12.02.2025

November 2-3, 1957 - Levelland, Texas

November 2, 1957--Levelland, Texas. Elliptical UFOs sighted repeatedly on or near roads, many cars stalled.1

In section 12, there is a table listing all the Levelland events

There are no sources listed but I am assuming these are accumulations of local news accounts and information that was released by Blue Book.

Details

Blue Book has a file on the case that is pretty extensive.3 They assigned Staff Sargeant Barth from the 1006th AISS the task of conducting the investigation. He did not talk to all the witnesses in the NICAP list but did get statements from six different witnesses. From the Blue Book file, I created the following table regarding the witnesses he interviewed:

Two of these witnesses may even not be related to the events that night. J. B. Cogburn, apparently gave a date and time of 8:45 PM on 4 November. He was in Sundown Texas, which was about 12 miles SW of Levelland. Not only were his observations far away but they were also on a different date. The same might be said for Harold Wright, who was in Shallowater. This is over 20 miles away from Levelland. Linking his sighting to events that happened there is tenuous at best.

Missing from the list are the witnesses Long, Wheeler, Alverez, Williams, Jones and Martin. Jones and Martin were interviewed for the news media in the following days.4 There is a statement by the 1006th AISS investigator, dated 19 February 1958, stating that Barth tried to contact Martin but could not locate him and he did not live in Levelland from what he could discover. 5 The other four were mentioned in the news accounts but did not seem to have ever been interviewed by anybody in the media or NICAP. 

Antonio F. Rullán wrote a report on the subject in 1999, where he indicated that Wheeler, Williams and Alverez (who I will refer to as the “midnight witnesses”), were never interviewed and the information came from the police.6 Since nobody seems to have any written records by the police, this means that what the press reported were the verbal recollections of the person that took the calls. News accounts mention that officer A. J. Fowler had told them about the sequence of events that happened that night, with the three uninterviewed witnesses making phone calls to the police.7 This makes one wonder about much of the information associated with these witnesses. It is starting off as a brief verbal report that was not recorded. It then was repeated by Fowler to the media 12-24 hours later. These kind of stories start to degrade with each retelling and Fowler’s recollection is what we have to rely upon. Either he told different versions of their stories to different media outlets or the different media outlets scrambled the information up to the point that they could not agree on which witness was located where.

Individuals using these names did call in and make reports but how accurate and reliable they are is what is in question at this point.

Additionally, Rullan stated that Civilian Saucer Intelligence (CSI) thought it might be possible that Martin was a witness that decided to insert himself into the sighting and made up his story.16 His sighting is after the others, so it is possible that this is the case. In the Levelland daily Sun news of November 6, Sheriff Weir Clem made the comment, “ ...at least one of the dramatic sightings appear to be the imaginary variety. Clem said he was convlnced there were other “hoax” reports also. But this fact didn’t shake his confidence in some of the others.”17

The initial witness Saucedo, added some additional information in his media interviews the next day to the Lubbock Avalanche. On that date, he stated the time was 22:50 and noted that the object went towards Levelland. He also added that he did not bother to report it to the Levelland police until he made it to his destination in Whiteface, which was a little over 10 miles to the west. Supposedly, the officer on duty (probably Fowler), did not take his report seriously.18

The locations of witnesses varied. As noted previously, witnesses Wheeler, Alverez, and Williams have varying locations depending on the source. This is the plot presented by Walter Webb in his report to NICAP.

Weather analysis

Weather is important to understand when one is considering Blue Book’s conclusion that “ball lightning” was involved.

The AISS report lists the weather from Reese AFB in Lubbock as complete overcast with visibility at 3 miles and 400 foot ceiling. A message from 1066 AISS (DTG 070030Z) lists the weather as “Light drizzle and cloudy” ceiling as 7000 feet, visibility as 15 miles, and 5/10-9/10 cloud cover. It does not describe where the information came from.20

Another message from the CO Walker AFB DTG 0411745Z, the weather in Lubbock at 0500Z (2300 CST) was described as unlimted ceiling and 4/10 cloud cover with 15 miles visibliity. It also mentioned a “light mist”. 21

The witnesses were asked about the weather in their interviews.22 This is what they stated:

There is a mix in these statements. Unfortunately, only Newel Wright was asked about the weather in the local Levelland area. It seems from the notes in the Blue Book file that the “ball lightning” theory came into being when some of the witnesses comparing the flashes of light to lightning. Sergeant Wright’s observation that he saw lightning to the SW seems to have been considered important.

