WEBVTT - Quicksand

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<v Speaker 1>Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D

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<v Speaker 1>audio for full exposure. Lissimuth had fiends. We know now

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<v Speaker 1>that in the early years of the twentieth century this

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<v Speaker 1>world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's,

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<v Speaker 1>yet as mortal as his own. We know now that

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<v Speaker 1>as human beings busy themselves about their various concerns, they

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<v Speaker 1>were scrutinized and studdied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a

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<v Speaker 1>man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that

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<v Speaker 1>swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacence,

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<v Speaker 1>people went to and fro of the earth about their

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<v Speaker 1>little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over

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<v Speaker 1>this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood, which, by chance

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<v Speaker 1>or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery

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<v Speaker 1>of time and space. Yet across an immense ethereal goat

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<v Speaker 1>minds that are to our minds as always that are

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<v Speaker 1>the beasts in the jungle. Intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic,

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<v Speaker 1>regarded this birth with envious eyes, and slowly and sure

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<v Speaker 1>they drew their plans against US. If, like we're doing here,

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<v Speaker 1>you look at the UFO era in the United States

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<v Speaker 1>is a developing modern legend, then one of the protagonists

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<v Speaker 1>is Alan Heinek. Heinik, who he met in the last episode,

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<v Speaker 1>was the consulting scientists for Project Blue Book, and in

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<v Speaker 1>that capacity was deeply involved in the early years of

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<v Speaker 1>official investigation into UFO reports. But what really makes him

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<v Speaker 1>noteworthy in this context is that he went from a

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<v Speaker 1>vowed skeptic at the beginning of his work too, if

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<v Speaker 1>not exactly endorsing the view that extraterrestrials for visiting Earth,

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<v Speaker 1>certainly making the case that the UFO phenomenon was real

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<v Speaker 1>and required scientific scrutiny. I'm Toby Ball and this is

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<v Speaker 1>Strange Arrivals. Episode six quicksand In Joseph Campbell, a professor

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<v Speaker 1>of literature at Sarah Lawrence College, published his opus of

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<v Speaker 1>comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In it,

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<v Speaker 1>he described a type of folk narrative he called the

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<v Speaker 1>hero's journey. Like the US quote, a hero ventures forth

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<v Speaker 1>from the world of common day into a region of

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<v Speaker 1>supernatural wonder. Fabulous forces are there encountered, and a decisive

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<v Speaker 1>victory is one. The hero comes back from this mysterious

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<v Speaker 1>adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow

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<v Speaker 1>man end quote. Campbell thought that mythic tales across cultures

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<v Speaker 1>and time followed basic narrative patterns. One of these was

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<v Speaker 1>the hero's journey. I'm not going to make the case

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<v Speaker 1>that Alan Heinik is a hero in the usual sense,

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<v Speaker 1>though I know that many people consider him to be

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<v Speaker 1>just that. But the way that his career has been

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<v Speaker 1>positioned in UFO lore adheres to the hero's journey story.

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<v Speaker 1>He has called from his job in the ordinary world,

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<v Speaker 1>enters the strange world of UFO, encounters and emerges with

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<v Speaker 1>a message that UFOs are real, even if he doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>know exactly what they are. So it's this journey that

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<v Speaker 1>we are going to follow over the next few episodes,

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<v Speaker 1>how Heineck's outlook towards UFOs changed, and how that coincided

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<v Speaker 1>with the winding down of Project Blue Book. Heineck story

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<v Speaker 1>begins in Chicago, where he was raised by his parents,

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<v Speaker 1>who are Czech emigres. When he was about eight years old,

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<v Speaker 1>he had scarlet fever and he was a voracious reader.

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<v Speaker 1>He read every book in the house, and his parents

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<v Speaker 1>would go to neighbors to ask if they could borrow

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<v Speaker 1>books from neighbors author Mark O'Connell, and one of the

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<v Speaker 1>books ended up being an astronomy textbook. So Heinech read

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<v Speaker 1>that from cover to cover and he was completely entranced

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<v Speaker 1>by the world of stars and planets, and he says

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<v Speaker 1>it at a j he was pretty sure that's what

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<v Speaker 1>he wanted to do with his life. And then he,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, he went to college and studied astrophysics and

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<v Speaker 1>became a professor of astronomy, first at the Ohio State University,

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<v Speaker 1>later on at both Harvard and then Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.

