This Paranormal Life - #277 Space Acorn of DEATH - The Kecksburg UFO Incident

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

School, bullies, learning to tie your shoelaces - being a kid is hard enough without also accidentally witnessing one of the 20th century's most shocking and convincing UFO landings. Unfortunately for Nadine and Nevan Kalp, this life was forced on them when they saw a giant acorn scream across the sky on fire, landing in their back garden. What would follow was a storm of police and military interest, and potentially one of the biggest coverups in This Paranormal Life history. VOTE FOR THIS PARANORMAL LIFE IN THE IRISH PODCAST AWARDShttps://www.theirishpodcastawards.ie/vote/Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! -  thisparanormallife.com/storeMedium articlehttps://medium.com/truly-adventurous/project-poltergeist-745f2d498849Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityAdvertise on This Paranormal Life via Gumball.fmResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Kami TomanIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does Mothman find clothes that fit? Who invented humming? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hey! Welcome back to This Paranormal Life! This is the... Excuse me?

The aircon really threw me just now by making a spluttering noise. It was like it was hyped to be here. It was like... Jeepers. He really has to stop it. This is the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday we investigate a different paranormal tale and decide by the end of the show whether it's truly paranormal or not. Oh, yeah.

Rory, how are you doing today? Uh, let me tell you how I'm doing, Kit. I'll tell you how I'm doing right now. Oh yeah! That's right. Oh shit, that fizzed up all over my pop shield. Oh no, those mics are very sensitive. We might have to pause the recording.

Rory's cracking a hiney. Yeah, we have a few uh small cans of heineken in the studio today we're calling them uh tinykins or tiny hineys because rory we're living that rock star life we are currently on tour that's right baby we're in the middle in the midst of our uk live tour it's true we are currently in the middle of our inaugural tour our first ever uk tour we did belfast would you say it was a successful show rory we got we got to eat burritos before so i guess that was pretty good yeah it was no it was a great show uh minimal minimal problems uh backstage and front of stage as I slightly I addressed and I'll address it now publicly just to get ahead of

the tabloids and the PR apologies to anyone in the audience that was bitten by the monkey during the live show we didn't know that giving him cigarettes was going to make him so angry right the venue staff had to inform us that all kinds of exotic animal laws aside is that you can't smoke indoors yeah let alone even let's not even start with the monkey so is it our fault that the monkey went on a rampage across south belfast no because the staff made us throw him out and can we establish he wanted to smoke the little f***er was was grabbing the cigarettes out of my hand so it's very much on him he made his own choices and he only smokes marlboro Reds he's kind of a cowboy that way but for those of you coming to the rest of our shows do not worry the monkey's been put down

so what I regret he had to be destroyed like a lost suitcase at the airport he was that is so sad it is truly sad but rest assured you can come to the future shows. They are monkey free. His lungs were biffed anyway. Yeah, his last meal was a cigarette. And then they gave him the chair. So you'll be fine. So we have learned from our lesson. Future live shows will merely be a mongoose with a vape pen. Hopefully that means the rampage will not really kick off.

Probably live a bit longer too, but we will um at the time of recording i guess we will be in london this weekend it will have happened by the time you're hearing this that's crazy maybe i should just apologize now in advance whatever the mongoose did but if you brought a snake it's your own damn fault um we're having a hell of a time out here on the road i.e the recording studio like where we are every single week hell yeah um but tour aside rock star lifestyle aside rory we still have to investigate a different paranormal tale every week and that's what we're gonna get stuck into right here and now let's do it brother it was december 9th 1965 in kecksburg pennsylvania it's a quiet little town around 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.

I can't say what it's like today, but back in the 60s, it was a friendly kind of place where nobody locked their doors and everybody knew your name. I feel like we've described several towns like that at the start of episodes of this podcast, and that is directly before something massively f***ed up happens to the point where you should have been locking your doors the entire time. You really should have.

Yeah, it's like the way parents these days say, it's just such a shame, you know, the world was so much safer when we were children. You just can't let your children outside anymore. It's like, nah, it was pretty f***ed up back then too. You just were ignorant to it. You didn't have Twitter to see what kind of night stalkers were prowling your neighborhood. It's very true. But this has already happened, so we can't warn the people of the past.

There was snow on the ground and a chill in the air, but the hardworking people of PA had been going about their days regardless. But this was no ordinary day. As the evening drew in, something appeared in the sky that would spark a wildfire of rumor and conspiracy that put Kecksburg on the map for good. Ooh, now I will say we're in December, which is Santa territory. So if we're looking up at that nice guy, just be careful with those guns because this is when he starts firing up the reindeer. He didn't get me a Super Nintendo when I wanted one. Shoot his ass!

So you know it's Santa Claus. That is so evil. So f***ed up. Siblings Nadine and Nevin Kalp were out playing in their yard before dinner. I'm not sure exactly what game they were playing, but let's say for sake of argument, swing ball. Okay.

Okay. Nice shot! But how about this? Oh! That hit me! I'll get you back though! Haha! But as young Nadine was repeatedly pelting the ball with all her might, her brother Nevin was standing still, staring straight up, swing ball racket hanging loosely at his side. Ha! I win! Nevin, look! But Nevin was transfixed by something high in the sky. As Nadine watched, his little face lit up. She swung around and looked up too. The sky was illuminated in a flash of light. There was no storm, no lightning strike. Instead, an enormous round fireball was streaking through the sky. Jesus!

