So Supernatural - ALIEN: Cape Girardeau

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Many think the Roswell, New Mexico, UFO crash was the first of its kind. But six years before, in 1941, a local minister was called to the site of a "plane crash" in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and asked to give last rights to three alien bodies. In the decades since, many have come forward with their own stories about Cape Girardeau – including missing photographic evidence, debris being stores in the Capitol Building, and even top secret Presidential memos that reference the alien crash.Listen to ALIEN: Majestic 12 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts! For a full list of sources, please visit: sosupernaturalpodcast.com/alien-cape-girardeau-incidentSo Supernatural is an audiochuck and Crime House production. Find us on social!Instagram: @sosupernatualpodTwitter: @_sosupernaturalFacebook: /sosupernaturalpod

When you think of the most iconic UFO event in modern history, what comes to mind? I bet it's the 1947 Roswell crash, isn't it? Me too. I mean, for those of us who think the government is hiding proof of alien life, this case is sort of like the origin story. The catalyst moment, the thing that kicked the government into high gear after they supposedly recovered pieces of a downed UFO, maybe even alien bodies on a ranch in New Mexico. But what if I told you, Roswell wasn't the first time this happened, and it wasn't

even the most interesting? In 1941, six years before Roswell, there was another UFO crash on American soil, out in Cape Gerardo, Missouri. And one of the first people on the scene was a pastor who'd been called to give the passengers of that craft their last rites. Not only did a person walk away with photographic evidence, this had occurred. Some claim to see remnants from this craft stored inside the Capitol building. And yet, hardly anyone knows about the Cape Girardeau crash, even today.

Or, as I like to refer to it, the Roswell before Roswell. I'm Ashley Flowers, and welcome back to another episode. I am Yvette Gentile. And I'm Rasha Pecorero. This week, we are talking about a game-changing UFO crash that happened six years before Roswell in Cape Sherrardo, Missouri. And I have to say, you can't tell today's story without hitting one theme time and time again, secrets. And I'm talking lots of them.

And when I think about secrets, I think about our mother, right, Rosh? Mom got diagnosed in 2016 with breast cancer, and she did not want anybody to know except for her immediate family. Like she wanted to hold that so close to her heart because she was just so proud and she was determined that she was going to beat it, you know, no matter what. And it was you actually, Rasha, who encouraged her to tell her story and post about it so she could be an inspiration. I convinced mom to not hold the secret because I knew that if she shared with the world that

she had this deep dark secret and that she had cancer, that she could inspire other people and we'd have all these prayer warriors surrounding her to lift her up and really lift us all up because she went through breast cancer for a year and a half and she battled. I mean, that truly is the thing about secrets, right? She didn't wanna share, but when you think about the story that we're gonna tell today, like people hold these secrets until their last breath

because they don't want this to come out or they're ashamed or they're scared of what people might think. But that's such a burden to hold on to that secret for so long. Well, when it comes to secrets, there's no place like Cape Sherrardo, Missouri. Even today, it's a pretty small city with a population of about 40,000 people. And unless you're a trucker passing through the area, I wouldn't exactly say it's a destination spot. For most of its history,

it's been your typical sleepy Midwestern town. It's also pretty religious, I mean at least back in 1941, when Reverend William Huffman is living there with his family, and he's 52 years old and he works at the local Red Star Baptist Church. He's also really good at fundraising, which is how he's gotten to know a lot of people around Cape Girardeau on a more personal level. It's a modest job, but William likes it. He knows it's important work, work that sometimes demands his attention at all hours of the day, including one spring evening just before Easter, around April, 1941.

That night, William is at home with his wife, Floyd. Their two adult sons are also at their place, and so is their daughter-in-law, who's eight and a half months pregnant. All in all, it's a quiet, happy evening. You know, dinner, some catching up, maybe some charades. An ordinary relaxing night with the family. Until around 8 or 9 o'clock that night when the phone rings.

William answers and the caller introduces himself as someone who works for the local police department. He says that earlier that evening, an airplane crashed on the edge of town near a small local airstrip in Cape Girardeau. Apparently, they were supposed to land before sundown, but the flight was delayed. And by the time they were ready to descend, it was too dark for them to see the runway. And sadly, the police officer says that the plane just smashed into an empty field instead of safely landing.

