THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
June 26, 2016
www.theparacast.com
We Explore “The Bye Bye Man” and Other Frightening Tales on The Paracast
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present Robert Damon Schneck, author of ‘The Bye Bye Man And Other Strange-But-True Tales.” From the liner notes: “Here is the authentically terrifying, true-life story recounted by historian Robert Damon Schneck in a chapter of his classic underground collection of weird Americana, which formed the basis for the major motion picture, The Bye Bye Man. The movie is set for release worldwide on December 9, 2016. The discussion also includes “The President’s Vampire,” another chapter and the original title of the book, and sidesteps into the UFO and Shaver mysteries. Caution: Due to the lurid nature of the conversation in the final two segments, we suggest you not have a meal while listening. Robert will also be featured as a special guest on the accompanying episode of After The Paracast.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on June 26: Chris takes the night off as Gene is joined by Robert Damon Schneck, author of “The Bye Bye Man." We continue the discussion begun on The Paracast in which Robert recounts the gory details of people who were beheaded by low-flying planes, serial killers, his ongoing fascination with the weird-but-true. The discussion moves to the transition of horror films to showing more blood and gore, as Robert explains how he enjoys a steady diet of such fare. Gene and Robert then focus on movie stars and star power and how people often lose their connection to real people after becoming famous.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
The Anniversary Most of You Will Overlook
By Gene Steinberg
Years ago, it was one huge deal to observe — if not honor — the first modern UFO sighting, credited to businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. As I write this article 69 years later, I wonder if it was all worth the bother.
Almost anyone interested in the subject can recall the basics, that Arnold was flying in his small private airplane when he spied nine ellipsoid objects flying in formation with a sort of skipping motion near Mount Rainier in Washington State. While the Air Force has dismissed the cause as a mirage, a key piece of evidence in its favor was Arnold’s estimate that the airships were flying at 1,200 miles per hour.
It may not seem such a big deal in 2016, but that was faster than any known aircraft was capable of at the time. Indeed, if Arnold’s guess was too high, perhaps there could have been a conventional explanation for the sighting.
The rest is the stuff of legend. The description of the objects’ skipping motion was adapted by the press and thus they became “flying saucers,” the beginnings of a modern myth in the skies.
While the publicity storm came nowhere near as quick as it might nowadays, where a major news event spreads across the world in minutes, the word got out pretty fast. Soon lots of people looked to the skies, and some were rewarded with UFO sightings of their own.
In fact, if Arnold’s sighting had been quickly brushed off before the press made a huge deal of it, or hadn’t been reported at all, one wonders how quickly the flying saucer myth would have grown.
But even though Arnold’s sighting is regarded as unexplained, although some have doubts, it is by no means the best case of its kind. It’s prominence is more a matter of timing than anything else.
Indeed, when UFO researchers focus on key cases in the 20th century, the Roswell crash is still at or near the top of the heap. This despite the fact that renewed doubts have arisen that the wreckage of an unknown aircraft — perhaps alien — was discovered in the New Mexico desert in 1947. So the credibility of some of the eyewitness reports, particularly those describing the bodies of possible ETs discovered in connection with the wreckage, has been found wanting.
As to Arnold, I wonder if he ever really overcame the consequences of accidental brush with history, or modern folklore. In 1962, he even tried his hand at politics, running for Lieutenant governor of Idaho. He lost.
While many UFO witnesses manage to return to private life, usually unscathed from their encounters, not so with Arnold. Perhaps you can blame UFO pioneer Ray Palmer for that. When Arnold’s sighting occurred, Palmer took note, got ahold of Arnold and asked him to write a first-hand report. Indeed, the very first issue of Fate magazine, which Palmer co-founded along with Curtis Fuller, contained an article from Arnold about his classic sighting.
Arnold got into deep trouble, however, when Palmer asked him to play the role of investigative reporter and check into another 1947 sighting, in Maury Island, also in Washington State.
When he got there, Arnold unexpectedly entered a strange and frightening world of conspiracies and intelligence machinations as he looked into a case involving metallic fragments said to have been dropped by a flying saucer. The story was detailed in a 1952 book co-authored by Arnold and Palmer, “The Coming of the Saucers.”
I’ll be brief about Maury Island. The intrigue Arnold confronted, however, seemed to come out of a James Bond novel. So he arrived in Tacoma, finding himself unable to locate a hotel room in which to stay. Well, except for one place that, to his surprise, already had a reservation in his name, one he did not make.