Grab your Bible, grab your pitchfork. It's the end times. Yeah, grab a bit of everything. Grab a Bible, grab a pitchfork, grab a... Grab that ancient Egyptian amulet you bought off eBay but is now coming in handy for the first time ever. Yeah, you're gonna want a mixed

bag here because big ball of light in the sky, that is either the second coming of Christ or you're going to hell. Or it is the landing of the Covenant from the Halo series. Yeah, that's true. It was almost too bright to look at with the naked eye. It was being followed by an orange tail. It was flying low and losing altitude. So much so that the children feared

it might crash land in their garden. Wow. Thankfully, it missed them and hit the ground beyond their property line. Is this not like

every little kid's dream? Oh yeah. To be out, like, adventuring with your friends and then all of a sudden you look up at the night sky and see some kind of meteorite

or object trailing down towards Earth. And then you and your buddies, like, ride your bike. It's like fucking Stranger Things. You ride your little bikes out there, and this is the start of some sort of intergalactic adventure. Hopefully you find a little freak just hunched over in the crater. Is that how E.T. came to Earth? I haven't seen the movie in a really long time.

I don't remember. I think he was found somewhere. Yeah. Right? Earth? I haven't seen the movie in a really long time. I don't remember. I think he was found somewhere. Yeah. Right? How else was he getting there? Yeah. It must have been something similar like this. Hmm.

I mean, the problem again is it's a fine line. You could get E.T., but he was one of the better looking aliens. Right. And that son of a bitch was ugly. Right. He was, to quote the Predator movies one ugly motherfucker but at least he had like you know two eyes and

hands and stuff yeah you could open up that thing and a jellyfish grabs your face right his xenomorph of some kind yeah so be careful kids be careful just then Mrs. Francis Kalp called them in to eat kids dinner they looked at each other

for a moment, then sped inside. Mom, did you see that? See what, dears? It was a bright ball of light! It was the craziest thing I've ever seen! All right, all right, come and have some supper and calm down. But Frances had seen it too. She caught a glimpse when she stepped out to fetch the kids. Her logical adult brain thought it must have been a fragment of a plane or something similar. It couldn't have been a fireball. That was ridiculous. To be fair, a fragment of a plane is still pretty bad.

Yeah. But moms really do be busy, she's just like i don't have time for this i mean i think you said at one point it was too bright to even look at which doesn't sound and the kids were worried it was gonna land in the backyard and end up landing in the neighbor's yard and she's like dinner's Yeah, I don't care how many fucking sausages you have in the oven. Nothing means anything anymore. It's true. But mom, it's right outside.

Can't we go look? Mrs. Kalp looked into their angelic faces as they both begged to go out behind the house and check the area out. She eventually relented. All right, but just for a minute. We don't want dinner to get cold. Together, they ventured outside and into the woods at the back of the house. With the parent?

Oh, yeah. Okay, smart. Safety first. She brought a loaded gun. She's like, after all, revenge is the dish best served. Cold. Mom, where did you get that thing? She puts on night vision goggles.

I mean, that's what She puts on night vision goggles. I mean, that's what you got to be careful of. The friendliest aliens like E.T. and also the Predator all come to Earth the same way. Yeah. So just be prepared. It's like a f***ing lucky dip. You don't know what you're going to pull out of that hole. It could be a little friendly jelly man made of goo who's

like, hey, you guys ever had space beer before? Or it could be an alien warlord. Right, the apex predator of this galaxy, sure. And to him, you are shrimp. And he has a taste for shrimp. He loves shrimp. So just

be careful. I've brought it up twice at this point, so it is a topical reference. Have you seen the new Predator movie? Prey? Yeah. No, I haven't, but I'm very excited to watch it. I've heard it is fantastic. But I also hadn't even seen the original Predator movie

until like two months ago. What did you think? It's amazing. Pretty awesome, right? It's so, so good. I can't actually remember, to be fair, the setting of the first one. Where was that? No idea.

A jungle. Oh, yeah. To be fair, it was a jungle. Because I remember there's one where it's set in like... Muscle City, USA, baby. Oh, yeah. I think he goes to like New York in the next one. I remember he kills a bunch of like drug dealers or something.

What? Yeah, there's like an awesome gunfight in the streets of Los Angeles. And then as if things weren't complicated enough, then Predator comes in and was like, I don't care about any of this. And skins everyone alive. Yeah. Because I have a baby,

I have watched approximately 35 minutes of the new Predator movie. Right. But I loved every 35 minutes of it. I really did. It's a good enough movie with a backdrop that's fascinating enough about kind of Native American life that it almost doesn't matter that it's a Predator. It's kind of nothing to do with the Predator at that point. Yeah. Well, we've said it before, you know. why is it always in the alien movies and the ufo movies that the the thing goes down and lands on the garden of the white house yeah yeah in like the

last 10 or 20 years yeah it it you know it destroys new york city i want to see cavemen fight a ufo a thousand percent i want to see it i want it UFO. A thousand percent. I want to see it. I want it to be like Victorian times, like bloodborne. And there's aliens walking the streets and we have to kill them. That actually sounds pretty fire. Right? We should be having more fun with these stories. Anyway, back to 1962.

Wherever the hell we are. They hadn't been walking for long when something unusual came into view. It was far away, so it was difficult to judge how big it was. All Frances could see was that it was shaped like a four-pointed star. Her children wanted to get closer, but she put her foot down. It was time to go home. They jabbered away at a million miles per hour for most of their meal, finally calming down when their mother served them some dessert.

She was enjoying the peace and quiet when suddenly the radio started blaring. This is WHJB in Greensburg. We interrupt tonight's regularly scheduled programming to bring you this emergency bulletin. This evening at roughly 6 p.m., an object of unknown origin was seen in the sky before it crash-landed in rural Pennsylvania. We're appealing to any and all witnesses in the Kicksburg area to shed any light on the matter post-haste. Nadine and Nevin about exploded with excitement upon hearing the broadcast. We have to call mom! We saw it! Tell them we saw the spaceship!

But Frances wasn't about to stand for such nonsense. As a witness, she felt duty-bound to report it landing so close to her back garden, but refused point-blank to suggest it was anything other than a piece of debris. Why is she so reluctant?

Parents really do be busy. It's like that meme, have you seen this gone round, where it's like the alien comes to Earth? Yeah. It's like, aren't you shocked? It's like, I don't know, man. I got a lot going on.

