UFO ROUNDUP Volume 9 Number 21 May 26, 2004

Editor: Joseph Trainor

SAUCER LANDS IN CUBA

On Saturday, May 8, 2004, at 10 a.m., a silver UFO landed in a farmyard in Boyeros, a suburb southeast of Havana, the capital of Cuba.

“In the surroundings of EXPOCUBA, a farmyard located in the capital city municipality of Boyeros, several persons claimed having witnessed the presence of a UFO, according to an article appearing in the local press.”

“According to the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, residents of the site witnessed the descent of an alleged UFO (unidentified flying object) on Saturday, May 8, without the claim being scientifically substantiated.”

“Witnesses claim that around 10 a.m., a small, oval- shaped vessel, silver-colored and with a metallic tail, landed in an open field surrounded by trees on the El Pedregal farm, located in the surroundings of EXPOCUBA, southeast of the city of Havana.”

“‘I was tidying the shelves when a bright light came through the window. It was like a glowing ball with a tail in its lower section. I showed it to my mother quickly and ran outside to see where it would fall,’ said Raul Beltran, 17, who claims having been at the site until the UFO took off once more.”

“‘It lifted off rather perpendicularly and then left through the palm trees. It didn’t make any noise nor issue any smoke. The only thing I’m sure of is its size; more or less the size of a pickup truck tire or thereabouts.'”

“‘When my son showed it to me, I thought it was a kite or a parachute, since skydivers drop over EXPOCUBA every so often! After, as it came down, I realized that it could be nothing of the sort, since it was smaller and glowed a lot. It looked like a mirror,’ said Odalis, Raul Beltran’s mother.”

“Remigio Sanchez, who works as a warehouseman at a school not far from where the incident occurred, claims having seen a light in the sky about the same time as the other spectators. ‘It was a powerful glow in the sky, but it was far away so I thought it was a flame. When I got to Odalis’ home–Raul’s mom–she told me that a device had landed nearby.'”

“According to the witness, and a Juventud Rebelde team who visited the site, the grass and small plants at the site where the UFO landed were somewhat burned, although it is true that the current drought at the site is causing similar things to happen at other nearby locations.”

“It has not been possible to scientifically confirm the presence of any UFO anywhere in the world. It is true that many people claim having seen one object or another, but, strangely enough, in none of these cases is any material evidence left behind that could prove the existence of strange bodies on our planet.”

(Editor’s Comment: Oh, no? What about the weird metallic fragments recovered at the site of the UFO explosion in Ubatuba, Brazil in 1962?)

“According to Oscar Alvarez Pomares, a specialist in the Science Office of the (Cuban) Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, ‘People want to believe that other beings exist in the universe, although I am not saying that what the participants of the episode saw was untrue.'”

“According to the scientist, there is an Institute for the Search of Extraterrestrial Life in the United States, although none of its specialists have been able to ascertain the presence of UFOs on Earth, despite having studied several cases in which strange vehicles have landed, according to public testimony.” (See Prensa Latina for May 18, 2004, “Havana residents claim having seen UFO.” Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Cristian Quintero de Planeta UFO para esto articulo de diarios.)

(Editor’s Comment: And welcome to UFOs of the Caribbean Week here at UFO Roundup. Last week the Caribbean region underwent an upsurge in UFO events. Read on.)

UFO CRASHES IN VENEZUELA

“An unidentified flying object crashed last Saturday, May 15, 2004, in the vicinity of the Raul Leoni Hydroelectric Station,” located in a remote jungle region of southeastern Venezuela.

The hydroelectric station is at Guri Dam, at the north end of the man-made Lago de Guri. The dam in on the Rio Caroni, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Rio Orinoco at Ciudad Bolivar.

“The accident, which occurred during the early hours of last Saturday, was witnessed by workers at the dam and took place to the northwest of that location. Stringent security measures were immediately undertaken by” soldiers of Venezuela’s Guardia Nacional, “who proceeded to cordon off the area.”

Further north, in Puerto Ordaz, residents saw low- flying black helicopters cross the overcast sky, heading south towards the dam. “The presence of U.S. personnel was also observed, a common feature in all (South American) crashes involving UFOs.”

