New witnesses to one of the most well known UFO abduction cases have come forward 45 years after the fateful night. 

Known as the Pascagoula incident, Charles Hickson, age 42 and Calvin Parker age 19 were fishing along the Pascagoula River in Mississippi on the evening of October 11, 1973 when they claimed that a UFO appeared before them and three creatures abducted them during, "a terrifying experience."

Recently, a couple stepped forward to say that they also saw a UFO and what looked, “like a person” emerge from the water that night across the river from where Hickson and Parker were fishing.

Maria and Jerry Blair told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger that they were sitting in their 1969 Pontiac GTO on the river's edge. They were parked in a lot owned by a seafood company where Jerry worked and waiting near a moored boat moored for the captain to take him offshore. The captain was late to arrive and the couple waited in their car for hours. 

As night fell they saw strange blue lights in the sky that looked to be flying over the opposite shore of the river. Maria, now 69, said, "I thought was an airplane because of its bright lights flashing. And it just kept going back and forth across the sky. I told my husband there’s something wrong with that plane, it’s like he doesn’t know where he wants to go.” 

The couple said they watched the lights maneuver back and forth in the air for 15-20 minutes and then land 150-200 yards away from them. Jerry thought it was a helicopter and blew it off. They eventually stepped out of their car and walked onto the pier to load Jerry's belongings on the moored boat for his cruise that night. Jerry was walking ahead of Maria when they heard a "loud, thumping splash" sound from the water just off the pier. That was when Maria saw something surface from underwater. 

"I was looking right down on it. It looked like a person, but there was something different about it. It only came to the surface of the water. As soon as I saw it, it just went back down in the water." 

I told Jerry, 'There’s somebody out there’. They came up out of the water, then went back down. So I’m standing there waiting for this person and the water rippled out.” 

She never saw it again. Maria thought the figure was a diver until she later heard about what happened across the river. She now believes it was an alien standing in the water. 

More witnesses "were freaking out."

Judy Branning was in a car with three friends a few miles away later that night. They were waiting at a red light at Chicot and Highway 90 when Judy saw strange lights in the sky at a distance. She thought it was an airplane until it came closer and when all four occupants of the car realized it was a UFO. Branning said the craft was silent and had very bright lights.

"It got closer and it was hovering. It was kind of a saucer shape or disc shape with a rounded top. The radio started sounding like it was running through all the stations and the car went dead. We were freaking out."

She said after the UFO flew over their car it accelerated straight up at a rate of speed she's never seen before and disappeared. The sight frightened her and she stayed up all night thinking about the UFO. Branning, now 74 said that she and her friends agreed not to talk to anyone else about what they saw. She did tell a few people over the years but avoided it for fear of ridicule. But now she doesn't care if people think she's crazy. She never forgot what she saw 45 years ago. Banning has also met with Parker, who is grateful that she is backing up his story.

Parker claims that two or three other people have told him privately that they saw something strange that night but have not come forward.

The abduction

Hickson and Parker told police they were fishing that night when just after nightfall they observed a blue light reflecting on the water. At first, Parker thought it was a police vehicle pulling up to tell them not to fish on the private property they were on. The two looked up and saw a "blinding light" above them. The light was so intense it was difficult for them to see the object that the light was attached to. They described the object to police as about 80 feet across and shaped like a football and made very little sound. "It was just a hissing noise," said Parker. 

As the bizarre-looking craft descended toward them a door opened and three, 5-foot tall humanoid beings approached and seized them. They described the creatures as having arms with mitten-shaped hands like crab claws, with carrot-like growths where their nose and ears would be. Their skin was pale and wrinkled. They had no evident eyes and a slit where the mouth would be on a human. One creature had no neck and another had a neck that appeared more feminine. 

When one of the creatures wrapped its "claw" around Parker's arm, his feeling of terror turned to calm. Parker believes the alien injected him with a calming substance.

The UFO inhabitants paralyzed Parker and Hickson and began “floating” them into their craft. Hickson told police that once inside the craft their bodies were scanned by what looked like a 6-8 inch wide mechanical eye that was shaped like a football. 

Both men said they were released from the craft15-20 minutes later. They exited the UFO involuntarily, levitated with their feet dragging along the ground, and returned to their fishing spot. After the craft departed the two men returned to their car and sat for about 45 minutes, trying to calm down before reporting their experience to authorities. 

