The ‘Tex’-Files : Engine Stopping UFO - Levelland, Texas 1957

"I’ve just seen the darnedest thing." - Jose Alvarez

In the Levelland police department the phone began to ring again. Night duty officer, A.J Fowler lifted the receiver and heard a nervous but excited voice on the other end of the line.

‘I’ve just seen the darnedest thing in a field I've ever seen. It'll cut your lights out and stop your motor.'

This ‘Thing’ explained witness, Jose Alvarez, had sat just above the ground level. It was circling low over a cotton field, some four miles east of Levelland. It was close to the Lubbock highway ... then the Thing’s light went out. It just disappeared. Alvarez’s vehicle lights were back on and he was able to start the ignition.



One of, arguably, the most puzzling UFO cases in history occurred during a UFO wave in 1957 in the South West of the USA. Numerous motorists reported their vehicle engines stalling during the night of November 2nd 1957 in the area of the small town of Levelland, Texas. Their reports were of a glowing, 200 feet long, ellipsoid object or a glowing, egg-shaped object. Once the "object" had disappeared motorists were able to start their vehicles again.



It was late into the evening of November 2nd that the story begins. A series of strange sightings began around 10:30pm. Two farm workers, Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz, were travelling along Route 116 a few miles from the town when they spotted a flash of light in a field to the side of the road.

Saucedo later reported that it had risen out of the field and headed in the direction of his truck as it picked up speed. As the strange object passed over his vehicle the motor died and his headlights went out. In a state of panic Saucedo and Salaz jumped out and hit the ground. A sound like a loud rush of wind was heard and the truck could be seen rocking from the blast. In addition to that Saucedo claimed that he could feel an intense heat from the object.

His description was of an object, ‘torpedo-shaped, like a rocket’, around 200 feet in length that accelerated through the light evening mist. As the object moved away from Pedro’s truck the lights suddenly returned and illuminated the road ahead. He got back into the driver seat and was able to restart the engine. Saucedo drove to the nearest telephone box and reported the matter to the local police.

At this stage Officer A.J Fowler, the duty officer, dismissed the call believing Saucedo was intoxicated. However just an hour later another motorist, Jim Wheeler, rang in reporting a 200ft long, glowing, egg shaped craft had blocked the road in front of him some four miles east of Levelland.

"'It was just sitting there, all lit up. I've never seen anything like it at all. You get close to it and it shuts your lights off and kills your motor.

It was lit up with neon lights. The light was so brilliant no one could pick out any detail, like doors or windows. I got out of my car and it rose abruptly. At a height of about 200 feet, its lights went off. My car lights came back on. It was so bright it lighted up the whole area”

Wheeler clearly stated his engine and lights had failed during the encounter. As he watched the craft rise from the highway it made a low level pass overhead before eventually disappearing out of sight. Wheeler’s automobile lights switched back on by themselves and he was also able to restart his vehicle.

Five minutes after Wheeler’s call, another one came in from Whitharral, a town eleven miles north of Levelland. This time Jose Alvarez was reporting a glowing egg-shaped aircraft to Fowler with the same loss of power to his engine and vehicle lights.

Just after midnight, nineteen year old Newell Wright, a student at Texas Tech University, was driving down the highway in nearby Lubbock. His car engine died and the headlights faded out suddenly. He got out to check the engine and then turned his head.

" ... when his amp meter jumped to complete discharge, then back to normal . He said the car engine quit 'as if it were out of gas,' and rolled to a stop and the lights went out. ''Wright said he got out and examined under the hood of his car to check the motor, but could find nothing wrong. 'Then he turned around and saw the object in front of him, apparently in the road. • He said it looked 'like an egg, only it was flat on the bottom. ''Wright said he 'definitely saw a image, 'not just a light, but there were no port- holes, signs of propellers on the object, ... he described as not as 'bright as neon.' ''Wright said he was 'scared' and got back in the car as fast as he could, then tried to start his car. The starter made contact but wouldn't turn the motor.

