So Supernatural - ALIEN: The Pascagoula Abduction

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

In 1973, fishing buddies Charlie Hickson and Calvin Parker turned up terrified at the Pascagoula, Mississippi Sheriff's Station. Over years of hypnosis, interviews, and public ridicule, Charlie and Calvin convinced multiple experts that they had been abducted and probed by aliens. 

The voice you just heard belongs to 42-year-old Charlie Hickson. In 1973, he told Berkeley professor James Harder about the strangest day of his life. So, what scared him so badly? If you take Charlie's word for it, just a few months before that recording, he and his friend were paralyzed, abducted, and probed by aliens. This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm talking about the Pascagoula abduction, a 1973 alien encounter in Mississippi.

It's one of the most famous accounts of its kind, and yet it took 45 years for the public to hear the whole story. I'll dive into the truth coming up. Stay with us. Sometimes life just throws you a curveball. An unexpected event happens that totally changes your outlook on life. It could be the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, a big break in your career. Today's story is about one of those moments amplified to the max. Something so earth-shatteringly strange happens to two men in Pascagoula, Mississippi, that it not only changes their outlook, it completely ruins the rest of their lives. It's October 11th, 1973, and 42-year-old Charlie Hickson and 19-year-old Calvin Parker

are fishing on the Pascagoula River. Despite the age difference, they're super close family friends. Charlie's always been kind of a father figure to Calvin. And today, they're celebrating. Calvin recently got engaged, and to help pay for the wedding, he started to work as a welder at the shipyard where Charlie's a foreman. By 9 p.m., the sun has set, and they're about ready to pack up. But before they go home, they try out one last fishing spot, a pier by the old Schauperter shipyard. And that's when things get weird. As Charlie reaches

into his tackle box for a piece of bait, he hears this zipping sound coming from behind him. It's loud enough that he and Calvin both turn around, and they see this vehicle in the distance that has these blue flashing lights. At first, Calvin thinks some cops are poking around his car, but the lights start to get closer, and Calvin realizes it can't be the police. He's never seen any squad car that's the size of a yacht and floats in midair. Yeah, whatever this vehicle is, is now about 70 feet away, hovering two feet off the ground, and it's huge, about 30 feet long. Charlie and Calvin stare at this thing in total confusion. They have absolutely no idea what to do or what to make of it. And before they can formulate a plan, a super bright light shoots out of the, I guess you would call it a ship.

The light's coming from a door on the side of the ship, which is opening and something is coming out of it. Before they know it, Charlie and Calvin are face-to-face with three strange looking creatures. They're about five feet tall and have somewhat human features. Like, they clearly have arms, legs, a head, but they're covered in loose, gray skin, almost like an elephant's.

And their faces are like nothing the men have ever seen. There are these sharp, pointy spikes where their nose and ears should be. Their eyes and mouths look like slits, kind of like a snake's nostrils. But they could just be flaps of wrinkled skin. Charlie and Calvin can't tell. And despite having legs, they don't use them. Like their ship, the creatures hover about two feet off the ground. And as they float towards Charlie and Calvin, the two men notice their hands.

They're two long pincers that look like lobster claws. Now, the men become completely frozen in fear because they don't run. They just stand there as one of the aliens reaches out and grabs Calvin by the arm with one of its claws. The pinch is followed by a sharp pain and then nothing. Calvin's whole body goes numb. He's completely paralyzed. The last thing Calvin remembers is his body floating inside the spaceship and being surrounded by a brilliant light. After that, everything goes dark. Charlie, on the other hand, still has his bearings. Whatever the aliens did to Calvin doesn't seem to work on Charlie. After getting pinched, Charlie is paralyzed but completely

awake as the aliens float his body inside the ship. He comes to a stop inside a brightly lit room. Without being able to move his neck, he can't see much of what's around him, but he can see what looks like a large television screen that has a strange football-shaped crystal inside. It's small, silver, and moves around like an eye. When Charlie passes by the screen, the crystal starts examining him, moving up and down like it's taking a scan. This whole time, Charlie has no idea where Calvin is. He tries to scream his friend's name, but he quickly realizes he can't. He physically can't make any noise. And that's when the reality of the situation starts to set in. Charlie is completely and totally vulnerable. He can't move.