The incident became world-famous when local authorities released a hidden, police audio recording of the men on the night of their encounter. The police intentionally left Parker and Hickson alone in an interrogation room to hear how they would privately discuss their wild claims. (see transcript below). The men spoke to each other in a near state of panic and convinced the police of their sincerity. When the world's press descended on Pascagoula to report the story and questions were raised, both men asked for a polygraph test to prove their truthfulness. The two eventually retreated from the limelight and never refuted their story.

Hickson died in 2011 at age 80, and Calvin Parker not only has stuck to his story but since claimed to have a second encounter with the same UFO and being.

Decades after the incident, Parker shared additional details about what happened that October night. In an interview, he claimed that when the creatures took him on board the craft he was led to the left side of the craft and into a room at the end of a hallway where he was laid down on a sloped table and examined by a 'petite,' seemingly female being. Despite being paralyzed, Parker observed the creature inject a needle into the underside base of his penis. When the being suggested to Parker that he had been taken for a reason, Parker sensed imminent harm. 

Parker claimed that he came in contact with the same craft 19 years later and that he willingly walked aboard the craft and met with the same female humanoid being that had examined him in 1973 and delivered a "religious message" in the English language." Parker claims the creature said they shared the same God and that the bible was authentic, adding that her species wanted to live on Earth but that humanity's warlike behavior and destruction prevented them.

Parker met Maria and Jerry Blair for the first time this week. The 64-year-old Parker told the Sun, "It was very emotional meeting Maria from the beginning. It started out with both of us tearing up and automatically bonding. I felt like I had known her for years. It started off with her telling me that she saw the abduction on October 11, 1973, but didn’t know who was involved until the following day. This was of course me and Charles Hickson. Mrs. Blair then set out on a quest to find me so she could see if we were okay."

Parker explained that Maria Blair could not find him in 1973 when he was ducking media attention. Her husband Jerry also feared ridicule and discouraged Maria from pursuing contact with the Hickson and Parker. Maria never forgot what happened that night and Parker said that Maria “is just like me. She had secrets that would haunt us for the rest of our lives.”

Parker is grateful that the recent book he wrote about the incident brought them together for the first time.

Maria, now a resident of nearby Theodore, Alabama, said that she enjoyed meeting Calvin Parker. “It was like we have always known each other forever. He is truly a wonderful person."

Partial transcript of secret police recording of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker discussing their abduction on just after their encounter:

CALVIN: " I got to get home and get to bed or get some nerve pills or see the doctor or something. I can't stand it. I'm about to go half crazy."

CHARLES: " I tell you, when we're through, I'll get you something to settle you down so you can get some damn sleep."

CALVIN: " I can't sleep yet like it is. I'm just damn near crazy."

CHARLES: " Well, Calvin, when they brought you out-when they brought me out of that thing, goddamn it I like to never in hell got you straightened out.

"My damn arms, my arms, I remember they just froze up and I couldn't move. Just like I stepped on a damn rattlesnake.

"They didn't do me that way."

CALVIN: " I passed out. I expect I never passed out in my whole life."

CHARLES: " I've never seen nothing like that before in my life. You can't make people believe."

CALVIN: " I don't want to keep sitting here. I want to see a doctor."

CHARLES: " They better wake up and start believing ... they better start believing."

CALVIN:  "You see how that damn door come right up?"

CHARLES: " I don't know how it opened, son. I don't know."

CALVIN: " It just laid up and just like that those sons of b*tches -just like that they come out."

CHARLES: " I know. You can't believe it. You can't make people believe it."

CALVIN: " I paralyzed right then. I couldn't move."

CHARLES: " They won't believe it. They gonna believe it one of these days. Might be too late. I knew all along they was people from other worlds up there. I knew all along. I never thought it would happen to me."

CALVIN: " You know yourself I don't drink.

CHARLES: " I know that, son. When I get to the house I'm gonna get me another drink, make me sleep. Look, what we sitting around for. I gotta go tell Blanche... what we waiting for?"

CALVIN (panicky): " I gotta go to the house. I'm getting sick. I gotta get out of here."

[Charlie leaves the room]

CALVIN: " It's hard to believe . . . Oh God, it's awful... I know there's a God up there..."