The date was October 11, 1973; the location was the Pascagoula River, Mississippi. Two shipyard workers Charles Hickson (age 42) and Calvin Parker (age 18) decided to go fishing on the river after work. Both anglers were not having much luck that night and they thought about calling it a night when something happened that would change their lives forever. A dazzling blue light from behind them illuminated the entire scene. Turning around, both men watched in awe as a rugby ball-shaped object descended. A door opened and three bizarre looking humanoid entities glided out across to the two terrified onlookers. Both Parker and Hickson later that night made their way to their local Sherriff’s Department to tell them that they had been abducted by aliens. It wasn’t long before the story found its way into the media and the story went around the world. Charles Hickson readily told his story, but Calvin Parker wanted simply to be left alone. Hickson co-authored a book with William Mendez in 1983 and it wasn’t until 2018 that Calvin Parker finally told his story in full for the first time.

It was Calvin Parker’s book and subsequent publicity that made this case probably the best-documented such event on record. It wasn’t necessarily what Calvin Parker related in his two books, but it is what happened when they were published. Much to everyone’s surprise, more and more firsthand eyewitnesses began to step forward. A number of these witnesses reported seeing something a few days prior to the Parker/Hickson encounter and others a few days after. UFO sightings were made in and around Pascagoula, Mississippi and in neighboring states as well. Added to that, more eyewitnesses stepped forward with their accounts of what they observed on the very same night, that being October 11th, 1973. Two of these witnesses were quite literally on the other side of the Pascagoula River that night at the very same time as Parker and Hickson were experiencing their close encounter. Not only were they on the other side of the river, but they too have related a sequence of events that could indicate that they two had a similar encounter to the two fishermen on the opposite side of the river. The full story of these two witnesses and all of the others are detailed here in full.

One last thing that has left the authors completely baffled is what could be "proof" of a physical contact with something by Parker and Hickson that night. Both men reported that when the bizarre looking humanoids took hold of them, they felt a king of "scratch" or "prick" similar to an injection. The authors have uncovered a document written on October 13th, 1973, just two days after the encounter, which describes a physical examination of the two men and that "puncture wounds" were located on Charles Hickson’s arm and Calvin Parker’s foot. The document, located in 2018, also mentioned that photographs of these marks were taken. In the file, sadly, there was no sign of these photographs. In 2021, when this book was being written, the authors received an email from a colleague that mentioned he had accidentally found a couple of photos that he thought they would be interested in. The photographs in question were those mentioned in the "puncture wounds" document obtained 3 years earlier and show marks on Charles Hickson’s arm and Calvin Parker’s foot.