Speaker 1: My name is Bill, and the stories I'm going to
Speaker 1: relate can be considered a twofer. One is a UFO
Speaker 1: story and the other is well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to call it. I have allowed myself to think it
Speaker 1: was a screech owl or a bobcat, but my best
Speaker 1: instinct says that it was something else, maybe a bigfoot.
Speaker 1: We owned property in southwest Arkansas that has been in
Speaker 1: the family since the eighteen fifties. It was farmed until
Speaker 1: my grandfather retired around nineteen sixty eight. After his death
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two, my grandmother moved into town to
Speaker 1: be near her children, but the farmhouse and the acreage
Speaker 1: remained intact in the family. Half of the total acreage
Speaker 1: is planted with pine trees, thanks to the USDA incentives
Speaker 1: offered at the time. However, as the property is located
Speaker 1: along the Gulf Coastal Plain, which marked the edge of
Speaker 1: the Gulf Coast in prehistoric times, the sandy lone quality
Speaker 1: of the soil is unfit to grow anything but cedar trees.
Speaker 1: In fact, for many years, families from our area harvested
Speaker 1: their Christmas trees from our property. Now I say all
Speaker 1: this because I spent much of my time growing up
Speaker 1: on this land, and I know it well. Some years ago,
Speaker 1: I had decided to camp in this cedar covered area
Speaker 1: over several weeks to determine the feasibility of building an
Speaker 1: off dred cabin. The site was way off the main
Speaker 1: road and way out of sight. This event occurred on
Speaker 1: the first night that I camped there. It was in
Speaker 1: April of two thousand and sixteen. Sometime after three am.
Speaker 1: I woke for no apparent reason, and I sat up
Speaker 1: in my cot. I looked around the tent, and I
Speaker 1: saw that everything was in order, and then I heard
Speaker 1: four heavy wax or thuds on the ground very near
Speaker 1: the Imagine the sound if you hit the earth with
Speaker 1: a baseball bat as hard as you could, only it
Speaker 1: was much louder than that. Next there came a scream
Speaker 1: unlike anything I've ever heard. Not only was it so
Speaker 1: loud that it made my ear drums distort, but it
Speaker 1: generated an immediate fear in me that I can only
Speaker 1: describe as primal. It wasn't like I felt like I
Speaker 1: was in danger, but rather the scream produced an authentic
Speaker 1: fear that I have never known. I imagined a banshee mask.
Speaker 1: I made in the third grade during a study of
Speaker 1: myths and legends, The phrase she screamed like a banshee
Speaker 1: came to mind. Had I heard a banshee? Immediately after?
Speaker 1: I heard what could only be described as bipedal steps
Speaker 1: running away from the ridge, and in an effort to
Speaker 1: rationalize it all, I assumed it was a screech owl
Speaker 1: that produced the scream, and the flappings of its large
Speaker 1: wingspan was what produced the sound of rapid footsteps. But
Speaker 1: that explanation provides an no rationale for what was thumping
Speaker 1: the ground. Now, bobcats can scream, for sure, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't fit with the other things I heard. I have
Speaker 1: come to terms with the fact that whatever I experienced
Speaker 1: that night was meant to inform me that I wasn't
Speaker 1: welcome there. Now I understand territorial mentality, but that's my
Speaker 1: family's land, so if I decide to build there, we'll
Speaker 1: have to learn to coexist with whatever that thing is.
Speaker 1: I know I can gladly go the rest of my
Speaker 1: life without having to hear that scream again. Though. Next
Speaker 1: is UFO related, and it happened around the year two
Speaker 1: thousand on this same property. Like many families who share
Speaker 1: land out in the sticks. We would often gather over
Speaker 1: a weekend of fish and cook out and mow grass,
Speaker 1: or just sit around a bonfire and hang out. The
Speaker 1: farmhouse could get a little when bedtime rolled around, so
Speaker 1: my crew would pitch a large tent in the back pasture.
