An Unlikely Believer

Prostitution, crime, drugs, and homosexuality – these were the subjects of the first three books by Jess Stearn (1914-2002). Stearn was born in Syracuse, New York, and after graduating college in 1936, became a reporter for the Daily News, “New York’s Picture Newspaper.” His regular beat was reporting straight news, but in the Nov. 27, 1953, issue, he covered something uncharacteristically light, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here’s his report on the flight of a balloon made by Goodyear Tire, one depicting an alien space invader with a disintegrator gun.

Photo by Nick Sorrentino

“As a sign of our times – the Flying Saucer era – the parade featured an inflated Space Man 70 feet tall and 40 feet around. Though held down by a score of men at guy lines, the Space Man almost whipped off into space by a brisk wind a couple of times as the kids screamed their enjoyment.”

UFOs were not his normal beat, but he wrote an epic 4-part article on the topic that we’ll cover later. Stearn wrote for the Daily News for 17 years, then in 1960 became a writer and associate editor at Newsweek magazine for a few years, leaving it to be a full-time career as an author of non-fiction books.

Jess Stearn, 1964 -& 1973

The Door to the Future

Back in 1952, by chance Stearn had met Maya Perez, a “sensitive,” who gave him a reading of his future. It meant nothing at the time but turned out to be the first step in his long transformation from skeptic into believer. As years passed, Stearn felt her predictions had come to pass. Researching soothsayers, he came to believe that some like Jeanne Dixon had genuine psychic powers. It resulted in his 1963 book, The Door to the Future. Even greater success came in 1967 with his best-selling biography, Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet. Afterwards Stearn’s writing focused on New Age and paranormal topics from Yoga to reincarnation, and he was a frequent guest on national television talk shows.

Paranormal books of all sorts were frequently displayed and advertised together, UFOs next to ESP, astrology, witchcraft, and the like.

Right, ad for Bantam Books' Paranormal selections.

Fate magazine ad July 1973

A Few Close Encounters with the UFO Topic

Stearn focused on internal mysteries and didn’t write about flying saucers and aliens, however, there were a few mentions. In Stearn’s 1972 book, The Search for a Soul: Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell said that during the Biblical end of days, super intelligent space beings would arrive to destroy the earth.

Stearn lectured on Edgar Cayce at a convention focused on psychics, ESP, and faith healers, PSI ’74, in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Aug. 2, 3 and 4, 1974. Their program included a token UFO guest, billed as “Charles Hickson, UFO witness." For more on the convention, see: PSI ‘74: Psychics and the UFO Witness from Pascagoula.

Sarasota Herald Tribune, July 21, 1974

UFOs surfaced again in Stearn’s 1980 book, The Truth about Elvis (1982 retitle: Elvis: His Spiritual Journey). The back cover said that Elvis Presley, “…believed in reincarnation, astrology, and UFO's…  Here is the largely unknown story of Elvis’ relationship with Larry Geller, his spiritual mentor…” Geller said that Elvis and his father Vernon had a UFO sighting once at Graceland. It reminded Vernon that on the night Elvis was born there had been an unexplained blue glow (that seemed to herald his arrival).

Stearn attended other conferences where UFOs were in the mix, such as the Whole Earth Expo at the Pasadena Convention Center, May 13 -15, 1988. A review from Pursuit magazine:

“…with holistic health, spiritual healing, channeling, UFO contactees and cases, psychic performances, reincarnation and meditation… at least a dozen speakers or shows going on at any one time…talks by Dr. Andrija Puharich, Budd Hopkins, Tom Bearden, Whitley Strieber, Linda Goodman, Ralph Blum, Timothy Leary, Jess Stearn, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Charles Thomas Cayce, Stanton Friedman, Bill Moore, Edith Fiore, Jack Houck, Brad Steiger, etc., etc…”

Stearn kept writing through the years and was interviewed about his latest book in The Jackson Hole Guide, Sept. 12, 1990. By the 90s, many of the psychic topics he’d been written about had been rebranded as “Remote Viewing.” Stearn’s last book was published in 1998, and he died at the age of 87. His obituary appeared in the Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2002. No mention was made of the time Stearn had written a series of articles examining the topic of flying saucers from other worlds.

