WEBVTT - S05 Episode 4: How the End Always Is (RERUN) 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:05.280 Hello, this is Richard mc cleinsmith here unexplained. Season seven 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.680 has now finished, but will be back on Friday, September 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.880 sixth to begin season eight. In the meantime, I'm replaying 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.479 some of my favorite episodes from the archives. In the 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:22.240 early hours of Saturday, July fourteenth, nineteen ninety, in Gulf Breeze, Florida, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.200 a young man is pulled over for a routine traffic stop. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.680 Little could anyone have predicted it would begin the unraveling 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.440 of one of the most bizarre cases of desertion in 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:39.000 the United States militaries entire history. The title of this 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.080 episode is taken from a song by the Cure. It 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.120 wasn't so much the lyric that reflected the themes of 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.239 the episode, but more the title of the song. It 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:56.600 was taken from Disintegration And so this is unexplained Season five, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:13.720 episode four. How the end or ways? Considering the amount 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.440 of high strangeness that residents of Golf Breeze, Florida had 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.000 become accustomed to over the previous few months, a nineteen 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:26.280 seventy one VW van with busted tail lights was hardly unusual. 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.520 It was back in nineteen eighty seven that the quiet 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.000 town of Golf Breeze, nestled at the tip of Pensacola 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.920 Bay in the northwest of Florida, became for a brief moment, 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.920 a hotbed of apparent UFO activity. In late November of 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.000 that year, local resident Ed Walters brought a series of 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:51.120 photographs he'd taken of an unidentified flying object to the 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.520 attention of Dwayne Cook, editor of local newspaper, The Golf 0:01:55.600 --> 0:02:01.760 Breeze Sentinel. The pictures, evocatively lit, dark and grainy polaroids 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.560 showing the same, almost comically saucer shaped object hanging in 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.960 the sky, did little to convince Cook, until that was 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.359 he showed them to his parents later that night, who 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.760 recognized it instantly as the same strange object they'd seen 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.600 only a few days earlier. And they weren't the only ones. 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.680 Over the next six months, one hundred and thirty five 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:32.320 people reported eighty different sightings. Many had congregated together at 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.920 UFO watching parties held at Shoreline Park, where they gazed 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.920 out across the Gulf of Mexico and up toward the 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:45.720 heavens in excited anticipation of just what might be. The 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.040 sightings were lent a further air of credibility when in 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:54.280 February nineteen eighty eight, City councilwoman Brenda Pollack revealed that 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:59.239 she too had witnessed something inexplicable while driving across Pensacola 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.920 Bay Bridge. It was there that she caught sight of 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:07.280 a strange orange light hanging low over the town. The 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.720 light appeared to bob up and down behind distant trees, 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:16.080 pulsating with no discernible rhythm. It was like nothing she'd 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.600 ever seen before. It was perhaps fitting that such an 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.440 occurrence would take place in this part of the world, 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.519 only ten kilometers across the bay from the pioneering US 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:33.240 Naval Training School Naval Air Station Pensacola. Since its founding 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.839 in nineteen fourteen, the station has trained thousands of naval aviators, 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.800 and among its most distinguished alumni was none other than 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.200 the first Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. But let's 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:56.640 get back to that VW van. It was sometime around 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.480 three a m. In the early morning of Saturday, July fourteenth, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:05.720 nineteen ninety that Golf Breeze police officer Don Stephens cruised 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.120 on to US Highway ninety eight and spotted the errant 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:14.880 VW Perhaps intrigued by its Tennessee license plate. Stephens was 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.720 already trailing the vehicle when it drew to a stop 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.479 at a set of lights. Seeing then that the tail 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.000 lights were broken, the officer flashed his own lights and 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:30.719 pulled the van over. Officer Stephens stepped out into the warm, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:35.320 humid air, and under that vast blanket of stars, cautiously 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.440 made his way over to the vehicle. Shining his torch 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.640 into the driver's side window, he picked out the nervous 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.040 looking man inside his hands gripped uneasily around the top 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.279 of the steering wheel. Stephens knocked on the window and 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.880 motioned for the driver to wind it down. Good evening, officer, 0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:01.560 said the man. Squinting into the torchlight, Stephens noted his 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:07.000 accent was some way off of Florida, Wyoming. Perhaps maybe 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.359 he was one of the eight hundred out of towners 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.520 who turned up the previous weekend for the annual Mouffon conference. