Mr. J. Herbert Klein in the 1970s, when the UFO-related incidents took place (credit: International Film Arts)

The book was announced today via press release from International Film Arts, a production company founded by Klein and his business partner, movie star Jon Hall. According to the press release, Klein and Hall invented things together, including a square anamorphic lens that Klein believed “could photograph the invisible – UFOs, alien life forms, energy fields, and other unexplained phenomena.”

The pair reportedly shot thousands of photographs using their special lens, and “frequently captured images that could only be called out of this world.” An example was explained in the press release:

The most notable example occurred in 1977, when Klein and Hall witnessed a test flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at Edwards Air Force Base near the Mojave Desert in California. From his seat in the viewing section, Hall photographed the space shuttle before, during, and after the flight.

Cover of Klein's book (credit: International FA Publishing)

When Hall developed the film, he discovered that the photographs included images of what appeared to be energy fields, UFOs, and humanoid forms that had been invisible to the naked eye. Stunned at his discovery, Hall submitted the images to one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of photographic equipment – and the company’s experts could find no explanation for the unusual phenomena visible in the photos.

Hall died in 1979, and Klein kept the photographs in a “safe place” until deciding to write his memoir. Klein recently stated, “I’m finally ready to share my incredible story with the world.”

The 296-page book features approximately 100 photos taken by Klein and Hall, “including many amazing shots of unexplained phenomena.”

Beyond Hollywood: A Memoir of Fate, Luck, the Unexplained, and Living the American Dream is available now at Amazon.

Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. (image credit: NPS/Patrick Myers)

Tonight the Travel Channel will be premiering an episode of their Ultimate Travel series dedicated to UFO hot spots and other paranormal activity related to US national parks. The episode is titled, Legends of the Parks, and for those of you wanting to visit a national park, but would also like the chance for a paranormal experience, you will want to take notes.

Judy Messoline, proprietor of the UFO Watchtower. (image credit: roadsideamerica.com)

Paranormal super-guru and UFO expert, Alejandro Rojas (me), helps guide the audience through mysterious stories surrounding some of our country’s most beautiful locations. One such place is the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. These strange dunes provide a hint of the Sahara desert in the high mountain plains of Colorado. As a Colorado native, the sand dunes have always been one of my favorite camping locations. In the middle of the mysterious San Luis Valley, a UFO hot spot and host to a wide variety of paranormal activities, guests to the Sand Dunes have also reported many UFO sightings. Ultimate Travel visited with Judy Messoline, the proprietor of the UFO Watchtower, just west of the dunes. From the spectacular view off her patio, she has recorded dozens of UFO sighting reports from visitors.

I actually had my first UFO sighting at the UFO Watchtower with Judy. I was there for the first time with my sister, her boyfriend and a friend of mine. My sister said she saw a satellite, but I could tell from her voice she was excited. We looked out to the west over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and saw a very bright light moving from north to south just over the mountains. As it got directly east of us, right over the sand dunes, it steadily faded out. It was much too low on the horizon to be a satellite and there was no outline of a plane. As if that wasn’t strange enough, it was soon completely dark and we saw what appeared to be two satellites, one coming from the southwest, one from the northwest, and they crossed paths just above where we saw the UFO fade out.

The UFO Watchtower (image credit: Chuck Zukowski/UFONut.com)

The San Luis Valley is also the location of the very first cattle mutilation to hit the media, and many more of these mysterious animals deaths have taken place in the area since. In 1967 on the King ranch outside of Alamosa, the largest city in the valley, an Appaloosa horse name Lady (renamed Snippy by the press) was found with the head and neck de-fleshed. The exposed bones were clean and white, without blood. The cuts were cauterized, leading a local pathologist out of Denver to speculate that they were done with a laser scalpel. Laser scalpels were practically science fiction in 1967. Often in these mutilations organs such as the genitals and utters appear to be carefully removed. Ranchers and local authorities are often perplexed and left without answers.

