After UFO sightings exploded in New Hampshire in 1965, everyone from local police to Air Force officials to the Pentagon began investigating. But no one could conclude what exactly residents had seen — until, perhaps, now.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Imagine, you just saw a UFO. Your first thought is
believe that no one will believe you you're not even sure, if you believe your own eyes, but then-
you find out it's not just you whose side it's your
tire town? That's what hat?
and in exit or New Hampshire in nineteen,
A flying object was witnessed by so many people. So many times there was no question. It was real
Everyone demanded an explanation, but when the Pentagon finally came back with answers, it was clear, no one
Not even the US government could explain away this UFO
This is supernatural a podcast original, I'm your
Ashley flowers
every Wednesday I'll be taking a deep dive into a real unexplained occurrence to try and figure out the truth you can find all
such of supernatural and all other originals from par cast for free on Spotify. This
we were looking at the nineteen sixty five exit or incident
of nine hundred nineteen. Sixty five New Hampshire residents spotted a UFO over the town of Exitor, the AIR force the Pentagon
and a magazine journalist all launched investigations, but for decades nobody could explain it until possibly now
We'll have more on the exit or incident coming up stay with us. This episode has brought you buy byline plasma services. Your plasma is desperately needed to help treat those,
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It's nineteen sixty five and nearing fall in exit or new Hampshire Exitor. Is this picture
town about nine miles from the Atlantic? Think soft coastal breezes old brick buildings
and a glossy river, where the high school rowing team practices each morning and even though its early September,
the ground is already coded in Orange, leaves
but in the We hours of September. Third, something unusual appears in the sky.
At around two in the morning, an eighteen year old, named Norman Muscarello, is standing on the side of route, one fifty about
ten miles outside of exit. Her he's drunk,
The catch, a ride home from his girlfriend's place in Amesbury Massachusetts
Norman is a high school graduate three weeks away from joining the Navy and he doesn't own a car, so he's been doing his whole hitchhike being
pretty regularly, but tonight
there's very few cars on the road, so he's forced to walk most of the way
he doesn't mind too much room one. Fifty is pretty
rule with smattering of houses, endless grass fields and a canopy of stars.
Just a few miles outside of Exitor Norman, see something weird. It's this
RO of red lights tilted at about a sixty degree angle. They emerge
in the sky in front of him and a lower quickly until there
hovering just above the ground between two houses, but a hundred feet back from the road
The lights are so bright. They illuminate the sides of the houses in the surrounding area and they flash wine
time in this rhythmic almost calculated pattern, one two, three four five. Then they begin to
move, but the whole time they stay, the same distance from each other at the same sixty degree angle, it's as if they're all attached to something
when Norman describes it later, he simply calls it the thing: the lights on
being are so bright, he can't make out what its actual shape is, but he estimated
bigger than the houses on either side and it's moving toward him.
This swaying side decide pattern,
like a leaf drifting down from a tree the whole time. It makes zero noise even as it gets closer and color
sir. So close, the Normans worry, it will hit him so he die
into the shoulder of the road and ducks down,
The sudden movement seems to startle the thing because it backs off stopping just above one of the houses. At this point, Norman is terrified.
But it's not like you can just run into one of the houses without getting closer to the thing, so he just crouches at this
side of the road
watching the lights, flash one, two, three, four, five, nearly fifteen
minutes go by then. Suddenly the thing speeds off and disappears over a line of trees. Assume
It's gone. Norman makes a run for it. He sprints, oh
to one of the houses in banks on the door. But noble
answers there
and he sees a pair of headlights coming down route, one fifty Norman's so do
sport to get out of there. He literally runs into the middle of the road inserts weaving his arms. Fortunately,
The car seize him and roles to stop the dry,
and passenger are a middle aged couple who, as far as we know, haven't noticed anything unusual
but Norman is clearly scared of his wits. So
drive him to the exit or police station. We nor
gets to the station. He meets the night duty officer, a guy named Reginald, Toland,
we can see how shaken up this kid is, nor
cigarette lighting cigarette after cigarette, so he to him
seat and explain exactly what happened. No tones pretty.
Sceptical when he hears about the strange lights in the sky. But he radio
how to another officer. A guy
Eugene Bertrand Tone Ass.
