Unexplained Cases: The 1976 Stanford, Kentucky Abduction

It's not completely out of the ordinary for a UFO case to make it to the silver screen, TV, or the realm of song, but this is perhaps the first abduction case I've heard of that has become a stage play.

Perhaps not as big as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nor Fire in the Sky, based on the alleged abduction of Travis Walton. Of course there was Communion by Whitley Strieber, and Night Skies, a very loose 'interpretation' of the Phoenix Lights. The stage show High Strangeness, by Elizabeth Orndorff explores the events which took place in 1976 in Stanford Kentucky which I will look at later.

This case looks at the bizarre testimony of three normal women on their way to have a friendly birthday dinner together, and the quite bizarre incident which followed this dinner.



www.ufoevidence.org...

January 6 was Mona Stafford's 36th birthday. She was joined by her best friends Louise Smith and Elaine Thomas to celebrate the event, and just have a friendly dinner together. The three good friends took their dinner plans to the Redwood restaurant, which was located south of Lancaster, Kentucky on U.S. 27, thirty-five miles from their hometown of Liberty.

As the three finished their dinner, they started what they thought would be a nice, pleasant drive back to their houses. Little did they know what lie in store for them in what would be a night they would never... could never forget.

Upon leaving the place where they had their dinner, the women came across what they described as a bright red object in the sky. Mona Stafford thought it was a an airplane on fire, but as it approached they saw it was not that. According to their tale, the object stopped a few hundred yards in front of them, an object bigger that ‘two houses’ which rocked back a forth a few times and moved off.

Perhaps at this point the women felt their unusual sighting was over, but it seems the strangeness had only just begun.

All three women would later recall the same thing. What they were looking at was an enormous, metallic, disc-shaped object with a dome on top, and a ring of red lights around its midsection. The women all saw it close enough to see a yellow, blinking However, after they had been about a quarter of a mile, a blue light appeared through the rear window of the car. At first they thought it was a highway patrol car with its lights flashing, but soon they realized that the flying object had circled around and had come up behind them. Suddenly, something wrested control of the car away from Louise Smith. The car accelerated even though Mrs. Smith took her foot off the accelerator, and the speedometer was soon on 85 mph. Mona Stafford, in the front passenger seat, tried to help Louise regain control of the car, but it was not possible.

The women began to feel a burning sensation in their eyes. The ignition lights lit up on the instrument panel, an indication that the car's engine was stalled, but they were still speeding along. They saw a wide, brightly lit road ahead of them, and then, seconds later, the scene became Highway 78 and they recognized they were on the outskirts of Hustonville, a full eight miles from where they had just been. Checking the time, they found that, incredibly, an hour and twenty minutes had passed.

Upon arriving at Loiuse Smith’s trailer the women found they all had red burn like marks on the back of their necks. Their eyes we also irritated, and Loiuse Smith reported the hands on her watch we moving at a much higher rate than normal.

Enter MUFON

Picking up the story, ufocasebook go into some details of psychological issues the women were having post sighting.

www.ufocasebook.com...

Mrs. Smith was having difficulties in performing her everyday duties as an assistant for the Casey County Extension Office. Mrs. Stafford was not only suffering from an eye inflammation, she was desperate to know what happened during the missing time. The three women were assured that they would be able to undergo regressive hypnosis, and uncover their missing time, therefore alleviating some, if not all of their emotional stress.
Several things were evident to the investigators at this first meeting. The three women witnesses were sincere about what they had experienced, they were suffering from the so-called "beam," and there were obvious physical scars from the encounter. Smith lifted her hair up, and showed a mark on the nape of her neck. It was a roundish, pinkish-gray blotch, the size of a half-dollar.

Dr J Allen Hynek, and Walter Andrus from MUFON heard of the case, found them compelling, and went to interview the women, and give them regressive hypnosis. I am personally dubious regarding the efficacy of this hypnosis, but the tale which Mrs Stafford (the only woman to initially agree to be hypnotised) tells is both strange and interesting.

In a slow, cautious manner, Stafford began to recall the events of her night of terror. She was able to relive her interpretation of seeing what she thought was an airplane crashing. She was not able to go any further at this first session, as tears rolled down her cheeks and exhaustion set in. After the session, Dr. Sprinkle stated that Stafford was still in a posthypnotic state, and that she should be questioned very carefully and cautiously.
After the first hypnosis, Black continued to ask questions of Louise and Elaine. Mona moved away from the others to rest. Another interviewer began to show Stafford some drawings of aliens.