Brown Mountain Lights marker. (image credit: coolthingsworld.com)

Other phenomena explored on the show are the Brown Mountain lights of Northern Carolina. This historic mystery goes back decades. Many have seen lights on the mountains that have yet to be explained. The legend of the Jersey Devil, ghosts and mysterious sounds in Yellowstone National Park, Bigfoot in Arizona, and many other paranormal oddities are explored on the program. The show airs tonight, September 20, at 6 pm and 9 pm E/P, and will re-air periodically.

(credit: SyFy)

This is how the series is described on SyFy‘s website:

Don’t watch it alone! Paranormal Witness is an intense, cinematic, high-octane drama-documentary series. The show brings to life the true stories of people who have lived through explanation-defying paranormal experiences.

Using a mixture of intimate first-hand testimony, personal photos and real footage, combined with grittily realistic drama, Paranormal Witness will transport you into a world turned upside down by extraordinary and terrifying events

SyFy already airs a number of shows that explore UFOs and other paranormal phenomena, including Destination Truth and Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. Ben Hansen from Fact or Faked was a guest earlier this year on Open Minds Radio, and will be speaking at the 2012 International UFO Congress in February.

The series premiere of Paranormal Witness is Wednesday, September 7. Check your local listings for times.

Steve Volk (credit: SteveVolk.com)

Volk’s venturing into the unknown was precipitated by a childhood ghost experience of his own.

In a recent interview with Victor Fiorillo of the Philly Post, Volk stated:

The book is actually about our dysfunctional relationship with the paranormal. We love it in movies and fictional stories. But 20 percent have reported experiencing ghosts. And another 20 percent reports seeing a UFO. And more than 60 percent believe in some sort of paranormal phenomenon. But the knee-jerk reaction is to laugh.

In this interview with the Philly Post, Volk is asked about the percentage of things that are truly unexplainable. He responds by pointing to UFO studies that show how a low percentage of UFOs remain unidentified. Similar information was presented by journalist Leslie Kean, author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. After a ten-year investigation, Kean concluded that ninety five percent of all UFO sightings can be explained as ordinary phenomena, leaving five percent of the sightings unexplainable.

Cover of Fringe-ology (credit: HarperOne)

Volk set out to gain a better understanding of paranormal topics. PhillyBurbs.com points out that “Volk is no closer to having all the answers about the paranormal,” but he’s fine with that. Through his book, he hopes to spark discussion and debate, and hopes skeptics and believers will learn to listen and learn from each other.

Steve Volk will be a guest on Open Minds Radio on Monday, June 20th.

Chuck Zukowski (image credit: PostInteractive.net)

Manuel Sanchez, a rancher outside of the town of San Luis, Colorado suffered the loss of four calves due to mysterious mutilations in 2009, and this month he has lost another.

The string of mutilations in 2009 began with a fury in March with two animals on three different ranches in and around the San Luis Valley dying of mysterious causes. Authorities, including the local branding inspector, and ranchers could not determine how the animals were killed. In each case there were no signs of a struggle, nor a speck of blood nearby, indicators of a predator kill. The deaths didn’t end in March; by the end of 2009 eight animals were killed, four of those belonging to Sanchez.

Upset with the authorities’ inability to explain what happened to his animals, and feeling helpless to stop the killings, Sanchez sold off his remaining calves in 2009. His animals have been safe up until this month, when on May 17 he found one of his missing adult female cows apparently mutilated similarly to the calves in 2009.

The 2009 wave was investigated by Chuck Zukowski, micro-chip engineer and paranormal investigator out of Colorado Springs. Sanchez informed Zukowski of this new animal and invited him out to take a look. When they got to the animal, they found it had been burnt. A nearby rancher that also uses the land where the animal was found burnt the animal. It is a standard practice in the area to keep dogs and other animals from picking at it and possibly spreading disease. Although the animal was burnt, this was mostly just on the outside of the carcass. It luckily had not been incinerated.