Bertrand. If he's heard anything unusual happening that night and bird translate
What do you mean by unusual
tolen tells him about the flying, object and Bertrand pauses, and he says yes. Yes, he has
at one, a m about an hour before Norman sought. The thing Bertrand was patrol.
Rule one o one on the other side of exit or to the north. He spots a woman
over by the side of the road, so Bertrand walks up to her window to see if she's, ok, the woman scenes tear
but she's doing her best to keep it together, and she explains that she's
been trailed by a huge flying object. It followed her for about
twelve miles and it had the same flashing red lights as Muscarello's object
says that when she reached an overpass, the object took off ridiculously fast and disappeared. Now Bertrand,
and is an air force veteran who served during the korean war. He is tough
Level, headed not one to get caught up,
flights of imagination, so at the time
He dismisses the woman as eccentric when he gets the call from Toland. He decides it's worth
heading back to the station for a chat when he gets
ere he meets Norman. Who insists that he saw something unusual. He practically
eggs. For someone to go out into the field with him and see if they can spot it again
eventually tolling, decides to send Bertrand out with Norman
If anyone can distinguish between a UFO and a military aircraft, it's an air force veteran right.
So it's nearly three a m at this point. There's very few cars out on route, one hundred and fifty and the sky
It is clear, warm and windless Bertrand, Poles
over by a nearby telephone pole and and with with for for a few minutes, but nothing happens, Bertrand figures. It should be about time to head back to state
but Norman wants to wait just a little bit longer. He suggests that they walk.
Out into a nearby field, maybe they'll catch a glimpse of it. There
Bertrand radios, toys to say: there's nothing there, but that he'll be away from his car for a few minutes and then
walk out into the field with a flashlight.
Add to their laughed there's an old colonial home on the right is
farmhouse and just
beyond the farm house is a corral with
Several horses and a few livestock Bertin is
to to reassure Norman that he probably just saw a when when
all of a sudden,
horses in the corral start acting up beer cake
in whinnying, as if something is agitating them. So
friend looks up at the sky and,
when he sees it
to their left, just beyond the colonial house and floating about thirty feet above the cluster of trees,
a row of five red lights, beef
one at a time? One two: three: four five
then, in reverse order. Five, four, three two one
the beams are so right. The illuminates the entire area like this
did the two houses and the field are coded in this eerie blood, red color, and they can't tell
what these lights are attached to boot to Bertrand,
it seems like some sort of round object:
is absolutely silent and it's moving towards them. Bertrand is terrified here.
Stink, we reaches for his gun. Then he takes a brat,
thanks for a moment and decide
it would be better to make a run for the car so bored.
Grabs, Normandy, Sprint back to the police, cruiser hop inside and look
the window for sex
several minutes they watch as this thing hovers in the distance. It's just rocking back and forth with its lights still flashing, one at a time, then it darts
further away. The movement is so erratic and sudden that Bertrand knows without a shadow of a doubt, this
Is it not an air force vehicle coming?
Exitor explodes with UFO witnesses. Hi listeners is Vanessa from ass network searching
for something a little spooky to dig into then check out
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Bertrand is frantically radioing officer Toland. When a nearby patrolman named David Hunt overhears their conversation on the wire,
to where Bertrand is enjoins him in Norman out in the field. He gets there job
in time to glimpse the craft before it swerves over the trees and flies out of sight in the
direction of the ocean soon after
they both see and hear a be forty seven whoosh through the sky. A completely different cry
from the hovering object with red lights back.
The station officer toll and gets another call this time it's from a person
whose just spotted the UFO over in Hampton a town that lies between exit or in the ocean, and this point five people have seen this thing so tolling calls the Hampton
please who then call the nearby Peas AIR Force base.
In the morning AIR Force officials come to the exit or police station to interview Norman, along with Bert
Toland and and hunt they're asking a bunch.
Questions and one a fish
acknowledges that the police officers are very credible witnesses, but that's about it. It's like the air
source is intent on gathering information, but they don't
We know what to make of it or if they do
won't say
meanwhile, a police report goes out over the radio and in response, the exit or police
department receives multiple calls from multiple witnesses, claiming they are
so saw the object, but in the day
that follow the air force stays silent at any rate, a couple weeks pass and the hype dies down.