He can barely see. He has no idea what these aliens plan to do to him. I mean, for all he knows, they're going to cut him open and examine his insides like every sci-fi story. But thankfully, that's not what happens. Charlie doesn't see any of the creatures again. He slowly regains his mobility and the aliens just float him out of the ship. They're still in Mississippi, right by the river. As Charlie's hovering above the riverbank, the aliens release whatever hold they have on him and his body slumps to the ground. Calvin is already standing on the riverbank, arms outstretched with a look of terror on his face. Charlie gets up to greet his friend and as he does, he hears

another zipping sound. He turns around just in time to see the ship with its blue flashing lights raise straight into the air and blink out of sight. And just then, Charlie hears a voice in his head say, we are peaceful. We mean you no harm. And then it's over. It's eerily still on the riverbank. The only movement is coming from Calvin, who understandably is freaking out. Unlike Charlie, he's been knocked out this whole time. He has no idea what happened to him. And neither one knows how much time has passed until they make it back to their car. It turns out it's only about 10 p.m. The entire abduction only took an hour. Naturally, Charlie and Calvin sit in their car for a bit, just trying to make sense of what happened.

Who had it worse? Is it better to know more or less? But before long, the conversation becomes about what they should do next. At first, Charlie tells Calvin they should probably keep the whole encounter to themselves. But after some swigs of whiskey, their nerves are steeled and they change their minds. They have to tell someone it's the right thing to do. Sure, the aliens said they mean no harm, but how can they be sure? They're not about to trust a bunch of space creatures that paralyzed and abducted them. And if this happened to them, it could happen to someone else too. And maybe the next time people won't be so lucky.

So around 10.15, Charlie and Calvin drive to a payphone and call the U.S. Air Force. The Keesler Air Force base is only about 30 miles away, but after breathlessly reporting their account, the men learn that the Air Force doesn't really care. The woman on the other end tells them that the Air Force no longer handles alien encounters. The Air Force did spend a ton of time investigating UFO sightings across the country, but the last study, codenamed Project Blue Book, ended in 1969. After that, the Air Force shelved their alien tracking efforts for good, which leaves Charlie and Calvin at a loss. They were afraid that if they call the local sheriff's office, they'll be

laughed off the line, or worse, sent to a psychiatric hospital. But as they drive home, they eventually decide the ridicule is worth it. By the time Charlie and Calvin call the sheriff's department, it's around 11 p.m. When a captain answers the phone, Charlie begs him not to laugh at what he's about to report. After the captain assures him that he'd never, Charlie says, well, we got picked up by a UFO. And the captain immediately breaks his promise. He bursts out laughing.

But after he gets it all out of his system, he tells the two men to come down to the station. He's willing to hear them out. Coming up, Charlie and Calvin's struggle to make their story heard. Now back to the story. Barely two hours after they were inside a spaceship, Charlie and Calvin find themselves captive again. But this time, they're being examined by human investigators from the county sheriff's department. Both men have puncture marks on their arms, which seems to match their account of what happened, floating aliens with claws pinching them. But still, the deputies have a hard time buying their story. Charlie's breath smells like whiskey, so they could just be drunk

and pulling a prank. But come to find out, they're not. Charlie and Calvin both pass a sobriety test. And when the investigators leave them alone together, a private conversation convinces officials that they might actually be telling the truth. Charlie and Calvin don't know it, but there's a tape recorder hidden in the interrogation room. When officers leave the room, the two of them start discussing their experience, and their entire exchange is recorded.

When investigators play the tape back later, they're stunned. Charlie and Calvin aren't comparing notes of what to say or how to keep their hoax going. They really come across as two people still processing the most traumatic experience of their lives. Now, I've listened to this tape. It's publicly available. And I have to say, their fear definitely seems genuine. Look it up for yourself if you don't believe me. A few weeks later, Charlie submits to a polygraph test run by an independent agency and passes with flying colors. Regardless of what's true and what's not, Charlie at least truly believes he was abducted by aliens. As far as anyone can

tell, Charlie and Calvin's stories are legitimate. They've been super cooperative. They're sane and intelligent. But once the reports are filed, there's not much more anyone can do. The aliens are gone. Investigators can't track down a spaceship. They wouldn't even know where to start. As for Charlie and Calvin, what do you do after you report your alien abduction to all the appropriate channels? Do you just move on? Who else do you tell? Everyone? No one? How do you cope? For these two, the answer is very differently. Calvin, the one who doesn't remember much of the abduction, essentially shuts down and becomes a recluse. But Charlie, the one who remembers most of it, gets the idea that he

must have been chosen by the aliens, by fate, by God, for some greater purpose. He doesn't know what it is exactly, but it'll probably become clear at some point. In the meantime, he's happy to keep talking. And there are loads of people willing to listen. By mid-morning the day after the abduction, the story has already broken nationally. Soon, everywhere Charlie turns, there's a camera and a reporter asking him a question. Journalists from the LA Times and Rolling Stone magazine call him for interviews. He appears on The Dick Cavett Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The attention puts Pascagoula on the map.