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.960 He thought the mutual U f O network had elected 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.880 to have its conference there that year on account of 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:26.200 the recent spate of sightings in the region. License and Registration, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:32.080 said the officer. The driver visibly tensed up. I'm afraid 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.040 I don't have any idea on me, he said. Officer 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.400 Stephens stood for a moment, looking the driver up and 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:45.039 down as the occasional car wushed past behind. He angled 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.840 the torch toward the back of the van, but found 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:53.080 no one else inside. Name then, he said, the driver 0:05:53.279 --> 0:06:00.360 seemed to hesitate. Michael Huckstead, he replied. Finally, Stephen's told 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.279 Michael to sit tight while he get the station to 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.680 run his name through the database. Please don't, pleaded Michael, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:13.039 suddenly catching Stephens off guard. Back in his squad car, 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.120 Stephens waited on his colleagues at the station until finally 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:23.760 they found a match Michael Huckstead, nineteen years old from Farsen, Wyoming, 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:29.960 or rather Private first Class Michael Huckstead of the U. S. Army. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.120 Michael's name had come up because only a few days before, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.680 the United States Army had put out a world wide 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.960 plea to be on the lookout for him and five 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.839 of his colleagues, all of whom had, for reasons unknown, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:56.440 gone a wall. Officer Stephens made its way back to 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.479 the van and ordered Michael to step out of it. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.320 You don't know what you've done, said Michael in despair. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.359 You just signed my death warrant. Mike pleaded again with 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.440 the officer, even offering a bribe to let him go, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.720 but Stephens had no intention of doing so. After making 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.000 a quick search of the vehicle, officer Stephens found a 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.480 cash of food enough to last for months, as well 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.680 as camping gear and a hambook on how to survive 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.600 in the wild packed in the back. Offering no further resistance, 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.320 Mike was arrested and taken to Golf Breeze Police Station. 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.000 While station Sheriff Jerry Brown waited on word from the 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:43.160 near by Pensacola Naval Air Station and what to do next. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.760 It wasn't long before the call came in. You need 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.560 to call Washington, said the official on the other end 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.560 of the line, as in the Pentagon. They want this 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:00.400 guy bad, real bad. Brown was asked if Mike told 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.840 him where the rest of the deserters were, but he 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.880 was refusing to cooperate. After making the appropriate calls, Brown 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.560 was told only to keep an eye on the prisoner 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:15.080 and that under no circumstances should he speak to him. 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.440 That six soldiers would simultaneously go a war from the 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.320 United States military was unusual enough in itself, but as 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.880 more and more scraps of information began to filter through. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:33.280 The story only got more and more strange. By the 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.920 time it broke in the press. It could well be 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.400 said to be the most bizarre case of desertion in 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:45.079 the United States Military's entire history. You're listening to Unexplained, 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:57.880 and I'm Richard McLean Smith. What hadn't been revealed to 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.000 Sheriff Brown at his colleagues was a nineteen year old 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.480 Michael Huckstett was no ordinary foot soldier. He was an 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:10.800 information specialist trained at Cory Station, the US Navy's Center 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:17.280 for Information Warfare. Huckstett had been instructed on cryptology, coding 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.040 and decoding communication, and for the past few months had 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.320 been stationed in Augsburg, Germany, where he worked as an 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:31.560 intelligence analyst, intercepting and identifying non Morse coded communications. There, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.400 he was assigned to the seven hundred first Military Intelligence 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:40.080 Brigade as part of US Army Intelligence and Security Command 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.360 on what at the time was the largest national security 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:49.640 agency base in the world outside the United States. In Augsburg, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.880 Mike became friends