A ray of morning sunlight sparkled through the window as 44 year-old, Adele Childress, sat back on the sofa. Her attractive face looked gaunt as she recalled the eerie events of the past few months. She flashed through the commonplace aspects of her life — her children, neighbors, the family pets, the harried routine of a housewife, mother, and manager of a busy home nestled in the suburbs of Saugus, California. She remembered how simple life was prior to the bizarre circumstances of her encounter with the unknown.
Author's note: The following story is one of those impossible to verify "gray areas." Over the years I've heard many accounts of government and military "cover ups" of one sort or another, and generally these lay fallow and unresolved to this day. There was some doubt about the reliability of the McBride report as originally published in a local newspaper, but the primary source here, Adel Childress, was a levelheaded, intelligent woman who had never given me any reason to question her veracity. It could be that she was the target of a rather nasty prank, though it's hard to imagine what the point would be when all the facts are taken into account. So, either the incident happened exactly as reported, or it didn't. I'll leave it to the reader to decide.
"What reason would he have for scaring me like that," she said, wringing her hands nervously. "I've known him and his wife for two years. He wouldn't have told me such a story unless there was some truth to it..." Adele Childress turned toward the window and began her story as if her worries lay suspended somewhere beyond it. She slowly retraced the events that led to a bizarre and eerie warning. This is her report:
It was in October 1974; I had just gotten my son off to school that morning when my husband. Frank, called my attention to an article in the Saugus-Newhall Signal. Under the headline "Does Bigfoot roam the Santa Clarita Valley?" was a story about two teenage boys named McBride who reported to police that they had seen a strange creature running and carrying a pig away under its ann.
I'm a member of a local club interested in reports of that kind, so I contacted the owners of the ranch where the sighting took place and went to investigate. I learned that only one of the McBride boys actually saw the creature on the grounds, while his brother glimpsed the monster as it ran off with the pig. What really interested me was that both boys said the creature had a glowing, blue belt around its waist. I mentioned the blue belt to other members of my club, but no one had heard of such a detail before — this was a new one.
After making a detailed report to nty group, I decided to issue a press statement to the Signal in the hope that someone would come forward with more information, or at least another report. Well, after the statement was printed, there was the usual amount of joking and ribbing from my neighbors, and my husband got a great kick out of calling the McBride report a bunch of hogwash! I don't know how many times I heard that pun. But my kids didn't feel that way; they claimed their friends at school -- whose parents had farms near the McBrides — told them similar stories that weren't publicized for fear of ridicule.
Anyway, several weeks after my press statement appeared in the newspaper, I received a call from some people who said they saw a UFO near a place called Texas Canyon. They described the object as disc-shaped, glowing white, and hovering silently neat the east end of the canyon. I was interested in the report since the McBride sighting was just south of that area.
One night in late November. about 11 p.m., I received a telephone call from a group of teenagers who had been driving late at night near Texas Canyon. The only way into the canyon is a passable dirt road used mainly by weekend campers. I asked them to come to the house. My husband protested, saying he didn't want the house becoming a pigpen, but 1 convinced him of the importance of talking to them.
Minutes later six of the most frightened kids I've ever seen were sitting in my living room. What they told me was that shortly after the high school football game they decided to take a short-cut home along the dirt road going through Texas Canyon. They entered the canyon at the northwest end and had traveled about three miles when they noticed a cloud of dust on the road ahead of them. Thinking it was a motorcycle or car kicking up the dust, they drove on. As they approached the spot, they were shocked by "...the weirdest-looking animals we'd ever seen..:' They described the three animals as upright, tall, and hairy with dog-like faces, human-like bodies, and glowing eyes. As they passed them, the creatures threw dirt and stones at the car and screamed in what the kids thought was "monkey chatter." Several of the witnesses said they saw more "points of light" coming down off the hill, giving them the impression that more of the creatures were approaching.
I immediately called two of my friends who showed up with several others, and a group of us ended up driving to Texas Canyon in the middle of the night. I was impressed with the sincerity of the teenagers. Their stories held together when I interviewed them separately, and there was no sign they'd been drinking or using drugs; all were clean-cut kids. My husband was equally impressed. He grabbed our trusty old shotgun and tagged along, "just in case."
When we got to the site, we stopped and searched the area on foot for any sign of what the teenagers reported. Near a clump of brush at the side of the road we found several large patches of oddly disturbed ground and small, six-inch holes here and there, but no tracks of any kind in the hard, nearly frozen ground. As we searched, there was the unmistakable odor of rotten eggs in the air. This was interesting since many reports of Bigfoot tell of just such an odor. We also noticed that large amounts of dirt and stones had been scattered across the road.