Nobody comes forward with any more sightings beyond September. Third,
but Norman and Officer Bertrand can't just forget about it
Norman goes out night after night. Looking for the thing and Bertrand says he can't fall asleep without thinking about it, then in MID September another
Jack appears a high school signor named RON Smith is driving on drink water road. But
a mile from where Norman first saw the UFO
suddenly wrong seas
something in the sky he's
or to the shoulder to get a better look RON says: the craft is bigger than a b
fifty two or a be forty seven craft and low enough to the ground that it can be easily distinguished its flag, but not completely flat
and he describes the shape as an upside down plate. So kind of, like your
A flying, saucer saucer, the bottom.
Is glowing white and there's a bright red light on the top
some say anything about rhythmic flashing lights. So it's unclear if it's the same thing Norman Bertram and Hunt saw, but it may,
in the same way sort of way
and back and forth only raw notes that
also appears to be spinning the object soon
over his car. Once then back many does the who
thing over again
and again and again and again, almost as if its toying with him, this totally freaks wrong.
So he puts the car in drive and takes off toward Exeter.
But somewhere along the way. He starts to second guess himself:
there's no way what he saw was actually real. So right,
turns around and goes back to the same spot.
And sure enough. The thing is still, there only
time it passes over his car once before,
speeding away right after a discipline,
Here's RON notices a glow coming from behind a nearby hill, it
not the same read as the light he'd seen on the top of the craft and stay
It seems like the multi colored lights of
almost like a landing strip.
As far as wrong knows there isn't one in the immediate area. At this point, he is past being scared
runs exhilarated fully committed to solving this mystery, so he drives toward the hill to go check it out
the moment his car reaches the top the field
on the other side, goose dark.
Wrong doesn't want to venture any further since he doesn't know what's down there, so he turned around it heads back, but there
suddenly the lights behind him turn on it as if they try.
Turn off the second. He tried to see what they were.
Heads back to Exitor and reports. This information to police it's unclear
whether they handed over to the air force but either way
his story is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the net
several weeks more and more UFO sightings flood
station, all over exit r p,
are reporting seen a metallic object in the sky, animal
all of them describe it as saucer shaped with a dome on top a few other people report,
seeing these bright orange red balls floating above their houses, which is
weird phenomenon that sometimes happens in connection with UFO sightings. The case
become so widespread that everybody in the
consider or area wants to see a ufo for themselves night after night
people line up along route, eighty eight or route one, oh won. The highways with the most sightings
and most of the time they witness exactly what they ve been hearing about witnesses report a flying option.
That waivers from side to side as it hovers
four darting out of sight. They even too,
about the flashing light pattern that Norman noticed at this point its October a month since the first sight,
and the cases already attracted the attention of at least one UFO skeptic sceptic named John G, fuller, fuller,
is a columnist for the Saturday Review, which is his magazine for men, sort of like G Q. He first
as wind of the Exitor incident in MID September, be a police report on the UFO that Norman Bertrand and Hunt saw folder, finds it strange that this
particular UFO, has been cited by multiple credible witnesses. So he
AIDS to crack the case himself. He travels to exit or two
interview Norman Bertrand and Hunt along with countless other people around exit her and he fell
is that most of these witnesses do seem credible,
fuller starts just randomly asking people in town, if they'd seen a UFO and most of them say yes, almost
all of them describe it the same way.
Like shape a pattern of red.
Pulsating lights absolute.
Lee Silent, kite like motion
the sheer volume and consistency of these reports is jarring and fuller,
it's that many of the witnesses never filed an official police report because that's how commonplace this UFO has become now again. Fuller is a sceptic,
He just wants to find a rational explanation and though
one entity that does seem like they know. Something is the air force
coming up. The? U S government gives their take on the Exeter Incident now back to the story.
As UFO sightings pick up in the exitor region. The air force definitely seems interested officials
Patrolling the exitor area, asking questions, and occasionally,
president, will notice a UFO being tailed by an air force plane. One person even observes a jet plane, probably from the air force, flying right up to the
with the lights on the UFO immediately go out as if it knows it's being followed,
then it wizzes off, but the Jap plain remains in the same spot. Circling and circling like its study
the patch of air, where the UFO, if it's enough to make people, think the air force knows some
or at least their gathering, valuable information. Now
where is warned against, contacting the air force he's told by an official at the
I can't the National Investigations Committee on Aerial phenomena that the air force is
going to release any information, but he does history, just give it a shot. So fuller calls the Peas AIR Force Base and he's
put through to a man named sergeant, Robert Sarosh Sarve Hush, confirms
over the phone that there has been a large number of sightings reported he even with
It's about a reporter. He knows that seen one himself
but he says that any information that they gather is sent to a bigger base in Dayton, Ohio for a team of scientists to analyze any concrete
and would have to be released straight from the Pentagon Board thing
survive, but he's basically hit a dead end because the Pentagon,
Official stance is that they'll only ever release information on a need
two no basis which is just like the car.