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<v Speaker 1>So his his whole life was pretty much a straight

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<v Speaker 1>shot between getting that astronomy book when he was sicking

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<v Speaker 1>bed at a j and then going to you know,

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<v Speaker 1>being a really successful and very very well known and

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<v Speaker 1>highly respected astronomer in the fields of academia. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>his work on UFOs that he is best known for.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's Heinik in the radio interview on w i n

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<v Speaker 1>S describing how he came to consult with the Air

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<v Speaker 1>Force on UFOs sightings. When how did you get involved

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<v Speaker 1>with UFOs? Price by accidents and by for property. Really,

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<v Speaker 1>I happened to be teaching astronomy at Ohio State University,

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<v Speaker 1>which is just a two miles from Dayton. And when

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<v Speaker 1>the science suffer um era really began in seven, the

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<v Speaker 1>responsibility for kicking it out and monitoring it was given

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<v Speaker 1>to the Air Force in the head right field and

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<v Speaker 1>maybe didn't cunomer to help pass the judgment as to

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<v Speaker 1>how many of the reports could be attributed to meteors,

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<v Speaker 1>ours planers, go forth, and I just happened to be

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<v Speaker 1>a handy astronomer, and I, well, you might say, the

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<v Speaker 1>one thing led to another. I became interested in some

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<v Speaker 1>of the really oddball cases that we clearly didn't have

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<v Speaker 1>an astronomical explanation, and my curiosity with the rouses too

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<v Speaker 1>how those might be explained. Heinik was contracted at the

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<v Speaker 1>beginning of the Air Force's investigation into UFOs when it

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<v Speaker 1>was known as Projects Signed. He came in with the

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<v Speaker 1>assumption that the job of explaining away UFO sightings would

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<v Speaker 1>be relatively straightforward word and this turned out to be

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<v Speaker 1>true in the vast majority of cases. As part of

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<v Speaker 1>Projects Signed. Heinich looks to this stack of UFO reports

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<v Speaker 1>and at the end he comes to the conclusion that

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<v Speaker 1>he's able to explain away about of these reports. They're

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<v Speaker 1>either misidentifications of the planet Venus or the star ar tourists,

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<v Speaker 1>or it's a meteor shower, or it's a sun dog.

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<v Speaker 1>And the leftover he's not too concerned about those because

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<v Speaker 1>he feels like, well, if I had enough time and resources,

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<v Speaker 1>and I had a staff working with me, we could

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<v Speaker 1>probably get to the bottom of those other as well

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<v Speaker 1>and explain them away. Heinik did his work for Projects Sign,

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<v Speaker 1>got paid, and that was it for a couple of years.

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<v Speaker 1>During that time, Projects Signed became Project Grudge, then Project

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<v Speaker 1>blue Book, the name it operated under until the Air

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<v Speaker 1>Force officially ended UFO investigations at the end of the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixties. But in the early nineteen fifties, the Air

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<v Speaker 1>Force realized that they needed Heinich again. The director of

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<v Speaker 1>Project Blue Book comes back to visit Heineck at the

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<v Speaker 1>university and says, Hey, guess what those UFOs that we

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<v Speaker 1>all laughed about a couple of years ago, They never

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<v Speaker 1>went anywhere. We still have stacks of reports, and because

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<v Speaker 1>you did such a good job with this two years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>we'd like to rehire you too, to do what you

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<v Speaker 1>did last time, go through all these reports and explain

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<v Speaker 1>away as many of them as you can as genuine

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<v Speaker 1>astronomical events and objects. And Heinek accepts the job and

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<v Speaker 1>he starts going through these reports, and again he's able

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<v Speaker 1>to explain away about them pretty handily. But it occurs

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<v Speaker 1>to him that, wow, this is now like three plus

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<v Speaker 1>years since I first started looking at these reports, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's a very consistent year after year that I can't explain.

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<v Speaker 1>This new collection of data showing that cases weren't easily explained.

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<v Speaker 1>Changed Heine's thinking a little. He no longer assumed that

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<v Speaker 1>if given time, he'd be able to explain them all away.

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<v Speaker 1>Nick started thinking, well, I need to start looking at

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<v Speaker 1>these in a different way. I need to start looking

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<v Speaker 1>at these as sort of a scientific puzzle and applying

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<v Speaker 1>scientific research methods to, you know, trying to determine what

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<v Speaker 1>these things are. So Heinek decided that he would look

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<v Speaker 1>at those of cases that he wasn't able to explain.

