Missing Link

History

The Missing Link was published by UFO Contact Center International (UFOCCI) from 3001 South 288th Street, Suite 304, Federal Way, Washington 98003. UFOCCI was officially organised on 4 June 1981, with Missing Link beginning publication the following year. The archive holds issues 75 through 133, spanning January 1989 to July/August 1994, though earlier numbers indicate the publication began around 1982. Issued bi-monthly at $1.50 per copy, with annual subscriptions at $20 for the United States and Canada, $35 for international readers.

Aileen Garoutte edited the publication and served as Chairman of the UFOCCI Board of Directors. Lozanna Elwood handled art and layout from New York (also serving as Treasurer). The Board included Terry Burris (Vice Chairman, Seattle) and Nellvergne Zajac (Secretary, Seattle). The publication held USPS registration 8417, ISSN 10633502, with second-class postage paid at Auburn, Washington. Subscriptions were processed through Galaxus Communications at P.O. Box 5845, Parsippany, New Jersey 07054.

UFOCCI existed to support people who believed they had experienced contact or abduction. This was not an investigative body in the MUFON or CUFOS tradition. It was a mutual support organisation that took experiencer accounts at face value, provided counselling and community, and connected isolated individuals with others who shared similar experiences. The editorial voice was pastoral rather than analytical, protective of its community members, and firmly positioned against debunkers.

Content focused heavily on abduction accounts, particularly grey alien encounters and theories of genetic cross-breeding. A June 1990 special issue was devoted entirely to "Genetic Cross Breeding." Garoutte's editorials tracked the development of abduction research nationally, incorporating information from "sources all across the country" about grey alien activity. The publication treated the abduction phenomenon as established fact and focused on documenting patterns, supporting experiencers, and preparing readers for what it considered an ongoing programme of alien-human interaction.

The Missing Link maintained connections across the contactee and abduction research community. Whitley Strieber was a supporter, sending financial assistance and attending events. Jim Moseley's Saucer Smear was read and discussed (sometimes contentiously). Amaury Rivera Toro's Puerto Rico photographs received extensive coverage in the November 1992 issue. The publication sold books by Timothy Green Beckley, Linda Moulton Howe, Jim Deardorff, Tom Dongo, and others through a substantial mail-order catalogue that also included UFOCCI jackets, UFO jewellery, Roswell front-page reproduction posters, and children's UFO books.

Regression sessions featured regularly in the content. The June 1990 issue described a session with a Seattle-area experiencer who recalled descending into a submarine-like craft containing stacks of incubator cubicles with miniaturised fetuses that "resembled whales." The publication collected and compared these regression accounts, building what it considered a composite picture of the abduction programme's biological aspects.

UFO artist Corey Wolfe provided cover artwork and interior illustrations. His credentials (Disney, Pepsi, RCA, Time Magazine, 20th Century Fox, Hanna-Barbera, Universal, NBC) lent professional polish to a small-circulation publication. Wolfe described his work as "otherworldly visions" informed by personal beliefs about consciousness and multiverse existence.