Speaker 1: The Blue Creature of Elkton, Michigan by UFO history buff
Speaker 1: and author Charles Lear. In nineteen fifty eight, motorists in Elkton,
Speaker 1: Michigan were alarmed by the sight of a blue creature,
Speaker 1: blinking lights and what looked to be a space helmet.
Speaker 1: Estimates of its size ranged from two feet to ten
Speaker 1: feet tall, and mothers who spotted it while looking out
Speaker 1: the windows of their homes were reportedly worried about letting
Speaker 1: their children go out at night. The police got involved
Speaker 1: after a bust of junior high school students spotted it,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't long before the mystery was solved. In
Speaker 1: the October thirty first, two thousand and eight. Here on
Speaker 1: Daily Tribune, there was an article by Tracy Weisbach headlined
Speaker 1: quote fifty years ago, little Blue Man shook up Elkton.
Speaker 1: After the introduction, in which the reader is asked to
Speaker 1: imagine driving down a country road and spotting an illuminated
Speaker 1: bluish figure moving very quickly, perhaps even dancing, Weisbach reveals
Speaker 1: that the creature was actually a young man dressed in
Speaker 1: a costume. He and two of his friends had come
Speaker 1: up with the idea and with him in costume hidden
Speaker 1: in a trunk of a car. The other two would
Speaker 1: drive around and let him out in various locations. According
Speaker 1: to Weisenbach, the three men involved were Jerry Sprague, Leroy Scheltz,
Speaker 1: and Don Weiss, who had just returned after sir irving
Speaker 1: in the military. Don Weiss was interviewed and said, we
Speaker 1: were twenty two or twenty three years old and we
Speaker 1: were looking for work. He added, we had a little
Speaker 1: extra time on our hands. According to Weiss, they got
Speaker 1: the idea from flying saucer stories going around at the time.
Speaker 1: Thinking it would be fun to have one of them
Speaker 1: dress up like an alien and bamboozle the public, they
Speaker 1: went about putting together a costume. It consisted of long underwear,
Speaker 1: Weiss's football helmet with styrofoam and blinking lights, attached gloves
Speaker 1: and metal sold German combat boots, and a sheet with
Speaker 1: two eye holes cut out and a button sewn in
Speaker 1: for a mouth. They spray painted everything blue, inspired by
Speaker 1: a song on the radio at the time by Betty
Speaker 1: Johnson called Little Blue Man. Weiss said the paint glowed
Speaker 1: a bit in the light, which added to the effect.
Speaker 1: As for the lights, Weiss explained they didn't have blinking
Speaker 1: lights back then, so we had to make the lights
Speaker 1: blink ourselves. He said. We had a battery pack attached
Speaker 1: to the costume. Sprague ended up wearing the costume because
Speaker 1: he was the only one who fit in the long underwear,
Speaker 1: which worth is. Scheltz drove and Weiss helped Sprague in
Speaker 1: and out of the trunk. They decided to go only
Speaker 1: on Thursday nights to avoid getting caught too easily. Scheltz
Speaker 1: would drive out to the county road and Weiss would
Speaker 1: let Sprague out, and Sprague would run along the fence
Speaker 1: line or along a bank or a ditch so people
Speaker 1: could see him, and then jump back in the trunk
Speaker 1: of the car. Weiss said, we wanted to let people
Speaker 1: see Jerry, and then we'd sit back to wait to
Speaker 1: see if people talked about it. He said that after
Speaker 1: three or four Thursday night excursions, people's imaginations started taking over.
Speaker 1: Weiss said that people talked of seeing a creature ten
Speaker 1: feet tall two feet tall, and one report had him
Speaker 1: sitting on top of a telephone pole. He said, my
Speaker 1: favorite was an account that said I was running faster
Speaker 1: than any human could. After eight or ten nights, the
Speaker 1: three still hadn't been caught. There were no reports to
Speaker 1: the police until one night, while the three were sitting
Speaker 1: in a restaurant, they saw a school bus full of
Speaker 1: junior high school kids drive by, returning from a roller
Speaker 1: skating party. The costume was in the trunk, and they
Speaker 1: decided to drive out ahead of the bus so Sprague
Speaker 1: could get into his bit in front of the kids.
Speaker 1: Weis said that's when all heck broke loose. Someone had
Speaker 1: called the police, and the three saw six police cars
Speaker 1: parked in front of the Elkton school. Weis said there
Speaker 1: was a little panic. He explained, I guess the school
Speaker 1: kids were genuinely scared and the parents were concerned. According
Speaker 1: to Weisenbeck, Sprague told a friend what they had been
Speaker 1: doing and the word got out. Thinking was just a
Speaker 1: matter of time before the police came for them, the
Speaker 1: three went to Michigan State Trooper William Collins and said
Speaker 1: they heard the police were looking for them. Collins then
Speaker 1: took the three to the county Sheriff's office, where they
Speaker 1: were interrogated by Sheriff Merritt McBride and prosecuting attorney James Humphrey.
Speaker 1: Weiss said they thought it was quite hilarious. According to him,
Speaker 1: they wanted to have Sprague walk around the radio station,
Speaker 1: but the three refused. They were warned then never to
Speaker 1: do it again. Weiss said. We were told to take
Speaker 1: our underwear and go home. According to Weisenbach, all that
Speaker 1: remained of the costume was a football helmet, which was
Speaker 1: on display in Weiss's barbershop in downtown Elkton. The hoax
Speaker 1: became an enduring legend, and there was even a website
Speaker 1: devoted to it with this introduction quote. In nineteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: a blue alien and terrorized Urin County, and the three
Speaker 1: young men who concocted the prank had no idea that
Speaker 1: the tale of the hoax would endure over fifty years later.
Speaker 1: My dad, Jerry Sprague, wore the suit because it was
Speaker 1: his long underwear. Please enjoy the digital collection about the
Speaker 1: Little Blue Man of Huron County unquote. The site includes
Speaker 1: a digital scrap book with articles about the case from
Speaker 1: the period. One of those appeared in the May nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight issue Life magazine, with a picture of a
Speaker 1: police officer who is about the same size as Sprague
Speaker 1: wearing the costume. As Sprague refused to wear it for
Speaker 1: any pictures. According to the article by Stacy Henson headlined
Speaker 1: quote a prank inine Hearne County, a prank and Huron
Speaker 1: County that got out of hand made national headlines fifty
Speaker 1: years ago, published on the m Live website site on
Speaker 1: October two, two thousand and two. Sprague wished to remain anonymous,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't revealed that there was one of the
Speaker 1: costumes until after his death. You can see the link
Speaker 1: to that website below. Charles Lear is the author of
Speaker 1: The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second edition on
Speaker 1: Amazon dot com. Thank you