Speaker 1: On this night, I was snoozing inside the tent with
Speaker 1: my middle school daughter when we both awoke to a
Speaker 1: fairly loud sound. It was vaguely mechanical, like a turbocharger
Speaker 1: on a semi pulling a load up hill, but big
Speaker 1: rigs don't travel on our highway. Feeling a heavy drowsiness,
Speaker 1: I went back to sleep, but when I woke again,
Speaker 1: the sound was still there. My daughter was standing at
Speaker 1: the door of the tent and she said, Dad, you
Speaker 1: need to come see this. But I couldn't rouse myself
Speaker 1: from my cozy dream state. You fathers who have daughters
Speaker 1: will understand this. As a dad, there's absolutely nothing you
Speaker 1: won't do for your daughter. On reflection, this should have
Speaker 1: been my first indicator that something was going on. Why
Speaker 1: did I not get up out of that sleeping bag
Speaker 1: and go look at what my daughter wanted me to see?
Speaker 1: It almost felt like the twilight sensation during an anesthesia procedure,
Speaker 1: just before the doctor tells you to count backwards from
Speaker 1: one hundred. When I woke the next morning, my daughter
Speaker 1: was safely tucked inside her sleeping bag. All was well
Speaker 1: with the world. But later that day she said, Dad,
Speaker 1: you really should have seen that thing over the pond
Speaker 1: last night. Well what did you see? I asked her.
Speaker 1: My daughter is very observational and painted a vivid picture
Speaker 1: of what drew her attention while I was dead to
Speaker 1: the world. The sound we heard was coming from this
Speaker 1: thing that was really moving slowly over our pond at
Speaker 1: about treetop level. She said. I couldn't really make out
Speaker 1: the shape of it, but it had two big red
Speaker 1: round lights at the back of it. It moved over
Speaker 1: the pond and kept going toward the north over the highway.
Speaker 1: As a point of reference, the pine is fifty yards
Speaker 1: from the farmhouse and where we were sleeping that night.
Speaker 1: Wondered if that sound we heard had the hypnotic effect
Speaker 1: of neutralizing me, Yet it didn't seem to affect my
Speaker 1: daughter in the same way. I've heard of abduction stories,
Speaker 1: but she had no recollection of anything other than watching
Speaker 1: the craft ease its way to the north. She remembers
Speaker 1: getting back in her sleeping bag and dozing off, but
Speaker 1: no one in the house heard or saw anything unusual. Well,
Speaker 1: those are my stories, and they're probably too long to use,
Speaker 1: but I feel better for having written them down while
Speaker 1: the details are still fresh in my mind. And I
Speaker 1: think it's important to share our experiences in a safe environment.
Speaker 1: It's not only therapeutic, but it builds a community that
Speaker 1: we all desperately need during these strange times. I live
Speaker 1: in the mid South, in a suburban neighborhood close to
Speaker 1: metropolitan Memphis. I went to school in Oxford, Mississippi at
Speaker 1: ol Miss and I married a Mississippi girl I met
Speaker 1: on campus. Life has been generous to us over the years.
Speaker 1: We are now in our seventies and we both have
Speaker 1: good health. We raised a family and all of our
Speaker 1: children have done well, and we are fortunate to have
Speaker 1: a lot of grandchildren who visit often. But there was
Speaker 1: one incident that changed our lives forever. Neither my wife
Speaker 1: nor myself have ever told this to anyone before I die,
Speaker 1: and the story is lost forever. It needs to be told.
Speaker 1: Every word I'm about to write is true. My wife
Speaker 1: and I graduated in the spring of nineteen sixty five
Speaker 1: and were married soon after. I landed a job back
Speaker 1: in my hometown of Memphis, and we rented a small
Speaker 1: duplex in the Berclaire area. I was making a decent living,
Speaker 1: my wife was making new friends in her new city.
Speaker 1: Things were great, and the sky was the limit as
Speaker 1: far as we could see. By nineteen sixty nine, we
Speaker 1: had two children, two of the most beautiful little girls
Speaker 1: God ever created. They were my life and I spent
Speaker 1: every waking minute with them. My wife's family lived in Smithville, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: and she would travel there with the children on occasion,
Speaker 1: sometimes staying two weeks at a time. I was happy
Speaker 1: she was close enough to her family that she could,
Speaker 1: in just a short trip, be back in her hometown
Speaker 1: to visit and stay. It certainly helped whenever she was homesick.
