Stanley Ingram Part 2

By Brent RaynesAUGUST 5, 1978, AFTER 9:30 P.M.NEAR ATHENS, ALThree teenage boys were out on a fishing trip and built a campfire. It was when one of the youths, David Conley, 17, went back out to fetch some more fire wood (he was in a car) that he came upon a strange critter. "It was 8 or 9 feet tall and covered with long dark hair.. It's face part was small (the part not covered with hair) and it had a big flat nose and the eyes glowed a pinkish color."Conley yelled for the others who at first thought that he was joking, but soon decided by his persistent and agitated behavior that something had indeed happened. They drove back together to where Conley said he had seen the thing. The creature came back out of the woods, only a few feet from the car, so everyone got a good look.Ronnie Loonie, 15, said, "His head came up to a sort of point on top. His face was small and his lips stuck out. His eyes were as big as half dollars and even though the headlights were not on his eyes, they glowed pinkish anyway. They were big eyes and sort of pop-eyed like a cow."The creature also gave off a rotten eggs odor and an investigating highway patrolman questioned the boys separately (details agreed) and the next day footprints were reportedly found, measuring 14-inches in length, some with 5 toes, some with three.EDITOR'S NOTE (Brent Raynes):Stanley believed that there was a UFO/Bigfoot creature connection. We both looked into the following case wherein a link was very strongly implied. Back at that time I was on the road quite a bit and had personally looked into similar situations in other states (i.e., Main, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida).SPRING, SUMMER 1976 TENNESSEESeries of Bigfoot sightings. I spoke to witness who reluctantly described UFO sightings. Said he and others saw car sized "ball of fire," making a swooshing noise, descending out of sky. Also he and others during Bigfoot craze saw small softly glowing phosphorescent like balls of light moving silently around the pine trees near a house where Bigfoot activity had almost seemed centered.Met Lee Franks, New York creature hunter who came down to investigate these events and later wrote an article that recounted his own unusual experience. Two men searching for Bigfoot with him told of seeing "great glowing spheres" above the trees. "You don't think there's anything to that UFO business, do you?" one of them asked. Later that night Franks got close to something strange himself "The thuds approach... still behind the trees. and change to what sound like a loud mechanical clicking. Like baseball cards snapping against wheel spokes, only slow -- about two clicks per second -- and much louder and very mechanical. The clicks came from a hight of nine feet. In four seconds the noise abruptly ends and there is nothing but dead silence."Hours pass by and nothing more happens. The sun comes up. Then Franks tries what he is told is an imitation of the critter's call. "Then from a few feet into the woods comes the same grisly call, so loud it sounds like it's amplified over a PA system. It reverberates all around me and I get groggy with awe." Soon he and another man venture into those woods, but find nothing.EARLY MARCH 1981 GILES COUNTY, TNA country preacher claimed that one night about a week after a low flying UFO had just cleared the roof of his home (an event seen by both he and his wife) that he had a contact. "...the window by the bed lit up and I rolled over and saw the whole backyard was lit up and standing there about ten feet from the window was this man.""He was standing there looking right at me. He was about five-five or five-six and he was dressed in a dark one piece suit....He had close cut coal black hair and was dark looking and thin faced... The next thing I knew I was outside in this field (behind his home) and there was four of these men sitting in a half-moon circle facing me, and I was sitting on the ground too.""Standing between us was this man... he was the only one who talked. And he said, 'I suppose you believe in us now,' and I said yes, I didn't believe in none of this stuff before... he said that I could tell about this visit and everything except what they told me not to tell. Then they told me two things I wasn't to tell, and I haven't toldanybody and don't think I will.""The next thing I know I am back in the bed with a kind of a jerk. This wasn't any dream. I don't know how they got me out or how I got back."NON-CONCLUDING REMARKS:This tribute to Stanley Ingram is something I've been intending to do for sometime, and recently when Don Worley was asking me for certain information (he had corresponded extensively with Stanley) and I dug into my files, it hit me. "Now is the time!" (And then some!)In a way, however, this isn't just a tribute to Stanley. Stanley is an archetype for all the unsung heroes of UFOlogy who have braved the risks and hardships and had the courage and conviction to ask unpopular questions and ponder unpopular answers. Certainly the process itself can risk and even damage ones psychic equilibrium, reputation, family time, and financial security. I can identify with David Jacob's who called it "a bottomless pit," with Larry Bryant who says it's a "full-time part-time job," and with Budd Hopkins who complained that it deprived his family of "time, energy, and love." But, alas, as Jacobs summed it up, despite its drawbacks and hardships, "The abduction phenomenon is the most important thing that has ever occurred." It's this sense of importance and urgency that propels the Ufologist on in spite of the personal risks and the odds against actually accomplishing something of ameasurable value.Though often corrected and revised, bogged down in endless theory and speculation, the mountain of evidence that has accumulated over the years is a persistent reoccurring challenge to our science and society. The movement, the phenomenon, its impact on us, deserve, I feel, more than just a mere brief historical footnote when all is finally said and done.Since becoming involved in UFOlogy back early in '67, I've gone off into a lot of different directions. Literally into the wild blue yonder on a few occasions! For now the most suitable strategy seems to be an open ended and honest philosophical and objective non-answer. We do, at the least, have the satisfaction of knowing that we're doing our best, even if our best ain't good enough for us to arrive at an ultimate conclusion. Trial and error, the process of elimination, is a time-tested method after all.