The word, "alien" had not been mentioned in the case before this time, out of respect to the three, and also to not coach in any way. Mona sat and silently looked at the pictures, and then in a dramatic fashion, she proclaimed, "This looks like the light I saw...It was shaped like that head!" pointing to a specific alien.

Again, Mona sat for a time, thinking about that night. Then she added to her previous statement, "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."

A newspaper excerpt of the report.

continued...

Investigators kept in touch with the women, and soon tabloid style tales started to come out.

All of the women were taken aboard some type of craft, and subjected to physical examinations, sometimes harsh in nature, sometimes tortuous. There was not any sexual molestation during the abduction, but they were restrained in embarrassing, humiliating positions. Mrs. Smith would reveal that her exam took place on a table; Mrs. Thomas' was inside of a capsule with an unusual looking noose-like device around her neck, which tightened painfully if she tried to speak.

Mrs. Stafford's exam was in a chair-like device. All of the abductees recalled having their bodies scanned, and instruments used which exerted pressure on their limbs. Mrs. Thomas recalled a tube with a bullet-like tip on it, which probed her chest, and she also recalled a warm liquid being applied to her face and body. Mrs. Stafford also recalled the warm liquid.

Of course humanoid style aliens appear. I find this part of the tale less believable, particularly because of the regressive hypnosis, but for you the reader, you may feel differently.

The sessions brought out other details as well. The characteristics of the alien forms themselves seemed to be vague, and often indescribable. All three related "shadowy figures," which floated or glided by them. They also recalled the frightening "one eye" or "two eyes," which also hovered over them.

Mrs. Stafford made an unusual statement in describing an eye exam; "I could see a light at the end of a tunnel, which looked like a volcano with a jagged edge." At this point, she described great pain in her eyes, "... Just like they’ve been pulled out." Mona recalled a single bright purple eye that radiated lightning-like rays.

Elaine also joined the other two in describing the strange events. She remembered "two-eyes" from a round head in a deep darkness. One eye, she said, was a "beautiful blue," encircled by a blue membranous lid, like a turtle, and the other eye appeared dark.

Louise saw several different forms of beings during her ordeal, but she was so frightened that she closed her eyes and didn't look at them. However, some months later, she described her vision of the humanoids in similar fashion to her two friends; adding that their hands looked like jagged wing tips. It would be Elaine who recalled the most about their captors, at one point stating, "There were several small figures about 4 feet tall."

Regardless of belief about the tale, I have no reason to doubt the testimony of the women regarding the first part of their story. There was no hypnosis, and even if they did not see a UFO or alien humanoid, they definitely witnessed something which frightened them immensely, which left physical traces on the women.

Coming forward to the future, we can read about the play put on by Elizabeth Orndorff which recalls this strange story. It is not a literal tale, but a modern day version, and one I wouldn't mind watching if it was still being performed today.



www.kentucky.com...

The play does not recount the literal story of Liberty residents Mona Stafford, Elaine Thomas and Louise Smith, who said they were abducted while driving home from a late-night dinner.

In the historical account, the women — two of whom have died — reported that they had been driving on Ky. 78 when their car came under the control of outside forces. A glowing laserlike beam sucked them off the road. Then, things went blank. When the women awoke, they said, they were in their car, but all were missing about 90 minutes of their memories.

High Strangeness is about three women who go out one night and experience a frightening vision and loss of memory and time, and who end up becoming national celebrities and pariahs when their story is told in the National Enquirer. But it is set in the present day, with cellphones, computers and Papa John's pizza, and it includes other variations on the tale.

To conclude I’ll leave you with a news report about this abduction, and the accompanying stage show.

Hello old friend! Excellent tale and the definite stamp of high strangeness on this one. I'm with you on the efficacy of hypnosis point but, like you, see this one as having the hallmarks of the real thing.

a reply to: The GUT

Hi GUT, long time no see, hope you are well!

I agree, perhaps the real thing. I'm especially interested in these cases which haven't been done to death and still have a bit of mystery about them.