He says some passengers or crew members have already died, and others are badly injured and may not even make it much longer. The first responders and paramedics are doing everything they can to save their survivors. But right now, it looks like they need a man of faith more than anything else. They want to know if William can come with them to the site to offer some comfort and prayers. Of course, William agrees to help in whatever way he can, so he hangs up the phone, he grabs his Bible, a jacket, and anything else that he might need. And then minutes later, he hears a honk from outside. A police officer is waiting to give William a ride to the crash site. He's not in uniform, but still, I mean, William doesn't hesitate.

He climbs into the squad car, and then they drive for about 30 minutes to what seems like the farthest edge of town. They're going down bumpy, unpaved roads, passing farmland and wooded areas. I mean, the area they're driving toward is so remote, but it's still technically part of Cape Gerardo. And that drive probably feels like eternity, because the entire time he's in the car, William is mentally bracing himself to arrive at a scene of carnage. Dead bodies, mangled airplane parts, doctors scrambling to save people's lives, really scary stuff. Though nothing can prepare William for what he actually sees.

So the police officer parks in this big open field in the middle of nowhere. They're far enough away from the crash site that, at first, William can't even see any wreckage. Just the glow of orange flames way in the distance, and maybe the occasional white beam of a flashlight, William has to walk almost a quarter mile before he can actually see what's going on. And when he makes it to the scene, he finds it crawling with other people. I'm not sure how many are there, but it's clear that some are locals who just saw or heard something about the crash

and came to check it out for themselves. I'm talking parents with their children and dogs, reporters snapping photos, but William also sees first responders like firefighters, police officers, and soldiers in khaki uniforms, which wouldn't be that unusual if this actually was the site of a plane crash. But it doesn't take long for William to realize that he might have been misled.

For starters, the wreckage on the ground doesn't look like any airplane William has ever seen before. There's no wings, no propellers, no engine. And if that's not weird enough, something else is missing too. There's no luggage, no sign of a pilot or a flight attendant, not even a drink cart in sight. I mean, none of the things that you'd expect to come from an airplane

that has just been ripped apart in a crash. Then when William gets a closer look at the vessel, he sees it saucer-shaped. Now, you know if I saw something like this, I'd be immediately thinking, alien ship, right? You know, we all know this. But keep in mind, this was six years before Roswell. People didn't think about UFOs and extraterrestrials the way that we do today. So when William sees this thing,

he's more stunned and confused than anything else. But that's not even the strangest part of it all. Remember, William is there to do a job. He's come to deliver the last rights and prayers to any victims of the wreck. And eventually, he does spot bodies scattered around in the grass. There's three of them in total. And William can't help but notice how small they are.

Each are about four feet tall. At first, he thinks they look like children. Or at least, they would look like children if not for their very odd features. Like, for example, how their skin is gray and wrinkled. Their arms and legs are unusually long and their bodies are way too thin. Plus, their heads are disproportionately large. Basically, they look exactly like stereotypical gray aliens you've seen in movies and TV shows. They're even wearing silver bodysuits that seem to be made of aluminum foil.

The weirdest part of it all, though, is that none of them have any visible injuries. If they'd just died in a terrible crash, you'd of course expect to see cuts or bruises or broken bones, but there's no sign of whatever killed them. Still, William's professional instincts kick in. He sets any fears aside and gets closer to them. That's when he notices one of them still has their eyes open and they're moving, meaning whatever these things are, one of them is still alive. Sometime around April 12, 1941, Reverend William Huffman visits a scene of what he was told

was a downed aircraft. But while he's there, he finds three strange looking creatures that aren't human. Two of them apparently died in the crash, but one is still alive. The survivor is in very bad shape. They're gasping and wheezing, almost like they cannot breathe. William can tell this being isn't going to live for long. cannot breathe. William can tell this being isn't going to live for long. So he crouches at its side and he prays over it. He stays there until the creature finally stops moving altogether.

William literally watches this being take its very last breath. Given everything he's seen by now, William is incredibly curious, to say the least. He knows he's not at the site of an airplane seen by now, William is incredibly curious, to say the least. He knows he's not at the site of an airplane crash by now, but he doesn't know what the flying saucer actually is. So he wanders over to get a better look at it, and up close, the details are even more baffling.

