"Impact" Rating = 14
"Credibility" Rating = 4
"Expert" Rating = 5
"Strangeness" Rating = 12
Alleged airship encounter on 19 April 1897 involving attempted calf-napping on the ranch of Alexander Hamilton atLe Roy,Kansas (sometimes referred to asLeRoy,Kansas).
Claims to fame
This incident is Case 24 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 74 of the books covered by that article.
Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 3,360 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)
(1) “Impact” Rating of 14 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 24 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.
(2) “Credibility” Rating of 4 (out of a potential score of 14) because several researchers have identified convincing evidence this sighting was a hoax.
(2) “Expert” Rating of 5 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this relatively low rating because (at the time of writing) it has not been included in any of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals), and is it is mentioned relatively often as an example of a hoax.
(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 12 (out of a potential score of 14). The sighting has a relatively high strangeness rating since it would be very difficult to explain this sighting as a misperception or misidentification..
Sections below:
Web Resources
This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 326826.
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Book References
For discussion of the Le Roy, Kansas encounter see the following:
|
Year |
Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
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Ball, Brian in his “A Young Person’s Guide to UFOs” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 72 (in Chapter 8) of the Dragon paperback edition. |
1 |
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Bartholomew, Robert E and Howard, George S in their “UFOs and Alien Contact” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 60 (in Chapter 1, entitled “Wishing Thinking: The Great American Airship Mania of 1896-97”) of the Prometheus hardback edition. |
1 |
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Binder, Otto in his “Flying Saucers Are Watching Us” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 51-52 (in Chapter 4) of the Belmont paperback edition. |
2 |
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Birnes, William in his “The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia” (2004) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 152 (in an entry entitled “Hamilton, Alexander”) of the Pocket Books softcover edition. |
1 |
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Blum, Ralph and Blum, Judy in their “Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact with UFOs” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 50-51 (in Chapter 5) of the Bantam paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the Corgi paperback edition). |
2 |
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Blundell, Nigel in his “World’s Most Amazing UFO Visits” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91-92 of the Select softcover edition. |
2 |
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Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 162 (in Appendix 6) of the BCA hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Blitz hardback edition, and in the Barnes & Noble hardback edition published under the title “UFO: The Complete Sightings”). |
1 |
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Bryan, C D B in his “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at MIT” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 427-428 (in Chapter 20) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Knopf hardback edition and the Penguin Arkana softcover edition) at pages 576-578 of the Orion paperback edition. |
2 |
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Chambers, Howard in his “UFOs for the millions” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 23 (in Chapter 3) of the Bell hardcover edition. |
1 |
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Clark, Jerome and Loren Coleman in their “The Unidentified” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 157 (in the unnumbered section entitled “The Airships: The Technological Impulse”, part 7) of the Warner paperback edition. |
1 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “Extraordinary Encounters : An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 55-56 (in an entry entitled “Calf-rustling aliens”) of the ABC-Clio hardback edition. |
2 |
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Clark, Jerome in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 206-208 of the NEL hardback edition in an entry entitled “Leroy (Kansas) airship hoax”. |
3 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 34-35 (in an entry entitled “Airship Sightings in the Nineteenth Century”), 192-193 (in an entry entitled “Hoaxes Through 1959”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
4 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 3 – High Strangeness” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 17 of the Omnigraphics hardback edition in an entry entitled “Animal Mutilations and UFOs”. |
1 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 1:A-K at pages 101-102 (forming part of the entry entitled “Animal Mutilations an UFOs” at pages 102-120), 504-505 (forming part of an entry entitled “Hoaxes” at pages 504-519) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
4 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “UFO Encounters” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 19 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “In The Beginning”) of the Publications International hardback edition. |
1 |
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Clarke, David in “The UFOs that never were” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) by Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts and David Clarke at pages 21-24 (in Chapter 1, “Once Upon a Time in the West” by David Clarke) of the London House hardback edition. |
4 |
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Cohen, Daniel in “The Great Airship Mystery” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 92-102 of the Dodd Mead hardback edition (in Chapter 7 generally, “The Great Kansas Cownapping”). |
11 |
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Cohen, Daniel in his “The World of UFOs” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 15-18 (in Chapter 2) of the Lippincott hardback edition. |
4 |
