Pascagoula, Miss.: in the year 1973, the lives of two local shipyard workers, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, would be changed forever. 

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding whether or not life exists beyond Earth among the stars of infinite space. Countless claims have been made over the years of extraterrestrial sightings. Science fiction harbors the speculation of many imaginative creators. The United States Air Force even established Project Blue Book to study claims of Unidentified Flying Objects.

Extraterrestrial encounters are widespread, speculative phenomena occurring almost everywhere. The following account was one such event that boomed in popularity in its time, but has since become, as time went on, a lesser known story.

One Fateful Night…

Hickson and Parker enjoyed fishing in the river, preferably at night when the fish were easier to catch. One night, they noticed an egg-shaped object emitting a bluish light. 

The mysterious craft approached them and three strange beings emerged, appearing to float above the water by unknown means.

The men were frozen still upon seeing the UFO. Others claim Parker fainted at the astonishing sight.

Hickson and Parker described the somewhat humanoid beings as having pale-grayish color skin with long arms that ended in two claw-like appendages. Their legs and feet resembled an elephant’s. Finally, their heads were eyeless with three protrusions pointing out and small slits for mouths.

The Abduction

The beings grabbed Hickson and Parker and led them onto the ship. They brought the men to an examination table of some kind and injected them with an unknown substance. In an interview with Country Roads Magazine, Parker described it as “like this MRI I was in.”

In Parker’s account, their bodies were inspected before being removed from the ship and placed back onto the river bank. The men were stunned, but kept quiet about their experience. On the drive home, however, something swayed Hickson’s decision and the two contacted the Jackson County Sheriff.

Hickson and Parker reached the sheriff’s office and explained their story. The officers were skeptical but questioned the men individually. They later put the men in a room together with a hidden recording device. The two men talked to one another about their encounter. The officers monitored the recording and began to believe the men who sounded extremely frightened and utterly shaken.

The Aftermath

The story would later become more well known to the local and surrounding areas. 

Hickson embraced the attention that the alleged encounter was getting, going as far to take a voluntary polygraph test to prove its authenticity. Speculation arose, however, that the person administering the test was inexperienced. Hickson refused the offered, professional polygraph. Some believe this to be proof of nothing more than an elaborate hoax.

In 1983, Hickson published a book about his encounter with the help of a college professor named William Mendez, titled “UFO Contact at Pascagoula.” He would later go on to speak of his abduction at the 1988 Ozark UFO Symposium in Eureka Springs, Ark.

Parker, however, became uncomfortable with the spotlight. Some believe that he wished to separate himself from the event that had shaken him altogether.

Many years passed before Parker would share his account of the events that fateful night. He became more open about sharing his story and would go on to publish two books detailing the events, “Pascagoula–The Closest Encounter: My Story” and “Pascagoula–The Story Continues: New Evidence & New Witnesses.”

Hoax or not, this is the story thus far. Parker, and the others with first-hand knowledge of the story continue to claim the story as fact. Is this nothing more than an elaborate story cooked up for the publicity or are those original beings still out there among the stars waiting to return?