Strange History From Roswell And Beyond
The ‘little green man’ of Texas part 1
By John LeMay Author and historian
T
exas was apparently the place for little humanoids falling out of the sky during the turn of the 19th century. While many people today are aware of the reported 1897 UFO crash of Aurora, Texas, where an alien was said to have met his demise, fewer are aware of another similar case in 1913. In January of 1978, a man named Lawrence Jones wrote a letter to the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago. Jones claimed that in the month of May in either the year 1913 or 1914, his grandfather, Silbie Latham, had witnessed the death of a strange humanoid creature. Jones wrote
in his letter, “My grandfather has a most solid reputation for truth and honesty but has never told of this because of fear of ridicule ... He has agreed to tell this only after much prompting and encouragement from me, his history-oriented grandson. He would take a polygraph or be hypnotized or whatever you need. There is no question in my mind that he is telling the truth.” Another reason that Latham didn’t come forward with his story would have been due to the times. Back in 1913, the idea of aliens, let alone descriptions of them, had yet to seep into the public consciousness. But by the 1970s, when interest in the paranormal and UFOs reached
new heights, the idea of an alien sighting didn’t seem quite so strange anymore. Upon reception of Jones’ letter, the Center for UFO Studies set up an interview between Latham, who was then 77 years old and Larry Sessions of the Museum of Natural History of Fort Worth. The interview took place in April of 1978. During the meeting, Latham recalled his boyhood experience on a farm 2.5 miles away from Farmersville, Texas — the spot of an airship sighting in 1897, by the way. Latham’s encounter with the strange creature took place in either the year 1913 or 1914. He was out chopping cotton with
his two brothers, Sid and Clyde, when they suddenly heard their dogs begin howling as if in distress. As the howling went on for some time, Clyde said, “Let’s see what’s going on with the dogs. They seem quite shaken.” Clyde arrived at the spot first, which was about 60 to 75 feet away on the other side of a picket fence. He was the first to see the strange sight, and as such called for his brothers to hurry and go look. “Boys, come look! It’s a little man!” he shouted at the site where the dogs had cornered a small, humanoid figure, about eighteen inches tall. Latham told Sessions that the creature looked like “he was sitting on something.” Latham
continued that, “He was looking toward the north. He was no more than 18 inches high and kind of a dark green color. He was the same smooth color all over. He didn’t seem to have any shoes on, but I don’t really remember his feet. His arms were hanging down just beside him, like they [grew] down the side of him. He had on a kind of hat that reminded me of a Mexican hat. It was a little round hat that looked like it was built onto him. He didn’t have on any clothes.” The second part of John LeMay’s story will be published in the Sunday edition of the Roswell Daily Record.
Palmer
Continued from Page 24 ing on and actually working for MainStreet Roswell and doing gigs for them. It’s been years ago,” he said. Palmer grew up in Roswell. Asked about his first memories of the UFO Festival, he said, “Honestly, I remember more going to the Chile Cheese Fest than UFO Fest, that was always a busy time of year, growing up. We never had the time to actually do anything.” Palmer and his mother Carla DeAnn Overmier have booths at most of the festivals, including Galacticon, selling hand-crafted art. Overmier specializes in leather works. Asked about his performance at the AlienFest, Palmer said, “I’ll be performing some original music, some covers, I have a handful of new songs that are coming out. It is country folk with blues. One of my good friends described it as what I play is kind of Americana, but modern. So it is, and he had this wonderful description: Americana is country music, folk music and classic rock, all played in a blues-style fashion on acoustic instruments. So far, that is the best description of Americana that I’ve heard.”
Palmer is also competing in the UFO Festival’s Battle of the Bands and has high hopes to open for Chevel Shepherd. He is already looking forward to fall when Galacticon takes place in Roswell. “Galacticon will be in October. We’re glad that they split because now it is not a distraction — it’s UFO Fest or Galacticon? It is now separate and I believe it’s going to be better. I am looking forward to see how that goes. Me and my mom are going to run a booth as we had in the past. I am going to contact them to attempt to play music. We’ll see how that goes. They usually bring in the Marquis de Vaudeville band, I am hoping to get my band to open for them. Because now that I have a band, I have more opportunities than solo,” Palmer said.
in 2019 and — with his two sons backing him up — began playing locally. Quickly gaining momentum the band had a full schedule just before the pandemic. During the lockdown the band continued writing and learning new music and rehearsing. “We now play many other styles of music, such as rock ’n’ roll, blues and soul. We are most looking forward to playing
in front of the awesome people attending; and seeing the costumes in the audience promises to be a unique experience,” David Michael wrote in an email. “I have no reason to not believe that there could be other life in the universe and I have personally seen many a strange sight in the night sky!”
Trinity Soul Trinity Soul was formed in Cocoa Beach Florida in 2012. Founder David Michael recruited his Son Judah Michael to play keys for the very busy reggae band. Fulfilling a strong calling to return to his home town of Albuquerque, David Michael returned home
Vision Magazine |
Thursday, July 1, 2021
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