For starters, it seems to be made of one giant piece of metal. There aren't any seams, there's no bolts, weld marks, or other signs of how it's been put together. There is an open doorway though, which means William can see right into the ship's interior. It seems like the power's off because the vessel's super dark. There are no flashing lights or rumbling engine sounds. But when William sweeps his flashlight around the craft, he can tell he's looking at the

cockpit area, with a bunch of buttons and control panels. He also spots three small seats, just the right size for the three child-sized bodies lying outside. While he's looking around, William also spots some kind of written language. These odd symbols all over the inside of the ship. In William's mind, they look a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Eventually, his little investigation is interrupted by a flood of army trucks pulling up onto the scene. Soldiers pour out of the vehicle swarming the crash site,

warning everyone to literally stop what they're doing. One of them says, and I quote, "'This did not happen, do you understand? "'You are to turn over all evidence from this incident "'and never speak about it again, to anyone, anytime,' end quote." As if those warnings weren't enough, again to anyone, anytime." As if those warnings weren't enough, the Army soldiers form a barrier around the crash site, meaning nobody can get in or out without getting past them.

Then they stop each and every person there and order them to hand over anything they may have picked up at the scene. They make sure that no one gets out of there with any sort of evidence. We're talking scrap metal, photographs, whatever. So finally, after the searches, the verbal warnings, and everything else, William gets to go home to his wife. But for William, that's not the end of the story. As soon as he walks in the front door,

his wife, Floyd, can just tell something is wrong. He seems really shaken up, jumpy even, and he will not talk about what happened. So Floyd starts asking these questions, like what's wrong? What the heck happened out there? Even though William was just sworn to secrecy, he realizes he does not want to keep things like this from his wife of 29 years. So he sits Floyd down that evening and tells her everything. Once he's done, Floyd realizes that now she has the burden of keeping that secret too. Yeah, but she's not the only one.

Over the next few days and then even months, it's clear that life in Cape Gerardo has changed. And not for the better. Many of the paramedics and police officers and reporters who responded to the site begin acting differently. KG, paranoid, on edge. People keep noticing strange men hanging out around town, watching them come and go as they go to work, going shopping, or they're going to church. Nobody knows who the men are, but rumor is they're army officials hanging around Cape Girardeau to make sure nobody talks. So everyone's suspicious now, always looking over their shoulders. Despite the surveillance, there's plenty of gossip going around town.

People are whispering about the flying saucer and saying they actually think it was from outer space. News also spreads about the bodies, that the three strange creatures found at the scene were in fact aliens. That's the kind of story people can't keep to themselves for very long. And in April of 1941, one reporter decides he has to talk about what he knows. Unfortunately, I don't know the reporter's real name. However, a lot of researchers believe he worked for a local paper called the Southeast Missourian. If their theory is correct, the journalist is likely a man named Garland Fronabarger, who goes by the name Frony, which is what I'll be calling him as I tell the story. Now we know Frony was at the site of the flying saucer crash, taking pictures for the local

paper. One of the first responders saw him there. And at some point after that day, Frony shows up at William's front door, completely unannounced. Not only is Frony a churchgoer, he also has a lot of hobbies in common with William. So it's not completely shocking for him to drop by for an unplanned visit. What is shocking though, is his reason for being there.

Frony tells William that he managed to smuggle a photo away from the crash site. Actual proof on film that an alien ship went down outside of Cape Girardeau. Then Frony shows William the picture. It's of two men, but it's unclear who they are or if William recognizes them. They're not in uniform, so they don't seem to be with the police or with the army. But the men aren't the most interesting detail about this photo that he's looking at.

It's what they're doing, namely holding a dead alien up by its arms. It sounds like a pretty game-changing photo, and Williams seems to think so too. But then Froney drops a bombshell he wasn't expecting. He wants William to keep the photograph. To be clear, Frony has a copy of his own already, but he's worried about it getting lost, damaged, or stolen.

He thinks that if he gives a backup to William, odds are better that this proof will survive. He actually tells William, you're the only one I trust with it. So William takes the copy for himself. A few more weeks pass by. Slowly, life in Cape Girardeau goes back to normal. People stop feeling paranoid and looking over their shoulders.

