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MUFON Massachusetts Newsletter

Marge Christensen and James Melesciuc, Beverly, Massachusetts

United States
Country
1982 to 1987
Published
46
Issues Indexed
204
Articles Catalogued

History

Marge Christensen launched the Mass. MUFON Newsletter in Fall 1982 from Beverly, Massachusetts, serving as both State Director and editor. Linda Seal (Essex County Section Director) and Barry Greenwood handled much of the organisational coordination, while Dave Webb contributed investigative expertise. The chapter met on the second Saturday of each month in Belmont, with a hotline at 617-944-0686. By 1987, James Melesciuc had taken over as Editor and State Director, operating from 43 Harrison Street, Reading, MA 01867.

The chapter ran a formal field investigator training programme beginning in October 1982: preparatory steps and equipment in October, a live hypnosis demonstration with an abductee in November, physical trace procedures (soil sampling, grid construction) in December, practical case exercises in January, and a written examination in February. This five-month curriculum was more structured than anything most state chapters attempted, and it produced investigators who went on to work nationally significant cases.

The Massachusetts Bench
Few state chapters could match Massachusetts for depth of researcher talent. Barry Greenwood co-authored "Clear Intent" (1984) with Larry Fawcett and ran extensive FOIA campaigns through Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS). Ray Fowler investigated the Andreasson case and taught UFO courses at North Shore Community College, Endicott College, Northern Essex College, and Salem State College. Dave Webb was a respected abduction researcher. Larry Fawcett (Connecticut CUFOS investigator) worked the Andreasson case Phase II. Budd Hopkins spoke at chapter meetings. The newsletter routinely referenced personal phone conversations with J. Allen Hynek, Bruce Maccabee, and MUFON International leadership as though these were ordinary professional contacts, because for this particular chapter, they were.

The newsletter documented the chapter's cable television proposal (1982), a four-panel UFO display that rotated through libraries and shopping malls across Massachusetts, and ambitious plans for National UFO Information Week. By 1984, Christensen was coordinating with Arnold Shapiro (producer of the Emmy-winning "Scared Straight") on a potential abduction documentary, and the chapter sent five delegates to the MUFON International Symposium in Pasadena. The newsletter also tracked the Japan Air Lines Alaska sighting of November 1986, noting FOIA requests filed within weeks and the reported closure of Elmendorf AFB to the public.

Joanne Bruno served as Essex County Section Director and was nominated as chapter secretary. Joe Santangelo and Bob Gildea coordinated an early computerisation project to digitise the chapter's case files and historian's archives (books, periodicals, tapes, slides, microfilm). This 1983 effort predated MUFON's national database initiative by years.

From the Archive
Cross-reference with MUFON Massachusetts PIPEline for the chapter's national coordination bulletin, and MUFON UFO Journal for the national publication. See also MUFON New Hampshire Newsletter for the neighbouring New England chapter, and Just Cause for the CAUS newsletter that Greenwood co-produced.

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