“It must be noted that the Seismology Unit” at the university in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, “reported movement at the time of the crash, a detail reminiscent of the Roswell, New Mexico incident of (July) 1947.”

“With regard to an alien presence, no reports have been received at this time.”

“Access to the crash site has been highly complicated due to the torrential rains at the site during this time of year. (It’s the rainy season in Venezuela–J.T.)”

“However, accredited personnel of Proyecto Orion went to the site on” Wednesday, May 19, 2004 “to investigate the reported crash and to collect eyewitness testimony.” (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Cristian Quintero de Planeta UFO para esto informe.)

WHITE UFO PHOTOGRAPHED IN UBATE, COLOMBIA

“David Lopez, in spite of his long experience as a photographer, was never able to take a shot of the (Roman Catholic) Basilica Menor” of Ubate, a city in Colombia, “a municipality in which he has lived for 25 years.”

Lopez wanted to capture an image of the cathedral’s dome framed by a colorful rainbow. “It would make a lovely postcard, he thought.”

On Monday, April 26, 2004, “as though a gift from above, the multihued rainbow appeared over the church. It was Monday and the time was 5 p.m.”

“Armed with a digital camera, placed over a heavy jacket, Lopez headed towards the city’s central plaza and fired about 3 or 4 shots with flash, without sighting anything unusual occurring, until he ran into his friend, Jaime Jaramillo, who said, ‘I’ll buy one later on.'”

“The surprise came afterward. When David opened the image file in his computer, a small white dot” appeared in the scene, “just to the left of the rainbow, and then appearing on the right.”

“The dot, as he opened one file after another, acquired red and violet hues.”

“‘When I took the photos, I never saw anything like that. They were simply there on my computer screen,’ he said excitedly.”

“Lopez, who claims having seen UFOs when he worked as an air traffic controller at El Dorado” International Airport, near Bogota, the national capital, “isn’t the only one to speak of UFOs. The fact is that there are plenty of eyewitness accounts to go around.”

“Sra. Dolores Cruz, a former nurse in the municipality, claims that a few days after Lopez took the photo she saw ‘something very strange.'”

“‘On the evening of (Monday) May 3 (2004), after I’d finished praying the rosary on the terrace of my house, I saw something like a balloon about to collide with the church steeple. Then it remained still, suspended in mid- air. It passed over the Telecom tower and accelerated so much that I was no longer able to see it,’ she said.”

“Another eyewitness account came from the town notary Jorge Castellanos, who also claims having seen ‘an oval shape’ crossing the skies. Aliens? Who knows? The fact is that these towering structures, such as the demolished Twin Towers (the World Trade Center in New York City– J.T.), the Egyptian pyramids, the Greek Acropolis of the Eiffel Tower have always had tales of spaceships prowling in their vicinity…and thus, Ubate now has its own.” (See the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo for May 20, 2004, “UFO flies over Ubate; locals claim seeing strange lights constantly.” Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi para esto articulo de diario.)

LUMINOUS UFOs SEEN AT CABO ROJO, PUERTO RICO

On Wednesday, May 5, 2004, “Mr. Aguirre, a fisherman and a resident of Cabo Rojo, P.R. reported seeing ‘strange lights’ entering and leaving the sea” just offshore from the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico.

The luminous UFOs were also “seen over the cliffs near the famous Cabo Rojo lighthouse at night.”

“And now an investigation by Proyecto Argus revealed that many residents who have visited the site have experienced odd sensations and certain types of ‘paranormal energy’ as though there were something else at that location.”

The UFO group’s on-site investigation “showed evidence of what could be termed remains of spiritual or witchcraft trabajos (workings or incantations–S.C.).”

“What is worth noting out here is that many people claim having had unusual experiences in the vicinity of the (Cabo Rojo) lighthouse, giving rise to the belief that this is an area of intense paranormal activity.” (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, Jose Martinez Echevarria y Prof. Reinaldo Rios para estos informes.)

LUMINOUS UFO SIGHTED AT CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX

On Wednesday, May 19, 2004, at around 11 p.m., Leigh Harrison and her friend, Jo, were walking around the millpond at Bewbush in Crawley, West Sussex, UK when they spotted something unusual approaching from the east.