I always find it a bit suspect when witnesses can't describe the happenings, but come back months later with many more details. It's like they are influenced, in their curiosity to find out what happened to them, by what they've read, been told or kind of "agreed on" together, each feeding off the story of the others. I have no doubt something happened to them, but I think the details may be more their own mind filling in the blanks.

originally posted by: DAVID64
I always find it a bit suspect when witnesses can't describe the happenings, but come back months later with many more details. It's like they are influenced, in their curiosity to find out what happened to them, by what they've read, been told or kind of "agreed on" together, each feeding off the story of the others. I have no doubt something happened to them, but I think the details may be more their own mind filling in the blanks.

You fail to understand the depth of the trauma of the situation. First, the ETs have complete mind control of the subjects (as in my case). That means that they can basically block anything that they wish, erase anything that they wish and install any words, concepts or feelings that they wish. --I know to say such words to anybody not having been abducted is like trying to explain the depth of feeling of enlightenment found in a deep meditation to those that don't meditate.

It was a full ten years after my experience in 1964 that the pieces all came together for me to understand the crazy feelings I remembered about that night. I know well the intro and exit of the experience, but what exactly happened in those two hours, I can't quite allow to surface. And maybe I'm blocking myself about those details because I might not want to know them. I don't think they would be anymore helpful than know the details of my kidney operation.

a reply to: cuckooold

Wow thank you. This is new to me, and the very reason I came to find ATS.

Everyone has their own reasons. Most of which seem political. This is the real ATS and the real reason people should come to find it. Thanks again!

a reply to: cuckooold

High Strangeness indeed!! This is a new one for me to see and read about.
Thanx for the Thread on it! S+F!

Syx

a reply to: Aliensun

Just curious, where did your experience occur? I had some in the sixties in East Texas and then a few in Austin in the 80's.

And thanks OP for bringing this experience to our attention, never heard about it before.

STM

Hello Cuckooold thanks for bringing something to ATS that is one of it's core topics (IMHO). Good thread and this is a case I feel I have heard of before but can't say I recall with any great clarity.

This is from 1976. A time I always think of as the end of the innocent era of ufology. Before the mid 70s I struggle to remember any 'abduction' cases beyond the Hills Case and possibly the Villas Boas case back in the 1950s. But slowly as the 1970s drew to a close it felt like a more sinister and dark era had began.

Whether it's alien beings, something from another dimension, a strange psychological effect or even a hoax or nasty experiment, I don't know. It's dated only 2 months after the Travis Walton case. But it's also before the ubiquitous grey aliens begin to seep into the lore as well. Strange one indeed. Even though I am a fairly sceptical person I think we need to keep an open mind to stories like this one. Because, barring a hoax , something strange was going on.

a reply to: cuckooold

Fascinating case and great thread Cuckooold - also interesting to see other separately located witnesses reporting UFOs at the same time and area (much like in the Pascagoula and Alan Godfrey cases).

The book tells of several other claims by residents in the area whom Stringfield interviewed. Some are not identified, such as “Mr. and Mrs. OT,” who lived several hundred yards away from the site of the incident and described an unusual light in the sky about 11:30 the same night. The object was traveling south and shaped like a light bulb with a steady, glowing neon light.

Other witnesses

Stringfield, now deceased, wrote that as he continued to probe into the three-county area (Lincoln, Casey and Garrard), the steady flow of reports led to a continual list of residents claiming abnormal sightings at the same time that evening.

Randall Floyd lived in Morgan Manor near Stanford and was quoted as saying, “The whole neighborhood saw it.”

Other locals seeing the UFO were Mike Fitzpatrick, David Irvin and his parents. They all described seeing an object hovering over a manufacturing plant..

articles.centralkynews.com...

And

This case also had other observers of the UFO that night, independent of Stafford, Smith, and Thomas. These sightings occurred in Casey and Lincoln counties, Kentucky.

Within a couple of hundred yards of the abduction, one couple watched from the window of their home a "large, luminous object," which passed over the Stanford area. This occurred about 11:30 P.M. The couple wanted to remain anonymous.

Other observers reported also, describing a ring of "reddish orange" lights around a disc-shaped flying object. Two teenagers, out for a joy ride, stated that they chased a low-flying UFO after it had hovered over the Angel Manufacturing Plant in Stanford. They chased the strange object all the way to Danville, and there they reported the object to Police.

Another very significant report came from the owner of the property where the three women's abduction took place. The farmer stated that "down the road" from his house, he witnessed an unusually low-flying object which shot a white beam of light to the ground.

www.ufocasebook.com...

Also lots of other very freaky CE3 reports from Jan, 1976 here.

Cheers.