Zukowski examines the carcass. (image credit: PostInteractive.net)

Upon inspection, as with the earlier cases, there were no signs of a struggle, nor splattering of blood, so it didn’t look like a predator had killed it. They also noted that the animal’s tracks leading to the area looked normal, the animal’s pace was not abnormal and did not indicate that it was having problems walking. It appeared that the cow just fell over, with no indication as to why or how it died. There was also a missing area of hide under the animal, exposing the rib cage. Zukowski measured the missing hide to be 27 by 42 inches.

Because the animal had been burnt, any tissue samples would not have been helpful. However, Zukowski did measure for abnormal EMF, and also scanned it with a magnetic wand, but the readings were not unusual.

Zukowski and Miller were left with no answers. In the past Zukowski has worked with a veterinary professor out of Colorado State University, and although they are willing to perform a necropsy and examine samples, the animal needs to be found within a couple of days of its death. That is obviously difficult, as is transporting an animal, and of course the burning of the carcass further hampers analysis.

Cattle mutilations often happen in small waves, as was demonstrated in 2009, so it is possible another one may occur in the area soon. Hopefully, the rancher affected seeks help and is able to get in touch with Zukowski, until then he will be ready and waiting.

You can read more about this case at UFONut.com, and in the video below.

Here is a partial list of the incidents that have been reported just in the past week:

Dead fish along the Arkansas River (credit: 4029TV)

Dead birds in Arkansas (credit: DailyMail / AP)

Point Coupee Parish, Louisiana
500 dead birds, including red-winged blackbirds and starlings, were discovered on January 3rd, as their dead bodies littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Point Coupee Parish. Biologists have said that initial tests show the birds suffered internal injuries that formed deadly blood clots.

Murray, Kentucky
Several hundred dead grackles, cowbirds, starlings, red-winged blackbirds and robins were found scattered for several city blocks around Murray State University on January 3rd. A spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife told the local Fox affiliate that a full toxicology screen and necropsy was performed, and the results showed “no poison, no disease, no trauma,” and he went on to state that “there was really nothing they could put their fingers on that would cause the deaths.”

Dead fish in New Zealand (credit: Geoff Dale / NZ Herald)

Thanet, England
More than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs washed up on beaches along the Kent coast on January 4th. Whelks, sponges and anemones were also found among the crabs. Their death is being blamed on cold weather.

Dead birds in Texas (credit: KLTV)

Falkoping, Sweden
50 dead jackdaw birds were found on a street in Sweden on January 5th. CNN has reported that autopsy results show the birds died of “severe internal bleedings caused by external blows.” Fireworks were also offered as an explanation though, as they were reportedly set off in the area on Tuesday night.

Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
On January 5th, more than 2,000,000 fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay, primarily consisting of adult spot and juvenile croaker fish. Water quality tests show the water to be at acceptable levels. Biologists suspect that “cold water stress” killed the fish.

Dead fish in Brazil (credit: Parana Online)

Joseph Cady (credit: Sacramento Press)

Joseph Cady was inspired to create his own show “Sci Fi Stories” by the long-running, nation-wide radio show “Coast to Coast AM,” which covers similar topics. According to Cady, his 20-30 minute show will air every Sunday, and will explore subjects including ghosts, UFOs, extraterrestrials, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

The ambitious 16-year-old aims to conduct sit-down interviews with local experts for some shows, while filming other shows on-site.

The series premiere of “Sci Fi Stories” will be on Halloween, on the topic of ghosts, while the following week’s show will explore UFOs and extraterrestrial life. “Sci Fi Stories” can been seen on the show’s YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/SciFiStories

It was no secret that Gleason was into the occult and the paranormal, although he didn’t like to speak publicly about it. In particular he had a fascination with UFOs. According to Rendlesham witness, Larry Warren, who Gleason had talked with on several occasions, Gleason had a huge UFO library. The library was donated to the University of Miami after his death.

Gleason was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party and eventually became good friends with Richard Nixon. Gleason and Nixon would golf together, and according to Gleason, Nixon shared his interest in UFOs, although he didn’t like to talk much about it. It was during a trip to Florida – to help support a charity event that Gleason was sponsoring – that Nixon decided it was time to show his friend what he was looking for.

