UFO Abduction?

The Kentucky Abduction
By Leonard Stringfield

The Stanford, Kentucky “abduction” case of January 6, 1976, now well publicized internationally, seems destined to become a classic. Its candidacy for this ufological honor comes from many qualifying sectors. Basically, and of uppermost importance, its credibility is strengthened by the three abductees themselves, who experienced a night of terror. It is the character profile of Louise Smith, Mona Stafford and Elaine Thomas as normal and honest people that is so vital as one ponders the bizarre sequences of events and evidence: physical and electromagnetic dffects, animal reaction, supporting testimony of additional witnesses of a UFO the same night - plus the strength of careful and scientific investigation.

By maintaining continuous communication with the three women and being privileged to share their many ordeals, sometimes in confidence, has provided for this investigator, a wealth of valuable data, not only about the “time lapse” incident and subsequent events, but the long range effects on their health and behavior. It is therefore, my firm belief that the Stanford story, which reads like science fiction, is one of the most convincing UFO encounters that I have ever personally investigated.

In the period of one year since the incident occurred, the case has captured the front page headline in the National Enquirer, made top billing in UFO research bulletins and has been aired on numerous radio stations and national TV. Thus, there is little need at this time to recount the many details in the sequence of events during the night of the encounter as the highlights are now public domain. Although some aspects of the case, as reflected in published accounts, have either been treated too briefly, or self servingly, my observation of certain important sequential data, based on the early first-hand testimony of the three women, have been recorded in my forthcoming hard cover book SITUATION RED: THE UFO SIEGE, to be published by Doubleday in May, 1977. However, to refresh the reader, I capsulate the story as follows:

January 6 was Mona Staffords 36th birthday. It was good reason for Louise Smith and Elaine Thomas to celebrate the occasion with their friend over dinner at the Redwood restaurant located south of Lancaster, Kentucky on U.S. 27, about 35 miles from their hometown of Liberty. The weather conditions, according to the U.S. Weather Bureau, were the following: 38 deg. F. temperature, winds from the south at 15 mph, cloud cover at 10,000 ft., visibility 15 miles.

With Louise Smith at the wheel of her 1967 Chevy Nova, they left the Redwood about 11:15 p.m., in a chatty and amiable mood (no intoxicants). While travelling out of Stanford and heading for Hustonville on Highway 78, the trio witnessed a bright red object in the sky. Mona was frightened. She thought it was a large aircraft on fire. The glowing object came closer and suddenly Mrs. Smith lost control of her car.

The speedometer showed 85 mph. Cried Louise, “I can’t hold the car on the road!” Mona tried to health steer, but in vain. The car held on 85 mph. Louise later commented, “My foot wasn’t even on the gas pedal.” Within seconds, the UFO had ranged close to their car, first following from behind, flipping on end, then came close to the drivers side. All agreed it was enormous, metallic and disc-shaped with a dome on top and a ring of red lights at the equator. On its underbelly was a single yellow light.

As the UFO hung at the driver’s side and moved toward the front of the car, a bluish white light shot out on the road. Then, suddenly the beam stabbed at the car. The inside lit up. A later comment by Mrs. Smith: “A hazy like air, sort of a fog, filled the car.” Suddenly, a severe burning sensation overtook all three women. Mona remembers her eyes burning with such intensity she couldn’t see. Their last cognizance was their car backing crazily into a pasture entrance flanked on either side by a weathered field stone wall. One hour and 20 minutes later they found themselves intact in the car driving home to Liberty. Shaken, and with exposed areas of flesh smarting from burns, they could not account for the time lapse.

When they reached Mrs. Smith’s trailer home, the kitchen clock showed 1:20 a.m. They went to her neighbor, Lowell Lee, for help and there, too, they found the lapse of time confirmed. Confused, desperate, and unfamiliar with UFO’s, they called the police, and the next day a Navy recruiting station, but got no help or sympathy in either place. It was, however, the Navy recruiter who gave the news to a Lexington, Kentucky TV station. Later, the story reached the press and on February 12, 1976 it made big news in the Casey County News.