Living in such conflicting times with so many distractions it is incredibly refreshing to encounter a thread with content like this, it reminds me why I came to ATS the first time.

Excellent thread.

*applause*

Google Street View of the drive-in as it looks today. FWIW

a reply to: mirageman

Hey MM, thanks for popping in.

It is a very interesting case although my skepticism increases enormously as soon as regressive hypnosis is involved. I believe the sighting was real, but what follows I am less inclined to believe. As you mention, the timing is interesting, and I am generally inclined to accept a psychological rationale or some type of experiment over the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Ultimately we are never likely to know what really happened.

There was a website I remember which adopted a more skeptical tone, but agreed something had definitely happened to the women. Unfortunately I have not been able to find that site, otherwise I would have cited it in my OP.

a reply to: karl 12

Cheers Karl, thank for the info.

a reply to: ausername

Cheers, I'm trying (but not always succeeding) to avoid the toxicity of the political forums for now.

a reply to: cuckooold

No worries mate and did see some parallels with this very freaky case from Scotland in 1992 (burning eyes as well) - Kandinsky also brings up the subject of the damaged eyes of Carl Higdon (and Robert Taylor) in his thread here.


Link:

EYE AND SKIN IRRITATION IN UFO REPORTS


Cheers.

originally posted by: cuckooold


It is a very interesting case although my skepticism increases enormously as soon as regressive hypnosis is involved.

You're not alone in your thinking there mate but I think it's fair to say that sometimes it's the only recourse some people have - like the researcher in the video below mentions the witnessess often have nowhere else to turn (can't go to their MP or MD) and are genuinely baffled as to what has happened to them.

Deverow Family - A65, North Yorkshire - Jan, 2005

link

a reply to: karl 12
Great thread cuckooold


Karl 12 I too immediately drew the same parallels with the washing machine repairmen A70 case,very similar effects like the car being levitated and placed down further away.

The AUGUST 13, 1967, CRIXAS, BRAZIL, IÑACIO AND MARIA DE SOUZA case for me is one of the more "what the hell?!" cases iv'e come across and also a personal favourite. These light beam cases often used as weapons.

You did a stella job on this case mate, I mean the guys ears and nose fell off! Then his body began to resemble the look that it had been boiled in water over some time, yet he wasn’t that uncomfortable pain wise though he died shortly after the event. Though HE shot 1st before being struck by this green beam.

what the hell is going on? high strangeness indeed.just dam weird!

originally posted by: stealthyaroura
a reply to: karl 12


Karl 12 I too immediately drew the same parallels with the washing machine repairmen A70 case,very similar effects like the car being levitated and placed down further away.

There used to be a great 'Strange But True' episode (hosted by Michael Aspel) on the A70 case mate but it seems like it's now been removed from the internet - lots of similar aspects like missing time in the vehicle and also very much reminded me of Policeman Alan Godfrey's experience (EM effects also reported).





Also, when it comes to the 'levitating car' subject then this rally car incident from Ecuador in 1978 also deserves a mention.

originally posted by: stealthyaroura


The AUGUST 13, 1967, CRIXAS, BRAZIL, IÑACIO AND MARIA DE SOUZA case for me is one of the more "what the hell?!" cases iv'e come across and also a personal favourite. These light beam cases often used as weapons.

You did a stella job on this case mate, I mean the guys ears and nose fell off! Then his body began to resemble the look that it had been boiled in water over some time, yet he wasn’t that uncomfortable pain wise though he died shortly after the event. Though HE shot 1st before being struck by this green beam.

what the hell is going on? high strangeness indeed.just dam weird!

Extremely weird indeed and it states here that the victim suffered burns in six inch circles on the head and upper body and was finally diagnosed with late stage leukemia (ionizing radiation?) - he died 59 days later and his wife even burnt his bed, mattress and clothes!

When it comes to ears and noses falling off then this other Brazilian case of Joan Prestes Filho also sounds very freaky and I should have separately posted them (link).

Cheers!

a reply to: karl 12
As always TOP NOTCH MATERIAL MATE.


Never fail to deliver on the subject matter I love.
Thanks for the links mate,interesting indeed.

a reply to: stealthyaroura

Cheers bud and it truly is a fascinating subject thought Skywatcher's thread below was also relevant as it brings up some similar aspects to the Stanford case.


Article Worth Reading: "As Time Goes By: UFOs and Time Distortions"