 

Stearn’s 1959 Story on Saucer Cultists

Back in 1959, Jess Stearn had a lot to say about UFOs. His four-part article series appeared in the New York Daily News from July 13-16, 1959. Curiously, his well-researched, far-ranging examination did not mention two extremes, Contactee George Adamski or Donald E. Keyhoe of NICAP. Filling their roles was George King of the Aetherius Society, leader of an actual flying saucer region, and for contrast, members of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York, advocating a scientific study of UFOs.

An overview of each article is provided below, including a picture of each page. Unfortunately, the photographs did not scan well, but the series also featured a great collection of pictures of saucer personalities. Readers may find better viewing of the articles collected into a PDF.

Spacenik Gold Mine in the Sky: Saucer Cults Draw Devotees and Dollars

Part one started off with a scathing skeptical tone.

“The impact of the flying saucer cult is not confined to crackpots and Mystics. It affects countless multitudes, living otherwise drab lives, who find a new interest in social status in the folderol of saucer research.”

However, Stearn pointed out there were reasonable people also interested in UFOs, like the representative of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York who said that the hoaxers and hucksters were hurting serious study. “Their only interest in saucers is what they can get out of them.”

Much of the first article dealt with Contactees who had spoken at George Van Tassel’s Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock.

Some of the views of the supposedly enlightened Contactees were racist even by 1959 standards. Backwoods Buck Nelson said, “When I was on Mars, the schools were all segregated, Negroes and white, and everybody was happy about it.” He went on to say that Jews, Negroes, and white Christians were grouped in separate areas on their planet. George Hunt Williamson claimed that Jewish leaders had formed a “Hidden Empire” of world rulers who were preventing the truth from being known about the space people.

The following people were interviewed or discussed in part one: Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York, Buck Nelson, George King, George Van Tassel, George Hunt Williamson, Howard Menger, Dan Fry, and Henry J. Taylor.

Blonde Venus in a Saucer: Some Dish

Part two focused heavily on George King of the Aetherius Society, who had been told by a voice from Venus that earth was headed destruction unless we returned to the teachings of “the Master Jesus, the Lord Buddha, Shri Krishna, etcetera" (who were all emissaries from Venus).

There was a bit on Truman Bethurum and his claim of meeting lovely space pilot Captain Aura Rhanes, and even a photo of the woman who claimed to be her. There was also a description of Buck Nelson’s saucer enterprise in the Ozarks.

Bird? Plane? Saucer? Only a Pingpong Ball

Part three had skeptic Jules St. Germain tell how he’d tricked George Van Tassel into “confirming” a hoax. It also delved into Van Tassel’s many outlandish claims -- and the fortunes he collected from donors. The saucer investment schemes of Otis T. Carr were discussed, with some input from Long John Nebel.

Sane & Some Some Still See Saucers

Part four took on a tone sympathetic to witnesses. The story of George Wilson was told, a pilot with 20 years of experience who became a witness and “believer” in UFOs as something beyond earthly technology. Stearn summarized the position of the Air Force. Isabel Davis of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York thought it was ridiculous for the Air Force to deny saucers when they had so many unexplained reports. Their policy had clashed with the reports of pilots like Peter Kilian of American Airlines, who had witnessed three bright saucers and so had 35 of his passengers.

Long John Nebel speculated that “the so-called spacemen” acted like they were working undercover, perhaps exploiting the gullible, and could be “enemy agents.”  

Stearn noted, “From believing in flying saucers, it sometimes is only a step for some saucer addicts to believe in spacemen -- a belief stemming more from their own insecurities, psychologists say, then from anything in the sky.”

The Second Life of Jess Stearn

After his examination of the flying saucers, Jess Stearn rejected the topic, concluding it was full of phonies and fakes, and insecure people who needed something to believe in. Yet somehow, he came to strongly believe in something perhaps more intangible, psychic powers. As an advocate of reincarnation, Stearn wanted no funeral; he believed he would live again. If so, he was given another chance to evaluate the case for UFOs in his next life.

Injured on the Job by a UFO

UFO news can show up in an unusual places: 

Travelers Insurance magazine, Protection, April 1957, page 17: 

IT HAD TO HAPPEN, sooner or later. It happened a few weeks ago in New Jersey, where a state Workmen's Compensation referee upheld a night watchman's claim under a Travelers policy for medical expenses attendant on the shock of seeing what he’s certain was a kind of “flying saucer.”