Jerry Black of MUFON in Cincinnati got the newspaper clipping from a friend in Liberty, Kentucky. Jerry called Jim Miller, MUFON in Middletown, Ohio, and me on February 20, to relate the news. He said he had already called Mrs. Smith about the incident some days before. At first the three women were reluctant to discuss the case and they wanted no strangers from out of town to visit their homes. More phone calls were made, credentials offered (MUFON, CUFOS etc.) and finally their confidence was won. An interview was arranged for February 29. To put them further at ease, Black invited Mrs. Peggy Schnell of Blanchester, Ohio, who could provide a reassuring feminine touch and offer the compassion of sharing her own weird UFO experience occurring during the flap of 1973.

Our first meeting was cordial, candid and rewarding. But, it was obvious at the outset that the trio was enduring great physical strain from their dramatic experience. All three chain-smoked, enough to prompt me to comment. All agreed that it was the result of their tensions, and also mentioned they had a lingering insatiable thirst for liquids following the incident. Also, each claimed excessive loss of weight.

Black, Miller and I made copious notes as we extracted details about the sequence of events, their observations of the UFO, its structure and behavior, their claims of physical effects - all ugly, pent up memories leading up to the phase of time lapse. Said Mrs. Thomas, the most stoic of the trio, “We live in fear of what we don’t know. I’m worried about Lou and Mona. I think they’re ready for a breakdown.”

Mrs. Smith admitted that she had great difficulty facing people while attending her duties as an assistant for the Casey County Extensive Office (counselling families in nutritional care). Mrs. Stafford was the most distressed pyschologically. With her eyes still showing strong traces of inflammation, she was insistent in her plea to know what happened to her during the time lapse. I assured her that I would make every effort to get professional help to perform regressive hypnosis as soon as possible. This was to be my number one goal.

During our brisk day of gathering data, we were privvy to see evidence of two dramatic effects of the close encounter. One was the result of the UFO’s thermal light beam; seeing first hand the vestige of flesh burn suffered by Mrs. Smith. Having kept it under close observation, she obligingly lifted her hair to show us the mark on the nape of her neck. There, unmistakingly, was a round pinkish-gray blotch the size of a half dollar.

The second revelation was animal reaction. This involved a 4-year old pet parakeet belonging to Mrs. Smith. According to its mistress, when she arrived home following her incident, the parakeet, normally peaceful, rebelled at her presence. She said the bird bolted against the screen of the cage, its wings fluttering violently. Commented Louise, “Since that night the bird has nothing to do with me.”

I tried a test. Being familiar with exotic birds, allowing them to fly free in my tropical garden room, I persuaded Mrs. Smith in the presence of Jim Miller and myself, to put her finger inside the cage. The bird panicked! Next, I put my finger inside. The parakeet only budged on its perch. Then, Jim duplicated the test. Again, the bird only budged.

The pet parakeet died in March, 1976. Could Mrs. Smith’s traumatic state have rubbed off to affect the bird’s sensorium, thus triggering its violent reaction? Or, had she become a walking force field? Whatever the strange emission she generated, it may also have affected other mechanical devices such as the wrist watch she wore during the incident, whose minute hand, on her return home, sped around the dial like the second hand; and, during the next week, the non-electric alarm clock in her bedroom which, when touched, stopped running. So disturbing was the alarm clock incident to Mrs. Smith that in utter frustration she finally threw it outdoors. Broken beyond repair, she discarded it in the trash. Then, too, there was Louise’s Chevy Nova which developed electrical failures. This she discovered when she first tried to drive the car after the incident. While driving to work, she was stopped by the police who informed her that her signal lights were not working.

Out of concern for the debilitating health concerns of the three women, and feeling assured that we all had won each other’s complete confidence, we all agreed on February 29 that the affair should not be further publicized. I later called Walter Andrus of MUFON and Dr. J. Allen Hynek of CUFOS to inform them of the incident and stated that I had preferred the data to be kept confidential. They agreed.

Black, Miller, Ms. Schnell and I departed from Liberty at dusk, a five hour drive to Cincinnati ahead of us. We were convinced that the Stanford incident was as solid as it was disturbing. The time lapse and all its secrets was like a time bomb in our thoughts. Its potential impact ticked away in our minds all the way home.

Back in Cincinnati, during the next week, I again called Hynek for his advisement on getting professional psychiatric help to probe the time lapse. The problem was two-fold: distances of competent and cooperative help, and funding. In our conversation the name of Dr. Berthold Schwarz came up, a psychiatrist living in Montclair, New Jersey, who had distinguished himself in the pursuit of many UFO-related psychological cases. I called Dr. Schwarz, but, understandably, he was not in a position to make the trip. However, he recommended two prominent psychiatrists, whom I considered calling at the first opportunity. I also suggested Dr. Leo Sprinkle, APRO’s consultant in psychology in Laramit, Wyoming, but we agreed that his great distance from Kentucky, and funding the trip, were big problems regarding his services.