That's exactly what it is. It's genuinely what it is. A spacecraft just destroyed the back of their house. And it's like, all right, you still got to go to bed, kids, because you have school in the morning. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing matters. of bed kids because you have school in the morning nothing matters anymore nothing matters to be fair this is a really great uh reminder of what it feels like to be a kid is that your parents just do not get what matters to you as a child isn't it crazy i it's i think it's so insane to think like if the world was invaded by aliens today and they are like coming down kicking humans

down being like spread your your f***ing hands. They probably wouldn't talk like that. I don't know why I gave them that voice. But they're like ray guns to the back of everyone's heads. You're like living in an abandoned warehouse, hiding out from the aliens. Your life has been changed forever. There's still points where you'd be like, I have to take a shit. Sure. I have to take a shit. Sure.

I have to go to the bathroom. I can hold a ray gun to my head, but I'm hungry. Yeah, exactly. It's like your world can change so much, so dramatically. You still have to go to the bathroom. I still need a sandwich at lunch. It's so true. Like, imagine even in like, yeah, hundreds of years in the future when we master interstellar travel, like you could be standing on planet Gorgon, like surfing, surfing sunbeams in a radiation suit on your hoverboard in the year 2500.

And you're just like, oh, that sandwich didn't go down well. I need to find a bathroom pronto. Yeah. You could be in a, you know, living now amongst a civilization unknown to man where it's not even the form of humans, but more of a space dust. And you're like, I still want to get laid, though. Like, I want to have sex because I'm just a a man or a woman just a monkey yeah exactly monkey so i do get it on a certain level that life goes on hey right that's what they say there it's done and now you two can get off to bed oh so she reported it she reported it the children

groaned and started shuffling out of the room, disappointed. Frances got to cleaning up after dinner, mulling over the weird object they'd seen. What was that thing? But she wasn't the only one asking that question. Dozens of people had phoned in to the WHJB to report seeing something weird. John Murphy, an employee at the station, was there fielding calls. He was so captivated by Frances' description of the object

that he felt compelled to report it straight to the police. They sent it further up the chain immediately and soon it was in the hands of the military, who were desperate to talk to this housewife who'd seen the UFO with her own eyes. Whoa. Meanwhile, Frances was in the kitchen, finishing some dishes. It was getting late and the kids were up in their rooms playing quietly before lights out. She almost jumped out of her skin when the phone rang. The Calp residence. Lady of the House speaking.

There was a gruff sounding man on the other end of the call. Ma'am? Jesus. Oh my God. Sorry. Who is this? This is Captain Creep of the U.S. Navy. Are you yelling? I have to hold the receiver so far from my ear. This is just my voice, ma'am. Okay.

My vocal cords were shredded. I shouldn't even be telling you about the top secret military operation. Sorry, top secret. Who are you? Shut up. Excuse me. I'm going to hang up the phone now, sir. Listen, ma'am. Am I to understand that you reported seeing the unidentified flying object land near your house?

She tentatively said yes, half expecting to be admonished for falling for a hoax or something along those lines, but the voice only grew more serious. Okay, listen carefully. I'm gonna need you to keep an eye on the crash site until we can get our men out there. Watch it like a hawk. You see anyone approaching, you call up and let us know. Frances was flummoxed, But before she could even glance outside, the phone rang again. Mrs. Kalp, this is the operator. You have an incoming call from the Kecksburg PD. Oh, really? Go ahead. Within a few seconds, she was on the phone with the local chief of police. Good evening, ma'am. Oh, good evening.

I believe we were just talking. What? Huh? What are you talking about? Oh, never mind. This is Captain Ducey from the state police. Who is this? Okay.

Oh, this is Mrs. Kalp. Sorry, you just sound like someone I spoke to recently. I've never met you. You don't have a brother or? Oh, I had a brother once. Lost him in Vietnam when my vocal cords were shredded on him. I shouldn't be telling you about that, actually. A top secret mission?

That's right. That's right. I'm sorry to disturb you, ma'am. I just wanted to let you know that my first wave of officers will be with you in just a couple of minutes. Before she could even finish his sentence, the phone rang again! No, it's she could see flashing lights approaching outside. They pulled up out front and got out two police officers and two men in plain clothes. Francis scurried to the front door to let them in without tipping off the kids,

but they were already at the top of the stairs with their heads peeking through the banister. The officers came in wondering if they could ask a couple of questions. A full formal interview, if she wouldn't mind. Before she could agree, a little voice from above piped up. We saw it too! Frances swung around and saw her daughter standing in pajamas at the top of the stairs. What did I tell you? Take your brother and go straight to bed. But the state police had other ideas. Actually, ma'am, we'd quite like... Sorry. Actually, ma'am, we'd quite like to hear their side of the story too. Sorry, my vocal cords were shredded by the air conditioning in the last house we were in.

On hearing this, the kids bolted down the stairs with glee. They all sat down in the living room and shared every detail of what they'd witnessed a few hours previously. But all the while, there was a flurry of activity outside. The site was soon crawling with police, government officials, and other witnesses that wanted to see what had crashed firsthand.

So the crash site is close enough to her house that it's all kind of the same vicinity. Yeah, I think they described it as just outside the boundary of their property. So it might even be in a little field or a little alley or something. So their house is, I guess, the closest port of call. Yeah.

Oh, that's stressful, man. You know it's not long before they're taking over your kitchen. That's now the new headquarters of the operation. this point with all these people arriving i'm like i'm gonna get pizza kids get in the car we're gonna wait till this all blows over radio employee john murphy was among those that raced the woods but was barred from crossing the police cordon instead he had to wait at the sidelines and hope for an interview with the official search team once they finished. But his excitement turned to disappointment when he heard the investigators address the press after their search. Oh, I can't wait to hear this. The investigation on the ground was led by Carl Metz and Paul Shipko. Now, I wish I could tell you more

about this police report, but it's classified. All we know is the official story they gave the team that night. The Pennsylvania State Police have made a thorough search of the woods. We are convinced that there is nothing whatsoever in the woods. What? That's a new low for public statements.

