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UFO roundup 3/30/1997


 
 From: Masinaigan@aol.com
 Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 14:10:41 -0500 (EST)
 To: updates@globalserve.net
 Subject: Fwd: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 2, Number 13
 
      UFO ROUNDUP
 
 Volume 2, Number 13
 March 30, 1997
 Editor: Joseph Trainor
 
 39 UFO SECT MEMBERS FOUND
 DEAD IN SAN DIEGO
 
      Thirty-nine members of a UFO sect called Heaven's
 Gate were found dead Wednesday at their rented
 mansion, Rancho Santa Fe, in San Diego County,
 California.
 
      The group had rented the home last October and
 were led by Marshall Herff Applewhite, 66, aka Father
 John, aka Do (pronounced Doe), formerly "Bo" of
 "Bo and Peep," aka "the Two," itinerant UFO apostles
 who first became prominent in the 1970s.  (See
 Newsweek magazine for October 20, 1975.)
 
      Applewhite's consort, Bonnie Lu Truesdale Nettles,
 aka "Peep," died of liver cancer in 1985.
 
      The victims ranged in age from 26 to 72.  All but
 four have been identified.  Among the victims were
 Thomas Nichols, brother of actress Nichelle Nichols,
 who starred in TV's original Star Trek, and David
 Van Sinderen, son of a former chairman of the
 Southern New England Telephone Co. (SNET).
 
      The official cause of death has not yet been
 determined, but Det. Lt. Jerry Lipscomb of the San
 Diego County Sheriff's Dept. said there was no
 suspicion of anything but suicide.
 
      "Overdose and suffocation, self-inflicted,"
 Lipscomb said, "Nothing in this investigation that
 would suggest anything but."  (See the New York
 Post for March 29, 1997, page 3)
 
      Dr. Brian Blackbourne, San Diego County
 medical examiner said toxicological tests on five
 of the victims showed that three had lethal levels
 of phenobarbitol.  "Since the lethal level is 6 grams,
 it would take 50 tablets of 135 milligrams each to
 commit suicide."  (New York Post, March 29, 1997,
 page 2)
 
      Yet puzzling discrepancies remain in the
 official version concerning the original discovery of
 the crime scene.
 
      On Tuesday, March 25, Richard Ford, aka
 Rio DiAngelo, a former member of the group, received
 a videotape in which the 39 members, including 18
 women and 21 men, said farewell, announcing their
 intent "to shed their physical containers" and be
 lifted up to a UFO reported to be following the comet
 Hale-Bopp.  Also receiving a tape was Rev. Rick
 Strawcutter, pastor of a nondenominational Christian
 church in Adrian, Michigan.
 
 (Editor's Note: The Hale-Bopp "companion," aka
 "the Saturn-like object" or SLO and the "Hale Mary,"
 was first spotted in November 1996 by amateur
 astronomer Chuck Shramek.  Professional astronomers
 dismissed Shramek's claim, contending that the object
 was an eighth-magnitude star, SAO 141894, that had
 been photographed out of focus.  However, other
 observers sighted and photographed "an anomalous
 object" an estimated 2,000 kilometers behind the comet
 until January 10.  Also, the SOHO satellite, which
 photographed the solar tsunami that day, caught an
 image of an oval-shaped object above the sun.  A week
 later, a NASA press release described the SOHO image
 as "a proto-comet."  There have been no further sightings
 of the Hale Mary or any other anomalous object since
 January 10.)
 
      The following morning, Wednesday, March 26, Ford
 told his employer, Nick Matzorkis, 34, of Beverly Hills
 about the tape and expressed fears that Applewhite's
 group may have comitted suicide.  The two men then
 drove to San Diego, arriving at about 11 a.m.
 
      "DiAngelo (Ford), who left the cult five weeks
 earlier, entered the palatial Spanish-type home where
 his former computer-whiz comrades lived and worked.
 Matzorkis told him to be out in ten minutes."
 
      "' I didn't want to sit there so I took a five-minute
 drive and a five-minute drive back and he still wasn't
 in front of the house,' the businessman recalled."
 
      "I'm wondering, 'What's happening? Is he dead
 in there, too?  Then I finally saw him walk out.  He
 was white as a sheet.'"
 
      "'You trying to tell me there are dead bodies in
 there?' Matzorkis asked."
 