There was a huge blue/green glowing object straddling the highway. It looked like it was made from aluminium to Wright. He returned to his vehicle, in an attempt to flee, but the engine would not start. After a few minutes the strange craft seemed to rise straight up into the air and then vanish from sight. Wright was able to start up the engine and sped off in a state of shock. He was nervous about reporting what he’d experienced. Being ridiculed in public was something he was very wary of. But he called in to the police.



Back in Levelland it had become a busy night for Officer A.J. Fowler.

"People elsewhere began seeing the ‘Whatnik’ in the sky. I was answering the phone as fast as I could pick it up, ' said Fowler.
"A sheriff unit, stationed at Anton, picked up the Thing in the sky east of Whitharral. Then Frank D. Williams of Kermit ran across ‘Whatnik’ four miles north of town. “He called from a pay booth, explaining it was sitting at the intersection of the highway and a dirt road.”Its light was going off and on, “he said. Every time it came on, his car lights and motor would go off. He got out of his car, then the Thing rose swiftly to about 200 feet. Its lights went out and it disappeared. “When it took off,” he said, like the others, “it sounded like thunder. " Several people who sighted it in the air said its lights would blink off and on like a sign."

The reports continued and Fowler eventually called his Sherriff, Weir Clem. Clem alerted and then picked up his deputy, Pat McCulloch. Off they went in search of this strange craft (or crafts) capable of killing the lights and engines of motor vehicles.

Around 1:30am Clem (pictured) and McCulloch also became witnesses to the strange craft. They were around 3 miles north of Levelland when both spotted an oval-shaped light appear like ‘a brilliant red sunset across the highway. Two other police officers a few miles behind Clem also reported a strange flash close to the ground.

Sheriff Clem was convinced he had seen an unidentified flying object and never changed his mind for the rest of his life.

He gave interviews to the media after the sightings: Archived interview with Weir Clem


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Clem remained fairly tight lipped in public about his sighting for years. Although after his retirement in 1975 he did briefly speak about what he’d seen despite later rumours of him being silenced by the ‘authorities’.

"The object ' was shaped like a huge football and had bright white lights. The blinding lights flashed on, it went right over the car and was gone. No living human could believe how fast it travelled. The ‘Thing’ was as bright as day; it lit up the whole area."

Whilst Clem and fellow officers were out searching for the “Watnik” reports were still filtering in from the public. Waco truck driver James D. Long was some 5 miles west of Levelland at around 1:15am on the Oklahoma Flats, farm-to-market road, heading east of town. Something up ahead in the distance attracted his attention. He quickly realized that an object of some sort was sitting there in the middle of the road.



Long stated the object was in complete darkness in the road. No lights were illuminated. As he got within 200 feet of the "Thing" though its lights suddenly went on. Long told the press, it was about 200 feet long, oval-shaped, and glowed like a neon sign. The same moment the UFO lit up, Long's truck engine quit and his headlights went out.

Long headed on foot toward the object 'blocking his way’. As he got closer the UFO ascended into the air, making a roaring sound. Long recalled that he lost consciousness briefly. The next thing he knew the UFO “...wasn't that far away, perhaps some 200 feet in the air”. Then the UFO's lights blinked out. Long jumped back into his truck and the engine started up as normal. He felt that now the UFO was some distance away that it could not affect the truck. So he raced back to Levelland to report his strange encounter to the police.

In the space of three hours, a dozen independent reports of a strange UFO had been made. All came from within a 10 mile radius of Levelland. The witnesses were not known to each other and (other than local police) were unlikely to have known about other reports until the next morning when the media became interested.


Reports from WKY News on the Levelland case (first two minutes). 


In 1957 Project Bluebook was still active. The Air Force sent a solitary officer to investigate - SSgt. Norman P. Earth. He spoke to just six of the witnesses and left within 24 hours of arriving. The Air Force then issued a press release claiming the sightings to be a weather phenomenon of electrical nature generally classified as ball lightning or St. Elmo’s fire caused by stormy conditions, mist, rain thunderstorms and lightning in the area. The mysterious electrical failures in all of the witnesses' vehicles were caused by "wet electrical circuits.”