A government response to ufos
whether they know something or not. They usually won't say, but fuller is still
determined to crack this UFO case with or without the Pentagon's help to do that here,
trying to find some sort of connection between the sightings
and eventually he notices a pattern. Almost all of the sightings
occur near the region's high tension power lines
borders it know what to make of this at first one
and he talks to speculate at the object could be hovering over the power lines to charge its batteries or something like almost eight siphoning electricity and that sir,
sounds like a really cool theory, but when fuller speaks with a couple of engineers at the or in Hampton Power departments, the
haven't noticed any change to the power lines, voltage still fuller.
He's power lines come up time and time again, there is over
Seventy mentions of them in his interview transcript, so he's determined to prove this means something as
These studies UFO sightings across the world. He finds multiple instances of power outages that happened alongside a UFO citing in the same region, but those are just a coincidence.
They probably mean nothing, but then,
November, nine nineteen sixty five just two months after the exit or incident, the power grid almost entirely breaks down.
Fuller is staying at a motor in in Hampton near Exeter and he's
downstairs to meet a few local writers for dinner. When he notices the lights flickering, he doesn't think much of it until
few minutes later, when a waitress,
mentions: there is massive rolling blackouts being reported all around the North EAST. U S or why
on tv, as power companies across the country scramble to get the power back on me.
While there are more UFO sightings ensue,
New New York about three hundred fifty miles away from exit or a pilot and five other people see a big ball of red light
about a hundred feet in diameter hovering just overt.
You of the New York Power authorities biggest lines.
New York City. One woman sees some sort of red streak
the sky, another person
spots, a sort of silver dome shape, object, floating up and down
and even sideways and a life
magazine, photographer, snaps a picture of New York City during a black out, but when he develop said he see some sort of silver object
bring above the city scape. At this point, people across the Eu Co
are demanding an explanation and it's not just the
if magazine photo their worried about, because just a few weeks before the man
said power outage the Barney
and Betty Hills story comes out. Now you ve probably heard
about this story, at least in passing in nineteen sixty five b
Any hill is a leader in the end, W C p, with an I q of one forty
Betty's a social worker for the state of New Hampshire. Both are highly regard,
individuals not ones to risk their reputation, but with all
all of the U Avaux sightings going on. They decided it's time to share their experience from four years earlier.
Allegedly on September, nineteen. Nineteen sixty one are
and Betty are driving down route three in New Hampshire when they find themselves
chased by a UFO Betty describes it as pancake shaped
a band of lights around the base
embody notices a row of windows around the outside. The Eu F o k,
following them and eventually they hear a weird electronic peeping sound. These
you're, a tingling sensation run through their bodies and then they completely black out when they wake up. There are three
five miles from the spot where they lost consciousness. There wristwatches have stopped working with a piece together that a full two hours have
asked and the? U S. Foe is nowhere to be seen over the next.
Few years, Betty tries to make sense of what happened that night. She reads: books by the night,
and she even reports the UFO sighting to the air force. But she years
nothing back
meanwhile, she suffers from terrible nightmares and Barney
experiences anxiety and develops. Ulcers
so eventually Betty hires, a hypnotist, and after weeks and weeks of sessions,
The hills uncover their memories of what happened that night. Supposedly,
After they lost consciousness, the? U S, vote
actually landed on their car
strange gray. Aliens brought them on board the ship Barney
Betty were brought to separate examination rooms where the ailing
and removed their clothes took samples
Their hair, skin and nails and probed them with needles and
All of this sounds absolutely wild, but Barney and Betty thought
So too is not enough.
Sixty five when all the weird stuff is going on and they feel compelled to share their story at a UFO lecture in Dover. Thirty minutes
It's from exit her over four hundred people attend
and the q and a less well over an hour with many sharing their own experiences. The lecture B
sickly convinces the whole town that they really are seeing a UFO in them.