      "'Yes.'"
 
      "'Where are they?'"
 
      "'They're laying in the beds and cots.'"
 (See the New York Post for March 28, 1997,
 page 6)
 
      Incredibly, after viewing the dead, Ford did not
 telephone the San Diego County Sheriff's Dept.
 for over an hour.  "Only after he leaves the
 mansion of mass suicide does he call the local
 cops at 1:34 p.m."
 
      "DiAngelo (Ford) returns with Matzorkis to
 L.A. closely listening to news radio and hears
 nothing of what he tipped the cops to."
 
      "He then becomes such a responsible
 citizen that he calls the Beverly Hills Police
 Department at 3 p.m. and they referred him to
 the San Diego Sheriff's Office, which said it
 knew nothing."  (Steve Dunleavy's colum,
 New York Post, March 30, 1997, page 6)
 
      Arriving at the crime scene at 3:30 p.m.
 were Deputy Sheriff Robert Brunk and Deputy
 Sheriff Laura Gacek.  From the moment, the
 officers pulled up to the manion, Deputy
 Brunk "knew something was wrong.  The drapes
 were pulled, the windows were closed and the
 outdoor lights were burning in the sunshine."
 (New York Times, March 30, 1997, page 1)
 
      During the CNN news conference at 7 p.m.
 Pacific time, Deputy Brunk said he found the
 front door locked, circled the house, found the
 windows all closed, and found a side door
 unlocked.  He also said, "I was the first to
 enter the building."
 
      Deputy Brunk then "sensed the unmistakable
 stench of death.  Dreading his instincts and
 hoping against hope, he radioed his partner,
 Laura Gacek, and waited."  (New York Times,
 March 30, 1997, page 1)
 
      When Deputy Gacek confirmed the odor, the
 officers entered the darkened room, spotted "the
 bodies, all white and ages 18-24" who "bore no
 signs of trauma."  (See USA Today, March 27,
 1997, page 1)  At the news conference, Deputy
 Brunk said he and Gacek then left the premises
 and radioed for backup.
 
      According to San Diego Sheriff's Commander
 Alan Fulmer, "deputies wearing surgical masks
 'encountered a noxious, pungent odor,' and two
 were sent to the hospital for blood tests.  A
 hazardous materials (Hazmat) crew was on the
 scene."  (USA Today, March 27, 1997)
 
      At the news conference, Deputy Brunk said
 he and Gacek were given a blood test.  The
 results of the blood test were not released.
 
      Nor were the results of any chemical tests
 performed by the Hazmat crew at the crime scene.
 
      A videotape aired on KCOP-TV shows a
 deputy in a yellow jacket wearing a respirator,
 not a surgical mask.  (See USA Today for March
 28-30, 1997, page 1)
 
      An AP photo of the house shows an open
 window on the right-hand side (facing the front door),
 just around the corner about 40 feet (12 meters)
 from the door.  (See the Boston Herald for
 March 28, 1997, page 3)  The window's white
 drape is clearly visible.
 
      "The foul smell deputies encountered when they
 entered the house was not nerve gas but the odor
 of decomposing bodies, officials said."
 
      "'There were no gas fumes in the house.  The
 only smell coming out of that house was that of
 dead bodies,' said Cmdr. Alan Fulmer."  (See the
 New York Daily News for March 28, 1997, page 3)
 
 
 APPLEWHITE GROUP LINKED
 TO BLAVATSKY, TWAIN
 
      Heaven's Gate, the UFO group headed by
 Marshall Herff Applewhite, had links to 19th Century
 occultists, including Madame Blavatsky and novelist
 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark
 Twain.
 
      The house at 18241 Colina Norte is just down
 the street from the San Dieguito Reservoir, a
 favorite spot of Mrs. Katherine A. Tingley, a disciple
 of Madame Helena P. Blavatsky.  Mrs. Tingley
 moved to San Diego in 1896 and founded an ashram
 of the Theosophical Society at Point Loma.  The
 center opened February 25, 1897, with a ceremony
 attended by several prominent people in San Diego,
 including the mayor.  (See the San Diego Union for
 February 26, 1897)
 
      Like Applewhite, Mrs. Tingley believed that a
 major cataclysm would sink most of California and
 end Western civilization.  She predicted that San
 Diego would survive to become the capital of an
 island nation called "Nueva California."
 
