The Pascagoula Abduction
Charles Hickson, 42, and Calvin Parker, 19, were fishing from an old pier on the Pascagoula River on the evening of 11 October 1973 when they heard a zipping sound and saw a blue light. An oval craft, roughly 30 feet across, descended and hovered nearby. Three beings emerged, floating rather than walking. Hickson described them as roughly five feet tall, grey-skinned, with wrinkled faces, no eyes he could discern, and claw-like hands. The beings paralysed both men and floated them aboard the craft. Hickson reported being examined under a bright light by a floating eye-like device. Parker fainted. They were returned to the pier. Terrified, they drove to the Pascagoula sheriff's office.
I was just frozen. I couldn't move. They floated me. I know how that sounds. I was there.Charles Hickson, 1973
The Secret Recording
What the sheriff's office captured.
After taking their statements, Sheriff Fred Diamond left Hickson and Parker alone in an interview room. The tape recorder was still running. This was deliberate: Diamond wanted to see if the men would drop the act when they thought no one was listening. They did not. The recording captured two men in genuine distress, not performing. Hickson tried to calm Parker, who was nearly hysterical. Parker said he wanted to see a doctor. Hickson said nobody would believe them. There was no hint of collusion or deception.
The secretly recorded tape is the strongest single piece of evidence in the case. It removes the most common objection to abduction reports: that the witnesses rehearsed their story. Hickson and Parker did not know they were being recorded, and their conversation is consistent with two people in shock.
Calvin, don't worry. Nobody's going to believe us anyway. We know what happened. That's what matters.Charles Hickson, secretly recorded by sheriff's deputies, 11 October 1973
The Aftermath
A shipyard worker and a teenager against the world.
Parker, just nineteen, was devastated by the publicity. He withdrew from public life for decades, suffering severe psychological effects. He did not speak publicly about the encounter again until 2018, when he published Pascagoula: The Closest Encounter, confirming his original account in full. Hickson became a reluctant spokesperson. He passed polygraph examinations and maintained his story without elaboration until his death in 2011.
The case occurred during the massive 1973 UFO wave that swept the United States. Dozens of sightings were reported across Mississippi, Ohio, and neighbouring states in the same period. The Pascagoula abduction was the wave's most dramatic event.
Parker's silence lasted 45 years. When he finally published his account in 2018, he confirmed every detail of the original report. His book included additional memories he had suppressed for decades.
17 newsletter articles document the case. See Pascagoula case file and Pascagoula article. Related: Mississippi sightings.
Key People
The witnesses, investigators, and officials connected to this case.
