, where the Magnolia State meets the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

The city shares its name with the river which flows directly through it, snaking its way across Jackson County before joining the sea to the south.

The word Pascagoula is in itself fairly mundane, translating as bread-eater, a term associated with the Native American tribes which united to form the original settlement.

Over time these people were subjugated by conquistador forces, who would construct a large military fort, the remains of which can be seen today.

There would then be further occupations by both the French and the British, before the residents were finally incorporated into the United States under the Mississippi Territories during 1812.

For the most part, Pascagoula has maintained a somewhat quiet and run-of-the-mill outward appearance, attracting very little in the way of any scrutiny or controversy.

However, all that would change during the winter of 1973, when a media sensation erupted following a bizarre story related by two local factory workers.

Their allegations would propel this otherwise ordinary community to the forefront of national interest,

going from a place of relative obscurity to being the site of one of the most high-profile UFO encounters ever recorded on the North American continent.

As the sun dipped below the horizon on the evening of October 11, 1973,

a subtle shift in the air had given the smallest of hints as to what lay ahead.

The temperatures had begun to fall more rapidly than usual, signalling the onset of the encroaching winter.

Despite this, for the denizens of Pascagoula and its surrounding areas, the overall weather conditions remained largely unremarkable.

The skies above were cloudless, with nothing more than a light breeze to accompany a low-hanging full moon, which bathed otherwise dark and dominous spaces in an iridescent glow.

And it was this combination of factors, which in the opinion of co-workers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker made the perfect conditions for an impromptu session of night fishing.

When the pair had finished work at around 5pm that evening, they had immediately collected their fishing gear and headed straight for their favourite spot.

The site in question was a small secluded pier, situated within the confines of an old abandoned shipyard positioned further down the west bank of the river.

They had only been fishing for about half an hour when they suddenly became aware of a pulsing blue light which seemed to be reflecting off a patch of water located further upstream.

After previous warnings from the local police, given given that the land they were fishing on was privately owned, they had resigned themselves to the likelihood of being asked to move on once again.

But to their utter surprise, they instead caught sight of a bizarre-looking aircraft cruising slowly downriver towards them.

Calvin Parker would later describe this object as being oval-shaped, approximately 30 feet wide by 8 feet high, with two bright blue flashing lights visible on either side of it.

As this strange object approached, the two men watched on in disbelief as it began to emit a series of soft and indistinct sounds, similar to that of whirring machinery.

It was at this time that Hickson and Parker suddenly realised that they were both completely paralyzed.

discovering that they were unable to even turn to look at one another or comment upon what they were observing.

Having continued with its slow and deliberate progress along the surface of the water, the object now came to a stop a short distance away, suspended in the air, hovering silently above the fast-flowing waters beneath it.

A small hatch then opened along one side, out of which three bizarre-looking entities then emerged, who appeared to somehow float in mid-air alongside their vessel.

As this trio began to drift over towards towards the two men, it was clear that they were far from human.

Their bodies were broad and stocky, around six feet tall, with long thick legs and arms which terminated in crab-like pincers.

They had no facial features to speak of, aside from two or three spikes which seemed to protrude from their heads.

They also seemed to be dressed head to toe in rippled metallic suits.

Moments later, these floating intruders came to a halt above the two immobilized men, slowly descending until they were hovering right in front of them.

Without a sound, they took hold of the two fishermen using their pincer-like hands, effortlessly lifting them into the air as if gravity had ceased to be a factor.

Hickson and Parker would both later describe feeling an eerie sense of calm as this took place, almost as if they had been drugged.

Through the overwhelming euphoria they were now experiencing, the two friends realised they were travelling through the air just above the river's surface, towards the craft that the three entities had emerged from.

Upon passing over the threshold of the open hatchway, they both immediately blacked out.

When Hickson and Parker later regained consciousness, they discovered they were now lying back on the wooden surface of the pier, with no sign of the strange craft or its occupants.

Calculating that roughly 20 minutes had elapsed since they had first seen the vessel heading towards them, the two fishermen grabbed their belongings and quickly fled the shipyard.

Having resolved to report the matter to the authorities, their first instinct was to contact the Kessler Air Force Base, which was located a short distance away in nearby Biloxi.

But the officer on duty there had treated them with a high degree of scepticism, stating that what they were reporting was not something the military would be prepared to get involved in.

As a result, the pair then made their way to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, where the Bemus deputies on duty there had warily received their report.

Unsure of how to proceed, These officers in turn contacted Sheriff Fred Diamond, who decided to make his way down to the station to gauge the truthfulness of the two complainants.

Assessing their initial account, Diamond had suspected that the witnesses might be drunk, with Hickson having admitted to consuming whiskey in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

In sharp contrast, the younger of the two men had remained silent throughout the interview.

with Calvin Parker choosing not to engage at any point with the investigating officers.

Diamond then suggested a brief rest period before stepping out.

But unbeknown to the two men, he had left the microphones and tape recorders in the interview room running.

Diamond had hoped that in secretly recording the men, he would then hear evidence that they had made the whole thing up in search of possible fame or notoriety.

However, much to his surprise when he listened back to the the tape, the two men talked candidly amongst themselves about what they had experienced and the parts of the encounter that they could remember.