According to the watchman, at 3:45 A.M., while he was making his rounds on a construction project, a huge "cigar-shaped” object, "between sixty to a hundred feet long and about fifteen feet in diameter,” emitting "nauseating odors” and giving "a hiss like escaping steam,” swooped down from the sky and skimmed over the Delaware River within fifty yards of him. The experience — real or imagined — upset him thoroughly. Because, as the referee asserted, "this man thought he saw something and he took it as his duty to investigate,” the watchman's claim was allowed. He is recovering satisfactorily, saying, "It was the first time I've ever been scared. I want to forget the whole experience.”

The incident is cited in files at the Pentagon. In studying UFOs, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP) produced 38 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs). Only one explicitly referenced UFOs, the 2009 paper by Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green, “Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects On Human Biological Tissues.” Appendix B was a list of 96 historic UFO injury cases, which included:

“36 1956/10/02 NEW JERSEY, TRENTON”

The entry referred to the encounter of Harry James Sturdevant (1890-1965), who was 66 when it occurred. His story was sensationally depicted in the 1978 paperback, Ripley's Believe It or Not: Stars, Space & UFO's.

After the initial publicity, two other witnesses surfaced. They’d seen something bright in the sky, which seemed to confirm at least a portion of Sturdevant’s account.

The Herald-News (Passaic, NJ) Nov 26, 1956

The Trentonian, Nov. 27, 1956

Emil Slaboda, the primary reporter for the case, wrote a 4-page article on the story, published in Fate, June 1957, "He Collected on a Flying Saucer".

Here’s how the case was described in Flying Saucers magazine, Feb. 1961, "The Flying Saucers are Hostile," by George D. Fawcett:

Like with the above, most subsequent citations of the case failed to mention that the Workers Compensation claim was overturned on April 21, 1958.

The Canberra Times (AU) April 23, 1958

One account that got it right was Strange Effects from UFOs by Gordon Lore, 1969: 

“…about a year and a half after the sighting, the Division’s Deputy Director, Roger W. Kelly, overruled Willits, calling the encounter an ‘hallucination.’” 

Project Blue Book had no file on the encounter, just a single page that stated, “No Case, Information Only,” with a few typed lines and a clipping from Len Springfield’s saucer newsletter.

The people investigating the case felt Sturdevant was sincere, but there was never any tangible proof his discomfort was caused by an aerial phenomenon. If it was a hallucination, it was a powerful one. Not much else is documented about Harry Sturdevant. He died at the age of 75 on December 18, 1965.  

For more news items and documents on the 1956 case, see the X post by Jeff Knox: Today in UFO History -Night Watchmen Injured By Cigar Shaped Object?

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1967: Another Night Watchman

Years later, on the other side of the county there was another UFO-night watchman encounter. No injuries were involved but it involved the use of lethal force. 

In the pre-dawn hours of July 18, 1967, at Wilmington, California, security guard Jack Hill reported to the police that he’d fired shots at a UFO in an effort to bring it down. He said the bullets just bounced off of it, and he’d collected the slugs as evidence.

Long Beach Press-Telegram, July 18, 1967

The Hill case was one of those examined by the University of Colorado UFO Project, and the Condon report stated:

“A [64]-year-old security guard, on night duty at a lumber yard, reported firing six shots at a cigar-shaped UFO, and later, finding four of the flattened bullets which he said had fallen to the ground after ineffective impact with the UFO. Faced with police evidence, the guard admitted that the bullets were ones fired at a steel drum and that the ‘sighting’ of the UFO was fictitious.”

A columnist for the (Long Beach, CA) Press-Telegram, July 20, 1967, commended Jack Hill for coming clean about the hoax. “If Hill had chosen to stay with his falsely embellished story, another rather convincing UFO report would have stayed on the records to be cited with awe and head-shaking.”

. . .

Flying Saucers: Made in the USA

It’s not all Donald Keyhoe’s fault. In late 1949 “The Flying Saucers are Real” was published in True magazine, Jan. 1950, causing the topic of UFOs to be taken more seriously. There was no proof that the sightings and reports of these UFOs represented physical objects. With all the talk, many people came to believe in saucers, but couldn’t agree what they were, or where they came from. The notion that saucers came from space was catching on, but most people believed that if saucers were real, they were made on earth – probably by the USA. 