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<v Speaker 1>Those became his focus on blue Buck, and he began

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<v Speaker 1>to try to direct blue Bucks resources towards focusing on

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<v Speaker 1>those cases specifically. But these cases were not the priority

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<v Speaker 1>for Heine's bosses in the Air Force. Hinik came to

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<v Speaker 1>feel that his attempts to focus resources on difficult to

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<v Speaker 1>explain cases, we're stymied from above. The exceptions were a

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<v Speaker 1>small number of cases that broke through to the popular media,

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<v Speaker 1>newspapers or the nightly news. There'd be so much pressure

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<v Speaker 1>on the Air Force to come up with an answer

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<v Speaker 1>that they would reluctantly say, Okay, go to Albuquerque, Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>go to ann Arbor, figure out what happened, and take

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<v Speaker 1>care of it. Albuquerque was the Lonnie Zamora case that

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<v Speaker 1>we looked at in the last episode. Ann Arbor was

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<v Speaker 1>an even more confounding case, one that would change the

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<v Speaker 1>trajectory of Heineck's journey into UFO investigations. In March of

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty six, there was a wave of UFO sightings

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<v Speaker 1>that were concentrated in southeast Michigan, but we're part of

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<v Speaker 1>a larger wave, almost a three year sort of peak

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<v Speaker 1>of sightings that sort of swept from northeast Ohio all

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<v Speaker 1>the way up to the upper peninsul of Michigan and Wisconsin.

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<v Speaker 1>Host of the Saucer Life podcast, Aaron Gullias and in

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<v Speaker 1>March of nineteen sixty six, there were sightings in southeast

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<v Speaker 1>Michigan centered around the communities of Dexter and Hillsdale, Hillsdale

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<v Speaker 1>College in particular, and the sightings began at the family

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<v Speaker 1>farm of a man named Frank Manor. Frank Manner owned

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<v Speaker 1>a farm in the town of Dexter. On the night

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<v Speaker 1>of March his family saw lights coming from the swamp

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<v Speaker 1>near his house. One night, a farm family saw some

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<v Speaker 1>strange lights in the swamp down below their house, and

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<v Speaker 1>the father and son went out to find out what

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<v Speaker 1>was in the swamp, and they ended up seeing all

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<v Speaker 1>sorts of strange lights that were moving around strangely, seeming

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<v Speaker 1>to hover or lift off and then settle back down again.

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<v Speaker 1>The lights would disappear from one part of the swamp

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<v Speaker 1>and reappear in another part of the swamp. From w

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<v Speaker 1>j R Radio in Detroit, eight four year seven year

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<v Speaker 1>old prime matter of Farmer and his nineteen year old

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<v Speaker 1>son Ronalds said they approached within a hundred yards of

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<v Speaker 1>austrain the object excited last night. They said it lay

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<v Speaker 1>in a swamp of head pole setting lights on each end.

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<v Speaker 1>Manner said it was fitted like coral rock kind about

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<v Speaker 1>the length of the car. He said, it's shapeless, like

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<v Speaker 1>that of a football. Matter said his son then said,

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<v Speaker 1>look at that horrible thing in the craft vanished. They

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<v Speaker 1>called the authorities and the local authorities and Dexter came

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<v Speaker 1>out and took statements. Reports went out to the local newspapers,

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<v Speaker 1>and the next day there were people sort of camped

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<v Speaker 1>out waiting for another sighting. Washington County Sheriff Doug Harvey

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<v Speaker 1>investigated the scene. Although he was unable to find any

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<v Speaker 1>evidence of a landing, the sheer number of reported sightings

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<v Speaker 1>had him convinced that there was something in the skies here.

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<v Speaker 1>Harvey talks with newsman William Harris for Detroit radio station

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<v Speaker 1>w j R H was completed the investigation, all of

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<v Speaker 1>seen under fighting life. They're all to be discover We've

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<v Speaker 1>found nothing out there. There's no indication that every not

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<v Speaker 1>a word to come down or the mister manners. So

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<v Speaker 1>they come down where my officers stated in the area

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<v Speaker 1>when it come down, also they got your kind of

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<v Speaker 1>picked up nothing. There was all flap grad flap brodt

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<v Speaker 1>very then to indicate sping in lander Breck whatever. Do

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<v Speaker 1>you have any series of the hoppers might be I

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<v Speaker 1>wish I did. I wish handful man that I I don't.