The terror in their voices was abundantly evident.

The sheriff then decided to conduct a further interview, with the intention of identifying inconsistencies within their first account.

Diamond listened in silence, as an animated Hickson suggested that their abductors must have used injections to pacify them, rolling up his shirt sleeves to reveal tiny intravenous marks on his arms.

He described his captors as lacking eyes or ears, possessing only slits where their mouths should have been, and stated that their movements seemed almost inorganic, rather more robotic in nature.

He further related how he and Parker had been strapped to examination tables, with some form of scanning device being used to analyse them, before they were then released.

Once this second interview had been completed, Diamond had quietly surveyed the two men sitting before him, being at a loss as to how to proceed with the matter.

Eventually, after some thought, he had informed the two complainants that there was little he could do for them in terms of any formal police investigation.

He added that whilst he had no official means of preventing them from going public with their story, he did not believe it would be in their best interests.

But it was advice that would go unheeded, with Hickson providing multiple interviews to national newspapers and television stations during the following weeks.

Both men would also go on to give numerous public talks and publish books about the incident.

These actions would inadvertently elevate their little-known city to a place of extraterrestrial infamy.

The wider phenomenon of alleged alien abduction is something of a polarising subject, with the accounts of those involved often doing little to assuage the sense of stigma that surrounds it.

For those who do not believe in extraterrestrial life, any minor point of contradiction or confusion within such a testimony immediately discredits it.

Sceptics often make the rather arrogant assumption that aliens would follow the same logic as human beings or think in the same way, and question why they would carry out a specific action which would otherwise make little sense to us.

Conversely, for those who do embrace the idea of the existence of extraterrestrial life, anything that can be found to support the statements of abductees is taken as evidence that the event must have taken place.

This is to say that there is a high degree of assumption and naivety on both sides of the argument.

The Pascagoula incident is no exception to this age-old standoff, and is perhaps the most polarising of these alleged encounters, in no small part due to the very different way in which the two abductees reacted to what they said had transpired.

Charles Hickson was viewed by many members of his local community to be a truthful and compelling witness, maintaining his account right up until his death in 2011.

He did, however, refuse to participate in an official polygraph test as a way of supporting his story, despite having been requested to do so by those investigating his case.

Pixon also demonstrably altered and embellished certain parts of his testimony over the years, claiming that further details had revealed themselves as he continued to reflect on the event.

Many commentators have been quick to point out that his apparent motivation for sharing his experiences were the large profits he made from public engagements and interviews.

In comparison, Calvin Parker remained largely silent about what had allegedly taken place, up until a point roughly 20 years later, when he decided to release a book describing the encounter.

As part of his prep work, he agreed to be hypnotised about the incident, going on to provide a large amount of extra detail about what had allegedly transpired within the alien craft.

Those who have read his account from these sessions agree that he presented as a deeply traumatised individual who clearly believed in what he was recalling.

Certain aspects of his story, however, such as an incident in which he physically assaulted his captors in a failed effort to escape, were ridiculed as outlandish and seemingly fantasist in nature.

The integrity of the two witnesses aside, in the half century since the event, additional evidence has come to light which seems to support the notion that the abduction did indeed take place.

Official records show that there were over 50 separate calls to the Pascagoula police switchboard that same evening, all reporting strange lights seen in the skies over the city.

Several independent witnesses also came forward, with their testimonies appearing to mirror and support that of the two abductees.

These include a married couple named Maria and Jerry Blair, who on the evening in question were sitting inside their vehicle in a restaurant car park on the other side of the river.

They observed a mysterious blue light which was floating just above the surface of the water, moving back and forth in an almost rudimentary holding pattern for about 20 minutes.

They ultimately lost sight of it.

but Maria then recalled catching sight of what looked like a person watching her from within the flow of the river itself.

When she then moved closer, having been confused by this figure's apparently unnatural appearance, it quickly disappeared under the water.

On the same evening, two other couples had come to a halt in their car on a road near to the shipyard as they had waited for the traffic signals to change colour.

One of the quartet Judy Branning, suddenly became aware of a flying object with a blue light on the front, quickly approaching them from behind.

As this craft moved closer, she realized it looked like nothing she had ever seen before, being saucer-shaped and lacking any wings or apparent means of propulsion.

When it passed directly over the top of their car, the vehicle's radio had suddenly increased in volume and begun to randomly cycle through multiple radio stations.

This bizarre interruption then ceased once the object had passed out of of sight, leaving all four witnesses utterly confused as to what had taken place.

Irrespective of the credibility or lack thereof of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, no information has ever come to light that definitively undermines their testimonies.

On the contrary, Subsequent evidence and witness statements seem to support their allegations.

It is possible that they were the victims of some elaborate prank, carried out by an unknown individual or group, who have managed to keep their identity unknown.

The memories experienced by the two men may have potentially been distorted to some extent by the alcohol they had consumed at the time, or a shared sense of trauma that has developed since the event.

Regardless, It seems apparent that both men completely believe the disturbing sequence of events they described, a fact that should not be taken lightly by those who invest any time in examining their stories, be they believers in the existence of extraterrestrial life or not.