David Lawrence, publisher of U.S. News & World Report

April 3, 1950 – Conservative newsman David Lawrence shocked readers by publishing, “Flying Saucers: The Real Story,” in U.S. News & World Report, April 7, 1950. He reported that saucers were not only real, but U.S. military aircraft: “Jet-propelled disks can outfly other planes... about the only big secret left is who makes them. Evidence points to Navy experiments.”

“Flying Saucers: The Real Story,” U.S. News and World Report, April 7, 1950

The notion gained found support. Henry J. Taylor was a major newspaper and radio commentator, and (without referencing Lawrence’s article) he also made the amazing announcement that flying saucers are real - and were US military secret projects.

The editorial, “Flying Saucers,” in The Fort Collins Coloradoan, April 11, 1950, discussed Lawrence’s article and talked about distrust, “Blanket Denials… from Washington are common… The fact that the President or one of his lieutenants says something isn't so doesn't mean a thing any more.”

Showing more trust in the government was My Weekly Reader, the magazine for school children. It was an unlikely source for UFO disclosures, but columnist Tom Trott proclaimed in the issue for Sept. 18, 1950:

"I am now allowed to tell you that some flying saucers are real. They belong to our Air Force. They will someday be a big help to our country."

When confronted about the story, the editor, Eleanor M. Johnson said, the motive was “to overcome a deluge of humbuggery afloat in our land which is calculated to exploit superstition and ignorance.” The goal was to reduce “widespread hysteria” and fear among children about “tiny, big-headed men from Venus.”

People Today magazine, Sept. 10, 1952, said, “Flying Saucers are Real – Remember the A-Bomb.” The key source for the article was Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, head of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. “Sightings here and in Scandinavia lead me to believe that fireballs and the so-called saucers may be guided missiles – some possibly ours, some possibly Russian. In any case, they are Earth-born.”

Air Force Saucers

In the United Press article by Charles Corddry in The Nashville Banner, Oct. 26, 1955, Air Force Secretary Donald A. Quarles was quoted on new aircraft in development that "will be a new phenomenon in our skies and under certain conditions could give the illusion of the so-called flying saucer." He was referring to the vertical take-off and landing jets and the disc-shaped jet being developed by Avro of Canada, but the minds of some readers jumped to the conclusion that this was an Air Force cover story. One camp thought this was admission the saucers were military all along, another was that it was to distract from the real, alien flying saucers.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct 26, 1955, AP

Russian Saucers

On Oct. 2, 1957, news agencies INS and UP reported that Professor S. Zonshtein said that Russia had a disc-shaped plane that could “rise and descend vertically.”

Avro Again

Brigadier General Frank H. Britton, Director of Developments, Office of Chief of Research and Developments, U.S. Army. Gave testimony on the Avro project before the House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Astronautics, Washington, DC, April 13, 1959.

The Associated Press reported on the testimony, stating:

“The secrecy curtain was withdrawn slightly Thursday night from a hush-hush project which the Army hopes will give the United States its version of the flying saucer. Heavily censored testimony made public by the House Space Committee confirmed that the revolutionary new aircraft will resemble a saucer.”

Meanwhile, the US Army was using flying saucers as bait to entice soldiers to reenlist. The image below was used both as a poster and in print ads.

Space Age

Since 1950, the public had been told flying saucers were real, and that they might be made in the USA. In 1960, a flying saucer was curiously among the rockets and satellites depicted in the poster by Richard Amundsen, “Space Age” from Educational Posters Co.

The idea was reinforced when New York Mirror magazine, April 28, 1963 used illustration for the article, “U.S. Space Hardware - Today and Tomorrow.”

Having a flying saucer depicted among other spacecraft projects blurred the line between fact and fantasy. But it wasn’t just any saucer, it was drawn from the cover of Keyhoe’s 1950 book.

Mixed Messages

Since 1947 the  Air Force had denied flying saucers were real. They muddied the waters in 1955 by saying they were building saucer-like craft. That encouraged the belief in physical flying saucers from earth – or elsewhere. The original Avro project failed, but it eventually did produce a marginal flying saucer for the U.S. Army, the Avrocar, which was a disc-shaped hovercraft. Two vehicles were built and tested, then the project was cancelled in 1969. So was Project Blue Book. The U.S. government just wanted to forget the whole saucer business for good.

. . .

See our previous articles on the many Man-Made Flying Saucers.

For more on the Avro saucer story, see the section, “The US Preparations for Man-made Saucer” of UFO Study Programs and US Military Technology.