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<v Speaker 1>I were a little doubt for first way first sighting

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<v Speaker 1>this among the seven teams we sided with first one.

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<v Speaker 1>My men did that again, only eight teens, and then

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<v Speaker 1>last night and now we've got too many people, too

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<v Speaker 1>many train officers. They have also seen that. So I

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<v Speaker 1>my daughter is gone. I know these teens things, what

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<v Speaker 1>are they? They don't know. So while the manner citing

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<v Speaker 1>attracted news coverage, it wasn't a nice lated incident. Others

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<v Speaker 1>had seen lights or even objects. In previous days. You

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<v Speaker 1>had a number of people, including sheriff's deputies, seeing things

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<v Speaker 1>in the sky, not just lights, but also sort of

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<v Speaker 1>structured craft, sort of football shaped things with what was

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<v Speaker 1>described as a quilted surface, almost like a waffle pattern,

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<v Speaker 1>antenna sticking off it, and lights around the edge of

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<v Speaker 1>the craft. And these craft were, you know, like nothing

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<v Speaker 1>the witnesses had ever seen. And then came another sighting

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<v Speaker 1>that seemed to erase any doubt that something was going on.

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<v Speaker 1>After the break. In the spring of nineteen southern Michigan

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<v Speaker 1>was hit with a rash of strange sightings, including ones

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<v Speaker 1>with multiple witnesses, but there had been no mass sighting,

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<v Speaker 1>an event witnessed by a large group of people, an

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<v Speaker 1>event that could not be brushed aside as confusion or misinterpretation.

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<v Speaker 1>But that changed. On the night of March one, there

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<v Speaker 1>were a number of young women in a dorm at

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<v Speaker 1>Hillsdale College not too far away who saw some strange

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<v Speaker 1>lights in the sky. And you know, it was one

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<v Speaker 1>of these mass sightings where you have dozens of people

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<v Speaker 1>seeing the same thing at the same time. So you've

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<v Speaker 1>got like eighty seven women in this dorm, all looking

0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.280
<v Speaker 1>out of their windows at these strange lights in the

0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.880
<v Speaker 1>swamp down below, and they call in the county Civil

0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.600
<v Speaker 1>Service agent and he takes one look at these lights

0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.640
<v Speaker 1>and says, well, that's obviously a vehicle. That's obviously a spaceship.

0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.600
<v Speaker 1>Of course, he had none he had no basis for

0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.800
<v Speaker 1>saying that, but that's what he said, and that was

0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.360
<v Speaker 1>the you know, that was what the story became, was, Wow,

0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.160
<v Speaker 1>we've had these multiple sightings of spaceships in Michigan. That

0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.680
<v Speaker 1>County Civil Service agent was William Van Horne. Here he

0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.160
<v Speaker 1>is talking with w j R News. To be on

0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.680
<v Speaker 1>the surface of the earth, on the ground However, I

0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.120
<v Speaker 1>don't feel that it was, because it moved very freely,

0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.760
<v Speaker 1>uh from left to right and right to left at

0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.520
<v Speaker 1>various times which it would be impossible great type of

0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.360
<v Speaker 1>vehicle on we os or on the ground to move

0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.640
<v Speaker 1>that moves because of the boggy maggy note than the

0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.160
<v Speaker 1>marching port in there. But at the time that I

0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.160
<v Speaker 1>first observed it would say that on the right was

0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.480
<v Speaker 1>the quite a dem orange new colored light and to

0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:59.480
<v Speaker 1>the left was quite a kind of dem quite light,

0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:06.680
<v Speaker 1>and it was a approximately twenty five feet in between

0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:11.240
<v Speaker 1>the two lights. Uh. Now I was observing this with binocuvers,

0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.520
<v Speaker 1>and at this distance after darkness, pretty hard to estimate

0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:20.280
<v Speaker 1>the distance there. It would at time rise from its

0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.560
<v Speaker 1>position just over the surface, and I'm a rising lights

0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.520
<v Speaker 1>to become more brilliant. And at the time from our

0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.800
<v Speaker 1>minute airport here we had a beacon which was throwing

0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.119
<v Speaker 1>out a beam or light as a beacon does around

0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.040
<v Speaker 1>the area, and the vehicles seem to go up and

0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.960
<v Speaker 1>as it would get up to a type of approximate

0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.360
<v Speaker 1>heard gun fifty here the moudemn mort beam a light

0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.960
<v Speaker 1>be keep staying there and then would descend back down.