“I was walking my friend Jo home near the millpond,” Leigh reported, “As it is quite dark, no street lamps. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a light. As I looked around, I saw a perfect circle of light going fast across the sky.”

“I said to Jo, ‘What the f*** is that!?'”

“‘It’s a UFO,’ Jo replied.”

“‘Oh, my God! I’ve never seen anything like that before.'”

“Then it changed direction, moving away from us, and was gone in a second.”

Leigh described the UFO as “a clear, very bright, white light, circular in shape. There were also two aircraft in the sky about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away with red and white flashing (navigational) lights. The object we saw was nothing like this and definitely not of this world. It was 500 feet (150 meters) up and half a mile away, maybe less. I would say that the UFO was as big as a jumbo (jet), maybe larger. It was fast…a thousand miles per hour (1,600 kilometers per hour–J.T.), maybe more.” (Email Form Report)

ARIZONA MAN CAPTURES A UFO ON CAMERA

On Wednesday, May 5, 2004, Joe Moran was at the intersection of Interstate Highways I-10 and I-17 in Phoenix, Arizona, near Encanto Peak and 15th Avenue South, when he decided to shoot some photos with his Canon A80 digital camera.

“I was looking west when I took the photos,” Joe reported, “I saw the UFO at 4 p.m. It was three miles (5 kilometers) away or so. I didn’t actually see the object- -my camera caught it. I was alone when I shot the image. I did not hear any unusual noises at the time. Also, there was no loss of power in the Canon A80 or in any other battery-powered devices on my person when I shot the photo.” (Email Interview)

PHANTOM PANTHER RAIDS PENNSYLVANIA BARBECUE

“Another Cherry Ridge resident has reported an unusually large black feline in the area, far too large to be a house cat.”

“Roland Rattee called from his office in New York City Monday,” May 17, 2004, “to tell about his ‘visitor’ at his vacation home on Lake Cadjaw, Cherry Lake Township,” in northeastern Pennsylvania, “Saturday evening,” May 15, 2004. “He was entertaining a couple of friends; he was inside at the time and did not see the cat.”

“His friend, George Chaplauske of New Jersey, was out back watching the barbecue at about 8 p.m.; there was still enough light to see (clearly).”

“Suddenly, George screamed out for Roland to get outside. Thinking someone was hurt, Roland rushed out.”

“By this time, the animal was gone from view, but Mr. Chaplauske excitedly told him, this was ‘the biggest cat he had ever seen.’ He described it as ‘four feet (1.3 meters) long, two feet (0.7 meters) high and with a long tail that touched the ground, about two feet long, round and thick.'”

“The animal was completely black and definitely feline. It appeared to be stalking something; when the man yelled out, the animal ran off.”

“It was seen crossing the neighbor’s mowed lawn, about a hundred feet (30 meters) from the lake. It went in the direction of Terrace Street. They kept watch for it after that but did not see it any more.”

“Locating the Wayne Independent (newspaper’s) Web site to see if there was any news about this, Rattee saw that there have been other reports of a large black feline in the Cherry Ridge region within the past month. That’s when he decided to call the newspaper.”

“The description matches what was told by others; two who saw it along the Owego Turnpike, and one who saw such an animal in White Mills, Pa.; and a fourth person who reported seeing an animal of that description at the Holiday Mobile Home Park, Cherry Ridge, last autumn (2003).”

Wayne County, Pa. is about 15 miles (25 kilometers) east of Scranton, Pa. and about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of New York City. (See the Wayne, Pa. Independent for May 19, 2004, “Mystery cat passes up BBQ after man yells out.” Many thanks to Loren Coleman for this newspaper story.)

FUSION SCIENTIST MURDERED IN NORWICH, CONNECTICUT

“Police are investigating the killing of a New Hampshire science writer who championed cold fusion.”

“Eugene Mallove, 56, of Pembroke, N.H. died late Friday night,” May 14, 2004, “after being assaulted at a house owned by his parents” in Norwich, Conn. (population 36,117), “police said. The family rented out the house.”

