A not so serious Illinois newspaper claimed on February 16, 1967 that that same day in the morning near St Louis, Missouri, one Raymond Wettling was a 180 foot cigar-shaped UFO land in a field beside Interstate Highway 70, and three silver suited occupants of the craft invited him aboard for breakfast.
"He spent a pleasant hour and 45 minutes chatting with spacemen over coffee. His hosts showed him through the craft's two rooms - one lit up with bright red lights, the other decorated like a modern office. After he left the ship, he said, it took off straight up at a high rate of speed." No one else reported seeing it.
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[Ref. bh1:] ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW AND GEORGE S. HOWARD:
The authors indicate that on February 16, 1967, off the Highway 70, near St. Louis, in Missouri, in the morning, a 180-feet cigar-shaped object landed in a field.
Three beings in silver suits invited Raymond Wettling inside for breakfast. They talked over coffee for an hour and forty-five minutes.
He was given a tour of the vessel's two rooms, one engulfed in bright red light and the other looking like an office. He left the craft, and it flew away vertically very fast.
The authors indicate that the source is the Chicago-American, for February 16, 1967.
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates that near St Louis, Missouri, on February 16, 1967, in the morning, Raymond Wettling said a 180 foot cigar-shaped UFO landed in a field beside Interstate Highway 70, and three silver suited occupants of the craft invited him aboard for breakfast.
"He spent a pleasant hour and 45 minutes chatting with spacemen over coffee. His hosts showed him through the craft's two rooms - one lit up with bright red lights, the other decorated like a modern office. After he left the ship, he said, it took off straight up at a high rate of speed." No one else reported seeing it.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Humcat quoting, Newspaper source"
[Ref. dj1:] DONALD JOHNSON:
This ufologist indicates that on February 16, 1967, Raymond Wettling said that in the early morning hours a 180 foot long, cigar-shaped UFO landed in a field beside Interstate 70 near St. Louis, Missouri.
Three silver-suited occupants came out of the craft and invited him aboard for breakfast.
He said he spent a pleasant hour and 45 minutes chatting with them inside their craft, over coffee.
His hosts showed him through the craft's two rooms. One was lit up with bright red lights, the other looked like a modern office.
After he left the ship, it took off straight up at a high rate of speed.
No one else reported seeing it, but there was another UFO landing that evening near Weston, Missouri.
Donald Johnson lists sources as: Chicago American, February 17, 1967; Dennis Stamey, Flying Saucers, June 1970, p. 36; David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case 1967-18 (A0786), citing the Chicago American).
The only primary source is the newspaper Chicago's American. As a matter of fact, this newspaper was almost legendary for his lack of care for real reporting. For example, the Wikipedia entry about this newspaper in 2007 at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago's_American indicates that its journalistic invention and exaggeration "tradition was exemplified by the longtime night city editor of the American, Harry Romanoff, who could create news stories almost at will with only a telephone. Since the afternoon paper was put together the previous evening, the night city editor was the key news editor."
And:
"One night floods threatened southern Illinois, and, even worse, the American did not have a big story for the front page. Romanoff called fire departments and police stations throughout the region, posing as "Captain Parmenter of the state police" (a nonexistent individual) urging them to take action. One fire department, bemused by the call, asked what they should do. 'Ring those fire bells! Call out the people!'"
Thus, is it very possible that "Ramond Wettling" not only did not have a breakfast with coffee in an extraterrestrial spaceship, but also could have not existed at all.
Ufology should be about checking into such newspapers stories and discarding them when there is no evidence that the story is even remotely truthful, or investigate the claims of the witness if he, at least, exists.
Instead, for many factions, ufology is about using anything to defend one or the other theory.
Bartholomew and Howard are eager proponent of the theory no UFO sighting report was anything else than a hoax or a confusion ever. Thus it is no wonder that they put up a catalogue in which they gathered many "stories" of such ridiculous caliber in which cases of a more significant nature are literally drowned into the overall ridicule.
Dennis Stamey, on the contrary, was a fervent proponent of the so-called contactee Adamski, who purely and simply invented that he had been in contact with extraterrestrials that look just like us and claimed to have been invited on board their saucer for a ride in space. Thus, there is no wonder that he uses the story in attempt to show that Adamski was not the only "witness" of human-looking aliens that take people for a ride in their saucers.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Medium | April 22, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Missing the text of the original newspaper article Chicago's American for February 16, 1967. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Possible journalistic hoax.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2007 | Creation, [bh1], [ar1], [dj1]. |
| 0.2 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2007 | First published. |