0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.960
<v Speaker 1>In other words, it was appeared to me that it

0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.000
<v Speaker 1>was attempting to stay out of this beam a light

0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.440
<v Speaker 1>that was coming around. Among the eighty seven student witnesses

0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:04.040
<v Speaker 1>at Hills l College was Josephine Wilson, an eighteen year

0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:10.879
<v Speaker 1>old from Cleveland. Well, I never leave, That's when I thought.

0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.600
<v Speaker 1>And I saw this. It wasn't anything horrendous. I mean

0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.160
<v Speaker 1>nothing that's like a big ball of fire in front

0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.640
<v Speaker 1>of your eyes. But it was very sat and after

0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.720
<v Speaker 1>lot at the two hours and seeing it however around

0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.640
<v Speaker 1>and change light and seeing it glow. Um, I don't

0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.639
<v Speaker 1>think I'm gonna plan so much in our and say definitely, definitely,

0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:39.639
<v Speaker 1>you know such thing as remember in last week's episode,

0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.320
<v Speaker 1>when the Robertson panel expressed concern about the possible psychological

0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:49.240
<v Speaker 1>effects UFOs might cause. They were also concerned that the

0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.280
<v Speaker 1>Soviet Union might be able to use UFOs to manipulate

0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:59.639
<v Speaker 1>the American public to instill panic. Here in Michigan seemed

0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.919
<v Speaker 1>to be a case where these concerns might become a reality.

0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.639
<v Speaker 1>With this many people seeing UFOs in a small area

0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.879
<v Speaker 1>and over a small period of time, how would the

0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:17.000
<v Speaker 1>public react. There is a long history of public officials

0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.160
<v Speaker 1>being afraid of public panic. My name is Jesse Walker.

0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.639
<v Speaker 1>I worked at Reason magazine. I wrote The United States

0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.320
<v Speaker 1>of Paranoia of conspiracy theory, and I also wrote another

0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:34.359
<v Speaker 1>book about the history of radio. And the interesting thing

0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.480
<v Speaker 1>is that in that Cold War moment, I mean a

0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.720
<v Speaker 1>little bit later than what you're talking about, I think

0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:44.960
<v Speaker 1>some sociologists went to investigate how people behave I mean

0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.800
<v Speaker 1>natural disasters, you know, sort of the classic time people

0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.720
<v Speaker 1>expect mass panic, and they found that panic is rare.

0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:59.120
<v Speaker 1>People sort of moved towards cooperation. Crime declines usually as

0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:01.560
<v Speaker 1>opposed to like the orgy of looting. I mean, there's

0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.520
<v Speaker 1>a few times there's been like looting and stuff that's

0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:08.000
<v Speaker 1>basically amounts to a disaster coinciding with a riot. And

0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.800
<v Speaker 1>the further follow up studies looked at as another context,

0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.040
<v Speaker 1>you know, like you technological disasters and so on. In

0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.320
<v Speaker 1>other words, studies eventually showed that a full on public

0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:24.720
<v Speaker 1>panic was a very unlikely outcome, regardless of the circumstances.

0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.880
<v Speaker 1>But this wasn't known when the Robertson Panel issued its

0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:33.600
<v Speaker 1>report in ninety three. In six while studies of the

0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:38.280
<v Speaker 1>sociology of disaster were underway, the conclusions were not well known.

0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.280
<v Speaker 1>The fear of mass panic was still real. A lot

0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.720
<v Speaker 1>of books also at that point still believed the myth

0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.440
<v Speaker 1>of mass panic. After the War the World's broadcast, so

0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.719
<v Speaker 1>in n Um there was a special Halloween edition of

0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.440
<v Speaker 1>the Mercury Theater on the air, which was Cource and

0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:03.280
<v Speaker 1>wells Is radio drama program, and they did an adaptation

0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.400
<v Speaker 1>of War of the World. The enemy is now inside

0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:13.760
<v Speaker 1>about the palace sades five five great matines. First one

0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.520
<v Speaker 1>is crossing the river. I can see it from here, waiting,

0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.399
<v Speaker 1>waiting the Hudson like a man waiting through a brook

0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:28.840
<v Speaker 1>bullets and has handed me Fran. Cylinders are falling all

0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:33.160
<v Speaker 1>over the country, one outside of Buffalo, one in Chicago.