I was already waiting for the weather balloon. It's a bug. Yeah. We found a ladybug, which appears to have flapped its wings fast enough to create a sonic boom above Pennsylvania. I can't believe my own bullshit. It's a fucking UFO. Yeah, I was expecting weather balloon, firefly, sonar flare, some kind of nonsense. But to say there was nothing you guys are crazy

that's a that's a new low truly murphy wasn't convinced for a second he figured that with this many men in uniforms swarming the area something big was underway also you had all those people call into the radio station to to go on the defense and say that nothing happened, that seems a little crazy. So Murphy hung around trying to look casual, leaning on his car with his hands in his pockets. Nice. He whistled nonchalantly when a pair of police officers passed him by, disguising just how hard he was listening for news. You can maybe do one of those sneaky detective things where it's like alright just tell me one thing you know at least tell me what color is the alien

and they're like well I mean I couldn't disclose that information it's like it's funny didn't say there was an alien you know there's a little tricky little tricky kind of word thing you can do there or a Columbo you know where you're like oh I don't want to see anything here just one more thing chief could do there. Or a Columbo, you know, where you're like, oh, I don't want to see anything here. Just one more thing, Chief.

Why are there so many cars here if there's nothing that crashed? You know, you could do some sort of... They crack him behind the back of the head with a bat. Out cold for three days. That's why Columbo never got involved in the paranormal. He would have died in the first episode.

I thought you were going to say some shit where he just hides his press badge, throws his tie over his shoulder, puts on a trench coat, and he just walks up to a police officer and is just like, Detective Murphy, just fill me in on what's going on here. Right. Yeah, pretend like you belong.

Exactly. Be like, hey, you know, I'm Jenkins here with the... I'm shadowing Jenkins 2 over there. Yeah. I'm here with the department of LMAFO here to party— Party rock every night or some shit. And listen, I know we're talking—I know we're telling all these shit eaters that there's nothing happening here, but I can't believe they bought that. Anyway, where do I go to see the beast?

He's wearing a leopard print waistcoat. His hair spiked up wearing giant glasses. Or the Department of Party Rockers down at LMAFO. You know, I don't suppose if you're free after this, you'd come around to Party Rock in the house tonight. Just try it, man. Just try it. Just a fun piece of trivia. In my second year uni house, my housemate worked at like a bunch of live events and stuff.

Yes. And I guess he worked like the MTV Awards or something. Wow. And he came home that night from work with one of lmfao's leopard print jackets and it just lived in our house ever ever after that that's a pretty cool artifact i'm not gonna lie that should be in a museum the spirit of party rocking was kept alive what happened to those guys dudes that's an episode the disappearance of LMFO but that's right Murphy in fact

leaned against the car listening out to the local officers pulsating blue light oh no alright yeah the sirens on the new ones

don't really work as well as the old models. Did he hear them right? Pulsating blue light? That sounds like something more than nothing. It does, yeah. But before long, the entire area was sealed off by the military, and he was asked to leave immediately. To this day, he believes there was a major cover-up of what

really happened that night. Damn. You hate to see it, Rory. A scene that we've relived time and time again on This Paranormal Life. It's true, yeah. And as I said, this was an interesting approach for the police to take, to say there was nothing at all.

Because you gotta be really careful that nobody saw anything if you're gonna take that stance because pulsating blue light you can even chalk that up to a weather balloon weather balloon is the is the bandage that fix all fixes all problems right um but if you've decided to go nope there was nothing y'all are crazy all of a sudden if someone saw a light trail or ends up finding a bit of alien scrap metal that's going to be a lot harder to explain all this shit it makes you have sympathy for the flat earthers look they're misguided they are strange they're unusual don't get me wrong

but it's tough isn't it when you're getting gas lit this much by the authorities at every turn that when anything any light in the sky is simply waved away as being nothing or a weather balloon. Yeah. How are you supposed to believe them? It's true. I also don't want to be associated with flat earthers, so I'm going to remove myself from that comparison.

Flat earthers, come on over to patreon.com for this paranormal flat earth. A new Patreon site we've set up. I've set up. Now, Roy, usually when we tell these stories, we focus on the account of one or just a handful of witnesses. But this was an event witnessed by thousands. People all over the northeastern United States

saw this thing soaring overhead. There were even sightings reported all the way up in Canada. Whoa. We said it was bright, right? It was so bright they couldn't even look at it? Yeah. That's it. How did they think they were going to get away with saying that nothing happened?

No. These people basically saw the f***ing Batman signal. Interesting. And now the Joker dressed up as the f***ing NYPD is saying, there is no Batman. He isn't real. It's like, I see the symbol. They didn't say nothing happened.

They said we've searched the woods and didn't find anything. A crucial delineation. I'm going to need to crack open a new beer. Okay. Just to help me swallow that shit sandwich. Because that is nonsense, my friend. We are both three heinies deep at this point, which is, I think, the magic number for really getting to the bottom of any paranormal case. It's true. But despite all of this, the whole

incident was swept under the rug and forgotten about. The official story changed from, quote, literally nothing to a meteor crash. And it might have stayed that way if it hadn't been for a little TV show called Unsolved Mysteries. Yes, yes, yes. This is what we need. It's come up before, right? Yeah, they're great. They helped us out massively on one of our UFO cases recently, where they did a full investigation where they interviewed people on site.

