October 11 1973 Two Fishermen Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker Report a UFO Abduction in Pascagoula Mississippi

In October of 1973, Charles Hickson was a 42-year-old shipyard foreman living in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He was known as a hard-working, practical man with no interest in UFOs or science fiction. On the night of October 11, he went fishing on the Pascagoula River with a younger coworker, 19-year-old Calvin Parker. What happened that night would become one of the most famous UFO encounters in American history.

Around 10 p.m., while the two men were fishing from a pier, they heard a strange humming or whirring sound. When they looked up, they saw a glowing object descending toward them. Hickson described it as oval or football-shaped, about 30 to 40 feet long, with blue-white lights and no visible wings or propellers. The object hovered silently near the riverbank.

A door or opening appeared on the craft, and three beings emerged. Hickson later described them as roughly humanoid but distinctly non-human. They had gray, wrinkled skin, no visible eyes or mouths, no necks, and arms that ended in claw-like appendages. Hickson said he felt completely paralyzed and unable to resist as he and Parker were lifted off the ground and floated into the craft.

Inside, Hickson claimed he was separated from Parker and subjected to a medical-type examination. He said the beings scanned his body with a floating, eye-shaped device, while he remained conscious but unable to move. He described the experience as terrifying and said he believed he was going to die. After several minutes, he was returned to the pier, and the craft departed as silently as it had arrived.

Calvin Parker was reportedly in a state of extreme panic. According to Hickson, Parker fainted during parts of the encounter and was vomiting and shaking afterward. Both men were deeply shaken and confused.

Instead of going home, they went directly to the Pascagoula police station and reported what had happened. The officers were skeptical and assumed it might be a prank. To test them, police left Hickson and Parker alone in a room and secretly recorded their conversation, expecting them to admit to a hoax. Instead, the recording captured Hickson praying aloud and Parker crying and begging for help, clearly distressed and afraid.

The case quickly attracted national attention. Hickson and Parker underwent medical examinations and polygraph tests. Hickson passed multiple lie detector tests, including one administered by an experienced examiner. Parker initially failed, which was later attributed to his extreme anxiety and fear at the time.

The media attention took a heavy toll. Hickson continued to speak publicly about the incident, insisting it happened exactly as he described. He said he gained nothing from coming forward and often wished the experience had never happened. Parker, on the other hand, withdrew from public view for decades, reportedly suffering from panic attacks, nightmares, and ongoing fear related to the event.

For many years, skeptics suggested alternative explanations, including hallucinations, misidentified military experiments, or psychological phenomena. No physical evidence of the craft was ever found. However, the consistency of Hickson’s story, the immediate police report, the recorded emotional distress, and the lack of any clear motive for a hoax have kept the case alive in UFO discussions.

In later years, Calvin Parker returned to the public eye and reaffirmed that the encounter was real, stating that his long silence was due to trauma and fear rather than fabrication. Charles Hickson maintained his account until his death in 2011.

To this day, the Pascagoula incident remains one of the most debated and enduring UFO abduction cases in American history, dividing skeptics and believers and raising questions that have never been fully answered.