The gossip about alien spaceships dies down. But the Huffmans are feeling a little uneasy about owning a copy of that picture. They're afraid that someday they may get in trouble for having it. So eventually their adult son, Guy, is like, hey, I'll take it. Occasionally when Guy has guests over,

he pulls the picture out and shows it off to them. I mean, let's talk about a party trick, right? Usually people ooh and ah over it and the conversation moves on to something else. But that's not the case when he invites his buddy, Walter Fisk, over one night in the early 1950s. After they're done eating, Guy and Walter start talking about aliens and UFO stories. And naturally, Guy announces that he actually has photographic proof that extraterrestrials exist. That's when he pulls out the image and shows it to Walter.

Guy doesn't end up sharing the full story about his father's connection to the scene. It's more of a general, hey, look at this, isn't it cool? Sort of a thing. But it turns out that Walter is a huge photography buff. He loves taking and developing pictures, and he has a full photo lab in his home. So he asks Guy if he can borrow the image for a while, just to take a closer look and maybe run some tests and see if it's real. Since Guy trusts Walter and considers him a good friend, he agrees to let him borrow it.

Except then, a week goes by and Walter doesn't return it. Then another week goes by, no sign of Walter. Eventually, weeks turn into months and then years. Walter Fisk seems to vanish, and the picture disappears with him. Okay, so I gotta ask, was Walter Fisk secretly working for the government? Or did he steal the photo and hand it over to the authorities? Or did he simply misplace it and just forget about it altogether? Unfortunately, that question never really gets answered.

But there's another person who's particularly bothered by this. Guy's daughter, Charlotte. She's seen the photo a few times over the years, and she tried to get her grandfather to tell her more about the photo, especially after it went missing. But as much as she begs him, her grandfather, William, refuses to tell her year after year. Instead, he keeps his secrets to himself. Eventually he and his wife move out of Missouri altogether. They settle down in a small town in Oklahoma where no one knows about the Cape Girardeau

crash. There, William can focus on his work as a pastor. He lives quietly until 1959 when he dies at the age of 71. And his secrets might have gone to the grave with him, except Floyd ends up living for another 25 years. And in 1984, when she's 87 years old, she's dying of cancer at this point, but she decides she cannot pass away

without sharing the truth about the UFO crash. Floyd uses her last days alive on this earth to tell her granddaughter Charlotte everything William confessed to her that night in 1941. She doesn't leave a single thing out. And now that Charlotte knows the truth, she realizes she cannot let the secret burden her family any longer.

She needs to share her grandparent's story with the world. Charlotte starts by writing a letter to a ufologist, who refers her to an author named Leo Stringfield. Leo has written quite a few books on downed saucers and UFO crashes, so he is a bit of an expert in the field. Actually, he is the perfect person for Charlotte to talk to. Leo asks her to write out the complete story for him, and he publishes it in his next book called UFO Crash Retrievals, The Inner Sanctum, Status Report 4. So when the book hits the shelves in July 1991, the Huffman secret is out. Now the entire planet will know about the Cape Gerardo crash.

Though a lot of people who read this book are skeptical of Charlotte's claims, those who know her think that she's pretty trustworthy, not the kind of person to make these things up. But for those who don't know her well, it seems like she might be pulling off a hoax, inventing a UFO crash for money or attention. They point to the fact that Charlotte doesn't have a single shred of proof to back up her claims. All she has is a story that she reportedly heard secondhand. And since William and Floy are both now gone, they can't correct the record if she's exaggerating or lying. It also feels a little too convenient that her one and only piece of evidence,

that photograph, went missing before anyone could see it. Which is why one UFO researcher actually tracks down Walter Fisk, the man who borrowed the photo. He wants to see if the picture still exists and if Walter has any explanation for why he took it in the first place and what he did with it. And when he does find Walter, he says he never borrowed the photo. He's never even seen it. He has no idea what this guy's even talking about.

So by now, the evidence seems to be piling up. Maybe the Cape Girardeau incident is a hoax made up entirely by Charlotte Mann. That is, until the other witnesses begin coming forward with their stories. In 1991, Charlotte Mann, Reverend Huffman's granddaughter, was the first person to publicly talk about the Cape Girardeau UFO crash. But once she blazes that trail, other people follow her down it. Take a local woman named Linda Wallace. At first, she wasn't particularly interested in flying saucers or aliens. She was just researching her own family history. And completely on accident, she stumbled across some references to the crash.