with twenty year old William Setterberg through 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.040 a mutual interest in meditation. At some point the pair 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.920 then became friendly with varm s Davis and Ken Beeson, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:07.040 two older colleagues with intriguing ideas about the capabilities of 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:12.880 human beings. All four of them were Fundamentalist Christians, utterly 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.559 committed to the beliefs of their church. Ken Advance, both 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.400 twenty six years old at the time, had got to 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.120 know each other during their studies on the way to 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.120 working for the U. S. Army. Drawn together by their 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:31.440 shared interests and Christian faith, they gradually began to open 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.280 up to each other about their somewhat more unusual beliefs 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.960 and experiences. When Ken was five years old, he was 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.200 convinced he'd witnessed a ghost in his bedroom. A few 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.760 years later, he began suffering continual night terrors due to 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.880 what he believed were visions of an impending armageddon. He 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.720 also became convinced that he'd lived a previous life and 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.800 had even once been sacrificed as an offering to the gods. 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.560 As a teenager, fans Davis became convinced that the mind 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.600 was an untapped resource of mystical power, and had even 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.559 enrolled on a silver Mind control course in New York. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.280 The controversial course developed by Jose Silver in the nineteen 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.920 sixties was designed to help focus the mind in order 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.360 to improve memory, but also, as some believe, to help 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:34.120 develop the power of extrasensory perception. After taking the course, 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.160 Fans claimed to have mastered the ability to hypnotize himself. 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.640 One day after placing himself in a deep trance, Fans 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:48.080 believed he made contact with an alien entity who proceeded 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.920 to explain to him that the human race was in 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:56.040 grave danger and that an intergalactic war was raging throughout 0:11:56.080 --> 0:12:06.960 the galaxy. Shortly after joining the military and completing his 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.240 intelligence training, Vance Davis claims he was posted to Fort 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.960 Mead on account of his proficiency of the Silver mind 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:20.280 control technique. While there, he was apparently tasked with conducting 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:25.200 psychic research. Not a great deal is known about Davis's 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.400 time at Fort Meade, or if he really was stationed 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:33.320 there at all. However, as improbable as his story may sound, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.160 Fort Meade may be familiar to some listeners as the 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:43.400 headquarters of just exactly that kind of research. Established in 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.680 nineteen seventy seven as the Gondola Wish Program, what would 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.320 later become known as the Stargate Project was a fully 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.760 funded twenty year effort to establish the potential for the 0:12:55.880 --> 0:13:00.760 use of psychic phenomena in warfare. The Project X primary 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.960 focus was researching the use of remote viewing, the idea 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.160 that it was possible to spy on people and events 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.000 from great distances using only the power of the mind. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.479 The unit had been established in response to an insistent 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.520 rumor that the Soviet Union had been investing heavily in 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.840 psychotronic research, the study of whether it was possible to 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:30.000 destabilize people's minds with the power of thought. Back in 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.959 the early nineteen seventies, research conducted by physicist Russell Targ 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.479 and engineer Harold put Off at the Stamford Research Institute 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:44.160 hinted at a startling possibility that telepathy might be real. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.280 Their experiments were so provocative they soon drew the attention 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:54.720 of the United States Department of Defense. These experiments would 0:13:54.720 --> 0:14:00.000 form the foundation of the Stargate project. One prominent individual 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:05.960 involved in Stargate was Major Albert Stubblebin, who, as portrayed 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.400 in the John Ronson book The Men Who Stare at Goats, 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.280 had ambitions to create an entire army of soldiers trained 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:18.880 in psychic warfare Stubblebyn, as it happens, had also spent 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:25.320 time in Augsburg, Germany, where Vance Davis, Ken Beeson, Bill Setterberg, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:31.840 and Michael Huckstet were stationed. Shortly before moving to Augsburg, 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:37.000 Ken Beeson was reminded of those terrifying dreams he'd experienced 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.680 as a child. Fearful that they might in fact be 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.440 genuine visions of an approaching apocalypse, he began researching ways 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:50.040 to investigate them. It was sometime in April nineteen ninety 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.680 that Ken purchased at Wigiboort. Intrigued by the possibility of 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:59.520 seeking his answers from the spirit world, he then invited Vance, 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:10.960 Bill and Mike to join him. One night, Vance, Bill 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.040 and Mike were gathered together in a private room in 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:18.080 their barracks as Ken laid out the wigiboard before them. 