As we stood discussing the situation, one member of the group yelled out and pointed to the sky. Above us a small plane seemed to be having engine trouble. It circled several times, almost directly overhead. and its motor sputtered and seemed to stop running altogether. We heard the pilot trying to start the engine, or at least it sounded that way. Suddenly we heard a loud sound from somewhere farther down the canyon. It sounded like a helicopter but more muffled. While our attention was focused alternately on the plane above us and the sound below us, a huge, white, bright light blinked on slightly behind and above the plane. The light was silent and extremely bright. It darted quickly eastward in an incredible burst of speed and disappeared. With that the sputtering plane motor started and headed west, disappearing over the horizon with, I'm sure, a very relieved pilot. This all happened in a few minutes, and we stood there dumbfounded. My husband dropped his shotgun in the commotion and muttered something about never cracking another pig joke again. One of our group snapped a picture of the light with a Polaroid camera, but nothing came out on the film.
When the bright light took off, the helicopter sound grew louder for a moment and then stopped. Even though we couldn't see anything, we could hear the sound of rushing wind as if there were a quiet helicopter out there somewhere.
We drove back to the house, had coffee, and I had everybody fill out a report. The following day I called the local airport to find out if any pilot had reported a UFO. As usual, my inquiry was shuffled from one person to another and required more time to follow up than I had, so I decided to put it off and started my daily chores. That's when things began to happen.
Around noon I drove to the supermarket and, after parking the car and getting out, two men in a white car, a Plymouth I think, pulled up next to me. I remember them because they looked me squarely in the eyes. I immediately thought they were cops because they had that typically hard stare. I walked toward the market, and they watched me all they way. I don't consider myself unattractive, but their stares were definitely not flattering. I didn't notice them leave the car at any time.
I finished my shopping and while in the check-out line I noticed a friend of mine, Ed C. I'd met his wife at PTA meetings and knew only that he was currently, or used to be, in the Army. He was talking with another man, constantly looking at me. He waved and I waved back. As I pushed the shopping cart toward the door, Ed approached me, smiled, and introduced his friend. Ed asked me if I had a minute to talk. His tone was serious and I began to wonder what it was all about. We walked into the parking lot and he stopped me with a firm grip on my arm. I'm paraphrasing now, but this is basically what he told me.
In 1967 he had been attached to a military intelligence unit stationed in Southern California. He said his unit had been investigating UFOs for a long time, and then he asked me if I believed in UFOs. I said I had an open mind on the subject, but my group was very interested. Ed emphasized that if I told anyone what he was about to say, he would deny having said it. I felt myself getting a little angry, but I said I'd keep mum about it.
Ed went on to say that back in 1967 he had been called to a remote desert location where a UFO had crashed. Several big trucks went to the scene, including some equipped with what he called special devices. It was about then, I remember, that I noticed the two men in the Plymouth; they were practically breaking their necks watching us. I thought of asking Ed about them, but, frankly, I was speechless. In fact, my stomach was doing cart-wheels. What had I gotten myself into?
Ed explained that he wouldn't have bothered me, but that he learned through the newspaper story that I was investigating the McBride report of the blue-belted Bigfoot. It was then he felt compelled to warn me. He said that when his special unit arrived at the UFO crash site, a pungent odor permeated the air. The object itself, which he said was oblong in shape, was broken in two but apparently landed before exploding. Lying around in several places were bodies of the occupants. He described them as four of the most hideous-looking creatures you can imagine. He said they were huge, about nine feet tall, covered with fine hair, and were a perfect likeness of what has been describe as Bigfoot. The occupants' faces were hairless, Mongoloid in appearance, with flat, wide noses. The mouths, which he said seemed to be grinning in agony, showed a row of teeth with what looked like stubby fangs.
At that point I was in shock! This man, whom I'd known for two years, was telling me the craziest story I'd ever heard. Why? I thought to myself that if this were a joke, it was in damned bad taste! Ed apparently sensed my uneasiness and assured me that what he was saying was no lie. He had been in the military, that much I knew. His children went to school with my children. His wife was a kind woman with a great deal of energy and was involved in many community activities. What reason would he have for upsetting me like that? What possible reason would he have for lying to me? If his intention was to scare me, he'd succeeded!
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