No new details have been released regarding the six suspects, described as “short” with “claw-like arms” that allegedly abducted a man and his truck on Interstate 10. The alleged suspects’ vehicle was described as an “unidentified spaceship.”
You’d think there would have been some kind of follow-up of a reported abduction by creatures who somehow moved the man and his pickup truck into a waiting, hovering UFO above Interstate 10, only to return him and the truck 30 minutes later. But since the incident occurred on Oct. 17, 1973, there’s not been another word about the abduction. The man said the claw creatures kept him and his truck for about 30 minutes after picking him up on Interstate 10 near Loxley, Alabama as he was returning to Pensacola from Mobile. He was returned with his truck near Pine Forest Road.
But I searched the databases and there’s nothing since that original article 51 years ago. Yes, there were other local and regional UFO reports around the same time. In fact, the next day, Oct. 18, 1973, a woman in Milton reported that a “flying saucer had landed at her house” and “little green men were walking around on the house’s roof,” said Escambia County Sheriff’s dispatcher Larry Pearson at the time. By the time deputies arrived, the saucer and the little green men were gone.
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The same day that the Pensacola News reported about the spaceship abduction, there were also numerous reports of flying saucers and UFOs, hundreds in fact from South Alabama through Northwest Florida. Most were explained away − helicopter maneuvers in Mobile, atmospheric testing at Eglin Air Force Base and a weather balloon flying near Jay at the time.
But there never was resolution to the claw creature abduction. Within a day or so, all the UFO commotion had died down. It wasn’t the big sensation of the Gulf Breeze UFO incidents of 1987 and 1988 when resident Ed Walters shared pictures with the Gulf Breeze Sentinel showing a UFO he said he captured near his home. Walters claimed to have conversed with the aliens from the ship in English and Spanish using telepathy. There were numerous sightings by others during this period, but most people believe Walters’ photos were a hoax − after he moved, the new owners discovered a foam model UFO hidden in the attic. Still, the Gulf Breeze captivated the community for months, and gained national attention with a couple mentions on “The X Files” and various documentaries and shorts.
But the October 1973 reports? The Northwest Florida incidents were largely ignored, but what happened just down the coast in Pascagoula, Mississippi that same month became a media sensation − I was recently introduced to the Pascagoula abductions when I watched a recent episode of “The Why Files,” a great YouTube channel where the host and his talking fish co-host look at mysteries from “What Does Space Smell Like?” to “We Live In a Simulation: The Evidence is Everywhere.” (Don’t worry, the host and his fish do a good job debunking and looking at topics with a critical eye.)
See, six days before the Pensacola man and his truck were scooped up to a flying saucer, two men in Pascagoula claimed the same thing happened to them while fishing on the Pascagoula River. The men claimed they were conscious, but paralyzed and were soon whooshed away by three creatures with “robotic slit mouths” and “crab-like pincers.” Sounds similar to the suspects in the Pensacola I-10 abduction.
But the publicity wasn’t similar at all. While there was nothing more on the Pensacola incident, there was and is plenty on what (maybe) happened in Pascagoula in 1973. Both Mississippi men would write books on their alleged encounters, and one even appeared on the television program “To Tell the Truth.”
But Pensacola, by way of Gulf Breeze, and its time in the UFO spotlight wouldn’t come until 15 years later.
If you want to learn about the “Pascagoula UFO Incident,” check out www.youtube.com/@thewhyfiles. If you want to learn more about the “Pensacola UFO Incident” good luck. There’s a lot about UFO reports from Mississippi to Tallahassee throughout October in newspapers that month, but nothing about a guy and his truck being abducted by clawed creatures from outer space. You would think one of our reporters would have called back the next day or something.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pascagoula alien abduction in 1973 got all the media attention
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