The year was 1967. I was a very busy investigator. If I had no sightings reported to me, I like other researchers, would go out and try to find them. I would travel to police stations (I still do) and to airports and give seminars in public places. Plus write articles in local newspapers. As I was known in my local town, I had that covered very much. So on the weekends I would take my wife for a ride and stop in to other places of interest to drop off ID cards etc. That particular weekend I noticed a small airstrip on the Merrimac River in Haverhill, Mass. I stopped in and there was a man in a dirty work clothes working on his boat, I told him who I was and asked him if I could leave a card. He said, sure and wanted to know if I was interested in a case that happened about a month before.
I told him "sure". So he started:
He told me that it was late at night; this was April 1967, when he heard a whirring sound outside. Thinking it might be a plane in trouble he got up to see if he could help. When he got his pants and shoes on he stepped outside. There about 50-75 feet away, was a domed shaped craft. It looked like one bowl on top of another, with a front window that wrapped around about 1/3 of the front of the craft. No real noise but a soft whirring hum.
Now he had a spot light on a pole that that over looked a small pond that was close to the runway. As he waved at it, both figures turned their heads that had nothing like he has ever seen before. He could not believe what he was seeing. He thought it was going to land! But as he waved at it, it gained altitude and took off. He told me was very shaken by this craft and occupants. The other thing he mentioned was he noticed some liquid on the ground underneath of where the craft was. The other comment he had was that as the craft took off the light he had on a pole near the runway, got extremely brighter. He did not dare to get near the liquid especially at night. I took down his name and phone number and asked if he would tell this story to another researcher. He agreed to do so.
So when I got home I called Raymond Fowler, of NICAP and told him the whole story. I told him that this was something he wanted to check out as I thought this was significant. Ray said sure. He then asked me to set up a date on a Saturday so we could spend some time going over every thing. I told Ray I would see what I could do. So I called and we got together the following Saturday. When I met Ray at his house he had another investigator with him, Walter Webb of the Hayden Planetarium in Boston!
Ray introduced me to him and we shook hands and off we went. In the car I told both of them about the case and some of the details this man told me. They both asked me questions and I did the best I could from the notes I had. In about 45 minutes we arrived. I introduced Ray and Walter to SAM (not his real name). Then I sat back and listened to these professional and quite significant UFO researchers interrogate Sam. What a job they did. From the distance to the light and to the pond and to where the craft hovered noiselessly. Both men were mesmerized by the sincerity and old Yankee way of just putting the information confidently and succinctly. No BS there.
Ray did some back ground work on Sam and found out that this man was an ex-coast guard man and was the local harbour master. His veracity was impeccable and he told both of them that there were glowing portholes on the rim as it sat in the sky motionless, before it effortlessly took off down the river.
At this point in time there were quite a few sightings in the Haverhill and surrounding areas, but this was one of the rarest sightings because an experienced observer witnessed it. Ray and Walter, plus myself, were quite non-emotionally about the event. Both Ray and Walter and myself discussed this case on the way home.
As I have been involved with Ray Fowler and gave him some other cases and helped him run down leads, it was a pleasure to know him. Walter and I never did meet again but I did have the honor of doing some investigative research for John Fuller, author of many books and articles and also the book, Incident of Exeter. He was supposed to write another book on the "65 blackout (the info I got for him was to be included in that book), but John passed away before he finished writing the book.
To watch two of the investigative reporters of the 60s, 70s and 80s work inspired me to keep on doing the investigative research that now more then ever needs more intensive study. Ray Fowler is one of the best of the best...but now he is out of it and taking life easy.
If you ever want to watch a truly great investigator of all time, Ray was up there with them.