      She also had an interesting vision of alabacore
 tuna swimming through the drowned halls of the
 Assembly building in Sacramento.
 
      Another one of Madame Blavatsky's disciples
 had a vision in India in 1907 of San Diego in the
 year 2100 as "a gleaming white city and capital
 of the New Age world."
 
      Interestingly enough, in 1907, Samuel Langhorne
 Clemens, aka Mark Twain, wrote a short story
 entitled "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Trip to
 Heaven," in which the hero leaves Earth for "an
 extended excursion among the heavenly bodies"
 on the tail of a comet.
 
      In the story, the hero has his passport on him,
 plus five dollars and three 25-cent pieces for the fare.
 
      Many of the Heaven's Gate victims had their
 passports on their persons and $5.75 in their hands.
 (See New York Post, March 29, 1997, page 6)
 
      In a strange twist, the comet Hale-Bopp has the
 same initials as Helena Blavatsky.
 
      Also, the acronym for Evolutionary Level Above
 Human (ELAH) spells HALE backwards.  (See the
 Boston Herald for March 29, 1997, page 3)
 
 
 ORANGE GLOBES CONTINUE
 TO BE SEEN IN ONTARIO
 
      The Southern Ontario CSETI working group, led
 by Jennifer Jarvis, spotted three orange-sphere
 UFOs over Lake Ontario at 8:14 p.m. on Saturday,
 March 22, 1997.
 
      The group had gone to the lakeshore at
 Oakville, Ont., near Port Credit to skywatch
 when "three orange orbs, lights, but not emitting
 light" appeared over the lake midway between
 Oakville and St. Catharines, Ont. on the south
 shore.
 
      "These things were brilliant orange-to-yellow,
 hovered, and did not fade out.  They submerged,"
 Jarvis reported.  "All three went below the surface
 of the water."
 
      Despite rainy weather, the group continued
 its vigil throughout the week, periodically spying
 the same type of orange-sphere UFO.  On
 Wednesday, March 26, 1997, one orange globe
 reportedly "returned signals" from the CSETI group
 before submerging.
 
      Jarvis's group went to Grimsby, Ont. on
 Saturday, March 29, 1997 to triangulate the
 UFOs' position over the lake.
 
      On Thursday, March 27, at 7:40 p.m., Peter K.
 left his house in Oshawa, Ont., 30 miles (48
 kilometers) east of Toronto to look for the comet
 Hale-Bopp and saw "the most unusual aerial display
 I ever hope to see.  Two objects coming from the
 southwest to the northeast at very high altitude.
 Only lasted 4 or 5 seconds before they disappeared
 into the light pollution on the northern horizon."
 
      At 8:10 p.m., Peter went outside again, saw some
 cirrus clouds moving in, went to the other side of the
 house to look eastward and spotted three orange-
 sphere UFOs.  He then called his girl friend Sonja
 in Bowmanville.
 
      At 9:52 p.m., he went outdoors once more and
 saw "ten of these things.  Saw two flying west to
 east, followed by a formation of four (two pairs) at
 much lower altitude.  Spectacular!  Saw another pair
 going east to west and a few singles going south to
 north and north to south."  (Many thanks to Jennifer
 Jarvis and Errol Bruce-Knapp for this story.)
 
 
 MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION
 JARS SOUTH YORKSHIRE
 
      On Monday, March 24, at 10:06 p.m., a deafening
 explosion was heard in the skies over South Yorkshire,
 not far from the Derbyshire line in Britain.
 
      Detectors at the Seismic Unit at Edinburgh
 University, Scotland, picked up vibrations from the
 explosion, which they likened to "a sonic boom that
 could have only been made by the Concorde, a
 military jet at low altitude, or a bolide."
 
      Witnesses at Marjorie Hill, South Yorks. claim
 to have seen a UFO hovering above the peak, "shining
 light beams at the hillside" at the time of the explosion.
 
      The explosion sparked rumors of an airplane crash.
 A search of the area, including six RAF Tornado jet
 interceptors, turned up no wreckage, and the search
 was called off on Tuesday, March 25.
 
      By then, however, rumors of "a saucer crash and
 retrieval" had spread throughout Britain.  One story
 told of a glowing orange triangle hovering over Wigan,
 Lancashire.  But Tim Matthews, head of the Lancashire
 UFO Society, disputed that report.
 