The small town becomes a hotspot for UFO enthusiasts from all over the country. But after a few months, Charlie needs a vacation from the media. In January 1974, he travels to a friend's farm for a long day of hiking and hunting squirrels. He spends the morning navigating the dense forest. By midday, he stops for lunch

and notices that he's weirdly alone in the forest, like too alone. There are no birds singing, no squirrels around. Something is driving the animals away. And then Charlie sees it, the same spaceship from October, hovering in a clearing about 25 yards away. Before he can scream, a familiar voice runs through his mind, and it says, We mean you no harm. We mean no one any harm. You may communicate with us later. You have endured. You have been chosen. There is no need for fear. We will communicate again. According to Charlie, after hearing the message, it's like a thousand pound weight lifts off his shoulders. When he gets home, Charlie tells his wife Blanche that he's not

afraid anymore. The aliens say they only have good intentions, and this time he believes them. He's also completely validated. The aliens really did select him to serve some greater purpose. He still doesn't know what exactly that purpose is, but he's sure they'll let him know the next time they make contact, which happens just one month later. According to Charlie, in February 1974, the aliens beam another message into his brain. This time, they give him a mission. You must tell the world we mean no harm.

Your world needs help. We will help in the future before it's too late. You are not prepared to understand yet. We will return again soon. And they do. And the next time they return, the voice isn't just in Charlie's head. On May 12, 1974, Charlie's family takes a trip to his parents' farm, which is a couple hours away. It's a bit of a tight squeeze with eight passengers total.

It's Charlie and Blanche, their son, their two daughters, their son-in-law, their granddaughter, and this guy, Ernest, who's a relative through marriage. On the way back to Pascagoula, everyone in the car notices a strange light in the sky. It looks like it's following them. The light races past the car, and once it's ahead of them, they can see it more clearly. Charlie instantly knows what's going on. It's a spaceship, but not the same one that abducted him. This one is bigger, about 100 feet long, with a row of windows down the side.

Now, for everyone else in the car, this is terrifying. They all start screaming. But Charlie, he feels inexplicably drawn to the craft. He's like, I feel it calling me, which is not the right thing to say at this moment. Everyone else in the car goes ballistic. Blanche can't stop sobbing. His kids beg him to stay in the car. Then another voice appears in Charlie's mind that says, go. There will be

another time, another place. It's like the aliens know about the family drama happening in the car and they don't want to get in the middle of it. The graft speeds away and Charlie is left in a car full of his crying relatives. But that other time and place, It never comes. That's the last time Charlie ever is contacted. Still, up until the day he dies in 2011, Charlie spread the word that aliens are real and they mean us no harm. His son Eddie said, quote, the only thing he wanted to do was let everyone know we were not alone. He didn't care if you believed him or not. If you wanted to listen, by gum, he'd tell you. But Charlie wasn't the only one abducted. He may have lived his life like an open book, but it took 45 years for Calvin

Parker to finally tell all. Coming up, Calvin's side of the story. Now back to the story. In 1973, after Calvin and Charlie reported their encounter to police, Calvin basically disappears. He becomes a recluse. See, Calvin has no desire to be in the spotlight. All he wants is to forget. When he first gets home after the abduction, he's so disgusted and scared, he actually pours bleach all over his skin to feel clean again. After the media picks up the story, his stress shoots through the roof. Three weeks after the abduction, the pressure and the attention gets to be so much that he has a nervous breakdown and has to be hospitalized. When he gets out,

he leaves the shipyard and heads back to his hometown. Two years later, he has a second nervous breakdown. He kind of stays in touch with Charlie, but it's on and off. And he starts picking up work wherever he can, but he always quits when someone inevitably recognizes him. And listen, I understand why Calvin wants his privacy. He didn't ask for any of this. Not only is he traumatized, but people are constantly asking him to talk about his trauma, and half of them are doing it so they can call him a liar. As with every abduction case, skeptics crawl out of the woodwork, and they love pointing at discrepancies in Charlie and Calvin's accounts over time. For example, in 1975, Charlie told the Washington Post that the vessel