0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:40.520
<v Speaker 1>They Lewis seemed to be timed in space. Now the

0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.000
<v Speaker 1>first machine reaches the shore, it is widely believed that

0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.159
<v Speaker 1>it's set off a mass panic. You know, people are

0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.720
<v Speaker 1>running out in the streets being afraid that the you know,

0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.119
<v Speaker 1>the world was coming to an end. Basically, several people

0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.639
<v Speaker 1>reported to St. Michael's Hospital in Newark, New Jersey for

0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:02.720
<v Speaker 1>shock Baltimore Mare and died of a heart attack. Car

0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:07.920
<v Speaker 1>accidents panicked people in the streets. None of these things happened.

0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.600
<v Speaker 1>The story of the reaction to the program is an

0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.000
<v Speaker 1>urban legend, the one that was briefly promoted by the

0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:19.359
<v Speaker 1>popular press. Now later on scholars went back and found

0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:23.200
<v Speaker 1>that no, most people did understand that it was a

0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:25.560
<v Speaker 1>work of fiction that they were listening to on the radio.

0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.520
<v Speaker 1>Of the people who did miss the announcement at the beginning,

0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:31.399
<v Speaker 1>and that it was a play, and who thought they

0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.680
<v Speaker 1>were listening to a real broadcast, most of them thought

0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.920
<v Speaker 1>it was an invasion of Germans, not Martians. It got

0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.400
<v Speaker 1>sort of played up a lot, I mean, in part

0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.960
<v Speaker 1>because it was newspapers who like losing audiences to radio

0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.399
<v Speaker 1>and wanted to be able to cast radio is this

0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.480
<v Speaker 1>uniquely new threat. And in part, you know, it just

0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:53.960
<v Speaker 1>sort of fed people's fear of the masses in general,

0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.200
<v Speaker 1>and this idea that people were just easily manipulated by

0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:00.919
<v Speaker 1>a demagogue within microphone. And of course ours In Welles

0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:04.119
<v Speaker 1>was happy to have this story going around that he

0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.240
<v Speaker 1>was such an amazing storyteller. He had you know, the

0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.720
<v Speaker 1>country panicking. I mean, I mean, in addition to being

0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:15.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, a great popular artist, Orson Welles he understood

0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:20.720
<v Speaker 1>show business as the stories of the Michigan sightings made

0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:25.480
<v Speaker 1>it into the national press. The questions began, what is

0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.119
<v Speaker 1>the government going to do about it? Are they going

0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:33.399
<v Speaker 1>to investigate in this environment? Alan Heinek pressed his boss,

0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.919
<v Speaker 1>Captain Hector Quintinilla, the head of Project Blue Book, to

0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:44.879
<v Speaker 1>be sent to Michigan to try to determine what was happening. First,

0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.120
<v Speaker 1>his boss at Project blue Book said no, we're ignoring this,

0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.760
<v Speaker 1>and Heineck was very frustrated. Well, a little while later

0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:54.000
<v Speaker 1>he gets a call from his boss at the Air

0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.199
<v Speaker 1>Force again he says, all right, go to Michigan. The

0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:03.159
<v Speaker 1>press attention had made not investigating an untenable position. They

0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:06.479
<v Speaker 1>were embarrassed by their inaction, and so they decided they

0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:08.680
<v Speaker 1>had to do something. So they send Heineck to Michigan.

0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:12.960
<v Speaker 1>And in Michigan, Heinik encountered the case that would be

0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.840
<v Speaker 1>the turning point of his career, the confrontation in his

0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.879
<v Speaker 1>hero's journey that would eventually bring him back to the

0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:25.240
<v Speaker 1>public with a new message next time on Strange Arrivals.

0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:33.720
<v Speaker 1>Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heeart, three D

0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:37.520
<v Speaker 1>audio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. This episode

0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.199
<v Speaker 1>was written and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by

0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:44.760
<v Speaker 1>Miranda Hawkins and Josh Thame, with executive producers Alex Williams,

0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:49.120
<v Speaker 1>Matt Frederick, and Aaron Manky. And special thanks to Wendy Connors,

0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:52.800
<v Speaker 1>creator of the Faded Discs archive of UFO related audio

0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:56.800
<v Speaker 1>on archive dot org. Learn more about Strange Rivals over

0:24:56.800 --> 0:25:00.640
<v Speaker 1>at grimm and mild dot com, and find more podcasts

0:25:00.640 --> 0:25:03.440
<v Speaker 1>from My Heart Radio by visiting the I heart Radio app,

0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:07.879
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:09.359
<v Speaker 1>H