The full set of Bluebook reports can be seen here : NICAP archive

A decade later the Condon Commission looked into the possible link to EMF and the effects on automobile engines with the assistance of the motor vehicle industry.

. ‘There have been upwards of 100 cases,’ Condon reports, ‘in which witnesses say that UFOs have stalled their cars and interfered with radios.’ In one case a UFO reportedly stopped the gasoline-powered engine of a tractor while a diesel engine nearby, which does not rely on electrical spark to burn its fuel – continued to operate. Condon has discussed these cases with Donald Hooven, a vice president of Ford motor Co. and an expert on automotive electrical systems. A preliminary finding: nothing less than an electrical force 400,000 times greater than the earth’s magnetic field will stall a car.”

Such fields, it was felt, would alter the magnetic signature of the metal bodies of automobiles in ways determinably different from those unexposed to such high kilogauss fields. They checked but found no evidence of changes. A more detailed consideration of the E.M. effects cases in the study tended to suggest’ alternative interpretations.....

Source : Newsweek 1967

NICAP sent an investigator to the scene early on Sunday November 3rd 1957. James Lee, of Abilene, tape recorded a number of interviews. Lee concluded that the events of the previous night were bonafide UFO activity.

The press quoted Lee extensively. At the time, the NICAP "experts" opinions were deemed as valid as official spokespeople for the government and military!

"'It's an amazing, fantastic story;' he said. ’Those people out there saw something. There's no question about it. It was literally something out of this world.

"Lee said he interviewed the witnesses separately and their stories all added up. "'The sheriff (Weir Clem of Levelland) told me personally that he had interviewed these people as they came in and none of them knew what the others had said. They all told the same story.'

"Lee said he considered the story told by Newell Wright Jr., a Texas Tech student, the 'most important and authentic of all.' Texan Lee said he had talked during the day with, [Donald] Keyhoe, who wanted to get a first-hand report on the matter.”


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In 2002 Donald Burleson conducted a review of the Levelland case with the intention of uncovering further evidence.Unfortunately, with it being 45 years after the events, a number of witnesses had already departed from this world (A.J Fowler and Clem) and Jim Wheeler and Frank Williams could not be tracked down. Burleson was not deterred as he had already spoken to Sherriff Weir Clem, his son Mike and Allan Haney a year earlier. Haney had known Weir Clem’s daughter at school.
Burleson had been told that the electromagnetic effects had also stalled Weir Clem’s brand new 1957 Plymouth Fury. When the mechanics checked it over they could not find any explanation for what had happened.

Haney had told Burleson that FBI and Air Force investigators were crawling all over the area in the day after the incident. Adding, that in the summer of 1957, air force radar had tracked UFOs and sent up T-38 trainers to investigate. More suspiciously, Haney claimed, that Sherriff Clem had been ‘muzzled’ by government agents and told not to talk about the ‘ball lightning’ that struck Levelland on the 2nd/3rd November 1957.

Burleson also uncovered a further witness, Carolyn Reno on his visit to Levelland. Reno told him that she was 10 years old in 1957 and her (now deceased) father , Johnny Thompson, had taken her to a location, “at the edge of town”. She recalled a pasture where there were no houses or buildings nearby. Thompson showed her a scorched spot in the prairie grass. The scorched spot itself was round/oval shaped and “at least fifteen feet across." However she could not recall exactly where the site was.

Reno’s mother confirmed the story and also narrowed the location down to a place between Levelland and Lubbock, five or six miles out on Route 114, "closer to Levelland than Lubbock."

Ginger Sims, Sherriff Weir Clem’s daughter, was also interviewed by Burleson. She was only 4 at the time of the incidents and could not be clear on dates. But she did reveal that Clem had claimed his car had stalled as he saw a cigar shaped object in the sky one night. He reported the matter to nearby Reese Air Force base who told him to keep quiet and “You’ve seen nothing, heard nothing”.
Sims also revealed that some dead cattle were reported out on Spade Ranch after the UFO was seen.
Burleson also carefully identified the various witness locations from 1957.