They were all from an old presentation that a UFO researcher had given, and listed in connection to that crash were some of her own relatives. The presentation also reminded her of something her father had told her before. Linda's dad used to work on a military base in Syxton, Missouri, which is just about 35 miles south of Cape Girardeau. And one day in the spring of 1941, he got called away on a very important mission. The problem is Linda didn't know what the mission involved. Her dad never spoke about it afterward,

but the timing seemed to line up with the Cape Gerardo crash. So now, when she's learning about this alleged UFO incident, she wonders if it's related to her father's top secret mission that day. Linda contacts the Sykeston Police Department, the Fire Department, and the Sheriff's Office, asking if they have any records from around April of 1941, hoping to get any validation. Only they have nothing. And to be clear, when I say nothing, I don't mean nothing relevant or nothing of interest.

I mean literally nada. Like someone went into their books and erased every single entry from the whole month. So Linda knows this is completely sus, right? Now she has to keep digging, so she tries to find anyone who might have worked in or around Sykeson at the time. And eventually, Linda tracks down the evidence that she's been looking for, and it's right in her own family tree. Linda never publicly shares her relative's identity or how they're related to her.

So for clarity, I'm going to refer to this woman as Jennifer. At the time of the crash, Jennifer was engaged to her future husband, who I'm going to call Tyler. Tyler also worked on an army base in Sexton, but as a civilian, he wasn't enlisted himself. And Jennifer recalled that in late 1941, there were a lot of rumors going around town that Tyler might've been involved

in the Cape Sherado saucer crash. But every time Jennifer asked him about the gossip, Tyler refused to answer. He just said he wasn't allowed to talk about what he did at work. So of course, this eats away at Jennifer. If she's going to marry this man, she has to know what he's up to, to some degree. So she tries to ask more specific questions, particularly about a specific job Tyler was supposedly doing.

Because rumor had it, the Sexton base was testing new communications technology in April of 1941. It involved using mirrors to reflect sunlight to communicate. So basically, soldiers flash bright lights at one another from various distances to send messages in Morse code. People thought these flashing lights may have actually caused the Cape Girardeau crash, perhaps by blinding the saucer, sort of like a laser.

Now, I can't imagine any advanced alien technology being taken down by a simple mirror, but the timing of it all is definitely very interesting. When Jennifer confronted Tyler with the theory, he denied it all is definitely very interesting. When Jennifer confronted Tyler with the theory, he denied it all. But he was clearly troubled about the questions that she was asking. Because the next day, he came home from work and told Jennifer she should never, ever bring up the Cape Gerardo crash again. He was very intense and very serious, to the point where it actually scared Jennifer into keeping quiet for a long time.

But eventually, Jennifer shared everything with Linda while she was doing her research. And now that people like Jennifer were speaking up, more potential witnesses were willing to come forward too. Like in this next account, which comes from an Ohio Reverend named Turner Hamilton Holt. So I don't know the exact date for this one, but at some point in mid to late 1941, Turner is visiting Washington DC for some religious conferences.

While he's there, he decides to catch up with his cousin and good friend, Cordell Hull. It just so happens that Cordell is a high-ranking government official. He's literally the Secretary of State. So Cordell suggests they meet at the Capitol Building. Turner probably figures he's about to tour the halls where Congress meets, and maybe he'll learn a little history. But Cordell has a lot more in store than that.

When they get there, they say their hellos and shake hands, but then Cordell turns to him there on the Capitol building steps. He says he wants to show Turner something that's very cool, but also very secret. He needs Turner to promise he'll never discuss what he's about to see with anyone. And Turner swears to keep Cordell secret. Then they go inside, and instead of walking into a grand congressional meeting room, Cordell leads Turner down a set of hidden stairs. On the way there, they walk past security guards, and it's clear that this area is not open to the public.

They descend all the way into a very dark basement. Then they go even further down into a sub-basement. By this point, Turner's getting pretty nervous. He asks Cordell where exactly they're headed, but Cordell doesn't answer him. Instead, he takes Turner through an endless hallway. Finally, they reach a door, which Cordell presumably unlocks and ushers Turner through. Cordell turns on the lights. And that's when Turner sees it.