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.200 Then Vance lit a candle and placed it in the 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.040 middle of the table and switched out the light. Mike 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.840 took charge of the audio recorder as Bill readied himself 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.240 with a paper and pencil to jot down whatever messages 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:38.280 might come through. Wait said Vance, shouldn't we protect ourselves first? 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.040 As fundamentalists Christians? The four men were wary of the 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.160 inherent dangers in the wigiboard should they actually find themselves 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:52.520 contacting someone or something from the other side. For protection, 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.480 the men said a short prayer together, asking Jesus to 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.960 give them a sign if they should not proceed. Getting 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:05.400 nothing in response, the men continued. Ken Advance placed their 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:10.200 fingers on the planchette. Then Ken asked softly if anybody 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:15.120 was there. Mike gasped as the planchet began to slide 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:21.440 slowly burt inexorably toward the word yes, stop messing about, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:27.760 yelled Vance. I'm not, replied Ken. Vance glanced around the 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:33.440 room with the sudden feeling that they were no longer alone. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:38.440 Stealing himself, he asked for the present to introduce themselves. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.760 The planchet began to move again. Ken spoke the letters 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.080 out loud as it moved from one to the other s. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:56.920 A F I R E. Sapphire, he said, with confusion, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.640 as Bill furiously tried to keep parp taking notes. The 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.600 planchet had spelled out that Sapphire once lived in a 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.320 town in Georgia, USA, and had died in the nineteen 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.960 sixties at the age of eighty two. Her attention then 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:18.600 turned to Ken, Why had he stopped believing in his visions, 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.840 she asked. Ken looked troubled. Why do you ask? He 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.760 said back in return, because they are true, came the response. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.840 The first Weija session lasted three and a half hours, 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:44.919 in which the apparent entity Sapphire elaborated on her shocking revelation. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:50.360 A cosmic battle between two alien species was being raged 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.880 over Earth, in which the human race were mere pawns. 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.240 Only those with the correct knowledge, she insisted, would survive 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:03.520 the resulting destruction. With the men thoroughly spooked by their 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.199 first session, it was another two weeks until they gathered 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.800 round the board for a second time, but this time 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.680 Sapphire was not alone. Over the course of eight hours, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.520 the men claimed to have communicated with numerous entities, calling 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:25.920 themselves everything from Tannic prophet Zechariah to Mark and Timothy 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:30.200 of the Christian Bible, and the blessed Virgin Mary herself, 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:35.720 all of whom attested to the approaching apocalypse. While the 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.639 men struggled to process what was happening, Ken grew increasingly troubled. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.760 Needing more proof, he demanded that Sapphire provide some concrete 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.960 evidence that she was who she said she was. She 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.639 duly informed them that Ken's grandfather was with her, So 0:18:54.760 --> 0:19:00.480 what's his name? Then snapped Ken, but there was no reply. Then, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.720 after a five minute pause, the planchete began to move, 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:10.720 once again, spelling out the name John. Ken jumped from 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.160 his seat, pulling the board from the table. He tore 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.080 it in half and threw it across the room as 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.880 the other men looked on in terror. Before they could 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.040 ask what he was doing, Ken was already out the door. 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.080 It was three days later when Vance had an opportunity 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.920 to check in on his friend. He found Ken alone 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.439 in his room in a somber mood. It was true, 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:41.639 he told him his grandfather's name was John. It was 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.040 clear then to both of them that they needed to 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:54.720 learn more from Sapphire. Over the next few weeks, the 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.119 men gathered a further six times to commune with the 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.040 apparent Sapphire, and were eventually joined by twenty year old 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:06.359 Private first Class Chris Purlock and twenty two year old 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:11.320 Sergeant Annette Eggleston, who, having heard rumors of what had 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.320 been going on, were eager to see it for themselves. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:20.920 During the subsequent sessions, Sapphire explained further that while one 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.960 of the alien races battling for Earth were trying to 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.359 save humanity, the other was trying to destroy it. They 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.560 had apparently even made a deal with members of the 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.159 US government to give them power in return for the 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.200 opportunity to carry out a mass abduction of the Earth's 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:44.119 human population. This would be preceded by a series of 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.520 cataclysmic events that would effectively bring about the end of 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:52.080 the world as they knew it. If the group took 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.200 her advice, however, they would be taken off the planet 0:20:55.560 --> 0:21:01.040 and saved from this fate through the prism of their 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:05.199 fundamentalist Christian belief system. The group came to the conclusion 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:10.240 that what Sapphire was detailing was, in actuality, the rapture 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.320 which would make the impending destruction. She spoke of the Tribulation, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.120 a period of worldwide suffering and pain which is said 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.640 in the Bible to proceed or in fact mark the 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.920 end times, which would then be followed by the arrival 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:34.080 of the second Coming of Jesus. It was claimed that 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.160 Sapphire gave the group a series of predictions, a list 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.800 of violent events and cataclysms that would take place over 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.080 the next decade in an effort to convince them further 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.960 of her warnings. The first prediction, an earthquake in Iran 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.159 that would supposedly result in tens of thousands being killed 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:59.080 or injured, would take place imminently. Another was that sometime 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.440 in the not too distant future, a war would break 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.160 out in the Middle East between the United States and Iraq. 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.800 The group finally had what they were looking for, something 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:16.080 concrete to lend credibility to the apparent entities improbable claims. 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:27.040 All they had to do then was weight. It had 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.439 just gone past midnight local time in the early morning 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:35.119 of June twenty first, nineteen twenty, when, two hundred kilometers 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:39.720 northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, the ground shook with 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:45.640 devastating fury, with the initial shake lasting sixty seconds. An 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.880 earthquake measuring seven point four on the Richter scale ruptured 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:54.400 a dam, tore off chunks of mountainside, and raised more 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.720 than one hundred townsand villages to the ground in an 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.320 earth shattering hail of bricks and water, burying thousands in 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:07.440 its wake. In total, up to forty thousand people were 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.480 thought to have been killed, and upwards of one hundred 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:17.800 thousand injured. Sapphire's prediction, it seemed, had come true. It 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:21.080 was a few days later when Stan Johnson, a friend 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:25.000 of Ken Beeson's, was at home in byb Tennessee when 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:29.800 he received an unexpected phone call. It was Ken calling 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:34.280 from Germany. The pair had become friends not long after 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:37.760 Ken finished his army training in nineteen eighty seven, but 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:41.919 had not spoken a great deal in recent months. Without 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.600 wanting to go into too much detail about why, Ken 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:48.879 asked Stan to find him a van big enough to 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.679 fit six people in it. When Stan got back to 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:55.760 him to let him know he'd found one, Ken then 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:59.000 told his confused friend to meet him at the nearby 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:05.320 Knoxville McGee Tyson Airport on July sixth. Sure enough, on 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:10.359 July sixth, Ken arrived at Knoxville accompanied by Michael Huckstead, 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:14.439 with Stand there to meet them. They drove together to 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:19.560 the home of Bill Grant in nearby Morristown. Bill thought 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.639 little of the men when they assembled on his driveway 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:25.560 to inspect the van he was selling them and was 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:28.800 happy to accept their money for it. It was only 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:31.920 when he asked them shortly before they left what they 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:34.919 planned to use it for that he was given pause 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:39.919 for thought, Ken explained matter of factly that they needed 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.560 the van to drive to Pensacola Beach to prepare for 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:47.240 the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus, 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:49.879 and if they didn't make it in time, he said, 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:53.280 they would not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven, 0:24:54.280 --> 0:25:04.440 and with that they were gone. Back at their barracks 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.800 in Aortsburg, Ken Beeson and Mike Huckstet's, superiors of the 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:13.320 seven hundred and first Military Intelligence Brigade, were growing concerned. 