was 30 feet long with a dome on top. In 2019, Calvin told the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger it was 80 feet long and shaped like a football. In one interview, Charlie says the aliens' mouths look like holes. In another, he said they look like slits. The skeptics latch on to every little discrepancy. They propose all sorts of wild theories to explain away what happened, anything other than aliens. Some claim the two men drunkenly passed out and entered what's called a hypnagogic state, which is kind of like sleep paralysis. You can't move and you're prone to hallucination. Others theorize Calvin and Charlie had a mental condition called folie de, a mental illness that causes two people to suffer the same delusions

at the same time. The person with the dominant personality drives the beliefs, and the more passive person gets sucked in. But the truth is the evidence is on Calvin and Charlie's side. It's rare to have so much evidence collected after a reported alien abduction, and that's part of what makes this case so special. We know they weren't drunk. Both men passed sobriety tests that night. Both men were psychologically evaluated, and neither showed any signs of psychosis. No hypnagogic states, no folia de. As for the

discrepancies in their accounts, they're not necessarily a sign that Calvin and Charlie are lying. Memory isn't like a book. You can't just return to a chapter and recall it exactly as it happened, in black and white. It's more like a game of telephone. Every time we recall an event, we might misremember a certain part. We add tiny corrections or embellishments, often without even realizing it. The alien's mouths changing from holes to slits. The ship growing 50 feet over 44 years. They're relatively small changes that are pretty much expected. I mean, if Charlie stuck to the exact same story his whole life,

that would be more suspicious. But to be fair, the skeptics haven't been wrong about everything. They pointed out that the man who ran Charlie's polygraph was uncertified at the time. Of course, that doesn't mean he was unqualified. By October 1973, he'd administered over 500 tests for the Pendleton Detective Agency, all of which were unrelated to aliens, and no one seemed to have a problem with any of those results. Now, you might be asking yourself, did Calvin ever take a polygraph? And the answer is no, he refused to. And in 2018, the public learns why. Seven years after Charlie Hickson's death and 45 years after being abducted by aliens,

Calvin publishes a book about his experience. And the world finally hears his side of the story, the real story. It turns out, for the past four decades, Calvin has been lying to the newspapers and to law enforcement. He didn't black out that night. Like Charlie, he remembered everything. He floated into the spaceship and was taken into a separate room that had a fourth, smaller alien in it. It sent messages to his mind telling him not to be afraid. Like Charlie, a silver eye examined him before he was dropped back onto the riverbank outside. According to him, he only said he didn't remember to protect himself. He didn't want to have to answer

everyone's questions to constantly relive that night. It seemed easier to just say that he couldn't remember. And Charlie agreed to go along with it. The bad news? The fact that he lied at all casts a bit more suspicion on the story. But that's ultimately outweighed by the good news. When Calvin comes forward with his full story, it encourages other witnesses to do the same. Later that year, a Pascagoula woman contacts the Mississippi Sun-Herald. She tells them, under condition of anonymity, that in December 1973, she saw a UFO flying over Pascagoula, and she wasn't alone at the time. She kept it a secret because she feared ridicule. As she said, we just looked at each other, put our eyes down, and kept doing what we were doing. We were all embarrassed for some reason. In 2019,

two more witnesses came forward. On the same day Charlie and Calvin were abducted, Jerry and Maria Blair were sitting in the parking lot of Graham's Seafood directly across the river from where Charlie and Calvin were fishing. For almost 25 minutes, Jerry and Maria watched a floating blue light fly back and forth over the Pascagoula River. At first, they thought it was a plane or a helicopter, but it moved differently. After the blue light disappeared, they walked toward the river. While standing on the pier, Maria heard a loud splash. She looked down and for a split second saw a strange creature in the water. It quickly dipped below the surface and out of sight.

When Maria read about the creatures Calvin and Charlie encountered, her blood ran cold because they described exactly what she saw in the water. When the Blairs tried to talk about what they'd seen, they received blank stares and dirty looks from their neighbors. It's exactly as Calvin said, back in the 70s, you just didn't talk about it. Nearly 50 years later, things are different. In 2019, the town of Pascagoula placed a historical marker at the site of Calvin and Charlie's abduction. Regardless of what the truth is, the abduction is a part of the town's history, for better or worse.

For Calvin, after feeling isolated and shamed his entire life, the plaque is a healing reminder that his community finally supports him, even if not everyone is ready to believe. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all AudioChuck originals.