So, what was the actual weather on the night in question? The impression one gets is that the weather must have been raining, stormy, or cloudy. The Blue Book file paints a conflicting account with some partly cloudy skies or cloudy with light rain. However, the news reports contradict the account of the weather being stormy. They stated there were no thunderstorms in the region.23 A check of the weather history for nearby Lubbock, Texas during the time period between 2100 and 0200 on November 2-3 produces the following result.

Not only was there no rain during this time period, there had been no preciptation recorded on November 2. One must remember that Blue Book used terms like “light mist” or “Light drizzle”. Newell Wright mentioned a light rain. Apparently, what precipitation that might have fallen was not measurable or isolated to the vicinity of Levelland.

The bottom line is the weather seemed to be partly cloudy with no foul weather and little, or no, rain. There was little or no possibility that lightning could have been involved and any flashes of light reported by witnesses were probably not associated with any type of lightning or “plasmas”.

Astronomical sources

Important to note is that all of the witnesses were separated by distances measured by several miles or more. That makes me wonder how one object could be visible around the same time. Was it rapidly moving from location to location looking for cars to shut down, or was it one object that was much farther away and was seen at the same general time by various vehicles? This might imply a possible astronomical solution. I examined what bright celestial objects were visible for several minutes near the horizon around the time of the events described. The results were not very promising.

Missing from most of the reports are directions the UFO was seen. Therefore, any astronomical explanation for the main sightings would be speculation at best. About the only objects that might have been involved were the stars Sirius, Procyon, Vega, and Altair.

Except for Sirius and Procyon rising, I would not consider any of the others that prominent to produce UFO reports from mulitple witnesses.

The sightings by Sheriff Clem and Officer Hargrove sound like they just saw a meteor. Possibly they saw the same one and their times were a little off. Interestingly, their observations did not involve their vehicles shutting down. They just saw objects flashing and then disappearing after a brief instant.

The grain combine failures

The UFO evidence mentions a UFO causing two grain combine failures near Petit, Texas. Petit was about 7 miles to the North West of the Saucedo sighting. The source of this comes from the report about the events written by Walter Webb wrote in November 1957.25 He got the information from the NICAP investigator James Lee. We have no other information and don’t even have a time for the sighting. This event is little more than an unconfirmed rumor and its value as evidence is essentially worthless.

Pedro Saucedo and the midnight witnesses

The initial Saucedo sighting might have been a meteor. His sketch and description does bear a resemblance to a meteor observation made by UFO witnesses. However the time span is too long unless there was some exaggeration involved. Of course, this does not explain the truck shutting down. The use of a meteor to explain this sighting is just not applicable at this point.

Speaking of the Saucedo sighting, there was an aspect of his sighting that needs to be mentioned. Saucedo did not call and report his event until later.27 Exactly when is not clear but if one considers the time it would take for the witness to collect himself, get back in the vehicle, drive the 10 miles to Whiteface and find a phone to make a call, I would consider it was between 23:15 and 23:45. In a radio interview, Sheriff Clem stated the first report came in at 11:15 PM from “a latin-american subject..”.28 This is before Wheeler, Alverez and Williams made their calls into Fowler around midnight. These are the witnesses that never were located and had their reports made second hand. Is there a link here to consider?

This is where my mind runs wild and wonder about a “what if” scenario. Recall that A.J. Fowler did not sound very enthused about the initial report. In one account, another officer had gone to check on the location and found nothing. As a result, Fowler concluded that he must have been drunk. Could Saucedo and his friend become upset that they were not taken seriously? Did Fowler respond in a manner that made fun of them? Is it possible that the lack of interest in their report or derision inspired them to make more calls to the police using some false names in order to give credibility to their sighting? 

If that really happened, it would mean the midnight witnesses were part of a hoax and the other sightings made by the remaining people, like Newell Wright and Ronald Martin, a case of copy cat/ “me too” reports when it became news the next day. Both individuals stated they had come in because they felt obligated to tell their stories to the police and press AFTER the story had become news.