This case is admittedly a puzzling one. It is difficult to deny anything unusual at all was going on. Ball lightning and St. Elmo’s fire were conclusions which Project Bluebook came to. Ball lightning was not even an established phenomenon back in the day. So it seems it was an attempt to explain an unexplained phenomenon with another unexplained phenomenon to close the case down.

Many of the original witnesses could not have known about each other’s sightings unless they had all colluded on a major hoax together. Is that at all likely?

There were also numerous reports of vehicle interference by UFOs in the days that followed.


Source : The Southwestern UFO Wave of 1957 – Antonio F. Rullan

We have the multiple reports of stalled engines and dimmed vehicle lights. If it’s not a hoax then what was happening? The strange objects reported seemed to react whenever a witness approached (within 200 feet seemed to be a recurring theme). First it would illuminate the night sky and then take off and leave the area if reports are true.

Does that mean something intelligently controlled was in the skies over Texas during late 1957?

If so then does that point to it being military or extra-terrestrial?

The ‘skeptical view’ is that it was all due to a form of social hysteria after the launch of the Soviet Sputnik I & II satellites that ushered in the space age. (Sputnik II was launched at 8:30pm Central time on Nov. 2nd 1957 but remained unknown to Western media until after the Levelland sightings had been reported). People began looking up at the skies. As most of them were not schooled in astronomy they were seeing things they’d never noticed before. Although multiple vehicles engines stopping and then restarting once the UFO was “out of range” is a little more difficult to explain away.

Dr. Donald Menzel, a known UFO debunker, claimed that on November 2nd 1957 conditions were ideal for the formation of ball lightning in the Levelland area. The area had been experiencing freak weather conditions, and on the night in question the town was exposed to rain, mist, thunderstorms and lightning.

Menzel did admit that ball lightning was often short-lived and its appearance on the night of November 2nd could not be absolutely proved. But also argued that only the proponents o f flying saucers could have combined a series of trivial events into a national mystery.

Unfortunately most, if not all, of the available evidence in the case is anecdotal and frustratingly inconclusive. It all seems like an opportunity missed for those seeking hard scientific data. Project Bluebook wanted the case ‘solved’ rather than undertaking any serious investigation. So we are left with a group of stories of an unidentified object sometimes on the ground and sometimes airborne. An object that appeared to ‘kill’ the engines of vehicles within a 200 foot range and react to anyone getting within close proximity.

Was it all just a night of social hysteria linked to strange weather conditions and dodgy vehicle components as the debunkers claim?

Or is this a genuine UFO mystery?




References and Further Reading

WKY News Can #95. 1957.

Bluebook files

UFOs : A History” booklets by Loren Gross

Engine Stoppers

Texas UFO Museum & Research Library  

Ewww, cluster sightings are the best. Multiple witnesses (unknown to each other), radar confirmation (airforce scrambled jets), similar sighting details.

Interesting to note how most of the 'subjects' reported they got out of their car to check why the engine died. Really to bad we can't delve into their impressions further about 'missing time' for instance.

(imo), Its like this thing was laying wait on the side of roads, spotting people in their cars, disabling them to 'tease' them out and then abduct them, leaving them with missing memory about the experience.

Long headed on foot toward the object 'blocking his way’. As he got closer the UFO ascended into the air, making a roaring sound. Long recalled that he lost consciousness briefly. The next thing he knew the UFO “...wasn't that far away, perhaps some 200 feet in the air”. Then the UFO's lights blinked out. Long jumped back into his truck and the engine started up as normal.

(emphasis added)

a reply to: mirageman

MM Great thread subject and very intriguing series of separately located sightings (all seemingly reporting the same thing) - below is a relevant rebuttal to the USAF's 'ball lightning' explanation from atmospherical physicist Dr James E. Mcdonald.

Atmospheric physicist Dr. James McDonald completed a study and determined that there had been no storm in the area, and thus no source of excessive moisture to interfere with the automobiles' electrical systems:

"In a two-hour period near midnight, November 2-3, 1957, nine different vehicles all exhibited ignition failures, and many suffered headlight failures as objects described as about 100-200 ft long, glowing with a general reddish or bluish glow, were encountered on roads in the vicinity of the small community of Levelland, Tex.