While I was eating dinner on March 5, 1976, Jerry Black called. Shaken, he said he had just received a call from Mrs. Smith stating that Dr. Leo Sprinkle of APRO had flown to Louisville and was at the home of Bill Terry, ready to depart to Liberty the next morning to perform hypnosis on Mrs. Stafford. Black was disturbed, thinking that I had brought in Dr. Sprinkle without consulting him. Indeed, it took only a second to clear the air: Dr. Sprinkle’s plans were news to me!

Perplexed, Black then called the three women to discuss the issues and all had agreed not to allow Sprinkle and Terry at their homes to conduct the hypnotic tests. According to Mrs. Smith, she and her companions were of the opinion that Dr. Sprinkle was the MUFON or CUFOS specialist that I had promised to deliver! She knew nothing of Dr. Sprinkle’s association with APRO, or even APRO.

Typical of UFO research without discipline, there was a melee of phone calls back and forth from Black in Cincinnati to Liberty and Louisville and I could sense the utter frustration being expressed by everyone, especially Dr. Sprinkle. I knew Dr. Sprinkle, having met him at the MUFON symposium in Des Moines, June, 1975, where he presented a paper. I had, and have, the greatest respect for him as a person and his competence in the field of psychological research in ufology and as a specialist in regressive hypnosis. Despite the confusion, I was pleased to know that he had gotten as far Louisville. I called Dr. Sprinkle at Terry’s house and said so. But the issues beyond that were far from solved.

As the plot deepened,and with visions of another Travis Walton fiasco, I decided (and it was agreed upon by all parties) to call the Lorenzens of APRO in Tucson. Nearing midnight, it was my hope that I could make a sinsible arrangement to permit Dr. Sprinkle to proceed to Liberty. After much bloodletting over the issues on hand, accord with APRO (Jim and Coral Lorenzen) was achieved. We agreed that the immediate results of the hypnosis would not be published in our respective bulletins and hopefully not the national media, as long as the three women were in a highly emotional state. The date was set for Sunday, March 7, for Sprinkle, Terry, and for Black, Miller, Schnell and myself to meet at Mrs. Smith’s trailer.

As a side comment on the behind-the-scene activity during the early investigation, Bill Terry called me in the evening following his visit with Mrs. Smith in Liberty, March 1st, which was the day following the MUFON visit from Cincinnati.

Although Terry did not mention APRO’s involvement to Mrs. Smith during his visit, or to me by phone, he told me later that he called the Lorenzens about his findings. According to Terry, with whom I had built up a cordial relationship in the exchange of UFO information since 1974, his called to APRO was triggered by the interest in the Sergeant Moody abduction case which he knew APRO had investigated and it was his belief that the Kentucky incident might serve their research with valuable correlative data.

Personally, I hold no ill-feelings toward anyone involved in this case despite the gross misunderstandings. And it was never my intention, obviously, of “scooping” the Stanford story. My main concern throughout the early (and still continuing) investigation has been the health and welfare of three victimized women, as all persons directly involved in the case are well aware. My second concern is that the data collected serves UFO research objectively.

The rendevouz in Liberty started at midday, March 7. Greetings were cordial and there was a pledge of cooperation. We decided to conduct the hypnosis of Mona (Louise and Elaine not consenting to hypnosis) at her parent’s home where there was more room. Everybody sat in tense silence watching Dr. Sprinkle calmly and methodically put his subject at ease, then into a deep hypnotic state. Mona’s replies to the questions came slowly. She agonizingly recalled the UFO and her responding fear that it was an aircraft in fiery distress; the UFO in different flgiht attitudes; the sickening heat; the darkness and an unexplained light, but she could not go further into the deep secrets of the time lapse. Mona, tearful, seemed exhausted. More time was needed and time ran out.

Dr. Sprinkle had to return to Louisville with Terry, there to catch his plane to Laramie. Before departure, he told me that Mona was still in a post-hypnotic state and that I might continue to work with her based on certain guidelines.