Speaker 1: Her parents loved the children as much as we did. Usually,
Speaker 1: on the last weekend of her stay, I would drive
Speaker 1: down after work on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend
Speaker 1: with all of them. On Sunday afternoon, we would return
Speaker 1: home in two cars. I must interject that in those days,
Speaker 1: it was unusual for a young family to have two cars.
Speaker 1: Our family car was a gift from my father in
Speaker 1: law to us on our wedding Dad, and the car
Speaker 1: I drove was a company car my employer allowed me
Speaker 1: to use as long as I compensated them for the
Speaker 1: mileage I put on the vehicle. My company car was
Speaker 1: usually packed with items for my job, so the girls
Speaker 1: always rode home with my wife, with me right in
Speaker 1: front of them or behind them all the way home.
Speaker 1: On a spring night in nineteen seventy one, we were
Speaker 1: leaving Smithville after spending the Easter weekend with my in laws.
Speaker 1: The weather had been good all weekend, but on Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 1: one of those violent fronts began to roll through the
Speaker 1: midst south just as we left for home. It would
Speaker 1: be a rough drive back to Memphis on a stormy night.
Speaker 1: We pulled out of the drive around five pm, not
Speaker 1: knowing the storms were so close. The first four or
Speaker 1: five miles down the gravel road were pleasant. The sun
Speaker 1: was beginning to set in the west. I could see
Speaker 1: those ominous purple storm clouds moving toward towards us quickly,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think too much of it. My wife
Speaker 1: is still a good driver today, and I knew my
Speaker 1: girls were in good hands. Before the rain began to fall,
Speaker 1: the wind picked up quickly. There was a steady blow
Speaker 1: with violent gusts often. It was not long before I
Speaker 1: suspected this system could produce tornadoes. My wife was a
Speaker 1: quarter mile ahead of me and I could not see
Speaker 1: her tail lights. She was creeping along the gravel road
Speaker 1: with her vision obscured. As the sheets of rain pelted
Speaker 1: the windshield. The wipers were not keeping up. She considered
Speaker 1: stopping and waiting the rain out, but making it to
Speaker 1: the main highway was her goal and would have given
Speaker 1: her a bit of confidence feeling the smooth black top
Speaker 1: surface under her tires, so she continued on. Normally, at
Speaker 1: this time of day, there would have been a hint
Speaker 1: of light in the western horizon, but the storm clouds
Speaker 1: in the thick forest lining the road blocked any light.
Speaker 1: My wife was struggling and certainly scared for her children.
Speaker 1: I could still not see her tail lights, which in
Speaker 1: my view was a good thing. That meant she was
Speaker 1: still moving ahead. My right rear tire went flat. I
Speaker 1: had flats on this car and was quick at making
Speaker 1: a change, but of all days to have a flat,
Speaker 1: it had to happen on this night with no rain gear.
Speaker 1: I quickly jumped back to the trunk and extracted the flashlight,
Speaker 1: the jack, and the spare, and went quickly to work
Speaker 1: in the freezing rain. In another circumstance, I would have
Speaker 1: waited for the rain to ease up a bit, but
Speaker 1: I needed to catch back up with my wife if
Speaker 1: that was even possible. I went to work raising the
Speaker 1: rear end of the car. Approximately one mile ahead. My
Speaker 1: wife entered the worst of the storm. To this day,
Speaker 1: we believe a small tornado touched down a short distance
Speaker 1: away from her and then moved directly over her car,
Speaker 1: but the weather service back then had no way to
Speaker 1: confirm this. In those days, a tornado was confirmed after
Speaker 1: the storm had passed and damage was assessed. There were
Speaker 1: no warnings. She was only three miles from the main
Speaker 1: highway when the rain stopped abruptly. Naturally. She thought she
Speaker 1: had made it through the storm, but within a few
Speaker 1: seconds her car was hammered by large hail. The front
Speaker 1: windshield was laying in her lap and all over my
Speaker 1: three year old daughter, in chunks and in slivers. The
Speaker 1: wind was blowing straight into what was once a solid windshield.
Speaker 1: And then the wind picked up. Immediately, the trees on
Speaker 1: her left were breaking loose at the trunks and blowing
Speaker 1: across the gravel road in front of her. She mashed
Speaker 1: her brakes and was coming to a stop when a
Speaker 1: tree hit the car's left side, violently throwing the car
Speaker 1: into a deep ditch on the right side of the road.