Those guys are great. They don't get enough praise. Doing God's work. This particular episode from 1990 brought the case back into the public spotlight in a big way and finally told the stories of the witnesses of an event that the military tried for decades to keep secret. Rory, you've heard the told story of the Kecksburg UFO. Are you ready to hear the untold story? Hell yeah. Bill Weaver was 19 in 1965, and like any cool teenager, that evening he was cruising around town in his car. He was driving along Snake Hill Road in his Oldsmobile convertible. Very sexy. When he heard a radio news broadcast that a mysterious object landed in Kecksburg. A little thrill ran through him

as he realized just how close he was to the crash site. On a whim, he decided to go and check it out. This is how he described what he saw. I looked down into the woods. I saw the dirt around was all torn up. It looked like an object with a blue light emanating off of it. Here we go. It was like a light from a welder. He added that he saw the arrival of four men, quote, wearing their white moon suits. Hey, you're losing me, buddy.

Immediately before he was ordered away from the area. The f*** is a moon suit? I think he was just projecting a bit of his sci-fi fantasies there. I'm gonna guess just a white protective suit of some kind. Okay. These were humans. Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. I was getting them confused with moon boots.

Yeah. Which, if you're not familiar with our boots, you can wear with trampolines built into the shoes to make you jump only slightly higher than an average human can. Do you remember the song? No. Moon shoes, moon shoes, jump to the moon and back moon shoes. Everything's better when you wear moon shoes.

Again, a lie. My divorce was hard, regardless of what shoes I wore. My divorce was hard, regardless of what shoes I wore. I could barely bend on to sign the divorce papers wearing my moon shoes. I tried to take the kids away, but their shoes were normal. They were grounded and we didn't escape. This turn of events was mirrored by John Hayes, another local, though he was only 10 at the time. He and his brother loved playing in the hollow where the fireball had just happened to land. He said they would go every day if they had the chance, but in the days that followed the crash, they weren't able to get close.

Speaking at a conference decades later, he recalled that the area was quickly roped off by military and police, some of whom who used his family's telephone to direct other military personnel to the scene. Later that night, he recalled seeing an empty military-like flatbed truck enter the area. I have a direct quote from him here about what he saw. Quote, I can say personally, I saw that truck go in there empty, but it came back out hauling something with a tarp covering it. Whoa. I can't say what it was.

God damn, this is intense. He and his older brother went to the area to explore the very next day and were shooed away by a team of men in white, sure, moon suits. Moon suits. Carrying Geiger counters. They told us we shouldn't play there because it may be contaminated by radiation. Right. That's not happening if nothing landed in the woods.

If nothing happened. That's crazy. Oh, sorry kids, you can't play here because a big load of nothing just happened. I mean, is this a reputable source? I don't know a lot about this gentleman. Well, I don't know, but I mean, no, because he was 10 years old.

But this is now two separate witnesses who, aside from our first family, who said that they went to the literal crater and saw man with Geiger counters measuring the area. Yeah. Telling them to fuck off. Let's be critics. Let's be cynical right now. Let's play the devil. Yeah. Telling them to f*** off. Let's be critics. Let's be cynical right now. Let's play the devil's avocado. I don't know a lot about space. If hypothetically it was some sort of meteor

or space rock that did come down from the earth, does that necessarily, would it contain any radioactive properties? It's a great question. You know, shit coming down from space? I feel like it might a bit. You probably wouldn't want to lick it or something. Might be hot at least.

Yeah. Spicy. I don't know. I'll be honest. But of course, radioactive materials are very naturally occurring. So I guess anything's possible here. Isn't that the, well, one small part of space is like, you know, people think if you are out floating about in a moon suit, if you take your helmet off, it's like, oh, you die because you can't breathe. And it's like, dude, you die because of like 20 different fucking reasons.

Factors. Like you're destroyed. It's like there is no air. You're in a vacuum. Sure. The radiation levels are insane. Like your body is basically destroyed immediately. Right, moon COVID for one.

Yeah. Is it crazy to think that an object that would come from space, maybe it's not paranormal, but maybe they're trying to cover up, could even be a satellite that crashed down that is potentially radioactive. I'm not sure. I don't know how space objects work. It's a great question. And, you know, this was 1965.

So this is kind of space race era. Yeah. So a lot less known. Is that Cold War? I don't remember when the Cold War was. Hey, Siri, when was the Cold War?

That seems long. 1945 to 1991? No. That's generous. That's very generous. That is, yeah. So, yes, technically. According to Siri, yeah.

You make great points, Rory, but the stories do keep coming. Stan Gordon is a local author and, of course, UFO researcher. It was the events at Kecksburg that sparked his love of the paranormal to begin with. He was 16 when he saw the Pittsburgh news stations reporting on the incident and started taking notes. 50 years later, he's still on the case, constantly uncovering new leads, information and witnesses. Damn. He said that he's heard countless descriptions of the UFO

and they all corroborate one another. According to his sources, he says the craft was acorn-shaped, about 15 feet long, with no windows and no rivets, wells or seams. Where do you get that from? Just a bunch of different witnesses. Oh, OK. We're going to get into more details about how it looks, but that immediately sounds kind of similar to other things.

Doesn't this seem like a trope of UFOs is like they're perfectly smooth? Yeah. No, like no seams, no creases, no bolts. It's just like a seamless sheet of metal. Like a freaking MacBook. It's like made from a solid piece of aluminium. Yeah, acorn shape. I'm trying to think if we've seen that one before. Now, some of the witnesses talked about seeing writing on the craft

that resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics at least from a distance. All witnesses were quickly whisked away when discovered by military personnel. And granted we can attack any one witness but even the truck that 10 year old John Hayes saw was seen by multiple other witnesses too. Several said they saw a flatbed truck laden with a large object covered by tarpaulin. But maybe one of the best things to come out of the Unsolved Mysteries episode is that some new witnesses came out of the woodwork. One was a US Air Force officer at Lockbourne Air Base near Columbus, Ohio. He claims that in the wee hours of December 10th, a truck arrived by the little used back gate of the base. It was covered in a thick tarp and whatever was underneath looked to be conical in shape. Private, it's your duty to patrol this truck.