As Black continued to question Louise and Elaine, Mona moved quietly to a chair near a large coffee table. Edging my chair close to Mona, I withdrew from my briefcase, a folder depicting a group of humanoids I had drawn representing the different types of configurations and heads described by witnesses in previous encounters. Jim Miller stood by and watched in silence. Unceremoniously, I placed the folder on the table and said nothing. Up to this time no mention had been made of a possible humanoid factor in the Stanford time lapse case. A minute or so passed by: more silence. Then, Mona’s eyes brightened as she stared at the folder. Suddenly, her finger reached out and pointed to one of the weird, crinkled heads. “This looks like the light I saw...It was shaped like that head!”

Mona sat reflectively, then she added, “Yes... I can see the face now, but it doesn’t seem solid. It comes and goes... I mean, fades and reappears like in a fog. Its eyes are far apart and at the bottom... the chin... is like that drawing.”

She could recall no more. But this was a breakthrough. We had pierced the barrier of the time lapse.

The next day, March 8, according to my UFOLOG notes, I called Dr. Sprinkle at the University of Wyoming. I informed him of Mona’s recall of a humanoid head surrounded by a fog. Promptly, I sent him a copy of the drawings with the designated head encircled. Also, enclosed was Mona’s statement relative to her recall of the apparition. I told him to send a copy to APRO as per our agreement to work in cooperation.

Weeks, unfortunately, turned into months of stalemate. Black and I stayed in touch with the three women by phone on a constant basis. The women continued to wallow in fears, experienced many frightening physical events and continued to lose weight. Needed was the return of Dr. Sprinkle, or someone else to take over the case. I discussed this with Dr. Sprinkle whom I met later at the CUFOS Conference in Chicago, April 30 - May 1. We talked about funding, or lack of it, and while there , in the afterhours, I approached Dr. Hynek again on the matter of funding. It was not a good question at that time. No funds were available, although he recognized the need for a list of professional consultants who could undertake field trips within a limited radius of their home base.

On May 12, I called Coral Lorenzen in Tucson. We discussed the stalemate in the Stanford case and she said she would consider financing Dr. Sprinkle for a return trip to Liberty. On June 10, Coral called me and said she was considering sending Dr. James Harder of Berkeley, California, an adept at regressive hypnosis, to Liberty for a follow-up, as he was planning a visit to APRO headquarters soon and he might be able to extend his trip to Liberty. I heard nothing more about Harder, but on June 16, I called Coral regarding a request by the Louisville Times for new data to publish on the Stanford case. As per our agreement, I told her that I had refused the request.

Then came the sudden announcement on July 1st by Jerry Black, who, acting unilaterally, called Bob Pratt at the National Enquirer. He had made a deal. In concert with the three women, he basically had negotiated a swap of their close encounter story with the National Enquirer in return for the tabloid’s financing the return of Dr. Leo Sprinkle to Liberty to conduct regressive hypnosis, and a polygraph test to be conducted by an expert yet to be named. In the terms, Black agreed to the stipulation that if the time lapse case turned out to be an abduction, backed by professional testimony, the National Enquirer would get first rights to publish the story and, in turn, the three women would receive remuneration for their cooperation. Black, Miller and I were to pay all trip expenses out of our own pockets, as we had done in the past.

Black’s daring move, he averred, was out of concern for the women’s health and to free their anxieties that had built up over the time lapse. He could not wait for funding or other delays by CUFOS, MUFON or APRO.

My reaction was mixed at first. Being impervious to shock after 27 years spent in ufology, I was, however, caught off-guard and felt some embarrassment for the stagnating agreement I had vowed to uphold about keeping the story out of the national media. However, there were some pluses. Foremost was relief that the research had another chance at breaking the time lapse. And, I was heartened that Sprinkle was the choice to try!

The meeting place was at the Brown Motel in Liberty, June 23, 1976. It was a sapping-hot day as felicitous greetings were exchanged with the old dramatis personae. And it was a pleasure to see Bob Pratt again, the National Enquirer’s top UFO investigator-reporter. A true vet in the news business, Pratt had impressed me as sincere, honest. We had met at the CUFOS Symposium in Chicago on May 31, 1976. At that time, ironically, Pratt had asked me for the Stanford case story, but I refused out of dedication to the proverbial agreement.