In time it seems like the government is finally ready to take some preventative measures, because on October, twenty
seventh about a week and a half before the hills gave their talk. The Pentagon
releases, a statement they claim the
visitor sightings are the result of a weather inversion in the area. Speed
sickly. When a layer of cold air is trapped between two warm layers which can make stars and planets appear to be moving in the sky. So
bsically the Pentagon is saying that this is all an illusion. Now this is obviously
kind of an absurd theory
there's no way dozens upon dozens of people mistook twinkling stars for an intelligent aircraft at close range. It honestly
offensive to the witnesses and remember off,
There's Bertrand and Hind saw this thing to Bertrand
his former military hunt is a well worth
active member of the police force. They know a plain from the night sky
The bigger problem is the US government is even being consistent because a month after the Pentagon releases their statement, Bertrand and high
receive a letter from a major over at the right Patterson AIR Force Base in Greece
county, Ohio, that's the place.
Ufos are investigated.
The major, has a totally different excuse to offer. He says that they must have gotten mixed up in a training operation involving be forty seven planes, one that took place
September second and went into the We hours of September. Third know this
kind of lines, upbraid like Officer Bertrand and Norman both saw a be forty seven bomber shortly after the UFO reappeared. But again, Bertrand is an air force,
veteran he. He knows what a bomber looks like, probably probably flown one, what he saw
for the B. Forty seven wasn't a military plane. Now the letter he
hunt received, isn't dated so there's no way of knowing whether the air force reached this conclusion before or after the Pentagon statement about the weather. But Bertrand and Hunt are irritated.
By the inconsistency they
write a response to the major basically saying like no thank you. We saw what we saw and eventually they get a response straight from the Pentagon. It says that they are unable to
affirmatively identify the flying object, but they believe it is quote either
David or set aloft by man general
did by atmospheric conditions or caused by celestial bodies.
Or the residue of meteoric activity. End quote
Essentially there saying it could be anything but a ufo after that. Bertrand and hunt have no choice but to just give up the trail.
Goes cold but sightings continue into the following year. Meanwhile, fuller returns to Connecticut
where he writes a few articles on the Exeter Incident in nineteen sixty six, he public.
Is a best selling book which revised
national interest, but there aren't any new theories until two thousand,
Levin, that's when scientists and long time you have o consultants, James Mc Gay, Hay and Joe Nickel release a special report that could explain what
happened in exit her. It has to do
with the sequencing red lights. That way
two hundred three thirty four, fifty five thousand three hundred three twenty one it turns out. There is
is a military aircraft with five very bright red lights that Flickr on and off in that exact sequence, it's a case
see ninety seven tanker, an air force, refueling plain,
that would have been used at places like the Peas AIR Force Base in New Hampshire. It was
probably used in used in the B. Forty seven exercise that occurred the night of September second, and even if the exercise was technically over, there could have been tanker planes left in the sky, which also explains why the craft was sometimes seen with
Force jets twinkling it. This was probably how they were refuel, so all of
starts to make a lot of sense, especially because this isn't a well known aircraft. It's for
We fuelling not fighting, even if,
been in the air force like Bertrand, you might have forgotten about it, but if it
really was a k C. Ninety seven, why
in the world. Couldn't the Pentagon identify it
They should have looked at their own plane, inventory and matched the red lights in a heartbeat
It also doesn't explained the saucer shape most people reported or
the random blackouts all over the northeast or
The glowing orange balls that popped up around exit. Her then
Barney embodies abduction. If there's
worry has any truth to it. We have to believe that ufos exist Gun,
may not want to believe it or admit it, but it's definitely possible
in the end the best
explanation is sometimes the most incredible one, and that does it
make it any less real,
thanks for listening I'll, be back next week with another episode for
information on the Exitor UFO we found incident at Exeter by John G, fuller, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes
of supernatural and all
originals from podcast for free on Spotify and if you like, the show, follow par podcast on Facebook and Instagram, an app cast network on Twitter
supernatural stars, Ashley flowers and his Spotify, original from par, cast its executive produced by MAX Cutler.
Sound designed by carry Murphy with production as such,
dense by IRAN, Shapiro and Carly Madden. This episode of Superman,
it was written by Lee Lenema with writing assistance by drew Cole and Ali Wicker
checking by on your barely and research
Mickey Taylor. Do you
more stories hosted by me, check out crime, junkie and all audio chuck, originals.
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Transcript generated on 2021-02-11.