Pascagoula Creature Eyewitness Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 14th, 2011
Charles Hickson, 80, the eyewitness to the above creature, has died.
His obituary is posted on my Twilight Language blog, for while I consider his encounter Forteana and interesting, it is not strictly cryptozoological.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I’ve read about his encounter more than a few times over the years. Such a bizarre story. RIP Mr. Hickson.
As we get older, these stories seem to fade away. This was perhaps one of the most credible stories due to the lack of publicity form the two abductees. My condolences to the family and may you have the answer to the questions you were looking for Mr Hickson. Loren, thanks for posting this story. Due to the issue of the creatures perhaps being flesh and blood, it seems it may indeed belong here.
I worked with Charlie before and after the event. He was the welder who would weld the things I constructed as a Joiner for Frigitemp Marine Division at Ingall’s Shipbuilding building the DD 963 class destroyers.
I do not believe he made this up. If you had mentioned UFOs to him prior to the abduction he would have laughed at you, after you explained what they were that is. Such things were not a part of his life. He was a typical Mississippi guy, honest and earthy, and he had not time for such far out “nonsense”. I did not know Calvin Parker, his fellow abducted, but I do know Calvin suffered horribly from the experience, and remained terrified of it for the rest of his life.
My father was friends with Sheriff Diamond, the authority Charlie and Calvin went to for help. Dad told that the Sheriff firmly believed the guys. Further, the Sheriff told him that when the Air Force came to get them and take them to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, they wore Anti-C’s and that the Base was put on Security alert to receive the convoy that collected and transported them. The entire base was locked down, and personnel receiving and escorting them into the Hospital for examination and interrogation were also suited up in Anti-C’s. To his death, Charlie refused to speak of what they said to him that horrible night.
On a side note, there was a flurry of UFO events in Mississippi leading up the Charlie’s encounter. I lived in Gautier, near Pascagoula, and perhaps coincidently, TV reception was usually decent, but it was nonexistent that evening.
I am sure that if Charlie and Calvin could do it over, they would have stayed locked inside their homes that night and not gone to fish at that abandoned shipyard ever again.