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Cousineau, Phil in his “UFOs: A Manual for the Millenium” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 44-45 (in Chapter 2) of the Harper Collins paperback edition. |
2 |
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Craft, Michael in his “Alien Impact” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 78 (in Chapter 5) of the St Martin’s Paperbacks paperback edition. |
1 |
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Curran, Douglas in his “In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space” (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 11 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Deus Ex Machina”) of the updated 2001 Abbeville Press hardback edition. |
1 |
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Dash, Mike in his “Borderlands” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 297-298 (in Chapter 8) of the Arrow paperback edition. |
2 |
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Dione, R L in “God Drives a Flying Saucer” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 3-5 (in Chapter 1) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
3 |
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Edwards, Frank in his “Flying Saucers – Serious Business” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 6-8 (in Chapter 1) of the Bantam paperback edition, at pages 12-14 of the Mayflower-Dell paperback edition. |
3 |
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Erskine, Allen Louis in his “Why Are They Watching Us?” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 22-24 (in Chapter 2) of the Tower paperback edition. |
3 |
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Fitzgerald, Randall in his “The Cosmic Test Tube” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 280 (in Section 4) of the Moonlake Media softcover edition. |
1 |
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Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 113-114 (in Chapter 6) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition. |
2 |
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Gaulding, Lyle in “Extraterrestrial Intervention: The Evidence” (1975) (edited by Bergier, Jacques and the Editors of INFO) at page 41 (in Part 2, unnumbered chapter entitled “Mysteries of the Airship Age”) of the Signet paperback edition. |
1 |
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Greenfield, Irving A in his “The UFO Report” (1967) at pages 43-44 (in Chapter 5), 97 (in Chapter 11) of the Lancer paperback edition. |
3 |
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Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 5 (in Chapter 1) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Hervey, Michael in his “UFOs : The American Scene” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 37-38 (in Chapter 4) of the Hale hardback edition. |
2 |
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Holroyd, Stuart in his “Alien Intelligence” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 180 (in Chapter 7) of the David & Charles hardback edition. |
1 |
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Jacobs, David Michael in his “The UFO Controversy in America” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 15 (in Chapter 1) of the Indiana hardback edition, pages 12 of the Signet paperback edition. |
1 |
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Keel, John A in his “UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 85-86 (in Chapter 5) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Abacus softcover edition). |
2 |
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Klass, Philip J in his “UFOs Explained” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 256-257 (in Chapter 24, “Mysterious Airships of the 1890s”) of the Random House hardback edition, at pages 303-304 of Random House paperback edition. |
2 |
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Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 27 (in Part 2) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition. |
1 |
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Kurland, Michael in his “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 78-80 (in Chapter 8) of the Alpha Books softcover edition. |
3 |
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Landsburg, Alan in his “In Search of Extraterrestrials” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 55-56 (in Chapter 5) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
2 |
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Lore, Gordon and Harold Deneault in their “Mysteries of the Skies” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 12-14 (in Chapter 1) of the Prentice-Hall hardback edition. |
3 |
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Marrs, Jim in his “Alien Agenda” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 260-261 (in Chapter 9) of the Harper Collins paperback edition. |
2 |
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Moffitt, John in his “Picturing Extraterrestrials : Alien Images in Modern Mass Culture” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 254-255 of the Prometheus hardback edition. |
2 |
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Nixon, Neil in his “Pocket Essentials : UFOs” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 18 (in Chapter 1) of the Pocket Essentials softcover edition. |
1 |
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Oberg, James in his “UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries” (1982) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 112 (in Chapter 5) of the Donning paperback edition. |
1 |
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Randle, Kevin and Russ Estes and William Cone in their “The Abduction Enigma” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 116-118 (in Chapter 7) of the Forge hardback edition. |
3 |
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Randle, Kevin and Estes, Russ in their “Spaceships of the Visitors” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-33 (in Part 2) of the Fireside softcover edition. |
3 |
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Randle, Kevin in his “Conspiracy of Silence” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 10-11 (in Chapter 1) of the Avon paperback edition. |
2 |
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Randle, Kevin in his “Scientific Ufology” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 200-201 (in Chapter 7) of the Avon softcover edition. |
2 |
