Charles Hickson & Calvin Parker UFO Abduction

The Pascagoula Encounter: A Night of Cosmic Terror on the River

PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - It was a quiet evening on October 11, 1973, when two local fishermen, Charles Hickson, 42, and Calvin Parker, 19, cast their lines off a pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River. What started as a routine night of fishing turned into one of the most chilling and well-documented UFO abduction cases in American history - a story that’s rattled skeptics, fired up believers, and left an indelible mark on the fringes of reality. This isn’t just a tale of lights in the sky; it’s a raw, firsthand account of alien contact that’s been backed by polygraphs, secret tapes, and eyewitnesses who swear something unearthly went down that night.

The Night It Happened: A Whirring Horror

Hickson and Parker were minding their own business, the river calm and the air thick with the hum of a Southern night. Then it hit - a piercing “whirring” sound, like a jet engine winding up. They turned to see two flashing blue lights cutting through the dusk, followed by an oval-shaped craft, 30 to 40 feet wide and 8 to 10 feet high, hovering just above the ground. “It wasn’t no boat, wasn’t no plane,” Hickson later told deputies. “It was somethin’ else.”

Before they could bolt, three figures emerged - gray, wrinkled beings about five feet tall, with bullet-shaped heads, slit-like mouths, and crab-like pincers for hands. They didn’t walk; they glided, hovering inches off the mud. Parker froze, later admitting he thought they were done for. Hickson described them as robotic, their movements stiff and deliberate, their skin like an elephant’s hide. “They grabbed us,” he said, “and we floated right into that thing.” Paralyzed but conscious, the men were hauled aboard, their bodies limp as the creatures took control.

Inside, a mechanical “eye” - a floating, buzzing orb - scanned them head to toe. Hickson recalled it moving over his body, under him, and back up again, like some alien MRI. Parker, younger and more shaken, barely spoke of it then, but years later said, “I thought they was gonna kill us.” After 20 or 30 minutes, the ordeal ended as abruptly as it began. The creatures dumped them back on the riverbank, and the craft shot off into the night, leaving the men sprawled in the mud, reeling from what just happened.

The Aftermath: Fear, Fame, and a Secret Tape

Shaken to their cores, Hickson and Parker debated keeping quiet. “Ain’t nobody gonna believe this,” Hickson told the kid, according to a secret recording made later that night. But Hickson, a World War II vet with a no-nonsense streak, felt it was too big to bury. They called Keesler Air Force Base, who brushed them off - Project Blue Book was dead by then - and directed them to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. There, deputies found two men in a state: Hickson steady but rattled, Parker “climbing the walls” with fear.

Sheriff Fred Diamond and Captain Glenn Ryder grilled them separately, then left them alone in a room - unaware a tape recorder was rolling. That tape, unearthed years later, is gold for believers. Hickson’s voice trembles: “It scared me to death, son. You can’t get over it in a lifetime. Jesus Christ have mercy.” Parker, near tears, begs, “Don’t talk to ‘em, Charlie. They’ll come back and get us!” Ryder, now retired, told reporters in 2018, “I don’t know what happened, but you don’t fake fear like that.” Both men passed polygraph tests soon after, with experts concluding they believed every word they said.

Corroboration from the Shadows

The story didn’t end with Hickson and Parker. Others saw something that night. Mike Cataldo, a retired Navy chief, was driving on U.S. 90 when he spotted a “strange object” on the horizon. “It wasn’t no plane,” he said in a 2002 interview. Detective Puddin’ Broadus told Ryder he saw a streak of light zip through the sky. Decades later, in 2019, Maria Blair came forward on WLOX News: “I was across the river, waiting for a boat. I saw blue lights, then somethin’ like a person in the water - gray, movin’ fast. Next day, I heard their story and knew they wasn’t lyin’.” Her account matches the timing and location, down to the rippling water she saw after a loud splash.

The Fringe Connection: Alien Agenda or Cosmic Warning?

This wasn’t some isolated prank. Ufologists tie it to a bigger picture. The Pascagoula beings resemble descriptions from other cases - like the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill abduction, though Hickson met Betty and said the crafts differed. On projectavalon.net, a 2020 post by “LightSeeker” speculated: “These greys are drones, not the bosses. They’re scouting, testing us - maybe prepping for somethin’ bigger.” Montalk of Montalk.net argues they’re part of an ET hierarchy messing with human DNA, citing our “junk” sequences as evidence of tampering. Proven science? Not yet - but the Human Genome Project confirms 98% of our DNA doesn’t code for proteins, leaving room for wild theories.

New Age circles see a message. Hickson, in his 1983 book UFO Contact at Pascagoula, hinted the aliens warned him about humanity’s path - echoes of George Adamski’s 1950s Venusian chats about peace. On unexplained-mysteries.com, user “RiverRat” posted in 2023: “My uncle knew Hickson. Said he was haunted, like they showed him somethin’ awful about our future.” No proof, but the consistency across decades is eerie.

Skeptics vs. The Unshakable

Skeptics like Philip Klass called it a hoax, pointing to Hickson’s refusal of a second polygraph (he’d already passed one) and Parker’s initial claim of passing out - later revised. Joe Nickell suggested a “waking dream,” but how do two men dream the same nightmare, puncture wounds and all? Doctors found needle marks on their arms, unexplained by any earthly jab. The sheriff’s tape, their terror, the witnesses - it’s a wall of evidence skeptics can’t bulldoze. Even Klass admitted the polygraphs were a problem for his theory.

Legacy of the River

Hickson died in 2011 at 80, never wavering. Parker, who passed in 2023 at 68 after battling kidney cancer, wrote Pascagoula - The Closest Encounter in 2018 to set the record straight. “I felt like everyone deserved an explanation,” he told the Clarion Ledger. A historical marker now stands at Lighthouse Park, unveiled in 2019, calling it “America’s best-documented alien abduction.” Parker was there, emotional: “I wish I could be buried under this plaque.”

This ain’t folklore - it’s a scream from the edge of reality. The Pascagoula River still flows, quiet as ever, but for those who dig deep, it whispers a truth too wild to silence. Something happened that night, and it’s bigger than two fishermen could’ve dreamed.

Citations, Sources, and Further Investigation

Hickson & Parker, Sheriff Tape (1973) Raw fear, unscripted

Hickson, UFO Contact at Pascagoula (1983) - Hickson's book

Parker, Pascagoula: The Closest Encounter (2018) - Parker's book