This series of incidents became national headline news until officially explained in terms of ball lightning and wet ignitions. However, on checking weather data, I found that there were no thunderstorms anywhere close to Levelland that night, and there was no rain capable of wetting ignitions. Although I have not located any of the drivers involved, I have interviewed Sheriff Weir Clem of Levelland and a Levelland newspaperman, both of whom investigated the incidents that night. They confirmed the complete absence of rain or lightning activity. The incidents cannot be regarded as explained."

With no "severe electrical storm" to "stimulate the populace into a high level of excitement," the official explanation falls apart.

There,s also a great many other strange 'egg-shaped object with no wings, tail, or fuselage' reports from the same time listed at the thread below including a very intriguing radar/visual incident from Kirtland Air Force Base where two air tower control officers witnessed a highly unusual oval object hover and then fly across the runway on November 4th, 1957:

Kirtland Air Force Base UFO - November, 1957

Cheers.

Sounds like the foo fighters in WW2, there´ve been tellings of disrupted engine functions, although the old planes didn´t use any electronics, they used electricity to ignite the cylinders. With all the research the germans did on ball lightning and "recent" research on artifical ball lightning shows that it has to do with plasma and microwaves. Scientists have been able to produce artifical ball lightning for short periods of time. It perfectly ties into what was going on back then with radar research.

Second double post ever.

a reply to: mirageman
Marvelous manuscription and mannerisms, mirage man! You are quite the treasure to this site. You present in a highly readable format as well.

It certainly appears that there was something substantial causing an effect on the electrical components, which would suggest an electromagnetic field of sorts. This may also account for what intrptr mentioned about temporary loss of consciousness - as I understand the brain is greatly effected by electromagnetic fields as it runs by electrical impulses (is there a biologist here who can confirm this?).

It seems highly unlikely to me that something in the manner of ball lightning could keep such a perfectly consistent shape in such a period of time - this would be a half-effort debunking by people who did not care to elaborate. Which leads to my next point.

Had this been an extraterrestrial incursion one would expect the air force to be far more concerned, and Suits to be flooding the area with vigor. They seemed to give it a passing glance without much caution. Consider too that the object would lift off the moment anyone began to approach it. It certainly wanted no one to know what it was - yet it clearly wanted to be seen. Otherwise, why all the bright lights, following of cars, loud noises, and demonstrations? It could have remained unseen - remember how many did not notice it was there until it stopped their engines?

I would suggest military test, given the evidence.

a reply to: intrptr

......Interesting to note how most of the 'subjects' reported they got out of their car to check why the engine died. Really to bad we can't delve into their impressions further about 'missing time' for instance. (imo), Its like this thing was laying wait on the side of roads, spotting people in their cars, disabling them to 'tease' them out and then abduct them, leaving them with missing memory about the experience.

Only James D. Long recalled losing consciousness of the witnesses (although there were a few more than in the OP). Plus 1957 was a time when alien abduction was almost virtually unheard of.

When I say 'almost' that is because the first widely received 'abduction' case had occurred just two weeks or so before the Levelland incident. The Antônio Vilas Boas abduction
was reported to have occurred in mid-October of 1957. Although it seems it would not have been known at the time of the Levelland sightings.

Vilas Boas reported that his lights and engine died after traveling only a short distance in a tractor before his abduction occurred. Was his story true? If so is it just a coincidence or is there a link to what occurred in Levelland.

I really don't know.

a reply to: karl 12

Thanks for the info Karl. Which puts paid to the Bluebook explanation.

Sadly by 1957 Project Bluebook had ceased to look for the real truth and adopted a policy of explaining cases away as something mundane. Partly to keep costs down and partly not wanting to encourage the public to take any interest in UFOs. So it does not surprise me at all that the weather conditions were not as described in their report.

a reply to: mirageman

Vilas Boas reported that his lights and engine died after traveling only a short distance in a tractor before his abduction occurred. Was his story true? If so is it just a coincidence or is there a link to what occurred in Levelland.