“Mallove died of injuries to his head and neck, the Norwich Bulletin reported Sunday. The office of the chief state medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.”

“Mallove was discovered at the house after police received a report of an injured person. An initial investigation indicated a robbery and a fight had taken place, police said. Several unidentified items were taken, and Mallove’s minivan was missing.”

“His 1993 green Dodge Caravan was found early Saturday in an employee parking lot at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. Police are looking for anyone who saw the minivan after 7 p.m. on Friday,” May 14, 2004. It had several large bumper stickers on the back, including one advertising his magazine’s Web site: www.infinite-energy.com.”

“Mallove, who moved from Norwich to Bow, N.H. in 1987 and to Pembroke three years ago (2001) was president of the Concord, N.H.-based New Energy Institute and editor- in-chief of the magazine Infinite Energy.”

“The magazine’s managing editor, who worked with him for six years, called Mallove ‘the most caring and giving person I probably have ever known, a very successful, brilliant man.'”

“‘It’s hard not to love the thing he loves because he’s so passionate,’ Christy Frazier said, ‘He touched the lives of everybody he came in contact with.'”

“Mallove, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology” in Cambridge, Mass. “and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, was chief science writer at the M.I.T. news office until he left to champion cold fusion. He also taught science writing at M.I.T. and Boston University.”

“He was the author of several books, including one on cold fusion that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize: Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor.”

“Mallove believed the infamous Pons and Fleishmann announcement in 1989 that they created nuclear fusion by running an electrical current through a jar was not ‘voodoo science’ but a glimpse into an interesting topic worth investigating.”

“That belief was partially vindicated earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Energy ordered a panel of scientists to review existing research on cold fusion to see whether it is worth pursuing.”

“‘They are now going to do the right thing. It’s over ten years late, no doubt about that (and) should have been reviewed a long time ago…but there is a breakthrough,’ Mallove said in a recent interview with The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H.”

“‘There is a large body of positive evidence’ for low-energy nuclear reactions, he said., ‘We have measured tritium (a by-product of fusion), measured heat multiple ways…There are thousands of papers, hundreds of which are bulletproof.'”

“Mallove’s parents, Mitchell and Gladys Mallove, followed him to New Hampshire in 1988. His father died last year after a long illness, but he was still caring for his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, Frazier said.”

“He was also survived by his wife, Joanne; a daughter, Kimberlynn; a son, Ethan; and one grandson.” (See the Boston Globe for May 16, 2004, “Police investigate Norwich slaying of N.H. man.” Many thanks to Loren Coleman for this newspaper article.)

SPOTLIGHT ON VENUS

“An extremely rare event will take place on Tuesday morning, June 8 (2004), when the planet Venus can be seen passing directly between the Sun and Earth everywhere east of the Mississippi (River) and in several states west and north of the river.”

“This ‘transit of Venus,’ as the event is called, will mark the first time Venus has been seen crossing the face of the Sun since 1882.”

“When the Sun rises over the (USA’s) East Coast that morning, the transit will already be in progress. Viewed through a filter, Venus will appear as a dark spot slowly moving across the Sun’s disk. It will not be spectacular like a total eclipse, but it is a much rarer astronomic event.”

“Transits occur because the orbits of Venus and Mercury are closer to the Sun than Earth’s orbit. From time to time, they pass directly in the sight line between Earth and the Sun, and this is called a transit.”

“Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, transits 13 times each century. But there have been only six transits of Venus since the invention of the telescope almost 400 years ago. They enabled early astronomers to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the size of the Sun, and, ultimately, the scale of the solar system, giving a clearer understanding of humankind’s place in the universe.”

“Transits of Venus take place in pairs separated by eight years. After this year’s transit, a second will occur in June 2012, but it will not be visible from North America. The next transit after that won’t happen for 105 years–in 2117.”

“Compared with Mars, Earth’s other neighbor is not a very nice place. The surface temperature is 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and lava covers most of the landscape. It’s always overcast, but it never rains. The clouds are made of sulfuric acid.”

“‘When they found the sulfur, that was the nail in the coffin,’ said planetary scientist David Grinspoon. The concensus” ‘Fire and brimstone,’ he said, ‘Venus is hell.'”