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Randle, Kevin in his “The October Scenario” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 108, 110 (in Part 3, unnumbered section entitled “From Ancient Astronauts To The Great Airships”) of the Berkley paperback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “The Complete Book of UFOs” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 22-23 (in Chapter 1) of the Piatkus softcover edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 24 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”) of the Sterling softcover edition. |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “UFOs and How to See Them” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 10 (in Chapter 1) of the Brockhampton Press hardback edition. |
1 |
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Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 97 (in an entry entitled “Hamilton incident, Kansas, United States”) of the MJF hardback edition. |
1 |
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Rux, Bruce in his “Architects of the Underworld” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 79-80 (in Chapter 3) of the Frog softcover edition. |
2 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 177 of the Corgi softback edition in an entry entitled “Le Roy, Kansas” and included in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings” at page vii. |
1 |
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Schellhorn, G Cope in his “Extraterrestrials in Biblical Prophecy” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 354 (in Chapter 17) of the Horus softcover edition. |
1 |
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Seargent, D A J in his “UFOs: A Scientific Enigma” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 21 (in Chapter 1), 59 (in Chapter 2) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
2 |
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Smith, Marcia S in her “The UFO Enigma: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, UG 633, 76-52 SP” (1976) at page 43 (in Chapter 4) of the Congressional Research Service stapled edition. |
1 |
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Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 137 (in an entry entitled “Hamilton, Alexander”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at pages 156-157 of the Headline paperback edition. |
1 |
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Spencer, John in his “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 14 (in the unnumbered section entitled “North America”, in the chapter entitled “Database”) of the Hamlyn hardback edition. |
1 |
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Stanton, L Jerome in his “Flying Saucers : Hoax or Reality?” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 81 (in Chapter 4) of the Belmont paperback edition. |
1 |
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Steiger, Brad in his “Strangers from the Skies” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 35-36 (in Chapter 6) of the Award Books paperback edition. |
2 |
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Stemman, Roy in his “Mysteries of the Universe: Great Mysteries” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 180-181 (in Chapter 9) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
2 |
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Story, Ronald in his “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 33-37 (Chapter 1) of the NEL Hardback edition. |
5 |
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Strickland, Joshua in his “Extra-terrestrials on Earth” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70-71 (in Chapter 5) of the Granada softcover edition. |
2 |
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Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 23 (in Chapter 1) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition. |
1 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Anatomy of a Phenomenon” (1965) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 16-17 (in Chapter 1) of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Tandem paperback edition), pages 17-20 of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, pages 33-35 of the 1966 revised and enlarged Ace Star paperback edition. |
2 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Passport to Magonia” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 45-46 (in Chapter 2) of the Regnery hardback edition, with the same page numbering in the Tandem paperback edition. |
2 |
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Watson, Nigel in “UFO: 1947-1987” (1987) (edited by Hilary Evans with John Spencer) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 27 of the Fortean Tomes softcover edition (Chapter 2.1.3, entitled “Before the Flying Saucers Came”). |
1 |
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Watts, Alan in his “UFO Visitation” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 183-184 (in Chapter 18) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
2 |
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Weldon, John and Levitt, Zola in their “Encounters With UFOs“ (1975) (formerly “UFOs, What on Earth is Happening?”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 34 (in Chapter 2) of the Harvest House paperback edition. |
1 |
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Westrum, Ronald M in “UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist” (1979) (edited by Richard F Haines) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 154 (in Chapter 8) of the Scarebrow Press hardback edition. |
1 |
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Wilson, Clifford in his “The Alien Agenda” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 48 (in Chapter 5) of the Signet paperback edition. |
1 |
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Wilson, Clifford in his “UFOs and Their Mission Impossible” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 48 (in Chapter 5) of the Signet paperback edition. |
1 |
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Wright, Susan in her “UFO Headquarters” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 31 (in Chapter 2) of the St Martin’s Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Young, Mort in “Flying Saucers Have Arrived!” (1970) (edited by Jay David) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 203 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Investigators”) of the World hardback edition. The relevant chapter is reprinted from “UFO : Top Secret” by Mort Young. |
1 |
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