I really don't know.

Interesting his case associates abduction wth the vehicle being disabled. And he remembers it.

Lots of cases similar to that.

"I was driving when I saw a light off to the side / in the distance / over head / blocking the road..." then theres this sort of 'confusion' about what happens next. I'm beginning to associate these kinds of sightings more with 'abduction' nowadays. Your thread added to this idea I been having lately.

But I don't really know either.

a reply to: SargonThrall

It certainly appears that there was something substantial causing an effect on the electrical components, which would suggest an electromagnetic field of sorts....

Vehicles stopping and lights blinking out is not always a recurring theme with UFOs. But in this case the reports were fairly consistent as soon as the vehicles got within 200 feet. It would be interesting to note if any residents in Levelland reported power failures with their domestic electricity that night?

It also seems too much of a coincidence that the engine failures occurred after sighting this object and then it lit up and flew away. It could well be military but do we know of anything today that can stop vehicles engines running and turn out their lights?

a reply to: intrptr

I'm not a great proponent of the abduction phenomenon to be honest. Especially as a lot of it seems to rely on 'hypnotism' to glean any details from said 'abductees'. But perhaps it's not something that actually goes on physically and is more of a psychological or even psychic phenomenon. Maybe something human minds have trouble interpreting. So I am not saying there is nothing to it.

There isn't really much to go on from the Levelland case and even though 1957 was the year of a huge UFO flap across the South West USA in particular I doubt there are many 'abduction' cases on record. Mainly because no one had heard of them in 1957. I could of course be wrong!

a reply to: mirageman

It could well be military but do we know of anything today that can stop vehicles engines running and turn out their lights?

Electronic systems, yes.
But in 1957 cars didn't use electronics. Points and plugs. Not sure how one would disable then re-enable them.

a reply to: Phage

Even a huge magnetic field (multi gauss) wouldn't do that. It might take presently unknown physics.

a reply to: mirageman

Agreed.

I think that on some level, that many of the people who are "abducted" are taking part in some sort of participatory process...just like people who think that they are "possessed".

It's probably a very similar physiological/psychological phenomenon.

Kev

a reply to: mirageman

Another excellent thread. I looked into this a few months ago because aspects reminded me of RFI.

I think an aspect might be KUBARK, but overall that something happened:

- With ball lights
- Near power lines
- The return of the red / orange orbs
- Electro mechanical failures.

One case this really matches up to this one, beyond RFI is PC Alan Godfrey who encountered a large UFO in the center of the road and I believe there was some sort of electrical failure.

Questions I'd like to answer:
- What of importance (nuclear / military / large water body) is near Levelland?
- Were any ufologist related to any of the experiencers?
- Any soviet / union influence in the area ?

a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Condon has discussed these cases with Donald Hooven, a vice president of Ford motor Co. and an expert on automotive electrical systems. A preliminary finding: nothing less than an electrical force 400,000 times greater than the earth’s magnetic field will stall a car.”

Interesting cases.. The above is from a link in the OP "Engine Stoppers"

Any cases of aircraft engines shutting down in flight, associated with a sighting? Libya?

a reply to: SargonThrall

The most notable example of the interference you speak of is from Michael Persinger, inventor of the God Helmet.

Try researching how repeatable this experiment was, despite widespread acceptance by the mainstream. It might surprise you. Persinger's more recent claims of telepathy do not sit with the mainstream so well.

The irony being that even a cursory investigation of the God Helmet phenomenon shows a clear variation on a theme of Robert Monroe's belief that hem sync audio could trigger out of body experiences.

You will find however, that the Aviary / SRI experiment in the 70s support both Monroe and Persinger's conclusion. So, men of Science, like Hal Puthoff, Kit Green seem to support these conclusions.

We can later find them echoed in The Condign Report.

My personal opinion is that huge magnetic fields to influence the minds of others would just as likely generate huge eddie currents in the vehicles and electrical item / overhead high voltage cables. Like an EMP pulse.

This isn't what we see. The phenomena vacates and lights switch back on. That's not damage, it's suppression.