“But Grinspoon, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute, has another idea.”

“Grinspoon is a leading advocate for the thesis that Venus’ battery-acid clouds might very well support microbial life–like the ‘extremophile’ microorganisms that Earth’s scientists have found thriving near volcano outflows.”

“‘There was a long history of people believing there was life on Venus,’ Grinspoon said. ‘It was about the same size as Earth. It had clouds. It was commonly believed it was tropical–wet, hot and steamy.'”

(Editor’s Note: True enough! In the 1930s, Edgar Rice Burroughs and C.L. Moore wrote science fiction stories set on a “tropical” Venus. When Mariner 2 made its flyby in 1962, your 12-year-old editor was downright crushed to discover that “my Venus”–with its unplumbed oceans, trackless rain forests, prehistoric cities, dinosaurs, eternal cloud cover, multicolored humanoids, Bronze Age warriors and princesses, and weird alien ruler, the Alendar–didn’t exist, and that the planet was just too darned hot to sustain any form of life.)

“The bloom began to fade in the late 1950s when radiation measurements suggested that Venus was hotter than tradition had taught. This view was confirmed in 1962 by Mariner 2, the first Earth spacecraft to embark on a voyage of exploration.”

“And after more than 20 subsequent flybys, Venus in a few short decades fell from its perch as the solar system’s darling to become ‘the example of how a planet couldn’t possibly have life,’ Grinspoon said.”

“But maybe it can. Scientists generally accept that Venus had large, warm liquid water oceans for at least several hundred million years, and Grinspoon said they could have lasted as long as 2 billion years.”

“At some point, however, the oceans heated up and boiled away. The result was a ‘runaway greenhouse effect,’ in which water vapor from the oceans trapped the Sun’s heat on the Venusian surface, causing the temperature to rise higher and higher as more vapor boiled off.” (See Parade for May 23, 2004, “The Hot Planet Crosses the Sun,” page 8; and the Duluth, Minn. News- Tribune for May 23, 2004, “Despite its fire and brimstone, Venus might have had life,” page 16A.)

(Editor’s Comment: Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, just why Venus’ prehistoric oceans “boiled off?” Perhaps Venus was once further away from the sun, and a rogue planet like Nibiru pushed it closer. It could be that our solar system is not quite as stable as we think it is.)

NWO MILITARY EXERCISE HELD IN RUSSIA

“The Russian and U.S. military launched an unprecedented six-day command post exercise in Moscow Monday,” May 17, 2004 “to train for coordinating joint operations in a third country. For the first time, more than 100 officers from the Russian ground forces’ Combined Arms Academy will work together with the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the U.S. Seventh Army Training Command to plan a peacekeeping and anti-terrorist operation.”

“The exercise, code-named Operation Torgau 2004, runs from Monday to Saturday,” May 22, 2004, “at the academy’s Moscow headquarters and at a (Russian) army training center in the Moscow region, where officers will practice joint reconnaissance and planning, a Russian ground forces spokesman said.”

Torgau is the German city on the river Elbe where Soviet Russian and American forces linked up in April 1945, near the end of World War II.

“According to a communique issued by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the operation is ‘designed to expand military relations between the Russian and U.S. military during work at a joint staff. The joint staff will track the interaction of Russian and American brigades during a peacekeeping mission to protect a third Allied country.”

In other New World Order news, Fort Polk in Louisiana, “the state’s largest military installation will soon get an influx of 500 more soldiers and $270 million when the Army adds a Stryker Brigade unit.”

(Editor’s Note: Stryker Brigades are fast-moving armored car units specifically designed for urban warfare. They were NOT named after Dr. William Stryker, Rumsfeld’s villainous assistant in last year’s hit sci-fi action movie X2:The X-Men United.)

“The Army plans to transform the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment into a Stryker Brigade unit. The decision means that new wheeled armored vehicles and equipment will be housed at the base.”

In 1992, former President George H.W. Bush handed over the post to the United Nations to become the UN Training Center for North America. (See the Moscow Times for May 18, 2004 and USA Today for May 21, 2004, “Across the USA: Louisiana,” page 8A. Many thanks to Jim Danvers for the Moscow article.)

