Arthur Shuttlewood:
'UFO - Magic in motion'
Sphere Books Ltd., London 1979
p.87-91
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A journalist and chief reporter for a national magazine in the
USA, Jerry Harris, had an article in the October 1976 issue of
'Fate'. From Talladega, in Alabama, he reports:


  Two frightened women say they were chased more than 18 miles
  on Wednesday night (18 February 1976) by a fleet of
  unidentified flying objects. The women - Miss Charlotte
  Staples and Mrs Geneva Carruth - said five 'reddish-orange
  objects' hovered over and near their car as they travelled at
  high speeds trying to get help.

    Both women are employed at Special Technical Facility (a
  vocational branch of Alabama institute for the blind and deaf)
  in Talladega, and have been described by their employers as
  'sober, respectable individuals who do not tell lies like this
  unless there is something to it'. Miss Staples said their
  plight began st 8.30 p.m. on highway 77 near Chatchee. 'We
  were riding along talking when I saw this light oYer to my
  left, in the woods, real close to the road,' she said.

    I wouldn't have thought anything about it except for the
  colour. I have never seen anything like it in my life. It was
  about the size of a number three washtub, oval-shaped, and was
  an orange colour that did not scatter like regular light
  does.'

    Because I value credibility and my professional reputation
  as a news reporter, I was not too anxious to return a late-
  night call from someone who had been 'chased' by spaceships.

    The caller, however, turned out to be my neighbour,
  Charlotte Staples, whom I have known for a decade or more.
  After listening to her and sensing her alarm, I had to believe
  she was telling the truth. Consequently, the next day I began
  writing the only kind of newspaper story I have never done -
  a UFO story. Here is more on Charlotte Staples' experience, as
  reported in my February 20 articte in Talladega's 'Daily
  Home': 'They did not come from the sky or from the ground;
  they just popped up in front of us, like a light switch had
  been turned on ... We were not scared then, but they started
  gliding towards us on the highway.

    'They got within 200 to 300 feet of us and were coming
  straight towards the car. By this time there were five of them
  in all. We got scared and took off fast.' According to Mrs
  Carruth, the objects hovered above, alongside and eventually
  in front of the car. Miss Staples said she was travelling at
  80 miles an hour. 'I kept trying to laugh it off, to
  rationalise and console Charlotte until those things started
  hovering around the car,' Mrs Carruth said. 'There was not
  another car on the road, either.

    'I'm telling you, we were just scared to death there for a
  minute. I have never seen anything like it in my life.
  Whatever they were, I honestly feel they were trying to catch
  us - and I am telling you the honest truth. When we could not
  see them, we could still tell where they were because the sky
  and area around the car stayed lit-up the whole time,' she
  said. 'Miss Staples had a citizens' band radio unit in her car
  which she said had been quite active only moments before the
  encounter.

    'It was weird! There was nothing on the radio at all. I
  mean, those things have static and noise going on all the time
  and you can monitor other people talking constantly, but we
  couldn't pick up anybody.' According to Mrs Carruth, the
  objects were flying 'too low and too close to be regular
  aircraft'. Both women say no sound was heard at any time
  during the nearly 30 minutes' the objects were observed. 'They
  were never higher than treetops and they followed so close
  that when we made a turn they turned right along with us,'
  Miss Staples said.

    The objects 'just disappeared' as they left the city limits
  at Lincoln. Reaching Talladega, the two women tried to
  convince police that they had had a real and terrifying
  experience - with no success. 'They asked me if we were
  drinking or taking drugs or something,' Miss Staples said.
  'But everybody who knows us knows that we do not drink; and
  that we would not tell stories like this.' Dempsey Byrd, a
  public relations executive at the special technical facility,
  agreed.

    'Miss Staples is an interpreter in our deaf and blind Sunday
  school class and I have known her for 13 years. I believe what
  she saw. I have never caught her in anything but the truth,'
  he said. Today the women are calmer, and despite the ridicule
  they have suffered, they are no less convinced that what they
  saw was real. 'You would not believe how many people will try
  to tell you what you saw with your OWII eyes.' Miss Staples
  said angrily. 'People have told us we saw static electricity,
  gas, flares, weather balloons, planes and you name It!

    'But we were there and they were not. We were the ones who
  saw it happen and who got chased nearly 20 mi]es by those
  things. If I ever see another UFO I'll make sure no one hears
  about it. You find out fast how many friends you have. People
  have tried to make us feel guilty because we might believe in
  Russians or secret tests or Martians or something. The thing
  is, we never said what it could have been. We never said it
  was extraterrestrial spacecraft. All we said was that these
  things followed us.

    'Not a single person would tell us they had seen UFOs or
  that they had a similar experience.' However, a week later (on
  Friday February 27) the 'Gadsden Times,' which is circulated
  in the area where Miss Staples saw the UFOs, reported on its
  front page: 'The Gadsden state trooper office was flooded with
  reports of unidentified flying objects in the sky over a wide
  portion of Etowah and St Clair counties on Thursday night. The
  time was 7.42 to 9.45 p.m. "It was in the top of trees and
  about 50 feet across," one person reported.' The article said
  that deputies from Morgan county saw an object 'flying about
  40,000 feet, south to north,' but speculated this could simply
  be a plane.

    Earlier that same day, state troopers at the Redstone
  arsenal in Huntsville reported that gas had been released
  during a test and announced that the gas might 'take on
  different colours when hit by light'. However, UFO reports
  continued to come in from more than 100 miles away until long
  after the tests had ceased. My editor, Tom Wright, suggested
  I call in the story to Associated Press. The reponse from
  their Birmingham bureau was predictable:

    'For Chrissakes, a number three washtub of all things! They
  are usually cigar-shaped, you know; and they always say
  tornadoes sound like freight trains. Listen, we appreciate
  your letting us know about it but, frankly, I'm not going to
  be the sucker who sends it out. We could have a thousand UFO
  reports tomorrow - you know that!' As a news reporter, I was
  distressed by this case for three reasons. First, the two
  women were harassed after my story was printed. This
  harassment may have quelled further reports of the same
  incident which might have substantiated or explained it.

    Second, local police did not investigate the women's report.
  And finally, the wire service would not move the copy,
  although the information had been thoroughly checked. However,
  after the multiple reports of sightings in February and March,
  'National Enquirer' reporter who specialises in UFO stories,
  asked for more details on the women's experiences; and the
  reports were taken seriously by one of the foremost
  Ufologists, Dr J. Allen Hynek, who said the sighting 'fits the
  pattern' of numerous other reports on file at his centre for
  UFO studies atNorthfield, Illinois.

    Dr Hynek said he was trying to establish similarities in
  three sightings in the Talladega area: (1) Charlotte Staples
  and Geneva Carruth reported that they were chased on 18
  February about eighteen miles by as many as five objects
  glowing reddish-orange. (2) On 27 March Mrs Fariah Parker and
  her three sons watched a 'large, smoky-blue' object hovering
  over their backyard. (3) The next night, three Talladega
  patrolmen in cars separated by a half mile, saw mysterious
  objects that glowed green. Dr Hynek was the only investigator
  to comment. He said: 'We really do not know what the facts
  are. There's a lot we cannot explain, but our job is to find
  out what it is all about.'


We all need to ke sceptical and cautious to some degree, but we
also need to ask ourselves some questions: - How can we learn
the truth about UFOs unless we listen to reliable observers?
Unless local police initiate investigations promptly, how can we
expect higher authorities to act? Reporter Harris concludes: 'I
will admit I am less sceptical since I wrote the Staples-Carruth
story. Now I believe UFO reports deserve serious attention.
Otherwise we may never solve the mystery.'