      Matthews said LUFOS observers saw no "flying
 triangle" take off from the Warton British Aerospace
 research facility at Preston that night, and his group
 received no calls about UFOs at Wigan or anywhere
 else in Lancashire.  (Many thanks to John Hayes,
 Graham Birdsall and Tim Matthews for this story.)
 
 
 OHIO ROCKED BY A WAVE OF
 ORANGE GLOBE SIGHTINGS
 
      On Wednesday, March 26, 1997, at 8 p.m.,
 Jesse W. and his friend, Josh M., were out looking
 for the Hale-Bopp comet on Cheltenham Drive in
 Mount Healthy, Ohio when they "saw a large white
 light 50 to 60 degrees above the horizon."  The UFO
 was "surrounded by 'smaller' lights" and "a red light
 was seen on the side" of the UFO.  They watched
 the display for five minutes until the UFO flew away
 to the north.
 
      Also at 8 p.m., David S. was working at a
 warehouse in Wilmington, Ohio when co-workers
 called him outdoors to witness a strange display in
 the sky.  Looking east toward Hillsboro, Dave saw
 "a large orange fireball, which disappeared and then
 reappeared.  It would fade as another reappeared,
 almost in perfect configuration with each other,
 assuming the shape of a boomerang."
 
      Dave's co-workers had been watching the display
 since 7:30.  At precisely 7:40, they told him, four
 fighter jets had appeared in the northwest sky.  The
 jets had flown southeast, straight towards the orange
 lights.  "As the lights would 'come on,' the jets would
 fly into the general vicinity as if playing a game of
 cat-and-mouse," Dave reported.  The orange globes
 appeared eight times between 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.
 
      At 9:15 p.m., John B. and his girlfriend were in
 Loveland, Ohio and saw "several lights which held
 stationary and then accelerated at rapid speed.
 There was also a main object and smaller objects
 in triangular formation.  The main object was
 'absolutely huge.'"  The UFOs flew away to the north.
 
      Veteran UFO investigator Jerry Black received
 an anonymous tip from Wilmington, Ohio airport that
 two F-16s from the Air National Guard base in
 Springfield would be on "maneuvers" for the next few
 hours.
 
      On Thursday, March 27, 1997, Kenneth Young
 of Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge
 (T.A.S.K.) telephoned the Ohio Air National Guard
 at Springfield.  A sergeant told Young that eight F-16s
 from the 162nd Fighter Squadron had engaged in
 "night intercept air combat exercises" over Clermont
 County.  The orange globes seen, he reportedly
 explained, were "military flares," which are used to
 "divert enemy aircraft sensors and heat-seeking
 missiles" during combat.  (Many thanks to Kenny
 Young of T.A.S.K. for this story.)
 
 
 ORANGE GLOBE HOVERS
 OVER DUKE UNIVERSITY
 
      On Tuesday, March 25, at 11 p.m., student Brian
 Eddowes walked out of the Lilly Library on the East
 Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
 As he stepped into the quad, he spied a bright light
 in the western sky, hovering over the Union Building.
 
      "I noticed an orangeish light about 30 degrees
 above the horizon," reported Brian, who was with
 six other students in the quad at the time.  "It was
 motionless, and for some reason I took time to
 observe it.  Suddenly it changed shape and dropped
 really low, and then after 10 seconds, changed shape
 again to a series of red and blue lights...the way to
 describe the UFO lights was there did not appear
 to be any 'glare' about them and no noise at all."
 
      Brian said the lights flew away in the direction
 east-northeast.  (Email interview)
 
 
 UFO STARTLES WOMAN IN
 OAKTON, VIRGINIA
 
      On Saturday night, March 15, 1997, Ms.
 Kathleen N. spotted two "large bright lights" just
 outside her window in Oakton, Virginia.
 
      "The lights passed by my house as I looked
 out the window," she reported.  "Then I became
 curious and popped up to see where the lights
 were heading."
 
      "As I looked out the back window, the lights
 had suddenly turned and were coming back
 across my backyard, at above the trees.  I was
 astonished. Then I went out onto the porch and
 looked up.  To my amazement, I saw many rows
 of smaller white lights with a few red lights in the
 middle.  I could not see a craft, but it seemed like
 I was looking up (at) the underneath of a craft with
 lights on the bottom."
 