WEIRDEST NEWS YET FROM FAYETTE COUNTY, PA.

“Statues depicting the Revolutionary War general for whom Fayette County (Pennsylvania) is named should be in place along every highway at the county’s borders by Memorial Day,” May 31, 2004.

“County Commissioner Joe Hardy, the multimillionaire who heads 84 Lumber, is paying $250,000 out of his own pocket for the statues of the Marquis de Lafayette at the county limits along Routes 21, 40, 51, 119 and 857.”

“‘When you come in from Washington County, when you come in from Westmoreland (County), when you come in from West Virginia, you’ll know you’re in Fayette County,’ Hardy said.”

“Since taking office in January (2004), Hardy has already spent $1 million on a revitalization plan for Uniontown (population 12,422), the county seat.”

Marie-Joseph Paul Yes Roch Gilbert du Motier, “the Marquis de Lafayette, was a French military officer who joined the American side as a major general in 1777.”

But in Arkansas, the Fayette Factor jinx proved as potent as ever when yet another mysterious fire broke out in Fayetteville (population 58,047).

“Investigators said Thursday,” May 20, 2004, “that they believe a fire at an elementary school playground in Fayetteville Wednesday evening was arson.” (See the Centre Daily Times of Centre County, Pa. for May 21, 2004. Many thanks to Loren Coleman for these reports.)

NASA UNVEILS LUNAR EXPLORATION PLAN

“Astronauts could go to the moon for as long as 90 days in the first step toward reaching President Bush’s goal of sending a man to Mars, NASA says.”

“The preliminary plans provide the first glimpse of the next possible moon mission and how NASA intends to prepare for a Mars expedition. Extended moon visits were proposed by Bush in January (2004) as a steppingstone for the more complex task of reaching Mars.”

“Bush called for Americans to revisit the moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020. No human has set foot on the moon since astronaut Eugene Cernan left in 1972.”

“NASA’s planning for another moon mission is in a very early stage, and it’s possible that the mission will never take place. Polls show that the public has not embraced Bush’s space plan, and legislators from both parties have been hesitant to allocate money for it.”

“Another possibility being considered by NASA is a seven-day stay that would test the agency’s ability to assemble spacecraft in weightlessness and land on different parts of the moon, says Michael Lembeck, a NASA official working to design a new lunar craft. Crew size could range from two to six people.”

“‘I think it’s terrific if they can pull it off,’ said Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. ‘I do think it’s doable. To think we can’t do this would be shortsighted.'”

“A 90-day mission would be far more ambitious than the Apollo moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s. Only two men at a time landed on the moon during the Apollo program, and they never stayed much more than three days.”

“The lengthy mission would allow NASA ‘to get some experience with operations at a distance for long durations,’ Lembeck says. Such experience would be vital for a Mars mission, which could last a year.”

“Power for a long stay on the moon could come from a small nuclear reactor, which NASA is also working to develop. Water and oxygen could be shipped to the lunar surface on robotic cargo carriers. But NASA officials still must figure out how to shield moon residents from space radiation.”

“NASA officials drew up the mission scenarios to help develop a crew exploration vehicle to go part of or all the way to the moon. The vehicle’s design will be determined in part by the mission’s length and the crew size.”

Projected dates for the exploration plan include:

“2008–The crew exploration vehicle, which will carry astronauts to the moon, makes its first unmanned test flight.”

“2008–Robotic craft start flying to the moon to prepare for human expeditions.”

“2014–The crew exploration vehicle makes its first manned flight.”

“2015 to 2020–Astronauts return to the moon.” (See USA Today for May 20, 2004, “Moon missions could be step to Mars,” page 3A.)

From the UFO Files…

1910: A TEENAGED TIME TRAVELER

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an enthusiastic letter-writer all throughout his life, sometimes writing to several people a day. Among his regular pen pals during the last year of his life was Willis Clark Conover Jr. (1920-1996) who was then a 15- year-old boy living in Cambridge, Maryland.