And what he saw was a bunch of crates and jagged metal objects scattered all over the place, some of them under a tarp, which Cordell pulls off so Turner can actually see better. Cordell encourages Turner to explore the room himself, even touch some of the stuff. So when Turner picks up one of those big metal shards, he's surprised at how light it is. He also sees three giant glass jars or tubes, and they're roughly four feet tall, give or take, and they each contain a body. Specifically short, child-sized gray bodies with enlarged heads, ones that don't look human at all.

And that's when Cordell tells him everything in this room, including the vehicle and the bodies, comes from a crashed UFO. Now let's be clear, he doesn't mention Cape Girardeau by name. But this encounter supposedly takes place later in 1941, after that crash. And it's hard to ignore that the wreckage, the bodies, and the number of corpses all line up with William's story precisely. The only reason we know this story is because Turner breaks his vow of secrecy. I mean, he does it pretty quick, much like William did.

He goes home and he tells his daughters what happened. And then they keep this secret for almost 60 years, until 1999, when they decide that it's time for the world to know the truth. Here's where it gets really wild though. As all of these witnesses are coming forward with their stories, some of them also present pretty convincing evidence to support their claims. I'm talking memos, government reports, pretty official stuff. Let's start with three confidential memos that leaked to the public in 1994. One is from February 27th, 1942, just a little under a

year after the Cape Girardeau incident. In this document, President FDR writes that the military has recovered something. He doesn't say what, but he does say it will be helpful for developing weapons to use in World War II. So that may not sound like much, but take this other memo. It was written by a general to FDR a week later, on March 5th, 1942. In this one, he says he wants to start a new group

called the Interplanetary Phenomena Unit. FDR's third leaked memo is written two years after that in February of 1944. This time he's writing to a different secret committee thanking them. Because apparently their discoveries are helping the United States get closer to winning World War II. It also mentions that this committee has been studying objects that are non-terrestrial, aka not from Earth.

And okay, they could be studying asteroids or meteorites, except the existence of this committee is classified as double top secret according to the memo. And you've gotta wonder, what's so top secret about meteorites and asteroids? Here's the thing about these memos, though. They all come from a collection of documents marked Majestic Top Secret.

The Majestic 12 was said to be a top-secret government organization assigned to study UFOs, among other things. But there's a lot of people who think the whole thing, including these memos, might be a hoax. So you gotta take this with a grain of salt and then go back and listen to the episodes Ashley did on them. And we'll link them in the show notes too.

But let's say for a second, these memos actually are authentic. That means we may have been using extraterrestrial technology on the World War II battlefield. This blows my mind. And since they were issued before the Roswell crash, well, chances are that technology was discovered at Cape Girardeau. And there's way more where that came from.

Since Charlotte went public with her story, document after document has come out. Countless eyewitnesses have spoken up. There are even allegations that the Cape Girardeau Police and Fire Department have old records of the crash. Apparently, whoever wiped the files in Sexton missed those, because they show that something happened on April 12th, but they don't specify what. Those alleged records also have references to the military coming in and gathering something during this event. We don't have time to get into all of that here, but let me just tell you, the evidence

for a flying saucer crash in Cape Sherrardo is pretty overwhelming. Yeah, I 100% agree. Like, I believe this wholeheartedly. Like, people hold onto things, right, until they pass, but right before they pass, they start telling all the secrets. And this is definitely a true story to me. Absolutely.

And you always have to think what we talk about in all of our So Supernatural episodes about aliens, government cover-up. In my mind, it's pretty ironic because the Army reportedly fought so hard to silence the Cape Gerardo witnesses. But you know what they say, the more people who know a secret, the more likely it is to come out. And in this case, we've got the first responders who were on site, the teams who retrieved the wreckage, the government officials overseeing their work.

I mean, the list goes on and on. It is inevitable that someone will speak up, like Frony with his photograph, and Floyd with her deathbed confession to her granddaughter, and Turner with his crash saucer under the Capitol building. It just goes to show, no matter how hard you try to cover up the truth, even the best-kept secrets will find their way to the surface someday.

This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original produced by CrimeHouse. You can connect with us on Instagram at SoSupernaturalPod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all new episode. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Woo!