If anybody gets too close, you can flash them your weapon. If anyone gets even closer, you are authorized to take them out. Sir, yes, sir! The young officer kept watch over the flatbed, plagued with curiosity. It wasn't often he was put in charge of a random bit of cargo, let alone instructed to guard it with his life. But as much as he wanted to peel back the sheet for a quick peek, he didn't dare. I'm imagining at this point the tarp starts wiggling and going like, hey, mister, mister.

Shut up. I'm not looking. Come on, buddy. Help a guy out. I'm chafing down here. Come on. You're going to get me in trouble with the boss. You got any space juice? I'm parched. Terrifying. any space juice i'm parched terrifying terror so it sounds like at least there's a consistent testimony that this truck existed a hundred percent i mean that's not going to be our conclusion at the end of the episode is whether or not a truck existed in pennsylvania but you gotta read between the lines but yeah if there's we're seeing a through line if there's a cone under a sheet and everyone saw the cone, that means something landed. Granted, it could be a giant weather balloon, but we don't know. Another contractor came out of the woodwork saying that he was hired to do some construction work at this base.

Because he wasn't actually a military man, he wasn't afraid of losing his job. He snuck inside the hangar to get a look and was staggered by what he saw. There in the middle of the cavernous room was a bell-shaped device, 12 feet high, with several men wearing white anti-radiation suits inspecting the object. Here we go! But before he could take any more in, he was seen. They yelled, Hey you! Get out of here! Here we go! But before he could take any more in, he was seen. They yelled,

Hey you! Get out of here! As he was being marched off the premises, he couldn't help but ask about the object. The reply he received was curious. They said, Oh that! You'll know soon enough. It'll be common knowledge within the next couple of decades. Just how I expect military researchers to talk. He's like trying to be coy.

He's like, you'll find out, son. You'll find out. There's like alien greys running in the background. It's like, I know what it is now. I don't need to find out in decades. You'll find out. Whether it's this decade or next decade. You'll find the truth.

As soon as the guy walks off, it's like, shoot him in the back of the f***ing head. If you see too much, kill him. Oh, can you strangle that guy? He saw the alien UFO. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, Jesus. Hey, as we said, you know, this is the reality. If something crash landed to the earth and the military are like, we need to take over this whole forest. We're going to set up a

headquarters right here in the woods. We need a base of operations functioning within the next 45 minutes some dude is just gonna be like okay i'm going to call a man who owns tents yeah because we we need normal real people to interact with this situation exactly like even when they're even when they're done with the site it's like all right where do we throw away all this medical waste? And it's like, a garbage man? Like, do we have one of those who's in on the whole intelligent life forms in the universe? No, we're not. We don't have one of those. All right, we're just going to have to get a normal garbage man then and tell him it's, I don't know.

It's a bug. It's a bug, yeah. It's true. People think that there's so many layers of echelons of secrecy surrounding these things. It's like MI5, the Pentagon, FBI offices, they all need cleaners. They all need people to clean the f***ing toilets. We've established people shit, even in crazy times. Even in crazy times.

The dude who's doing an autopsy on an alien body, sometimes he's having a burrito for lunch. And sometimes he has to go to the bathroom and somebody has to... It's not like another government scientist is on the road and he has to clean the bathrooms. It's just a person that maybe has to swear an oath of secrecy to be able to be let into the toilets. To make minimum wage. Rory, we're so late in the episode for me to be showing you this, but let's have a look at what this thing is supposed to look like. Handily, they actually made a monument to this thing

outside the fire department in Kecksburg. Take a look at this model. I was going to say, because, you you know i love a good ufo case you know i'm on board not the craft but the story uh very little evidence in today's case very little very few pictures diagrams physical evidence we've had mountains of anecdotal shite whoa this looks like a lot of things. Kind of looks like the poop emoji for a start. All right, well, give this case the respect it deserves, sir. No, it's an acorn.

It's a f***ing acorn. It looks like one thing. It's a very tiny acorn. An ancient Egyptian acorn. Or it kind of looks like if you put the tip of your thumb through a condom jesus christ show this case the respect it deserves that's what it i mean that's what it looks like i'm glad that we have enough of an idea as to what this thing looks like that people feel

like they can accurately represent it in statue form but let me tell you it's huge it does look like an acorn with i guess the point of the acorn pointing up like it's upside down true and then also yeah they've even done tried to do some kind of replication of the hieroglyphics on the craft which i don't know is that based on what somebody saw or is it kind of just let's wing it, let's wingdings the shit out of this statue? I do think they vibed it out, but it is based on people allegedly seeing markings on the craft. Fair play, this is great. And putting it in front of a government institution like the fire department is really a real middle finger to the establishment, which you know I'm all about. Yeah, those are not real symbols.

Definitely. Definitely not. So there is but one final thread to this tale. In 2002, a New York journalist named Leslie Keen put forward a Freedom of Information Act sponsored by the Sci-Fi Channel. Nice. They wanted to make a show about Kecksburg, but all the crucial information was, of course, classified. Now, NASA initially promised to dig out the old records, but soon began stonewalling the plea and withheld every scrap of documentation they had. I don't think that's how the Freedom of Information Act works. Things escalated to the point that Leslie had to

sue NASA over the matter and won. But no smoking gun files were turned over. Countless crucial reports had quote unquote gone missing over the years or been purposely destroyed. Keane remains convinced that aliens landed in Pennsylvania that night. And as hard as he tries to uncover it for all of us, we might never know the truth. Pretty convenient that the files are missing or destroyed. I mean, this weirdly takes on new significance in, and I don't mean to get political, all of a sudden. But didn't this literally just happen with the January 6th hearings that the CIA deleted all the text messages between all their agents or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just conveniently in between a tiny little gap when a bunch of shit went down. It's like it was a routine military cachet clearing. It's like, shut the fuck up. You're taking the piss. Yeah, I'm firmly in the camp of, you know, some people say innocent until proven guilty.

And I say, you're going to jail, kid. That's my motto. That's you to NASA. To NASA. You're going to jail. Congratulations. You f***ed it. NASA is supposed to be the good guys.