Golfing buddies, President Richard Nixon and Jackie Gleason.

In an interview with Gleason’s second wife, Beverly McKittrick, by Esquire Magazine about a book she was planning to write, she revealed that Gleason had told her that Nixon had shown Gleason alien bodies. The story goes that Gleason arrived home unusually late on the evening of February 19, 1973. Worried, McKittrick questioned his whereabouts. She said in the interview that his face looked “haggard”, and that he said he had been to Homestead Air Force Base and had seen alien bodies. He described them as small, “only about two feet tall, with bald heads and disproportionately large ears.”

Gleason told her that he could not get many answers, but that a spacecraft must have crashed nearby. She says that he was so preoccupied about the event that he continued to talk about it the next morning.

In 2003, in an interview with Kenny Young, McKittrick said that Gleason was not happy with the news of his visit to Homestead being leaked. He never denied the incident, but was so upset with the story getting out that, although they were already separated, he cut off his relationship with McKittrick completely.

Since the release of the story, researchers had been clamoring for more information, but Gleason wasn’t talking. Warren says that on one occasion, at Gleason’s house in Westchester County, New York, Gleason finally opened up to him about the event after a few drinks. Gleason told him that Nixon had arrived at Gleason’s house alone in his private car. Nixon told Gleason that he wanted to show him something. Nixon continued to drive Gleason to Homestead. At the gate, a shocked security guard waved them through.

They drove to a well-guarded building, and walked in. Inside the building were a number of labs, but they eventually arrived at an inner chamber. Here they found several containers that looked like “glass-topped Coke freezers.” Inside was what Gleason described as looking like “mangled children,” but upon closer examination were not human, and actually looked quite old. After telling him the details of the visit, Gleason told Warren that he was very upset that the government would not share this information with the public.

President John F. Kennedy and Air Force One at Homestead Air Force Base. (image credit: Doug Mathews/ Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum)

Some find it hard to believe that a sitting president could elude his security to whisk off in the middle of the night. Grant Cameron of PresidentialUFO.com sites a passage from a book written by a secret service man named Martin Venker. “In his book Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent tells that not only can the President disappear, but it has happened. Venker stated that in the exact year of the Homestead incident with Gleason, 1973, Nixon had tried to cut his secret service protection. Venker also stated that it was not uncommon for Nixon to try to elude his secret service detail. The agents working on the Nixon Presidential detail had been warned about it.”

Beyond the testimony of McKittrick and Warren, there don’t appear to be any others Gleason spoke to about the event. Gleason never confirmed or denied the story publicly. As for Homestead, controversial conspiracy theorist, William Cooper, claims in his popular book Behold a Pale Horse that Eisenhower met with Extraterrestrials at the base, but this is another claim that cannot be proven.

If the story is true, then for all of his faults, Nixon knew how to give a friend a whopper of a present. This is the type of experience that UFO researchers dream of. Perhaps one day Gleason’s wish will come true and the government will give us the gift that the public deserves… the truth.

For more information on Nixon and UFOs visit PresidentialUFO.com.

The Sanchez mutilation, the carcass is in the bottom left of this picture. (image credit: Chuck Zukowski)

A rancher outside of Colorado’s oldest town, San Luis, has been struck with a string of cattle mutilations that have left him baffled and distraught. On Oct. 25, Manuel Sanchez found two calves with their chests cored out, all of the organs seemingly carefully removed. There were no signs of struggle, and no pooling of blood, so it didn’t appear to be the work of a predator.

Inside the rib cage, all organs have been carefully removed. (image credit: Chuck Zukowski)

However, Sanchez was not able to find footprints, tire tracks, or any other indications that foul play by humans was involved either. Even if it were humans, he says he is unable to explain how a human could have cleanly killed the animals and removed their organs with no indications of their presence.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of Sanchez’s ordeal.  A few weeks later, on Nov. 9, another calf was found dead. This time, the left side of the animal’s face was removed with “laser-like” cuts. Fed up and convinced this was not the act of predators, Sanchez called the police. A deputy from the Costilla County Sheriff’s office came out and took pictures, but couldn’t provide any answers.