Speaker 1: Due to the spring rains and the rain that had
Speaker 1: fallen that afternoon, the ditch was full of water. When
Speaker 1: the car finally stopped moving, my wife was on her
Speaker 1: right side against the right passenger door, crushing my three
Speaker 1: year old little girl, and they were both underwater. I
Speaker 1: heard the roar of that wind ahead of me. I
Speaker 1: was tightening down the first lug and I picked up
Speaker 1: the pace even more. Finally, the tire was secure, and
Speaker 1: I ran back to the driver's side door, leaving the
Speaker 1: old tire and jack laying in the middle of the road.
Speaker 1: My tires dug into the gravel and I was in motion,
Speaker 1: working my way through the gears as fast as possible,
Speaker 1: and I gained speed. I have no idea how fast
Speaker 1: I was going. When I hit the first tree that
Speaker 1: had been blown across the road. My body slammed into
Speaker 1: the steering wheel as the car lurched up over a
Speaker 1: large pine tree. When I came to a stop, I
Speaker 1: could not see anything through the windshield. It was covered
Speaker 1: with pine needles, and the rain fell in thick white sheets.
Speaker 1: I gathered my wits about me and threw the car
Speaker 1: in reverse to try and get off of the tree.
Speaker 1: The car would not budge. I kept on the gas,
Speaker 1: hoping my rear tires would grip something and free me
Speaker 1: from this tree. But it was no use. I got
Speaker 1: out of the car and jumped three feet to the
Speaker 1: ground through the mass of pine tree limbs. The car
Speaker 1: was off the ground, with the rear tires barely touching
Speaker 1: the gravel. I needed weight on the back of the car,
Speaker 1: but where would I get it, and there was nothing
Speaker 1: I could do. I was filled with rage. My three
Speaker 1: girls were in trouble and I could not get to them.
Speaker 1: My wife suddenly realized what was happening. She had raised
Speaker 1: her head above the water and caught a breath of air.
Speaker 1: She was alive, and her thoughts became clear and sharp.
Speaker 1: Mothers are that way when their children are in danger.
Speaker 1: There is something primal, almost animal like, that comes over
Speaker 1: a mother of any species that causes her to become
Speaker 1: crafty and clever in the most extreme conditions in order
Speaker 1: to do anything required to keep her children safe. My
Speaker 1: wife could feel our daughter under her, kicking and clawing
Speaker 1: for air. She had reached below her and pulled her
Speaker 1: daughter to freedom beside her. Suddenly able to take in air,
Speaker 1: our daughter began to cough and spit water she had
Speaker 1: swallowed and inhaled. It is not like the movies when
Speaker 1: a drowning person is pulled from the water and someone
Speaker 1: does chest compressions causing the victim to spit water up,
Speaker 1: and then the victim smiles and all is good. Know,
Speaker 1: when a human inhales water, it is very painful. Even
Speaker 1: more painful for the body to expel all the water
Speaker 1: from their lungs and throat. It takes a long time
Speaker 1: before they can fully breathe again. So our daughter suffered
Speaker 1: through the agony of expelling muddy ditch water from her
Speaker 1: lungs for days after this event. But as she coughed
Speaker 1: and vomited, my wife pushed her towards the driver's side door,
Speaker 1: which was above them. Now she reached to roll the
Speaker 1: window down successfully and finally sent our daughter into the
Speaker 1: falling rain outside, where she held on to the window
Speaker 1: edge to keep from sliding off into the ditch again.
Speaker 1: But there was another child in the back seat who
Speaker 1: had been asleep. It was our nine month old little girl.
Speaker 1: She had been laying in a baby seat in the
Speaker 1: middle of the bench back seat. My wife looked over
Speaker 1: into the back seat and saw her feet kicking, making
Speaker 1: small splashes in the water that filled the right side
Speaker 1: of the car. Still today, my wife has nightmares of
Speaker 1: those tiny feet wiggling in the water back at my car.