The mood of the day was serious. Without delay the business of polygraph tests got underway. James Young, detective for the Lexington Police Department, was the expert. After completion of his lengthy tests, executed privately for each of the three women, Young’s facial expression waxed between triumph and amazement. Skeptical about UFOs when he came to the scene, Young said that his subjects “breezed through” their incredible story and polygraphically came out of the tests as credible people. In a matter of several hours, he admitted his views on the UFO had changed. He said he believed that all three women were telling the truth, even overcoming his strategy of employing one trick maneuver which suggested they were perpetrating a hoax to gain publicity and money.

Now the stage was set for Dr. Sprinkle’s hypnotic sessions.

It is beyond the scope of this journal to publish the length verbatim questions and answers contained in the tapes of the entire hypnotic proceedings. Dr. Sprinkle superbly handled the hypnosis and it is the belief of all witnesses that significant information was obtained to get to the roots of the time lapse secrets, thus providing sufficient credence to the hypothesis of abduction.

The first hypnosis was performed with Mrs. Smith the subject, during the evening following the polygraph tests. The following day, all women were subjects, each making the regression circuit twice. Sitting next to Mona, Louise and Elaine during these sessions, I watched their great emotional psycho-physical stresses as they slowly, agonizingly and tearfully relived and related their experiences. Sometimes a phase of long silence was punctuated by a sudden recall of an incident so horribly disconcerting that the subject’s body writhed and contorted in pain.

Unquestionably, the treatment received by each of the women inside the round dark room, as each described their captive abode, was harsh indeed, even torturous. While no sexual molestations were revealed, each woman complained about the rigors of being restrained forcibly by their humanoid captors into a demobilized position for physical examination. For Mrs. Smith, it was on a table; Mrs. Thomas, inside a capsule with a stricture of a noose-like device around the neck which tightened as she tried to speak or think; and, for Mrs. Stafford, it was in a chair-like device.

According to each subject, their bodies were scanned (despite no recollection of being disrobed) and instruments used in exerting great pressure on the limbs. Mrs. Thomas recalls a tube with a bullet-like tip, probing her chest and also recalls, as did Mrs. Stafford, that a warm liquid was applied to their faces and bodies.

During the hypnotic sessions, twice-held for each woman, characteristic details of the humanoids never reached a point of clarity. Each described shadowy forms floating or gliding by them or the emergence of one eye, or two, hovering over them. One bizarre phase recalled by Mona was the sight of a light at the end of a shaft or tunnel which she described as a volcano with “jagged edges.” It was during this frame of time that she complained of intensive pressure to her eyes, “...Just like they’ve been pulled out.” Following this, Mona was impressed by a single bright purple eye that seemed to radiate lightning-like rays.

Elaine was percipient to a two-eyed form like a round head in deep darkness. One eye, she said, was a “beautiful blue” encircled by a blue membranous lid, “like a trutle’s” and the other eye appeared dark. Louise, during hypnosis said she saw several forms but was so frightened that she didn’t keep her eyes open long enough to remember any details. It wasn’t until months later that she conjured up a vision of her captors. Similar in general appearance to the humanoids seen by her companions, she added that their hands looked like jagged wing tips. It was Elaine who, during hypnosis, recalled the most about the entities in the room. “There were several small figures,” she said, “about 4 feet tall.”

All three subjects stated that their captors communicated telepathically - never verbally. No one recalled an entity with a mouth!

Perhaps the most revealing drama about the alleged craft was witnessed by Mona, on Sunday morning following the previous day’s hypnotic sessions. While we were sitting around summarizing the “abduction,” I asked Mona if she could elaborate on her hypnotic reference to a volcano.

Without hesitation, she related that she could now “see” a room... like through the end of a tunnel... at the end of which was a bright light. As the picture emerged, she could see a square table top upon which lay a prostrate figure of a woman surrounded by a group of small figures clad in white. They appeared to be studying, or examining the subject under a brilliant white light. She said, “I’m not sure if the person was Elaine, or Lou, or maybe even me.”

Providing additional evidence for the Stanford case are a number of people I reached who testified they witnessed a UFO on the same evening, January 6, 1976, in the Casey and Lincoln County areas.

One couple living within several hundred yards of the “abduction” site, watched from their house window a large, luminous object shaped like a light bulb pass low over the Stanford area. Significantly, the time of this sighting was about 11:30 p.m. Although the couple preferred anonymity, other reports of UFO sightings, observed earlier in the evening, were more detailed, each describing a ring of red or orange lights around a disc-shaped object. Two teenagers told me they pursued a low-level UFO in a hotrod after they watched it hover over the Angel Manufacturing Plant in Stanford. Their chase took them as far as Danville, Kentucky, to the north. They gave their report to the police there.