      "The two bright lights had moved quickly, but
 these lights were moving slowly.  It moved in a
 straight line above the trees.  As it flew away, I
 noticed a low-level hum and a swoosh."  (Email
 interview)
 
 
 JUMBO SAUCERS HAUNT SKIES
 OVER SAO PAULO STATE
 
      On Tuesday, March 4, 1997, at 9 p.m., a very
 large silver-gray domed saucer flew over the city
 of Piracicaba, in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.  Hundreds
 of people watched the immense, disc-shaped UFO,
 estimated to be 100 meters (330 feet) in diameter,
 move slowly over the city.  Eyewitnesses described
 the UFO as "an immense flattened disc with a small
 dome and flashing multicolored lights."
 
      At 11 p.m., two hours after Piracicaba sighting,
 another jumbo saucer of the same description was
 seen by dozens of people in Santa Gertrudis, S.P.,
 a small city near Piracicaba.  From beneath the UFO,
 "several small objects were seen to emerge."  These
 objects flew around for 20 minutes and then reentered
 the giant saucer, which flew away towards the west.
 
      On February 26, 1997, at 11 p.m., five male
 Brazilian students driving home in Ribeirao Preto,
 S.P. "saw a light come down and hover in front of
 the car they were driving."  The UFO then took up
 position behind the car and pursued it into the city.
 The high-speed chase lasted five minutes.  Afterward,
 the UFO rose quickly and flew away at high speed.
 (Muito obrigado a Eduardo Castor Borgonovi para
 eses casos.)
 
 
 AION MEMBERS SPY ORANGE
 GLOBE NEAR PUNTA ARENAS
 
      Ufologists from Agrupacion de Investigaciones
 Ovniologicas (AION) set up a research project in
 Punta Arenas, Chile on Monday, March 24, 1997.
 
      On Thursday, March 27, 1997, several AION
 members "spotted some lights make strange
 movements" north of the southern Chilean city.
 "One of the UFOs split into two.  Then behind these
 lights appeared a UFO about 40 meters (125 feet)
 in diameter, full of strong lights, hundreds of them,
 flashing like the globe in a discotechque."  The UFO
 dropped smaller orange spheres and then flew away
 after five minutes."  (Muchas gracias a Luis Sanchez
 para ese informacion.)
 
 >From the UFO Files...
 
 1977: A PILOT VANISHES
 
      The western end of Lake Ontario, now being
 investigated by the Southern Ontario CSET
 working group was the site of a baffling aircraft
 disappearance nearly 20 years ago.
 
      "On December 22, 1977, Craig Carlisle, an
 American pilot, took off from the airport at
 Oshawa, on the north side of Lake Ontario, in a
 twin-engine Cessna, N404SA.  His destination
 was Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, by way of
 Buffalo, New York, and the first leg of the flight
 was over the western end of Lake Ontario."
 
      "According to Major Al Ditter, spokesman for
 the Canadian Forces Base at Toronto, the aircraft
 left Oshawa at 9 p.m. and in less than half an hour
 was at midpoint in its flight over the lake.  At this
 point, the controllers at Toronto's International
 Airport handed control of this flight over to the
 Buffalo controllers."
 
      "However, there was a problem.  The Buffalo
 controllers could not find any such flight on their
 radar screens and they informed Toronto Control
 of this fact.  When the Toronto controllers checked
 their screens, they discovered that they too had
 lost the aircraft's blip.  In the minute or so it had
 taken to transfer the flight, the plane had suddenly
 vanished."
 
     "After two days of searching this thirty-by-forty-
 mile stretch of water without any success, the
 search was called off...Aircraft number N404SA
 had been added to the long list of others that
 have mysteriously vanished without a trace."
 (See GATEWAY TO OBLIVION by Hugh Cochrane,
 Avon Books, June 1981, pages 67 and 68)
 
      That's it for this week.  We'll try to play catch-up
 with our UFO sightings and, more importantly, run
 an important announcement from John Hayes in
 next Sunday's issue.  See you then.
 
 UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan
 Productions, all rights reserved.  Readers may post
 items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or
 in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter
 and its editor by name and list the date of the issue
 in which the story appeared.
 
 
 
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