Recall that the environment in which these reports were made was in the middle of a UFO “wave”. People were naturally accepting reports of UFOs as something “real”.  I would want to think that Saucedo would have stumbled at some point to a level that somebody would figure this out but Blue Book disliked calling anything a hoax without good information to back it up. By this point they had a publicity problem and wanted to avoid anything negative. Meanwhile, the news media and NICAP wanted to promote these kinds of stories.

Now that I stated this wild speculation, I want the reader to know that I don’t believe this scenario is very likely at all. I dislike using the hoax explanation as much as dislike accepting plasmas or ball lightning. Hoaxes can occur but there has to be evidence for it that can be established and not just speculation. Still, I wanted to air my thoughts on this publicly because I like to think of things that might be possible. I consider it giving the reader some “food for thought”.

As it stands, I consider the Saucedo sighting to be a valid observation of something he saw. What it was, I cannot say. It might have been a meteor, where he exaggerated the events but I can’t confirm it. I also consider the three “midnight witnesses” as not very reliable reports and that they have to be considered hearsay evidence at best.

Newell Wright

Newell Wright, stated that his car stopped with no indication a UFO was nearby.Only then, after getting out of the car, trying to figure out the problem, and looking up and down the road for a passing car for help, did he notice the UFO. 

In his statement to Blue Book, he did not give a direction but in media accounts, he stated that it was towards Levelland. The sketch29 he provides in his statement seems to be some large dome-shaped object or a glow on the horizon. His description to Blue Book was that it was 75-100 feet in diameter, white in color with a greenish tint, Strangely, Wright had no description about the object’s departure other than it left by going straight up. In some of the media accounts, he stated it went to the north.30 Is it possible the light simplly faded away or just turned off? Is it possible that what was seen is something that was not as “solid” as an actual craft. He stated

that the sky conditions were cloudy. Maybe he was looking at a glow from a distant vehicle that had strong headlights creating a glow on the horizon or low clouds. One cannot say for sure and this is, as always, speculation on potential sources of the UFO. I find it strange that he did not see the UFO before his car shut down and only after he had already examined the car for why it had stopped. That means the UFO may have not have been present until after his engine stopped and may have had nothing to do with that happening.

James Long

Around 1:15, witness Long had his sighting and car failure. Once again, we are involved with a report that was apparently conveyed to the media second hand from A.J. Fowler.31 That makes one question the reports reliability and accuracy. Like the previous “midnight witnesses”, I consider this sighting little more than hearsay evdience and not very reliable. Interestingly, Long was reportedly in the same general area as Clem and Hargrove. They did not experience any vehicular shutdowns and the UFO they reported did not seem to be the same UFO Long reported.

Ray Jones

Fire Marshal Ray Jones made his sighting some time after 1AM.32 However, he did not mention any complete car failure. He only stated the lights had dimmed and the engine had “almost” died. His observation was of a streak of light that was north of “the flats”. One must assume the direction of the sighting he was talking about was “Oklahoma Flats”, which is located, as best I can tell, about 13 miles north of Levelland. Jones location was listed as 17 miles north of Levelland, which means the streak of light would have been to his south, which is the direction Clem and Hargrave saw their object. Is it possible they saw the same object? There is insufficient information to draw this conclusion because they did not provide a lot of information such as good positional data or a definitive time for each witness. Their descriptions sound like meteors and the directions they were looking seem similar. If one assumes the times are approximate and open to error, then one could suggest all saw the same meteor as the source of their sighting.

Potential IFOs

Since there seemed to be no astronomical explanations for the sightings that produced the reports before 1 AM, one must turn to other sources for these events. If there were aircraft in the area, Blue Book would have stumbled across them but they reported no aircraft in the area. They checked for balloons but they concluded they were not involved. Finally, Blue Book even looked into the possibility for oil well burn-off and downed power lines but could not find anything of significance there.

While Blue Book seemed to have looked into all potential man-made sources, I considered the possibllity of a train creating a bright object on the horizon from a distance. Route 116 runs right along the tracks and a train headed in a direction toward a car could look like a light on the road from a distance. Of course, even if that happened, that would not explain the sightings north of town or how the cars shut down. One would think a train light, while initially misleading, would eventually be identified by the witness.