Another UFO report of significance surfaced when Jerry Black, during a later trip to Liberty, learned that the owner of the farm property where the incident occurred had observed, “down the road” from his farm, an unusual low-level, glowing white object which shot a beam of white light down on the ground. The time was about 10 p.m., however, the sightings only weakness is that he could not pin down the date, whether it occurred January 5th or 6th.

More positive about the date, January 6, is Mrs. Janet Stewart of Bethel, Minnesota, who experienced a close encounter with a UFO causing her physiological effects. Although Bethel and Stanford are great distances apart as the crow flies, they may not be so unrelated when one considers the UFO’s capabilities. The Bethel report, received from Joe Brill, begins with Mrs. Stewart driving alone at 7:30 p.m. to pick up a girl friend with whom she planned to attend a night school class in Moundview. Suddenly, a strange, red, glowing object with small blinking green lights came down to within 25 feet above her car. It followed at close range until she reached her friend’s house.

As Mrs. Stewart and friend drove to Moundview, the same UFO appeared again. As before, it followed the car at close range for about two miles until reaching their destination.

The next day, Mrs. Stewart claimed, in a signed statement, that she suffered severe menstrual cramps and bleeding, even though her normal period had ended six days before. She also suffered eye inflammation. When she checked with her girl friend, she learned that she, too, had been menstrually affected.

The Stanford case, I believe, stands on the strength of the many factors I relate in this account and in more detail in my forthcoming book. Simply put, the case is no humpty dumpty on the ground waiting for a Phillip Klass or another Dr. Donal Menzel to gloat over the ignominous pieces.

• The Kentucky Abduction
  By Jim Miller

Tuesday, January 6, 1976 had been a very enjoyable evening for the three women from Liberty, Kentucky. And now at 11:15 p.m., they were driving home from the Redwood Restaurant, which is 29 miles from their hometown. It usually takes about forty minutes for Louise Smith to drive home from the restaurant, tonight, however, it would take much longer.

Kentucky State Route 78 between Stanford and Hustonville is a small country road which winds its way around the hilly countryside, picturesque with its farms and wooded areas. They had been on Route 78 about fifteen minutes, and all three women were sitting in the front seat of Louise Smith’s green 1957 Chevy Nova.

Louise Smith was laughing as she drove, Mona Staford whose birthday they had celebrated, was talking to Elaine Thomas about some sketches the three women had drawn back at the restaurant.

Suddenly Mona cried, “Look, it’s coming down, it’s going to crash!”

To Mona and Louise, it looked like a huge brilliant red light, and they immediately thought it was a jet airplane on fire and about to crash. The object was on the drivers’ side of the car and coming very fast at a sharp angle.

It was much closer now as the object suddenly stopped at tree top level, where Louise and Mona watched in terror as it paced the car. They could make out red and yellow lights that appeared to rotate around the bottom, and the object seemed to rock back and forth.

The brilliant object then moved back around the left side of the car and was now over on the right side where Elaine first saw the object.

Elaine looked out and beheld a huge, disc shaped object with a dome. Its leading edge was tilted down toward the car less than a hundred feet away at tree top level.

At this point, Elaine seemed to be in a trance-like state and opened the door of the car to get out. Mona grabbed Elaine and closed the door, then turned around to help Louise, who was having trouble controlling the car.

Mona told Louise to slow down as the needle on the speedometer was registering 85 miles per hour, but Louise said, “look... my foot is not on the gas pedal!”

A bluish light illuminated the inside of the car. Thinking it to be the state police, Louise asked Mona to look out the back window to see if she could see a police car. Mona looked back, but could see nothing. The blue light now seemed very hot, and it was getting difficult for the three travelers to breathe.

The car now felt like it was beig pulled toward what looked like a rock wall, with an opening where a gate should be. (Note - Later, under hypnosis, the women would remember the exact location of the gate.)

The car, no longer under their control, moved closer toward the wall. Their heads ached and they felt sick. Their eyes burned due to the heat.

The car went over several bumps and shook very hard. Suddenly, the threesome noticed a red light appear on the dash inside the car, which was now on a wide, will lit road.