That's gut-wrenching it's such a pity that uh these kind of crashes don't happen more often in like i don't know iceland right places where they don't give a shit and they're just like we'll spill the beans we don't we don't care tell everyone i mean that is one of the biggest arguments against the existence of ufos and them crashing to earth over hundreds of years how was it not crashed anywhere where people didn't give a f**k where instead of calling the police they took a selfie with an alien and we're just like hey look this is it i found it right come see it they just landed in anywhere in like continental africa yeah and people are just like the government are like don't care. We don't have time for this shit.

Tell everyone. Yeah. It's, you know, that is a firm argument against the fact that a lot of these sightings or crashes didn't happen because they all seem to be for some reason in America. All right. Well, let's ignore all that and talk about the Kecksburg UFO in Pennsylvania, which is pretty realistic if you think about it. I mean, hey, you know I'm a sucker for these cases.

I've had a couple tiny heinies. They're not that tiny when you have a bunch of them. It turns out they add up. When you pound that many heinies in a row. Okay, I'm calling the priest. You start to have a loose tongue and uh let me tell you i'm i'm ready to be won over in today's case i feel like the only thing that we didn't have going for us today was any physical evidence it's so true uh you know we've

run into this problem before in this paranormal life where we've got it all. We've got the sightings. We've got the witnesses. We've got the testimonies. We've even got eyes on the prize of the crash site, people seeing the craft for themselves, describing it consistently. But in this case, the government were on it too fast, allegedly, and we never even got our hands on the thing. No scorched earth left radioactive, you know, possible to be investigated by locals.

No scraps of metal, no contact with aliens. Not even that, no pictures. I mean, you said this was in the 1960s, right? Right. How did any of these witnesses not even go take a picture of the crater that must have been left by this object hitting the earth well i mean you heard they got shooed away you know the few people that did know where it was and kind of tried to get up close the place was cordoned off but the government didn't fill the hole and replant the trees presumably it is a smoldering fire scorched patch of earth

uh i will give you that the military can't have stayed in this location forever presumably this crater exists to this day exactly in the woods yeah that's what i'm saying i'm not saying it's a deal breaker i'm just saying these are all factors that i'm considering when coming down on my final decision rory at the end of every episode of this paranormal life we we do have to come down on said decision of course like we say we've presented witness testimony uh much of which with which adds up and cross corroborates with itself but i will admit we do have a lack of physical evidence so what do you think it's going to be today? I'm going to make you go first because I'm it might be the beer talking, but I'm more on the fence than I thought I would be for this one.

Let me tell you, I think I know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to let you take the lead as the primary investigator. As the primary investigator, I will say I am deeply on the fence i can feel it i can sense in every word that's written about this that people believe this and that it is dear to the local area obviously um but i do think that it is one um even with all this investigation and research i gotta get closer to to really be won over by to really understand why this has to have happened so i guess it's a no today i'm gonna follow in your footsteps brother i think uh i'm so close to being pushed over the fence we're just missing that that uh that that little piece that comes in at the end yeah that wins us over also trying to

remember that a lot of these incredible testimonies that we're hearing are from 10 year old boys it's true who were literally children at the time um and you know remembering what i was like as a 10 year old i was not a very reliable witness as i've attested on the podcast before we had a friend at about 10 years old who told everyone and believed he was a beetleborg yeah oh. Oh, yeah. Not even in a joking way. He promised me he was a beetleborg. He lived and breathed the beetleborg lifestyle. Whatever that meant.

If you don't know what the beetleborgs were, they were... Why wouldn't he say he was a Power Ranger? I don't know. If you're going to make that kind of lie, just say you're a Power Ranger. Not some sort of superhero with the abilities of a beetle. Which is I don't know what. Which is I don't know what. Which is I don't know what. To roll dung?

I don't know. It is just yet another mystery that we cannot get to the bottom of on this paranormal life. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this investigation into the Kecksburg UFO. If you're from Pennsylvania and you hate our fucking guts

for coming down on a double no. Yeah, fair. That's fair. It's fair. I am sorry. Hopefully we'll make it up to you by coming to an area near you to investigate the paranormal in the near future. If you work for the company that manufactures or distributes moon boots, I would very much be interested in a pair.

We could work out some sort of advertising deal there. We might be able to punch up that theme tune. I don oh hell yeah i don't know if they still exist moon boots or were they called moon shoes maybe they were called moon shoes oh they're still brother you can buy them now i think i know the ones you mean i think my sister has some of these oh hell yeah wait hold check this out you can get them on amazon i'm gonna wear these to our next live show come out of the mood which is in two days they're so get that prime delivery they're so stupid looking look at the moon shoes oh my god they are not what i was expecting they're like it like the thought

process doesn't go beyond what about trampolines for your feet individual feet trampolines i'd love to try a pair out i mean do you remember a friend had a pair of those proper like bungee still oh i know those ones yeah yeah who who was that well bleep the name and post he had a pair of the bungee shoes? Oh, yeah. The shit where you could run the Terminator 2000. And do back flips and stuff. Yeah, front flips and stuff down the road.

That's what I thought would happen when I wore moon shoes. And it turns out I got the 20-pound equivalent of that. I mean, hey, I'm the guy who owns a pair of adult Heelys. So I'm your demographic. Guys, some interesting merchandise avenues for the future of This Paranormal Life. Like I say, I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Let us know your own thoughts and feelings and suggestions. Of course, at the usual places, thisparanormallifepodcast at gmail.com,

Twitter at thisparalife, Instagram at thisparanormallife. If you cannot wait until Tuesday, though, to hear another ultimately disappointing paranormal tale, there's some spicy ones over on patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. And we don't come down on conclusions on bonus episodes, so there's nothing to be upset about at the end. You can kind of just live in the gray area. That being said said our last

bonus episode we did come down on a conclusion it was to be fair we can sell the patreon hard because we had one of the best bonus episode investigations in years it was so good that people in the comments of the patreon post literally said i wish this was a main episode so that the entire tpl fandom can hear uh what happened basically at the end of this this podcast and i'm not beyond considering releasing it at some point as like we do sometimes be like hey we'll chuck up a little freebie as like a little taster um we don't want to abuse that but it could be a good one to be like hey this is what the bonus episodes are like but if you can't wait for such a taster, check out the Ogopogo episode,

only exclusive to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. There's a ton of other rewards too, but that's the best one, arguably. But there's also a weekly podcast called The After Party. We do an extra five podcasts a month that aren't here on the main feed. They're exclusive to Patreon. So make sure you don't miss them. Yeah. Heineken cans one to three are the main episode.