Speaker 1: My rage heightened at my predicament. In a fit, I
Speaker 1: jumped back onto the threshold of the door and climbed
Speaker 1: over onto the hood of the car, hoping to look
Speaker 1: ahead and see my wife's car. But the rain continued
Speaker 1: to fall. I did not see any other trees ahead
Speaker 1: of me. I knew if I could just get free
Speaker 1: from this tree and get past it, I might have
Speaker 1: a chance to keep moving. I began to curse and
Speaker 1: jump on the hood of the car. I was very
Speaker 1: angry to be stuck here. I noticed the front of
Speaker 1: the car began to rock forward, and I kept jumping,
Speaker 1: causing the car to tilt or see saw back and forth.
Speaker 1: Then a loud pop, and the car settled onto the tree.
Speaker 1: A branch had broken, and the car fell some distance.
Speaker 1: I jumped back off and saw that the rear tires
Speaker 1: were now firmly on solid gravel. I started the car,
Speaker 1: and this time I put the car in forward gear
Speaker 1: and mashed the accelerator to the floor. The car lurched
Speaker 1: forward a foot or two, and then it stopped. I
Speaker 1: punched the gas again, and I was moving inch by inch.
Speaker 1: Please keep moving, Please keep moving, I whispered to myself,
Speaker 1: over and over until I was free of the tree
Speaker 1: and rolling down the road again. My wife tried to
Speaker 1: crawl back into the back seat to save our baby,
Speaker 1: but she could not get over the seat. The muddy
Speaker 1: water made the vinyl seat cover slippery, and she was
Speaker 1: in a bad position to work her body over the seat.
Speaker 1: She reached and could feel our daughter's sock covered foot,
Speaker 1: but could not pull her free because she was strapped
Speaker 1: into the baby seat, which was loosely held in place
Speaker 1: by the old seat belts of those days. She began
Speaker 1: to panic and screamed at the top of her loans
Speaker 1: as she cried out to God to help her save
Speaker 1: her baby. The car moved. In her panic and agony,
Speaker 1: my wife felt the car move, then move again. She
Speaker 1: looked up at our oldest holding on to the car door,
Speaker 1: and saw her looking towards the back of the car.
Speaker 1: She had stopped coughing and her eyes were wide open,
Speaker 1: almost in a trance. As my wife looked upwards through
Speaker 1: the driver's word, a large, dark figure hovered above our oldest.
Speaker 1: Oh God, what now, my wife thought, and my oldest
Speaker 1: disappeared from view. Within seconds, a large hand reached into
Speaker 1: the driver's window and wrenched onto my wife's shoulder. She
Speaker 1: remembers it being very painful. She was lifted out of
Speaker 1: the car and gently set onto the muddy gravel on
Speaker 1: the road. It was a huge beet standing in front
Speaker 1: of and over the two women. Astonished at what she
Speaker 1: was looking at, and at a loss for words, she
Speaker 1: remembered our youngest and screamed at the creature that there
Speaker 1: was another child in the car. The creature cocked its
Speaker 1: head like a dog does when it hears a strange sound.
Speaker 1: My wife got up and ran towards the car, pointing
Speaker 1: at the back seat window. She then ran off down
Speaker 1: into the water and began to claw at the undercarriage
Speaker 1: of the car, grabbing mufflers, exhaust pipes, anything she could
Speaker 1: reach to get up to the side of the car.
Speaker 1: She fell back into the water, came back up on
Speaker 1: her feet, and tried again. She could not climb to
Speaker 1: gain access to her baby. I was moving at at
Speaker 1: least sixty miles per hour when in my headlights I
Speaker 1: saw a car lying on its side in the ditch.
Speaker 1: I could see figures standing on the road next to
Speaker 1: the car. Oh God, let it be someone else, I
Speaker 1: whispered to myself. The rain fell straight down, the wind
Speaker 1: was gone. I punched the gas pedal, and then I
Speaker 1: saw a large figure in the distance jump onto the
Speaker 1: side of the car. The car sank deeper into the
Speaker 1: ditch from the weight of this thing. I was closer
Speaker 1: now and I could see clearly what was happening. I slowed.
Speaker 1: The dark figure lifted its leg and broke the glass
Speaker 1: of the window. It laid flat on the side of
Speaker 1: the car and was fishing with its arm for something
Speaker 1: in the back seat. I could see my oldest daughter now,
Speaker 1: and this confirmed my worst nightmare. This was my family.