The next thing the women remembered, was seeing the street light in Hustonville...

For the women, it seemed like they had traveled from the drive-in to Hustonville, a distance of over eight miles, in the blink of an eye. Arriving in Liberty, they drove to Louise Smith’s mobile home. As the women walked into the mobile home, Louise asked Mona and Elaine to look at her neck, which was hurting her with great pain.

On Louise’s neck they saw a fresh red burn-like mark, which ran from her hairline down her back. The line was about an inch wide and three inches long. Worried now, the women saw similar marks on Elaine, and Mona had a red mark that ran from her left ear down her neck.

Mona took off her ring and noticed the skin where her ring had been was also very red. Mona also said her eyes hurt as if they had been burned.

The women looked at their watches and were confused to learn that Elaine’s watch had stopped, Louise’s watch read 6:00, but the minute hand was moving as fast as the second hand. Louise then went out to the kitchen and the clock on the stove read 1:25.

The women looked at each other in amazement, each knowing they should have been home by 12:00. Where had they been for the last hour and twenty-five minutes?

Noticing a light on next door, the women had called upon the neighbor to come over and help unravel the baffling questions. Seeing how upset the three women were, Mr. Lowell Lee listened to what each woman could relate. He then asked that each one go to a different room and sketch what each had seen.

After gathering all of their sketches, he looked at each one and was surprised to find that they had each drawn the same type of disc shaped craft.

Being very thirsty and hot, Louise went to the bathroom to wash her face. She took her glasses off and threw some cold water on her face. The water burned like fire.

The women talked and finally dropped off to sleep around 5:30 a.m. After a few hours of small naps, the worried women could not sleep any more and decided to find the strange road which they remembered from the night before.

As the women each showered, they noticed the water felt very hot on them, no matter how cold they turned it. Mona was still complaining how her eyes burned, and as she looked in the mirror, she saw they were an ugly, fiery red.

The women were about to get into the car when they saw what appeared to be small areas of paint that had bubbled up on the hood. Looking more closely, they saw the same blistered effect on the roof of the car, appearing as though subjected to terrific heat.

They first had the gas tank filled and went the same route that they had taken the night before, to look for the strange road. They made the trip to the restaurant and back, filled the gas tank again and noticed the difference between trips was about eight cents. This meant that the women had not driven anywhere else the night before. The women were more upset and felt it best not to tell anyone what had happened to them.

By the end of the week, Mona felt she had to tell someone. She contacted the Kentucky State Police, and although they listened to what she had to say, they could do nothing more for her. Still feeling that someone could help her, Mona called the Naval Recruiting Office in Danville, Kentucky. The officer there called the Lexington television station Channel 27.

Shortly thereafter, the three women were on a television interview. The women did not seek the publicity they were getting, but only trying to find out where they had been and why it took so long to get home.

The hometown newspaper had to get involved now. Again the women were interviewed, and it was published in the Casey County News.

Meanwhile, the women were having their problems. Each had lost almost fifteen pounds, could not sleep very well and had no appetite. They were also afraid to go anywhere alone, and at night, they did not go outside at all.

A copy of the local newspaper reached Jerry Black, who was an investigator with MUFON. He called the women and told them he read about the story and wanted to help them if he could. The women were still probing for answers and said they would appreciate any help Black could offer.

Jerry Black then contacted other investigators including Leonard Stringfield, who was the Ohio State section and public relations director for MUFON, Peggy Schnell, an investigator for OUFOIL, and myself, Jim Miller, an investigator and astronomy consultant for OUFOIL, and MUFON.

Because of various commitments, it was the end of February before the four of us could get to Liberty, which is a good five hour drive from Cincinnati. It was early afternoon before we arrived at Louise’s mobile home. We talked with the women, saw the remains of the burn marks on their necks, checked the blistered areas on the car, talked to the local police and had a general idea of what the women were going through. We even checked Louise’s pet parakeet, which was very friendly with Louise before the sighting, but now would fly toward the back of the cage when she would come near.

Leonard Stringfield and I could come up to the cage and the bird would come to us, but when we had Louise come near the cage, the bird went raging and tried to escape.

Further checks with local people revealed the women to be very well thought of in the community and very active in church programs. Their integrity was regarded highly.

We also called the weather office in Lexington and found visibility was fifteen miles on January 6, with a cloud cover at 10,000 feet, and a temperature of 38 degrees.