And then cans four to nine are the after party where shit gets wild. Once you're pound, once you're pounding nine Heine's in one afternoon, things get a little intense. And at the end of the podcast, we like to shout out some of those people who supported us on Patreon. Let's go.

Thanks to Harrison Dirks. Harrison Dirks always smirks. It's kind of like, you know, they say people have like resting bitch face. Sure. Harrison has a grin like the goddamn Joker. Oh my Lord. Smiling from ear to ear, even on the saddest occasions. It's truly terrifying.

This is a funeral, sir. Thanks also to George. We've all heard about Curious George, but we're talking about Furious George. Oh god. Angry 24-7. He carries a machete wherever he goes, just in case. Even on his wedding day, he was just like, I'm so

happy to be getting married. It's like, you gotta find a better way to channel this, George, because it sounds like you're not happy at all. It sounds like you're furious. My vows are beautiful, but just right now, I just love her so much. Thanks also to Isaac Montenegro.

Isaac from Montenegro, the country so nice they named him after it. Only befitting, though, when you are da king. He's the king? Oh, yeah. Damn, what Patreon tier is he on? Isaac, you're not forking out. Share the wealth, brother.

Come on. We have a tier that's $38,000, I believe, a month. I think $50,000. 38,000 pounds. Oh, Isaac. Hey, I believe, a month. I think $50,000, 38,000 pounds. Oh, Isaac, hey, dude, take a peek. Thanks also to Mitchell Halsey. Mitchell, of course, an amateur wrestler. His move is deck the halsey,

where he comes out swinging. Can't really do much more than throw punches. You know, wrestling is a lot of like acrobatics and flips and shit. But Mitchell just comes out swinging. Dressed in a Christmas jumper and nothing else. All right. Well, that's not PG. Good luck, Mitchell.

Thanks to Brandon Hall. Ding, ding, ding. Deck the halls. Here comes Brandon. Brandon comes out swanging in nothing but a Christmas jumper and questionable undergarments. Whoa. We're talking mistletoe round his camel toe.

Oh. Which is maybe fine on the amateur circuit, but you ain't getting to WWE with that one. Thanks to Emily Trax. Emily is the number one DJ in the country, no matter what event you are catering for. Emily's got the Trax. A funeral. Boom.

She's dropping the sickest D&B you've ever heard. I don't know if that's appropriate. Wedding. Wedding. You best believe the d&b is pumping it sounds like she's just a d&b dj well it's drum and bass is her passion it's her love and if you want a slow dance then she's got some pretty chilled drum and bass remixes of slow songs thanks to erin hildebrandt turn. My favorite pastime is scaring Aaron.

They're one of those people that's just so jumpy, no matter what you do. Right. You could be sitting next to them and just be like, Hey. Aaron. Ah! Right. Scaring Aaron is 10 out of 10.

Sometimes Aaron has a weapon, though, so just be careful because you don't want to get tear-gassed too hard when you scare Aaron. That's extreme. But it's worth it. It's worth it. Thanks also to Scott C.

Scott is one of those wizards who can look deep into the future. You just have to go up to him and say, Scott, what do you see? And sometimes he's like, you know, it's not really that prolific. Right, new flavor of Pop-Tart. Because in the books and shit,

it's like, I see war between men and beasts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the books and shit it's like i see war between men and beast yeah yeah yeah but these days it's like i think pollution's gonna get worse way worse it's like all right well we know that keep it light scott yeah what do you see tell us like who's gonna win inflation is okay it's properly going down who's gonna win the world cup yeah keep it light scott thanks also to matthew crapper as we said someone's going to win the World Cup? Who's going to win the World Cup, Scott? Keep it light, Scott. Thanks also to Matthew Crapper. As we said, someone's got to clean those toilets at Area 51. Matthew

Crapper was born for it. That's what you call nominative determinism. He's been cleaning the toilets, which is a hard job as well. You know, human poop, that's one thing. Alien poop. You need a moon suit for that one, brother. You need a Geiger counter and a suicide pill for cleaning those.

Thanks to Emerald Hawthorne. Emerald Hawthorne, you are exactly the kind of person that we are looking for to join the paranormal commune. Yes, please. If your name is any indication as to the type of jewels you possess. Wealth. Because my name is Rory Dirt, and this is Kit Rock over there. Sure.

And Mrs. Emerald would be more than welcome to just come check the place out. You might be interested in joining. Thanks, lastly, but not leastly, today to Ethan Charlie. You've got to love having two first names. Lots of options when it comes to having a personality. You know, if you want to be good cop, you're Ethan.

If you want to be bad cop, you're Charlie. Bad day. I think Charlie's good cop. Ethan's bad cop. You don't want to see the kind of shit Charlie gets up to. Is Ethan the name of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible? Isn't that his name? Ethan Hunt.

Yeah. Oh, that's a cool name. Maybe ditch Charlie and take up Hunt. Just be bad. Just be bad cop. It's cooler that way. Ethan Zraptor Hunt. The perfect name.

Thank you to everyone we've shouted out today. And everyone we are yet to shout out your names are coming in the following weeks we will of course be back on tuesday with a brand new paranormal tale but also back on friday with an after party over on patreon.com make sure and check it out in the meantime folks remember to live fast investigate and die young, baby!