While writing his book Lovecraft At Last, decades after HPL’s death, Conover stated, “There is a paradox I can’t resolve. When our correspondence began, H.P. Lovecraft was forty-five. Today I am older than he ever was, yet he is forever the older man. He was three times my age when I knew him. I still know him, and he doesn’t change.”

“Little is left of the world I knew in 1936 and 1937. World War II has come and gone. Television, jets we take for granted. Men have walked on the moon. Men’s and women’s clothes have become interchangeable.”

“Today I’m happily married. I live in Manhattan, and I love it. I commute about fifty thousand miles per year, and I no longer exist for the newest issues of Astounding Stories and Weird Tales; the magazines themselves, as such, are gone (This was the case in 1975, when Conover’s book was written. Weird Tales, “the unique magazine,” was revived in the 1990s–J.T.) Everything is different.”

“I don’t even recognize the teenage boy I was when I wrote to Lovecraft.”

“HPL lives and speaks in his letters. I am newly affected–and as much as ever–when I read them again now, from the beginning of our correspondence to its inescapable end.”

“I don’t recognize the boy any more. I do recognize the way he felt about H.P. Lovecraft because I feel the same way today.”

“It was the boy who disappeared, not HPL.”

Conover had a dream. He wanted to create a non- profit “fan magazine” (now called fanzine) devoted to the science fiction of the period.

“My father was an Army officer,” Conover recalled,

“He expected me to become one, too. In due time I was to attend The Citadel–the Military College of South Carolina. But I had lived on enough Army posts and seen enough regimentation to know it wasn’t for me.”

“Early in life, therefore, I retreated into myself. I dreamed day and night. I sketched with pencil or pen and ink, listened to music, went to movies, read books and magazines.”

“I could read almost as soon as I could talk…As a child I lived in Oz, Barsoom and Pellucidar. Beginning in the 1930s, when I found Amazing Stories and Weird Tales at newstands, I travelled to the moon, to Mars and Venus, to the past and the future, to the fourth dimension, and into crypts and castles and haunted houses.”

“One day I received a letter from a science fiction fan in a Midwestern state. He had read one of my letters in a magazine, and he wanted to correspond. Soon I was exchanging letters with a half a dozen youngsters I’d never met. The sweetest music I heard was the morning clank of the gate in front of our house in Cambridge, Maryland, when the postman arrived and I prepared for new conversations with my unseen friends.”

“The teenager’s impulse to form a club or join a movement proved irresistible.”

So was born the Science-Fantasy Correspondent, with Willis as the editor and “a boy in New Jersey as the publisher.” He wrote to Weird Tales, got HPL’s address in Providence, R.I. and contacted him directly. Not only did HPL agree to an interview, he supplied Willis with out-of- print poems and short stories and put him in touch with other sci-fi and fantasy writers of “the Lovecraft Circle.”

Unknown to Lovecraft, however, Willis had had a few paranormal experiences. Not unlike the “Night Gaunt” episodes HPL himself had undergone in 1896.

One of these involved a space-time warp that sounds suspiciously like a modern-day Xendra (pronounced Shenn- drah–J.T.)

In November 1936, Willis wrote, “A few feet above the sidewalk across the street from my own house, there was a warp in space–the focal point of where the four ends of space meet. It resembled the navel of a seedless orange, but it was almost perfectly transparent: I could barely see it. On the sidewalk, my younger brother was walking– backwards–toward the space-warp. I realized it was a passage into another dimension or another time. In a moment my brother would fall right through it. He would disappear into another dimension. And I would follow him.”

“My mother ran out of our house and into the street, to stop my brother. ‘What is he doing?’ she yelled. I explained that we were going into a different time- dimension–adding that we had often taken long trips in space-time, through another passageway hidden in our attic.”

“Now I had gone–without my brother–through the space-warp above the sidewalk, and I was walking down High Street” in Cambridge, Maryland “in the early 1900s. I came to some sort of small restaurant or grille out over the (Choptank River’s) edge on stilts or pilings, the entrance level with the street and touching it but some ten or fifteen feet above the water.”