We also had other reports that same night from people in Casey and Lincoln Counties of strange lights in the sky, the description of which led us to believe that they were not from airplanes.

We then returned to Cincinnati, leaving the women to continue on in uncertainty, wondering what had happened in the missing one hour and twenty-five minutes.

During the week, the women would be visited by an investigator from APRO, Bill Terry. He told the women he knew us and the women thought we were all working together. However, later in the week, Jerry Black called the women, and learned that they were expecting us to journey to Liberty, Kentucky again the next weekend.

We knew nothing about APRO setting up a hypnotic session with the women and with Dr. Leo Sprinkle. Many phone calls were made between the women and the investigators, as well as Leonard Stringfield and APRO people in Arizona. Finally, a compromise was reached, and the four investigators from Cincinnati and the three women would meet with Bill Terry and Dr. Leo Sprinkle in Liberty, Kentucky.

Arriving at Liberty, we went to Louise’s mobile home, and from there to Mona’s parents home, where the hypnosis sessions were to be held. Based on her actions while Mona was under hypnosis, we all had the feeling that something had happened to the three women during the time lapse of one hour and twenty five minutes.

Dr. Sprinkle, who is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming, has been involved with many other “missing time” cases, and felt the Kentucky Abduction was a very good case.

Leonard Stringfield, who has been very active in the UFO field since the early fifties, felt we could gather more data with this case which could help solve the UFO enigma. It was agreed that at a later date, polygraph tests and deeper hypnosis sessions would be held.

It was now July, and the women were still having nightmares. Each had lost a great deal of weight, and all three women had been to see a doctor more than once since the January 6 incident. Louise had even been admitted to the hospital. If any of the sicknesses or medical visits (other than Mona’s visit to see about her eyes) were related to the sighting is not known.

Mona had been seeing strange things, and drew a sketch of what she had seen.

Finally, after contacting the various UFO groups, Jerry Black asked the National Enquirer if they would help pay for the sessions, since other UFO groups did not have the funds to do so at the time. The National Enquirer said they would, and the weekend of July 23 through the 25 was set for the sessions to be held in Liberty, Kentucky.

Early Friday morning, July 23, Jerry Black, Peggy Schnell, Leonard Stringfield and myself drove to Liberty to meet Dr. Leo Sprinkle, Jim Young who is a Polygraphist, Bob Pratt who is a reporter for the National Enquirer, and the three women.

Polygraph tests were given to the three women individually and lasted around two hours each. All the testing was conducted at the Brown Motel, located in Liberty, Kentucky.

Based upon the polygraph tests conducted by Jim Young, the tests were passed by all three women, and the hypnosis sessions could now begin.

Late in the evening on July 23rd, Louise was put under hypnosis, and began re-living the lost time from January 6. Although very weak from the session, she remembers the “GATE” the three women were taken through.

“It is now after midnight, and we are at the gate.”

The gate is a cattle guard between two rock walls that are some thirty feet off Highway 78. This is a farmers driveway, and from Highway 78, the farm house is barely visible. The sky is very clear here, and there are no factories or smog in the area.

Under hypnosis, all three women expressed suffering and pain. A material of some type covered the women, like a mold was being made of them. The women also expressed that their arms and legs were held and bent. They remember being examined. One had something held to her neck, another, a bullet-type object to the left side of her breast. One woman remembers being put into another craft and moving away from the first craft. Another remembers being inside a mountain or volcano. An “eye” watched one, and felt as if a power or energy was holding her on the table.

One seemed to recall figures which would move back and forth in front of her as she was laying in a chamber, being watched. Another saw beings with white robes on, like a doctors gown. The eyes of one felt like they were pulled out of her head.

Things we asked and didn’t get answers to were the basic questions such as: Why are they here, where do they come from. They did communicate... but how? The women knew what the beings wanted, but didn’t know how. The beings knew they were hurting the women, but they didn’t care.

They are still remembering more and more facts as time goes on. Although there are many questions left unanswered, it is the investigators sincere feelings that what happened to the three women on January 6, 1976 is true. We are also hopeful that as the three women recall more events that took place on that date, we will update the reader in a later issue.

Note:
The KENTUCKY ABDUCTION was investigated by UFO researcher Jerry Black. If you have any questions or comments, please call Mr. Black at (513) 625-2613.