Have people really been ‘killed by aliens?’ Expert weighs in on fatalities linked to UFOs

Many reports of premature deaths in the US have been linked to aliens, sparking theories that these individuals may have been killed by the third species.

They include a US Air Force pilot who died shortly after claiming to have witnessed a flying object, and a Brazilian man who was ‘zapped in the head by an alien’.

Nigel Watson, a UFO researcher from Sheffield Hallam University in Britain, has written about the cases in a new book, Death By UFO, which explores these mysterious deaths.

Watson has spent years researching UFO reports around the world and has published several books and reports on his findings.

Fatal encounter in the air

One of the cases explored in the book is the death of US Air Force Captain Thomas Mantell, who in 1948 was asked to investigate a silvery, conical flying object.

According to reports, Mantell, a 25-year-old World War II hero, and three other pilots were on a training exercise when the request came in to investigate a high-flying silvery object with a red tip.

“It appears to be a metal object or possibly the reflection of the sun off a metal object, and it is enormous,” Mantell reported as he flew through the skies over Fort Knox, Kentucky.

The three planes flew 6,000 meters into the air to intercept the object.

Captain Thomas Mantell died after tracking a mysterious metal object into his plane

At 2:45 p.m., Mantell radioed that he had spotted the object.

“The object is now directly in front of and above me and moving at about half my speed,” he said.

Half an hour later he gave another update: ‘It appears to be a metal object or possible reflections of the sun from a metal object, and it is huge. I’m still climbing. The object is above and in front of me and moving at my speed or faster. I’m trying to get closer to get a better look.’

Shortly afterwards, the two other aircraft had to abort the mission due to a lack of oxygen supplies.

However, Mantell continued to climb higher and higher, reaching an altitude of about 25,000 feet.

But at 5 p.m., debris from his plane was discovered in Shelby County, southeast of Louisville.

The US Air Force first claimed it was pursuing the planet Venus, but then said the object was a secret CIA-sponsored Skyhook balloon launched in southern Ohio.

UFO believers still claim that Mantell met his demise at the hands of a murderous UFO, Watson said — with the Skyhook explanation not revealed until the late 1960s.

Zapped by ‘death ray’

Brazilian man Inacio de Souza and his wife were returning to their home in August 1967 when they saw an object in the shape of an upturned sink – and three men wearing tight-fitting clothes.

Souza reflexively shot one of the men with his rifle. It seemed to have no effect, but a green beam of light shot from the UFO towards Souza’s head.

De Souza fell unconscious and experienced numbness and tremors in his head and hands.

A doctor suggested that Souza was merely suffering from hallucinations – and a few days later he was diagnosed with leukemia. The disease progressed rapidly and he died on October 11, 1967.

Watson wrote: “While some UFOlogists believe the encounter and De Souza’s illness are simply a tragic coincidence, others prefer to believe that the UFO’s green light was an intense beam of deadly radiation.”

‘Heavy rain’ from a UFO

In 1947, Harold A Dahl, his son Charles, and two crew members were in a tugboat off the coast of Maury Island in Puget Sound between Seattle and Tacoma.

The men said they saw six gold and silver doughnut-shaped objects above them – one of which ‘wobbled’ before releasing a shower of thin metal strips and black lumps.

Harold Dahl was in a tugboat with his sons when he saw mysterious gold and silver objects above them

One hit the boy’s arm, burning it, and their dog died.

Dahl’s boss Fred Lee Crisman visited the site and claimed some of the rubble.

Dahl was then confronted by a man in a dark suit driving a black sedan, who drove him to a Tacoma restaurant and warned him to remain silent.

Kenneth Arnold – who had spotted ‘flying saucers’ a few days earlier – asked for help from Air Force Intelligence.

On July 31, 1947, Captain William Davidson and Lieutenant Frank M Brown were sent to Tacoma, but found no evidence of a shower of molten lead and believed the sample fragments to be slag from a smelter.

Davidson and Brown were killed when their B-25 crashed on the way back to base – and many of the samples and photos that came with the suitcase disappeared.

Watson writes, “To many, this all smacks of a military intelligence cover-up. When District Attorney Jim Garrison brought Clay Shaw to trial in October 1968 for his alleged involvement in the assassination of John F Kennedy, a Fred Lee Crisman was subpoenaed to be present.

Kenneth Arnold, who saw the first ‘flying saucers’

A B-25 bomber, similar to the plane the men rode in

“Garrison believed that Shaw and Crisman were longtime CIA employees involved in a series of questionable activities, including the assassination of JFK.

“While returning to their base at Hamilton Field, California, the port engine of their B-25 aircraft caught fire and they were killed when it crashed near Kelso, Washington State. An anonymous caller to the local newspaper named the victims before the crash was made public, claiming the plane was shot down by a 20mm cannon because it was carrying fragments of a flying saucer.’

“When Kenneth Arnold took off from Tacoma, his engine failed and he had to make an emergency landing. When he checked his plane, he discovered that his fuel valve was turned off. Paul Lance, a reporter for the Tacoma Times who reported this story, died suddenly of meningitis two weeks later.”

“Many of these stories sound bizarre and many of these deaths have credible explanations. So they don’t go much further than the UFO community. Government agencies or the infamous Men in Black could be at work, but it seems very extreme to kill people, especially over the decades when there are easier ways to discredit UFO researchers.”

‘Frozen’ near a UFO

New York UFO researcher Jennifer Stevens was approached in February 1968 by two boys who claimed to have seen a “glowing fireball” over the Mohawk River.

The boy’s friend thought he saw a humanoid in a white suit in the bushes.

The body of another 16-year-old boy was found nearby after he left a note with his grandparents saying he was going for a walk.

Watson writes: ‘The coroner’s verdict was death by exposure, but Stevens was convinced that his death was related to UFO activity in the area. She noticed that the boy’s tracks in the snow at first indicated that he was running, but then it appeared as if something had dragged him down from above.’

After the sighting, Steven’s husband was approached by a man who said, “People looking for UFOs should be very careful.”

When her husband died suddenly, Stevens stopped her UFO research.