The Antonio Villas Boas Case
A Brazilian farmer said he was taken from his tractor at night by small beings in helmets and, aboard their craft, had an encounter with a female humanoid. Reported four years before the Hill case, it is the earliest detailed abduction account.
- Date
- 16 October 1957
- Place
- Near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Witnesses
- Antonio Villas Boas
- Status
- Unresolved
What happened
Antonio Villas Boas, 23, was ploughing at night to avoid the heat when, he said, a red light appeared and an egg-shaped craft on legs landed in the field. His tractor engine died. Small beings in grey coveralls and helmets dragged him aboard, undressed him, covered him in a gel and took a blood sample. He was then left in a room where a small, fair-haired, human-looking woman with red pubic hair and slanted eyes entered, and they had intercourse. Afterward she pointed to her belly and to the sky. He was shown the craft and released after about four hours.
The beings
The crew were about five feet tall, in tight grey suits and helmets that hid their faces, communicating in sounds like barks. The woman was described as beautiful, pale, with high cheekbones, large blue slanted eyes, white-blond hair and a pointed chin. The account is the earliest 'breeding' narrative and the origin of the hybrid theme that the 1980s literature developed.
Aftermath
Villas Boas told his story to the journalist and physician Olavo Fontes in February 1958, who examined him and noted lesions consistent with radiation exposure. The case was withheld from publication until 1965 because of its sexual content, and became widely known through the Flying Saucer Review in 1966. Villas Boas became a lawyer, maintained his account without embellishment, and died in 1991.
Explanations
Sceptics have pointed to the account's resemblance to the pulp science fiction available in Brazil at the time and to the difficulty of verifying a single-witness story reported months later. Supporters note that Villas Boas never sought publicity, refused to add to the story, and reported it before the abduction template existed.
