Pascagoula BeingThe River Visitors
On 11 October 1973, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing on the Pascagoula River when, they said, three robot-like beings with wrinkled grey skin, pincer hands and pointed protrusions floated them into an oval craft and examined them. A secretly recorded conversation between the two men while they thought they were alone is the case's most-cited piece of evidence.
At a glance
- Home system
- Unknown
- Avg. height
- 5′0″ (reported)
- Appearance
- Wrinkled grey skin, carrot-like protrusions, crab-like claws, fused legs
- Reported lifespan
- Unknown
- Social structure
- Unknown
- Technology
- Oval craft, floating examination device
- Primary traits
- Mechanical in movement, silent, methodical
- Relationship to Earth
- The 1973 abduction of two shipyard workers in Mississippi
Physical profile
Hickson described three creatures about five feet tall with wrinkled grey skin that looked like elephant hide, no visible eyes, a slit for a mouth, carrot-like protrusions where a nose and ears would be, arms that ended in claws like a crab's or a mitten's, and legs that seemed fused, so that the beings glided rather than walked. They made a buzzing or mechanical humming sound. Parker's later, fuller account added that one of the beings aboard the craft was smaller and more feminine, with fingers rather than claws.
Reported origin
No origin was stated. Hickson said he received an impression that the beings meant no harm and were leaving.
Culture
The beings behaved, in the witnesses' telling, like technicians: efficient, impersonal, uninterested in the men as individuals.
Technology
A floating mechanical eye that scanned Hickson's body while he hung paralysed; a bright, featureless room.
Craft
An oval, football-shaped craft thirty to forty feet long with blue flashing lights, hovering just above the river bank.
Communication
None spoken. Hickson described a buzzing sound and a felt reassurance.
Earth encounters
On the evening of 11 October 1973, Charles Hickson, 42, and Calvin Parker, 19, were fishing from a pier on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi when they said a craft appeared and three beings floated them aboard. Hickson was examined by the mechanical eye; Parker fainted. About twenty minutes later they were returned to the pier. They reported the event to the sheriff that night. Deputies left them alone in an interview room with a hidden recorder running, and the tape captured the two men, believing themselves unobserved, frightened and sincere. That recording, and Hickson's passing a polygraph, made the case one of the most credible in the literature to many investigators.
Parker avoided publicity for decades and told his full story only in 2018. In 2019 a couple who had been parked nearby in 1973 came forward to say they had seen the lights and beings that night. Sceptics have pointed to inconsistencies between the men's accounts and to the possibility of a shared hallucination or an elaborate hoax, without producing a motive.
Lore & history
A historical marker now stands at the site. XenoAtlas lists the Pascagoula Being as reported: two named witnesses, a same-night report, and a piece of unstaged evidence, with no physical trace.
Encounters on record
Source notes
- Pascagoula abduction · encyclopedic summary
XenoAtlas documents extraterrestrial concepts appearing in mythology, contactee literature, popular culture, speculative accounts, and related sources. Inclusion does not constitute scientific verification.
Related species
See every type in the Types of Aliens guide.