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:17.119 Though the pair had signed off on leave, A letter 0:25:17.280 --> 0:25:21.160 left behind by Ken seemed to suggest that something unusual 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:26.199 was going on to whom it concerns. It began, we 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.720 are of sound mind and spirit. You will want to 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:33.040 hide this letter, but we recommend that it be forwarded 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:38.240 to the highest possible command. The following letter may sound wild, 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:41.879 but what was said about the apostles in Christ's time? 0:25:42.560 --> 0:25:46.080 For it is said in the end young men will 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:49.639 see visions of that to come and hide themselves away 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:53.520 for the battle. May you take warning in this time 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:56.320 has come for a decision to be made, and they 0:25:56.400 --> 0:25:59.919 made theirs. Their works will be known throughout the land, 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:04.000 and many will be murdered for knowing them. You will 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:06.960 search for these and thousands more like them, but you 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:10.399 will be searching for naught. God takes care of his 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:15.400 elect and those that follow them. It went on. If 0:26:15.440 --> 0:26:18.280 you listen to this letter, you who claim to be 0:26:18.320 --> 0:26:21.480 of Christ, our Lord, those of you who know of 0:26:21.520 --> 0:26:25.359 the truth and feel its pull, then leave all and 0:26:25.480 --> 0:26:28.720 search for the Elect and their followers, as they are 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:33.240 of God's chosen leaders. You of the world, listen carefully. 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:36.560 The time is now to wake up your spirits and 0:26:36.680 --> 0:26:40.000 heed the warning. I am the last to speak to 0:26:40.080 --> 0:26:44.000 you ever. Now the Elect take over the mission of 0:26:44.040 --> 0:26:50.399 the apostles. Further searches around Ken and Mike's barracks uncovered 0:26:50.440 --> 0:26:54.240 the term end of world written on various pieces of paper. 0:26:55.600 --> 0:26:59.240 A short time later, it was realized that Vance Davis, 0:26:59.600 --> 0:27:05.480 William Setterberg, Chris Purlock, and Annette eccleston had also disappeared 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:10.080 from the base, and so it was that on July ninth, 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:21.560 a worldwide alert was issued to bring them back back. 0:27:21.600 --> 0:27:25.040 At that police station in Golf Breeze, Mike was still 0:27:25.080 --> 0:27:28.399 refusing to give up the whereabouts of the others whose 0:27:28.400 --> 0:27:31.040 some had begun, referring to as the end of the 0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:35.159 world group. Meanwhile, at the home of Anna Foster, a 0:27:35.200 --> 0:27:39.560 few minutes drive away, there was a knock at the door. Foster, 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:44.639 a self described psychic, had befriended Chris Purlock and later 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:49.520 Ken Beeson while they were stationed in Pensacola. She opened 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:55.360 the door to find two FBI officers waiting outside. Bursting 0:27:55.400 --> 0:27:59.240 into the property, the officers quickly located the rest of 0:27:59.280 --> 0:28:02.800 the group, who had all been hiding out at Foster's apartment, 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:05.840 with the exception of a net who was picked up 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:10.800 soon after from a local camping site. The group's possessions, 0:28:11.040 --> 0:28:16.320 including four thousand dollars worth of cash, suit cases, Foster's computer, 0:28:16.560 --> 0:28:21.920 and floppy discs, were all confiscated. Vance Davis alleged later 0:28:22.359 --> 0:28:25.399 that all the papers and notes pertaining to the Wigia 0:28:25.440 --> 0:28:31.880 board sessions were also confiscated. Strangely, the officers were under 0:28:32.000 --> 0:28:36.000 orders not to ask any questions, merely to arrest the 0:28:36.040 --> 0:28:39.960 deserters and have them delivered to the brig at Pensacola 0:28:40.080 --> 0:28:43.360 Naval Air Station, where they were joined soon after by 0:28:43.400 --> 0:28:48.120 Michael Huckstadt. The following day, the group were flown two 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:52.120 hundred odd miles to Fort Benning in Georgia for interrogation 0:28:52.800 --> 0:28:57.240 before being taken to Fort Knox in Kentucky for further questioning. 0:28:58.680 --> 0:29:02.000 With the press picking up the story soon after. Speculation 0:29:02.280 --> 0:29:05.440 was rife about just who the group were and what 0:29:05.480 --> 0:29:08.880 they were intending to do, as the public waited with 0:29:09.040 --> 0:29:14.000 bated breath to learn their fate, with the group having 0:29:14.040 --> 0:29:18.360 been in custody since July fourteenth, The Pentagon gave an 0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:22.520 official briefing on the incident on the seventeenth, describing the 0:29:22.640 --> 0:29:25.880 six as being part of an end of the World cult. 0:29:26.920 --> 0:29:30.760 Two days later, a relative told the press the group 0:29:30.920 --> 0:29:34.040 had in fact been heading to Florida to expose a 0:29:34.080 --> 0:29:40.440 government cover up of UFOs. Soon after, the Pentagon retracted 0:29:40.480 --> 0:29:51.600 their statement. With no more information forthcoming, relatives of the 0:29:51.640 --> 0:29:56.280 group grew increasingly concerned about their well being. In response, 0:29:56.600 --> 0:30:00.920 Chris Purlock's mother began a public media campaign to help 0:30:00.960 --> 0:30:05.920 get them released. On July nineteenth, they were formally charged 0:30:06.000 --> 0:30:10.000 with desertion, a crime that ordinarily would lead to at 0:30:10.000 --> 0:30:13.960 the very least a dishonorable discharge from the Army and 0:30:14.040 --> 0:30:18.320 a period of confinement for up to three years. But 0:30:18.400 --> 0:30:24.560 then something strange occurred. On July twenty fifth, ten days 0:30:24.640 --> 0:30:28.720 after the group were apprehended, a strange message was sent 0:30:28.800 --> 0:30:33.400 to local newspaper, The Golf Breeze Sentinel, and other news agencies. 0:30:34.280 --> 0:30:42.720