Finally, on Nov. 16, with another calf mutilated and the police unable to do anything to find the perpetrator or to protect his cattle, Sanchez had enough and decided to sell his remaining calves at auction before he lost them all.

Chuck Zukowski

With no answers from local authorities, Manuel’s daughter, Bernadette, searched online for other strange mutilations in the area and found my stories on cattle mutilations that took place just south of the San Luis Valley in Trinidad, Colorado earlier this year. She contacted me, and I got a hold of my colleague, Chuck Zukowski. He is an engineer and a reserve police officer that lives in the area, and he was the researcher who investigated the Trinidad mutilations. Luckily, he was able to get out and take a look.

The Trinidad mutilations took place in March, 2009 just west of town. Three ranchers had cattle mutilated, and all three were at a loss to explain how the animals were killed. Local authorities, press, and the brand inspector were also perplexed. Zukowski worked with them to look for clues and consult them on the cattle mutilations phenomena.

This phenomenon actually started in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and became famous. The first mysterious mutilation occurred in 1967 on the King ranch outside of Alamosa, only a few miles north of San Luis. The victim was an Appaloosa horse name Lady (renamed Snippy by the press). It was found with the head and neck de-fleshed. The exposed bones were clean and white, without blood. The cuts were cauterized, leading a local pathologist out of Denver to speculate that they were done with a laser scalpel. Laser scalpels were practically science fiction in 1967.

Chuck Zukowski examining carcass in March, 2009 near Trinidad.

Since the King ranch incident in 1967, there have been hundreds of strange animal deaths in the San Luis Valley, often taking place in groups. This held true for the investigations Zukowski and I conducted in March of this year near Trinidad, and this also seems to be the case with Sanchez’s cattle.

When Zukowski arrived on the scene to the most recent mutilation on the Sanchez ranch, he noted that there were no footprints or tire marks to indicate people came to the area.  He also noted the lack of pooled blood, indications of a struggle, or any of the missing remains.  He did find a few teeth marks on the rib cage, and a missing eye ball, both of which appeared to be the work of scavengers after the death of the animal.

Tongues are often taken in mysterious cattle mutilations, and if not, they are usually hanging out of the animal’s mouth.  Since the mouth was closed in this case, Zukowski decided to take a look inside. He had to forcibly pry open the mouth with a garden shovel, and when he did, he found that the tongue had been removed.  It was cut off at least an inch behind the lower teeth.

Zukowski asked Sanchez about predators in the area. Sanchez told him that there had not been any mountain lions spotted recently, although there was a wolf sighting seven miles from the ranch in August.

There had been no military activity or helicopters seen in the area. However, Sanchez did report having sightings of strange lights in the early morning hours in July and August. He saw bright lights that drifted slowly above the pasture between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., then mysteriously disappeared.

Sanchez calf had no unusual radiation emissions. (image credit: Chuck Zukowski)

Neither Zukowski nor the rancher believes that predators were to blame. The animal’s organs seemed to be carefully and completely removed.  The last animal’s body is twisted, and it was skinned without pools of blood, or a sign of a struggle. Zukowski and the rancher also ruled out foul play because of the lack of signs that would indicate human activity in the area.

Sanchez said that when he first found the last mutilated calf, there was snow on the ground, and the snow was not disturbed by any type of footprints at all. He says he doesn’t believe these animals were killed by predators or humans. He doesn’t know what killed his animals.

This isn’t the first time Sanchez has had to deal with this strange phenomenon. In 2006, he found one of his cows de-fleshed from the face down to the mid-torso. Luckily, in that case, he didn’t continue to lose cattle like he did recently.

More Information:

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Click here to view more pictures from this mutilation, and the 2006 Sanchez mutilation, along with Chuck’s investigation notes.

Chuck Zukowski’s website: www.UFONUT.com

Stories on March 2009 mutilations near Trinidad, CO.

If you have any information regarding recent mutilations in the San Luis Valley, please email: contact@openminds.tv