Willis shared this dream with HPL, who wanted to hear it all. So Willis followed up with more:

Approaching the shoreside restaurant, Willis wrote, “I asked the white-jacketed cook if he could tell me where I might find ‘young Lovecraft.’ He said Lovecraft was out on the river in his leaky rowboat, and pointed. Sure enough, there was the H.P. Lovecraft of about 1910, rowing toward a ladder hanging from the side of the restaurant down to the water’s surface. The cook told me to stick around for a moment, he’d soon have the young fellow here.”

Climbing the ladder, the 20-year-old, dark-haired, brown-eyed HPL encountered the strangely-dressed boy of 15. A boy with oddly-shaped glasses, dark hair parted on the left, a blunt nose and bright, intelligent eyes.

Willis wrote, “Young Lovecraft, a somewhat frail lad of nineteen or twenty (a pretty accurate description of HPL at that age, considering that Willis never met Lovecraft–J.T.), walked up High Street with me. We chatted quite pleasantly, despite a certain reserve on his part. He seemed astonished when I told him I had come from the future to see him, that I knew the H.P. Lovecraft of nearly thirty years ahead…”

At that, Willis woke up, only to find himself lying in his own bedroom in 1936.
What to make of such a strange dream? he wondered. And what about the alien “space-warp” floating above the sidewalk? Where had the inspiration for that come from?

(Editor’s Note: Bopping around in hyperspace was the forte of Salem witch Keziah Mason and her alien sidekick, Brown Jenkin, in HPL’s short story The Dreams in the Witch House, published in Weird Tales in 1932.)

Intrigued by the boy’s letter, Lovecraft wrote back: “Your recent dreams surely seem up to the usual standard– that one about the hidden room and the not wholly alive sleeper being a winner! You ought to make a story of that!”

Then came HPL’s astounding revelation: “I feel greatly complimented by my inclusion in the time-juggling dream, and am glad of the data on my 1910 whereabouts. I was very ill (with a bad case of the prosaic malady measles– HPL) early in 1910, and have only a hazy recollection of things for some time during that year. Now I know where I was! Undoubtedly I had gone down to the Eastern Shore (of Maryland–J.T.) to recuperate…With this memory-jogging I distinctly recall that prepossessing visitor from the future–although I’ll admit I didn’t believe that time- travelling stuff. I thought you were just spoofing. Indeed, I never thought I’d be alive as far into the fabulous future as 1936.”

“Pray accept my belated apologies for the skepticism of 1910! Incidentally, I used to do a little rowing here (on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island–J.T.) as well as in Maryland.”

Apparently, HPL’s mother, Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft, brought her ailing son to her brother Elliott Phillips’ house in Maryland, to get away from New England’s cold weather. But not until nearly the end of his life did HPL realize what had occurred that day.

Somehow Willis C. Conover Jr. had traveled back 26 years in time to make contact with HPL’s younger self.

Lovecraft died on March 15, 1937 at the age of 46. Willis Conover grew up and attended the State Teacher’s College at Salisbury, Md and became a radio announcer for WTBO in Cumberland, Md. He gradually found his way back into music and had a long career promoting jazz on the U.S. Information Agency’s Voice of America program, supporting and organizing jazz concerts and events. He wrote the book about his friendship with HPL in 1975. Retiring from VOA in 1993, he passed away three years later.

His “Lovecraft dream” remains unexplained. (See the book Lovecraft At Last by H.P. Lovecraft and Willis Conover, Cooper Square Press, New York, N.Y., 2002, pages 130 to 136, 274 and 275.)

Report from the Editor: On Sunday, May 16, 2004, I saw the preview of the new climate-change disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow. For those UFO Roundup readers who have reported experiencing “Big Wave” dreams in the past, you may want to take a Valium before you go to the theater. You’re going to see your recurrent nightmare right up there on the screen. The tidal wave scenes are awesome but also very intense and a little disturbing.

Good news for Van Helsing fans. The production company is still paying rent on the outdoor set in Prague “so they can quickly launch a sequel and–if they do–two of the new ‘classic monsters'” will be the Invisible Man and the Gill Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon. But they’d better hurry and get Hugh Jackman signed up. He starts work on X3 in a couple of months.

Well, that’s it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by “the paper that goes home- -UFO Roundup.” See you next week!

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2004 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their Web sites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list.

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