The story goes on to describe possible eavesdropping of the goings on in that hotel room. It only went downhill from there, when two military officers who came to investigate the sighting, left in an airplane with the artifacts allegedly dropped by the UFO in hand, only to die when the plane crashed.
However, the fragments were said to be nothing more than some slag ejected from a conventional aircraft.
Arnold came perilously close to disaster when, shortly after he was airborne in his little plane, the engine stalled. He managed to prevent a crash, but was clearly frightened over what happened.
The case has long been controversial. To many it was a tragic hoax, despite the curious events that impacted Arnold. Edward J. Ruppelt, who became head of the Air Force’s Project Bluebook, also concluded it was a hoax, a hoax that, in part, he appeared to attribute to Palmer, whom he referred to as a “Chicago publisher.”
I once came close to meeting Arnold. He had been scheduled to make a presentation at the 1967 National UFO Congress, sponsored by “Permanent Chairman” Jim Moseley and held in New York City. But Arnold, after agreeing to attend, begged off claiming he was moving to Australia.
Yes, it was a lame excuse, and perhaps he just didn’t want to be involved in the nuts and bolts of the UFO field.
Arnold’s brush with history was certainly accidental. But, so long as people attempt to put together a meaningful history of the origins of the flying saucer mystery, he will remain an important historical figure, at least to a small number of people.
It’s fair to say, though, that I barely observe the event nowadays. I accept Arnold’s sighting as a needed focal point with which to begin researching the enigma. But I do not believe there would have been no UFO mystery without him. After all, there were credible cases even before that famous 1947 encounter.
But maybe we wouldn’t call them flying saucers without Arnold’s telltale description of the erratic motion of those mysterious airships. Perhaps a more accurate designation would have been found. Maybe we would have called them UFOs back then and not when Ruppelt got around to applying a more credible acronym to the phenomenon. It’s also fair to say that, without the flying saucers label, the mystery might not have grabbed the public’s attention as quickly, and I cannot imagine that a movie titled “Earth Versus the UFOs” would have ever been green lit by Hollywood.
Copyright 1999-2016 The Paracast LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
June 26, 2016
www.theparacast.com
We Explore “The Bye Bye Man” and Other Frightening Tales on The Paracast
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present Robert Damon Schneck, author of ‘The Bye Bye Man And Other Strange-But-True Tales.” From the liner notes: “Here is the authentically terrifying, true-life story recounted by historian Robert Damon Schneck in a chapter of his classic underground collection of weird Americana, which formed the basis for the major motion picture, The Bye Bye Man. The movie is set for release worldwide on December 9, 2016. The discussion also includes “The President’s Vampire,” another chapter and the original title of the book, and sidesteps into the UFO and Shaver mysteries. Caution: Due to the lurid nature of the conversation in the final two segments, we suggest you not have a meal while listening. Robert will also be featured as a special guest on the accompanying episode of After The Paracast.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on June 26: Chris takes the night off as Gene is joined by Robert Damon Schneck, author of “The Bye Bye Man." We continue the discussion begun on The Paracast in which Robert recounts the gory details of people who were beheaded by low-flying planes, serial killers, his ongoing fascination with the weird-but-true. The discussion moves to the transition of horror films to showing more blood and gore, as Robert explains how he enjoys a steady diet of such fare. Gene and Robert then focus on movie stars and star power and how people often lose their connection to real people after becoming famous.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
The Anniversary Most of You Will Overlook
By Gene Steinberg
Years ago, it was one huge deal to observe — if not honor — the first modern UFO sighting, credited to businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. As I write this article 69 years later, I wonder if it was all worth the bother.
Almost anyone interested in the subject can recall the basics, that Arnold was flying in his small private airplane when he spied nine ellipsoid objects flying in formation with a sort of skipping motion near Mount Rainier in Washington State. While the Air Force has dismissed the cause as a mirage, a key piece of evidence in its favor was Arnold’s estimate that the airships were flying at 1,200 miles per hour.
It may not seem such a big deal in 2016, but that was faster than any known aircraft was capable of at the time. Indeed, if Arnold’s guess was too high, perhaps there could have been a conventional explanation for the sighting.
The rest is the stuff of legend. The description of the objects’ skipping motion was adapted by the press and thus they became “flying saucers,” the beginnings of a modern myth in the skies.