Therefore, this source seems very unlikely as well. In any case, any man made light would not shut down vehicles.

This is a recurring theme in trying to come up with an explanation for this event. It always comes back to the vehicles shutting down. Most drivers and car enthusiasts probably have experienced vehicle issues over the years especially if one buys a used car.

The one time I remember having a rough running vehicle happened when I was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. A spring northeaster formed up off the coast and dumped a lot of rain and wind in the area. When I drove my vehicle the next day, it ran rough and even stopped. Other people on board my submarine had similar problems. One of the crew members, who was a “motor head” figured it out pretty quick. It turned out that water had some salt content in it and had gotten inside the distributor cap. It had fouled the contacts and rotor. Cleaning them fixed the issue. I never experienced that problem with that vehicle again. Unfortunately, Levelland isn’t even close to the ocean so that theory does not apply. My thinking on the vehicle shut down issue is that the only way multiple cars could shutdown is if they were exposed to the same environmental conditions. What those conditions were cannot be identified.

Writing in the Condon report, Dr. Roy Craig discussed a case where the vehicle supposedly shut down due to a UFO encounter.

The car had reportedly been exposed to a UFOs electro-magnetic field. However, when the car was checked for any possibility of a magnetic signature, nothing was found. In his book, Dr. Craig stated that a technician determined that it required over 20,000 gaus, at the ignition coil, to shut down a vehicle.34 With the car body shielding the coil, it would require an even higher magnetic field. Dr. Craig also discovered that a 1,000 gaus horseshoe magnet would alter the magentic signature of a car permanently. Therefore, if there were an electro-magnetic source that shut down these cars, it would have been incredibly powerful and would have alterred the magentic signature of the cars. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to examine any of the vehicles that shutdown for such signatures. Another missed opportunity for NICAP, who supposedly had scientific experts that should have thought of this. One can understand Blue Book’s lack of knowledge, they weren’t scientists (unless you count Hynek).

One car failing might be unusual but multiple automobiles failing on the same night indicates somethng more significant. That being said, we have to wonder how many vehicles in the Levelland area were driving that night and did not experience any failure. Are we talking about 100% of the cars on the road or just those that saw the UFO? 

Recall that Saucedo stated his UFO went in the direction of Levelland. However, nobody reported seeing it come into town or that they experienced vehicle shut downs until almost an hour later, AFTER Saucedo had phoned his report to the police. A police officer even went to check on the Saucedo sighting and found nothing.35 Apparently, his vehicle performed correctly as did all the other police vehicles on the road that night.

It is important to note that, out of the ten names in the NICAP table, only six were ever interviewed. 

The other four were just phone calls made to the police by named individuals, who nobody ever saw. These four sightings are critical in the narative about Levelland. Their absence does not invalidate the other reports but they tend to minimze the impact of the overall case. It is strange that nobody was ever able to find them or contact them despite their names appearing in the newspapers. One would think they would have stepped forward or some enterprising reporter/NICAP investigator would have found them. Recall that Sheriff Clem was on record as suspecting that at least one of the detailed reports was “imaginary” and that he felt others might be hoaxes. This

is a puzzling aspect of the case and makes me wonder about these four reports, which never had any follow-up.

Conclusion

In my opinion, this sighting has issues that need to be considered. The evidence is sketchy and anecdotal. We have no physical evidence to prove that the vehicles actually shut down due to the UFO or what caused them to shut down. We are not even sure that our of the primary witnesses even existed. I thought about listing this as insufficient information because we are missing crucial evidence/information about each sighting. 

However, I would consider this a “cop out” answer and I consider it my task to try and look at the case objectively. 

I also considered it possible that a hoax might be involved. That seemed to have some possibility based

on the lack of verifying information concerning many of the witnessees. Still, it is all speculation and there is nothing in the way of evidence to prove it. Therefore, I wil keep these sightings in the Unidentified category since I can offer no good explanation for the entire event. That is where it must remain unless some new information comes to light, which, after 67 years, is unlikely to happen.

That being said, having something labeled “unidentified” means nothing. It just means we can’t explain the case as it is described. Unidentified does not prove anything and is not proof that something “not of this earth” was involved.

Quelle: SUNlite 6/2024