Speaker 1: I came to a complete stop and jumped from the
Speaker 1: car and started running I could see my wife now
Speaker 1: in the water, clinging to the underside of the overturned car.
Speaker 1: She was crying and screaming at this thing on the car.
Speaker 1: I hit the ditch at a full run and climbed
Speaker 1: up the rear bumper, slipping and falling several times until
Speaker 1: I made it on to the side of the car.
Speaker 1: I was about to jump onto the creature that was
Speaker 1: reaching into the car, when suddenly its body lifted upright
Speaker 1: in a quick motion. There was a wet yellow blanket
Speaker 1: in its huge left hand, my daughter. It had my
Speaker 1: little girl. I started to lunge and try to pull
Speaker 1: her from its hand, but the creature reached over me,
Speaker 1: clinching down on the back of my leg. It lifted
Speaker 1: me straight up, upside down and jumped with my daughter
Speaker 1: in one hand in me and the other to the road.
Speaker 1: It gently laid me onto the gravel. It then moved
Speaker 1: to the ditch and moved my wife out onto the
Speaker 1: road beside me. If this was not strange enough, it
Speaker 1: lifted its left hand to see what it had removed
Speaker 1: from the car. My daughter's legs hung limp between the
Speaker 1: creature's fingers. There was no life there. My wife began
Speaker 1: to cry and moan and begged the creature to hand
Speaker 1: my daughter to her. But the beast just looked at
Speaker 1: the baby in its hands. It clearly knew it held
Speaker 1: a baby, and I saw a gentle posture come over
Speaker 1: its whole being, taking a deep breath with a long exhale,
Speaker 1: the massive right hand moved over my daughter's body, and
Speaker 1: one large index finger gently pressed on my daughter's tiny chest.
Speaker 1: My wife went silent. All I can remember was silence
Speaker 1: and rain, And in the glow of those headlights, I
Speaker 1: watched a female sisquatch gently pushed water from my daughter's lungs.
Speaker 1: One small amount of water spit above her little mouth,
Speaker 1: and then another, and then another, and then she coughed,
Speaker 1: and then she cried, and we all cried, and the
Speaker 1: beast looked at us and smiled in a strange way.
Speaker 1: She lowered herself on to one knee and handed our
Speaker 1: daughter to my wife. Then she stood up. She arched
Speaker 1: her back as if to say this was a good day.
Speaker 1: She inhaled a massive amount of air and expelled it
Speaker 1: with a loud moan. It sounded like a thousand pound wolf.
Speaker 1: I heard others inside the trees. She stepped into the
Speaker 1: flooded ditch and came up on the other side. She
Speaker 1: looked aback once and then she was gone. Headlights from
Speaker 1: a tractor broke us from our trance. It was my
Speaker 1: father in law. He had no idea what was happening
Speaker 1: and had thought to patrol the road to make sure
Speaker 1: no one needed any help after that storm. He didn't
Speaker 1: know he would drive up on his own daughter's family.
Speaker 1: We had to wait in my car for an ambulance
Speaker 1: to get to us and take my girls to the
Speaker 1: hospital to be examined. It seemed like ours. On the
Speaker 1: following Wednesday, we were back in Memphis and my girls
Speaker 1: were okay. We were a family again. It became obvious
Speaker 1: two years later that my youngest daughter had suffered minor
Speaker 1: brain damage from lack of oxygen on that day. There
Speaker 1: were no tests then to see what the effects had been,
Speaker 1: so we had to wait. The disability is not bad,
Speaker 1: and she is now a productive member of society now.
Speaker 1: The damage was not to her learning abilities. It was
Speaker 1: only to a few motor skills and physical abilities. But
Speaker 1: she still plays softball with a group of girls she
Speaker 1: grew up with, so it has not affected her ability
Speaker 1: to enjoy her life, nor did it affect her chances
Speaker 1: to become a veterinarian. She works for one of the
Speaker 1: largest zoos in the nation and specializes in and cares
Speaker 1: for primates. My wife and I go back to that
Speaker 1: spot in the road every Easter Sunday and leave a
Speaker 1: huge bag of goodies a short distance into the woods.
Speaker 1: We don't know who takes the bags, but the next
Speaker 1: morning they are always gone. We like to think that
Speaker 1: the sisquatch remember us too.