Pascagoula Encounter
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker reported being briefly taken aboard an unidentified craft while fishing on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi. They reported the encounter to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office the same evening.
This case predates PURSUE, so the primary record was never centrally digitized. The source links below point to the best public records available: original investigators, primary reporting, and diagnostic-friendly secondary analysis. For PURSUE-era cases, mirrored files render inline further down.
Provenance metadataFields marked “not disclosed” are transparent gaps in the release, not omissions on our end.
- Coordinates
- Not disclosed in this release
- Altitude
- Not disclosed in this release
- Sensor detail
- Not disclosed in this release
- Encounter duration
- Not disclosed in this release
- Witness count
- Not disclosed in this release
- Operational context
- Not disclosed in this release
- Weather / visibility
- Not disclosed in this release
- Chain of custody
- Not disclosed in this release
- Classification
- Not disclosed in this release
Official description
Sheriff Fred Diamond and his deputies recorded the witnesses' statements and conducted what they considered a credibility test by leaving Hickson and Parker alone in a recorded room. The recording, made without the witnesses' knowledge, captured them continuing to discuss the encounter consistently with their formal statements.
Editor's context
The covert audio recording is often cited as evidence the witnesses were not fabricating. Independent corroboration was strengthened in 2019 when a previously unknown additional witness, Maria Blair, came forward describing seeing the same craft from a separate vantage point that night. The case remains one of the better-documented two-witness anomalous-experience reports.
In the margins
Transcribed redactions, stamps, and handwritten markings, the paratext of the file. Often the most human part of a declassified document, and worth reading on its own.
- Stampp. tape headerJACKSON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, RECORDED AUDIO
- AnnotationSubjects unaware of recording. Sheriff Diamond left the recorder running and the room briefly to test consistency of testimony.
- AnnotationHickson on tape, alone with Parker: 'It scared me to death. I never been so scared in my life.'
- AnnotationWitness statements signed by Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, October 11-12, 1973.
- AnnotationAdditional witness Maria Blair came forward in 2019 with a vantage-point statement consistent with the original report.
Cite the primary source
Citations center the originating government agency and link to the official record. This archive is listed as the access point, not the author.
U.S. Government. "Pascagoula Encounter." Released via PURSUE program, 1973-10-12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascagoula_Abduction. Accessed 2026-08-12 via Social Media for Aliens archive, https://socialmediaforaliens.com/files/pascagoula-1973.
Tags
Sources
Reflections
Want to leave a reflection on this file? Join the Circle or sign in.
No reflections yet. Be the first to leave one.
Long-form discussion
Related cases
Travis Walton, Snowflake, Arizona
Arizona logger Travis Walton reportedly disappeared after a roadside encounter with a luminous object witnessed by six co-workers. Walton reappeared five days later and described an interior encounter with non-human figures.
Coyne Helicopter Encounter
A U.S. Army Reserve helicopter crewed by Capt. Lawrence Coyne and three others reported a near-collision with an unidentified cylindrical object that bathed the cockpit in green light. The crew also reported anomalous altimeter readings during the encounter.
Hudson Valley Boomerang Formations
Over a roughly three-year period beginning in March 1983, thousands of witnesses across the Hudson Valley region of New York and Connecticut reported observing large boomerang- or V-shaped formations of slow-moving lights, often near major highways at dusk.
Kenneth Arnold Sighting
Civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold reported observing nine bright crescent-shaped objects flying near Mount Rainier in Washington state at unusually high speed. His description gave rise to the term 'flying saucer.'