While the publicity storm came nowhere near as quick as it might nowadays, where a major news event spreads across the world in minutes, the word got out pretty fast. Soon lots of people looked to the skies, and some were rewarded with UFO sightings of their own.
In fact, if Arnold’s sighting had been quickly brushed off before the press made a huge deal of it, or hadn’t been reported at all, one wonders how quickly the flying saucer myth would have grown.
But even though Arnold’s sighting is regarded as unexplained, although some have doubts, it is by no means the best case of its kind. It’s prominence is more a matter of timing than anything else.
Indeed, when UFO researchers focus on key cases in the 20th century, the Roswell crash is still at or near the top of the heap. This despite the fact that renewed doubts have arisen that the wreckage of an unknown aircraft — perhaps alien — was discovered in the New Mexico desert in 1947. So the credibility of some of the eyewitness reports, particularly those describing the bodies of possible ETs discovered in connection with the wreckage, has been found wanting.
As to Arnold, I wonder if he ever really overcame the consequences of accidental brush with history, or modern folklore. In 1962, he even tried his hand at politics, running for Lieutenant governor of Idaho. He lost.
While many UFO witnesses manage to return to private life, usually unscathed from their encounters, not so with Arnold. Perhaps you can blame UFO pioneer Ray Palmer for that. When Arnold’s sighting occurred, Palmer took note, got ahold of Arnold and asked him to write a first-hand report. Indeed, the very first issue of Fate magazine, which Palmer co-founded along with Curtis Fuller, contained an article from Arnold about his classic sighting.
Arnold got into deep trouble, however, when Palmer asked him to play the role of investigative reporter and check into another 1947 sighting, in Maury Island, also in Washington State.
When he got there, Arnold unexpectedly entered a strange and frightening world of conspiracies and intelligence machinations as he looked into a case involving metallic fragments said to have been dropped by a flying saucer. The story was detailed in a 1952 book co-authored by Arnold and Palmer, “The Coming of the Saucers.”
I’ll be brief about Maury Island. The intrigue Arnold confronted, however, seemed to come out of a James Bond novel. So he arrived in Tacoma, finding himself unable to locate a hotel room in which to stay. Well, except for one place that, to his surprise, already had a reservation in his name, one he did not make.
The story goes on to describe possible eavesdropping of the goings on in that hotel room. It only went downhill from there, when two military officers who came to investigate the sighting, left in an airplane with the artifacts allegedly dropped by the UFO in hand, only to die when the plane crashed.
However, the fragments were said to be nothing more than some slag ejected from a conventional aircraft.
Arnold came perilously close to disaster when, shortly after he was airborne in his little plane, the engine stalled. He managed to prevent a crash, but was clearly frightened over what happened.
The case has long been controversial. To many it was a tragic hoax, despite the curious events that impacted Arnold. Edward J. Ruppelt, who became head of the Air Force’s Project Bluebook, also concluded it was a hoax, a hoax that, in part, he appeared to attribute to Palmer, whom he referred to as a “Chicago publisher.”
I once came close to meeting Arnold. He had been scheduled to make a presentation at the 1967 National UFO Congress, sponsored by “Permanent Chairman” Jim Moseley and held in New York City. But Arnold, after agreeing to attend, begged off claiming he was moving to Australia.
Yes, it was a lame excuse, and perhaps he just didn’t want to be involved in the nuts and bolts of the UFO field.
Arnold’s brush with history was certainly accidental. But, so long as people attempt to put together a meaningful history of the origins of the flying saucer mystery, he will remain an important historical figure, at least to a small number of people.
It’s fair to say, though, that I barely observe the event nowadays. I accept Arnold’s sighting as a needed focal point with which to begin researching the enigma. But I do not believe there would have been no UFO mystery without him. After all, there were credible cases even before that famous 1947 encounter.
But maybe we wouldn’t call them flying saucers without Arnold’s telltale description of the erratic motion of those mysterious airships. Perhaps a more accurate designation would have been found. Maybe we would have called them UFOs back then and not when Ruppelt got around to applying a more credible acronym to the phenomenon. It’s also fair to say that, without the flying saucers label, the mystery might not have grabbed the public’s attention as quickly, and I cannot imagine that a movie titled “Earth Versus the UFOs” would have ever been green lit by Hollywood.
Copyright 1999-2016 The Paracast LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!